Geordie Exile

Thanks for the explanation (and the photo, @ianblenk) but which is which? I'm new to this. I can guess the 15t hoppers, because there are five of them, and I know the black thing at the front is something else...

Thanks for your very kind words, Andrew. If you do Eccles/Maude, B- & C-Pit, and finish off with the Hotspur Brickworks, I'll happily tag the Fenwick on We may need to rent St James' Park to get it to scale, but from what I hear it's not getting much use at the moment! And thanks for the link to Robbie's Rolling Stock. A few of those wagons will get me started at least, although I'm planning on badging everything NCB if I ever get that far. Richard

There are probably enough lumps in a 25 kilo bag that we could buy one bag between all of us on here

Nearly there. The ground floor is now detailed, and most of the supporting H-beams are in place. I had to leave these until last as the make the model quite fragile. Once they're bedded into a landscape it'll matter less, as they're not actually weight-bearing except the short ones underneath the central ground floor building. Two more at the rear (northern) aspect once the glue's dried, some paint and weathering, then it's onto the western wall.

Thanks for all of this info, Brian. When I come to think (more) about stock, I'll come back to this post! I'm really amazed how supportive and helpful this online community is, with so many suggestions and kind words. (I've been away from the North East long enough to have forgotten where Clara Vale is Next time I'm visiting, I might have a wander around the old site, as it now appears to be a nature reserve.) Richard

Hi Brian. So far I've got hold of a second-hand Class 14 which I know worked the Backworth sites. I don't know a great deal about locos (yet) but the reference material shows a bunch of Austerity 0-6-0STs: whether they're commercially available as RTR I've yet to find out. The wagon fleet was of a quite distinctive design, which I know doesn't exist off the shelf, and I've no idea how I'm going to deal with that. The easiest approach (in the "never mind the rivets, does it look right?" sense) is to find those that are close enough and respray/rebadge them. I'm going to need umpteen - see the picture on page 1 of this thread! At the risk of getting tarred and feathered, the authenticity of the rolling stock is of secondary importance to me. Although saying that I had intended to create an approximation of a generic North East pit scene, and have now ended up counting bricks to get it as right as possible, so ask me in a few months Richard

...and in context:

Main heapstead nearly complete. Still to do: all of the H-beams that hold it up (one end wall and some foam board are currently doing the trick); gangway/stairs that run the length of that ground floor element; stairs/platform leading up to the cage; the whole western wall; roof walkway and rails up the headgear; workshop which joins the heapstead to the winding house. (And proper sheaves - still playing with options.) Did I say "nearly complete"? And after that lot, the screens (nurse ) and the conveyers that feed them.

Ideally 28mm. I've used a 26mm loco wheel to form plastic strip and have a round outer rim. I'll try spokes when I pluck up the courage. In the meantime, I'm concentrating on completing the building itself.

Thanks for the kind comments, Brian. I've got a lot more patience in the intervening years - as a kid I used to throw an Airfix model together in half an hour - wings at odd angles, glue everywhere, bits left over I've taken a butchers at your stuff - very nice indeed. And you have what I've not: trains!

Some nice stuff on there. Thanks, David. Unfortunately the sheaves (get me, learning the right words!) are too large. My search continues.

I'd never thought that would be a sentence I'd be typing

I've found his blog and messaged to ask whether he'd do just that! Never played with brass, or any other metal come to think of it. I've only just got into plasticard I'm hoping the chap at the far end of the link that Mike (maridunian) posted will be able to furnish me with some. If so, they'll do for the time being. I may come back to a DIY version if I need to. Just googled and found his site. Wow. The wheels on his colliery headgear are beautiful. I had a chat with the 2mmFS folk at the Perth Show in the summer, and was a little in awe at the time. Having given this modelling lark a go since, I may revisit. Thanks everyone for your contributions. There's a lot out there that I'm unaware of, so I appreciate all the input. Richard

They would be ideal, Mike, but for the size. They're just a few mm too large. I've sat and stared at them wistfully, but (apart from the mods I'd need to make to the headgear) they'd not look right. I'm going to get on with the ground floor stuff over the next couple of days, & then maybe give DIY a go. I'm currently thinking thin copper wire for the spokes if I can find/make a suitable rim.

I've been googling and found a couple of likely candidates: I could position them so the hole where the tie rod goes is hidden (if I've got the terminology right). But they're pricey. Do I want to pay over twenty quid? I really don't know. (That's not a "no" yet! ) Thanks Doilum. I might give that a go. I'm thinking a printed version underneath would help as a visual jig, if that makes sense. It's certainly cheaper than buying them, and if they don't turn out OK I can just bin 'em. Hmm. I had a look at them when I was digging around the internet, and I'm not impressed. As you say, too chunky. Thanks anyway, Paul, appreciate the suggestion. Richard

Pleased with the way the headgear has turned out. The wheels are scavenged loco wheels and I need to find much finer versions somewhere. Suggestions welcome as to where to source them. Ground floor and west wall to do next.

I was aiming for a rough facsimile of the pit, but the more I do the more obsessed I am getting with the details. Nobody warned me this would happen! If I do carry on with the screens, washery, pit head baths, canteen, stores etc, I'm not going to have any room on my layout for track. Still, I'm thoroughly enjoying myself. Maybe I'll just turn it into a diorama and settle for a Great Western branch line to play trains on

Man, this is getting fiddly.

Some lessons learned from the winder house: - the embossed brick card is thin, and warps when components are glued together, so I've made a skeleton of plain plasticard and applied the brick & microstrip elements onto that. There are just under 100 separate pieces therefore! - I've taken into account (this time) the corners where walls meet, so the joins are better. - Wherever there's a window (only one so far) I've painted the interior black. The winder house is gloriously white and clearly empty on the inside! - Although I've painted the window frames before applying the glazing, I'll not paint anything else until the model's complete. Trying to mix the same brick colour in several batches for the winder house was a nightmare, and took a lot of judicious weathering to hide the differences.

Having stared at photos of the heapstead for a couple of weeks, and drawn up some crude plans, I've put knife to plasticard again and made a start on the building itself. It feels weird starting on the upper floor first, but it sits on H-beam stilts with only the western wall going from ground to apex. I've ordered some H-beams from Squires, so construction will stall until that arrives, hopefully next week, although I can still crack on with the ground floor elements to some degree. All the photos I have are from the south, more or less, so I've guessed at the northern aspect.

Oh, I'd love to - they're special, aren't they! But if I build one, I'd need to build a fleet. I'm hoping that by the time I get to the rolling stock, Peco will have come up with them, otherwise I'm looking at a 3D printer that I really can't afford. I want to 'badge' them as NCB for the period I'm modelling, but there's no escaping their distinctive look. (Photo courtesy of Billy Embleton collection)

I considered including the brickworks on my layout, but they were vast. I think I'll just have a line going off-scene with a sign saying "to the brickworks"!

The finished (apart from the exterior steps, for which I have a cunning plan) winding house and associated workshops. It's sitting on a brick from the Hotspur Brickworks, which made bricks for the colliery, and which took coal from the colliery to make the bricks - a wonderfully symbiotic relationship. Next I'm going to tackle the pithead building and screens, which is far more complicated, and for which I only have photos to work from, all from the same, southern, aspect. (Apologies that I can't credit the picture; I've done so much internet trawling that I didn't think to make a note at the time.)

The exterior stairs can wait! I've now started on the workshops and outbuildings. I think I've made a rod for my own back building the windows with microstrip, cos it's so fiddly. Thank goodness I've got one of those magnifying headset things. I'm working from photos and plans but the construction of the roofs remains a mystery, and pretty much all the photos of this building are from ground level. I'm just guessing that they were concrete and corrugated iron. Anyway, the outbuildings attached to the southern aspect of the winding house are in place, awaiting painting, glazing and doors.

When as a kid I was learning to play the guitar, I listened to professionals of all stripes and almost threw the guitar way, as I'd never be that good. Having just started modelling again after a multi-decade gap, the amazing work in this thread has left me with much the same feeling Never mind. I still get pleasure from picking out a terrible tune as long as no-one's listening, and I'm pushing on with my colliery layout regardless! (And I've now added 'airbrush' to my ever-growing list of things to buy)