RichardS

I've just found this article when I was looking for something else but it struck a chord. Returning to the initial post my own thoughts are that most railway modellers are more interested in trains (and principally locomotives) rather than railways*. So for example when they model the large passenger station this is really to accommodate a long express pulled by a big engine which is the focus. 

When they model clay district, its the shorter clay train. 

The problem is how they plan and build the model. Obviously almost everybody is constrained by space but the almost universal error is to put the scenery around the track rather than the track into the scenery. In real life there is no chicken and egg option but in a model there is. Instead of building a railway in a scene most people put a scene around a railway in the space that is left. 

Making models quaint is a trap we can all easily fall into as we search for the bucolic, decent, easy, sunny days of yore we imagine must have existed before the frantic and stressful lives we live today. It's hard to convey poverty, insanitary living, rudimentary healthcare, dangerous working conditions and the asylum/work house threat via a toy train. Much better a rosy cheeked countryman and a gaggle of laughing children harvesting a rich rural bounty. No one can see the cripple or industrial amputee hidden in the hovel and eeking survival on parish relief and charity. When did anybody last model a rundown Ag Lab's hovel as opposed to an Agatha Christie class thatched cottage?

Anyway, here comes the XYZ first class only Pullman express. Weren't the railways wonderful!

* For me railways encompass so much more than tracks and trains. Railways they are about people and what people do. How they effect society as a whole, architecture, art, industry and the countryside. Locomotives are simply tools to propel trains carrying people and goods. Of course some are beautiful and some impressive creations with great appeal and charisma but they are essentially a means to an end and receive disproportionate attention compared to other aspects of railways. The hobby is after all railway modelling and not locomotive modelling.

On 30/11/2019 at 23:59, wenlock said:

I do hope this actually means that you are Santa!

Classified! 

12 hours ago, wenlock said:

Yep, planning is the key to success.  I found building a card board mock up of my proposed layout a useful exercise.

 

Looking forward to seeing your progress

Thanks, I'm not very fast - this layout has been several years in gestation. I have been using card to help visualise scenery profiles. I'm lucky in that I have room to replicate the track layout of Boscarne Junction almost exactly to length but with a bit of jiggery pokery around the curved ends.  I've also built a test board using form-board to test dimensions and I'll also use it to experiment with static grass - a substance I think needs to be used with care and discretion.  Progress during December will be curtailed a bit - not only is it a bit chilly outside but I have seasonal role that consumes quite a bit of time in the run up to the big day!   

ATB. :-)

23 hours ago, Fen End Pit said:

Hi Richard

 

The texture can be made quite smooth, the secret is in the timing , catching at at the right time to smooth it down. It can be 'worked' for about 10-15 minutes and as it dries it can be smoothed nicely.

 

 

Along the base of the river I worked it a bit more to get a smoother finish.

 

 

Hope that helps

 

David

Thanks David. I shall certainly consider this in due course.

Looking good. I've never heard of Sculptamould before. Is there any chance of a close up picture of the surface texture. The product looks promising and in time I will have a considerable area on my own layout to dress.

Many thanks.

Thanks for the comments @Mikkel and @TheQ .  A proper modeller - I like that, a lot!    There's something satisfying about slicing through the material with a hot wire.  I think with Paul Bambrick's book like all of these things it's about of taking the ideas and applying them to your situation rather than religiously following them. It's a weighty tome and there's a lot of info contained in it's pages.

I hadn't thought of J Cloths I might give them a try. I have found plaster bandage at Hobbycraft they do 3m rolls by I think 8cm for £1 which is quite a bit cheaper per sqm than branded versions. A colleague ordered some from a medical supply company and that worked out quite cheap too. Tasma also do a cheaper versions which is fine. For this little project there's no point in ordering in bulk but when I get round to the main layout I'll need considerable amounts.  I was lucky to be talking to Barry Norman on Friday evening (I move in exalted circles - although they probably think I'm the caretaker or something) about baseboards he used on Petherick and he still felt that wire netting covered with bandage or similar was valid provided the underside of the netting was also plastered over - this must avoid separation and I suppose the netting then performs the same role as the mesh or J cloths.     

All the best

Oops, sorry, completely missed that. Thanks David.  :-)

But I'm not sure there was any need, Don B, for the exclamation mark. I do apologise if my inadequacy offended you so much.

Yes, punctuation is important and exclamation marks are powerful endings to sentences.

In fact these two responses are a good learning point for all who use social media such as this forum. Notice the same message conveyed in quite different ways. One polite, one disparaging.

One explained, the other tried to belittle with an assumed superiority. Even the opening word in the latter, 'sorry', is part of the subsequent expression of intolerence and despair at the incompetence I deigned to display.

It must be terrible for my betters to suffer those such as I.

My sincere apologies to David/Fen End Pit for going OT on this. I implore that any further comments be limited to matters regarding his model and the techniques he has shown.

This is looking good. Can I ask what your source of polystyrene is please?

This looks an interesting project. I'm curious to know how you transferred the templot plan to the cork. Thank you.

Well. I have just found Dom's blog - a year after he alerted me to it!

Very interesting pictures of track, streets, and so forth which I am sure will be very helpful as the scenic work on 'Bohemian Saxony' begins in earnest.

See  https://thersr.wordpress.com/ for information about Bohemian Saxony - amongst other things.

Thanks Dom.

Hi Richard, only just noticed how you're building a tram layout. If I can offer you any advice from my own work on the Leipzig tram (see my corresponding blog), do feel free to ask!

 

Cheers, Dom

Dom, sincere apologies. I have only just seen your comment from last March. I have no idea why I overlooked it. Thank you for your kind offer. I will have a look at your blog as suggested. 

Best wishes 

Richard

Best of luck. Will you be starting a separate layout thread for this?

Thanks Captain! But I don't think I'll start a new thread here. I might put one on the 'other forum' But too much time spent on web and forums already. Although if honest never sure which is best place - blog, thread, forum a)  forum b) etc etc. Do you think a layout thread is best?

Living in Yarmouth I've got more than a little interest in the old Muddle and go no where and have pretty much walked the whole track bed over the years, still lots of snippets to discover if you know where to look.

 

      The old M&GN station at Ormsby (Almost next door to where Oby would be) is still very much intact and although now a private dwelling (The owner is very approachable) is virtually unchanged with intact platforms and surrounding posts for the crossing gates etc still there and might make a good guide and give you a feel to what a station at Oby might look like if it had been built.

 

   I shall look forward to updates on the thread

                                                                   Steve

Thanks Steve. I'm familiar with the Norwich line and parts of the other lines. I shall certainly have a look at Ormesby although the layout I have in mind will be little more than a halt and a siding - there isn't much room for anything else in 4ft 8". This is very much an exercise in trying P4 to see how I get on. But I do prefer models that have some sense of time and place. So we'll see how it goes.

That's better I've edited the page on here.

I think you were supposed to use BCC not HTML

Hm, it did this before but other recent updates have been clear of the code. Something has changed.

This is linked from Wordpress.

But it hasn't done it for other posts. Only the ones I've created since linking the site via

Feedburner.

No that doesn't look very nice does it. It seems to have pulled in the html. I'll find out why.

Can't beat natural light - usually. This is a nice picture.