Amberdale

[Edwardian]

Amberdale

 

It’s Friday morning and I am taking hazy and grainy photographs of book pages amid the swerves of an early train hungrily eating up the miles of the ECML through blurred greenery. Why?

 

A book that very much reflects its title

 

Amberdale was a layout unknown to me until it cropped up here. From what I saw of it, it seemed well worth further investigation, so I found the book, Amberdale and the Railway Which Runs Through It and ordered it. It arrived yesterday, Thursday, morning, shortly before I left for the station to be dragged, kicking and screaming by an Azuma to The Smoke. Very few things can force me out of my Northern Fastness to return to the Evil Metrop, but Board meetings are unavoidable. I felt obliged to spend the first two hours of the train journey in the Service of Mammon, but then, I gently closed the lid of my laptop, picked up this book and entered an Enchanted Land.

 

 

Should I try to review the book or assess the layout? By doing the first I have to do the second, yet one cannot adequately review the layout as it is not really a book about the layout in the conventional sense.  There is no description of the building of the layout or the decisions behind it, the choice of subject, material or technique, its electrics, operation, timetable etc.  There are no photographs of the layout as a whole, just a tantalising glimpse through the railway room door.  Mercifully there is a track plan, so one can place the innumerable cameo images into the greater whole. Layout description is not really the philosophy behind the book; the subject is not the layout, but the fictional world of the railway, just as the title claims. The failure to show wides shots of the layout to reveal the interlinking of the scenes “in a continuous and credible landscape” might well seem at odds with the professed intent of the author, Philip Harvey, to present a model of a railway, as opposed to a model railway. He, however, addresses the point thus: “The photographs in this book … conceal the overall geography of the dale and how each part relates to the others. This element of mystery reflects the intriguing times I had as a boy, trying to piece together the various pictures of the Madder Valley into the whole scene …”

 

 

A critical approach

 

Ah yes, the MVR; the ultimate inspiration behind Amberdale, as it is for Castle Aching and no doubt dozens of other layouts and layout schemes.  I will quote Mr Harvey at length here, because what he says about Madder Valley resonates strongly with me:

 

Here were models of a recognisable world that looked real, which really did reflect reality. Here was a model of a railway that ran through a credible landscape connecting separate communities together. He [Ahern] showed how such models could be built from everyday materials without exceptional expertise, their scope limited only by the imagination, not the depth of one’s pocket.

 

The context of this summary is the intermittent consideration in this forum of what makes credible period modelling and/or a credible pre-Grouping freelance line. In particular, very valid comments were made by Esteemed Brother Regularity about Amberdale’s choice of stock. In response I will pause to indulge in a spot of philosophy. Three ways of regarding a layout such as Amberdale spring to mind. The first is from the view of the model-sympathetic layman. To such the layout will be simply beautiful, enchanting and breath-taking in its charm, detail and execution. But we are not those laymen.

 

Next is the point of view of the enthusiast knowledgeable in matters Pre-Grouping. The cognoscenti. He, she or they cannot rid themselves of their often profound and detailed knowledge of the prototype or the period. Such an one might, for instance, look at the track and judge it wanting, as not finescale enough in appearance. Such an one might fairly, if reluctantly, conclude that such a line in 1890 might be expected to be laid in and have retained unchaired Vignoles rails, to have interlaced sleepering on turnouts and top-dressed ballast over the sleepers. No doubt elements of the track layout could be regarded as unprototypical by our critic, as the author freely acknowledges may be the case. Our critic might wonder how likely it would be to find details such as conventional yellow distant arms on signals (the Great Western’s were red until 1927). They might be uneasy at the assemblage of unlikely locomotives and stock. Can one think of an Adams Radial sold out of service as early as 1890? Or justify an express passenger class of the day on such a line, a Precedent to boot? One might explain the presence of a Metro and a 517 by a friendly association with the GWR if the layout is set in Devon, but does that justify the up-to-date coaching stock, indistinguishable from GW coaches of the 1890s (I spy both the Triang clerestory and the Ratio 4-wheelers essentially unaltered)? What about the glimpse of a loco that looks suspiciously like a Wainwright P, complete with pagoda cab, a design that did not see the light of day until 1909 and which did not pass out of company ownership in SE&CR days? There are push-pull motor trains, things generally not seen until the years of experimentation circa 1904-1906.  Then there is the spectacularly unlikely Pullman service, in a rather inter-war style of car, and not in the old white and brown either, complete with a sort of beaver-tail observation car. Devotees of road transport might wonder at some rather Georgian-looking carriages or question whether there would be electric trams in 1890, or even whether a town like Wenly would ever have warranted a tram system, horse, steam or, in due time, electric? And would not the house under-construction be something in work-a-day in brick rather than a pre-industrial thatched hovel. 

 

And where is it set anyway? Inspired by Devon, there are overtones of the North Country in “the dale”. And ECR, it turns out, stands for East Coast Railway; more Holderness than Totnes, perhaps.

 

The problem we all of us have here is that we have sacrificed our innocence at the altar of knowledge. We are too knowing by far.

 

 

 

 

 

The Third Way

 

Thus, I propose another way to view a layout, generally useful I find and, I suggest, essential for an essay such as Amberdale. Judge not against the prototype or the decisions that you yourself would make if building such a layout. Judge against the builder’s intent.

 

Mr Harvey lives in Yorkshire. He claims inspiration from Madder Valley and the real railway in Devon before Beaching and while steam still ruled. He evidently has an interest in horse-drawn vehicles, of which he has modelled many, and the period scene, which he puts as 1890, but which, as we’ve seen, looks a little forward and a little back from there. What he has done, it seems to me, is build a railway layout to incorporate all the elements, sometimes disparate, that he evidently wished to include in a fictitious capriccio that in general conveys the atmosphere of the period and places evoked.  

 

He does all that with undoubted success. Like Madder Valley, he skilfully links scenes and places them in a “continuous and credible” landscape. His cameos, buildings, vehicles etc are very charismatic subjects very skilfully rendered with a high degree of realism.  There is much art in their arrangement. The layout is both beautiful and compelling as a result. Moreover, there is an ineffable quality of great charm, just as Madder Valley has.

 

 

 

Madder Valley, where a Broad Gauge loco was built underscale to fit OO track, while Narrow Gauge locos emerged overscale to do likewise. Must we care about that? And where and when, exactly, is Madder Valley set? Must that ambiguity detract? It seems to me that, like Madder Valley, Amberdale is all about modelling what one wants to model and doing so to a realistic standard to produce something very pleasing and engaging.  If that means a degree of latitude in subject matter, so be it. Like Madder Valley, Amberdale just is. And it is a thing of great skill, beauty and charm.

 

Picture Book

 

Mr Harvey is evidently a photographer of some skill. What he gives us are shot after shot of great beauty. This book is, above all, a rich visual indulgence, as it is intended to be. It is undoubtedly worth the modest cover price to see so many stunning images of this gem of a layout. Buy it, I say.

 

The text, though the book is not really about text, is engagingly written and shot through with a gentle humour. We are supposed to be enjoying ourselves in Amberdale, as Mr Harvey evidently does.

 

All this aids the presentation of Amberdale as a real place, which is something I greatly appreciate, as Castle Aching and West Norfolk are also to be regarded in this way. So, accept Amberdale exists and what you see is all true and your willing suspension of disbelief will reward you richly as you gawp at Mr Harvey’s pictures and daydream your way into them.

 

A Tour of the Dale

 

The tour is very much of the dale, not the line. It starts in the middle of the railway route and freely digresses to take up themes – road vehicles, farming – as well as places like the quarry and the mine. The contents page gives a flavour. Interweaved with familiar poetry (not always exactly how we remember them) captions introduce groups of cameo scenes, artistically framed and manipulated (literally smoke and mirrors at times) and from viewpoints chosen to enhance the illusion that these are scenes of real 1:1 scale places. The illusion works superbly well. There are also faked up pictures to show the history of the line. I don’t have access to my books as I write, but the real Victorian worthies pasted onto the model platform for the opening of the line looks terribly like one I recall of the opening of the North Devon or North Cornwall LSWR line!  It’s all very much the sort of thing I’ve yearned to do for Castle Aching, though Mr Harvey sets a high bar in his modelling realism, photography and digital image manipulation.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As is evident from the photographs, the standard of the modelling – of landscape, buildings and vehicles in particular – is very high. It follows more the techniques of Madder Valley than Pendon, which latter would be far too time consuming for the solo-modeller of such a project as Amberdale.  The results, however, convey a great sense of realism along with very considerable charm.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After the tour of the dale, there is a short return to the philosophy behind the book with some sparse information on the modelling ethos and technique.  Finally, there is an interesting ‘how I did it’ section on the photographs. The photographs I can sum up no better than to say these are pictures of the dale, using the model railway, rather than pictures of a model railway set in the dale. I’d love to read more about how the model was made and the decisions involved, but perhaps the MRJ articles mentioned by Brother Regularity will furnish that if I track them down. This book, however, ‘does exactly what it says on the tin’ and immersing oneself in its rich visual world is to indulge in unalloyed joy for the passing hour.         

 

Conclusion

 

Buy this book, enjoy and draw inspiration. But remember, Mr Harvey’s been at this since 1957.  Even Castle Aching might come to fruition given so many years.

 

The dale is modelled skilfully, with an artist's eye, scratch-built to ensure a high degree of originality and finished to a consistent standard, which blends the elements to a convincing whole.  All this, I suspect, greatly contributes to the realism achieved. I think we must conclude that Mr Harvey has succeeded supremely well in what he has set out to do and the result is something that should charm us all. 

 

Many layouts impress and not a few inspire me, but those I truly love are those that also make me smile and these are rare in my experience. Pendon awes me, but Madder Valley makes me smile. Craig did, too, and Maeport East. Amberdale I now gladly number in that company.

 

 

[CKPR]

Thanks for this review - I recall 'Amberdale' appearing in an early(ish) edition of MRJ but I had forgotten about it until now. Seriously good scenic and architectural modelling and a real sense of place, but then as now the instantly recognisable motive power tends to somewhat spoil the illusion. 

[ianathompson]

Thanks for drawing this book to my attention.

I have not seen it reviewed or advertised anywhere.

 

As CKPR points out, the layout was featured in an early edition of MRJ.

(I have a full set of these but they are a little difficult to access, so I won't be hunting for it!)

There was also an article on modelling water, in a much later MRJ, featuring the layout. 

In addition a single tantalising photo appeared in another edition.

 

I was surprised that the layout did not receive the full blown "show case" treatment reserved for other inspiring models.

The impression that I got, however, from MRJ, was that Mr Harvey was more interested in modelling than in getting his work into magazines.

 

My copy arrived yesterday, whilst I was involved in the standard twelve hour day that County Premier cricket has now become, when playing away.

(I am the scorer nowadays, not a player, I hasten to add!)

A quick flick through suggests that a very few  railway aspects are a bit "iffy", such as yellow distant signals and a Fleischmann double slip.

These are minor issues and the general railway ambience and the rolling stock is most convincing, better than anything I have produced.

As for the scenery ~ I don't think that "excellent" does it justice.

 

Once again, Thanks

 

Ian T

 

[Johnson044]

I've had a proper chance to read Amberdale over the weekend - and also Edwardian's very fair review (which I deliberately didn't look at as didn't want any spoilers!). I'm just bowled over - all I can think of are superlatives. I love the very gentle humour. The love the builder has for his subject is very obvious and the models invoke a very deep longing in me for a world that is gone. It's beautiful- and beautifully written.

 

My copy will go between "Narrow Gauge Adventure" by PD Hancock and "Winterstoke" by LTC Rolt - both of which must surely have been read by Amberdale's builder.

 

It's very much in the same genre - and of similar calibre to - Craigshire and Buckingham Great Central.

[Hroth]

There's a (very) brief review in this months Model Rail on page 16.

 

 

 

 

Edited May 9, 2022 by Hroth
Thought I'd better qualify it... :-)

[DLT]

An excellent review of Amberdale by Mr.Edwardian, thank you very much.

 

The MRJ articles were in issues:

63 (1993) "The Freelance Approach"  A general description of Amberdale and the thinking behind it.

158 (2005) "On Reflection"  Use of mirrors.

164 (2006) "Cool, Not So Clear Water" His various water modelling developments

269 (2019) "Ambleden Station" 

[Edwardian]

16 hours ago, DLT said:

An excellent review of Amberdale by Mr.Edwardian, thank you very much.

 

The MRJ articles were in issues:

63 (1993) "The Freelance Approach"  A general description of Amberdale and the thinking behind it.

158 (2005) "On Reflection"  Use of mirrors.

164 (2006) "Cool, Not So Clear Water" His various water modelling developments

269 (2019) "Ambleden Station" 

 

Judging from the photographs - and I may be wholly wrong here - the track of Amberdale looks like OO/HO Code 100.

 

If so, all credit to Mr Harvey for getting articles past the The Guardians of Finescale and into the pages of the MRJ!

 

l

[Hroth]

6 minutes ago, Edwardian said:

 

Judging from the photographs - and I may be wholly wrong here - the track of Amberdale looks like OO/HO Code 100.

 

If so, all credit to Mr Harvey for getting articles past the The Guardians of Finescale and into the pages of the MRJ!

 

l

 

 

It strikes me that the Guardians of Finescale have more in common with the Auditors of Reality...

 

As for the track, provided its painted and appropriately ballasted, at normal viewing distances you can't see that code 100 rail is 25% higher than code 75, or that viewed obliquely, its a couple of mm narrower... 

 

HERESY!!!!!

 

 

 

[Edwardian]

Heresy indeed!

 

The man on the right is being justly burned for his heretical insistence that there is such a thing as Finescale OO.

 

The man on the left knows better, as he is an acolyte of the Holy Order of EM.  Why, then, his look of concern?  Well, he has just seen the P4-men of the Apocalypse ride into view!  

 

  

[Regularity]

48 minutes ago, Edwardian said:

 

If so, all credit to Mr Harvey for getting articles past the The Guardians of Finescale and into the pages of the MRJ!

Inverted snobbery at its worst: there are no such people, and if you (re) read the editorials of early MRJs, they clearly state that the word “finescale” is a somewhat nebulous portmanteau.

 

I know the remark was meant humorously, but that’s the same excuse as Bernard Manning uses when being offensive. 

[Johnson044]

The East Coast Railway generally used a very heavy FB rail section and the model depicts this accurately.

[woodenhead]

31 minutes ago, Regularity said:

Inverted snobbery at its worst: there are no such people, and if you (re) read the editorials of early MRJs, they clearly state that the word “finescale” is a somewhat nebulous portmanteau.

 

I know the remark was meant humorously, but that’s the same excuse as Bernard Manning uses when being offensive. 

I don't think prodding the P4 Riders of the Apocalypse is on the same scale as the offence that used to spew from Mr Manning.

 

I am sure they also wear such criticism as a badge of honour, as their's is the true way and such righteousness will see them ascend to the finescale netherworld whilst the rest of us burn forever in damnation at a neverending Hornby Christmas new model announcement sat on a burning spike made from a Railroad Flying Scotsman with the front coupling attached.

[Edwardian]

1 hour ago, Hroth said:

 

 

It strikes me that the Guardians of Finescale have more in common with the Auditors of Reality...

 

As for the track, provided its painted and appropriately ballasted, at normal viewing distances you can't see that code 100 rail is 25% higher than code 75, or that viewed obliquely, its a couple of mm narrower... 

 

HERESY!!!!!

 

 

 

 

Actually, I may have been unfair.  I think it's more like Omnianism.

 

Once upon a time, in the days of the Great S4-P4 Wars, it might have been an intolerant theocracy putting unbelievers to death, but nowadays it's probably more "Visit-The-Infidel-With-Explanatory-Pamphlets" !

 

😉 

[woodenhead]

[woodenhead]

But we are drifting away somewhat from the premise of this thread, the book does indeed look like an interesting read.

[DLT]

4 minutes ago, woodenhead said:

the book does indeed look like an interesting read.

 

It most certainly is!

My only criticism is that I wish it were a larger format.  Many of the photos are quite small, I would willingly have paid more to see all that fantastic detail in a larger size

[Edwardian]

5 minutes ago, DLT said:

 

It most certainly is!

My only criticism is that I wish it were a larger format.  Many of the photos are quite small, I would willingly have paid more to see all that fantastic detail in a larger size

 

Yes, and the fact that it would literally be impossible to have enough photographs of this layout!

[CKPR]

10 hours ago, Edwardian said:

 

Once upon a time, in the days of the Great S4-P4 Wars, it might have been an intolerant theocracy putting unbelievers to death, but nowadays it's probably more "Visit-The-Infidel-With-Explanatory-Pamphlets" !

 

😉 

As a  nonplussed observer of the P4 vs S4 vs everyone else feud of the late 1970s-early 1980s, the most bizarre aspect was the P4 Society's trading arm Studiolith (who became Exactoscale) actively refusing to sell to members of the S4 Society or even to 'non-aligned' customers who might be  purchasing on behalf of a member of the S4 Society (The command of my avatar comes to mind...).

Edited May 10, 2022 by CKPR

[CKPR]

2 hours ago, Edwardian said:

Heresy indeed!

 

The man on the left knows better, as he is an acolyte of the Holy Order of EM.   

 

  

Ha, no one expects the Acolytes of the Holy Order of EM! 

[wagonman]

My memory of Studiolith (I was in the EMGS at the time) was that they had an extensive list of products, few of which were ever in stock. It was all rather silly.

[CKPR]

Right, that's enough, stop it now _ It started out mildly amusing but it's just got very silly! 

[Edwardian]

6 minutes ago, CKPR said:

Right, that's enough, stop it now _ It started out mildly amusing but it's just got very silly! 

 

Indeed

 

 

 

 

 

[Edwardian]

I have been musing further on this book, and on my and others' reactions to it. 

 

I return to the point that it's not a book about a layout, it's a book about this fictitious dale, using pictures of the layout, supplemented with commentary and poetry, to invoke that fictitious dale. As such the book is a success and a thing of great beauty and joy for the reader.

 

This means there are some practical differences between the book and an account of the layout. Thankfully, there are some behind the scenes pictures at the back, the all important layout plan and a tantalising glimpse through the railway room door. However, there are no overall views of the layout or views from the operator's of visitors' standpoint, or detailed accounts of the layout build. As the author explains, the pictures are created to illustrate the dale, not the layout, so are often taken from lower angles than normal viewing, or are views that cannot normally be seen, and everything is enhanced with photographic trickery such as trees and 'reeds' framing the foreground, smoke effects, new skies etc. In other words the views reproduced in the book only exist as pictures and you cannot reproduce those views by visiting the layout. The pictures I posted tried to illustrate that, but you'll just have to buy the book to see them. And you should!

 

This leaves plenty of room for a book about the model railway. Magazine articles can be tracked down, but in my experience are seldom sufficient to provide a comprehensive or up to date view of a layout.  I think about all the articles I have in my father's 1950s-60s RMs of Buckingham.  They only really add up to a partial view. Thus I was very pleased with the two Wild Swan volumes on this layout.  I should certainly like to see such a book about Amberdale the layout; not instead of the present book, which is a great thing to have done, but as an essential supplement to it.

 

 

Edited May 11, 2022 by Edwardian
spelling

[Hroth]

Well, given Edwardians review of the book, and the brief mention in this months Model Rail, I've ordered a copy and I'm expecting it to arrive in a day or two. 

 

From the brief glimpses of aspects of the layout, I think that it will be a delightful resource for attempting the atmospheric variety of layout, an antidote to grit.  I'm not condemning gritty layouts, they have their place and I'll be doing one when I get organised.  I feel that the atmospheric ambience of Amberdale will inform Midsomer Brevis (Mk2) when that gets under way too!

 

As for "silly", I'm all for it!

 

20 hours ago, Edwardian said:

Actually, I may have been unfair.  I think it's more like Omnianism.

 

Which variety? Vorbisism, Brutherism, or the post-Bruther extremist sects?

 

[Nick Holliday]

As the pictures that @Edwardian had included have disappeared, people might be interested in these, which give an idea of h the quality of modelling being discussed.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-10716633/Dedicated-hobbyist-completes-detailed-model-busy-market-town-starting-project-1959.html