Bath Queen Square

[2mmMark]

On 18/12/2023 at 13:21, queensquare said:

Pigs, barrow, bath and bike - I think that will do! This has been a really enjoyable little fireside project. Hopefully I’ll find time over Christmas to work up the ground around it.

 

Jerry

 

I think those pigs need some more room.  I'm going to call Hamnesty International.

[queensquare]

1 minute ago, 2mmMark said:

I think those pigs need some more room.  I'm going to call Hamnesty International.

Where’s the groan button!😊

 

Jerry

[richbrummitt]

I think the cottage looks odd because of the bank that has to be scaled by any occupant wishing to get to it. 

[queensquare]

52 minutes ago, richbrummitt said:

I think the cottage looks odd because of the bank that has to be scaled by any occupant wishing to get to it. 

?? The entrance is at the far end, I purposely didn’t put one anywhere else because of the way they are perched above the lane.

 

Jerry

[St Enodoc]

2 hours ago, 2mmMark said:

With his guitar & harmonica rack, I think he missed a trick by not strapping cymbals to his knees, a drum on his back and adding a kazoo.

You're thinking of Don Partridge.

[2mmMark]

34 minutes ago, St Enodoc said:

You're thinking of Don Partridge.

Yes indeed. With a little bit more effort, Bob Dylan could have become just as famous.

[richbrummitt]

10 hours ago, queensquare said:

?? The entrance is at the far end, I purposely didn’t put one anywhere else because of the way they are perched above the lane.

 

Jerry

My comment was intended to relate to the thatched plaster cottage rather than the row. I thought I saw an entrance facing the lane. 

[nick_bastable]

lovely modelling but were the thunder boxes ?

Edited December 24, 2023 by nick_bastable
ppe

[queensquare]

14 hours ago, richbrummitt said:

My comment was intended to relate to the thatched plaster cottage rather than the row. I thought I saw an entrance facing the lane. 

With you now Rich. Still mulling over what to do with it - if anything!

 

Jerry

[queensquare]

Anyway, in full festive mode, I’ve been down the workshop playing trains with my top team - great fun!!

 

 

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE

[Doncaster Green]

The plaster cottage, to me, is more Cotswolds than Mendips!  I imagine it surrounded by rose arbours, colourful borders and a vegetable garden in a grove of ancient oaks and beech.  So very Miss Marple.  And definitely not that close to a pit head, think what it could do to the fresh, starched, white linen on the washing line.

 

Only my view, others may be available.

 

Best wishes to you and Kim for Christmas and the New Year.

 

John

[queensquare]

36 minutes ago, Doncaster Green said:

The plaster cottage, to me, is more Cotswolds than Mendips!  I imagine it surrounded by rose arbours, colourful borders and a vegetable garden in a grove of ancient oaks and beech.  So very Miss Marple.  And definitely not that close to a pit head, think what it could do to the fresh, starched, white linen on the washing line.

 

Only my view, others may be available.

 

Best wishes to you and Kim for Christmas and the New Year.

 

John

I'm inclined to agree with you John although the new Windsor Hill extension is meant to be several miles south of the colliery.

 

Jerry

[CF MRC]

Nah. The cottage pre-dates all the ugly Victorian industrialisation. 
 

Tim

[queensquare]

Windsor Hill Tunnels high on the Mendip ridge to Combe Down on the southern edge of the Cotswolds - all in less than half a scale mile!

 

The basic  Windsor Hill extension is now pretty much roughed out. I will add the new backscene and ballast the track before moving on  but won’t work up the scenery until I’m ready to go all the way to Bath junction so that I can get some sort of consistency of colour and texture. 
Next job will be the Midland mainline up to Bath junction then on toward the station - lots of point mechanisms and wiring to come in the spring - my favourite!!

 

Jerry

 

 

[Donw]

I can think of cases where there was a sunken lane where a cut up had been made to access the fields and a cottage was accessed of that cut.  At one it was a workmans cottage not one of those twee ones but a bit up from the row of farm hands cottages. One of the sons lived there perhaps. We have lived in two places where there was houses above a bank.  The first had a row of three semis there was an access road behind them between the houses and the garden  which joined the road where the bank was lower.  The second one had been a ancient track up onto the hills the lowerpart had become a road there had been a farm access  above the lane along the edge  and a row of assorted houses were built along the track as the estate was sold off. People had cut there own access down to the lane leaving the track as a footpath.

 

Don

[queensquare]

Christmas followed by Covid over new year means I’m again playing catch up with both personal and work projects.

On Saturday we had another little 2mm get together. I had hoped to have ballasted the new Windsor Hill section and at least got a basic backscene in place but neither happened though I did get the track cleaned after the scenic work which meant that we were able to run the first train through the tunnels. The honour went to one of the J11s that Simon Grand has been building and, whilst it is totally inappropriate for the S&D I’m pleased to say it ran beautifully. 
John, ‘Doncaster Green’ brought a 4F and Jinty which he has recently converted and chipped. Both went for a trip through the tunnels and, the Jinty in particular, was silky smooth.

Will ,tapdieuk’ brought some Midland wagons and NPCS which I failed to photograph. 
 

Suitably fuelled with a bowl of gruel  and the obligatory cake I took advantage of having a spare pair of hands available to temporarily clamp the up Foxcote sector plate (now surplus since retiring the layout) in place to see if it would be suitable for the Midland storage area. It’s a little shorter than I would ideally have gone for but the six coach ‘Diner’ rake will fit, (just), and I can get a reasonable freight in as well. I can get a pair of additional kick back  storage sidings under the twin tunnels and it doesn’t encroach on that end of the room too much. I will make a low lid for it, painted a suitable neutral colour, so it won’t impinge on the view of the viaduct. It will also save loads of time by not having to build another!

 

 

Next job will be laying the Midland mainline up to Bath junction though before I do that I need to catch up with myself.

 

Jerry

[Doncaster Green]

The schoolboy error on the 4F has been fixed - repeat 100 times 'I must not look at things upside down!'  One issue has been identified - the rods were catching on a bent brake block.  It is still a little bit hesitant so I'm wondering if the quartering is very slightly off.  It's more noticeable forwards then backwards - with drive to the rear axle reverse is pulling the other two axles while forwards is pushing them.  I will provide a little more TLC and a critical eye!

 

John

[Caley Jim]

I sometimes find that you have to play about with the quartering, making tiny adjustments, to find the sweet spot which is as good forwards as backwards.

 

Jim

[queensquare]

I’ve been messing about trying to compose some pictures for an MRJ article. One of these is a shot of the scene around Twinhoe bridge, just south of Midford and, in particular, the Midford outer home which protected the single line into Bath. As it was a lattice post in the 1950s, albeit with upper quadrant SR arms I just assumed in the 1920s it was the same but with lower quadrant arms. I even got a lovely little etch from Jim Watt to make the signal. However, when i checked it turned out the lattice post was a 1948 replacement  - doh!

Luckily I had a suitable solid post signal I started for another project which fits the bill perfectly. Jim’s etch will now find a home at the Windsor Hill end so nothing wasted!

 

The shunt ahead arm on the model is actually surplus and no longer really makes sense, certainly from the angle below. But this view is only visible by balancing a phone on the bridge. The short rock cutting where the track doubles is a scenic break which represents a couple of miles, the actual point at which it doubles is invisible in normal viewing.

 

Jerry

 

[queensquare]

This is only a phone snap so only the foreground is in focus but, even when fuzzy, this sort of perfectly authentic train just confirms my feeling that, despite it being an awful lot of work, you can’t touch pre-group modelling. Discuss!!

 

Jerry

 

 

[Compound2632]

35 minutes ago, queensquare said:

Discuss!!

 

No debate!

[Jol Wilkinson]

40 minutes ago, queensquare said:

This is only a phone snap so only the foreground is in focus but, even when fuzzy, this sort of perfectly authentic train just confirms my feeling that, despite it being an awful lot of work, you can’t touch pre-group modelling. Discuss!!

 

Jerry

 

 

 

Jerry,

 

looks like an LNWR van. Did you use use that paint I gave you?

 

Jol

[queensquare]

1 hour ago, Jol Wilkinson said:

 

Jerry,

 

looks like an LNWR van. Did you use use that paint I gave you?

 

Jol

Hi Jol, it is. I have a couple of pictures of this van being in use in  trains over the line.

At the moment it’s the only LNW coach I’ve painted. It was the problems I had with this which prompted me to seek your advice. Needless to say I have several part built which will use the paint you kindly gave me!

 

Jerry

 

[RobAllen]

2 hours ago, queensquare said:

despite it being an awful lot of work, you can’t touch pre-group modelling. Discuss!!

Looks fantastic!

All my stock is ~1935 and I'm incredibly aware that I only need to backdate a little to run SDJR rolling stock. Mind you, I have to build a layout first, before I need to learn how to build coach and wagon kits along with repainting locomotives…

[Donw]

Pre-group gets my vote.

I do like these views of trains in open countryside few layouts have room for that

Don