Citadel

What a fascinating diversion.... It's really interesting reading the comments explaining why pre-grouping uniforms are so rare in terms of museums collections etc. They were simply working garments that were worn to destruction or returned to the company for recycling. Anyway, had fun painting the Stadden figures although 20 in the one sitting was a little bit repetitious. Here they all are milling about waiting for the station to be built: I do struggle a bit with facial features, generally wimp out and go for the amorphous pink blob. Has just occurred to me though that this took at least 5 days of my leisure time (in between all the summer type activities such as sailing, cycling and tennis) - heaven help me in terms of actually finishing the layout!

Aargh... maybe you are right. I'd started from the position that although Citadel Station roof has very attractive ironwork and is extremely impressive in its scale it is more Tesco Extra supermarket than St. Pancras in terms of headroom. I really really really want to include the roof and had initially assumed that it was going to be permanently in place. The 'forced perspective' discussion really started from a desire to make the rear of the layout accessible and improve the viewing angles through the letterbox at the front). In reality though there is a full height building that runs almost the entire length of the island platform, if I built this in it's entirety all my hard work would be hidden. In 'photoplank' mode this really does need to be there at least in part (it's the building to the left on the postcard above). When I started plonking white cardboard cubes at the front of the layout I quickly realised the best views were along rather than across the layout so my initial concept above was a little flawed. Having thought about it will make the roof in modular sections that are easily removable, ditto the island buildings. Also have two baseboard joins within the station itself so for certain photoshoots can split them to give my camera access and capture different angles. The more I think about it the more I realise that the photography side is my major interest here (so smoke, shafts of light through the roof ironwork etc.). In 'operations' mode can just run without the roof. Unfortunately I've already incorporated a c. 1.5 cm slope from the front of the baseboard to the rear of the layout and don't really have the appetite to redo this. It's hardly noticeable really and with correct positioning of the camera and focal length of lens am sure will be OK. I thought I would step away from these big decisions and paint some Andrew Stadden station staff figures but this opened a whole new can of worms - blue or green? The Perriam book states that the staff uniforms were the same as the LNWR but with CJS initials (Citadel Joint Station). I was reaching for the blue paint but then saw the post from @Penlan below: Then thought I'd do a quick Google Search and see whether any uniforms still exist in museums etc. Quick scan didn't find anything but did come up with this poster: A green sailor suit though? Can see they might want to reduce the number of print colours and am sure they would have got the colour of the porter's uniform correct over the boy's attire. Any comments before I start to paint my staff green with dark grey trousers?

Interesting discussion, do fancy a bit of L&YR coaching stock, was thinking maybe a family saloon 🙂 Has been a while since I posted, life just seems to keep getting in the way - who said retirement was going to be relaxing.... Have spent the last few days playing around with cardboard cutouts of footbridges, centre island buildings etc. to try and get my head round how the layout might be viewed and how I might deal with perspective. I'd started with an assumption that things would be viewed through a 'letterbox' type arrangement with quite exaggerated perspective from front to back. Two reasons for this, firstly to increase the height of the letterbox (Carlisle doesn't really have a cathedral like high roof), secondly to allow access for the 'hand of god' to prod badly behaved locos on the rear tracks. As @magmouse has said though needs careful control of viewing angles to make this work. The more I looked at the photos that had given the initial inspiration the more I realised that looking along the layout is actually important and I needed to rethink things in this respect. In the end drastically reduced the slope of the roof - it's now c. 3.5 cm higher at the front than the back (platform slopes down c. 1.5 cm, roof slopes up c. 2 cm and things like footbridges etc. are pretty much horizontal. The South screen at the top of the photo above still has the original forced perspective, will redo this accordingly. Still getting my head around which sections of the centre island buildings I will include. Anyway, here's where I've got to so far - had better sleep on it....

Have to say that comment made my day. Anyway, here's the finished article (bar the side chains): Must buy some CR books and see whether there are any numbers apart from 114. You can see how I slavishly followed @Dave John's build from his blog (they do say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery). There's a bit of a droopy dog box thing going on - did my best but from this angle do notice the roof looks a little squint. It is better with the naked eye from normal viewing distances so doesn't really detract. A big thanks for all the hard work that has gone into creating this kit and bringing it to market - it certainly is a fascinating prototype. Right, now to to do some research on the M&CR version...

Was always a bit intrigued when I saw the three clocks stacked one on top of the other in the centre of the photo. Have seen them in old photographs of other major stations as well. Again found an interesting photo in Caledonian Miscellany which gives a closer look. If only the photographer had stepped a couple of yards to the right (tying to avoid falling off the platform obviously) I might have also seen whether there was a clock face on the inside of the North Screen. So, a Victorian version of the train departure board. Must have been a full time job keeping these up to date. Definitely will be trying to capture all this detail in the model.

I was assuming dogs/hounds. There’s quite a good discussion in the comments section of the blog post below:

Thank you so much for spending the time looking - it's really appreciated. And what an excellent photograph! Like the comment about the passenger rushing down the roadway hoping that he hasn't missed his train as well. Here's the rub though, I'll actually be modelling the inside of the screen - am assuming that if you've installed the mechanism having two faces wouldn't be too much of an issue. In other news I've just bought Caledonian Miscellany by Michael Dunn. It really is a most interesting read and has some superb photographs including this one of a near deserted Carlisle Citadel in around 1900. This is the clearest image I have seen of the adverts and buildings on the back wall - plenty of inspiration and food for thought

Having a bit of a break from the Slaters MR 6 wheelers, here's a True Line Models Caledonian Railway 1870 Metropolitan Horse Box. Thank you for the advice around removing the supports, pretty painless really. Leaning very heavily on @Dave John's excellent build in his blog: It's certainly an interesting prototype. Did like @Mikkel's comment - 'horseboxes tend to be elegant but restrained affairs, this one has a lot going on - a whole little town in itself!'

Have been grappling with the perspective tools in Adobe Illustrator - still have a huge amount to learn as the software appears incredibly powerful (for that read excessively complicated...). Here's the current status on the North Screen It's putting up a bit of a fight as want to reduce the width as well as the height of the windows as they 'recede' towards the right hand side of the image. This is easy as Illustrator has a tool for this but unfortunately this also adjusts the spacing of the pillars (and this needs to correspond with the platforms / track layout I have in place. Compromise is that the gothic arches / windows either side of the clock are a bit narrower than the ones either side (but hopefully you didn't notice before reading this). Here it is temporarily screwed in place on the layout: And here is how I would intend it to be viewed through the 'letterbox' at the front of the layout when it is finished. Ultimate objective is to get it etched via PPD and then light from behind: Not sure if I'm going to get away with a non-round clock* but will leave it for now and see whether I get used to it - need to get stuck into the wiring and control panel. *Indeed if the ever was there a clock. It's on the architects drawings but haven't seen it on a photo yet - better get looking...

Spent some time on the Slaters MR All Third and one where the central compartment was converted to a lavatory: Here's the one built as per the kit instructions: And here's the one with the central lavatory. Mrs Poncenby is very relieved that the MR has started to provide facilities - it's a long trip from London to Edinburgh. Still got the luggage composite to complete but have to admit stole quite a few small components from the box to replace the ones dropped on the floor when completing the two above. Need to get on my knees and look under the desk....

At the end of the day you have the satisfaction of having done a truly outstanding job - I don't think you can put a monetary value on that and really look forward to seeing the finished coach. I really like the fact it isn't a 'high quality kit', feel your coaches have far greater integrity and hopefully in the case of the ones above a degree of sentimental value. Having just spent the evening painting frosted glass lavatory windows for a couple of LNWR 42' composites sense the other issue is putting a value on the time spent - I always turn that round and explain to Mrs Citadel that imagine the cost if I was to take up skydiving or waterskiing(!)

Flipping heck, doesn't time fly. Am beginning to discover that building the Slaters MR 6 wheelers actually involves a fair few fiddly and intricate tasks - but at the end of the day I suppose that just adds to the enjoyment (not that it sometimes feels that way at the time....) Here's the sides of the most recent two - the 5 cmpt Third and the one where I converted the central compartment into a lavatory: The roofs certainly tax the eyesight somewhat - assume I should really be adding the gas pipes to some of my other stock.... Latest distraction is an 1870's CR horse box picked up at Model Rail Scotland. Not looking forward to removing the supports from the axlebox / footboard detail. At least the build should be relatively quick though 🙂

This weeks project has been to have a play around with the end screens and how to handle perspective. Started by drawing up the South screen in Adobe Illustrator based on drawings from the CRA. My model isn't the full width of the station so the three panels to the extreme right can then be deleted. Then attempted to channel the Italian Renaissance and had a play with perspective based on advice kindly given by @magmouse further upthread. To be honest relatively straightforward as Illustrator offers a tool specifically designed for this purpose. It does look a little odd when viewed straight on like this but this isn't really how I intended it to be seen - ultimately the viewer at the front of the layout will see something more akin to the photograph below (and from this angle I'm really pleased with the effect): As always when trying to force perspective it's difficult to keep all viewing angles happy. When looking down the layout the perspective starts to alter a little and not quite sure this will be the final iteration.... Ultimately will get this etched at PPD but no rush, plenty of other things to get stuck into first. There are three rows of windows in the screen, the top row of gothic arches are actually within the roof itself. Looking at the photo below the criss cross lateral beams sit on the plinths you can see on the back wall - between these there diamond shaped cross braces. The row of gothic arches is essentially the final criss-cross lateral beam in the roof. To access the rear track (and ultimately to open up the letterbox through which the layout can optimally be viewed) I always intended to angle the bottom of the beams upwards towards the front of the layout. At present the height of the lowest beam is at 15cm (rear) rising to 21 - 23cm (front). Currently I'm 'growing' the height of the gothic arches in the same proportion, maybe will throttle back a little on this (one to sleep on I think). Anyway, onwards with the North Screen and to work out how I handle the buildings on the central platform.

Basically yes. The LNWR stock is mainly from LRM etched kits but there are a couple of the 50' Ratio corridor carriages to the left of the last photo. The M&CR carriages are from some etches I designed myself and had processed by PPD. The MR 6 wheelers are from Slaters. Really need to build some locomotives(!) Here it is in all its gory detail over in the Kitbuilding and Scratchbuilding thread 🙂 I have a long way to go though judging by the quality of some of the work on show at Model Rail Scotland:

Trackwork basically complete, had some short flat headed screws from fitting the galvanised steel MHVR ductwork in the roof space of my house which came in very handy to temporarily hold it down in place. Will now wire everything up (what could possibly go wrong....) followed by a thorough test before finally fixing everything down with PVA, No More Nails or similar. Initially found the fishplates / rail connectors really fiddly but once had got the hang of it went quite quickly. Rummaged through the storage cupboard and opened up a couple of stock boxes and plonked a few carriages in place to see what it looked like 🙂 LNWR dominates at the moment. Need to start thinking about representation from the North Eastern and the Caledonian. Bought a CR horse box at Model Rail Scotland to start to redress the balance - will be the next project once the MR 6 wheelers are complete.. Right, better get ordering electrical bits and bobs - a steep learning curve awaits but will do my best to keep things as simple as possible.