Bergondsey

[RSLR]

Good evening,

On the 3rd I travelled to London for the first time and by myself and stayed for three days.
Part one of my journey once I arrived at London Paddington was to take the Underground trains on the Bakerloo Line to Baker Street then change onto a Jubilee Line train to this most fascinating station at Canning Town to change and travel on the most wonderful DLR or Docklands Light Railway, the trains are almost completely Driverless! (apart from a couple of trains which did have a driver) So I sat at the front seat and got a driver's eye view up to the station I was travelling to.
Later that evening I returned to Canning Town station to take the Jubilee Line once again to a station called London Waterloo where I alighted to catch an electric train to Feltham where I was staying...
I think my favourite station was Canning Town, lots of trains all over the place and the train's onboard announcement Lady always sounded most excited when it goes there.

Over the three days I travelled the majority of this route. London appears to be a very busy place with lots of buildings and trains everywhere, could almost describe it as a huge theme park filled with these awesome trains!
I very much enjoyed it, met a lots of interesting people and I'll probably go again someday to explore more of the many tube lines and railways.

Ever since then I've been most inspired by these most fascinating trains that run deep beneath the surface and thought I might model one of these stations.
Primarily mostly as an experiment using this 'recently descovered' card material, so far so good I may have to use this material for other things.

My station is called Bergondsey not based on any station in particular but would be based along the Jubilee Line as this was the route I seen more of, probably close to or near London Waterloo. I've taken many of the aspects I like from the different stations I seen and stitched them altogether into one scene.

Gathering some basic research/pictures/information on various tube stations and observations from when I was there - Ideal trains running all the time at like 1-2 minutes, it definitely gives me a chance to have a look around. There's some dimensions I came across on the internet including some cut away drawings which clearly marked the diameters of the tubes and tunnels, scaled down I worked from these.

The main tube structure is made from thin card and quite thick fruit box type card (load of oranges came in it) for the main supporting outside structure. The rest is mainly thin card.

I'm quite pleased with it so far considering this is my first time using card as a modelling medium:

[MattWallace]

This is great stuff!

 

Are you planning on running "modern image" tube stock on it as well?

 

If so, I'd love to see where you get it from - it seems that LU stock is almost as neglected as present-day DMUs!

 

Matt

[RSLR]

Good evening,

Some slight more progress at Bergondsey this evening.
I'm finding the card/paper is a little tricky to 'weather' - Perhaps it's downside.

However some dirt gained on the platform side and end wall. I don't think I want to go any more than that on the platform side however I think it's missing the dusty appearance and of course the lashings of track dust/grime, I'll try to do that tomorrow. I think more experimentation is needed but I'm quite happy with the end wall though.

I should think some modern style seats, posters, train boards and clocks as well as signs and perhaps an 'Oyster' ticket machine in the hall way should brighten it up a bit... most of which I'm yet to find a suitable source.

 

I've put the white line on ^
 

 

This is great stuff!

 

Are you planning on running "modern image" tube stock on it as well?

 

If so, I'd love to see where you get it from - it seems that LU stock is almost as neglected as present-day DMUs!

 

Matt

Hello Matt,

Thanks for the comment.
I will be planning on getting some ''modern image'' tube stock at some point to run on the scene, possibly 1996 stock as I think this was what I travelled on when I was up there. I did note it's not really currently available, so I might have to make or wait for a kit or something to become available... We do seem to be short on the market for modern DMUs, modern tube stock and such.

Reece
 

[RSLR]

Good evening/morning,

I wasn't 100% happy with the weathering I did tother day in all honesty. I taken a few of my bits up to the B&WR with me to see what the chaps there thought... naturally they all thought it was really Awesome and spent a while 'veiwing' it from every possible angle they could. Just good comments but still nice to hear positives.

I've been playing around with the cardboard some more today, so the experiment with card modelling continues and I'm quite pleased this time. Airbrushing the colours works better with card, copying a hand full of photographs. It gets into all the gaps and I'm happier with the effect.
I've also made a couple of London Underground style seats (second attempt turned out better) from card and a ''way out ->'' sign with a departure board. Meanwhile Good Service on the Jubilee line today!

[Foulounoux]

Got to agree with Canning Town. I did it and the DLR for the first time this month thanks to having to fly to Luxembourg from London City

 

In fact so impressed left havant at 7.00am and arrived at LCY at 9am that I'm thinking of changing all my flights where I can to LCY I got home just as quick as getting home from Heathrow but without the hassle of driving

[ChrisN]

Reece,

Not sure how I missed this as it is on your signature, but all the pictures are missing.

 

Sounds like an interesting project.  I have often wondered about doing an Underground rather than a Tube station but it would be back to building everything myself again so I have so far resisted.

[RSLR]

Hi Chris,

I've not really returned to it yet, it's been sitting on the top shelf next to the many other other things that one day need doing. More of an experiment in card modelling and probably mixed with inspiration from travelling into the unknown last year exploring the final frontier etc etc.

I'm not really too sure why pics disappear. Probably something to do with you have to use other websites to host images because RMweb has an extremely sad, annoying and astonishingly low upload 'image size' considering things. Here's a couple of pics: 





As can be seen they're apparently maintaining 'good service' despite the lack of rails and trains at the moment.

[ChrisN]

Reece,

It does look good.  Some parts of the tube look cleaner than others although they have improved things a lot in recent years.  Unlike you the Tube is second nature to me  bur it has got more crowded than when I was younger.

[RSLR]

Reece,

It does look good.  Some parts of the tube look cleaner than others although they have improved things a lot in recent years.  Unlike you the Tube is second nature to me  bur it has got more crowded than when I was younger.

Cheers for the kind comments Chris,

 

I think I did read somewhere, the tube stays reasonably clean at stations because of the air circulation system which prevents the build up of dust - I believe it also stops passengers getting sucked off the platforms or something. I wanted some dusty dirt which seems to collect in grooves and in the tunnel, along the platform edge but not over do it too much, I did try to replicate this. Ideally my station should have more posters and things.

 

I did note at stations they have 'suicide pits' which also prevent mess and disruption to service when people want to try to kill themselves. Along the Jubilee line they have those funny platform edge doors which people queue at to board the trains.

 

During my visit I found it reasonably quiet but then I traveled at times of the day which were probably less busy, mainly the middle of the night and mid-late morning. Although as you've pointed out my platform should have some awaiting passengers.

I wasn't in any hurry at all, often spending a few minutes at each of the stations I got off at, I found it interesting almost standing still in a world which seems to move really fast around you. I'm probably the only one who has ever noticed the big huge elephant above the escalators at Waterloo station.

 

[ChrisN]

Cheers for the kind comments Chris,

 

I think I did read somewhere, the tube stays reasonably clean at stations because of the air circulation system which prevents the build up of dust - I believe it also stops passengers getting sucked off the platforms or something. I wanted some dusty dirt which seems to collect in grooves and in the tunnel, along the platform edge but not over do it too much, I did try to replicate this. Ideally my station should have more posters and things.

 

I did note at stations they have 'suicide pits' which also prevent mess and disruption to service when people want to try to kill themselves. Along the Jubilee line they have those funny platform edge doors which people queue at to board the trains.

 

During my visit I found it reasonably quiet but then I traveled at times of the day which were probably less busy, mainly the middle of the night and mid-late morning. Although as you've pointed out my platform should have some awaiting passengers.

I wasn't in any hurry at all, often spending a few minutes at each of the stations I got off at, I found it interesting almost standing still in a world which seems to move really fast around you. I'm probably the only one who has ever noticed the big huge elephant above the escalators at Waterloo station.

 

 

Reece,

I must be noted that for years there was no investment in the Tube system so that nothing, apart from the track, had been renewed.  London was filthy and all the buildings were brown with smoke.  You may still see some remnants next to the railway line as you leave big stations.  After the 70s all the big and famous buildings were hosed down and cleaned, (I was amazed that the Natural History Museum was actually beautiful with a pattern on it).  The tiles in the Tube were yellow, a sandy yellow which I think was years of ground in dirt and smoke.  When they started to rejuvenate the Tube they changed the tiles and put in lots of pictures as well.  I think the lighting is brighter which makes it seem less gloomy.  Perhaps I have lived in London so long that I do not notice anymore.

 

The suicide pits are there if you fell accidentally.  I believe that that the power is furthest away from the platform so it allows you to stay there if a train came.  If someone got killed then that line would stop, probably for hours.  There are very few on the Tube, several on the main lines, one a week or so?

 

The doors on the platform are new to the Jubilee line as it is the newest one.  The line from Waterloo to Stratford is completely new and the rest is part of the old Bakerloo line, which had two sections.

 

Rushing is part of London life and it is still easy to slip into it even when you have time and do not need to.  As for your model, it is a work in progress so none of what I have said is a criticism.

 

All the best