ScR steam in the 50's

[user=1120]peterm[/user] wrote:

Even amongst the other superb photo's, the second one in that last lot stands out as realistic rock faces.

I'll second that  :thumbs





Ed

As Pete said Richard, those rock faces are quite something.

I'm guessing they're Woodland Scenics moulds but the painting is absolutely fantastic !!

Not sure if I've asked before but were/are you an artist, draftsman, architect or some other "artistic" wizard.  Your modelling is amazing and something we could all learn from.  Do you fancy writing a book ?   :roll: 

Thanks all; glad you like it. The rock faces are WS and simply painted with two or three washes of black grey and brown. the top two intermingled a bit, IIR .Not an artist by any means - dabbled a bit when younger but wasn't willing to put in the effort to get a satisfactory result, and didn't get any creative buzz from it. I do work with colour I suppose, being a picture framer and sold artists materials for years, but I've always found it easier to get results from modelling the prototype, as you just copy what's there….. ;-) Seriously though, I amassed a large collection of colour images of my modelled areas which helped enormously. This is something that is important when creating a real location and also working from start to finish under the same lighting. Everything is built and photographed in 6500K full spectrum daylight tubes which gives an accurate colour rendition.

That's the tubes I use to light my layout.

Quick look at a couple of recent jobs - a John Menzies kiosk that was a feature of many Scottish stations and one of my Mk11 Small Bens, this time to an accurate  outline rather than the puffed up version based on the T9…

Hmmm… some work to be done on this it seems. Back once I've worked out how to load full size images….

If I remember right, click browse > select picture > untick Thumb > click ADD > click OK to Message > Click Preview > Click Ok to Message and finally click Post reply.

Like this.

New website won't allow me to post two photos in the same post - Your Model Railway

Your picture of a John Menzies kiosk made me search around Richard, as I remember them as the great rival to W H Smith many years ago.

Turns out they're now an aviation company, which was quite a surprise.

Learn something every day on here  



Ed

 

Ben Alder said

Hmmm… some work to be done on this it seems. Back once I've worked out how to load full size images….

From “Post #287,553”, 27th April 2023, 12:01 AM

Copied from announcements as I've just made changes to make it easier

Thumbnails are now OFF by default- everyonw was just turning them off anyway

I have however restricted the image width to 1100px to try and stop images that are just too big for the forum being uploaded - if you try to upload an image wider than that it should autoscale it down to the required size.

Hopefully this makes thing a little easier for everyone

​​​​​​​So uploading images should now just be a case of Add Attachment, Browse, Select Image and then okay the next dialogue box.

Cheers all, thanks for all that. I'll digest it later as I've just had to replace the stack  hard drive and techie installed a new version  of W 10 and lost all my saved go to's although  he did keep the really important photo files  which I had been negligent in backing up, so have had a week of computer wrangling , which has been hard on my brain cell… Still, everything is running a lot faster now  and getting used to the often upgraded tools that I had refused to let themselves improve on the previous system. A disruption is no bad thing once it has been sorted so I'll read through all this and digest.

See how this goes….

Bingo! Back in business…. The Small Ben build is a bit of a saga. I did five some ten or so years ago based around the Hornby T9, a very similar engine designed by Dugald Drummond, Peter's brother who between them had spells at most of the Scottish companies before Dugald went to the LSWR, and they collaborated closely, which has been a boon for Highland bodgers, but the T 9 was a good bit bulkier than his brothers Ben, something I overlooked as for me, it at the time was the only game in town…there was a vintage white metal kit but I have done enough of these to not want to go there again. When the Adams radial appeared that was a game changer, with a more or less correct wheelbase and small enough to suit several ScR locos. I had started a batch of the white metal bodies four years ago but had ground to a halt because of the usual problems ahead, but had prepared chassis for them - reversed Radial with surgery to the chassis block and the drivers swapped for the correct 6' diameter of the Bens. This sat in abeyance for a year or so but eventually I returned to it and did a composite/ total hack up for their uppers - T9 footplate and cut back and lowered boiler, Nucast spares from their white metal kit for the cab and splashers, a smoke box from the T9 cut back and lowered, various HR or CR boiler fittings from available sources and either T9 or 700 tenders Highlandised. A real melange, but almost completely accurate in outline and the culmination of something I had started fifty plus years ago in an attempt to create  a model of an engine that served for over half a century. The tender cab is a whimsy, taken from a pic from the Thirties but I thought I would add it to a loco as an option. I haven't as yet got round to weathering the locos; another one in the never diminishing pile of things to be done…Finally, here is a line up of most of them on shed at Helmsdale.

A good bit of remodelling of trackwork was undertaken at Helmsdale last year as I had over the years acquired two brass built HR locos that had obviously only gone in straight lines before, so the approach roads were eased out. This was achieved by sacrificing a storage siding behind the backscene and moving the backscene rearwards to take its space. This also gave the existing dock siding a useful extension. Here are a before and after of the work done. Shifting track is a painless job thanks to having it on a Tracklay base and so is easily lifted and any cork infill between tracks can be scraped off easily, having used Copydex as an adhesive.
As it was…

Planning the changes..

And more or less done…

As a follow on from this, a few months later I remodelled the engine shed layout. It was originally reached from a point just after the platform crossover, followed by a Peco 3 way point. Unfortunately both of these had sporadic electrical contact problems, which I tolerated for years mainly because of the faff of relifting them, but after the approach realigning I decided to sort it out. The other factor was that the three way point was very prominent in shed photos and to my mind screamed train set every time I saw it on screen, so a change began. The nearest two tracks in the above photo were storage sidings, and another reason for the first alterations as the access curves were tight, and longer wheelbase stock had trouble traversing the inner siding so I decided to use one of the two sidings as the shed access and create a more realistic prototypical arrangement. Peco bullhead points were used as Unifrogs, and have proved completely reliable. Here is a shot of the old set up.

And the new set up.



And a shot of the real thing - I had to site the turntable beyond the shed because of baseboard problems but all the facilities are modelled - the storage sidings are just to the right of the turntable out of shot.

Ed said

Your picture of a John Menzies kiosk made me search around Richard, as I remember them as the great rival to W H Smith many years ago.

Turns out they're now an aviation company, which was quite a surprise.

Learn something every day on here  



Ed

 

From “Post #287,556”, 27th April 2023, 8:45 AM

Making paper planes maybe ……………………… :cool:

Brilliant photos yet again Richard. 

I love your scenes - so realistic.  Keep them coming.

Petermac said

Ed said

Your picture of a John Menzies kiosk made me search around Richard, as I remember them as the great rival to W H Smith many years ago.

Turns out they're now an aviation company, which was quite a surprise.

Learn something every day on here  



Ed

 

From “Post #287,556”, 27th April 2023, 8:45 AM

Making paper planes maybe ……………………… :cool:

From “Post #287,669”, 5th May 2023, 9:27 AM

 

Ed said

Your picture of a John Menzies kiosk made me search around Richard, as I remember them as the great rival to W H Smith many years ago.

Turns out they're now an aviation company, which was quite a surprise.

Learn something every day on here  



Ed

 

From “Post #287,556”, 27th April 2023, 8:45 AM

They still run a parcels delivery service in Scotland, and, AFAIK, distribute newspapers and magazines. A company that has adapted to changing times..

Quick look at some goings on at Helmsdale - some vans being shunted ready for the next train south and a grice of the shed; not a difficult job as it was joined to the platform…