Marly51
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Posts posted by Marly51
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More down time today after a morning in the garden, and now thunderstorms have begun again! With friends having had their computers and telephones fried in the past, we tend to be over cautious and just switch everything off.
Back to my drawing board with paper and a Pentel pen! Working out the basic details for the model of the hostel. The model should capture the character of the prototype, although the footprint is smaller to fit with the Cake Box layout. The lower half of the hostel’s walls are rendered and painted white, while the upper half is faced with red brick.
Card and paper will be used for the building and scenery. Two different N scale red ‘brick’ papers have been downloaded from www.clevermodels.net and www.railwayscenics.com, and an orange ‘pantile’ roof paper from www.scalescenes.com. I need to check out more details about Swiss roofing tiles? Not sure if I have got the pitch of the roof right yet? Swiss Mountain chalets have a very gentle pitch to allow the snow to settle and provide a layer of insulation, while chalets lower down on the plain have a steeper pitch to ensure rainwater run-off.
Swiss vernacular chalets ref: http://iaste.berkeley.edu/pdfs/03.1e-Fall91Giberti-sml.pdf
Once the hostel model has been built, the rest of the landscape above the lake shoreline can be formed and detailed.
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Some 'Railway and Non-Railway' related memories of that Brienz holiday in 1963:
The youth hostel provided us with packed lunches every day and. being Easter, it always included a brightly dyed hardboiled egg and a 'blood' orange' (my first)!
Before this holiday trip our teacher took us on regular hikes in the Pentland Hills south of Edinburgh, to make sure we were fit for some of the walking she had planned for us in Switzerland. On one of our forest walks we came across metal grills, along the path routes, which provided ventilation to underground Swiss Army tunnels and we actually saw soldiers walking below!
We received German language tuition for two months prior to the trip and somehow were fluent enough to chatter away with locals and shopkeepers. My fluency was obviously limited when I bought a rum baba from a cake shop in Interlaken and felt decidely woozy for the rest of the day. Considering our school was an ordinary Edinburgh Corporation primary school, we were not short of opportunites! A highlight of one visit to Interlaken was the visitor centre above the town, which we reached by rack railway. Here was a superb model railway, but not sure if it is still there today? I think this YouTube video might be that same model layout?
We found the Swiss people extremely friendly and one of the Brienz churches invited us to join them for the service on our first Sunday. Back then everyone turned out in their colourful national dress for church, which made us quite dowdy by comparison! It was a trip full of great memories!
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On 24/09/2018 at 23:11, ian said:
There were a number of kit buildings that I wanted to use. One was the Faller B-111 Neustadt station, which fitted at Oberesdorf - so that became Neustadt.
The kit that I wanted for the branch station was this one:
...and look at the name on it! What are the chances?
Of course Neustadt meant a change of name for Neuhafen which became Billshafen in honour of my late father who started it all. The middle station became Maifeld (May field) after the street that housed the juvenile railway.
When an extra steam railway terminus was squeezed in it was initially called Höhererplatz as it was higher than Schönblick but it mutated into Gipfeldorf.
So now you know!
How we loved those kits back in the 1960s! It was a novelty to have the coloured plastic parts! I still have an old Faller catalogue and a couple of their ‘How to build scenery..’ books - somewhere in the attic!
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Go for it Cornholio! A ‘Holiday’ CakeBox made from a ‘Holiday’ toy - ticks all the boxes for me!
And you don’t have to worry about scale! Have you seen Phillipe Denys Massey’s ‘Monjouet’ Layout? Packed full of children’s toy figures and buildings!
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1957 is the year and finally sourced headlines for the posters and cover images of the main newspapers, comics, magazines, etc! Will scale these down in Photoshop for the counter displays in the newsstand. Here is the one featuring mainly women’s magazines. Surprised at how modern some of these cover designs appear! I found ‘Model Railway Constructor’, ‘Model Railway News’, ‘Model Engineer’ and ‘Meccano Magazine’ for our hobby - couldn’t find a ‘Railway Modeller’ cover for that year?
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On 03/08/2019 at 18:13, JZ said:
My Dad built a rabbit warren layout with 5". Was designed for Egger, Jouef and Minitrains 0-4-0s, but my Roco 0-6-0 steam and diesel would get around it. The Egger steam railcar would't though.
I have just ordered the Roco HOe Logging Train Set with a view to creating a fun micro layout. Not sure if I will use the set-track which comes with the set or use flexitrack with the sleepers adjusted. Apart from my cousin’s Hornby 0 Gauge tinplate clockwork train and my brother’s Triang set on the basic 6ft x 4ft board, my earliest memory of railway modelling was an Alpine layout at an exhibition in the early 1960s, and the design I was later to discover was a version of the ‘rabbit warren’!
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I like your approach, Northroader! I have picked up quite a lot of second hand items over the last three years, which I look forward to customising when I have gained a bit more experience. Photoshop and some of the other Adobe software is very useful for modelmaking generally, as well as creating backscenes. I still have a stand-alone version of Adobe Creative Suite on my old XP computer, although I am now sharing a subscription with my daughter for the current version on my new machine.
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I found the green mats do eventually break up after intense use. I keep them for heavy duty cutting, but prefer the semi translucent mats or the glass sheet on my workbench for more finely detailed work.
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When our internet went off for a few hours during thunder and lightening, I started looking through my collection of old model railway ‘cuttings’ and found this ‘Model Railways’ Plan Service advert from February 1981. J.A. Ahern and E.F. Carter drawings 95p each or four for £2.85!
Also found some great ideas for micro layouts, maybe my next challenge?
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2 hours ago, Bill_J said:
Looking forward to seeing how this turns out...
Thanks, Bill! I’ll be glad to finish this one, as well as the Swiss model. There’s always so many other things needing done at this time of year! Do you think your ‘Rest Stop’ could fit with the ‘Holidays’ theme at all?
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Having been a collector of cuttings most of my life, I thought I would have a browse through some old model railway articles and found this April 1979 ‘Railway Modeller’ piece on enamelled signs by D.J.Smith. The reproduction of the signs is good enough to reduce down for this model. I also have the Robert Opie 1950s Scrapbook of advertising memorabilia, which is another great reference. Apart from newspaper and magazine advertising, the newsstand would have had advertisements for cigarettes, confectionery, stationery, new book announcements...
According to the article, enamelled signs were in use from the mid 19th century until the 1950s, and in many cases some were as old as the stations!
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Made a start on the two main walls of the newsstand, today. There will be two of the narrow elevations with the ‘window’ opening. All the other elevations will be closed-in panelling, with the occasional door.
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One thing I really enjoy about these small CakeBox dioramas is the opportunity to experiment and learn more about different gauges, eras, modelling techniques etc. If I hadn’t experienced the holiday in Switzerland, I might not have considered a Swiss theme and decided as a result to find out more about the Swiss Railway network. Forum members in the Swiss Railway Group topic have been very helpful with suggesting some useful books for further research, I also love checking out what other railway modellers have accomplished through their YouTube videos, and this Pilentium one is a favourite.
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Have to admit, I’ve been dragging my heels a bit with this model. I want to produce some miniature front pages/covers of newspapers/magazines/comics circa 1957, so it’s taking a bit of time to research. However, I have just discovered a front page of ‘The Scotsman’ newspaper dated April 1957 and there is a photo of the Waverley Newstand, as well! I can use ‘The Scotsman’ newspaper article headings for some of the billboard posters.
I am experimenting with printed paper textures, which I have already used for the road and paving. Considered kit bashing the free download of Mike Martin’s ‘Wordsworth Model Railway’ News Kiosk, with his permission. Instead I am creating my own paper kit, similar in style, based on the actual 1950s newstand, so hopefully this will be completed relatively soon!
If you want to check out ‘Wordsworth Model Railway’ paper downloads and YouTube videos, just follow this link:
http://www.wordsworthmodelrailway.co.uk/
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Met my husband when he was a university lecturer and he had already decided to take early retirement at 50 when we both moved to the Far North. Our daughter was born just before he retired. I had been self employed for most of my professional life and continued to work part time. We have found that we are more busy than we ever were with the 9 to 5 routine, so don’t know if that is proper retirement? After the move, he was offered part time work teaching for 10 years, which fitted perfectly with pursuing his photography and painting. I have been involved in various heritage projects as a volunteer and also professionally.
Trying to extract ourselves from some of these commitments now, to focus on more time doing things together and also our individual interests. Having a daughter later in life has kept us young at heart.
My line of work meant that income fluctuated quite a bit and my private pension also suffered at the hands of the Equitable Life debacle. However, if your finances allow, I still think early retirement is well worth it to establish a new routine and enjoy life even more. PS In our house we share ALL the domestic chores and each have our own workshops/studios (having a dedicated space is a worthwhile extra) !
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Baseboard trimmed to size, lake basin repaired with air drying clay, then layers of toilet paper tissue soaked with dilute PVA textured using a coarse paintbrush to create a surface for the lake. This technique is described in a YouTube video by Martin of ‘MarklinOfSweden’. Some tiny stones placed at this early stage to represent the larger boulders at the shore edge. This will now be left until completely dry, before adding additional texture finishes to the shore edge and painting. Martin recommends leaving the painted surface for a good 72 hours before the next stage. In the meantime the rest of the landscape can be modelled and the youth hostel built.
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3 hours ago, runs as required said:
I had to have it explained to me that it is a Yinglish pun about unfathomableWelsh syllables and vowels
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erm.....
about untidiness
This is what was to be posted by the Volunteer Cavalry Occifer Commanding had his camera battery not expired under him
trouble is I'm a Mr Toad ..... there is always a further distraction following along behind poop poop !
Life is far too short; finishing the 1:1 scale west wing restoration is a current priority.
The base board eventually grew to nearly 12 foot long by just short of 5 foot; then got moved out of the family room across the landing into my study once the whole gang of cousins found it much more exciting challenging grandma at ping pong instead.
The idea was to simulate the eldest two grandchildren's frequent trips north from King+ to Newcastle in the days of the GNER. Then they'd proceed onwards to Inverness - where the Grandfather who outranked me resided (he'd been a Dartmouth cadet in 1945 aboard HMS Vanguard and had served as part of a Allied guard assembled to witness the surrender of the Japanese to McArthur in Yokohama harbour.)
The diagram of the roundy-round is fuzzily visible in the foreground - Kings+ was a sort of fiddle yard inside the 3 track oval .
The heyday for me was setting up my weathered LNW G2A (with sound) wheezing around tender-cab first with a long rake of lime-caked empties. It would plod along at a scale 3 miles an hour for hours on end while I worked on my laptop beside it. I always pictured it ascending around Combs Moss (and Chapel South) and crossing above the mouth of the Midland mainline tunnel.
I much prefer small modelling projects nowadays undertaken for others.
Edwardian said he'd go away and ponder what could be the fate of such a white elephant (in the room).
dh
I don’t feel so bad about the state of my workshop now - can’t get past my door, but will have to tackle it soon to get to the larger project at the back! Living in an old cottage where space is limited, it is too easy to fill the workshops with materials/objects which might come in handy for projects, sometime in the future! Also preferring the smaller projects, which I can enjoy working on a modelling tray on my lap!
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Look forward to seeing how this Dinky lorry turns out in its BR livery, Bob! I’ve also succumbed to buying a few old Matchbox vehicles from the 1950s, hoping to customise them for dioramas or one of my layouts.
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Great idea Dufus. Up here in the North, the folk who live in Rogart Station also rent out the old waiting room and have converted carriages and an old gypsy caravan into self catering accommodation. http://sleeperzzz.com/
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I like the idea of having some catenary masts on the model and found these N scale dummy masts from Dapol. Although the posts on the single masts, on the Brunig Line, extend above the catenary, I think these are acceptable?
Video of the Brunig Line for reference.
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18 hours ago, Nearholmer said:
Probably quite a bit bigger, but yes, that is roughly what I imagined.
In the process, I've learned that the things at the roadside, where churns were collected from farms, are called "churn stands", whereas I could swear they were called "churn banks".
Where in Arcadia is that station?
PS: "Tell him to go to the WC&P." This 'station' certainly has the look of a back-garden convenience https://picclick.co.uk/Walton-Park-Railway-Station-Photo-Weston-Clevedon-264255783931.html#&gid=1&pid=1
At the Highland Folk Museum in Newtonmore, they created a small railway halt from a refurbished signal cabin, and I am sure they had a ‘churn stand’ or ‘churn bank’ by the railway line. The Folk Museum acquire buildings from all over the North, so would be interesting to find out the history of this one, if it is based on an actual location. Will check through my photos and see if I took one of the ‘churn stand’.
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- Popular Post
- Popular Post
A Corner of ‘Londinium’ Reclaimed:
“In the post-apocalyptic era following the collapse of the world wide web and mobile phone networks, a small group of followers of 'Steampunk' claimed their territory, the location of the city’s ancient settlement of Londinium. The buildings by the old canal were an eclectic mix, from medieval to Edwardian. The destruction of space satellites and power stations, throughout the country, forced this creative and innovative group to reconsider old technologies based on steam, clockwork and manpower.
Some of the group had been members of a steam heritage society whose reinstated line already passed through their ‘hamlet’ and provided access to the country for food supplies, from farms beyond the city boundary. Coal was available from abandoned stocks, which existed near closed-down coal mines, where the seams of coal were still viable.
The 'travellers', gypsies and ‘boat people’ were also great survivors. Depending on their traditional skills and knowledge, they travelled between the scattered communities, bringing news and goods for exchange?
As well as the refurbished engine from the earliest era of steam, horse power was coming back into its own. An old coal gasworks provided energy for cooking, heating and lighting. These were dark days, after decades of trying to save the planet from pollution, people were returning to the old ways - what does the future hold for these survivors?”
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Sadly the ‘E-z Water’ has not worked.
The beads were fully melted, having been heated on the gas hob for over 5 minutes. It poured quite easily, but hundreds of tiny bubbles appeared, as I poured it into the lake area. The meniscus, PaulRhB warned me about, appeared too high for such a small model and I did not think I could disguise this edge successfully. I was able to prise the ‘plastic’ water off once it set. The base of the lake will be remoulded, then I’ll use my varnish or PVA method instead.
(I still have 3/4 of the ‘E-z Water’ pack left and might experiment with it at a later date.)
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Putting finishing touches to the model today. The lefthand side of the backscene is hidden behind the station. I have drawn some random silhouettes of London buildings and combined it with a smoke effect photo to suggest a ‘smoggy’ London skyline. Created in Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop.
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And you don’t have to worry about scale! Have you seen Phillipe Denys Massey’s ‘Monjouet’ Layout? Packed full of children’s toy figures and buildings!
The beads were fully melted, having been heated on the gas hob for over 5 minutes. It poured quite easily, but hundreds of tiny bubbles appeared, as I poured it into the lake area. The meniscus, PaulRhB warned me about, appeared too high for such a small model and I did not think I could disguise this edge successfully. I was able to prise the ‘plastic’ water off once it set. The base of the lake will be remoulded, then I’ll use my varnish or PVA method instead. 
By the Shore of Lake Brienz - A Swiss Adventure in the 1960s
in BRM/RMweb Cakebox Challenge
Posted
Hi OOman, yes - I quite enjoy finding out more about the subjects I plan to model, which means I take longer to produce the actual CakeBox diorama, as you may have noticed? Other forum members just get cracking with their projects from the word “Go”! I still have a lot to learn and enjoy following some of the topics here on RMWeb. :)