Leek station- an O Gauge project

Good to see you back @Mossy . Hope you’re on the mend. ??

@Gary hope @York Paul will forgive me sharing one of his pics on his original thread. I’m sure he will post some of his full progress on the booking and parcels office he has done first.



The parcels office is almost done, but the booking hall is awaiting some details from a CVR friend before either of us go any further with the ticket counter devide.


Last nights view off the bridge looking in to the station area..

and the same view today..I just can’t get as close the railings on Google!

 

Although there is still some colouring to do, here is the update of my parcels office.

from the staff door/booking hall.
From the public entrance. There is still a fire place to do and add some parcels.


it all looks very clean and new.

 

Window files have now been completed and a re render done of the parcels..

talking of which, I’ve tried to add some. Not that easy when you trying to figure out wrapping a 3.5mm parcel! I may return and add some string and labels soon.

from the public side with our backs to the short bench. You may note the fire place has now been added on the right and even has a small glow to it.

Upon entering.
from the staff side looking to the parcels entrance door.
The left hand wall looks a tad bare.


so I’ve drawn up an NSR clock for that wall. more soon.
Andy

 

The clock has been installed, although to scale, it does look lost.

A view from outside looking in.


hanging on the wall. Looks like the postman’s been and someone’s wrapping another parcel. Hard to see is that the bench on the left even has a ruler down it.

I’ve also added a chair at the desk, where you can find some paper. I still need to put something in the dockets.

Oh, and following looking closely at this NSRC photo, the parcels office being on the right, you can clearly see 2 of the 4 lights inside, so I have gone back to 4 hanging lights. Having found some photos with light switches, we have decided inside was electrically lit and outside gas lit.

 

One thing I wanted to complete that I didn’t have the skills for at the time was the water column - I had not been able to figure out how to complete the leather bag and the supporting chains to hang the bag on.
With some work of a copy and paste style drawing for the chains that follows a guide ilne. So after a few chain links were drawn, it was a case of drawing the path I wanted them to follow.

A similar method was done the leather bag, with a “loft” command that will change one flat surface to another they can be of different shapes and will taper one to the other in the distance set.

these were all drawn up in 123design where it was originally drawn, and then imported to Fusion where the big model is for the artworking.



Sadly, with this going from one to another I forgot the one important bit, the loading gauge. So I need to revisit and alter it as at the moment, any express will rip it off…



Elsewhere I’ve begun adding track, sleepers and also platform edge stones. it’s really looking the part!

 

Another dilemma
After completing the track work v1 and creating some pictures, I decided I wasn’t happy with the track outline and the very crude chair I had drawn.


V1 track work.

from the other platform as the black five arrives light engine to take on water.

From the 6 foot.

and finally from the bridge.

so, I initially though, has a chair already been drawn, and to my joy, one had.
I scaled it down… and then tried to use it for the follow path command and…. It doesn’t work with an STL.

The only option was draw my own.

and that what I did. The bottom grey rail chair is the one down loaded and scaled to match the size of the one on my front door step (as a shoe brush) - here is it part way through being drawn.

and done with a rail spring knocked in place to hold my new profiled track.

I opted to make mine a B.R. Casting, rather than LNE as the downloaded model was.


and finally on the sleeper.
Now for a copy and paste.. although first attempts seem to be crashing the computer due to it adding 260 sleepers, 520 chairs and 1,300 bolts.. and that’s just one line. There then needs to be a copy and paste for line two.

I’m starting to think I need a bigger computer. More power and or more memory. Oh well. I’ve already had to fit a new 1TB hard drive this week.
Andy

 

A day of research.

Monday I took the opportunity to attend Cheddleton station. Although there have been a few alterations in the last 50 years, it is as close as we may now ever get to an original North Staffordshire booking office.


the public side (although closed as a non running day)

the booking office- not currently used as a till is utilised in the shop. Shame really, but that’s the way the railway wants to go.

Let’s look in more detail.

the upper and part of the lower wooden panels on the passenger side. They are very decorative with curved edges to the inlaid panels.

the upper half of the glazed windows above the partician.

close up of the beading mid panel.

inside the clerks side, slightly simpler panelling and the hatch to close off a position with its sliding panel.

draws under the desk

more draws to the other side.
@York Paul made a comment in an earlier post about the clerks having stools and sitting under the desk. It’s not possible here due to the placement of the cupboards, however Paul also eluded to the adding of draws in Cheddleton station post preservation era and looking at the black trim/skirting board around the base it doesn’t quite fit with the usual deep boards found else where. Is this the items Paul referred to and making the spacing now in the wrong place for seating/legs?

along side are cupboards - I’m not sure why the strange blocks above that do not appear to be draws missing knobs, but just panels.

and finally… another item to later redraw.. The ticket cupboard (including the date stamp!) doesn’t have doors like the model I drew and is also much taller (more rows) and would appear to have a roller shutter to come down to close it off.

 

A time line of progress..

With the new information, sizes and photographs, Tuesday I set to in drawing a new booking hall/clerks office dividing patrician.
Cheddleton station has a door in the end, and differs slightly, but Leek didn’t and entry was from another room.

version 1 was knocked up in around an hour. I wasn’t far off with dimensions, but the glazing was larger than we had expected. So that was first. Obviously we had two datum’s. The floor and outside walls. one detail obmitted earlier was the little brass trays that sit in the window opening.


an early render with the new ticket hatch sliding doors and the ticket boxes. Note the earlier version of the draws.

and from the public side.
Now you may wonder.. why I have mine in white upper where as Cheddleton is all brown? apart from Cheddleton is in North Staffordshire period colours (with the duck egg blue walls) Leek will be B.R. But was not painted since LMS days, and thus was brown and white.
I do need to check I have the divide correct however, but there seems to be very few photos to clarify this anywhere.. so I go with what I have.

a room render without the other items and the older draws. Here you can see the door I refers to which leads in to the parcels office. In the roof is also a sky light which allowed natural daylight for some of the day as it was on the easterly side of the buildings roof.

with the details, January 1957… with new draws and cupboards. We may still need to do some juggling as it’s unclear if the spaces still need to be under the windows.. but, we have no reference with Leek so as said earlier, can only base on Cheddleton. From outside the booking office door looking in. And the new booking office from a different angle.
I’ll add some posters and notices over the next few days. We also are looking at what lamps to fit.
So until then…

train now departing platform 1….

 

Footnote to last

I did make an error with the colours confirmed after my post last night.

these were taken of the same office in the 1970’s showing it in its earlier and more likely historically correct colours (albeit black and white)
So a quick click of the paint pallet this am and here we have it looking more correct.

from the staff side
.
And a close up of the serving position. I have even incorporated a very small beading around the glass. At .1mm size, it’s hardly noticeable. But it there.

I’ve also chosen to redraw the ticket cabinet this morning. Still “stocking” it at the moment with tickets, but we’re done wood wise.


All aboard?

 

It is indeed a local wagon, and worked off the connecting Leek to Stoke line via Milton Junction if I have my geography correct?

I didn’t know they were open yet as I want to have a run up there again myself. Not been for around 7-8 years, and Mina was too small to go down last time. May now be same issue for Zack, but you never know.

as to fusion, it’s all imported still. I can’t get on with this sketch millarky. It never puts what I’m doing in the middle I have to go and find it. Although I must admit I’m doing more. Infact this evening I’ve made a modification to the ticket cupboard so in fusion you can use the “eye” icon to turn on or off an open or closed shutter!
Hey, next I’ll be using the animation to slide the bolts and drop the serving position screens.

(I did do a working lever frame man moons ago, possibly before you joined P1, but it was very time consuming and it kept changing the camera position. -I’ll see if I cN find it and link it in? )

try https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/70fd...ey=x68l1s40z5z86cq2vvf29gxyp&st=iyxxifnf&dl=0
And see if that works?

 

Booking.com

no, It’s not that annoying advert by Paddy McGuinness, but more work on the booking office..

Today has focused on the new ticket cupboard. It’s been interesting as I’ve found out what some bits do - that were missing on a photo I found on line. Hopefully I can explain and it will make sense.

On V1 in front of the ticket racks (which hook in place on screws to the rear of each tray) are little blocks with two screws and a U cut out in the top - now looking at the Cheddleton one, these have a bar of some kind sitting in them and these blocks with the cut outs are supports either side.
The bars look to have name titles on.

I’ve circled the block on this side and you cans see the bar running off to the right.


I’ve badly cropped it here, as this picture was a trial to add a real ticket image to the top so when viewed, it shows a proper ticket!


the rack fully (almost) loaded. There are 100 tickets in each slot, and 15 slots per row. And 6 rows! That’s a lot of tickets!
hang on that’s 9000! No wonder my computer was hanging again!
And installed in the booking office..

Booking eck.. this is getting busy!

 

No, I can’t get it to work on my phone as it’s an AVI file and Fusion doesn’t allow you to share a file from the app if you haven’t already set it to share on the main program. Silly really as defeats the object of the share button on the app.

I’ll maybe sort it over the weekend. But for 12 seconds, it’s not worth doing as a YouTube link.

 

It’s a great place and I would recommend it to anyone visiting that area.

I know there is a scale model there (or there was) of a monument we have in my town on top of the old pit tip. Is a kneeling miner with his lamp called “testing for gas”.



And I’ve just found my copy dated 12th Aug 2014 so it’s 11 years!

 

That'll be on the top of the pit tip at Teversal Andy, been up there a few times when I was a walk leader with our local walking group. Decent bacon sandwiches in the Visitor centre on the car park too!
Keith.