Canal models

[Hector Bell]

Here's a little project I did some work on a while ago (years, now!).

I wanted a lock setting to display a model of a working boat.  That, btw, is what most canal carrying boats are called.  NOT barges, please.  A barge is over 7 feet wide.  Less than that has become known as a narrow boat, but the boat people just knew them as boats.  they were always 7feet or under.  Our boat, Heather Bell was built to 6-10 in order to more easily negotiate the notoriously narrow Welsh Canal.

I decided I liked the style of ironwork used on the Shropshire Union canal, known as the "Shroppie" and the Welsh Canal.
So, apart from the lock gates themselves I had to produce multiple sets of lock gate "furniture".

I made tiny brass masters of all the mechanisms and had a chum throw them in with his other customers' jobs and moulds, so they didn't cost me anything!  These included the distinctive staggered-tooth racks for lifting the paddles or sluices which let the water in and out.

The gates themselves are made from my old favourite, pearwood, which I have for model boats and miniature furniture work.  Either it looks like mahogany in scale on larger scale models or it makes for a hard, workable wood for smaller scales, like the 1/43rd that the lock/boat scene was in. Study of all my own photos and many canal books gave me all the info I needed for the gates.
Here's one nearly finished complete with the inevitable small plant growing out of the nooks and crannies.

[Hector Bell]

Unfortunately this has been knocking around for years and that explains the hard wear it has had at demos and exhibitions, hence the brass showing under the black paint on the paddle gear!  Sorry about that.  The beam has evidence of cracking at the end with the white paint splashed on it.  I do that with a scalpel and graver.  Being oak, the beams and other parts do crack, but not in any "rotten" way until about 50 years use.  Whatever they put on these things when they make them it lasts well.  Afterwards they are tarred, which is a good protection.  Good tar stays black for a long time, then slowly greys off.  The green line is a "tide mark" of weed that doesn't grow on the tar, but gets stuck to the gates at the lock level, but plants DO grow in the dirt that gathers in the joints and ledges.  On the right of the right hand paddle gear pillar there will be a ratchet which pivots in the top part. This stops the lock windlass breaking your arm if the paddle drops.
About 30,000 gallons of water is used every time a lock is filled or emptied.

Here's some parts of the boat I made, but I stupidly made it as an iron boat and it was, in fact a wooden one, so I broke it up ready for a new hull.  The boat "Roger" was built by the same yard as ours, Nurser's of Braunston
There is also the interior, barely visible, but nonetheless there in the tiny back cabin, where a whole family would live, eat and sleep.  They were kept immaculately and festooned with lace-edged plates, family photos and polished brasses.

Martin

[Gordon Ferguson]

Snap Martin,



Not an exact scale model like yours but a freelance interpretation for an abandoned & drained canal scene I am slowly trying to make progress on - abandoned & drained  will let cover up the more obvious errors with weeds, rubbish and silt 

[Hector Bell]

Well, blow me down!  Who'd have thought there were two nutters in the same place?!

What is your one based on?
Is it an American canal?  The lock furniture doesn't look familiar.

Martin

[Gordon Ferguson]

Well that just shows what a great scale model I have built  

Its meant to be , honest, a British canal lock gate, seem to remember it was roughly, now even more so, based on a picture I found of a lock gate on the Grand Union canal or any other canal which you haven't been on .

Was going to bury this in the silt in the bottom of the canal but now think I had better prop it up against the lock gate and try and hide some more of it from you experts 



P.s. had a look through your blog, apart from us sharing nutter characteristics, we seem to have similar views on politics and the EU .......... some great scratch building in there as well, especially the birdcage chassis

[Hector Bell]

Thanks, Gordon.
No criticism meant, honest.  I like the wood aspect of your gate, especially being a keen user of the organic stuffs.
I'm not some canal encyclopaedia, so if you've seen a pic of a gate with that gear, that's fine.  And that wee safe will look great in the muck at the bottom.
With a bicycle, shopping trolley, etc.

We used to see mud flats loaded with the dredgings of the Shroppie and you would not credit what people throw away.  One BW tug came past and on its fore deck were a BSA Bantam motorbike complete and a Kawasaki of some description.  They were obviously never going to the scrap yard!
I remember once they had a volunteer clear out of Ashton Junction in Manchester and they shifted 150 Tons of junk in a long weekend!

Send us some more pics. of the scene.

Thanks for reading the blog.  I hope there's a bit of everything on there.
The Birdcage Maserati chassis went to a French chap who couldn't wait for me to finish it and offered more than I could resist for it.

Cheers,
Martin

[Gordon Ferguson]

.
No criticism meant, honest. 

Criticism is what I need and want - thats why I occasionally post here .

One its good to get some other peoples views, stops me believing my own propaganda, and two once you drop the bait in front of some people you can just sit back & stir occasionally  ( i.e Russ's wall and Marc's as always constructive comments )