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The Berwick, Tweed Dock and Spittal Railway (2mm FS)


IanLister

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Hello, and thanks for the supportive comments; they're much appreciated.

 

I was down on the waterfront early this morning, and took this pic of Spittal Point:

 

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Facing east, the remnants of the industry can be seen in the chimney (used to be half a dozen or so) and some of the old buildings. The grass in the foreground is on land built out into the river to enable construction of Tweed Dock (behind me) and the dock branch, which came down over the viaduct on the right of the pic (sorry it's a bit dark), changed direction and came down towards the camera over another bridge (now demolished) and then along the shore to the dock. I'm standing where the old trackbed used to be. The grass, the trees, and the houses just visible on the right are all post-railway.

On the shoreline in the centre can be seen the newish lifeboat house, the modern version of Carr Rock jetty and behind, what's left of the fish quay, now derelict.

Had the NER carried out my plan, the line would have come along the shore from Tweed Dock and into Spittal Yard roughly where the lifeboat house stands. The slope up to the right would not have been landscaped or wooded, (earthworks done to enable the real dock branch) but would have remained farmland for much longer, probably looking very much like the slope up towards the backscene on the model.

 

Back to the stone setts on the fish quay.........

 

Ian

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Hi

In amongst Christmas shopping, putting decorations up, getting ready for more visitors, buying a new car and dislocating my pelvis (!) I've found time to do a little more with Spittal Quay.

 

I like photos; they show you the bits you missed with the paintbrush.........

 

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I heard yesterday that my fishing boat kit has finally been put in the post. Hopefully the quay will soon look a bit busier!

 

Ian

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That amount of cobbling in a tiny scale is eye watering!

It's ok if you do it in small doses. I limit myself to 20 minute sessions and just keep going back to it. I'm pleased with the result, and even more pleased that I've got the biggest area of stone setts on the whole layout finished........unless I decide otherwise :).

I'm looking forward to seeing how the texture works at night with some working lamp posts, lights in the buildings and the fishing boat cabins. That's the plan, if I can learn enough about LEDs, resistors, wires and stuff........

 

Ian

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You will find LEDs easy peasy after all that finescale modelling. I just wire the supplied resistor to the long leg and fire it up with a 12V DC thingy. My resistors get very (very) hot so watch where you place them. Hot enough to burn your fingers. Ebay is the place to check for cheap LEDs - my batch of 480 LEDs with resistors was $24 post paid to Australia from Hong Kong. I even had a choice of colour in the mix.

 

Can't wait to see this all lit up at night. Be sure to use plenty, most warm white LEDs are surprisingly weak in output.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi Ian

What fishing boat kit have you ordered, is it part of a range?

Hi. The kit is by Artitec, a Dutch company. It's the nearest I could find to the North Sea drifters of the fifties. I'm using it as a basis for my first boat, and working out a plan for a few more. The hull is resin, and is accurate and detailed, though as it's 1:160 scale, for my purposes it represents a slightly smaller boat than intended. This isn't a problem, as the kind of boats I need ranged in length from 35 to about 70 ft. This one scales at about 45'. The wheelhouse and fittings are resin castings; the wheelhouse is solid, so I'm building a new one to the correct scale. Deck fittings are OK, particularly the fiddly bits like winches, but the model depicts a shrimp cutter so has different arrangements for dealing with the catch. My boats will be simpler in design, but need some bits replacing to be accurate. The most disappointing aspect is the masts, for which plastic rod is provided. The masts on mine need to be different anyway, so will be scratchbuilt from brass tube and rod. Rigging will be .125mm brass wire.

I'm stretching my capabilities with this, and it'll probably go horribly wrong!!

 

The quay now has lamp posts, but I can't upload photos yet, for some reason.

 

Hope you all had a good Christmas!

 

Ian

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Hello, and a very happy and successful new year to you all.

 

After much family etc etc stuff, I managed to get back to the important stuff; nice to have something to look forward to after Christmas.

Spittal Quay now has lights. They're in and working, but have rather oversized bases which will disappear beneath the setts once they're properly planted. I'm pleased with the amount of light and the fairly restricted lit area of each; it reminds me of walking through Leeds at night with my dad a lot of years ago,after an evening watching the trains at Copley Hill........

 

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Today I finished the 'Valerie Ann', named for the very important lady in my life; she's a scale 45' long.

 

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The plan was to build the Artitec kit very much out of the box, as it was the closest I could find to a British North Sea boat. In the end, after some deep breaths, I used the hull only and scratchbuilt the rest. Here she is at the quay, on a plywood tide showing the height of the water level when I work out how to do it:

 

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All I have to do now is build another half a dozen or so.........ideally I'd like a variety of hull sizes up to about 70', but that means scratchbuilding the hulls, and they're a pretty complex shape. I'm still trying to work out how to do that..........

 

More pics of the boat, if anyone wants to see them.

 

Ian

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Did I tell you about water?

http://www.railroad-line.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=32687&whichpage=17 (scroll down)

 

Or - how about painting the base and then installing a clear plexiglass (not acrylic) base which you add a relatively clear "water" to it to generate the depth (which appears to be over 15mm)?

 

BTW - I am most impressed the lady in your life is 45 feet long! LOL

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  • RMweb Gold

I see you've also discovered that the photo upload is working again,

 

Would love to see more if the boat, it looks superb. Have you considered carving the basic hulls out of balsa and adding gunwales made from plasticard?

Lights look good too.

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Did I tell you about water?

http://www.railroad-...87&whichpage=17 (scroll down)

 

Or - how about painting the base and then installing a clear plexiglass (not acrylic) base which you add a relatively clear "water" to it to generate the depth (which appears to be over 15mm)?

 

BTW - I am most impressed the lady in your life is 45 feet long! LOL

 

I did look at that article; playing with ideas at the moment.

 

I just read the 45' bit again; I must make sure she doesn't read it.....she's only 5'4"!! :)

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I see you've also discovered that the photo upload is working again,

 

Would love to see more if the boat, it looks superb. Have you considered carving the basic hulls out of balsa and adding gunwales made from plasticard?

Lights look good too.

 

I'll post some more of the boat tomorrow. My current thinking on hulls is to try obeche; I've ordered some, and a 12v table sander which I hope will make the basic shaping fairly straightforward. While I'm waiting for it to come I'll bed the lights in properly.

 

Ian

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This is a boat built using a hot wire cutter - http://www.railroad-line.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=28072&whichpage=99 and pink foam.

 

Maybe the obechi will work but it will be harder to shape than foam and a cardboard deck. Looking forward to seeing how you achieve a final hull shape as a lot of layouts on here are crying out for correct prototype / scale model boats.

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  • RMweb Gold

The most interesting article on modelling water I have read was Phillip Harvey's in MRJ some time ago. One of the key points was how little you can actually see under the water unless it is very shallow. Perspex over black paper with texturing of the surface with PVA seem to be the answer.

Love the lamps.

Don

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'Valerie Ann' posing on a plywood sea:

 

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and another shot of her alongside the fish quay at Spittal:

 

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She's only 9cm long remember; these are rather close up shots, which are helpful to me because they reveal my shortcomings as a painter. They don't, unfortunately, show me how to do it better........ :scratchhead:

 

Ian

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Hello Ian,

 

I've just discovered this thread and I like what what you've done so far.

 

At the beginning, you asked if anyone else had build the Artitec fishing boat. It might be a bit late, but here is my take on 'anglicising' it. It's curious that we've both christened them with our wives' names ... :scratchhead:

 

David

 

PS. I see you've hollowed out the wheel house - brave man!

 

 

 

David, that is one nice picture, and the boat is excellent. Is that 4mm or 2mm? Do you mind me asking how you did the water? Nice fish boxes, by the way.......

 

The wheelhouse is a scratchbuilt one; hollowing out the Artitec one would be way beyond my ability. I did it so I can put a small LED in there when playing trains after dark! The only Artitec bit I ended up using was the hull.

 

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Here she is unloading in time for the midnight 'Flying Kipper' to the West Riding............. :)

 

Ian

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Model boat people know how to make hulls. I'd try a search on the 'net. It's a long time since I played model boats but I did make a hull from scratch out of balsa once. I made templates to put to the side at various points along the length. You sand until the template fits over the hull at that point touching all the way along the edge of the template and blend between them. Use the templates in the same position on both sides to get things symmetrical.

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Thanks for the advice Rich. I think the key is to find the right material, given the fairly complex compound curvature of the shape. I have researched fairly thoroughly, and obeche would appear to be as easy as balsa to work, but having a smoother and less grainy, less splintery finish. I'm not too worried about the shaping, as long as the material is compliant.....

Looking forward to trying the table sander; it could be useful for lots of things - not that I've got it yet!

 

The harbour lights are now bedded in properly and look a lot more realistic. I think the next job is to finish the waterfront on board one, so I can extend the area of ground cover along the quay area and start on the goods yard.

 

Ian

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Hi

Someone on here (BCNPete, I think) referred to my so-called self-discipline in following a plan. Well, I tried. After finishing the 'Valerie Ann' I started making stone walls for the goods yard, and the access road to the docks. Having got to the point where the stonework was ready to be scribed on what looks like about 30 metres (real, not scale) of wall strips, just as I was about to pick up the pin vice/needle combination I use, the postman delivered my 12v sanding table.........

The main reason for getting it was to make boat hulls; I need a variety of sizes and types, and couldn't keep using the Artitec one...apart from anything else, they don't sell the hull separately, and buying a complete boat kit just to use one bit seems wasteful, even if it is the biggest bit!

So I scaled up the 'Valerie Ann's' hull, made some design alterations to make it moreUK in style, and took a deep breath..........

 

The result is 'Morning Tide':

 

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She's a 55ft boat (so all of 110mm long) more suited for deeper sea work than the first one I built. She's a Leith-registered boat, as I've run out of Bs and Ks on the transfer sheet, and leith boats worked up and down the coast round here anyway.

 

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I actually modelled her on a boat based at Seahouses in the 50s. She's completely scratchbuilt, amazingly, and has cost less than £1 in raw materials, I reckon. Hull is obeche, and the deck, gunwales (I think!!) and deck fittings are a mixture of plastic, brass and a few slices from a length of telephone cable......for the lifebelts and the old tyre on the deck.

 

Here she is with her smaller sister at work on the workbench sea:

 

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And after a successful day, back at Spittal Quay. The midnight fish train will be busy:

 

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So now it's back to the stone walls..........

 

Ian

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