Black Country Blues

[Merfyn Jones]

Brilliant work on the AEC flatbed with the stillages and folded sheet. Very Black Country indeed.

 

 

Found this site last night which will appeal to some I've no doubt. It is a pity that Trafalgar sidings doesn't have any "terminals" capacity because there would definately be some scope for a model off this Flickr site

 

http://www.flickr.co...s/90515111@N06/

 

Incidentally, we use the three axle Coles crane to crane 02003 onto a low loader from Pensnett to Bescot for the Bescot Open Day.

 

 

Thanks for the link Phil, very interesting. I have pasted it over to the Railway Motors thread.

Cheers Merf.

[Stubby47]

Ooh-ooh, yeahhhhhhh.

 

Shapeways item

[Oldddudders]

Ooh-ooh, yeahhhhhhh.

It's a bit "low-flush" for ancient industrial use, perhaps. But at least it's clean!

 

And I think you need help!

[2ManySpams]

Cassettes on sky hooks was one thought Kevin.

[Andy Y]

I've re-visited the map to see how matters could be improved with respect to Patent Shaft (hence the inclusion of sidings beyond Holyhead Road to access the works) but it's also interesting to note that according to Bob Yate's excellent "The South Staffordshire Railway Vol.1" (Pg.44) the creation of a chord was costed to link the SSR and the OWWR from south of OWWR's Princes End station to a junction west of the SSR's Princes End station which has also been included on the map. It wouldn't have necessarily added traffic to the distorted-Darlo route but could have led to its increased usefulness meaning it lasted a little longer.

 

[mikeh]

Hi Andy

 

I think the spur at Princes End was actually built, certainly the formation was, but there is some doubt if it ever opened. In 1921 part of the formation was used for Tranters Siding which served Tranters Boiler Works and remained in situ until 1967. The OWW line stayed open until April 1968 to serve the South Staffs Wagon works but closed once a connection was laid in to the Stour Valley at Bloomfield Jn. There was a proposal in 1969 to re-open it between Tipton and Dudley with a chord from the Stour at Bloomfield, but this came to nothing.

 

One other point regarding your revised map, surely the connection to serve the 'Shaft should face Darlaston?

 

Regards

Mike

[Andy Y]

One other point regarding your revised map, surely the connection to serve the 'Shaft should face Darlaston?

 

Ideally I'd have like to do so Mike but every alternative I could come up with (leaving the section between Darlo and Holyhead Road matching the model) looked even more contrived so the assumption is that there's some space for exchange sidings SW of the Holyhead Road.

[Stubby47]

I though OG was on the skyhooks ?

[Coombe Barton]

One from Salford Quays

 

http://ickleweb.com/?p=142

 

Or were you thinking of something more like this ... ?

 

 

Or one for Damian, but mind the splinters

 

http://www.e-scoutcraft.com/science/sky_hook.html

[Shadow]

Wouldn't take much to lengthen the down pipe, extend the handle and a chain!

[Shadow]

About 3/4 the way down the page, no picture.

 

Item SLC134 Gents toilet fittings x 2 sets Set contains WC-pan, cistern, urinal & basin.

 

http://www.scalelink.co.uk/acatalog/Scenic___Scale_1_76__OO_.html

 

 

also, when did the standard blue chemical loo builders loo start?

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/00-Gauge-Model-Railway-1-76-Chemical-Toilets-/110888436813

[Jason T]

The thing with creating stone buildings with embossed sheet is that the mortar courses are quite wide comparatively, so my method of painting them has been to paint the full structures in a relevant render / base stone colour and then dab the various shades of brown and black on to get the required weathered effect but leaving the mortar courses untouched. Hard to describe I suppose, but post no. 111 on this thread shows how I do it: http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/40873-buildings-for-bacup/page__st__100

 

However, embossed brick has much narrower mortar courses. I have tried the above method before, when I built that Skaledale Challenge house last year and whilst it worked ok, the problem was that the mortar really stood out. In the past, I have also tried adding the mortar by painting the building in brick colour first and then wetting the surface and dripping diluted emulsion into the courses and whilst this sort of worked, the mortar was a bit washed out and it left excessive amounts of the emulsion on the brick faces which, although I managed to remove most of it, wasn't quite right. So for the shed, I wanted to try something a little bit different and have ended up using the old methods but slightly differently.

 

Basically, I painted the walls in a base brick colour (Precision Light Red Brick in this case) and then when thoroughly dry, added the emulsion (Magnolia with a touch of brown added) but thicker than I normally would, covering both the brick and filling the courses. My idea was to then use the rag dabbing method over the top of that but just to see, I gave one of the surfaces a rub with my finger and it brought the emulsion off the faces of the bricks and left the mortar in place.

 

The bricks are a bit shiny and I couldn't get my finger in awkward places, but it has left a much better surface and base colour for the rag dabbing method. What do you think?

 

 

Unfortunately, I did it a bit long with my middle finger and got a blister (heat build up), popped it and then opened a bag of Quavers, with the result that the cheesy flavour got in the now open blister. Stupid Jason

[DonB]

According to Wikipedia, the Blue Loo has been around since the 1960s. The earliest I can find in a quick scan of adverts on Google is a company saying they have been satisfying customers for over 20 years.

[2ManySpams]

Reminds me of the joke about the bloke who eats Wotsits and goes to the doctor because a part of his anatomy has changed colour..... (not one for a family website!)

[Jason T]

At some point soon, I will start to pick out bricks in different shades, something I am not looking forward to as it means mixing small amounts of paint to get the desired difference in shades. One thing I want to avoid is having a few that are a lot darker as to me, it just looks wrong. Looking at the back of my house earlier, no two bricks are the same colour but there is no great difference between them, same applies with the photos of the real shed.

 

Can you tell that I am conscious that this building will be on view to the public and a lot of critics?

[2ManySpams]

I put small blobs of paint on a palette near each other and then progressively introduce elements into a central mix, painting the odd brick as you go. It means you only mix one lot of paint but that the colour progressively changes - just like bricks. It can look a bit hideous / patchwork quilt to start with but an overall wash of thin grey harmonises and tones down everything. (see end of this post for the same process on a stone finish)

[Coombe Barton]

Can you tell that I am conscious that this building will be on view to the public and a lot of critics?

And experts - and often they're the same people. That's the same reason you don't see any of their modelling anywhere - they're too busy getting it perfect.

[2ManySpams]

And this post and a few after it...

[2ManySpams]

And experts - and often they're the same people. That's the same reason you don't see any of their modelling anywhere - they're too busy getting it perfect.

 

I think we're all our own worst critics - that's not a bad thing as it drives you on to do better. What I dislike are, as you say, the armchair critics who criticise everything, have no skill of their own and build nothing.

[Jason T]

At least when someone says to you 'what idiot built that shed?' you can now reply with ' the kind of idiot who soothes a popped blister by shoving it in a bag of Quavers'

[2ManySpams]

At least when someone says to you 'what idiot built that shed?' you can now reply with ' the kind of idiot who soothes a popped blister by shoving it in a bag of Quavers'

 

Could be worse, you could be slicing chilies, onions, lemons or peppers...

[2ManySpams]

Oh, and the building will look great on the hill, on its own, in the full sight of thousands of people.....

[Worsdell forever]

Managed to get the wipers on the AEC tonight and they're made ready for the Bedford.

 

[KevinWalsh]

For what it's worth, a friend of mine who is a professional model making recommends getting the building fully painted, then rub it down with scrunched up newspaper before picking out individual bricks. What I have seen of his work tends to support this theory and practice, how ever I only mention it as food for thought and not as 'you must do it this way'.

 

Kev

[2ManySpams]

Looking great Paul, transformed the model.