AJC
Western Thunderer
In a small homage to the late Bernard Wright's double page features in Model Railways, years before I came along, but much admired since, I took it into my head to wander around Southampton yesterday with my camera and have a think about the unconsidered elements of a particular scene. 'Lineside Look' in ModelRail (back when it was a worthwhile supplement rather than the glossy full size magazine) did something similar, and both included rather nice sketches. If you want to draw some, please feel free - or add your own scenes and observations.
I chose the Loveridge Lane Industrial estate purely because I happen to see it on most days of my commute. From the bridge at the west end of Southampton Central station it looks a little like this, the kind of light industry that appears on dozens of layouts and is seldom entirely convincing
A variety of sheds, housing, among other things, a car dealers, a music studio and goodness alone knows what else. Back centre is the former Southampton Central 'box. I think all the signals are now controlled from Eastleigh. The shed nearest the camera is clearly a bit of a mongrel - an asbestos shed extended on three sides with a flat-roofed brick-built structure. Or possibly the other way about. Note the different surfaces - poured concrete up to the door and compacted gravel to the side, gradually disappearing into undergrowth. Note that 'clutter' is deposited out of the way, beside the gate and that the surface rises up from the road which is at the bottom of the site.
Note also the sign attached to the fence and the lack of uniformity of that boundary - chainlink fence attached to concrete posts, a comparatively heavy gate mounted on an upright RSJ, then a wall all set back from a dropped kerb (I don't think that I've ever noticed a model of something as ubiquitous as a dropped kerb).
The striped post clearly marks the edge of the road. Note that access to the two main doors is at different heights. Two different building phases? Not sure what the chimney's for.
What isn't immediately obvious is that there's another building round the back. None of these have any intrinsic charm, they're just machine brick and breezeblock with bits of ply panel. Modellers tend to guess or go looking for something 'cute'. You don't see many buildings like this on layouts, by and large or, for that matter, something as humdrum as this, er, public convenience. Nice hipped roof, louvre window above head height, couldn't really be any other sort of building and it's surprisingly large, easily wider than the neighbouring Portacabin (looks nothing like the ubiquitous Knightwing kit).
Over the road from the car repair 'shop is this thing, again, several times rebuilt note the different coloured brick divided by a pillar (they'd have been a pair of doors once) with a large RSJ serving as a lintel. The rebuild probably occurred at the same date that the compound was erected and this relates to a large pair of roller shutters at the rear of Southampton Central's platform 1. My assumption is that these all relate to Post Office or Red Star parcels traffic. The original side door of the building is covered up with a roller shutter. Note that the cars hereabouts are strikingly anonymous, middle of the range types. No Chelsea Tractors here.
Potholes and faded street markings, but beyond these, we probably have the earliest buildings on the site, this set of post-war workshops of the type seen absolutely everywhere. Tin roof one the one on the left (judging by the windows, these were meant as offices), asbestos on the right and these were presumably the workshops. Again, the ground level goes up from the road and the floor level of the buildings requires steps to reach them. Note that office visitors get a neat little glazed lobby. The untidy maze of downpipes and water outlets are nicely characterful. The flowerbeds are something else I've never seen modelled but which turn up in all those wonderful Pathe newsreels about factory openings - you see them in the midst of steel works and collieries too; anywhere an office worker had a lunch break. They live on here and seem to be full of marigolds. Note also the phone(?) post and lamp post; two things also under represented in model form.
The joy of the mundane, in this case of the '50s and probably the late '70s and 80s. A wonderful mix of materials, finishes, surfaces, levels and, increasingly, vegetation.
Adam
I chose the Loveridge Lane Industrial estate purely because I happen to see it on most days of my commute. From the bridge at the west end of Southampton Central station it looks a little like this, the kind of light industry that appears on dozens of layouts and is seldom entirely convincing
A variety of sheds, housing, among other things, a car dealers, a music studio and goodness alone knows what else. Back centre is the former Southampton Central 'box. I think all the signals are now controlled from Eastleigh. The shed nearest the camera is clearly a bit of a mongrel - an asbestos shed extended on three sides with a flat-roofed brick-built structure. Or possibly the other way about. Note the different surfaces - poured concrete up to the door and compacted gravel to the side, gradually disappearing into undergrowth. Note that 'clutter' is deposited out of the way, beside the gate and that the surface rises up from the road which is at the bottom of the site.
Note also the sign attached to the fence and the lack of uniformity of that boundary - chainlink fence attached to concrete posts, a comparatively heavy gate mounted on an upright RSJ, then a wall all set back from a dropped kerb (I don't think that I've ever noticed a model of something as ubiquitous as a dropped kerb).
The striped post clearly marks the edge of the road. Note that access to the two main doors is at different heights. Two different building phases? Not sure what the chimney's for.
What isn't immediately obvious is that there's another building round the back. None of these have any intrinsic charm, they're just machine brick and breezeblock with bits of ply panel. Modellers tend to guess or go looking for something 'cute'. You don't see many buildings like this on layouts, by and large or, for that matter, something as humdrum as this, er, public convenience. Nice hipped roof, louvre window above head height, couldn't really be any other sort of building and it's surprisingly large, easily wider than the neighbouring Portacabin (looks nothing like the ubiquitous Knightwing kit).
Over the road from the car repair 'shop is this thing, again, several times rebuilt note the different coloured brick divided by a pillar (they'd have been a pair of doors once) with a large RSJ serving as a lintel. The rebuild probably occurred at the same date that the compound was erected and this relates to a large pair of roller shutters at the rear of Southampton Central's platform 1. My assumption is that these all relate to Post Office or Red Star parcels traffic. The original side door of the building is covered up with a roller shutter. Note that the cars hereabouts are strikingly anonymous, middle of the range types. No Chelsea Tractors here.
Potholes and faded street markings, but beyond these, we probably have the earliest buildings on the site, this set of post-war workshops of the type seen absolutely everywhere. Tin roof one the one on the left (judging by the windows, these were meant as offices), asbestos on the right and these were presumably the workshops. Again, the ground level goes up from the road and the floor level of the buildings requires steps to reach them. Note that office visitors get a neat little glazed lobby. The untidy maze of downpipes and water outlets are nicely characterful. The flowerbeds are something else I've never seen modelled but which turn up in all those wonderful Pathe newsreels about factory openings - you see them in the midst of steel works and collieries too; anywhere an office worker had a lunch break. They live on here and seem to be full of marigolds. Note also the phone(?) post and lamp post; two things also under represented in model form.
The joy of the mundane, in this case of the '50s and probably the late '70s and 80s. A wonderful mix of materials, finishes, surfaces, levels and, increasingly, vegetation.
Adam
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