Keith Addenbrooke

49th Street Bridge - progress today (part 2 of 3)

With an undersized cakebox (7" x 7" x 3" deep), I can expand upwards with a backscene.  As I need viewing points from both the front and side, which could distort any attempt at forcing perspective, I'm using a plain blue-grey background 6" high on a card mount that slots into the cakebox behind the baseboard.

I've also lined the other side of the cakebox (behind the low embankment and fence) with the same blue-grey paper - it's so plain it doesn't really show on the daylight photos in the previous post, but it is there (and it does look better than the plain white inside of the cakebox).

49th Street Bridge - some further progress with a free day today (part 1 of 3):

Before attempting a fence that will be prominently positioned on top of the retaining wall (partly screening the low-relief building behind), I've put together another part of the module as practice - the low embankment for the other side of the track.  This also uses parts from the BRM Engine Shed Office kit on a cereal box base, plus some spare coping stones left over from a Metcalfe kit to add some 3-D relief.  As it'll all be reflected, it needs to be quite plain.

49th Street Bridge

When I settled on a plan for this diorama I named it '49th Street Bridge' - my viewing point while waiting for a train.  Tonight's task has been to make a start on the bridge: a cardboard skeleton formed from a cereal packet, onto which a pre-printed brickpaper finish can be stuck later.  Having previously drawn up a design as a paper template (and then as an initial cardboard mock-up), I've now carefully drawn out the design in the style of printed card kits:

This was actually my third attempt, and even then I realised I'd missed some tabs I'd need when I began cutting it out (not too late to add them in).  By carefully scoring the card before folding it, and then checking that the tabs for the pillars didn't overlap when folded, it was possible to glue each pillar in one go, making assembly the quickest part of the job (this may not be news to experienced modellers, but to me it came as a nice surprise).  As with the retaining wall, there is no safety parapet at this point - railings will be added - and for me, this more than meets my expectations.

The one thing missing is an underside to the arch - this isn't visible from the viewing angles I have, so I may or may not rectify this later.

On 18/02/2019 at 06:25, MAP66 said:

 

 

I keep coming back for another look at this photo, and then another look again: an all-in-one (left to right) ballasting tutorial. Fantastic modelling, so well documented, thank you.

9 hours ago, Stubby47 said:

 

I have thought about a sound track - there are several recordings of the poem on line and a mix including throat clearing and birdsong could be made.

 

It's just not so easy to convey that in a photo.

Given the relevance of the poem to the concept for this entry, worth asking the adjudicators / editors if provision for a sound (video?) submission can be made - I may not model in DCC surround sound, but many do. Just a thought.

Ok, so I put off ballasting until I have time to set up a workstation I can leave out while it dries in place, and put together the building I want instead.  You can see how the source kit has been modified by comparison with the photo at the end of the previous post.

I inserted clear plastic in front of the printed card window frames for a simple glass effect.  The printed door supplied looked too over-sized to pass for HO scale, so I used a corrugated metal sheet print from the BRM kit as this is featureless.  I wanted a run-down but not disused appearance, so the doorway (and one window) have been boarded up from the inside - if the building was disused and boarded up externally, I'd expect any remaining windows to have been broken too.  I've also gone for a low-relief building rather than the fold-down building flats I'd planned as the model needs to be viewed side-on as well as front on.

A design for a railroad overbridge has also been mocked up in card and gives the effect I want.  I've had to cut away a parapet I left across the bridge to get a low-enough viewing angle for the reflections under the bridge (I'll need some railings instead).

After a few weeks marvelling at the wonderful ideas being developed by some very creative and talented cakebox modellers, the chance to make progress on my little model is on the horizon, with half-term just around the corner.  Much of what I learn is by trial and error, so my ability to make lots of mistakes could be a blessing...

I found some sheets of 1/4" MDF (left by a previous resident) in an outbuilding, suitable for a small baseboard.  It's not too obvious from this winter evening photo, but my first lesson reminded me that, even 35 years after 'O' Level woodwork, I still can't cut a straight line: something I'll need to bear in mind for future, larger projects.

 NB: The coffee tin really is big: just shy of 7" tall (this is an American model)

The roadbed is just corrugated card painted grey, while the gravelled area to either side came from a roll of "Premier Cork Underlay" I had.  I don't know if it's still available: the sheet I found is priced at 2/- !!!  Not sure why it's double sided?  The main problem was rolling it flat after, presumably, at least 48 years in the packet.

I've made up some cereal packet box frames for the retaining wall and building on top, revealing two more basic errors (D'oh!).  First: I forgot to include a parapet on top of the wall (there'll be a fence on top, but a parapet would also be conventional), and second: after carefully bracing the inside of my box frame with thick card formers, I then stuck all the spare brickpaper I had on the back!

   Fortunately, building each part separately (in case of mishaps), all I need to do is turn it round.

The building will be created from a downloaded BRM freebie from a couple of years ago that I never made - the original was for a 4mm scale Engine Shed Office, and while I've decided on a 3.5mm scale low relief warehouse, modifying it with a more typical American flat roof should look OK.  One of the most common problems with card kits is achieving 3-D relief, but with US buildings often not displaying prominent external drainpipes (for example), I'll be covering the printed-on ones.

Under the heading of things I wouldn't have guessed, it would appear that some standard brick sizes in the US are actually smaller than in the UK.  Working to a scale 7/8ths the size, I should therefore have downscaled this kit by a bit more than that before printing it, but given the cost of printer ink I'll live with the difference.

Next step: ballasting the track and settling on a suitable final design for my second railroad-related item, the overbridge.  Traditional brick arches aren't as common in the US from what I can tell, but I want something fairly non-descript as it will be reflected multiple times in the final model.

It'll be a '?'.

 

Hopefully people will like '?' and put them to use!

Had a quick scan through this afternoon - looks like another excellent edition with a strong balance of things I want to read when time allows, thank you all.

Not sure if you've seen this previous RMweb Challenge Entry (for the 2011 competition):

 

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/46934-magic-black-box/

 

An excellent use of mirrors.

 

I still can't believe the two gents talking in the middle are one and the same figure.

Wow!  That is absolutely brilliant - an amazingly creative idea, perfectly executed with such attention to detail (an excellent advert for 7mm modelling).  Thank you, Keith.

Reviewing the previous post, it therefore looks like the two railway related items will need to be:

1.  The single track that forms the centrepiece of the diorama

2.  The railway overbridge which serves as the viewing point.

Looking at the cardboard mock-up also shows how I can break the project down into sections, so I can build each one in turn (one per week).  This will allow me to try out various ideas at each stage without risk to anything else, bringing it all together at the end.  With limited time I can also pace myself, and this will show me how long it might take to build a larger model, maybe even one day a layout!

My six pre-built items will therefore be:

1.  Ballasted single track - HO Scale

2.  Retaining Wall

3.  Railway overbridge

4.  Any detailing of the top surfaces of the bridge / retaining wall.

5.  Building flats / backscene up to 6" total height

6.  Small embankment / city park section

__________________

PS: Looks like the 1830 Liverpool to Manchester is running very late...

First off: thanks for the various acknowledgements and advice so far - it's helpful and encouraging (and gives me some options as well).

Having drawn a paper diagram I'm happy with, I've now made a simple mock-up of the proposed model from a used cereal packet.  This shows that leaving sufficient clearance under the bridge for the smallest US loading gauge (AAR Plate B), leaves no space within the allowable 6" for a further drop in the foreground (for a small dockside, for example).  The photos instead show a small embankment: going back up rather than further down.

More significantly, the exercise confirms that widening the bridge for an inset street track restricts the view down the line too much:

Halving the width of the bridge from 2" to 1" renders a significant improvement, and gives a view not much different to the very first paper mock-up (which had a 1/2" bridge when testing the concept):

The narrower the bridge, the better the view when waiting for a train.

49th Street Bridge

It hasn't taken long to settle on the idea of a bridge as a viewing point.  A simple paper mock-up of a single track overbridge shows that the multiple reflections still work OK:

This was then widened to look more like the calendar photo posted previously (using the "haircut principle" that it's easier to cut more away than put it back, even though this was preferred look):

A quick internet search shows that Gravesend station in Kent has just such an approach, with multiple overbridges, but I've decided to stick with a US-inspired approach, using John Pryke's 2000 Kalmbach book, "Building City Scenery."  Chapters 2 and 3 on Backdrops and Scenic Modules are particularly helpful, but copyright means I'll just share the cover:

So I now have a plan, developed using my preferred technology of a pencil and ruler.

There are still some areas to clarify, but getting started (and really getting started) should be my next step.  I'm not sure what a crastinator is, but I've been a pro for far too long...

Hi.  Has there been a BRM Express since 30th Nov 2018?  Something I read about the 2019 Cakebox Challenge suggested there has been - if so it looks like I didn't manage to register correctly when I tried updating my preferences in my World-of-Railways account at the end of November as I've not had anything.  I asked the question on the cakebox challenge thread as I couldn't find a generic BRM Express topic / thread to use but should probably have posted it here instead, sorry.  I have checked for spam - in my email and kitchen cupboards...

There's always something I've not considered - no sooner have I paused to spend some time working on scenic ideas for my cakebox, than another thought crosses my mind: I need to explain my preferred viewpoint in a way that can also be reflected multiple times, not just the trackside scenic treatment - while I've often looked into the far distance while waiting for a train on platforms, by level crossings (roadside) or on bridges, I've never done so while invisibly suspended some 20 feet or so off the ground.

Fortunately, it just so happens that the following scene from downtown Chicago is a January 2019 calendar photo on our wall this month.  Replace the Chicago River with a railroad cutting and the multiple bridges are there in situ.  They're not quite identical, going into the distance, but near-to look very similar, even down to the control towers (OT: I believe they are all lifting bridges).

I'm not suggesting I'd ever be able to model anything this impressive - but when a prototype is needed, one can always be found!

With a bit more spare time - and lousy weather outside this afternoon - I've split the mirror I bought this morning (carefully scoring and re-scoring the back with a Stanley knife until it could be snapped cleanly in two). 

Serendipitously, my undersized cakebox turns out to be the perfect size for test photos using a standard single straight of Settrack:

Getting the ideal angle for photos of the concept is a bit more fiddly than I'd like (a deeper box with larger mirrors might be easier), but this captures something of the desired effect.

It will help in determining what kind of scenic treatment to go for.  So that'll be it for a few weeks I expect, while I try out and refine some scenic ideas.

_________________________

PS: With better curvature than here a complete 'pizza layout' could appear to fit into a cakebox - a circle model train track waiting for a train to be placed on the track - round a Christmas Tree for example.

A great piece of advice on RM web for anyone planning to share modelling progress on the Forum, is to make some progress before putting up the first post.  I should have got further than acquiring a cakebox!  Seeing my musings staring back at me highlights a glaringly obvious question: what am I aiming at?

Reading other postings flags up another issue for a late starter - as well as lacking experience, I don't have a box / collection / supply of bits and pieces to use.

Where now?

I was given some Model Railroader back issues to catch up with over Christmas, and flicking through them last night gave me an idea: mirrors!

There's nothing new in using mirrors to expand scenes, but seeing one used to capture the enormous size of a US building reminded me of something from my grandmother's bathroom many years ago.  There were matching wall mirrors on either side of the room that created the illusion of an infinite space.

Could I place one either side of my cakebox, to create the illusion of looking down a straight line that disappears into the far distance - waiting for a train?

At this point I must offer my apologies to anyone who used this idea last year - I've not seen all the entries, but this will be the basis for my attempt.*

Here is a mock-up, using a borrowed bathroom mirror on one side, and a small non-glass mirror I bought this morning on the other (the intention is to halve the size of the non-glass mirror and place one piece on each side).  The first photo shows the set-up for the test:

Move the camera to a position at the right of the set-up, and the second photo taken peeping over the mirror shows that the idea could work:

* It still doesn't say exactly what kind of scene I'm aiming for, or what the second piece of railway equipment besides my straight track will be, I've several ideas (all untested as yet).  The challenge of course will be to create a real scene with some interest that doesn't give itself away when reflected multiple times.

Incidentally, a close-up of the ruler reveals an approach to measurements I've not seen before - look closely at the length of the 2nd and 6th inches!

Next comes the need for an idea.  Level crossings seem popular, so my first thought, of a Rail Replacement Bus at a level crossing (bluff or double bluff) isn't that original - crossings are being much better done by others: if I'm to contribute anything useful, I'm just aiming at the: "see, it can be done" level.

My wilder ideas began with two dinosaurs in a country setting (they have a long wait for a train, but don't actually know they're waiting for a train - so not eligible).  Next stop is the New York City Metro A train "Waiting for A-train" as I think it stops at the Museum of Natural history (more dinosaurs?) as well as reaching out to JFK airport - a flight of fancy which only explains why I don't ever get round to modelling anything.  Back to basics.

According to the Kalmbach's Operating Manual for Model Railroaders a train is only a train when "displaying markers" so a locomotive without headcodes or lamps might be waiting to be a train (it would show I've been reading BRM long enough to have learned something from the good Mr. Wright).  Think again.

I have a recently-built signal box with signal man installed, but he's not very visible at normal viewing distance (and I've glued the roof on)

With the steps, it takes up a lot of my 7" though.

A smaller building that could offer a lineside scene is the recent BRM cottage - I've coloured the card edges since this appeared on page 40 of the Feb '19 BRM (it needed nothing more than an ordinary HB pencil to make a big improvement), and added a gentrifying porch from another Metcalfe kit (the brickwork doesn't need to match, as it's clearly a later addition).

My point: it's worth having a try, and it'll be good practice for that day when...

Here goes: I've been a keen follower of railway modelling for over 40 years, I've not got as far as anything that could be classed as scenic modelling.  I've had many good intentions, and learned a lot, but there comes a point where I ought to actually give it a go.  I don't expect to trouble the judges, but I'll see if I can get past "Go!"

So, I've been to the bakery and acquired a cakebox.  Mine came pristine (ie: without a cake), but doing the sensible thing first and checking my measurements I find that cakes where I live seem to be smaller than in my native West Midlands: my box is 7" x 7" x 3" tall.

 

The Modelu originals are slightly smaller, presuably we all put on weight and height during the mould making process. 

If you airbrush the models, will they lose the extra, or does that only happen in fashion / celebrity publications?

___

I've got the DVD - I'd not considered height as a factor in forced perspective for viewers, but Mr Parker is 8.7% taller than Mr York, so a layout will presumably look smaller next to Mr P?

As some of the contributors have already noted, the answer depends on many factors.  Twenty years ago I bought a set of standard 4' x 2' (nominal) 12mm ply boards from a well-known DIY store, which I braced with nothing more than 2" x 1" softwood underneath the four edges (ie: no intermediate cross-bracing). 

On the plus side, they have survived 7 house moves, been stored loosely upright for nearly all that time (mainly in garages) and remain true and flat to this day.  I have on occasions briefly put my weight onto them without harm (to me or the boards).  So, in that sense, they've proved durable if that's a priority in your plans.

On the down side, they turned out to be much heavier than I thought they would.  They're also not nearly as portable as I'd hoped: the 4' x 2' size is bulkier than I'd imagined it would be - the warehouse wasn't a good reference point for the rooms in my house, so the convenience I experienced when making a quick purchase one lunchtime has come at a cost down the line.  I can't comment on the effects of adding scenery (both weight and liquid) as I've never got that far, I'm afraid.

Just some things to bear in mind I wish I'd known at the time.  Hope it helps.

I can't work out how to post a link to the whole newsletter, but this is the article you wanted:

 

https://www.world-of-railways.co.uk/brm/information/how-to-build-a-model-railway-baseboard

 

Best wishes

 

Andrew

Thank you - I still have my print copies of the Edgeworth supplements (I thought it was a good series at the time), so I should dig them out too.  I'm sure I'll have some more detailed questions, but those would be for a different thread.  Keith.

A plea for help I guess from those in the know / on the inside: have I missed it?  Noting that there's article in today's e-newsletter on plywood baseboards which I'd be very interested in seeing, I've logged into my account and updated my preferences accordingly to start receiving the e-newsletter, but have only been able to do so in the past few minutes (when people who can have gone home for the weekend).  I'm therefore wondering if I've missed this edition - and the article I'm after.  If I have, is there another way of accessing the content?

It sounds like there's some fun stuff too, but I'm focusing: it may have taken 40 years for me to realise that failure to ever build a proper baseboard has probably hindered progress on any of my many layout ideas, but I'm getting there.  Mind you, the amount of paper I've drawn on over the decades could also have made up a decent quantity of wood too...

24th & 25th November 2018 saw annual Warley National Model Railway Exhibition, with over 90 Layouts, plus over 100 Trade and Demo Stands.

Among the wide variety of layouts attending the event, were 3 Winning Layouts from Channel 5's 'Great Model Railway Channel', including the overall winner from the show!

As well the layouts, a number of Teams, include our team (Railway Video Division), turned up to show our support and share good memory's of our time on the show.

Layouts as seen;

"Globetrotting Santa" (Ep.3 Winners) - The Basingstoke Bogders - Peco Stand

"Clucas Bay" (Ep.5 Winners) - Aberdeen MRC - Hornby Stand

"City of Tiers" (Grand Final Winners Ep.6) - Aberdeen MRC - Bachmann Roadshow Stand

Hope you enjoy!

Thank you for the video - great to see the layouts up close, and to hear the sound of young children taking an interest (certainly in the soundtrack to Santa's holiday, even if not quite so happy sounding in the background to the final section with City of Tiers, I hope the parents enjoyed the show).  Not having been at Warley, it's nice to see something of what it was like.  True, the children may be more interested in Santa than other aspects of the modelling - but he brought me my first train set, I'm sure.

Rationale can be easy - the layout of the land (ie. a hill in the way), a river, a quarry, etc.

 

Railways (as a generalization) tried to choose the cheapest option which means reducing / eliminating such wonderfully scenic things like bridges / viaducts / tunnels and to a lesser extent cuttings and embankments.

BTW, (more) compressed versions of Fairford have been created before—Roy Link's The Art of Compromise recently reprised in the October 2018 Railway Modeller, and Iain Rice's Broadwell Green, from MORILL Vol. 1 No. 5.

The kickback by the Station was an end loading bay.

http://www.fairfordbranch.co.uk/Fairford.htm

Pulling these points together, one modelling attraction of Fairford is the roadbridge just before the station platform.  It provides a good scenic break,  as per Harlequin's designs that lead this thread, and as appears in  Roy Link's 1978 article too (I admit I was amongst those influenced by it when it came out).  If a curved entrance to a right-angled fiddle yard is required to fit a room, this can be easily hidden and therefore as tight as rolling stock can negotiate, even when not part of a prototype that would follow the rules mdvle outlines.

However, I wonder if the roadbridge also explains the kickback arrangement - there simply isn't room for it at the other end of the platform?  Keeping it as part of the building work for the station platform presumably simplified the task of building the station, as well as making access from the station forecourt / road entrance easier too.  This might would explain why such arrangements can look like a bay platform elsewhere (when none is needed)?  If this is the case, then what I might see as an awkward siding for operation has a number of other reasons for it - that were of greater practical consideration to Victorian 12-inch to the foot layout builders?

I'm still curious as to the other kickback siding at the turntable end of the goods loop.  My best guess is that it might just be for siding capacity / to help with shunting.  The map doesn't seem to give any clues as to other uses - the location adjacent to the turntable looks a co-incidence?

With regards to Fairford, what were the kicbacks by the station and turntable used for? Is this covered in the Karau and other books on the line, the platform end one looks like it's for end loading?