Buildings for 'Bacup'

[muddys-blues]

Hi Sanside please find attached a picture showing an original "Met Cam" lightweight DMU, not the "Derby lightweight", the Met Cam lightweight was the forerunner to the Class 101 Met Cam units that were built later, ps this is Bacup 1956, follow this link for more information http://www.rossendaleonline.co.uk/rossendale-chat/train-bury-bacup-1966-a-1429-10.html

[Jason T]

I did put an update up on the fateful day when RMWeb disappeared and it is one of those that has vanished, and I can't quite remember what I put up and where I was. Anyway, since then, I have been up North for Christmas, got an abcess on a tooth which meant that I have had my first dry Xmas since I was about 14, done my back in whilst being 'signalman' for my Nephew as he drove Thomas The Tank Engine around an oval of track (on the floor) at a scale 200mph and finally, after returning home, got a bit of modelling done.

 

Where I left off before leaving was that I added the ridge tiles, lead flashing and moved on with the shop front for the corner shop. A lot of painting still to do, as well as finishing off, but I hope you will agree that it looks acceptable.

 

 

The terrace on the hill has had a first coat of paint, both on the roof and a base coat on the stonework

 

 

With nothing to do on Wednesday (I am working but it is deathly quiet), I started on the next row of houses which will be on the opposite side of the road to those already constructed. This will be a row of eight houses on the side street (the residential one) and a shop / cafe (not made my mind up yet) on the main road, which will eventually pass under the railway. A mill will be on the opposite side of the road and to an extent, the railway will be seen behind this and the chimney pots of the houses (plan is for the railway to be raised by about 2.5").

 

I have used up the last of my supply of mounting card and await more Slaters embossed plastikard, but I had enough to do the shop / cafe front. As you can see, a lot of work to do with the new row and it is currently leaned together (with the dividing / interior walls slotted together for rigidity)

 

 

And finally, a view down the residential street. Many more houses to be built yet.

 

[clecklewyke]

Sandside, it looks as though you are doing for Bacup what Chris Pendlenton did for North Shields - very atmospheric modeling.

 

And I am glad that you have finally got around to follow the Stones' instruction to "PAINT IT BLACK"! Be brave, my friend. I am trying to do something of the same on Clecklewyke and Bradford North Western and it requires courage to really use enough black for a true 1950s effect.

 

I am old enough to remember when Triang advertised their Met Cam unit as being one of the Bury-Bacup units. I still have one - possibly the only one ever converted to P4. I'd swap it for a couple of lightly weathered Mk1s. Shame it's just a bit too short...

 

Ian

[Jason T]

Thanks for the compliment but there is a long way to go yet and I am on quite a steep learning curve.

[iL Dottore]

Flaming Ada, you're positively racing along, you only started the buildings in November! (I've just got around to adding the ornate stucco to the Mr Brunel's Hat Pub and it's been on the workbench for quite a while now...).

 

Do you have some kind of assembly line set up with various jigs for cutting out windows and doors?

 

One observation: the houses on the slope look like they'll need doorsteps added.

 

But looking mighty good!

 

F

[Jason T]

I wish I did have a simpler method of constructing the windows and doors but each one is done individually.

 

For the windows, clear plastikard is stuck on the inside of the wall, and they are then created using Microstrip (I find it easier to create them in place rather than construct separately and try to get the window and aperture to be the same dimensions). Most of the windows are done freehand but for some of the larger ones, I scribe lines on the back of the clear glazing as a guide.

 

With the doors, I have been adding a frame of Microstrip behind the door aperture. Separately, I then carefully measure and cut the frames, etc; from 0.010 Plastikard and then overlay them onto clear glazing where the door has glazing, or 0.030 plastikard where not. Any panelling is created from the cut-out sections and glued back into the holes from which they came (after being reduced in size very slightly). For some of the back doors, I have used embossed planking.

 

The only structure that uses different methods to the above is the frontage to the corner shop, for which I used the Brassmasters 'Old Style Windows & Doors' pack, although the door does have an overlay of the usual 0.010 on it, as it has no relief as delivered on the fret.

 

I suppose the only things that have simplified matters are:

- The dimensions for many of the houses have been similar and as I noted these down, it does help when marking out and cutting the mounting card (I've gone through two A1 sheets so far)

- After being advised about using 150 gm paper for the slates (rather than using the embossed Slaters slates), I have printed off a grid pattern on ten A4 sheets, three of which remain to be used. As tedious as it is slitting into each row at each vertical grid line, once you get going it's easy enough to do a full sheet's worth and have enough slates for a couple of houses

- With each build, I'm learning what the successes and issues are so production is speeding up. Well, it was until I ran out of materials.

 

As for the houses on the slope, the doorsteps will be added when the road is constructed, to ensure I get the angles correct.

[Jason T]

Two updates in one day! Yep, it's been that quiet at work that I have managed to progress slightly since my earlier update. And this one has truly awful photos, which look like a goat sketched them with a selection of crayons sticking out of it's backside.

 

First off, I used the very last of my current supply of embossed plastikard to move forward with the end and back of the shop / cafe, adding sills / lintels, a 'cheat' back door (just planked plastikard) and the window frames.

 

 

Here's a picture that the goat did of the end / front.

 

 

I also decided to finally make a start on the roof for the houses that sit alongside the station building. I don't know why I delayed this really; bizarrely, the angles for the attic window, wondering about the best way for the skylight and the sheer size of the area to clad with slates has been putting me off. Anyway, I did the first two (easy peasy as it not surprisingly turns out) and then used what strips of slates I had left over. I ran out quite quickly and it's now time to go downstairs and spend quality time with the missus, watching a load of Christmas pap on the TV. Hooray.

 

[Jason T]

As I am now in the process of cutting more strips of slates, I thought I might put a couple of notes and photos up of how I do it.

 

Now I am aware that the majority (if not all) of you kind folks who are commenting on this thread are more skilled than I at modelling structures but I wasn't sure about this until recently and hopefully it may be of use to others.

 

I use 150 gram paper, bought from an art shop (it's not the kind of paper that WH Smiths stock *I don't think*). It's more expensive than ordinary paper but isn't going to break the bank and a single sheet is a lot less than a single sheet of Slaters Embossed slates. It also goes through your average laserjet printer with no jamming issues.

 

In Excel, I amended the column widths to 11 Pixels and the row heights to 12 pixels (although you may wish to go higher and wider, depending on what scale or what type of building they are for). I then highlighted a suitable A4 sized area and using the Borders tool, selected a Line Colour of Grey and then added borders to all cells using All Borders

 

 

Using Print Preview as a guide, I amended the page border width and height to get as many grids as possible on a single page and then printed; I printed in Landscape. I saved the file afterwards - it has come in useful on a few occasions. You end up with a sheet like this

 

 

Next, take your craft knife and trim the page down so that the page is the width and height of the printed grid. Now, with the paper landscape on (if you printed it with that orientation) and starting with the bottom rows, make a slit for each column that passes right up through the bottom row and about 1/2 way into the one above

 

 

Once you have gone all the way across, take a straight edge rule and cut off the bottom two rows that you have just put the slits into.

 

 

What you are left with is a row of low profile slates. I use mounting card for the sub-structure of the roofs and glue the strips on with PVA, being careful to not use too much glue and also spread it thinly and evenly. Even on Plastikard structures, mounting card can be easily attached. Because you still have a printed grid on your strip, it is easy to line up the rows of slates (offset, of course) as you progress up the roof. Also, because they are made from paper, they are malleable and can be painted with water colours, acrylics, enamel (I tried it - it worked fine) - you could probably use a crayon if you really wanted to!

 

I hope this has been useful; it has helped me greatly and saved a fair bit of time, money and effort (each strip takes a couple of minutes to prepare). A big advantage that I have found is that the paper / mounting card combination is a lot less prone to the warping that using plastikard and embossed slates seems to suffer from.

[clecklewyke]

Thank you for that excellent explanation. I have been using Wills' sheets of slates and have been very aware that they have far too much relief - slates are very, very thin and your process looks achievable for even me! Much cheaper and much better.

 

Ian

[CWJ]

I have often been baffled by reports of modellers applying slates individually... clearly your method is the way forward!

 

You can buy the same thing laser-cut on suitably coloured paper from York Modelmaking - it's slightly neater, but of course it will be far more expensive than a hand-cut version.

 

Thanks for sharing the step-by-step process.

 

Cheers,

 

Will

[Jason T]

I was actually supposed to be in Spain this week but circumstances meant that I am not but am still off work, which has given me time to progress with track building (as seen in the Layout topic) and also with more terraced houses. Nothing any different from the earlier ones really but I thought I would put them up on here anyway to record progress.

 

Last time I posted in this thread, I had made a start on the roofs of the houses next to the station; this has now progressed to the point where the slates and lead flashing are on, but awaiting painting.

 

The row of houses with the cafe at the end has bee fully clad with stone and recesses cut out for lintels and sills; some of these have been added but my sanity started to suffer after a few hours

 

and I started another row of houses, that will continue up the hill from the original sloped ones. With these, all the mounting card has been cut out, stone affixed to the front and rear, recesses cut out, door surrounds, sills and lintels added and also (because I cut them too wide), stone (e.g. plastikard) added to the window recesses. Lower level at the front done but with my fingers now covered in glue and patience eroded, the rest can wait until another day

 

Close up, showing surrounds, lintels, sills, recesses, etc

[Tel2010]

Hi

Lovely looking models, I like the slates you doing,recently been trying printing slate (scalescene ones) on to thin gray card,what a difference and the edges end up pre coloured.My printer struggles with anything over 130gsm card but got around that problem by tacking a half inch leader of ordinary copier paper.Goes through then no problem.

I would a sloping street like yours,if i have room so im following this thread with interest.

 

Tel

[Jason T]

Making doors

 

I'm currently in the process of adding the doors to another batch of houses so thought it may be worth putting up how I am making them; not that it's the best method, definitely not the quickest but it does mean that there is individuality between them and with rows of very similar looking properties, any difference between them is a positive.

 

So, I start by adding the door frames to the inside of the door apertures; strips of 0.020 plastikard in this case. It serves 2 purposes - one being that it represents the door frame itself and two being that it provides a better surface to attach the door itself to. I didn't put in the base of the frames in this example.

 

 

Next, having measured the aperture, I take a sheet of 0.010 plastikard and mark out a width that is about 8mm wider than the door and then within that area (20mm wide here for a 13mm wide door), I mark out the frames, panels, etc., for the door. Windows and panels can then be removed.

As can be seen, I have continued the lines up vertically so I can batch build the doors.

 

 

I then glue the door frame to either a similar width piece of clear or solid plastikard (depending on whether the door is glazed or not). If glazed, the height should be greater than the door to allow for that small window bit that you get above doors (technical term there).

 

 

Any panels (e.g. non-glazed) are then trimmed down slightly and added back in

 

 

The door is then glued onto the rear of the frame. Please note that in these photos, nothing has been glued......

 

 

And then paint / add the frame for that window thingy, add tissue / tracing paper behind to represent frosted glass, add a letterbox, track pin for a door handle, etc., as required. There is an old piano and they play it hot behind this one.

 

[Gravy Train]

Hi Sandside,

Iam enjoying watching your creation of the ex LYR and especially the buildings,its nice to see someone getting stuck into the Architectural side of the hobby and the buildings look great, look forward to more pics as progress allows.

cheers

Peter A L

[Jason T]

Thanks Peter, I am a mere amateur compared to yourself but I am learning as I go along and hopefully, my efforts will encourage others to have a go. I really enjoy scratchbuilding structures and for this project, it calls for a lot where kits or RTP really wouldn't suffice.

[Jason T]

Back on the 5th January, I posted up a photo of the next two rows of terraced houses in a very early stage; basically, the mounting card had been cut out, stone embossed plastikard affixed and a few lintels and sills added. Quite a bit of progress has been made, but it has seemed like a bit of a mission as I've basically been working on the two rows at the same time, meaning that I had the doors, windows, etc., to do for 15 houses, including the frontage for the cafe.

 

However, I am now at the stage where one of the rows has all the curtains and nets fitted, doors attached and painted, etc., meaning that I could glue the structure together so here is an updated photo. The second row (a continuation of the ones that climb the hill towards the station) are all ready for the curtains and then they too can be glued together and the roofs started on both.

 

So, photo time.

 

The cafe, resplendent with bright red paint and banner in the windows declaring what it is

 

A bare minimum of interior detail (but hopefully enough). A couple of tables in the window, one with a young lady sat at it, waiting for her bacon butty and mug of tea

 

A wider view of the cafe and the backs of the houses which, being on the edge of the baseboards, will be very prominent so I'll have to go to town on the back yards (or what there will be of the yards, given their proximity to the edge)

 

The greengrocers opposite has had a first coat of paint on the shop frontage; another couple to go before it is dulled down somewhat. This is the view looking up the street

 

And here's a view looking down, past the (leaned together for photographic purposes) next batch of houses. Still to build will be some low-relief ones so that the right hand side doesn't end so abruptly

 

A bit of an aerial view now. It's probably a bit dark to see but the Black Five and brake van are raised 2.5" above the baseboard, to get an idea of the height of the trackbed. This seems about right to me

[Dave Holt]

Hi, Sandside,

 

I fully concur with Gravy Train's comments. Your buildings are looking really good - and such a rate of progress! You've got a whole street's worth of terraced houses done in the time I'd be agonising over the first cut!

Lots of weathering to do, though. I grew up in Oldham in the 1950's & 60's and thought bricks (except Accrington Red, which kept clean) and the local stone work on the railways were some sort of black material!!! Perhaps Bacup was quite so intensely industrial.

Just a thought on the overall scheme of things. You say the black 5 has been raised up 2.5", but it still looks to be below roof level of the houses in front. There's a danger all your track-work and most of the rather lovely station buildings and stock detail will be largely hidden from view. A greater elevation of the railway might be worth considering, so the track is about level with the tops of the roofs?

You also need to think about the reach over the buildings to the tracks nearest and furthest away, in case of derailment and failure to couple/uncouple stock, track cleaning, etc. At the end nearest the shop/cafe, it's looking like quite a reach, although the photos might be deceiving.

 

Dave.

[Jason T]

Hi Dave,

 

I've given the height of the trackbed and station quite a bit of thought over the past few weeks and 2.5" seems to be the right height for a few reasons - it gives decent enough headroom for an underpass, isn't overly high compared to the rest of the scenery, the viewing angle from the operating position will allow a decent perspective and view of the station whilst still being slightly obscured (I kind of want it that way - don't ask me why) and the houses that rise up the hill, whilst not climbing a full 2.5", at least seem to be climbing a hill towards the station and where the rest of the town would be.

 

Although the street will not climb the full height, the idea (as displayed by this really badly drawn diagram) is that at the top of the street, the road would turn away from the station but there would be steps climbing up towards it (and a yet-to-be-built mill).

 

I've done the reach over to retrieve derailed stock test and even with the station currently at ground zero (e.g. tucked away lower than it will be), I can reach all tracks without any effort.

 

I warned you the drawing would be bad, but hopefully it will give an idea of how it will look (more houses in reality, obviously)

 

Cheers,

 

Jason

[Dave Holt]

Jason,

 

You've abviously thought it all through - so the very best of luck with it. Keep us posted with progress as this is a most enjoyable thread.

Is the under-pass you mention, just a pedestrian way or a public road? If the latter, you need to think about the clearance for high vehicles plus the depth of the bridge deck.

Can't see what's wrong with your sketch - it looks perfectly all right to me.

On my layout (in progress), the railway is generally above the adjacent road (about 60 - 70 mm at the highest point - not dissimilar to yours), which rises up near the station to track level and as part of a view blocker at the at the other end to diguise the exit into the fiddle yard. All except the last bit is a model of a real place (to scale) but there were no buildings at all between the road and the railway - although a fairly large goods shed in the yard partially obscures the view of the station platform. There was a hedge and some larger trees along the top of the embankment, just outside the boundary fence, so these will also provide interupted vies of the trains. My track level will be 1200 mm above ground, so the view is onlt slightly down, so a continuous line of buildings would hide the railway completely, in my case!

 

Dave.

[Jason T]

It's a road underpass and it is going to need height restriction notices on it (although a double decker should fit under). I was initially thinking of sharing the underpass with both road and a stream in a walled-in culvert, with railings between it and the road, but I think I was getting a bit carried away with myself.

 

There has been some progress in the past two days although it doesn't really feel like it. The formers for the roofs have been added to both terraces and I am in the process of cutting out the strips of slates, which is taking ages and has given me a blister the size of Jupiter on my middle finger (I've resorted to wrapping insulation tape around the knife handle to try and help). Done about 60 strips so far but will need quite a few more, as the row with the cafe at the end is 600 mm in length.

 

 

Lines are roughly drawn on to align the strips

 

 

Stupid bloody paper slates

 

[Bolly1965]

Work on the terraced houses has progressed somewhat, although there is still some way to go. All the stonework is completed, windows in (Microstrip construction), doors (apart from one, which needs a bit of fettling) and the bay windows have progressed. Still to do is to add curtains (more below), floors and partition walls (for strength and rigidity as much as anything) and the roof.

 

So, here are some photos showing all the component parts (minus the roof) with some sketchily leaned together and others lying in front, waiting for all detail work to be completed before all being joined together.

 

So, curtains. It strikes me that a lot of terraced houses (mainly due to their proximity to the pavement and hence nosey passers-by) have net curtains and probably even more so 50 years ago. But how to add them convincingly? I've used tissue paper which I hope give the impression to a satisfactory level, being slightly opaque but still blocking the view inside.

Not all the houses will be given nets (and one may have them to only half way up the window), but it does lead me to ask a curtain-related question (not something you hear often on a railway modelling forum):

 

Walking down our street before and looking at our own curtains, most of them have a liner (or backing) to them which invariably is cream coloured so from outside, it looks like everyone has cream curtains. Back in the early 60's, apart from nets, would people have used curtain linings as commonly as they are used nowadays or, in a street in a Northern mill town on it's uppers, next to a railway station, would people have had less money and hence just used the curtains themselves with no lining?

 

I ask because if I was to base the model on 2011, then it would be cream curtains showing from outside in almost the whole street; it always looks a bit daft to me when I see a model street with every window showing bright coloured curtains - almost as if the occupants have put them up the wrong way round.

 

Anyway, photographs.

 

The 'kit' of all the parts:

 

A closer view. Not sure about the colours for the doors really (the green one definitely needs toning down and the black one is maybe too black, if that makes sense):

 

"Eeh Ethel, have you seen the state of her ruddy nets in number three. I swear she hasn't washed them since her Albert was killed in the last war":

 

Net Curtains:

 

I found this forum by searching for the answer to net curtains - and discovered the solution myself but I thought I'd share.

 

I used vellum, available at most craft shops (used in card making and scrapbooking). Choose a small pattern or an abstract design. I cut a strip the depth i require and then gently score vertical lines with a blunt instrument (ideally something like an embossing tool or empty ball point pen), while laying the vellum on a sheet of fun foam. Then turn the vellum over and score the other side. this gives the effect of pleats in the nets. Be careful not to press too hard or the vellum with break - it can be quite brittle. Then just cut off the length you require and glue behind the window.

 

If anyone is interested I'll post some pics (this is my first post so just finding my way around.

[Jason T]

Hi,

 

please do post some pics. I've 'put up' all the nets I need for now but there will be other houses to build.

 

Cheers,

 

Jason

[Bolly1965]

Hope this works, was difficult to photograph in artificial light as the vellum has a reflective quality.

 

Vellum:

 

vellum01 by bolly1965, on Flickr

 

Scribing:

 

vellum02 by bolly1965, on Flickr

 

Finished nets mounted in windows:

 

vellum03 by bolly1965, on Flickr

[Jason T]

That looks good, thanks for posting the links to the pics. I tend to think of the art & craft shop as a modelling supply shop nowadays; they have much more useful stuff in them than your average model shop. Popped into the one in town last week (Broad Canvas on Broad St in Oxford) and left with modelling clay (like DAS but cheaper), mounting card, 150 gsm paper, a 60cm length steel rule, a bag of assorted shapes and sizes of balsa (that I have no idea what I will use for but it looks like something that may come in handy), a box of pins, knife blades, decent quality paint brushes of various sizes, and some rather handy glue spreaders. I mean, Howes is a great shop and all that but the sort of stuff you need to scratchbuild stuff just isn't on the shelves really (and Howes is one of the better ones in the area, as at least they sell some materials, mainly aimed at the plane / boat builders though)

[Bolly1965]

As you can see from the Metcalf kit - I'm not up to your standard! (Newbie), although I have been inspired by this thread to scratchbuild a pub I used to own. I couldn't have picked a more difficult building as it is almost triangular with an irregular curved wall! So don't hold your breath for pictures of it anytime soon.