Geordie Exile

Roof on, base coat on. Those lintels and cills were fiddly! Still need to weather it to lighten up the brickwork which is way too dark, and figure out how to build the exterior steps. Spot the source photos in the background.

And I've realised I haven't cut the lower aperture for the winding cable. I've been working from plans I found, and that aperture is masked by a roofline. .

Thanks, both, that's really encouraging!  It's now got a coat of paint (note to self - mix up enough brick-red for all four walls!) and some glazing.  Will bung on the fourth wall and take another pic.

Hi All

The book "Backworth, An illustrated history of the mines and railways" arrived a while ago, and it is excellent for what I need. It's opened up my thinking about how I will model a colliery, and now I'm considering adding a brickworks and coal staithes to give the operation a real purpose.  I'm going to have a go at a small layout incorporating more of the techniques I want to use rather than any colliery operations, just to try to get some practice.  Thanks to everyone for your contributions.  (And I've been doing the calculations, and I reckon the pit heap alone could easily fill my 3m x 3m space available for the final layout, so I might have to use some modeller's licence in scaling everything down just a touch!)

18 hours ago, Caledonian said:

 

Thoroughly recommend this one, but if you're looking for it Chilton Iron Works is the name of the publisher, with the authors credited as John Elliot and Derek Charlton. Publication date is given as 1994, but I bought my [new] copy at Railex NE last year, so I don't know whether its been reprinted or whether a hidden stash was discovered. Either way its absolutely essential - large format too.

Found it online - thanks for the pointer.  (£35+ on Amazon, half that elsewhere!)

On 03/06/2019 at 09:16, south_tyne said:

 

Has anyone acquired a copy of this yet and, if so, is it recommended? It is just that I've been a little disappointed by the quality of some Amberley publications in the past, but hoping this is a good one. I must admit I haven't seen any of the other volumes in the series.

 

Just come home from a week's holiday, so thanks to all for your replies.  Gordon Edgar's book was waiting for me and it is good.  A lot of history in the text accompanying each photo, with great photographs, probably as many in colour as b&w.

On 28/05/2019 at 22:33, Stephenwolsten said:

This book may be of interest:  https://www.booklaw.co.uk/shop/index.php?id_product=297&controller=product

..and half the price on that website compared to Amazon.  Win!

Lots of good stuff to get my teeth into.  Thanks, everyone

Richard

1 hour ago, Fat Controller said:

Have a look around Paul Bartlett's site:- https://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/industrialinternalwagons has groups of photos taken at many sites around the NE,

Ernie Brack's site also has a lot of stuff:- https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishswissernie/albums

Thanks, Brian.  Those fellahs sure like their rolling stock!

Hi All

First post, so be kind to me   I'm getting back into railway modelling after a gap of nearly 40 years.  Although I've got quite a big space in mind, I'm going to start off small and try my hand at a micro-layout based on a North East colliery.  So, I'm looking for photos and plans of any of the smaller collieries.  I'm particularly interested in the South East corner of Northumberland - as it was then - maybe Backworth, Holywell, Delaval area.  I'm not looking to recreate an individual colliery necessarily, just to get a sense of the layouts, buildings, and track plans, and to give me something that'll be fun to research, build, and operate while thinking about the much bigger layout.  The side-by-side mapping stuff is ideal for potential track plans.

Thanks in advance

Richard