Since starting Selly Oak, I've become a bit of a railway arches nerd. Watching an old episode of The Professionals the other day, I couldn't help looking at the background as they talked by a viaduct.
The screen grab isn't great but these filled in arches look great. Better still, being genuine 1970s ones, they would be perfect for me. Not that I'm going to change anything now, but it shows that watching old telly sometimes counts as research.
Via RMweb, SP Steve sent me this shot of arches in Wigan. While they might be all gentrified and clean, as a reference for brick colours, they are brilliant. There are a lot of colours in the blue bricks and three different shades of red too.
I'm assuming the parapet has been rebuilt at some point, and wonder what that would look like on a model. Too different? Is it one of those things we accept in real life but not in miniature?
I always remember someone explaining how they set up a passenger train with a mix of liveries to match a prototype photo, but it didn't look right. Maybe we need models to look how we expect them, not always how they should.
I think how believable that is would depend on the period it is set in. The infill bricks look modern reproductions rather than originals and are probably metric rather than imperial sizes.
ReplyDeleteHaving childhood associations with Lancashire I'm pretty sure that in any period up until the '70s most brickwork was basically black. Birmingham wasn't much better.
You might be able to trace the location of the viaduct in The Professionals via this link http://www.mark-1.co.uk/Professionals/epslist.htm
If I was going to use it as a guide, I could hide it behind all those piles of cardboard boxes that seemed to be everywhere - especially in front of speeding Ford Capris!
ReplyDeleteI do find shows like this interesting though. You get an atmosphere which isn't always easy to produce with a still photo. Those can be a bit contrived or pick a special location. TV production like this just shot where it was cheap, and there were cardboard boxes of course.
The 1970s and early 80s are interesting eras. It's important to remove the rose-coloured specs that time has provided for us. That's my excuse for watching this sort of telly anyway!
I can also recommend The Sweeney as an excellent source of period research!
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