Thanks all.

Derek, you always get one house that spoils it for everyone else:lol:

Phil

Excellent ! :thumbs 

I have to agree with Derek regarding the lazy neighbours. Maybe they should all pitch in and buy a mower or a decent pair of shears !

Cheers, Gary.

And not to mention the snails!!

Great work Phil

No rear windows in the houses themselves?


Marty

They are based on the houses I was brought up in, when they were built, they originally just had one window and a door downstairs at the rear, no rear windows upstairs. The lean- to kitchens were built on later, then for those that were lucky, a bathroom and toilet, hot water supplied from a small copper tank behind the coal fire, no water pump!

I also remember using the outside toilet (detail picture) no fun in the dark or in the winter. There was also a coal shed for each house, a ton of coal was delivered by lorry (NCB) and tipped outside the back door, this was a real downer to come home after a full days work, knowing that it had to be carried in by hand!

Some houses had no back entrance so the bagged coal had to be taken through the house to the coal shed, this usually l left dirty marks on the walls :shock:

Wouldn't it be great to go back to those days!

 

Phil

Brilliant back yards/gardens Phil :thumbs

Like Marty I was wondering about the lack of windows at the back, must have been really dark inside but it's what everybody was used to.

Some things in the past were really good and are missed, but we tend to forget about things like outside toilets in the middle of winter.


Ed

What wonderful modelling; the attention to detail is outstanding.   It really brings it home to me as in wartime London we had an outside toilet plus the coalman had to come in through the front door with the coal bag on his back (for protection  he had on a sort of leather hoody which went down to his waist) so that he could dump it into the understairs cupboard!    Mum used to put down a lot of newspapers for him to walk on; the good old days eh?

Ken

 

Most of the people who lived in these houses worked for the NCB, and were given if I remember right, five tons of coal per year.

 

The ones that had it carried through their houses could expect twenty trips in and out. Usually five tons was plenty for the year, it did mean that the coal fires were usually banked right up, also at night, "small coal" (the finer particles) were added to the fire to keep it going over night.

 

Phil

Very nice modelling Phil and an excellent railway which is full of character.......well done indeed.

Thanks John.

Thanks for the reason behind the lack of windows on the upper rear wall Phil. Useful stuff to know.

cheers

Marty

The houses were originally two up and two down, the stairs was a very narrow twisting one at the corner of a room which made moving furnature up stairs a nightmare, beds and wardrobes had to be put in through the front windows. You had to go through the main bedroom to get to the second, not very private!

 

Houses like that still exist in the villages here.

 

Phil

Madness… mind you… the original occupants probably weren't meant to earn enough to be able to afford more than a straw mattress and a cardboard box?!! 

Just having another look Phil, that yellow painted render on the rear lean to and the rusty corrugated iron fence are superb. As are the flower pots in the far courtyard.
Fiddly, time consuming stuff but well worth the effort as it has brought the buildings alive.

Bravo

Marty

Thanks Marty, I think more time is spent on this fine detailing than anything else.

 

Re the flowers, I find that commercially bought ones are over scale, I just use small dabs of paint, I think they look more real that way.

 

Phil

 

Nicely done…. 

…. off to find a small enough brush/toothpick to do the same in N scale :shock:

Brilliant, detailed modelling Phil, an inspiration to us all!
I was brought up in a 2 up, 2 down and outside toilet as well but we had a cellar and a coal chute with a metal grill in the outside footpath. Happy days (I think!)

cheers
Ron

Thanks Ron, you were very posh to have a cellar:)

Phil

Hi Phil,

Thank you for sharing what for some will be an insight to the past. Like you, I remember the outside lav at the end of the back yard, just behind the railway at Walton Hill in Liverpool, almost 60 years ago. Happy days? Of course, but inside plumbing makes life so much more comfy!

Brilliant modelling, BTW :)

Bill

Thanks Bill,

My favorite shot is this one which shows the piece of wood with a hole cut into it and white bowl which was a different shape to the ones we know today :lol:








I have not done any modeling for some time but I hope to pick up where I left off soon and that's dropping the houses on site and working the area around them.

Phil

Haha, I've sat on that seat many times in the perishing cold with cut up copies of the Liverpool Echo threaded on a piece of string and hooked over a nail in the door. Happy days? You betcha ;)

Good luck with your return to modelling and have fun,

Bill

I remember it well I was very young and it was at the bottom of the garden. I think the toilet paper was The Daily Mail a candle fo light and Mum to stop me falling in…..

Superb Detail

REgards….Alan