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Peter Kazmierczak

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Blog Entries posted by Peter Kazmierczak

  1. Peter Kazmierczak
    I'm afraid I've not got to grips with the new form of rmweb yet. For me it's like going into the local supermarket and finding most of the shelves have been rearranged; very disconcerting. So much so that I sent an email to Andy last night asking how to unsubscribe from all this hassle. His diplomatic reply made me wonder if I can use the changes on rmweb to my advantage.
     
    So rather than grumble about things as I so often do, I thought I'd be constructive and actually get some modelling done.
     
    I've built a few layouts in my time, beginning with a circle of O-gauge tinplate on the back lawn, through Tri-ang Series 3 track on a sheet of hardboard in my bedroom, to Peco Streamline round the walls of a room running into an eight-platform terminus. But I've never totally finished a layout to my liking. The two layouts that reached some form of completion were an 009 model located in the Mendip Hills of Somerset and a small diesel servicing shed set in the hydraulic era in South Devon.
     
    Through the medium of this blog, I hope to describe the construction of another layout. The primary aim of this is to encourage me to get something built. That sounds very selfish I know, but I need something that'll focus me to get some modelling done, otherwise I'll just drift and nothing will get built.
     
    I feel that effective layouts have a sense of "place". Modelling standards nowadays are generally much higher than even a decade ago, but it's not the quality of modelling per se, but the whole "oneness" of the model which makes it work. A model is a simplified structure of reality, as someone once said. It's a combination of a good standard of modelling with the artistry of knowing what to include or, more importantly, leave out. There are some beautiful models out there which are so perfect, yet they leave me cold. Others, whilst not of a top notch quality, have that elusive atmosphere which make them feel like a real railway.
     
    That feeling of "place" is where I begin my planning. I've always been fascinated by the city terminus. Their constrained site, often below ground level, yet with an intensive service. So for this layout I've looked at London itself, the area around Clerkenwell, where a terminus could serve the needs of both the Eastern and London Midland regions of BR.
     
    That's enough for today. Next time I'll describe a little more on the siting of the terminus and the form I hope the model will take.
     
     
    Peter
  2. Peter Kazmierczak
    Many years ago, Jack Ray and his team built a large O-gauge garden railway called Crewchester. Perhaps you remember it. One of the terminus stations was called City Road; a splendid name and a splendid site for a terminus in London, filling the gap between King's Cross and Broad Street.
     
    Being interested in London Midland and Eastern Region stock, I thought a terminus a little nearer the centre of the city might make a possible basis for a model; somewhere just to the north of Clerkenwell Road. Clerkenwell is a good Dickension name, with maybe Sherlock Holmes making a guest appearance out of the mist too.
     
    A number of useful tools are available nowadays on the internet, which make viewing an area much easier. There's Google Street View, which enables very clear images of what an area looks like from road level. Geograph, which aims to have images from every OS grid square in the country (http://www.geograph.org.uk), is also extremely helpful in getting the feel of a locality.
     
    So my fictitious terminus is north of the Clerkenwell Road, somewhere near it's junction with Farringdon Road. I see it as something of an overflow forSt Pancras and King's Cross, with Peaks and Deltics rubbing shoulders with each other.
     
    Attached are some pictures of the locality which hopefully give an idea of the area.
     
    Peter
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