Leith Baltic Street

[Andrew F]

Hello again and thanks

 

Ian (Artizan); yeah, that avatar should freak you out; France Gall is hot! Her voice (with Serge Gainsbourg music or nice Orchestrations) always keeps me calm when modelling. I think that bridge and tunnel plus the turn-out are not prototypical....double track bridge and single track tunnel? Double track tunnel with a later track laying scheme would have been Ok and would maybe explain the turn-out but I had no room at all. Stranger things may occur though?...we can always explain.

McRuss, I'm useless with computers and never sorted out a decent plan; nor either on paper. It's a bit hotch potch to honest.

Ian (Clecklewyke) It's not really worth converting to EM as a layout, like you suggest, the corners are too tight in places and a lot of the scenes just don't work because of the loft restrictions and plain bad management of space.

Mark (MRD) I didn't realise the old Leith North had been demolished (that was a Caley?) Yes, there's plenty of tracks still around the docks. Wouldn't it be good to introduce a tourist steam pug and dig out some more tracks in Leith?...like they've done in Bristol with a working steam crane? New Leith, what is it really? By the way, your modelling is something else I'll add!

Rosebay and Foxglove are pretty hard to distinguish in modelling. Have you seen Cactustrain's plants? I don't know how he did those...unbelievable!

six 0 six; you recognise the pond! I saw a beer garden that was just in a cleft of destroyed tennement; I've modelled that part but it looks a bit naff on the layout.

There will be Irn Bru or Tennents being dished out if I find you.

Andy C, Dewsbury Midland is one layout that made this one happen...trying to emulate that level of building style and appearance, plus a lot of that 'behind the scene' stuff invoked an attempt!. This layout was an inspiration...not an inspiration so much as a ....religous event....

 

.I've built a single MSE post NB home signal:

http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh195/GROTLAND/DSCF8093.jpg?t=1311388472

Beside it's distant(oof) Ratio cousin(to be fair the Ratio lattice is a heavier guage LNER signal and the brass post is an old Stevens flat bar/back to back lattice). I can't convey my happiness enough about this first build and if any beginner was in any doubt about building such a kit I would like to silence their doubts right now.

The instructions imply that you should have a simple understanding of signal operation and a general know-how of wire size and pin-vice stuff...and states that you should have a 50W down to 25W adjustable iron with 3 types of solder but I built this with just the 50W iron and normal 188 solder(Ok I used epoxy for the finial and the lamp)

I say you should have experience with a pin vice and make good use of the reverse pressure tweezers.

The MSE kit is enjoyable and gives you confidence to try a more complicated bracket...just working through the kit will stimulate your interest!

Updates will take us through the more complex bracket signals and shunting signals.........I have to learn that stuff!

 

Thanks for following

 

Andy

[Guest oldlugger]

Lovely layout Andy! The vegetation, and subtle colours you've used for the structures are very effective.

 

Simon

[bluebottle]

I model in P4 but I too look at the buildings first. MMRC's Dewsbury is OO but the buildings make it fabulous - giving it a real sense of place in an area which I am also trying to conjure up in my modeling.

 

Could you not convert it to EM or are the corners too sharp? Remember that Dunwich was converted from EM to P4 - conversion to a finer scale can be done, and is worthwhile when the aspic (suddenly remembered from an early Rice article!) surrounding the railway is so right.

 

I wholeheartedly agree about both Dewsbury Midland and Leith Baltic Street, but I wouldn't put any pressure on Andy to go for EM. At an exhibition a few years ago (I think it was a Scalefour North at Wakefield) I admired the loco wheels lathe-produced by a pleasant and informative chap who happened to comment that some layouts outstanding for their buildings and scenery were spoilt for him by the use of 00 Gauge. He particularly mentioned Dewsbury Midland, so I asked him if he'd noticed that the canopy columns were constructed from metal tube. This meant that they were of round section rather than the octagonal section of the MR canopy columns of Bingley, on which the platform canopies were based. He hadn't noticed, and we agreed that the compromise was understandable and acceptable in a large exhibition layout where this would only be picked up by the scenic equivalent of a rivet counter. A minor point compared to the question of gauge, to be sure, but to me even the "narrow gauge" of 00 can be overlooked in a layout that captures time and place so perfectly - and I speak as one born within earshot of Leith Central in LNER days!

[clecklewyke]

I thought readers of this topic might be interested in the attached photograph. It is of Scotland Street yard in Edinburgh, which was just north of the New Town, at the entrance to Scotland St tunnel. This connected the original NB line to Leith to Waverley Station.

 

Looks full of the same sort of atmosphere as Baltic St!

 

Ian

[45568]

Superb work. Brooding, even menacing in parts. A place Logan McRae would go on vacation, someone pass me an Irn-Bru.............More please.

 

Best, Pete.

Sorry Pete, think it's more D.I. Steele's sort of area! I'm sure there is a "naughty" Noch figure that would look the part!!

Seriously,another vote for superb atmosphere and modelling, hope I can recreate a similar run-down environment feel, although much further south.

Cheers, Peter C.

[artizen]

That photo reeks of atmosphere! The crappy caravan, the coal sacks, the general dross of a working railway. Reminds me of a certain skit about licking road clean before starting work!

[45568]

I thought readers of this topic might be interested in the attached photograph. It is of Scotland Street yard in Edinburgh, which was just north of the New Town, at the entrance to Scotland St tunnel. This connected the original NB line to Leith to Waverley Station.

 

Looks full of the same sort of atmosphere as Baltic St!

 

Ian

 

I'm almost sure a model of this was featured as Railway of the month in RM, late 90's early 00's? A terrific effort, also full of atmosphere.

Cheers, Peter C.

[lmsforever]

What a fantastic layout the buildings are brilliant and the atmosphere of the layout oozes from every picture.Who cares what track code is used it looks very well detailed,the important thing is does the layout look realistic and this one does so carry on as you are.What material did you use for the buildings they are weathered so well ,the ground cover is so realistic what materials have you used to recreate the areas around the tracks.

[Rannoch Moor]

on Baltic Street, I bet you can smell the brewery?

 

 

 

As a former resident of Auld Reekie I could not have summed up the atmosphere more pertinently than Clecklewyke has! And looking at the other posts I'm clearly not the only one. I echo all the plaudits on your skills Andy - what was the source of your Cl 100 DMU BTW? That's nearly as Scottish an icon as your canopies and NBR signal box,

 

Regards

 

Gus

[Scottish Modeller]

I thought readers of this topic might be interested in the attached photograph. It is of Scotland Street yard in Edinburgh, which was just north of the New Town, at the entrance to Scotland St tunnel. This connected the original NB line to Leith to Waverley Station.

 

Looks full of the same sort of atmosphere as Baltic St!

 

Ian

 

Ah! Scotland Street Yard.....

 

I wondered how long before this gem was trotted out as an ideal example to go with Leith Baltic Street!

 

Ian - Is this a photo of your own? If so can I get a large version!

 

So - What's it like now?

 

 

Thanks

[clecklewyke]

 

 

Ian - Is this a photo of your own? If so can I get a large version!

 

Afraid not - found by my friend Steve Griffiths on http://www.edinphoto.org.uk/0_edin_t/0_edinburgh_transport_-_railways.htm

 

Ian (Who had two hours between trains from Stirling to Garsdale on Saturday but didn't make it to Scotland St. Instead I revisited my old haunts as a student around the Old College/ Meadows area)

[250BOB]

Andy,

Just stumbled accross this thread.

 

It is simply STUNNING.

 

Good effort............!!!!!!!!

 

Regards.................Bob

[Guest stuartp]

About time this was bumped. My knowlege of Leith extends to knowing it's the bit you can see in the distance from Edinburgh Castle, but this is absolutely gorgeous, and like others I subconconciously ignored the Code 100, such is the quality of everything else.

 

It appears to run as well as it looks too, I hope Andrew doesn't mind me posting this link:

[Andrew F]

No problem Stuart; ouch that backscene looks awful at the start . Thanks Ian and Phil, for the Scotland Street pictures. I visited the site a few years ago; such a wonderful location and a track plan and backdrop begging to be modelled; indeed it has hasn't it?.

Anyone else is most welcome to post similar pictures of these areas on here(also personal pictures are wanted on 'Railways of Scotland' forum), especially any rare pictures of Leith Central station. Some great additions have appeared on the net since I last searched and I admit to toying with the idea of this station in diesel servicing era; 126 units and 100 twins as well as a cornucopia of interesting shunters would make a great addition to the MPD layout scene. I think the early Edinburgh-Glasgow push-pull trains were also serviced here too. I have a hunch that it's been modelled already and any information on such a model would be much appreciated.

 

Sorry about the delay in replying, LMS and Gus. The ground in the station area is Javis scatter layed down on PVA upto sleeper height (between tracks it's the same scatter but put down and glued/droppered like normal ballast) and then sanded smoothish when dry. It's then painted with water based or emulsions, generally Wickes test pots.

 

Gus, the 100 is a No Nonsense Kit that was re-introduced and cleaned up from the MTK tooling a couple of years ago but unfortunately the owner of NNK has passed away and I don't know if they have continued trading.

This is my first kit build and I had the idea to use the Bachmann 108 for donor frames/PCB etc...bad choice it was!..the 100 has a tumble home and bogie centres that won't work with this kit. Here's some of the strife I contended with:

Chopping down the chassis and moving the bogie pivot/swivel plane to accomodate the shells

Sawing the width of the chassis and engine housing to fit the shells

The kit originates from a time when correctness meant something else/ New windows cut in driving unit:

Two years ago I didn't know what a pin vice was; I saw the light soon enough

The body is aluminium and the end casts are white metal. I used 24 hour Araldite clamped up for two days to make the bond.

This is the kind of MTK fit to expect but it can be worked with a block to look seamless:

Here's a couple of pictures. The castings give you the option to model series one "cyclops" or conventional series two. I chose both as it was a fairly prototypical mating. Oh, I used a Southern pride detail kit for all the hand/grab rails and hinges plus some under floor detail(door gaps have to be scribed). If you get one of these MTK kits bare in mind that the instructions for the frame detail and directions for the scratchbuilt interior are very wrong. She's a bit rough round the edges hmm.

 

 

Well, that's not an update but a backdate as I never documented this build. Here's some down pipes I've been putting on the tenements:

 

 

I use Evergreen 221 for the pipe and plasticweld the finest strips cut at just short of 2mm to form the double ribbed cast connector, making the gap with a thumbnail; then put in the tributaries(mucky water pipes later)

 

Here's giving the blocks some space to breath while I'm working on them and something like a wannabe Glasgow West end impression:

 

Thanks for following and I hope to include some signalling work pretty soon.

 

Andy

['CHARD]

The last-but-one shot of the tenements really belongs in the 'How Realistic' thread. I find that indistiguishable from reality.

 

The Dr Foster is convincing enough to my mind, all the signature features are there; recently I've been happy to adopt the concessions of NVD and ITPTH*.

 

 

* Normal Viewing Distance and Is The Prototype To Hand?

[Jamie]

The last-but-one shot of the tenements really belongs in the 'How Realistic' thread. I find that indistiguishable from reality.

Aye, and very much a snapshot of time, where one block has had the industrial grime sandblasted off but its neigbour awaits treatment.

There's still a blackened block not far from me, and I find it hard to picture how the whole city would have looked in soot black/grey.

[60027Merlin]

Another excellent selection of atmospheric photos. At this rate you will soon be heading up Leith Walk past the junction with Pilrig Street and onwards to Elm Row where you could always include the front of Harburn Hobbies!

 

Wonderful work Andy.

[trisonic]

I find it hard to picture how the whole city would have looked in soot black/grey.

 

I spent a bit of time around Glasgow in the late fifties/early sixties. Yes it was black and grey but then so was London and most cities in the UK. I was more astonished when they started cleaning up the buildings (particularly in London) to find just how beautiful many were. I still get surprised when I come "home", I suppose our memories from a young age are very formative.

 

Andy's model buildings are so good...........

 

Best, Pete.

[clecklewyke]

 

I spent a bit of time around Glasgow in the late fifties/early sixties. Yes it was black and grey but then so was London and most cities in the UK. I was more astonished when they started cleaning up the buildings (particularly in London) to find just how beautiful many were. I still get surprised when I come "home", I suppose our memories from a young age are very formative.

 

Andy's model buildings are so good...........

 

Best, Pete.

Apparently they gave up on Downing Street. It really has typical yellow London brick but it was so soot stained that rather than clean it they painted the brick black.

 

Which comment prevents this being simply a "me too" adulation. Andy you clearly love Edinburgh and Leith, you put so much into your wonderful buildings. Does the layout ever get out to play at exhibitions or is it irredeemably stuck in your loft? It deserves to be seen by as many people as possible.

 

Ian.

[mobi323]

Well done! Looking forward to more photographs.

[artizen]

Another question for Andrew - whatever happened to your scary avatar?

[Andrew F]

I have no idea where my scary avatar went.

That was 7 months ago and I did manage to get my signals built thanks to staying offline for 6 of them; 6 months, not 6 signals. Back then I gained a lot of knowledge from the.. erm.signalling part of the forum and thanks to the Beast and Stationmaster and some others for the help. It's been a compromise with loads of clearance and siting issues therefore aesthetics over accuracy has been my choice.

I got all the kits from Wizard who delivered too frightfully quick and completely.

 

 

The starters for the 3 terminus plaforms. All the signals are made up of MSE etched posts with either MSE arms/bearings/weights or D&S. I used brass L and I girders to form the stretchers brackets. The treads were cut from very fine ply. For shunting and call on's, I'm using the flap type, the disc type and miniature arms too and some of these will be the plastic Ratio ground signals.

 

 

I accidently bought jig ladders (the type you have to build rung by rung) It all soldered up Ok....I was like...we-hey man!!!...

Even when they come off the fret like this, it all comes together in the end and is actually enjoyable work except for opening those .03 holes up with the pin vice which is marginally more preferable than driving nails through ones feet.

 

 

I wanted the taller bracket signals to have stabilizing lattice posts (some fore, some aft, sometimes both) as it really was a feature in this area and I don't recall seeing them modelled.

Fitting the .03 operating wires to the signals was a real pain after the success of the actual construction. All my signals are only operational from the balance weights up too...I have my just reasons for this apparent cop-out.

 

 

So some pictures so far with some B/W thrown in. Oh I did the point rodding too from Brassmasters stools and .020 micro styrene strip(bad idea the plastic was)

 

 

 

 

It's really hard to get a good picture of the actual signals in position as the backscene doesn't go high enough to make for a good shot.

 

 

The cranks and wheels are also MSE etches from Wizard.

 

 

I've also been working on more loco's. The last picture has a converted Heljan 26/0 to pilot scheme and a Bachy 24 to Highland Baby Sulzer.

 

Here they are close up. I did the body rippling thing with the 26. It actually does look normal 98% of the time; this is extreme light effect:

 

 

....and the HBS:

 

 

It has Hornby 25 cabs but Bachmann middle front windows and the other 2 reduced in height. I'm not doing another one of those in a hurry

 

 

 

 

Lastly some general pictures of the fleet I've been working on (Steam loco's are in the pipeline: just been really unlucky with them)

 

 

 

 

 

Less is more with weathering these days but you should have seen the pictures of the prototypes I was copying:)

 

Anyway, that's it for now; actually nearly finished the layout save for detail and stuff.

Thanks for following

 

Andy

[250BOB]

Andy,

Even more stunning than it was 6 months ago.....don't disappear for so long next time.

Bob

[0O00]

Absolutely top drawer stuff.

[Jamie]

Literally breathtaking stuff Andy.

 

If the resolution was higher I'd be sorted for desktop PC wallpaper for months from this post alone.

 

Pleased to see the outcome of the 26 bodysides - didn't think it'd be obvious but the most effective touches never are. Point rodding pic is beautifully observed in the b&w shot, NBL pic in black and white is straight out of O'Hara's big blue book.