brylonscamel

The same photo of the baseboards,annotated to indicate the site of each new scene.

Here's a photo as reminder of where I was at in the summer of 2019 ..

All the buildings were ripped off the baseboards, large sections of track removed or replaced.  

This thread started 4 years ago in the summer of 2019, after persuading my father to completely refresh our joint layout, 'Braeside'.

"Let's make it more 'Scottish" I said. "More obviously tied to Aberdeenshire and less crowded. I'll scratch-build everything and replace Metcalfe buildings with accurate local structures."
"How about a whisky distillery, a granite station with turrets like the one at Aboyne, a coaling stage based on a real Caledonian example at Ferryhill?"

It was supposed to take me a year to complete.

• Life threw balls at us, mostly curved ones. The pandemic tipped the world on it's head and mum died in the middle of it all.
• The project was far bigger than I realised and my skills were constantly tested.
• Everything took longer to make than I thought. A month could vanish, just researching a building.
• I worried about how long it would take and the risk of letting Dad down.
• Dad remained patient and supportive.
• Every Christmas holiday was an opportunity to make a small leap forward.
• Even when Coronavirus wrecked travel plans, I made things from home.

Christmas 2023 has seen us pass an important milestone.

The layout eclipses the old Metcalfey version, with it's muddle of kit buildings, clumsy scenery and grumpy trackwork.
PS I even overheard Dad talking to his sister on the phone, saying that he was no longer worried that he'd never live to see the completed layout!

THE ANNUAL CHRISTMAS CHALLENGE

I took a 12 day break at Christmas to see Dad, do festive things and crack on with making good on my promise to revamp his layout.

The phone was largely off, social apps stopped and forums neglected!

20 hours ago, mallaig1983 said:

It is David but it’s of 1987 vintage not one of the heritage coaches. Plenty of rot was found once the panelling was removed. Strangely below the windows rather than the drop lights. Make sure you seal yours well when you get to that point. 

I recognise the character on the stepladder!

On 03/11/2023 at 14:23, luckymucklebackit said:

 

Careful now, there are more tenament variations than you think!😁

 

Hi Jim,

We selected a suitable subject from tenement drawings that I found online. It seems that although there are very strong patterns in their design, few tenements are the same!

I adapted the  subject to include a bar on the ground-floor. Much of the stonework detail was inspired by this tenement and then weathered ...

Cheers,

Brian

2 hours ago, JSModels said:

ones I've found are either too basic (ability to set both start and end points but not speed, or speed but only one end point) or are too complex. Nothing in between :-(

 

Watching this with interest - I alsostruggled to find something!

17 hours ago, AJCT said:

My late mum grew up in North Shields in the 1920s/30s and used to tell of a shop there which had the same issue, which suggests that this style of layout was not uncommon back then: it was "M.Robertson - Fancy Goods" but laid out as on your model, so they were known as "Fancy M.Robertson..."

That's marvellous and sounds like a common layout for shop signs of the time.

2 hours ago, Portchullin Tatty said:

Your sign-writer had best be finished quick because if the station manager gets back and finds the appliance entrance to his station blocked by this van, he'll be for the high jump!

Mark - you're right - I've already been told to scram!

They were especially unhappy when told that I was 'taking selfies and updating my socials '
PS you may recognise the miniature figure ... 

I misjudged the the sign over the fire-station engine bay, so our resident signwriter was called in to make good the lettering  ..

22 hours ago, 60B said:

Does it come with authentic sound and scent? 

I'll leave that to my client David!

23 hours ago, MrWolf said:

 

The picture below wasn't taken in Scotland, but from our roof and I immediately thought of it when I saw your model.

 

Thanks for the lovely feedback - you say the photo is not Scotland but I am intrigued to where it is as the double-lapped and purple-tinged slate look very Scottish.

The full building was moelled, including the tenement backs, in blonde sandstone ..

You could also incorporate:

The elegant footbridge

The cut-off cottage - a ferry inn that famously lost it's corner when the railway cut its route through the valley

The local sawmill, tucked away in the woodland

1 hour ago, 46444 said:

Cambus o'May Station always looks fascinating in between Aboyne and Ballater. 

Oh that's a very romantic spot for a model railway.

It also caught my eye as it has a lovely sweeping curve alongside the river Dee

There is quite a lot of 'Aboyne' included in the station and harbourside scenes.  Not least, the station building itself!

I have just resurrected the harbour branch, the access to which, passes in front of the main building.

The ballasting, retaining wall and groundwork should conceal the clunky Peco Code 100 trackwork - another legacy from Dad's original layout

On 19/10/2023 at 12:39, MrWolf said:

 .. mostly because the landscape and vernacular architecture would be a fantastic challenge to get right

a challenge I'm currently wrestling with!

I've basically scattered Dad's layout with bits of GNoSR and Caledonian railway architecture, plus some Aberdeenshire vernacular. I held to a promise that my revamp kept the baseboards and roundy-roundy trackwork that Dad had established.

Each scene on the layout has some pretty accurate reproductions of buildings but tied together in the manner of a TV drama. I live in a city which hosted all the locations for 'Casualty'. A fun part of watching any episode was to work out where you were as they jumped from scene to scene on roads that had no connection in reality!