Help scaling a map

[Graham76man]

Hi everyone I have run into a slight problem with a map exporting from the Scottish map site. It appears the map is of a scale that can't be imported into the software in the normal way. I have come from the Model Railway Forum, as Martin said he can help import the map in anyway.
It seems that area I want to model is later in date than the larger scale maps on the Scottish site that can be imported. And the Scots site has very few of the England maps of later date in that scale. A real shame the Scots site doesn't have them, as the only site that did have larger scale maps as since closed down, due to commercial firms abusing the system. I checked with OS and they farmed out all the maps to certain places, the main one being the one that closed down. The OS have none on their site anymore, apart from a few commercial ones.
I am modelling the Sheffield Victoria section down to Woodbourne Road bridge around 1967. Though there are earlier maps, the line was extensively altered in the 1950's, making the 1900-1940 maps full of errors for the line set in 1967.

 

[Phil O]

Hi Graham,

I can't help directly, but if the SRS, has the box diagram for the area, it may be possible to Templot what remained from the earlier period and then best guess the changes from the box diagram. The only other possibility would be to see if you can obtain a copy of the BR 40ft map.

 

[Martin Wynne]

@Graham76man

Hi Graham,

Welcome to Templot Club.

The map you wanted to use is this one:

https://maps.nls.uk/view/189227445

As I mentioned on the MRF forum, it is a 6"/mile map which has not been georeferenced by the NLS. That means Templot can't automatically load it directly as a tiled map from the NLS web site.

However, it is possible to make a screenshot and load it into Templot manually. Here I have done that for you and scaled it to 4mm/ft:

The BGS3 background shapes file for this is attached below for you to load into Templot.

The 6" maps are not accurate track plans, they are simplified to suit the map scale. Double-tracks are not shown separately, pointwork is simplified and some loops and sidings omitted. The NLS have a much more detailed map available at 25"/mile which would be more suitable as a background guide for track planning. However, it is dated 1901, much earlier than your intended date. But most of the roads, bridges and buildings etc. would have been exactly the same in the 1950s/60s, and quite a lot of the trackwork -- especially in sidings and yards. That map is available as a tiled map and Templot can load it automatically and scale it. Here is a video showing how to do that:

https://85a.uk/templot/companion/get_map_from_the_web.php

By referring to that map and later photographs, plans, signal box diagrams as Phil suggested, you might be able to get a better background guide to the exact position and spacing of the tracks than using the 6" map.

Templot can print out such maps on A4 or A3 pages at full-size for your layout. It will take a great many pages -- the map can be changed to a pale grey to save using so much ink. Each page will be printed only if it contains some track templates. You can fool Templot into doing that by including a very short dummy template in the corner of each wanted page which doesn't.

If you don't mind some cost, Templot can also export it as single PDF file for wide-format roll-paper which you can take to a digital copy-shop and have printed on a single long rolled sheet. This might be easier than printing a lot of A4 or A3 sheets, but it can get a bit expensive.

Ask again if you need more info.

cheers,

Martin.

 

[Graham76man]

Thanks Martin
My printer is an Epson XP-760 and I can use the cheaper cartridges to print with it so that's fine.

 

[Graham76man]

Hi Graham,

I can't help directly, but if the SRS, has the box diagram for the area, it may be possible to Templot what remained from the earlier period and then best guess the changes from the box diagram. The only other possibility would be to see if you can obtain a copy of the BR 40ft map.

Not heard of BR 40ft maps before. Who's likely to have them?

 

[Phil O]

Hi Graham,

The maps may be with the National Archive at Kew, or the NRM, I believe that some may be in the hands of private individuals. A lot depends upon who has managed to acquire or save them.

 

[Tony W]

Not heard of BR 40ft maps before. Who's likely to have them?

Hi Graham. So called because they are scaled at 40ft to the inch or 480:1
Regards
Tony.

 

[Graham76man]

I was able to get the map in. When I tested the output of the printer the map was very blotchy at the 4mm scale size. However I worked out that I don't really need to print out the map at full size, as I can scale the map using the 1 foot blue square grid imposed on the NLS maps. So I took a screen capture of the map and edited it with a picture editing software to eliminate the unwanted areas. I reckon I can print this out at A3 or larger, then mark the future baseboard with the blue squares from that. Any buildings can be sourced from either original drawings some of which I have already. Or if they were around on the earlier large scale NLS maps import them into Templot and take the measurements from that. The main thing that is now sorted, was the start of the kink in the baseboard that curves of to the station. I now know the lengths of each of the boards and the width.