Edwardian

Well, I have seen Metcalfe kits form the basis of some very good model buildings, but your treatment of the goods shed is truly transformative. I think it captures the look of a GE prototype very well. I like Aldeburgh and I have decided that a version of it will do very well for Achingham on the West Norfolk Railway!

Received with thanks, Phil, that is very kind of you.

Good to see more pics. Rudely foisting my opinions on you again, Orford, but I really like the pub, the goods shed, the little office building and the rest of the village street. Not only are they to a standard of detail and realism to which the poor old Metcalfe station building cannot hold a candle, but they are convincing and create a real sense of place. Did not the late great Cyril Freezer say something along the lines of a good layout tells you which company it is without stock present? I have a feeling the comment was about railway architecture and infrastructure, if so, I would say it applied equally to lineside structures and scenery. I think those cast iron railings are a lovely touch, too.

Not a subject I know much about. I would have thought that, for local trains, the photographs in the Oakwood volume on the line would suffice. These seem to have been 3 coach trains. A matching set, of, what looks like, brake third, compo, brake third, features with examples of both liveries, while there is a lovely shot of a 2 clerestory and 1 low roof coach train. I think these photographs, even in the small size reproduced for the book, are clear enough for anyone with any knowledge of GC coaches to identify the diagrams.

I can see any amount of pictures of this layout and come away impressed and inspired. Please keep posting! I enjoyed the recent magazine article on Orford, the highlight of which is surely this building. I think you wrote that it was very time consuming, and you have to balance your available time between structure and other modelling and operation, but I would love to see Orford with a few more local prototype buildings scratch-built to this standard in place of the kits. You clearly have the skill and the eye.

Great ideas and lovely buildings. These will certainly be 'filed' for future use. I am thinking in terms of Achingham, which is a country town. Although I have a pretty good idea of how the rest of the layout would be, I am currently restricting work to the Castle Aching boards. What this means in terms of remaining buildings is: (a) The continuation of Bailey Street, Castle Acre post office, a cut down PH, and a number of cottages. (b) The railway buildings - an unlikely Aylesford/Alston 'mash-up' for the main structure © Village pond and blacksmith's forge group. Layout based on Docking, forge based on Honing, a further pub! (d) Village school, based on Hillington (e) Parish Church, perhaps with adjacent cottages based on Castle Rising. (f) Norman castle keep I don't think I could or should try to fit in anything more. Thank. I think I recognise that mastering these new techniques is of great importance. On the one hand it speeds the process, and I'm all for that. On the other, it means that I am not dependent upon what happens to be available on the market. At the moment, I am trying to get started with rolling stock, both coaches and wagons. The aim is to have sourced the components I need for coaches so that, when I have pushed through my mental block against the software and can produce coach sides and ends, I can make a start on construction. This is a long process, and I would prefer not to wait to the end of it before doing anything about goods stock. This makes your kind offer particularly welcome, as wagons need not be delayed until that future point when I can produce things this way. If you like, we can continue this via PM and/or email. One thing that I would like to clear up is an idea of the approximate cost, so that I can lay aside something for the purchase. I am currently prioritising wagon and coach components above the big spend on insulation and timber, because I can do so bit by bit. There are 3 9'6" u/fs, all 15' over the headstock, of interest: (1) Wooden GE which is good for un-diagrammed 4-planks from 1883, and Dia. 16 5-planks from c.1887. Items such as GE loco coal and sand wagons could also use this u/f. I have a number of photographs and a 4mm scale drawing of the Dia. 16 from Model Railway News. (2) Steel GE for Dia 17 5-plank (1893-1903) and 7-plank Dia 48 (1903-1908). Again, I have a number of photographs and a 4mm scale drawing (of a Dia.48). (3) Wooden GN, used for 4-planks from 1880s. I have some photographs and a large drawing from The Engineer in 1882 relating to a tender for outside contractors. I note that this features non-standard buffers, which usually seem to be of the ribbed sort.

Kevin, I had rather liked the 1892 example. Perhaps it would do for Achingham, though I had planned a Fake-ingham Gas Works. Turning to wagons. Quarryscapes was responding to my ramblings on the subject of 9'6" w/b wagons:I am, how shall I put this, unusually price-sensitive, so this is really an issue peculiar to me than a comment on the relative value of different products. I am trying to avoid buying too many separate components such as etched W irons, cast or printed axle-box/spring assemblies, brake gear, crown plates and goodness knows what else. That is one reason butchering a plastic u/f kit appeals. The simplicity and elegance of the 3D print solution appeals. It is, I confess, logically, the answer. Out of my ideal list of about 20 wagons for Castle Aching, I find there are: GER Open Merchandise, un-diagrammed c.1883 4-plank, 9-Ton, 9’6” w/b, 15’ over headstocks GER Open Merchandise, Diagram 16 c.1887 5-plank, 9-Ton, 9’6” w/b, 15’ o/hs GER Open Merchandise, Diagram 17 1893-1902, 5-plank, 10-Ton, 9’6” w/b, 15’ o/hs GER Open Merchandise, Diagram 17 1893-1902, 5-plank, 10-Ton, 9’6” w/b, 15’ o/hs GNR Open Merchandise, c.1882, 4-plank, 9-Ton, 9’6” w/b, 15’ o/hs The GE and GN types are very similar. Of the GE wagons, the only duplicate on my list is a second Dia. 17, as they were ubiquitous, but they're all essentially similar. The GE Dia. 17 and the GN vehicles in particular represent standard designs of which thousands were built. I note that some of the LBSC opens also had a 9'6" w/b. A wooden 9'6" w/b 3D u/f would be a very useful thing. Presumably the process also favours changes in axle box, bolt etc detail. Now my head is full of questions that I suspect have no answers, but it boils down to this: I have made almost zero progress with Inkscape. Truth be told, I am avoiding it. It gets me down. Mike Trice has done a brilliant tutorial. At the moment I am trying to summon up the will for a third attempt to import an image. Pathetic. Am I really going to start designing for 3D print? Realistically?'

I have been a fan of this layout since I first saw it. I have not visited for a while, though, and may I say it is going from strength to strength. Your architectural modelling is of a very high standard, indeed. The weathering is very good and, again, this is one of those rare layouts where everything is blended to give a consistent overall effect, which very much aids realism. Cracking layout.

Superb buildings that deserve to be modelled, thanks indeed. I think I'm coming over all Alec Clifton Taylor .... Superb idea, thanks very much, very modellable. School Yes, I did plan on a school. 1850s in carstone rag, very similar in style and date to the station buildings. I thought to base it upon Hillington, which, rather charmingly, is right next to the former MGN station. Hard to get a good view of it, so one for Photoshop, I think. A hedge now screens the view from Google Earth (see grainy image at bottom of post). Waterworks Not, I think, for Castle Aching, but I can envisage a micro-layout with a NG line for delivering the coal. This is Tees Cottage, Darlington. The lines (as Tubs would say, "Lines, lines, lines; what do they all mean?") on the plan are subterranean water pipes, and, sadly, not NG tracks. The 6 tons of coal needed daily was brought via horse and waggon. So we have: (1) Plan. 1 and 2 are the 2 original engine houses of, I think, the late 1840s. The 2 engines were owned by 2 different companies, worked independently and had different customers. Their systems were linked, however, so each could help out the other when demand for one outstretched capacity. The large rectangles are, of course the settling/filtration tanks. The red rectangle represents the big new engine house built at the turn of the Twentieth Century. (2) The big new engine house (3) One of the 2 original beam engine houses. (4) The other of 2 original beam engine houses, some random people entirely unrelated to me and, right, the Foreman's house (13 on the plan) (5) Foreman's House, with the Dóttir (whom, it must be said has her own unique fashion sense) (6) Said Dóttir admiring the large Edwardian beam engine. (7) Beam engine controls, or, if you are into Steampunk, main engine controls for Her Majesty's Sky Dreadnought Icarus. (8) The large beam engine's 2 hungry Lancashire boilers.

Thinking further on this, I imagine that this wagon would be ideal for taking ash away from your engine shed.

There's a topic? Now you tell me...

Well it is certainly intended to represent post-1923. I thought from your earlier post that you might have regretted the purchase, but, if not, enjoy!

Apologies to Northroader, I overlooked his post. He makes a good point concerning "Not Common User". That is certainly not original! This is a post Grouping addition. Obviously a general merchandise open is exactly the sort of wagon that was pooled, so, presumably the builder intended to depict a wagon too decrepit to be used thus, and is in some internal/departmental use. NCU plates were usually on the right hand side, not the centre. The builder might have been working from a picture of an real example.

Some very interesting posts in answer to the above, but I am not sure you had answers to the particular questions you asked: Anything and everything, as it was a general merchandise wagon, as opposed to a mineral or coal wagon. Yes, they would have run sheeted, depending on the load. The characteristic sheet supports were introduced contemporaneously with the building of the 5-plank dia. O4 (1902-1904), though I note some older un-diagrammed wagons were retro-fitted with sheet supports. Now, that said, there are a few points of interest: It appears to be the Coopercraft kit of diagram O5, as has been said. The O5 4-plank was almost indistinguishable from the many of that design built from 1888. I know this is a diagram O5 because it is fitted with DCI brakes. This means it is one from of 2 lots built 1901-1902. The others all had the conventional long ratchet lever. Only these few DC brake fitted wagons were diagrammed when the first diagram book was created. All the other 4-planks were left un-diagrammed. Incidentally, DC brakes only seem to have become standard on new-builds c.1906, hence the classic 'look' - Grey wagons with large (25", later 16") company initials, and DC brakes - was born. The model features cast plates, which first seem to have appeared c.1894, though did not become standard until c.1898. From 1904, wagons were built without cast plates. 25" 'G W' was adopted instead. . The livery of your example is red. It has been greyed because there are some indications that the red paint deteriorated in this way over time. This shows the builder of your kit to be a la mode in his research. Conventional wisdom used to have it that "About 1898 the well-known dark grey ... was introduced" (Atkins, Beard, Tourett,(1975, revised Third Ed. 1998). If this is correct, your O5 should have been built in dark grey livery, and the model is fundamentally inaccurate. However, these days, there is a school of thought, gaining in popularity, that has it that the familiar dark grey livery was introduced only in 1904, contemporary with the adoption of the large painted initials. If this is correct, wagons built in the cast-plate phase would have been out-shopped in red, and your model is correct. So, you have a wagon built 1901-1902, wearing its supposed original livery, which is decayed, but somewhere before its first repaint. I suggest that it is fairly improbable that it would be seen thus in 1947, even assuming it had survived that long. It is a better fit for my period, if I may be so rude, so if you want to offload it, please feel free to PM me. If not, absolutely no worries.

Perhaps Rob's had a makeover ....

What is all this "cakey tea" nonsense. The cream tea, that signal contribution to civilisation, should boast a ratio of 3 to 1 clotted cream to jam; an ideal to be realised by the copious application of cream to the scone first. Honestly, you'll be telling me next that the milk goes into the tea cup first! Wars have started for less. At least according to Dean Swift.

I might actually have to buy a copy

I was surprised to learn, upon visiting Tees Cottage pumping station, Darlington, in June, that sewerage systems came late to some places. We learn at school of the cholera epidemics in London of the 1850s, the big stink and Parliament finally doing something about it: Bazalgette (what a name), sewers, the Embankment etc. What I had not realised is how long it took the rest of the country to take proper measures to avoid such epidemics. In the late Nineteenth Century, in addition to unregulated industrial waste poured into the Tees at Barnard Castle, the river was already carrying appreciable amounts of livestock ordure from up the dale, to which the townsfolk merrily added their own excreta. The result, a very nasty cholera outbreak in 1896, but not just in the town; it caused an epidemic downstream in Darlington. No real excuse for this situation best part of half a century after the cause and prevention of cholera had been understood and applied. This is a prosperous market town and a major industrial/railway town. Obviously the will and cohesion had not existed to secure a safe water supply until after disaster struck with such force. Sometimes the Victorians took their time to show their greatness.

Once again I lament the lack of a 'groan' button Hardly your fault and I take my share of the blame; never under estimate this lot's penchant for scatological humour. His vegetables seem to be doing well on it at any rate. Lovely modelling.

It is possible to take prototype research too far.

The layout needs proper lighting in order to show that grass off to best effect!

And here was me expecting you to post a picture of coprolite. Thanks, I think that privy is going to have to feature several times over on CA. Or this one:

Bet Anthony Hopkins still has nightmares

I feel there is an opportunity here for a topic on the Wheeltappers board? "Show us your stool"?

There are few skills of which I can boast, but I was trained to iron by the best; the British Army. There was certainly no sitting involved. Of course, combat ironing, conducted in the prone position, was a different matter entirely .....