Northroader

While I’m singing the praises of S.R.Badmin, I did an “enquiry”, followed by an “images”. Really nice stuff, his main work was as a book illustrator, and I was reminded of a lot of books, particularly the Puffins, when I was young. There’s the carriage print I’ve shown in part, here’s a railway poster I haven’t seen before, his work on buildings was exemplary:

At Leeds the LNWR originally joined with the MR near Holbeck, at Whitehall Junction, the north west corner of the triangle leading into the MR terminus, Leeds Wellington, and the NER line to Harrogate also joined in to the MR further north beyond Holbeck, both of these lines using Wellington. The NER line to Selby and York got as far as Marsh Lane. The LNWR and the NER joined forces, the LNWR building the line on the viaduct bridging over the MR into the New station alongside Wellington, where it joined the NER end on as they had extended from Marsh Lane. Wellington and New stations became referred to as City station in later years, and is the main Leeds station these days.

Sooo.. I’m picking up the paintbrushes again. Taking up from last time, I find it best to limit it to around an hour, and then leave it, rather than fiddle round longer trying to improve it, and making a bigger mess. This session is finishing off jobs from last time, using a big brush to get a lighter, more even look to the fields, then a fine brush, trying to get the foliage to look a bit more “3D”. I do this by filling in darker patches of shadow, and lighter highlights, you can almost get away with pure lemon yellow where the suns on it. Preraphaelite features strongly around the CA consortium, and they suggest solid shapes with a lot of very fine detail using very small brushes, needing mucho time and patience. Me??? One fine brush job needed is to mix some pale blue and firm out the join in the skyline, which has little streaks of white paper despite the masking agent. Then rub off the masking agent, with a little bit more touching up. There we are. It’s about ready to go up, and then work out what buildings etc. need to go where. However, I do a finishing job which could be contentious. My old schools art teacher always used to push the idea that when you look at objects, they don’t have a line around them, they’re a solid form of colour, bad news if you watch kids doing drawings. I’ve reverted to putting a line around them, as much to help the 3D look. In doing this I’m drawing inspiration from another old railway artist, who was best known for the pictures above the seats and below the luggage racks in passenger compartments, rather than posters, namely S.R. Badmin. This helps in setting the scene back in time, I feel, and my fiercest art critic, Mrs.NR, approves. Here’s one of his jobs showing Welwyn Viaduct, really lovely, isn’t it? It’s watercolour, with a suggestion of a pen and ink sketch. The outline is drawn in, plus little squiggles on such things as trees, although I find it best to leave the sea and sky alone, just keep it on the ground. I use a uni pin fineline drawing pen, black with a 0.5mm tip. One thing I’ve found is that a painted pva surface is slightly rough, and so holding the pen I do trailing strokes, if you hold the pen pointing forwards, the point will give up the ghost before it runs out of ink. The other thing to look for in this example is how I’ve used masking agent to block out the fence and the buildings, then do the greeny bits, then erase the agent and paint in the fence and buildings, then line out. Sorry, it’s a bit of a comedown after looking at Badmin.

Some more visitors to York, three at York south shed, with another Stratford lurker, and one at the south end of the station. About the track layout there, the approach from the south was quad track back to Church Fenton, so the single slip plus crossover allowed you to provide “parallel routes” into the station.

Alex, if you go in an artists shop and buy some pastel chalks, light brown, dark brown, red brown, black. Then take them home and rub them on a sheet of emery paper to get powder. You just spill over the model and brush in with a dry brush. For a heavier weathering you can mix into a paste with water and paint this on, then brush the surplus off when it’s dry. If you don’t like the effect, it will wash off with soap and water.

It’s a pub round the corner from Waterloo, and the Ian Allen bookshop is quite near. (Hint, hint)

It would be quite a challenge to do a model giving even a “selective compression” of York station in pregroup days. A look at the original terminus station is more modellable, although I reckon it must have been seriously congested from the day it opened. Nice setting inside the town wall and a terminus, with Fletcher engines, too.

There is a thread running on here about soldering irons coming from a far Eastern country made for 110v usage and packaged as 240v stuff. Tread carefully.

“Darling, who are these perfectly frightful people who are hacking their way through our shrubbery?” “Feller told me you hired them to plan an extension to the rockery,” “I never did anything of the kind, I’m putting heathers down there” “Damme, what? Here, you! Beggar orff! And take your blasted telescope and stripey poles before I set the dogs on you!”

Good luck to the girl, a bit of original thinking there. We’ve got the flags up here, but the royals picked our carnival day for their wedding, crafty lot. Edit, my accomplice says, “you will nevair sort ze French out, mon ami” I fancy he’s right, tu as raison, mon gars.

Deleted as it was a very weedy joke anyway, sorry. So here instead is are FACTS about pyramids!!!!!!!https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_o1Gz9pNHc0 (Specially designed to annoy supporters of..., stick with the weedy jokes, he says)

Spades and theodolites are not provided, take your own.

As a kid in the 1940s, Sunday mornings I would regularly go with dad to visit his brother half a mile walk away. He lived with his wife in a squatters cottage, a primitive house on its own set away in the middle of old pitmounds with just a footpath nearby. The toilet was an outside privy, god knows where the sewage went. Water was fetched by my aunt from a pump 200 yards away (my uncle was incapacitated by a WW1 disability) there was a coal fire which had an iron range with a little crane to hang a kettle and an oven built in. Lighting was by paraffin lamp, the paraffin came in a can with a screw top, filled from a big tank at the back of the grocers near us. They did have a radio, this was powered by an accumulator, once a week it went to the cinema a mile away to swap for a charged one, this being done in a shed at the back of the cinema, where there rows of accumulators all clipped to leads. Dad had one of the self improvement books we’ve been on about, as back in the 20s his sideline was making radio aerials, which looked like a Christmas tree bashed out of cable. The old cottage has gone now, but they recreated a similar one at Blists Hill Museum, and when I saw it, it did bring back a load of memories.http://wendywallace.co.uk/2012/07/squatters-cottage/

As a Brummie, the world was your oyster, Rhyl, Barmouth, Weston SM, Yarmouth, who would want cheap air travel to Spain? Actually my branch is somewhere that looks a bit like that area of Sussex, but might really be in a pregroup Nirvana that will never know electric trains to London.

I’m really pleased that the Cuckmere area has miraculously avoided “development”. It seems Aberystwyth has kept some semblance of a holiday resort, even if the university has become the dominant item there, and of course, there’s the Rhiedol railway. Thankfully the mid Walescoast isn’t within commuting distance of a major city.

Aye..

Comparing the Snailbeach and the W&L is a bit of an oranges and apples situation, as the Snailbeach was a mineral line with the loaded traffic coming downhill, and the W&L really had the flow of loaded traffic against the worst grades, taking coal in particular to Llanfair. The Snailbeach was 3.5 miles long at best, with two miles of 1/39, when I saw it going it was just gravity working from the quarry, although perforce the traction was a Fordson farm tractor. At the same time the Welshpool line was running around half a dozen wagons of coal for 9 miles including up Sylfaen bank, half a mile of 1/29, and in earlier days running passenger trains with vac brakes. All round I’d say the heavier tank engines on the W&L were fully justified, then it’s a question of do you need a heavier engine on the front to help with braking power? A lot of downhill mineral lines managed quite happily with brakeman/men working wagon brakes, but forestry lines pictures usually show loco hauled trains with a brakie assisting. Drawing on Kevin’s expertise, what are the gradients likely to be, and which way do they act on the flow of traffic? Edit: ps. Wouldn’t the Welsh Hunslets be a good choice, with available models?

I wasn’t saying use the bus rather than the train, I was merely trying to help someone who wanted to get to Tenterden to enjoy the railway.

I love the natural poses and how you’ve fitted them in with a “prop” rather than isolated on their own. Great work.

How about this? http://train-abreschviller.fr/

If you go to Headcorn, there’s a very good regular bus service to Tenterden from Maidstone calling at the station.

Out of interest, my Beep is 8.6”, 218mm., on the coupler faces.

Ahoy, captain, top of the mornin to ee.

Since last night I’ve carefully read the link Jack started with. My view is there was a lot of work involved with shortening the RMT body which isn’t really all that necessary, just keep it as it is and live with long overhangs. It’s still quite a short loco anyway, otherwise making your own top in plastikard for any of the old high hood switchers will make a useful loco that’s quite believable, and much preferable to the Plymouth job.