Model Forum / General / Railroads / October 2006

   I doubt there would be such. Cobblestones by their nature are a bit of a
"local rules" thing depending on where or how they're laid. And what they're
made of: small round stones (usually ornamental or pavement edges, and
favoured in seaside areas since they're usually beach pebbles - Brighton has
this as a vernacular style as do parts of coastal East Anglia) or bigger
flat-top setts used for pathways, roads, etc. Additionally, a lot of
cobbling, intended to give a rain run off in uncritical areas or for light
pedestrian use, would be paviours (thin bricks) or edge-laid scrap bricks.
The style of laying might also be parallel, in semicircles, continuous run,
stepped with stone lintel edges (over foot accesses and on canal towpaths
leading up to bridges - I can think of a couple in Birmingham still extant
and there are others) and latterly, patched with poured concrete or bricks,
left rough with puddles, or part/wholly coated with tarmac. This latter is
what's happened to many an urban street: under that blacktop is a layer of
laid stones that last saw horses' hooves, or indeed trams.

   The obvious suggestion is "look at prototype photos for your area and
period" but since I see you're in Oz that's not too feasible. The preferred
approach here, if you don't use the readymade stamped cardboard ones
available (Superquick, possibly?) is to spread a slow-curing modelling putty
such as Das over your intended cobbled roadway and impress cobble patterns
in it using a punch formed from squashed 3/32" brass tube - squared off
it'll give a profile of about 2 x 3mm which in 4mm scale (you didn't specify
so I'll assume) gives a cobble of  6" x 9" which is about right for a stone
sett. When it's dried, weather with grey-brown paint and dirty brown thinned
for filling the "mortar" gaps (usually embedded dirt, though newly laid or
cleaned cobbles will show whiteish mortar). Neglected corners will have
grass in the cracks so make them greeny. Wet drip areas will be shiny. Keep
it variegated and grungey. The later in the steam era and beyond you do, the
more ratty they'll look, as the "heritage" value of cobbles has only really
been rediscovered for kitsch in the last 20 years. Urban Britain anytime
from 1920 to 1980 was pretty scabby in work areas; since then it's all
turned into shopping malls and concrete slabs with car parks where factories
used to be. Photos of my childhood are now weirdly informative, a sure sign
I'm getting old....

   Above all, look at how Allan Downes does it and then DON'T copy him. I
know he has terrific technique, but IMO the stone buildings and roadways he
painstakingly creates in 7mm scale are nightmarishly clean, regular and
inhuman with no dirt or weather effect. Certainly if you're doing the
surroundings of a goods or canal yard, the more crud the better as they were
pounded relentlessly by carts, lorries, horseshoes, pollution, rain and feet
with little thought of maintenance unless the puddles got deep enough to
soak your socks!

   Best prototype sources tend to be the many nostalgia magazines such as
Steam World, Back Track, Steam Days, ByLines and the various regional mags
(GWR Journals I find a mine of interest for my modelling interests) but
again it's unlikely you'll find many in Oz.

   To get you started, here's a slightly-heritaged canal towpath in
Huddersfield to give you an indication of colours and patterns:

   http://www.penninewaterways.co.uk/huddersfield/hnc56b.htm

   found by Googling on "stone setts" > Images. Doing the same on "stone
cobbles" yielded this rather more authentic version:

   http://static.flickr.com/45/130147592_2b879857a2_m.jpg

   or indeed the pebbly version: this is in the US but it's indicative of a
lot of vernacular paths in Norfolk and Suffolk:

   http://www.greatstreets.org/BricksMortar/BricksMortar14.html

   and a load of different styles to copy at:

   http://www.freefoto.com/browse.jsp?id=33-05-0

   Tony Clarke

Hi Peter

Have a look at:

http://www.mayang.com/textures

You may find something there.

Regards

Are cobblestones round or rectangular? Here in Melbourne, what we call
cobblestones are rectangular, generally eight inches wide, length varies
between ten and fourteen inches, sometimes they are called stone setts. And
they aren't always smooth faced, some in the local back lanes have quite
deep grooves on their faces, caused by many years traffic of iron tyred
council dust carts and night carts. But not recently.
                   Regards,
                                       Bill.

I am looking for some cobblestones clipart, Google has not helped to
date:-(

Any suggestions please.

Going back to the original question ..... a thought has just struck me,
what about trying these people who construct driveways using this
textured plastic 'lino' type material.  They may even send a sample
brochure if they are local !

Hi Peter

Just found out that the name Tumut is derived from an Aboriginal word
meaning 'quiet resting place by the river'   Looks great.  A question
for you,  what does a 'Bogong moth' look like ?  Is it the one with a
tail that looks like a wasp ?