TFW’s workshop

[Tim Watson]

The patient had the bandages removed this morning.

With the structural core added.

Should be OK. In daylight, the maroon predominates, in artificial lighting the red oxides/ tera cotta colours. The lighting at the south end of CF is quite cool, because it is where a storm has passed over, so I expect the building will look a little more maroon. Windows next.
Tim

 

[Tim Watson]

The corner cracks were filled with strips of styrene, welded into place.

Once hard, a samurai chisel was used to pare away the excess material.

The surfaces were tidied up and then needed touching in with paint.

The main colour was Revell acrylic reddish-brown 36/37 with a light overspray of a gloss dark mahogany cellulose (actually the same colour as used on the frames of L&B locos). Some of the tiles were picked out with a red Lumicolour permanent marker. The whole was then matt varnished with Tamiya XF86 (sort of) which lifted some of the marker colour and distributed it more widely, at the same time playing down the whiteness of the cement courses. Finally the tiles were given a light wash with Lifecolor UA724 a yellow ochre brake dust colour which was also used to slightly highlight features, in effect, acting as the colour of the glaze. The lettering was also done with this colour which is suitably subdued.

In the warm evening sun, the terracotta hues come out strongly. In a cold northern light it is quite maroon. I am very glad that it has been made as a shell in this way, it was much easier to work on, whilst the interiors can be added, as required.
Tim

 

[Tim Watson]

The glazing contractor turned up today and made the front of York Road tube station weather proof (thanks to Jim Watt).

The tile work has also had further painting and weathering: I’ll keep working at it until I’m satisfied. There is a problem with the geometry of the heavily truncated exit opening, but I have a cunning plan for that.

Tim

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

There is a problem with the geometry of the heavily truncated exit opening, but I have a cunning plan for that.

You may already have seen these.

This is a 1930 view of Brompton Road showing the exit in the London Transport Collection if you want the exit to remain open.

Or alternatively board it up as in this 1925 image of York Road in the London Transport Collection complete with vertical UNDERGROUND sign.

 

[Tim Watson]

Thanks for the image links, Dave. I managed to miss the LTM image showing the blanked-off exit. I had just found another image showing the entrance lobby with an indication of a tobacconist - and your one confirms it. The UndergrounD sign on the roof is another thing all together.

The tobacconist’s shop will be exceedingly visible to the public, so that is excellent. On the basis of this image, the exit might be blanked off, although I had worked out how to make it work.

At least this is easily sorted now rather than with the model complete and fixed down!

Tim

 

[Tim Watson]

When a photo such as this is available, (courtesy LTMuseum archives) it would be churlish not to model it.

There are a few more detail signs, lamps and posters to be fitted as well as the newsagents / tobacconist on the retail unit on the left. You may notice that there is an open window for selling from within the station entrance, complete with a rack of newspapers - Faulkner’s Mountaineer appear to be the favoured tobacco brand. The Nestle vending machine was scaled easily from the 6 x 9” Wooliscroft tiles, I’ll do a separate post on how I made that.

Tim

 

[Tim Watson]

The pedestal of the Nestle ending machine started off as a brass naval gun barrel. This was housed in a rebate chiselled in to length of 1.5mm square styrene and glued in place with super glue. The foot was made using washers of styrene.

The characteristically shaped backing plate and bottom were cut from styrene.

The foot of the pedestal was made up from three layers of styrene and then filed to the correct shape. Keeping the tab on made it easier to keep them square to the column.


The machine was painted red, with white lining and lettering, but you will be hard pushed to see it in the depths of the tube station.

Was it worth it? Probably, yes. It gave me something to do whilst puppy sitting.

Tim

 

[Tim Watson]

Always fun to put prototype and model together.

The Randells Road board is now at home, to try out the building in situ.

Shoujd make for some atmospheric pictures in the area. Need some more vehicles...

Tim

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

Excellent, nice to see LT buildings.

In this day and age it's amazing the original building is still standing and not replaced by a ventilation shaft. Especially given the redevelopment around St. Pancras and Kings Cross.

 

[john lewsey]

Lovely work Tim

 

[Tim Watson]

There was a detailed report by Halcro for LT on the potential for re-opening a few years ago. The LT conclusion was that there would be insufficient footfall and that the station would require major extension to make it big enough for modern usage.

I would question that there would now be insufficient footfall given the massive local development. I expect all of these Leslie Green buildings have preservation orders on them.

I think that all of the UndergrounD ephemera, once fitted on the building, will bring it to life.

Tim

 

[michael mott]

Tim The model is much smaller than I thought so thanks for the scale Shot, Makes the work even more remakable.

Michael

 

[Tim Watson]

It’s interesting how a straightforward job can sometimes develop into something rather bigger. When I started to look at the position of the tube station building on the Randells Road board it became obvious that the curved cut away at the back of the structure would produce an ugly blank effect when looking over the layout and would certainly make photography difficult.


After further analysis of the plans and aerial images from Google it became obvious that the building could be modelled more or less in full, albeit, over-sailing the curved baseboard edge. (The paved area at the bottom of the Google maps image overlays the escape stair shaft for the station.)


In the Halcrow plan (at 90 degrees to the photo), the double dotted outline within the structure, above the lift shafts, is the outline at first floor level at the rear.


Indeed the rear of the station has been heavily mutilated over the decades, as shown by this image, taken prior to a more recent ‘tidy up’. The ladies toilets seem to have been chopped off by this time.

Returning to the model, this photo shows a near aerial view of the model building in place, the white styrene roof following the curve of the baseboard. The red lines show the potential outline of the first and ground floors, but the rearward extension for the gents toilet is not shown.

The outer red line virtually follows the line of the main baseboard through Belle Isle, which is also, of course, on the alignment of the Piccadilly line to Caledonian Road station. In fact, when one looks at the alignment of the station building over the running lines one sees that the southbound line to KX curves outward on a 600m radius curvature to avoid the centre lift shafts and cross passages.

The platform faces are only 350’ long and so the underground section of the station could be modelled in its entirety in the space before the south end Toblerone and also extending northwards towards Caledonian Road station. The track curvature, especially if it were slightly tighter in radius, is very favourable to the shape of the south end of the layout.

Perhaps the clincher for making a model of the underground section, with its decorative platform wall faces, is the availability of full coloured drawings of the unique Wooliscroft tiles for York Road. These were published in the seminal 2007 work by Doug Rose in “Tiles of the Unexpected Underground”.


All it needs is a group of skilled modellers to get together to make it work...



Tim

 

[Tim Watson]

This tube station, as with many of them, was made with a view to commercial extensions. To achieve this the builder would leave toothed courses at the building ends and, in the case of York Road, phantom fire places and chimney breasts.

Representing toothed courses is a bit of a challenge - I didn’t bother when I made the Caledonian Road station building. We use our own brick styrene on CF which is very fine and, in theory could be cut to represent these. First operation was to mark up alternate courses with a fine black pen.

A number 15 scalpel was then rocked back and forth to make a cut either side of the black mark.

A 0.5mm chisel (see earlier tube station posts) was then used to chop out the alternate brick courses.

Once glued onto the host wall, the brick comb was edged with a strip of 20 x 40 thou styrene to represent the corner tile wrap around.

Bits of toothed brick work were cut with a scalpel and then removed with another chisel: this would then allow the wider tile wrap arounds to be represented. The random depth of these courses relates to the varying widths of the terracotta tiles on the facade.

The final effect should be OK, once it has a bit of paint on it.

The bulk of the building begins to show up well now (only loosely placed and held together by gravity). The original intention was, of course, to truncate it in that corner, but the effect is much, much better already.

Tim

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

On occasions you do have to model the entire building rather than a 'slice' yo maintain the effect.

 

[Tim Watson]

Loosely placed in situ; better already?



Tim

 

[Tim Watson]

We have had further planning discussions with Mike Randall and Richard Wilson which, along with the acquisition of this 1909 signalling diagram (courtesy a contact of Doug Rose), have opened up useful possibilities for the UndegrounD on CF.

The crossover to the north of YR was capable of bi-directional running; but in particular, it would enable a southbound train to terminate at the station and then return northwards on the down line using the crossover, back to Caledonian Road. This would avoid the need for a fiddle yard at the Kings Cross end, when exhibiting the complete layout and also at Keen House, where the layout cannot get any longer. Obviously a major incident at KX...
This photo has been marked up to show the two stations (Yellow), the crossover (dark blue) and the visible up track (red).

The new tube layout would add about 3” extra width along the front of the layout (redline).
I think this will transform the layout and make it much more representative of London’s transport in the early 30’s.

Tim

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

I don't know the width of the layout but if space allows could you have a 'bolt on' tube layout i.e. bolted to the underside and independent of the existing layout. If built as a dumbell or circuit this would eliminate the fiddleyard requirement.

 

[Tim Watson]

Good points Dave. It’s quite likely that the York Road station board will be self supporting as the above ground bit of the layout is already cantilevered from the main boards. The long run between stations will be bolted up to the main layout underside as is the Caledonian Road station. The Cally tube boards can be seen prior to fitting under the road in this image. The stowage, transport and assembly of CF is quite an undertaking: it is a true 3D jig saw puzzle.

A loop or dumbbell would be a major logistical challenge under CF even though it’s 8m long and 3m wide: a long thin board could be accommodated and stowed for transport, but dumbbells or loops would require space at each end, just where it’s in short supply.

Tim

 

[Tim Watson]

In a galaxy far, far away...

Tim