Bacup - Mills in the hills

[aberdare]

I believe so Jason.

 

I think that is a great idea as it gives you a bit of dereliction in an otherwise complete scene. I do admire your imagination and skill in the things you achieve.

 

You'd better hurry and get that Mek-Pak so we can see the progress

 

 

Jim

[Jason T]

I've made some progress on the old station entrance and corresponding wall that will fill a hole along the back of the layout. The photos aren't the best even though I took them in the garden (Oxford is rather grey today) but to be fair, it should look pretty grimy and bleak anyway.

 

Still to do are:

The roof for the shed will be corrugated iron, which has had it's first coat of paint but will need quite a few more before it looks rusty and dirty enough.

The floor of the old office will have flags put down, and the whole unit will then be bedded into the layout with ash ballast added onto the base section and over most of the flags. I need to ensure that the thickness of the base is the same as the foam underlay that is present in the area it is to go.

Bits of vegetation will need to be added, without going overboard.

Some general railway junk will be leaned up against the wall, etc., without (once again) going overboard.

There is still a short section between the end of this unit and the road bridge, which will have a lower wall made and added.

 

Overall shot

 

Looking down the length of the wall (flash went off)

 

Looking the other way

 

The old offices and bricked (stoned?) up windows and doors

[emt_911]

Jason

 

As usual, the quality of your work shows in this piece.

 

Personaly, I think the dull light has shown it as it should be.

 

Duncan

[bluebottle]

Jason

 

As usual, the quality of your work shows in this piece.

 

Personaly, I think the dull light has shown it as it should be.

 

Duncan

 

Not sure I agree with your second point there, Duncan. I lived in some drab, grimy places in the 40s/50s/60s - Leith, Newcraighall, Rotherham - but "I loved them so tenderly that even their warts were dear to me", and they were brightened by the optimism of my youth. Obviously, the quality of Jason's modelling matters more to us than that of his workmanlike photography, and I'm sure that better lighting will be one of the eventual finishing touches to "Bacup".

To borrow and adapt a couple of lines from the Proclaimers' "Sunshine on Leith" -

"While the Chief puts Sunshine on Bacup

I'll thank him for his work"

 

Gordon

[Jason T]

I also finished off the yard gates and attached them, set as if in the process of being opened. As suspected, from the normal seated operating position, they can't be seen

 

 

[MichaelW]

Looking good there Jason, and all the better for having got the diagonals the right way round...

 

What have you used for the ground in the yard?  Is it some form of ballast?

[Jason T]

Yep, it's Carrs Ash Ballast; probably needs toning down really.

[Andrew P]

Nice walling there buddy.

 

Bodgit

[2ManySpams]

Anyone mind if we borrow Jason for a BCB project again??

[emt_911]

Anyone mind if we borrow Jason for a BCB project again??

I think Jason would be the person to ask.

 

The majority of us are just trying to learn to keep up.

 

Duncan

[Jason T]

Well I never, going through a drawer earlier on, I found this; a signalling diagram for Bacup

 

Edited February 26, 2013 by Sandside

[Jason T]

Also, I have been taking some more of my dodgy photos with my dodgy camera, to try and record progress in the thread. Some are taken from odd angles, many are afflicted with the flash, but here they are anyway. Please excuse the lack of gutters, downpipes, etc:

 

Back yards, taken from over the wall of the goods yard:

 

Looking over the road overbridge (I think my thumb was covering the flash)

 

A bit further round

 

We've seen this one before; the goods yard

 

The old buildings; they need bedding in properly (only plonked in a hole currently as I need to finish painting the flags, etc)

 

A very clean Crab (with a huge gap twixt loco and tender that needs modifying with wire loop and hook) stood in the station with a parcels train for Manchester 

 

Helicopter view of the same train

 

And again. I quite like this one, even though it shows that I have a lot of work to do in this area

 

Right hand side of the layout

 

Station and surrounding area

 

I had to have one of the terraced houses, didn't I? Still a lot to do in the back yards

 

Another shot of the old buildings

 

How I wish this one hadn't blurred (and that I had got round to adding lamp posts, gutters, downpipes, etc)

 

Here's hoping that the sheer volume of photos doesn't crash the server

[emt_911]

Jason

 

The old buildings photo, although as you say isn't finished, looks right.

 

The last one of the street I can't wait to see when the final detailing is done.

 

As I've said before, you set the standard for the majority to aim for.

 

Duncan

[coachmann]

I think the tecnique for your stonework needs to be varied a bit. It looks fine on domestic porperties that have been re-pointed, but freshly pointed boundary walls? The cement in the latter, which were often neglected, would be black. The nearer to the railway the blacker the whole wall would be. Just a thought.

Edited February 27, 2013 by coachmann

[Oldddudders]

Then there's that Lotus Cortina. Luvverly motor - as I'm sure they don't say in Bacup - but much wonga to buy, and in this era it would be new. With so few cars on your streets - probably right - the Twincam looks rather out of place. A Morris Minor or two would be more likely - probably at least one having a split windscreen to show its age.

[coachmann]

A lot of pre-war cars on the roads until around 1960, all but swept aside when MOT came in. Massive purchase tax prevented new car ownership for years after the war. I would think the most popular post-war built car was the upright Ford Popular to prewar design, although by the early 1960s second hand Baby Austins, Morris Minors Standard Eights and Hillman Minx's were taking over.

Edited February 27, 2013 by coachmann

[Jason T]

You're right Larry. I was going off (the scant few) photographs of the period and what it shows is that the houses right next to the station (not modelled, although some of mine are based on them) have mortar courses that really stand out. Not just one one of the houses but on all of them, which led me to believe that the mortar wouldn't have been pointed on all of them, surely?

 

As it happens, some of the buildings and walls have a bit of a glossy sheen to them so at some point, I will be attacking them with dirty thinners and weathering powders which should hopefully tone them down a bit.

 

This is the 'problem' with growing up in a small village in the Lake District in the 70's, rather than a grotty mill town in the 50's

 

Hi Ian,

 

the Lotus was an impulse buy because I love them, and (as with most of the current road vehicles) is just plonked on the layout without too much thought, no weathering, etc. Road vehicles are a looooong way down the line

[Jason T]

I just had a quick go with some sooty black weathering powder on a section of wall near the station and agree, it does look better up close although from where I am sat, it just looks like a black rectangle. The photo has a light close up to it to avoid the flash going off.

 

[92220]

I like the effect of that powder Jason. It's interesting how on some bits or types of wall the muck seems to settle into the mortar courses, and on others it seems to coat the stone or brick and leaves the mortar less coloured. I'm not entirely sure why that should be but this section you've done looks good.

Iain

[hybridangel77]

the brick work on the walling looks the nuts.do you use the dry brush method to paint the brick work?

[Jason T]

Hi Terry.

 

I first paint the stone sheets with stone colour (Humbrol 84) and when dry, take a suitable brown colour (Railmatch Sleeper Grime is a prime candidate), take a small amount from the pot and put it in an old jam jar lid. I then use an old rag, wrap it round my finger, dab it in the paint, wipe off any excess on an old piece of card and then dab / wipe this over the stone sheet, which leaves paint on the stones but not in the mortar courses. Once that layer is dry, I do the same with Railmatch Weathered Black. Experiments with a final coating of sooty black weathering powder (Carrs, if I'm not mistaken) seem to be going well for finishing off those dirtier walls (see Larry's  - Coachmann's - post above).

 

Speaking of which, as I was about to bed the old buildings in, I thought I might attack them with the weathering powders and make them look grubbier. The ash ballast is quite obviously wet in the shots (I paint the watered down glue on first and then sprinkle ballast onto it) but hopefully the walls looks something more like they should. The arch detail is pretty much lost but then, it didn't exactly stand out in the original photo I used for inspiration. Out of interest, the shed is based on one that was there, although on the other side of the wall in someone's back garden; I just couldn't resist it though, and it breaks up the wall a bit.

 

Before:

 

After:

 

The shed. Can't remember where I got the tap from but I thought it fit the scene well:

[Dave Holt]

Jason,

 

First, it was a great pleasure to meet you and chat at the Watford show. I'm impressed with the further progress you've made and the scenic additions are setting the railway nicely in place.

A technique for dirty stonework passed to me by Gravy Train (Peter Leyland) is to first paint the whole stone surface with the chosen stone colour and let thoroughly dry. Then over coat with matt black or other very dark colour and wipe off after a few moments with kitchen towel in a vertical direction. This removes varying amounts of the black from the stones but leaves the mortar courses black - as mentioned by Larry. I used this techniques on the coal drops on Delph/Holt and was very pleased with the result. Depending on how soon and how hard you wipe the black can give different degrees of sootiness and some variations in final shade.

 

Dave.

[Jason T]

That's part of the fun / frustration with stone, as depending on the type / building / area, it seems to weather completely differently. From the photos I have seen, the stone in Bacup and the surrounding area seemed to weather in a different way to that over in the West Riding, in that the soot would just cling to the stone but, especially with the houses, not to the mortar for some reason (and surely not every house would have had the pointing done). I will try and add some variation though.

[mudmagnet]

Your progress rate, with high quality is outstanding and astonishing! Every time I look, you have made more progress!

Great work though.

[Steve Hewitt]

A lot of pre-war cars on the roads until around 1960, all but swept aside when MOT came in. Massive purchase tax prevented new car ownership for years after the war. I would think the most popular post-war built car was the upright Ford Popular to prewar design, although by the early 1960s second hand Baby Austins, Morris Minors Standard Eights and Hillman Minx's were taking over.

Many people used small vans instead of cars for private transport.

Vans were not subject to the same rates of purchase tax.

I was brought up in a Grocers/Off-licence (a bit like Arkwrights) and we had an old bus seat on two wooden battens in the back of a Ford Thames 5cwt van for extra seating.

It was lifted out to make room for the "deliveries" which I used to take around the town.

I started my delivery round, on my own, well before I was old enough to have a licence, even delivering to the local bobby who was well aware of my age!

Lots of hills and rain in the Rossendale Valley, and the van's wipers were Vacuum operated.

You had to lift off the throttle to clear the windscreen, which played havoc with progress with the old Ford 100E side valve engine.

 

Steve.