"Anything You Can do, I Can Do Better ! Robinson and Downes.

[C&WR]

And a loose cannon from the past.

 

IMG_0008.jpg

 

Cheers.

Allan.

 

I thought it was Charing Cross at first, but it's definitely not Cannon (St)

[The White Rabbit]

Nothing posted since 14th September? Allan must have built a whole railway system

by now

Dave

 

Or perhaps he’s getting on with other aspects of his life? We have been rather spoilt, with Allan (and others) spending a lot of time showing us their models. It’s been seriously inspirational and very informative reading his posts, I’ve always enjoyed them even if I’ve not replied or commented. I don’t know about other members, but there have been a lot of times I don’t have anything sensible to say. They are great models but after a while you run out of comments. How many ways are there of saying, “fantastic, superb, I really like that”?

 

Perhaps now is a good time to move a vote of thanks to Allan for all his time and trouble he’s spent, not just on producing these models but photographing them and typing out commentary. I know others (not least a certain Mr. R) have made this thread what it is, but to me Allan’s been the lead player. It’s my favourite thread on RMWeb. I hope we’re not at the end of it but if we are, thanks for all your contributions, it’s been great. 

[RJS1977]

And a loose cannon from the past.

 

IMG_0008.jpg

 

Cheers.

Allan.

 

Allan - just wondering, what period was "Civic Splendour" set in? I'd always assumed from the horse-drawn vehicles, Old Bill buses and charabancs that it was some time around the 1920s - possibly earlier - but that photo shows at least three post-War Jags and is that a Routemaster in the bottom left corner?

[allan downes]

Ain't been around for a bit coz I felt the Thread needed a break as it was verging on overkill - but I haven' been sittin' on my butt and am currently in American Victorian mode, all clapboard, towers, bays and dormers.

So, here's a picture of the prototype - which I've changed in places, natch - and this is about 3 days in and smokin' !

 

Cheers.

Allan

 

[Sasquatch]

Hi Allan. That's fantastic that is!!!
Port Townsend is a lovely town, full of this 19th century craftsmanship. We stayed there on our road trip to Vancouver island. The West Coast is dotted with small towns like it where the residence take great pride in keeping things tidy.
The best one of course is Ferndale down in Northern California, famous as the setting for the film Breakout.   Here's some reference pictures for you.
I'm going up to Ashland next week where there are plenty of Victorian bed & breakfast guess houses etc and Will get you some more pictures.

 

If (and that's a big if) I ever get into HO American I would do Ashland as it once boasted a rather large locomotive depot to provide steam power for the long haul up to the Siskyou summit over into California. When we lived at Emigrant Lake you could hear the roar of the 4-5 diesel locos heading up there 12 miles away. The line is closed at present.

Edited October 1, 2014 by Sasquatch

[allan downes]

Hi Sasquatch, thanks for sharing.

 

Terrific architecture, even more terrific craftmanship and  not two buildings the same - those carpenters were certainly  well ahead of just a bag of nails and a hammer, how on earth did they build them?!

 

I went to a google splash page on American Victorian and it was absolutely mind blowing, literally hundreds of absolutely stunning buildings and I'm gonna build every one of them !

 

Now seriously in clapboard mode !

 

Cheers.

Allan

[teaky]

Watch out lads!  He's back, but just working up to a "clapped out" joke I fear! 

[Sasquatch]

Hi Sasquatch, thanks for sharing.

 

 

Now seriously in clapboard mode !

 

Cheers.

Allan

Ya most welcome dude!

Ya'll mean siding don'tcha. C'mon speak English now!   

 The fancy shingles are always made from cedar and are making a come back. These days though they come in 96"x16" sheets.

There are a lot of good carpenters here. Must be all the trees! You should see some of them inside, all decked out in clear fir and red wood with tall walnut furniture.

It's all very addictive and I for one have certainly learnt how to swing a hammer since I've lived here.

The other thing of course is all the color, every house has it's own well thought out color scheme  and then about this time of year all the trees turn the most vivid shades of red and yellow.

 

Regards Shaun.

[allan downes]

Some of those colour schemes Shaun must have been 'paint 'n' hope but they all seem to work no matter what combination - awesome building to say the least so why don't we follow suite, or is it something to do with the climate?

 

Cheers.

Allan.

[Mythocentric]

Welcome back Boss! And how!

 

Sasquatch: Those buildings are gorgeous. I think the word Craftsmen was well deserved when it came to their builders, and mostly from experience rather than a set of drawings. Absolutely superb!

 

I once got tempted away from my beloved LYR and ended up building a Wisconsin Central/Canadian National layout based around Green Bay and the Chicago line before coming to my senses. After this I'm looking at an Aspinall 2-4-2T and hearing a pair of SD60's bursting into life from a cold start. Oh get thee behind me temptation!

 

Regards

 

Bill

[Sasquatch]

Some of those colour schemes Shaun must have been 'paint 'n' hope but they all seem to work no matter what combination - awesome building to say the least so why don't we follow suite, or is it something to do with the climate?

 

Cheers.

Allan.

It's the trees! Much cheaper to put up buildings made with 2"x6" framing than setting about making bricks. Bricks are very expensive here! Some of the older towns have brick buildings, Jacksonville and the main square in Ashland are the only places to find brick buildings in Southern Oregon. There is the earth quake threat to consider also. Modern building code hardly uses nails for framing up rooves!

Getting off topic a bit, we have a lot of people moving up from California because of the climate changes going on. They however don't seem to have a taste for what looks good in the country or in the towns and will build ugly modern wooden villas in the woods which wouldn't look out of place in the suburbs of Stockton. Oregon stile is more red barn and log cabin.

I have just spent the summer fixing up the barn that came with this place and have turned it into a woodwork shop. I'm restoring a bunch of antique furniture this week all of it would fit nicely in one of those Victorian houses!

 

Before and after of my 1/1 scale barn conversion. See what I mean about what looks good in the woods?

 

The garage (here on the left) has also been converted into a model railway home!

Edited September 29, 2014 by Sasquatch

[allan downes]

For the attention of Sasquatch.

 

Shaun, I noticed that none of these buildings had chimneys, is there any reason for that ?

 

Cheers.

Allan

[Donw]

For the attention of Sasquatch.

 

Shaun, I noticed that none of these buildings had chimneys, is there any reason for that ?

 

Cheers.

Allan

You need bricks for a good chimney. I think they went for cast iron stoves and a pipe chimney.

Don

[Stubby47]

For the attention of Sasquatch.

 

Shaun, I noticed that none of these buildings had chimneys, is there any reason for that ?

 

Cheers.

Allan

 

Sounds like your signal boxes

[allan downes]

USA VICTORIAN (without chimneys)

Almost there but there's the usual to do yet - down pipes, ridge tiles and tidying it up in general and now looking at it, I seriously wished that I'd mitered the molding runs instead of just butting them up.

Anyway, it's not a faithful copy be any means as I've added my own touch here and there with the conservatory for example which can be fitted to either end according to which direction the camera's pointing !

 

Cheers.
Allan

 

[westerhamstation]

Just clicking a button doesn't seem quite right for your buildings, there should be a fanfare of music and a burst of fireworks. Simply brilliant.

[Mythocentric]

USA VICTORIAN (without chimneys)

Almost there but there's the usual to do yet - down pipes, ridge tiles and tidying it up in general and now looking at it, I seriously wished that I'd mitered the molding runs instead of just butting them up.

Anyway, it's not a faithful copy be any means as I've added my own touch here and there with the conservatory for example which can be fitted to either end according to which direction the camera's pointing !

 

Cheers.

Allan

 

USA VICTORIAN 5 001.JPGUSA VICTORIAN 5 002.JPGUSA VICTORIAN 5 003.JPGUSA VICTORIAN 5 004.JPGUSA VICTORIAN 5 005.JPGUSA VICTORIAN 5 006.JPGUSA VICTORIAN 5 009.JPGUSA VICTORIAN 5 010.JPGUSA VICTORIAN 5 012.JPGUSA VICTORIAN 5 013.JPGUSA VICTORIAN 5 011.JPG

 

In a word....WOW! A surprising but logical transition because there are a lot beautiful 19th/early 20th Century buildings Stateside of all kinds. Shauns examples would probably keep the rest of us busy for a few years! Personally I would love to see you tackle one of those stores with the intricate cast-iron frontages that were so popular at one time or even a whole row of them! (Is there a town called Chester in New England? )

 

Regards

 

Bill

[Sasquatch]

Allan......
Don was right about the chimneys! we have a wood stove and pipe. However if the skills were/are available stone and brick chimneys can be common. Our house dates from the great depression  and does have a stone built chimney although it hasn't been used for a very long time. They are usually built on an outside wall to the rear or side which makes them inconspicuous.
Will get some pictures of chimneys for you when in Ashland on Thursday. 
Your construction speed is unbelievable, I still have not finished that mill although you have inspired me once again and did find an hour or two the other evening to work on the roof.
 
Bill there is a town called Chester in California! A real backwater of a place. Is this what you have in mind, McCloud Ca. A preserved mining town with the huge company mercantile come hotel.

This place is real gem, all the stores have creaky redwood floors and tall floor to ceiling displays with long serving counters. Plenty of dormers, right up Allans alley!

 

Oh just one thing Allan concerning conservatories................maybe on coastal buildings which look out to sea but otherwise it's too darn hot for them! Most houses have wooden decks!! Ill get you some pictures if I can.

 

Regards Shaun.   

[allan downes]

OK Guys, final pics of the ' Port Stanley' type house ( still without chimney/stove pipe )

As a follow up and staying with the same theme - all towers, dormers and clapboard - I spent a good hour scrolling down the google USA Victorian Houses page and was so overwhelmed and spoilt for choice that I've now decided to design my own ( without chimneys ! )

Now the blue I used here was a matt  emulsion ( Wicks Bluebird )  which is a true matt and will adhere to plastic if you prime it first with Halfords grey etching primer so, this now means that one has a vast range of colours to choose from where a match pot at a quid or so will be more than enough to paint out a building.

I know this may sound a bit over the top but when I paint the evergreen boarding sheets after they've been primed, I use a massive good quality 4 inch paint brush where when loaded it will cover the sheeting in just two evenly coated passes and you cannot tell the difference between a brush or a spray finish.

Anyway, here finished job ( without chimneys !)

Cheers.

Allan

 

 

 

[allan downes]

Ever watched Doctors on TV ? - Eastenders with stethoscopes, bawling, screeming, and tearing at each others throats every scene and they're supposed to be doctors ? Brain boiling garbage for the masses.

 

What ever happened to magic roundabout....

[Branwell]

Mr Rusty sold it for scrap. Florence is now running a brothel, Zebedee's an arms dealer, and Dougal's a website designer. As for Dylan and Ermintrude, less said the better ...

[mullie]

Day time TV, always worth a miss!

[Mythocentric]

Aaah! Magic Roundabout! Me and Dylan used to float around at about the same altitude you know! For some reason, cigarettes were much more interesting in those days!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Shaun. We've got to get Allan working on that mercantile/hotel. That's a whole row by itself! That's one of the things I loved about modelling the US in Wisconsin. Watching relevant videos (research of course! Ahem!) and seeing places like that drifting past the trains (and sometimes down the middle of Main Street!). They're a whole world of modelling by themselves, even without the railroad! Trouble was trying to find them on Google Earth for a close up! Google photography cars tend not to drive up logging or hard-pack company roads!

 

Regards

 

Bill

 

Edit: I've just realised that Allan said he used a 4 inch brush to paint it. How big is that house (and when can we move in?)

[allan downes]

New build.

 

Another USA Victorian house of freelance design so God only  knows how it'll turn out !

 

Anyway, here's various stages of bay window construction.

 

 

 

[monkeysarefun]

Tasmania has a similar timber building heritage, given the abundance of building timber in the  forests there which were logged in the 19th and early 20th century.

 

The wooden buildings have a similar style to those posted above, with similar amazing woodworking skills on display.

 

. I've always had a hankering to build  the Uniting Church at Penguin in Northern Tasmania at some point but I'll probably never get around to it: 

 

 

Huon pine was widely used for building but is now protected due to its slow growing nature - around 1mm of girth per year. Many of the existing large trees have been calculated to be up to 2500 years old. The only commercial source available now is already fallen logs but the timber is so hardy that some of them have been estimated to have been lying there for up to 38,000 years.

 

Thats an amazing building by the way,  Mr Downes! I grew up with the Railway Modeller even though it took months to get down here to Australia, and the first thing I'd check out would be to see if you were in it that month. I have forgotten most of what I was taught at school at the time but I can still remember most of your articles!