The Burford Branch

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martin goodall
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Re: The Burford Branch

Postby martin goodall » Tue Dec 08, 2020 5:02 pm

Further progress on the Burford Branch has been rather slow recently. One thing I did the other day was to put the Station Building and Train Shed back on the layout. This revealed a potential problem that arises from the layout lights being positioned some 18 inches further from the layout than previously, which results in the angle at which the light falls on the layout being noticeably lower. This creates a rather autumnal effect, in contrast to the bright summer sunshine that used to flood the layout.

This can be seen by contrasting the photographs below. The first shows the previous lighting

Bfd 4 (Edit).jpg

Compare that with this next shot, showing the effect of the repositioned lighting

IMG_6768.jpg

Looking the other way, the next photo shows the previous lighting

IMG_1242.JPG

Whilst the shot reproduced below shows the same view under the current lighting.

IMG_6767.jpg

The currently repositioned lighting also throws longer shadows across the station yard and brewery yard, which further increases the autumnal effect. You might think this lighting is ‘atmospheric’, but it does not produce the look I intended, and I would prefer to restore the effect of the higher summer sun, which will involve moving the lighting rig. This is plumbed-in to the ceiling (so it's a job that I am not looking forward to doing).
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BrockleyAndrew
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Re: The Burford Branch

Postby BrockleyAndrew » Tue Dec 08, 2020 7:28 pm

I'd thought about what season for a layout, but never about lighting for different times of day!.... obvious contrast to day layouts is a night scene but artificial night lighting casts the same shadows all night...is Brettel Road ever twilight or always deep night, Jim? (I know you use it as a daytime background for stock photographs).
So, Martin, as a townscape Burford doesn't have any seasonal trees does it? So could be any time of year?

Andrew

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Re: The Burford Branch

Postby martin goodall » Wed Dec 09, 2020 11:26 am

At one time, quite a few years ago, I did seriously contemplate an Autumn setting for the layout. I was impressed by the attractive Autumn colours on Jas Millham’s Yaxbury Branch layout. But in the end, I decided that I would prefer to set the layout in high Summer, with parched grass and the deep green tree foliage one sees in August.

There will in fact be quite a few trees on the layout, one or two of which are already in place. Re-spraying them to display yellowing leaves would probably not be a problem, but the change in the quality of the sunlight (which the altered positioning of the layout lights has brought about), whilst it produces an atmospheric effect, rather puts me off; hence my preference for the bright sunshine of high Summer.

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Re: The Burford Branch

Postby jim s-w » Wed Dec 09, 2020 1:47 pm

BrockleyAndrew wrote:is Brettel Road ever twilight or always deep night, Jim? (I know you use it as a daytime background for stock photographs).
Andrew


Think of it as about 5pm to 7pm in late October (after the clocks change). Kind of evening rush hour (not that anyone’s rushing or many people are about at all). Any later than that and it starts to look odd that the business are still open. I can’t remember the exact time I’ve done the clocks in the station buildings!

I’ve aimed for a faint orange glow on the horizon the view Is kinda looking north west.

I really like the shadows Martin. It’s not something a lot of railway modellers think about aiming for a flat even light. I don’t think ‘rural grim’ as opposed to my preferred urban grim would really work in your case though. Can you make the light warmer and just say it’s a summer evening? Obviously on my other layout shadows are quite a big deal. :thumb

Jim
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martin goodall
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Re: The Burford Branch

Postby martin goodall » Wed Dec 09, 2020 2:07 pm

jim s-w wrote:I really like the shadows Martin. It’s not something a lot of railway modellers think about aiming for a flat even light. I don’t think ‘rural grim’ as opposed to my preferred urban grim would really work in your case though. Can you make the light warmer and just say it’s a summer evening? Obviously on my other layout shadows are quite a big deal.


I entirely agree. 'Rural grim' is a real no-no on the Burford Branch, so far as I'm concerned.

The current lighting rig has already been beefed up by fitting four new 13.5-watt LED bulbs with a good warm colour temperature (2,700 Kelvin [now checked]) and with a fairly even spectrum distribution (not measured, but simply judged by eye), which pour more than 6,000 lumens over the layout, so the only way of increasing the 'warmth' of the light would be by moving the lights closer to the layout, i.e. back to roughly the same relative position they were in before the layout was moved.

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Re: The Burford Branch

Postby jim s-w » Wed Dec 09, 2020 3:04 pm

Orange filters?
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Re: The Burford Branch

Postby martin goodall » Wed Dec 09, 2020 8:01 pm

jim s-w wrote:Orange filters?

This might be effective in changing the quality of light from an Autumn afternoon to a Summer evening, but the problem of the long shadows would remain. Not only does this throw the platform side of the station building into shadow (as shown on my recent photos), but it makes the shadows that are thrown on the backscene by the two malt kilns about an inch and a half taller, which would require significantly taller low relief trees on the backscene to catch the shadows, so as to prevent them falling on the backscene itself (where the painted houses are supposed to be some distance away).

So it's not just the quality of the light that bothers me, but the angle at which it falls on the layout.

I dare say this sort of thing wouldn't bother most railway modellers in the slightest, but even on a home-based layout I think that both lighting and presentation are important, as are composition and colour. Maybe this is too art-farty for some, but Chacun à son goût.
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Re: The Burford Branch

Postby jim s-w » Wed Dec 09, 2020 8:27 pm

I can see what your saying Martin and the shadows on the backscene are a definite problem.

I just much prefer the new shadows as they, to me, create much more interesting images. I can see it’s not the look you’re after. (Plus it’s not the way you’ve done the backscene either)

Another suggestion can you either defuse the light to loose the harsh shadows or can you bounce the lights off the ceiling to change their direction?

It might help if we could see how the lighting is arranged.
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martin goodall
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Re: The Burford Branch

Postby martin goodall » Thu Dec 10, 2020 10:33 am

(The lighting rig was illustrated in a post in this thread on 31st October.)

I am going to leave it for now, and take time to reconsider the lighting issue. I might be able to live with the shadowing effect inside the Train Shed. The bleakness in the recent photos may have been due to some extent to the absence (at present) of platform furniture.

The lighting level over the rest of the layout is probably still acceptable, and it would not be the end of the world if the low relief trees that will stand against the backscene have to be somewhat taller than I originally intended.

This might be a better alternative to having to move the ceiling fitting, which would really be a bit of a faff.

Work over the next few weeks will have to be done off the layout, and I have taken the Goods Shed components away with me, with a view to making further progress on that building.

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Re: The Burford Branch

Postby martin goodall » Sun Jan 17, 2021 6:52 pm

More than a month has elapsed since I last reported progress on the Burford Branch, because there really hasn’t been any more progress since then.

I decided last November that I really ought to try to get the Goods Shed finished. This model is a prime example of the ‘slow modelling’ that has always been my default approach to the hobby. It was the first building I started to construct for this layout. That was in 1992 (!) – getting on for 30 years ago.

The first two photos (taken in 1993) show the earliest stage in its construction. It is typical of goods sheds built on the GWR and associated lines in the 1860s. The model is based loosely on the goods shed at Thame, with other details from West Ealing, Kidlington and Hungerford.

Bfd GS1.jpg

The structure is mainly built from Wills scenic sheets (SSMP 227 - English bond brickwork, for the main walls). The 2 x 1 mock-up for the platform was too high, and was later replaced by a thinner piece of wood to provide a lower platform.

Bfd GS2.jpg

The lean-to at the left-hand end of the building is the goods office, while the goods lock-up is at the right-hand end. The intention is to add a corrugated iron extension to this, as seen at West Ealing (below).

W Ealing 1.jpg

Another detail that I incorporated in the model, taken in this case from the shed at Hungerford, was the corbelling back of the brickwork on one side of the entrance arch at the right-hand of the building, in order to give staff access to the open goods deck beyond.

IMG_5158.JPG

After a time, the front wall of the shed acquired a warp, and this was dealt with by screwing a substantial piece of L-section brass to the inside of the wall. The screw heads on the outside of the wall will be hidden by the boxed eaves in due course.

IMG_6729.JPG

The bright brick red of the plastic mouldings was ‘killed’ by painting the whole structure with matt white enamel before further painting of the walls. I decided that this would best be done before further assembly of the structure.

IMG_6723.JPG

The next photo [seen before] shows the component parts of the building propped in position on the layout.

IMG_5855.JPG

As shown when I was explaining the dismantling of the layout prior to its move last year, I have also built the structure of the goods deck inside the shed.

IMG_5856.JPG

I decided to continue with the painting of the walls before further assembly. I assumed that this building would have been constructed with yellow London stocks, like the shed at Kidlington. I took some colour reference photos there many years ago, but these were of little practical use, as they were taken after the brickwork had been scrubbed clean when the building was converted for industrial use and had lost its sooty patina. The black and white photos below, which I had taken some years earlier give a better impression of the previous appearance of the brickwork.

Kidlington 1.jpg

Kidlington 2.jpg

I pored over various articles describing a bewildering number of different ways to paint brickwork, but came to the conclusion that I would just have to experiment for myself, having chosen to use enamels in this case. After a false start trying to paint a light mortar colour before painting the bricks, I ended up applying Phoenix-Precision P971 Yellow Brick (matt) over the whole of the main walls. When this had been allowed to dry thoroughly, a thin coat of Humbrol 72 Khaki Drill was brushed over the brick panels and wiped off immediately. The intention was to represent the darker mortar courses, but this was only partially successful.

IMG_6763.JPG

I had also picked out some of the stretchers with Humbrol 61 ‘Flesh’, and was quite pleased with the effect when seen on the workbench, but as the photo above shows, it was hardly visible when the model was set on the layout. Clearly, this is going to require further work, and I need to be rather less subtle in creating a variegated effect in the brickwork. I have downloaded suitable photos from the internet showing a number of buildings constructed of yellow London stocks which display varying states of weathering, and I shall have another go at it.

I intended that the brickwork on the goods lock-up at the right-hand end of the shed should be brown brick, in contrast to the yellow stock bricks used on the remainder of the building. So, in this case, I made up a 50:50 mix of the yellow brick colour with Humbrol 29 Dark Earth, which seemed to give the right sort of colour. To represent yellow mortar, I later applied a thin mix of the yellow brick colour, then wiped it off with a dry tissue, leaving the yellow mortar colour in the mortar courses.

IMG_6746.JPG


However, I can’t say that this was particularly convincing, and it is even less visible when the model is viewed on the layout.

IMG_6762.JPG


IMG_6761.JPG


And that was as far as I had got by early December, when I last had the opportunity of visiting the layout. I brought the Goods Shed components back home with me, and when I can work up enough enthusiasm to carry on with it, I will have a more determined go at painting the brickwork. I am confident that I can achieve the effect I want; it is just that the motivation is lacking at the moment. (But it’s a good excuse to indulge in some armchair modelling instead!)
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JFS
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Re: The Burford Branch

Postby JFS » Mon Jan 18, 2021 10:25 am

Not sure if this would be any help at all, but this is a Kodachrome II slide of Thame GS I took on 31 July 1973. It was not the brightest of days! There seem to be a lot of blue engineering bricks about the thing and it was quite a "dark" looking building I recall. The extension to the office is interestingly different. I went to Watlington on the same day and took quite a few of the station building which was still in its GW paintwork. I can post those if of interest.

Keep up the good work!

Thame GS Small.jpg


Best Wishes,
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Re: The Burford Branch

Postby JFS » Mon Jan 18, 2021 10:30 am

... just one thing is worrying me Martin - why is the chimney at the opposite end to the office?

martin goodall
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Re: The Burford Branch

Postby martin goodall » Mon Jan 18, 2021 11:03 am

Many thanks, Howard.

Close-up photos of the goods shed at Thame seem to be as rare as hen's teeth, so this is a very helpful reference. Ian Harrison kindly sent me a copy of his drawings of this shed some years ago, which he had surveyed before it was demolished.

A unique feature of the shed at Thame was that the brick piers on the side of the shed facing the line had been cut back at some date to give an extra 4½ inches clearance (!)

I am not copying the design of the shed at Thame exactly; for example, the rail entrances on my shed will have elliptical arches, with a semi-circular arch over the road entrance at the left-hand end, and different lean-to additions (goods office, goods lock-up, etc.), but the Thame design was the starting point.

In point of fact, this was a more or less standard design for goods sheds on the GWR and associated lines in the 1860s. The leading dimensions were generally the same, with variations in the material from which each shed was constructed, and various changes in the detailing (such as the omission of brick piers and thinner brick panels between them in some cases).

Being located in the Cotswolds, I decided that the shed at Burford might well have been built of yellow London stocks like the shed at Kidlington, rather than red bricks, in order to blend in with the Cotswold limestone of the surrounding buildings.

I am sure that the photos of the station at Watlington would be of considerable interest (although not perhaps to dyed-in-the-wool enthusiasts for minor lines, such as the LMS or the LNER). I started photographing ex-GWR buildings myself in 1973, but only in black and white, and I concentrated on lines that were still open, on the (possibly mistaken) assumption that the remains on closed lines would be fewer and further between. My most frustrating experience was to arrive at Henley, camera at the ready, only to find that the train shed had been demolished six weeks earlier!

(Incidentally, it's worth remembering that all the buildings on the Watlington & Princes Risborough Railway were unique to that line - they were not GWR designs; the Great Western just happened to take over the line to save it from bankruptcy.)
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Re: The Burford Branch

Postby martin goodall » Mon Jan 18, 2021 11:10 am

Since I wrote my response to Howard, I have just seen his second comment.

The goods office at Burford is at the left-hand end of the shed, and the chimney is at that end. The lean-to brick extension at the right-hand end (together with the corrugated iron extension next to it, which has yet to be added to the model) is the goods lock-up.

I appreciate that one would normally expect the goods office to be at the end of the building nearest the station building, but for some reason it was arranged the other round at Burford.
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JFS
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Re: The Burford Branch

Postby JFS » Mon Jan 18, 2021 1:04 pm

Just to mention that Howard is JFS! Also I understand about the W&PRR - however, it is the preservation of the GW colours that is the interesting aspect - especially given the strange ideas often seen on preserved lines! I will start a separate thread rather than clog things up here.

I had the same experience of getting to Devizes just as the buldozers drove off-site - though the goods shed and a few minor buildings were still standing. By contrast, I photographed Tetbury GS and Salisbury (SR) completely and they are still standing today! But I did get the GW goods shed and SB at Salisbury and they are not...

At Watlington, everything was still there mouldering slowly in 1973, and, athough the signal box was burnt down about 12 months later, most of it was just left and is still there today - apart from the fact that everything timber has slowly rotted to nothing and the wholes site is burried in trees.

Thanks for pointing out the arrangement of your offices - I had missed that detail. I was also interested that you mention Kiddlington being Yellow brick as I had assumed that were all much the same and I remember a few in engineering brick - Culham and Newbury being two further examples. But no doubt there were plenty of variants.

Best Wishes,
Howard

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Re: The Burford Branch

Postby martin goodall » Mon Jan 18, 2021 1:34 pm

Thanks, Howard. I had just worked out that JFS and Howard Bolton were one and the same person, and had edited my last post accordingly just before your latest note. I admit that I missed this point when originally replying.

I did quite a bit of research into GWR structure colours some years ago. I was originally sceptical about the survival of GWR structure colours after so many years, but there is ample evidence (like the photos you took at Watlington) that these colours did survive in quite a few locations long after the old company ceased to exist. I entirely agree, though, about the bizarre interpretation of these colours on some preserved lines. However, my researches did convince me that even on the GWR itself there were noticeable variations from place to place in the reproduction of these 'standard tints'.

My remark about the W&PRR buildings was aimed at those GWR enthusiasts who choose to model their goods sheds on the admittedly attractive structures at Chinnor, Aston Rowant and Watlington in the apparent belief that they were GWR buildings, whereas they were seen nowhere else on the GWR system.

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Re: The Burford Branch

Postby martin goodall » Fri Jan 22, 2021 11:02 am

After a period of six weeks over Christmas and the New Year when I did no model-making at all, I finally got back to work on painting the brickwork of the Goods Shed this week.

There was no need to change the basic yellow brick colour that I had previously applied to the model; what was needed was the darkening/sooting of some bricks and picking out others in a pinkish orange, following my previous attempt at the latter which had proved to be far too subtle. Humbrol 72 Khaki Drill was dry-brushed over some areas of the walls, as well as picking out some bricks in this colour, and Humbrol 61 ‘Flesh’ was also applied neat to some individual bricks,

IMG_6797.JPG


I dry-brushed Humbrol 29 Dark Earth over the goods lock-up at the right hand end of the building in order to emphasise the brown bricks used for this extension, in contrast to the yellow London stocks used on the rest of the building.

IMG_6799.JPG


The gable end at this end of the building has been left reasonably clean, because I intend to add some sign-writing to this gable. This was the main reason for painting the walls before the building is assembled.

IMG_6800.JPG


Slightly more soot/blackening was evident at the other end of the building at Kidlington, including signs of smoke seeping through the brickwork of the chimney.

IMG_6793.JPG


There was very noticeable blackening of the bricks at Kidlington around the road entrance to the shed at this end, and I have attempted to produce this in my model. I am not totally satisfied with the effect, but this feature will be difficult to see from normal viewing angles on the layout, so I’m not going to lose any sleep over it. Before the paint had dried hard, mortar courses were raked out with a scriber to restore the underlying yellow mortar colour.

IMG_6804.JPG

I will only be able to assess the colour of the building properly when I can view it on the layout, which is not likely to be for quite a few weeks yet. I will probably tone down the colour of the brickwork further by brushing soot over the walls, as I have done on other buildings on the layout.

In the meantime, I can now deal with the lettering on the gable wall, and then there is a lot of constructional work to get on with. This model is still a long way from being finished.
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Re: The Burford Branch

Postby martin goodall » Tue Jan 26, 2021 5:30 pm

I’ve just finished adding the lettering to the gable end of the Goods Shed. This admittedly involved some modeller’s licence. The GWR sometimes announced the presence of a goods depot in this way on the end of a goods shed, but the subsidiary wording is admittedly an invention on my part. (I didn’t think that “Express goods train service - one day transit between important towns”, as seen on the side of the goods sheds at Stroud and at Brimscombe, would quite work for a terminus at the end of a country branch line.)

IMG_6806.JPG

The lettering was done with home-made water slide transfers, composing the text on the computer using suitable fonts and then printing this onto decal film. The slightly worn or faded appearance of the lettering was achieved by using a greyscale setting for the lettering, rather than black. Due to problems encountered in trying to get my laptop to communicate with the printer I wanted to use, I ended up by printing it out on another printer, then scanning the image and saving it as a PDF file, and printing the water slide decals from that. By luck, the slight loss of definition in the image that resulted enhanced the sign-written and slightly ‘tired’ appearance of the lettering that I was aiming for.

The relevant area on the brickwork had been painted with gloss varnish beforehand to give a good surface to which to apply the transfers, and the use of ‘Microset’ and ‘Microsol’ helped the transfers to bed down firmly onto the brickwork. When the transfers have thoroughly hardened, I shall spray them with Testor’s Dulcote, both to restore the matt appearance of the brickwork and to protect the lettering. As I mentioned before, the building will get some additional weathering before it is finally installed on the layout

IMG_6805.JPG

These photos were taken on the workbench in less than ideal lighting, so they don’t really show the appearance of the lettering as it will be seen when the goods shed is in place on the layout.
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Tony Wilkins
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Re: The Burford Branch

Postby Tony Wilkins » Wed Jan 27, 2021 3:55 pm

Nice one.
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martin goodall
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Re: The Burford Branch

Postby martin goodall » Wed Jan 27, 2021 8:32 pm

Thanks, Tony. The final result was better than I had expected.

The decal film proved to be extremely delicate when separated from the backing sheet, which I suspect is why the instructions recommend that after printing the lettering on the decal sheet on a laser printer (this particular decal paper is designed specifically for laser printing) it should be sprayed with Microscale Liquid Decal Film to strengthen the decal film so that it will not bunch up when applied to the model.

I didn't have that particular product to hand, so I had to try my luck with the unprotected decal film, and I did have problems with it, only succeeding with the smaller lettering at my third attempt.

Before I spray Testor's Dulcote varnish on these transfers, I have taken the precaution today of applying some spare transfers to a test piece, and I will test the Dulcote on that, before committing myself to using it on the actual model. I have successfully applied Testor's Dulcote to POWsides rub-down transfers in the past, but having heard cautionary tales about this varnish I felt that it would be a wise precaution to test it first.

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Re: The Burford Branch

Postby Paul Willis » Wed Jan 27, 2021 10:14 pm

martin goodall wrote:Before I spray Testor's Dulcote varnish on these transfers, I have taken the precaution today of applying some spare transfers to a test piece, and I will test the Dulcote on that, before committing myself to using it on the actual model. I have successfully applied Testor's Dulcote to POWsides rub-down transfers in the past, but having heard cautionary tales about this varnish I felt that it would be a wise precaution to test it first.


Ahem... https://www.scalefour.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=7198

Very sensible idea. How full is your can?

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Re: The Burford Branch

Postby martin goodall » Thu Jan 28, 2021 1:03 pm

My spray can of Dulcote has had very little use, so is presumably still quite full.

My decal film was given a fairly generous brushing with Microsol, so has been firmly bedded down. I am therefore hoping that it will be OK.

I haven't had time this morning to spray Dulcote on the test piece that I prepared yesterday, but I shall do so this afternoon, and will then wait until the varnish has had time to dry thoroughly so that I can assess the effect before spraying the transfers on the Goods Shed (or not, if it turns out there's a problem).

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Re: The Burford Branch

Postby martin goodall » Mon Feb 22, 2021 3:58 pm

After a few days’ pause, I sprayed Testor’s Dulcote on the Goods Shed lettering without any problem, and then started work on fabricating the windows for the goods shed office and the goods lock-up.

For the office, I adapted a plastic moulding from a Wills windows pack, cutting it in half to produce a sash window (adding a transom from Evergreen strip, and building up the frame from other pieces of strip). For the sash window in the lock-up, I used an etching from D&S Models (DS WF5), again building up the frame from Evergreen strip. Outer frames (which were to be painted Dark Stone) were built up separately from Evergreen strip.

GS 1.JPG

The window frame for the corrugated iron extension to the lock-up was fabricated later from strip.

The outer frames of the windows were painted Dark Stone, and the windows were then assembled and stuck in place, and the corrugated iron extension to the lock-up was finally added.

GS 2.JPG

GS 3.JPG

GS 4.JPG

The next phase of construction provided a real sense of progress at last, with the assembly of the end walls and back wall around the structure of the goods deck.

There were originally intended to be windows in the back wall, but I changed my mind and bricked up the window openings. The interior had also been weathered with MiG powder (“Russian Earth”) which on being wiped over with a dry tissue gave a suitably sooty/weathered effect.

GS 5.JPG

My intention had been to leave the back of the goods shed unfinished (on the grounds that it won’t be seen from any normal viewing angle), but experience had shown me that photographs taken looking along the goods yard would betray my laziness, so I compromised by adding plain brickwork on this elevation. The brickwork is card from the backing of one of the larger packs of Scalelink etchings, which needed very little trimming to fit, and also gave a reasonable impression of weathered yellow stock bricks.

GS 6.JPG

The rear flank wall of the goods office was painted to represent cement rendering. This treatment of the back wall of the shed should look OK in the event of any oblique view of this side of the building being seen in photos taken looking along the back road of the yard.

GS 7.JPG

The front wall of the goods shed will not be stuck in position until I have completed all the internal details, and I have not yet added the windows on this side of the building, but I propped it in place to see what the building looks like at this stage.

GS 8.JPG

GS 9.JPG

The next job will be to lay the flooring planks on the goods deck, and then add the crane, as well as some goods standing on the deck.
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Re: The Burford Branch

Postby martin goodall » Sat Feb 27, 2021 9:13 pm

The floorboards have now been laid on the goods deck inside the Goods Shed. I used Brook-Smith 3mm sleeper strip for this purpose, which is an ideal means of reproducing 9-inch floorboards.

IMG_6854.JPG

This process proved to be much quicker and easier than I had expected. I didn’t use PVA (too wet), preferring Evostik impact adhesive for this job.

IMG_6856.JPG

IMG_6858.JPG

IMG_6860.JPG

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The ‘alcove’ or rebate on the far left in each of the last two photos above will accommodate steps leading down from the goods deck.

The photos above show a beautifully clean newly laid floor, so the next step was to stain the flooring to a dirty wood colour, which I did by brushing on Humbrol #72 ‘Khaki Drill’ enamel liberally diluted with pure gum turpentine.

I also painted and fitted the internal doors giving access to the goods office and to the goods lock-up and its extension. The distressed appearance of some of the paintwork wasn’t altogether intended, but I reckon it will be OK when glimpsed only distantly through the end of the shed in the shade of the interior.

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I rather overdid the weathering above the door at the left-hand end, but a wipe over with a damp tissue will probably sort this out.

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There’s a rather nasty scratch on the end wall that the weathering powder has picked up. I can probably remedy this, but the stygian gloom inside the shed when the roof goes on will probably render it invisible anyway.

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Next it’s on to the crane, and various goods that will be left on the goods deck awaiting collection or dispatch.
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martin goodall
Posts: 1425
Joined: Fri Oct 02, 2009 6:20 pm

Re: The Burford Branch

Postby martin goodall » Mon Mar 08, 2021 12:47 pm

A 30 cwt crane was needed for the goods deck inside the shed, and I originally intended to install a crane with a curved jib frequently used by the GWR both inside goods sheds and as light yard cranes. I had a suitable whitemetal kit. (A plastic kit based on the same prototype is also available). However, I decided that the time and effort that would be spent on building what was a fairly complex piece of machinery would be largely wasted, because the detail would be more or less invisible inside the dark interior of the shed. So I chose instead to build a much simpler wooden crane – a type also used inside GWR goods sheds – and a quick and easy laser-cut ‘mini-kit’ from Metcalfe (PO 540) provided the basis for this.

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I discarded the massively overscale bright silver-coloured chain provided in the kit, and the equally over-sized hook, and substituted ready-blackened fine chain (40 links to the inch). I didn’t concern myself overmuch with the operating mechanism, or whether it would actually work in practice. It will only be glimpsed in the darkened interior through the rail entrances at either end of the shed, and so detail like that could be ignored. This was the entire point of using this kit.

Rather than messing about devising an alternative hook, I simply left it off the model. Photos of goods shed interiors often show so much goods piled up on the loading deck that the hook of the crane is hidden behind packing cases, etc. So that’s how I decided to deal with the hook (or its absence) in this case.

These photos show that I may not have got the crane mounted absolutely vertically, but a bit of tweaking later sorted this out. The scratch on the end wall seen in an earlier photo has been removed, but at the time when these photos were taken the weathering on this wall had not yet been restored.

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Pencil marks on the goods deck show the position of various goods that I intended to stick in place, and this was the next job to be tackled. The crane is not as tall as these photos make it look. I checked the height to the top of the structure, and it will fit under the main beams of the roof with some millimetres to spare.

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Rather than relying on my imagination, I studied some photos of goods shed interiors before placing various goods on the loading deck. In the early inter-war period goods depots were very busy, and photos show goods sidings full of wagons, and goods sheds with large quantities of goods on their loading decks.

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These photos show a ‘full frontal’ view of the goods inside the shed, but this view will not be seen when the front wall and the roof are in place. So in positioning various goods on the deck, I was primarily guided by what the view would be like from the rail entrances at either end of the shed, which is the only view that will be obtainable when the goods shed is completed and is in place on the layout. (I also restored the weathering on the inside of the end walls.)

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Just to check what would actually be seen when the goods shed is completed, I propped the front wall in place and put the mock-up of the roof back on the building in order to get these two shots:

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An earlier photo showed that the flank wall of the goods office facing the rear of the layout was painted to represent cement render, but I Iater changed my mind about this, and covered this wall with the same brick card I had used on the back wall of the goods shed. It won't normally be seen, but if anyone (including me) pokes a camera round there it will look a bit less unfinished.

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