Tyneside Trip…

It feels an age since I last picked up a pen and paper because of a photo - I’ve spent a pleasant hour or so remembering how much I enjoy creating these paste boards…

Tyneside Trip - illustration by James Hilton

I was looking at Night Shift and thinking how it would be fun to place an 03 on stage and imagine it was the Tyneside Central Freight Depot. Gateshead’s collection of this diminutive little shunter roved beyond Newcastle station pilot duties to undertake trip working in the area. Michael Rhode’s trio of North East books hint at this so off to Flickr before I found it…

Bill Watson photo (embedded via Flickr https://flic.kr/p/2hXA3cg)

I can’t quite put my finger on it but this oooooozes character. The industrial composition juxtaposed with the jaunty 03 and the ‘yoof’ relieving himself. Taking this feeling and blending it with other moody photos of the area - overlaid on a the tried and tested cameo shunting layout results in a composition that feels right whilst being so wrong! There is no way in a shelf layout to capture the sprawling semi urban industrial nature of the Tyne and its railways - but I tried anyway. What this would give you, in any of the scales you can buy an 03, is a fun little place to watch it run. Dodging between view blocks, catching glimpses of the shunter in action. I’d probably model this as an ‘open’ cameo - so that you can look into the layout as well as across it. 

That said it isn’t for building - rather for flexing that muscle, weak with lack of practice, of taking an inspiring photo or video and squeezing it into an achievable space - for these moments, these flashes of inspiration would not support a life time project - but they offer a lot if focused upon a manageable footprint.

Until next time, more soon…

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