Edwardian Posted January 5, 2016 Share Posted January 5, 2016 Yes, having last night moved into a house in County D, I have noticed the rain. There is a Beck at the bottom of the garden that you might be forgiven for thinking was the Tees as it is in full spate. As ever, I am completely charmed by this layout. Like the ballast and the great dry brushing on the flags. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
EKR Posted January 5, 2016 Share Posted January 5, 2016 "I am completely charmed by this layout" Absolutely. It's the unity of the creator's vision. Very distinctive, like a mini- Madder Valley. Wonder if it could be extended... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
cornamuse Posted January 5, 2016 Author Share Posted January 5, 2016 Gosh, thank you, gentlemen Edwardian - welcome to the sunny land of the Prince Bishops! This is the dry season Thank you for the comparison to Madder Valley - I adore the whimsy that is in that layout, but it is a BIG compliment! Yes the layout could be extended - it is very much in the thinking - I would like to create a loco works, colliery, and maybe a wharf with a canal. That said, it is a micro layout for a few good reasons - 1) this will be the first layout I have ever got to a reasonable level of completion 2) I want to exhibit at some point, and have back problems, so lifting is a major problem 3) I don't have a great deal of space - so maybe it will be a series of cameos 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Edwardian Posted January 6, 2016 Share Posted January 6, 2016 The modular approach - micro-cameos that could stand alone or be linked - sounds like a good idea. I say this because, while I would love to see more of the world of Gainford Spa, the scene you have modelled has such integrity as a self-contained unit, that something would be lost if the walls around it came down. A pit head would be a great choice, IMHO. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
cornamuse Posted January 6, 2016 Author Share Posted January 6, 2016 Thank you - and yes - it will never be extended within the scene - it is built too much as a specific scene. The pithead will most likely be the next model - my small human is keen to see it, although it will take some research - not sure what the early Victorian ones looked like. Downside? more ***** chauldron waggons, which are a right pain to build Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Edwardian Posted January 7, 2016 Share Posted January 7, 2016 Doesn't Beamish have a pithead? I thinks it's supposed to be 1820s (not sure, not yet visited), but I suppose could be updated to 1860s. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
AdamsRadial Posted January 7, 2016 Share Posted January 7, 2016 Beamish does indeed have a pithead, complete with working beam engine, and adjacent to it a wonderful colliery sidings and loco workshops. I could have spent a week there, as it was I had to make do with a day. To my regret there were no locos in steam either at the colliery sidings or at the railway station, but the Pockerly Waggonway was running. I'm not sure what era the pithead properly represents, though. I suspect there was some modernisation anyway, apart from mods to comply with H&S, which the boilers of the Pockerly locos also required. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
cornamuse Posted January 23, 2016 Author Share Posted January 23, 2016 (edited) Hi guys: Latest steps made : Firstly a cast iron drinking fountain. It has always been the intention to put one in - hence the large stones and semi-circular steps. It seems a little bright, but does lift the front nicely. Second is skirts for Loco number 3 - and a new motor, which required major surgery. Oh what a happy boy I was. However, there was no choice - electric steam locos are NOT supposed to smoke like that! Anyway, with a larger motor and no connecting rods, it now runs nice and smoothly, and I feel like I have cheated ... well only a bit! Edit - multiplicity of spelling mistakes and loco number 3, not 30. although, by 30 I may have made a perfect runner Edited January 23, 2016 by cornamuse 10 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Edwardian Posted January 23, 2016 Share Posted January 23, 2016 Love the fountain; a splendid touch, really well observed, and the people of Gainford Spa will be duly grateful for whatever municipal or private act of generosity has provided them with a convenient and Cholera-free source of water. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
cornamuse Posted January 23, 2016 Author Share Posted January 23, 2016 Good point - I will have to decide who has provided it, to add to the History. It is conveniently sited - by the water tower / coaling stage. I have a nasty feeling it will be fed from the same source! Perversely, though, the real Gainford does have a spring with a nice outlet, where they have been known to carry out baptisms. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
durham light infantry Posted January 23, 2016 Share Posted January 23, 2016 Good point - I will have to decide who has provided it, to add to the History. Edward Pease, or his son Joseph. A huge social reformer in the early-mid 19th century. Mike Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
cornamuse Posted January 23, 2016 Author Share Posted January 23, 2016 (edited) Absolutely, Mike. The green building occasionally visible is a Friend's Meeting House, which seemed appropriate, given the local history! And the small area between the fountain and the tea room will be the perfect spot for the preacher and his wife to hand out leaflets proclaiming the evils of Gin and encouraging people to sign the pledge. Now THERE is a detail you don't often see - I wonder why ... Edited January 23, 2016 by cornamuse Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
cornamuse Posted February 2, 2016 Author Share Posted February 2, 2016 Finally made some progress on a job I have not been relishing - the inside of the café right at the very front of the model. Officially the C&D Tea Rooms - named by the small controller as usual (D is for Daddy ) so - the room is foamboard drawn out in ink and painted in using watercolours. the tables are foamboard with legs made from carved Chinese tooth picks that I have had for years. Sadly, the legs will not be visible when the room is in place, so I will probably make it removable so I can accost complete strangers and force them to look at my legs ... On the subject of legs, our poor customer doesn't have any, any more. they wouldn't fit and couldn't be seen anyway. he also has new arms and a serious repaint from a diesel driver to Her Ladyship's Master of Hounds, just nipped in for a cup of tea, cake and sandwiches. He doesn't look overly happy, but then I wouldn't after the bodged surgery I carried out! The tea and coffee urns are beads, pins and the usual odds and sods. We need chairs (backs only) and then I am tempted to carry on until I have gone way over the top in terms of detail, as I am actually enjoying myself. The next stage will be the kitchen upstairs - with a range and a nice big kitchen table and copper pots hanging up. 5 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Edwardian Posted February 2, 2016 Share Posted February 2, 2016 Not forgetting the patterned tiles on the floor ... The table cloths and the menus are a particularly fine touch. Charming and delightful as ever and I for one am glad your forced yourself to do this! Gardens, that's the thing I keep putting off. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nearholmer Posted February 5, 2016 Share Posted February 5, 2016 First time in ages that I've had a look - brilliant, simply brilliant! There is so much around that is formulaic, even if very well executed, whereas you've tapped-into something completely different, and executed in well to boot. Kevin Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
cornamuse Posted February 6, 2016 Author Share Posted February 6, 2016 So here we have the café finished - A dresser on the wall, with the little known Durham Tea Steins hanging from it There are boards up to tempt the punters and we finally have chairs - well chair backs. Inside the café with the lights on, it all seems very cosy, and enough is visible to make me pleased I bothered! 9 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Edwardian Posted February 6, 2016 Share Posted February 6, 2016 Enchanting! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dannyboy2891 Posted February 7, 2016 Share Posted February 7, 2016 Hi Andy, Layout looks Awesome, loving the progress and gets better and better everytime I visit. Always look forward to seeing/reading more. Kind regards Dan Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
cornamuse Posted February 19, 2016 Author Share Posted February 19, 2016 The kitchen is now well under way - a dresser, range, shelves ... The range lights up, which may or may not show, but is perhaps a little smug 8 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Edwardian Posted February 19, 2016 Share Posted February 19, 2016 Excellent and endlessly charming. As if that were not enough, the fire in the range glows! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
cornamuse Posted February 19, 2016 Author Share Posted February 19, 2016 (edited) A little more work on the kitchen: Firstly - the worlds most ambitiously proportioned cook. The poor dear started off as a navvie, and still has a little of the pantomime dame about her. However, she looks ok in the kitchen... in the dusk with the light behind her, as the old song goes! Lord knows how the pros do it, but it will be a long while before I am happy with my home made / rebuilt figures! Secondly - more work on the shelves - pots and crockery starting to appear ... Edited February 19, 2016 by cornamuse 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
cornamuse Posted February 20, 2016 Author Share Posted February 20, 2016 And now the kitchen table, with bread, scones, mash, greens, a birthday cake and ... worryingly .... a nice big cleaver Just needs a few pans hanging up and a ceiling with a light and we are sorted. Then I can get on with other important train things like making flowers! 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nearholmer Posted February 20, 2016 Share Posted February 20, 2016 My gosh, that former Navvy is a miracle-worker ......... Would she be interested in taking-on the odd outside catering order? SWMBO's birthday is in late June, bound to be a family party, and it would be good to know if I could contract-out the cooking. K Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Edwardian Posted February 20, 2016 Share Posted February 20, 2016 Brilliant. I was going to comment at the same time I rated the first picture, but I could think of no words of mine that would do it justice. Then you posted more pictures! Well, it's a delight; the spread of food, the cleaver in the chopping board. All delightful. Me being me, thee thing I immediately noticed was how well painted the kitchen table is. Perfect rendering. Would you, I wonder (genuine question) have a ceiling light in an ordinary 1860-something kitchen? If not, what would you have? My 4mm cottages are notionally Edwardian. One day, I would like to light them. I though 'leave some holes in the ceilings for that', then I thought, 'hang on, such humble dwellings might not have fixed ceiling lights in any rooms, least of all kitchens or bedrooms'. My father lived in a village house in the '50s. There was only electricity downstairs. He had to take a wee-willy-winky candle holder up to bed. Also, no one had cars; the doctor and the farmer had horses and traps. So, in provincial towns and villages in the 1860s, would people even have had gas? if so, these would have been wall mounted. I'm guessing it's candles and oil lamps in Gainford Spa! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dannyboy2891 Posted February 20, 2016 Share Posted February 20, 2016 Hi Andy, Nothing short of brilliant, words fail to describe your talent sir. If I had a hat, I would take it off to you. Always great to see your progress Regards Dan Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now