Goods Yard Clutter - 2

In 1928 this area next to the Wood Store contained an untidy mishmash of materials that spread into the roadway. Long wooden or metal poles/beams were leant vertically against the wall.

In 1939 the area was much tidier with either racking or workbench alongside the wall and a barrier alongside the road. Next to the barrier were more materials tidily arranged but on our model we don't have the same space available for these because the Wood Store had to be located closer to the road to fit on the baseboard. It was either that or shorten the building.

Rack frame and barrier models are 3D printed. The rack surface is card. The prototype was assumed to be metal painted black. I have added areas of rust.

The next photo shows oil drums (3D printed) laid next to this small white store. I gave them the Shell red and yellow livery for variety of colour on the layout.

I like the waste ground grass here, being straw coloured signifying late summer. Note the weeds along the base of the palisade fence.

David

1920s Petrol Pump and Another A1 Van

Outside the Pump Room is some form of machinery. It is not clear from available photographs what exactly was there but since petrol and oil tanks existed underground here and the Pump Room was associated with these then it is a logical assumption it was a petrol and oil dispensing stand.

Having found a photo of a 1920s petrol dispenser I went overboard modelling as much of the detail as my dexterity would allow. A little foolish perhaps for a thing that is only 12mm tall for which a magnifying glass is needed to see the detail. But, I enjoyed the challenge. It is a column with hand crank and dial. The gun part of the hose attachment hangs by a ring over the top of the column when not in use, as is the case here.

Next to it is an oil dispensing cabinet. The top half is open and contains the dispenser that fills an oil can placed next to it.

On the other side of the yard from the Pump Room is the Repair Shop. Another A1 van has been placed here, this time a Thornycroft demonstrator van, with driver and another in conversation alongside.

A background  was created for this photo and stitched into it to represent factory buildings at the far end of the site that are off our model layout.

David

Goods Yard Clutter - 1

The only photograph available to us that clearly shows the type of  materials laid about the Thornycroft factory yards is in our reference book 'The Basingstoke and Alton Light Railway'. Well, there is another that shows a group of oil drums but we could do with more close up photos of the yards around the west end of the factory site so that a fair representation of the clutter there can be modelled.

Nevertheless, here is the view of goods yard clutter in the loading bay area of our model, staged from the scene in the book photo.

The most notable difference is that the yard appears much wider in the book photo, which is a surprise because we modelled the layout from a scale plan. This just goes to prove that creating a scale replica is rarely feasible, especially as we do not have sufficient photographic evidence of the entire site. All we can do is create an impression of what the factory looked like in the 1930s.

The yard clutter was modelled from and set out as in the book photo. Here we have a stack of wooden barrels (3D printed), a group of cowling castings made from FIMO clay and a group of 3D printed rear axle castings. The castings are waiting their turn in the pickling tanks located at the end of  the yard.

Below is an atmospheric night time scene photographed by a security guard after the workers had left the site at the end of the working day. 

The lamp construction method is the same as described in an earlier posting. The crates were 3D printed as individual sides and glued together to form the box.

David

Photographer Caught in the Act

J.I. Thornycroft Ltd. of Basingstoke were prolific in photographing their newly built lorries, vans, buses and chassis. There is a large online archive of these at The Thornycroft Register. The Dunlop A1 class Van is depicted in model form below and its construction was described in a previous posting.

With such a plethora of prototype photographs taken by Thornycroft it seemed fitting to depict a scene of a van and photographer on our model layout. The van driver, wearing a flat cap, is also included standing behind the photographer and out of his shot.

The location of our model van is opposite the cemetery drive in front of the factory palisade fence but the location of the prototype scene was probably further along Worting Road beyond the railway bridge and off our layout, judging by the wooden fence in the background of the Thornycroft photo.

David

More N gauge trees

On the right is the view from Worting Road railway bridge showing the line of mature trees that form the boundary of the factory in the late 1930s.

When modelling trees we have to remind ourselves that mature trees in nature are very tall. These are made from dead Sedum flower heads collected in late Autumn/Winter.

The method of construction is described here.

I used Sedum because the flower head has smaller petals than the Yarrow mentioned in the article and is therefore well suited to N Gauge. It would work for 00 gauge as well.

That red van is a set scene that will be featured in the next posting. 

Below is the view across some of the factory buildings to the other side of the tree line. I really like this composition, quite atmospheric except the yard is too empty for a busy factory. It is yard clutter that we will create next for the layout.

In these photographs a sky background has been stitched into the photograph of the model.

David