Thursday 22nd January 2015

Worklist:

Fix the sleeper wall timbers in place.
Make another rail framed buffer.
Paint the goods shed.
Continue applying stonework sheet/detail to the bridge.

Laurence set-to assembling the sleepers and assessing the packing required to clear the ballast and low level debris. The packer was measured, cut, shaped and pinned in place. There was a shortfall in the number of the correct length sleepers, so more were cut from ply and stained. SHould be finished next week?

Geoff made another buffer using rail, printed circuit board and timber. He's getting quite good now.

With the buffer completed, he moved on to the goods shed. He had been proposing bringing some colour into the layout and hit on the idea of painting the steelwork on the goods shed. A brief team-meeting and a rummage in the paint box determined that it would be emerald green, which actually turned out quite nice. As the green showed-up of a few inaccuracies in the roof sheets, some guttering and downpipes are now required - no bad thing!

Stephen pondered the pro's and con's with regard to completing the stonework on the bridge. By way of diversion, he first found a piece of wood in the bin, which had a nice bullnose. This soon became the wall abutting the bridge, creating a transition/infill down to track level. A few pieces of foam, roughly chopped and glued in place completed the work. Plaster and foliage will be added in due course.

Returning to the stonework sheeting, the burning question was should the coursing be horizontal all the way up (as the front sheet), or follow the line of the road? This was reviewed at lunchtime, with a tablet and Google Images searches. Whilst we found examples of both, we decided to keep the coursing level, which meant some interesting setting-out, sheet cutting and gluing.

We anticipated needing a few more sheets, but were pleasantly surprised when the job was completed with some sheet left over. Some filling of joints will be required, and a nice bullnose coping section, but it turned out quite well.

Thursday 15th January 2015

Worklist:
Progress goods shed mods.
Make a buffer for goods shed.
Progress water tower valve/pipework and refitting.
Finish crossover detailing.
Discuss the future of the workshop.

Stephen continued work on what we are now happy to call 'the goods shed'. The valance panel was trimmed and fitted, the dock was stained, the back wall was also given a coat of stain as means to dulling the bright red brick sheet. Finally, the ridge flashing was replaced with pieces of thin aluminium sheet bent and moulded to shape.

Geoff fabricated a buffer stop for the shed. Rail was bent around a bar-former and all soldered up with printed circuit board cross members clad in timber. A coat of grime finished it nicely (just sorry the photo is so poor). However, it was slightly askew, so it was consigned to the end of the works siding and another will be made for the shed.

Whilst installing the prototype buffer, attention was drawn to the workshop building. It's been a bit of a mystery to us why a workshop with such equipment is almost completely open to the elements. Furthermore, a problem for us will be the overhauling of the equipment, which will pose a great deal of work for someone. We took a pragmatic view and decided to infill the arches on the front with brick panels and large windows. The ends would have brick/timber infill panels and large sliding doors. We'll probably keep one or two of the four chimneys.

Laurence brought the new valve he had made for the water tower supply pipe. He and Stephen assembled the parts for the new base, drilled the hole for the new supply pipe, which is the bolt that holds it all in place.

Geoff finished off the timber crossover by detailing the remaining planks, rubbing it all down and staining to a nice, uniform oak colour.

It was a late start this week as all three had other commitments, but quite a bit was achieved, nonetheless.

Thursday 8th January 2015

Work:
Develop Goods Shed platform.
Create sleeper retaining wall.
Reform road crossing infill.

Geoff and Stephen arrived for the first meeting of 2015, but Laurence was still convalescing from the dreaded Christmas flu. It turned into a proper modelling session - no heavy engineering or structural work - just a bit of modelling.

Over the holidays, Stephen had produced the base of a dock for the goods shed. Apart from shaping the bottom to account for a sloping ground, it fitted nicely, so a scribed timber deck was added.

The holes in the wall at the back of the dock needed to be infilled, but instead of using timber cladding, as first planned, a brick wall to match the end wall was formed of balsa clad with matching Flemish brick bond plasticard. This was capped with a thin ply strip, which did the job. After review, it was agreed that the space over the dock end, where road vehicles would reverse up to, could be in-filled with a timber valance, to match the open side of the building. A step will be formed in the cut-out around the central column and the new additions painted and weathered, to blend them in. A buffer-stop will be added at the end.

NB: The steel frame sections of this building are typical of John's modelling, as they have been milled from solid steel and silver-soldered together.

Geoff reviewed the adjacent, truncated slope and decided to make a sleeper retaining wall. Offcuts of wood were put through the band saw and cut down to standard gauge sleeper size, then sanded and stained.

Once glued in place, sections of rail were fitted to represent buttressing. The wall will be continued across to the adjacent board. The previously shaped foam block was glued in place and various ideas for shaping it and incorporating other features, like the rock casting, were discussed.

While other assemblies were gluing, Stephen stripped out the centre timbers of the wide road crossing next to the goods shed. This originally had a surface mounted Kadee magnet, which was removed. The remaining timber was removed and new strips inserted. The original stripwood was left plain, which was unrealistic, so the new strips were scribed into planks and nail-holes spiked.