4mm Life in a Northern Town - Ever more York

Neil

Western Thunderer
Neither, it's the Bachmann ready to plonk 'small water tower (44-0018). It's actually nicer in real life that either the box or website illustrations.
 

Neil

Western Thunderer
Last week we went back to York to visit friends and family. The camera went with me and as the station is so photogenic I couldn't resist taking a few snaps.

IMG_9310.jpg

IMG_9313.jpg

IMG_9230.jpg

IMG_9234.jpg

However, lovely though it is, the station won't be appearing on my version of York but this will.

IMG_9240.jpg

There's some lovely art deco detail round the door ...

IMG_9242.jpg

... and while recent conversion has altered the building somewhat I'm glad that it still retains its character. Here's a view from earlier times. I also had an unexpected chance to visit The Groves, an area of York remote from the setting of the layout but one which holds some precious memories for me. I'll be shoehorning in some particularly important structures lifted from there into my version of York.
 

adrian

Flying Squad
There's some lovely art deco detail round the door
:thumbs: not just the door - but the windows as well. Although curious to know why the 2nd floor 4th window along was converted to a door with a railing in front of it.
 

Neil

Western Thunderer
Juliette balcony but I'd have expected fully glazed doors. Perhaps not available in an art deco style or perhaps they thought they would fight with the decaying industrial chic of the building. The bit that puzzles me is the flue which ends in front of the upper floor right hand window; why not rerouted between the windows?
 

JimG

Western Thunderer
The bit that puzzles me is the flue which ends in front of the upper floor right hand window; why not rerouted between the windows?

The top storey looks to be of different construction to the rest of the building and maybe post-dated the flue.

Jim.
 

Ressaldar

Western Thunderer
:thumbs: not just the door - but the windows as well. Although curious to know why the 2nd floor 4th window along was converted to a door with a railing in front of it.
I think that the doorway is original as the concrete apron appears to be the same vintage as the window cills. The big question is why the window frames are not the usual ‘Crittall W20’ style and section used on the majority of similar buildings of that era.

Regards

Mike
 

Neil

Western Thunderer
Jim, the top storey is a recent addition, done I think when the building was converted from a factory. This vintage photo shows that there was no third storey and interestingly no flue. Mike, looking at the same photo shows the upper door to be a later addition, though possibly still during its life as a factory.
 

Ressaldar

Western Thunderer
Jim, the top storey is a recent addition, done I think when the building was converted from a factory. This vintage photo shows that there was no third storey and interestingly no flue. Mike, looking at the same photo shows the upper door to be a later addition, though possibly still during its life as a factory.

Hi Neil,

Agreed and it also seems that the flue may well have been installed at the same time as the door. Which raises the possibility that the door was installed to allow the installation of the machinery that needed the flue?

Regards

Mike
 

daifly

Western Thunderer
A comparison of photos shows a substantial alteration on the ground floor as well with a larger door replacing door+window. Looking at Streetview, it looks like the only original building left in the whole road!
Dave
 
Last edited:

adrian

Flying Squad
Which raises the possibility that the door was installed to allow the installation of the machinery that needed the flue?
In addition to the photos the link from @2mm Andy above explains a lot of the details variations, including the comments section.

in the 1980’s when my dad and uncle made alterations to change a window to a door so that new ice cream production machinery from Italy could be winched up to the top floor
 

Neil

Western Thunderer
Northern Town has changed significantly since the last visit with the camera. The track plan has stayed (almost) the same but the trackbed is now raised up from the baseboard surface. The lining paper became the template for cutting the raised surface from sheets of mdf. The template being easily drawn by using this adapted wagon and a pen.

yk 039.jpg

yk 040.jpg
The mdf surface was blocked up on sections of two by one easy on the straight sections but many short sections made up the corners. Additional section were run across the wider sections of trackbed. All was screwed and glued together, there are a couple of boxes of screws in the formation so far.

yk 043.jpg

While the boards were bare I took the opportunity of applying the sky to the walls. Like most things I took a couple of goes to get it right. The final treatment was a roughly graduated coat of Wilko sky blue starting full strength at the top and let down lots with water at the bottom, this was applied by brush. Before it had the chance to thoroughly dry I rollered over it with a full strength mix of the sky blue and white starting at the bottom and working upwards so the top section was done with little on the roller.

This morning I had the camera out so I plonked a few buildings down just to get a feel for the colour balance. I'm pretty happy with the result, it's significantly shifted the appearance from the white walls of the earlier images.

yk 044.jpg
I've also been trying out a few buildings for the street at the end of the goods yard.

yk 045.jpg
 

Neil

Western Thunderer
Over the last week or so I've picked up progress on Northern Town. Specifically I've been tarting up this old Triang building which had been doing service as a place holder into a proper layout structure. The following photos should show how I've tackled it.

yk 055.jpg

yk 056.jpg

yk 057.jpg

yk 058.jpg

yk 059.jpg

yk 060.jpg

yk 061.jpg

Of course the how doesn't address the why. Why bother when a scratchbuild would allow for a real structure from York and may well take less time than hacking about the Triang raw material? The answer lies back in my childhood and my desire that the layout represents something of that childhood. My first OO trainset was equipped with the old Triang brown buildings, my brother had the more modern 60s style sructures. I hope that though it's not an obvious Triang building any longer there will (in my mind if no body else's) be an echo of the 1960s remaining somewhere in there.
 
Last edited:

Neil

Western Thunderer
On the layout itself progress has been made too. Underlay (yoga mats) have been laid on top of the raised roadbed and I've started to relay the track. Here are a few photos which show how things stand this afternoon.

yk 062.jpg

yk 063.jpg

yk 064.jpg

yk 065.jpg

Now I haven't laid too much track as most will have to come up again so I can lay in tidy wiring (I have a cunning plan) and I've run out of yoga mats (more on the way). In the meantime I'll be building point operating mechanisms (yet another cunning plan) and finishing off the yard office building.
 

Neil

Western Thunderer
Thank you Alan and JB. There will be more track to go down and in comparison with my previous big layout Morfa it'll have a busier feel. I am trying to give space for the whole composition to breathe, enough plain track for the trains to appear as though they're on a journey rather than bursting onto the scene and coming to a halt. I hope I'll get it right but it's going to be a much more difficult thing to pull off with Northern Town; Morfa was a doddle in comparison.
 

matto21

Western Thunderer
Nice idea using yoga mats for underlay. I'd considered this myself but gave up on the idea. Good to see it actually works!

Matt
 
Top