ChrisN
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Posts posted by ChrisN
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Jeff,
The question that I did not ask yesterday but someone else did, and it may be answered by the blue backscene, is your top of the fell the top of the fell or does the fell go higher off scene?
I assume, and as I said yesterday I am no expert on Cumbrian fells, that the higher you go the less there is. Did Cumbrian shepherds stay out with their flocks in the summer, or did they like welsh shepherds send them out and not worry until autumn? Looks like we need a session in social history, followed by a class in building stone houses.
In the end, if as you sit at your control panel you would like to see a ruined bothy nestling below the top of the fell in a dip then build it.
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Jason,
I would not appologise about working with etched brass and produing that. It looks excellent. Brass is still a material I am coming to terms with and then only glueing coach sides. Soldering will come much later.
Keep going, the rest cannot be that hard, and a lovely loco for the layout.
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Jeff,
I think a tunnel vent shaft is a definate feature that you need. I do not know the Cumbrian Fells at all but your picture is of a sheep shelter next to a beck(?). Is that a structure that is lower down the fell rather than where you have drawn it should go? I am not sure what structures you would have at the top of the fell. A shepherds hut?
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Al,
I have checked my recent magazines and the article about cattle trucks is not in it. It was actually probably before I moved so it may have been BRM or it could have been RM.. i know one month they had Bannana Vans, the next catle trucks, or verse vicea.
I am going to be a bit busy ovet the next few days as my middle son is getting married on Saturday and then we are away for a week but if I get chance I will try and dig out where I put the old mags.
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I need some help now. Can anyone hazard a guess as to what the piece of equipment is at the side of the Privy, which appears to be surrounded by the sleeper built structure. Do you think it's a relay cabinet, a telephone cabinet, or maybe a power transformer?
Any suggestions gratefully received.
Thanks for looking,
Al.
Al,
What can I say that has not been said. I think they look brilliant!
That structure appears empty to me with maybe some rubbish in the door way, and the hiny of someone sitting inside! It is right next to a pile of coal and there are no cables or wires coming out of it so I doubt if it is anything too important. If it was power or phones I doubt that they would want the likelyhood of several tons of coal landing on top of it.
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Al,
A BRM earlier in the year had an article on cattle trucks which had how you disinfect them. I'll see if I can find it.
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Thanks, Chris and err... Chris
For the moment, then, I'm sticking with the steel fencing, pending review...
So I set too and painted it tonight.
First, I painted the gates, using Humbrol Dark Earth No.29. I think this looks a good colour for weathered wood.
Then, I painted all of the fencing in Humbrol Matt Leather No.62:
I use this a lot on metal structures, as you may have noticed, as I feel it gives a good "rusty" looking base on which to paint further. If I miss a bit, then you don't get the white styrene showing through.
When the leather was dry, I overpainted it with Humbrol Engineers Grey N0.RC413, to represent the colour of the steel.
A close up of this stage is unkind:
but it was better when it had dried.
Then I highlighted the support posts in Humbrol Dark Grey No. 32, to represent some sort of weatherproofing paint.
That's the basic painting done, so then I set too with various dry brush colours to weather it.
Then I added the gates, and hinges, and bits, and placed it all in position.
Here's the final results:
and a close up:
So, what do you think?
Now it's painted, should I keep this, or should I have a go at a set of wooden fencing?
Not sure in my own mind yet, I'll leave it for a day and come back to it, and then see what I think.
Thanks for looking,
Al.
Al,
All in an evening as well! I am surprised the paint dried in time. Looks good to me.
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Thanks Jeff, that's a great picture, and now I don't know whether to stick with what I've done or start again with wooden fencing
Al,
I would stick with it as lots of cattle pens were done with poles. What I would do though is build a batch of cattle wagons just to make sure that the gates line up. When I say build I mean that you should put them together enough to make a small rake to see the spacing between the doors, not fully painted, numbered, weathered and distressed. This is of course if you have decided what couplings to use as that will make a difference.
You can see why I have so many projects on the go at once.
Sheep, they will be an off white dirty grey colour. They will not be Jacobs, with the long horns, as I understand they are not very hardy. They will probably be HO as a 00 sheep will look like a fat Southdown which will never have seen a mountain.
All the best.
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Al,
It is looking fine to me. Well thought out about the three pens and how to get them filled with cows. Silly question, but I always ask them, you do have the dimensions of your cattle trucks?
As for the poles, although my memory does not go back to the fifties, well not for cattle pens, but id do remember metal poled cattle pens. I googled 'Cattle Pens 1950' and come up with mostly wooden ones, but one in Boston Lincolnshire being knocked down and this one in Cornwall with metal poles http://www.helstonhistory.co.uk/history-around-helston-town/old-cattle-market/
About the right era, wrong place and not on a station but there is a prototype.
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Al,
I only said that as someone somewhere else said that he had an exhibtion layout and one person spent ages looking at it and his only comment was "The cows are the wrong colour!" Good eh! The Polly (Southern42) asked a question about types of cows that should be on Camel Quay. It is whether you want to go into that much detail. Even if you did I'm sure someone would say, "That's not the right shape for a Staffordshire Black!"
Me, I'm modelling Wales so I'll stick to sheep, can't go much wrong there. (Ducks behind sette.)
And my smilies are working again
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Al,
The next thing you need to do is research cows for your area and era if actually are going to put some in as the breeds changed over the years. Of course, life is short and there may be more important things to do. (I was going to add a smiley nodding but they have stopped working for me)
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For ChrisN
Sorry, I forgot to mention that John does not supply these brake vans as kits.
All he supplies are the moulded sides and ends. the rest is up to you, so it is partial scratchbuilding.
Drawings of similar brake vans can be found in 'An Illustrated History of Southern Wagons, Part 3
Michael
Michael,
I had sort of realised that from your post. I am trying all sorts of new things so I am sure I can source/ build a chassis and a roof should not be an issue.
Thanks
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Al,
I always feel a bit bad when telling someone who has made a perfectly acceptable model that it could be improved especially as I have never built a cattle dock but as you are looking to change it just some more thoughts.
After I posted I googled 'Cattle Pen' and got, surprise surprise, pictures of real cattle pens and most of them, no all of them were fairly sturdy with lots of uprights. Cows are big animals and if they kick off which they might if they are frightened need some containing.
I also had another look at that link, and apart from noticing that they had taken the most forlorn picture of Chelmsford station that you could possibly get, honest it's not that bad, I looked again at those cattle docks and noticed two things. Firstly they were in smaller pens which begs a question. Did they put cattle into pens only large enough for one truck? I would not like to be the railwayman who stood at the gate stopping a mass of cattle squeezing onto a truck when it was full. I do not know the answer or where to look without spending, hours, days, weeks, months..... looking at old pictures. There may be someone knowledgable on the web who knows.
Secondly, the bracing bars on the gates go the wrong way. I was convinced you were right and the picture was wrong but on looking at lots of others I realised the picture was right. (I once read a whole article by someone going on about how modellers got this wrong. He finished by saying that things were so bad people did it wrong in real life as well! However, I think back in the day craftsmen knew which way was up.)
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Do you think it looks right?
Should I have stuck with the prototype concrete fencing?
Is it likely that a cattle dock would have this kind of pens?
Please help me make up my mind before I paint and stick it all together.
Thanks very much for looking,
Al.
Al,
I shall reply but I am usually wrong. I think your choice is correct in not going for the concrete structures because, a) they are ugly, and B) they would look as if you had made them up and could not be bothered to do a proper job no matter how much you said 'but I have a prototype!' .I googled 'cattle dock' images and most were unhelpfully from model railways which I suppose tells you a lot about how our railway system has changed.
I have to admit that any cattle dock I have seen in real life would be from a market and I am fairly certain that they had scaffold poles but further than that I am not certain, except that the spacings between uprights was probably 4-5 ft.
My first look at yours said to me that it looked fine but needed more uprights and this picture would prove my point http://www.flickriver.com/photos/tags/cattledock/interesting/ it is the one right at the bottom but there are others on there as well. This one does have wooden/concrete posts so is not the same design. The size of your uprights looks about right.
I notice that Andy has given his thumbs up as I write so you may not wish to change it.
May I finish by saying the base looks superb.
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Does John Arkell have a web site and does he do LCDR as well? They look lovely models and I have a rake of beer wagons that need a brake van.
Googling John Arkell gave me a session drummer and a brewer, neither of which seemed very helpful.
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The horse, after it has fallen over and broken a leg.
Bill
Don't be silly. The horse is glued to the floor so he cannot fall over!
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Thanks for that, Mick. Reports of that particular bit of insanity don't appear to have made it to this side of the pond yet.
Try YouTube 'Extreme Ironing', and people make comments about sensible hobbies like railway modelling!
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The 4F is good news, they had a place nearly everywhere including the S&D found this yesterday, look how tidy the ballast is...
The ballast on this pictures is looking good, they nearly have done it as good as yours Jeff.
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Jim,
Good to hear from you again. Sorry that you have had a rough time but things seemed to have turned the corner and I hope things continue to go well, not just with your modelling but with your wife's health. I know you are a perfectionist which makes great models but can be very frustrating when it does not go right.
Are you going to insulate the shed or alarm it?
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I've been a bit of a plonker with this. If you look back to post # 1098 you'll see that I fitted a "sheath" of plastikard around the hole, and then painted it black. I did this for the first ten or so turnouts and then forgot....
I'll rig-up something, if possible!
Thanks for confirming Scott's remark about the check rails. They will be filthed-up from now on!!
Jeff
Jeff,
Will there now be a rash of lineside huts, linesmen, wheeltapers & shunters in strategic places?
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Hi Andy.
The layout is currently erected in the living room so we can get to both sides so I can't get far enough away from it to get it all in, but here's a few individual shots.
This close up shows the terrace in position with the new Plastikard roof in place (currently being slated).
It's not quite seating properly due the door steps of the furthest two doors fouling the footpath. A trim back should hopefully cure it. There's also a couple of steps to go under the nearest doors.
Ray.
PS just noticed this thread has topped 200 replies and 10,000 views, many thank for all the support.
Ray,
I'm not one for threads that are all self congratulatery but those views show what an excellent layout it is.
What is the length and width again, or is that in the first few pages? You can always tell me to go and look.
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Ray,
Or perhaps a flock of sheep being driven to the catlle dock. That would keep Polly out of mischief for a few days painting those.
Before any more suggestions I'd stick with the bus stop with Granny Dryden, (lady with trug from Monty's Models), trying to get on.
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Thanks for all the comments.
Re the road surface, for its first outing Camel Quay will be set the in Early to Late BR period so I'm working on the assumption that any cobbles would have been Tarmac over by then. Well that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it for the time being.
Anyway, Polly's stuck her trees in the way now.
If i get the urge later I may cobble in front of the terrace houses.
Ray.
Ray,
Just a question. One of the things I dislike about model railways is when moving traffic is modelled stationary. Is the bus staying in that position, and I must say I like it there poking out of the trees? If so is it possible to put a bus stop there so that it should be stationary?
Just a thought.
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Sorry Andy.... It's actually been a pleasant 18-19C in the bunker but I've been busy elsewhere.
I'll be in there in the morning. I have a bit of a dilemma though....
The double-track mainline would have been ballasted continuously across the 6 feet - so far I've only ballasted the tracks. However, if I ballast the 6' to a sensible level I'll have to do a "top up" on the track ballast, so the track stands out against the 6'.... umm, not sure I want to put more ballast onto the track - though it would create a lovely ballast shoulder adjacent to the cess on either side.
Anyway, what one WANTS to do and what one MUST do are often different things!!
Jeff
Jeff,
Can you remove the cork between the tracks so that you start off at a lower level? Or paint the cork and use a thin layer of ash to give the impression of greater depth? Whatever you do here you will be committed to probably for the whole layout.
Kirkby Luneside (Original): End of the line....
in Settle & Carlisle LAYOUTS
Posted
Jeff,
Not wanting to put a damper on you buying trees but......
Not many trees in exposed places are not usually nice and upright or round, but more bent over and extended in one direction.
Sorry, just another little job.