A page from my sketch book

Well it's not really my sketchbook. It's another one of those fancy Apps for my iPad. Procreate is a very handy app to have for jotting down ideas and doing illustrations that can easily be shared on line or in print.

Wether surfing the web or leafing through books. I am always drawn to photographs of old industries. Because I firmly believe that one of the most important aspects of really small model railway layouts are the buildings. In a small area there are only so many track layouts that will fit in. So the way the railway serves these buildings, or even just runs past them, is of great importance to create something believable. This can go a long way to help hide the small size of the layout. 

I like to study these images of the arrangements of buildings on industrial premises to get a feel for the way they look and work together.

 I let these images stew in my imagination for a while, and then try to draw them. Remembering what I see, rather than slavishly copying an image or plan, allows me to draw on the salient features of the structure rather than sweat the details. Here's a few sketches.

1. Inspired by some pictures of the Metrovick 3rd rail electric locomotives at Highstead quarry. Only the upper parts of the structures could be seen in the background. I liked the roof lines in the photo a lot, and tried to create something around those. There's a lot of rusting corrugated iron to model for visual interest, and a total pain to paint.

2. I wish I could remember what this visualisation is based on. I was looking at pictures of a Ruston 48DS when I found it. I think it's a foundry in Yorkshire. Not a quarry. But there was an amazing visual effect of the building walls being made of several different materials. Brick, corrugated iron, (or asbestos, given the fact that it's a foundry) and lots of windows. This would make for an interesting model.

3. Somewhere on the internet is a tiny photo of some old loading screens at Cliffe Hill Quarry in Leicestershire. The image of the loading facility really grabs your attention with its hand painted lettering on the end. Alas, this is pretty much all you can see. There's some kind of loading hopper alongside. But nothing else to give you any clues as to what other structures would be alongside it. The railway that served Cliffe Hill Quarry was narrow gauge, so I feel that the plant may loose some of its charm if the proportions were changed to accommodate standard gauge wagons instead. 

Three sketches, all with useable elements, none totally perfect. I wonder what else I can find?