Edwardian

Well, I have 2 kit built ones. It was a small class and a pair is likely to suffice to represent the class' duties on overnight WoE express freights. The attraction of a third is to run in daylight on an excursion; not unknown in the '30s. So, it's a 'nice to have', rather than a 'must have', but, if, as I expect, it is a good model, I will strive to buy one. Even the mythical Bachmann Birdcages have materialised in physical form. I am sure the 4700 will too, I only hope its released in a form that will represent its first 15 years or so of service.

Let's not try to run before we can walk! I can barely walk at the moment, figuratively, in terms of Inkscape, and, alas, literally at the moment!

Aha, the old right-click ploy! Thanks

I will need a month's sabbatical to go through these posts one or two at a time (interspersed with gin or a good malt to steady the nerves and then a suitable recovery period), and to repeat the whole process at least twice until it sticks. Thanks to Mike, I am sure I will get through this learning process eventually. He really is doing a great job for the community and I am determined to become a worthy pupil, eventually. Trying to master software induces flash-backs and panic attacks, which I blame on PTSD (Post Templot Stress Disorder) - I'm never going there again!

Trust me, it doesn't work. It says "your browser does not support full screen". I use Internet Explorer, as I know where everything is if I bookmark it. My wife and children despair, but there we are. So, again, if anyone can supply a link to the video, I would be pathetically grateful.

That doesn't work with videos posted within RMWeb topics, I'm afraid, my "browser does not support" this. If I go direct to Youtube, then, sure, that works.

Thanks for that, GW8700, I had not come across this. The glimpses of this layout were glorious things to see as a child. I seem to recall the layout cropping up in a Bob Symes short film. Any chance you could post the link so I can watch it full screen? What did happen to Mr Sharman and his layout? Holt Model Railways still market what appears to be a significantly reduced range of his excellent white-metal accessories. Otherwise it is hard to find much information online concerning his work. Where any books published about the layout?

I have a confirmed sighting of Nearholmer, in the vicinity of Paltry Circus, so I assume that there will be no further incognito visits to Norfolk! [sighs with relief]

Thanks, Mike. My problem seems to be an almost absolute lack of confidence, which I shall simply have to overcome, otherwise I am beaten before I start. My weekend really did not go at all as planned, but I hope to return to this later in the week or this coming weekend!

Hurray!

Finally got to the position below by rotating in Inkscape, then cropping the exported PNG prior to re-importing.. What should I do now, please?

Mike Probably this is not the best time for me to try to catch up, after a series of mishaps this weekend, little sleep and a certain amount of pain (!), but I find it hard not to be simply over-faced by this software. Rather frustratingly, I cannot make any kind of start on it, as I have failed to make sense of your instructions for importing the image. It is the pdf one I sent you. I opened it in Inkscape. I then exported as a PNG, at which point nothing happened/it disappeared. I don't understand why I was supposed to do that, or what I was supposed to do next, but exporting as a PNG had no apparent effect; certainly no file had been created as a result. I finally cracked this, but the resultant PNG file is only part of the scanned image imported, so far as I can see.. Really, I am such a complete duffer, but having put you up to this, I find I literally cannot begin to follow what you've done. Hopeless!

I assume the inspiration comes from the through coaches, 70' footers, for Kingsbridge. Taken off the express at, if memory serves, Newton Abbot (apologies if Exeter), worked to Brent on a stopper, then added to the branch B Set. I agree with the comment that this is what mainline modelling is all about. A great layout and a great period. You had my profound sympathy concerning the ballasting - that joy awaits in my case, but I just know that I will experience what you have described, and I am glad you preserved, because the finished ballasted track looks very neat and professional.

All very nicely done. The subtle weathering is very effective.

Thanks, Mike. I will have to see what GAs might be available.

I assumed it was in Italy, Kevin. I would guess it to be a church built in modern times, Nineteenth or early Twentieth Century, in the Romanesque style. That is splendid. I can only assume that they built the church and it fell down, all but the tower, and that, in order to provide sound foundations, they had to rebuild slightly to the side.

If all the year were holidays, to sport would be as tedious as to play. How those words take me back! We 'did' Henry V as our history play at A level, which meant, of course, becoming familiar with both parts of his Old Man. I was a lazy student, but those words, coming as they did from a character with unrealised potential, struck a chord and motivated me sufficiently to gain some A levels. They helped again at degree level when, after 2 years of late hours, sloth and decadence, I had to motivate myself somehow to get some form of degree. What did not motivate, because it was at the time deeply gratifying to me, was the conclusion of one of my Tutor's periodic dressing downs; "all in all you are a grotesque hangover from the Nineteenth Century". One of my proudest moments. Turning to matters ecclesiastical, clearly the ancient, or potentially not-so-ancient, fabric of the Parish Church is proving controversial. My original idea had been to base it upon St James, Castle Acre. It is now clear there are 3 contenders, oh dear! As to Romanesque, Kevin, did you mean architecturally or liturgically? Liturgically it won't answer for the Parish Church, of course. I am sure, being Norfolk, there is an ancient recusant family in the vicinity. I don't want them too near, or Father Brown, active in England at this period, would be sure to visit and narrative determinism would result in an unfortunate murder. Although, by 1905, we are living in more enlightened times, according to Thornton's Ecclesiastical History, in the Eighteenth Century the house of the great Norfolk Catholic family of the Acton-Tichingfelds was frequently attacked by their Protestant villagers. Later historians consider that the villagers' motivation was, at least in part, economic, as the Acton-Tichingfelds had taken advantage of the Enclosure Acts to gain a monopoly over lavender cultivation in the district, by which means they were able generate considerable wealth through their sales of mixed dried, naturally fragrant, plant material to provide the interiors of the day with a pleasant aroma. They cite as evidence for this theory the battle cry of the local Church & King mobs; "No Potpourri!" I did consider a Norman/Romanesque revival style for the station building, but felt that was just too improbable.

For me, rather than hints, better very plain and basic instructions of the "first press the button marked "ON" variety. Thanks, that's good to know. I'll give that a try!

I apologise that things have been a bit quiet. Apart from anything else, it seems that I have been roped in to provide the intellectual heavy lifting and elegant precision drafting for another major energy sector judicial review (God help 'em!), so am a tad snowed under at present. Then again, I have an unsold house to pay for, so can't complain at the extra work. I must, however, thank Dave very much for the further pictures of St Lawrence. I suspect this may have to be the final choice for CA. Picture, if you will, the church set towards the rear at the left hand end of the layout. It is becoming clear to me that my lack of mastery of new-fangled technology is holding things back. I think St Lawrence is one of 3 buildings for CA that can really only sensibly attempted using my methods if I produce elevations using Photoshop, or similar. The other two being the station building and the school. Another such area is Silhouette cutting, which I have long suspected to be the way forward for scratch-building wooden panelled stock. Now, I don't have a Silhouette cutter, but if I am a very good boy and say my prayers every night, I might just get one for Christmas. To that end, I have determined that I must master the software in advance, so, a good deal of my limited free time must be devoted to learning to draw in Inkscape via a tutorial topic that Mike Trice has started, using as his example one of a set of coaches that I would like to build for the WNR. It is very good of him and BGJohn is another acolyte. Please feel free to visit and cheer us on once we get started: http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/114528-using-inkscape-to-produce-cutting-files-a-worked-example/ A third area, which still holds nothing but terror, is 3D printing, or, rather, designing for it. I am convinced that the way forward is to be able to produce one's own designs for such fittings as roof vents, door vents, oil or gas lighting roof fittings, axle-box/spring assemblies, bogie sides, and buffer shanks. In the meantime, if I can master Inkscape and acquire a cutter, it will be a case of adapting proprietary accessories, or scratch-building, perhaps home casting.

First, Mike, let me say how good it is of you to do this and so quickly. I hope to start going through your topic posts thus far over the weekend and attempt to emulate them. I am suffering from acute deadlines at work at the moment, which might slow me down. One thing I must do is work out how to import the drawing in the first place. Thus far I have imported a jpeg. The drawings exist as pdfs (my current printer won't scan as an image file). The Memsahib tells me that in Illustrator she can convert a pdf to an image file, so I am going to try to catch her in a forgiving mood and ask her to do that! Second, for what it's worth I agree concerning the droplights; they are generally recessed beyond any other part of the side of a coach. I know you have considered the picture below. It shows a Third, so the compartments are narrower, hence no vertical panels between the quarter lights, but otherwise it is the same style as the 1st/2nd Composite in the drawing. Looking at the base of the quarter lights and drop lights, I notice how much more deeply the latter appears to be set. The photograph is taken by me from the Weddell volume and shows a detail of one of the pictures he reproduced. This is the clearest view I have seen of the panelling of these coaches and it might be useful for others following your topic, as they can relate it to the drawing. The volume concerned is LSWR Carriages Volume 1 1838-1900 by G R Weddell, published by Wild Swan, 1992. The picture from which my detailed picture was taken is credited to F Moore.

Mike, I am sure that this topic, like your introduction, will be of great value to many of us who are unfamiliar with, but recognise the importance of, designing and cutting models in this way. It would be sensible for these topics to be pinned. They are extremely useful and greatly appreciated. James

I think it matters not, because the basics of multi-layered panelled coaches will be common to all types, and the GER coaches feature the same window shapes as the Metropolitan LSW types. I would like to build both in due course anyway! I would just be grateful to be taken through producing a cutting file from a drawing.

Apologies, John. Consistent with my post (#154) I sent Mike a choice of GER coaches of the 1880-90s and LSWR ones of the 1870s Both types, in common with the GER 1867 Brake Thirds that went to K&ESR, featured the square bottom and round-topped quarter lights and panels. The Metropolitan/LSWR one that Mike is using is very close indeed to the ex-GER K&ESR pair. Both types feature the same panelling styles, including raised beading on the waists. Why "Metropolitan"? Well it refers to Metropolitan Carriage & Wagon Co, rather than Metropolitan Railway. The LSWR coaches were ordered from Metropolitan, and G R Weddell, noticing their similarity with Metropolitan coaches built for other railways, concluded that it was a Metropolitan design rather than a LSWR design. For later batches it seems that the SW tweak the design to smaller radius curves in all 4 corners. On this basis I decided that the West Norfolk Railway might have ordered similar coaches from Metropolitan new in the early '70s. Later, around the turn of the Century, it will have acquired the, similar, late 1860s GE coaches second hand! The GE coaches of the 1880s and 1890s are more modern in appearance save that, up to a point in the mid to late '90s, they were still building them with square bottoms and rounded tops to the quarter lights and vertical panels, which lends them a somewhat archaic appearance to my mind. The point is, I think, that if you can do the Metropolitan-designed LSWR coach, you can do any of the GE coaches, include the pair you're after. Well that's the theory!

Thank you, support and encouragement goes a long way! Yes, we did discuss these. The GER sold off a number of old 4-wheelers around the turn of the century. We discussed them as a natural acquisition for the West Norfolk Railway, and I would like to add some to stock. Andy G, uax6 of this Parish, kindly supplied me with drawings of the Colonel Stephens pair, which I may have passed on to you? They are also of the rounded top, square bottom ilk! Thanks! And thank you again for all the time and effort you have put into helping the community with these posts, including techno-dullards like me!

Mike, that is very kind. At the moment I am looking to provide stock for a freelance Great Eastern-sponsored East Anglian Light Railway in 4mm scale. There are currently 2 sets of stock in contemplation for which I have scale drawings: 1. The Line's own stock. x5 4-wheel coaches 23' to 26' in length. I see this as relatively old stock, so have settled on a Metropolitan design of the 1870s. This design has features typical of the period: Upper horizontal panels with conventional rounded ends, but rounded tops and rectangular bottoms to the quarter lights and adjacent vertical panels, and, just to be awkward, raised beading to form horizontal panels along the waist. I suspect the latter might be after-applied if I can find or produce something suitable. I have suitable 4mm drawings of all the coaches. 2. A visiting Great Eastern train. x5-6 34' 6-wheelers. This would represent mainline coaches of the 1880s-1890s. Pre-1896 these, too, have rounded tops and square bottoms to the quarter lights. I will probably be able to derive all the types required from the available drawings. To be clear, whereas the quarter lights and adjacent panels generally seen on most companies' stock from at least the 1880s features rounded corner rectangles with small radius curves for the corners, the 1870s/pre-1896 GE look has right-angles at the base of the panels and quarter lights and large radius corners at the top. When it comes to GNR coaches, I realise that I will benefit square panelling (I hope to have odd GN coaches running as MGN stock, and a mainline 6-wheel GNR rake at some point before too long, but these are third and fourth priority at present), so I have made awkward choices to start with! It is, perhaps evident from these examples why I feel that a Silhouette cutter is the only way forward. I should add that I do not own a Silhouette cutter yet, but am hoping to before the end of the year. In the meantime, I feel I need to master the necessary software and produce some designs, if I can. It is not, I confess, something that I find comes naturally to me!