Thursday 26th February

Worklist:
Continue with sleeper retaining wall.
Continue to unearth the mysteries of the gas plant and decide how to restore it.

Stephen's first job was to seal all of the MDF coping stones with diluted PVA. Once hard, they can be rubbed down and painted.

Laurence continued with the sleeper wall steel reinforcement.

With just a couple more sections to go, it's looking very good.

Earlier in the week, Geoff had discovered that the gas plant building was bolted down, and could be removed, with a bit of effort. Inside, was more detail that we had never appreciated in the gloomy room, like the gasifier, below. Coal/coke were loaded into the top, to generate the gas, which had to be drawn off, cooled and cleaned, by the external equipment.

All of the equipment?

Geoff had been investigating what all of the plant was for. The arrangement and equipment appeared to be of the type to produce a noxious mix of gases that was definitely not suitable for 'domestic' use, but was for the generation of electricity. What we were lacking was an engine and generator. 

Geoff had already got plans for 'developing' the building and soon, he and Stephen were reforming the staircase to make space for the new generator room. The new room would have white, glazed wall tiles and be more of a feature than before. Lighting (and possibly a working engine) were high on the list. 

After examining the flue pipe arrangement, and the general height inside, it was also decided to lift the building on a plinth, but retain the 'gasifier' room equipment floor level and create a substantial floor for the engine, generator, batteries and control equipment.

Phase I - the staircase

Clearing the area for the new floor and plinth.

Once a murky, unknown area, this building can now 'come alive' and become even more of a feature on the layout. A very exciting project!

Thursday 19th February

Worklist:
Discuss the gas production building/equipment
Scenery structure repairs
Reformation of water tank steps

Laurence was on grand-daughter-sitting duties so G&S spent a little time discussing other model railway projects, one of which might find its way to Worton Court.

Geoff related the research he had undertaken on the gas production equipment (more anon). It transpired that the two pipes discharging onto the floor were actually cold water supply pipes to the two containers. We assume that the water tank was positioned up on the hill to supply both the gas production equipment and the workshop, a little further along, No supply pipes are visible and so an underground route was assumed to be in John's mind. However, for added interest, it was decided to introduce supply pipes. From the tank, one will run in an insulated timber casing down to the equipment, and then run in lagging, as it feeds to the cylinders. After much thought, a configuration was arrived at that requires very little work to the existing pipework.

Our attention then turned to the tank and the steps up to it. We quickly realised that the steps were completely wrong in size and arrangement, and that new ones were needed. Geoff removed the old ones and set about making new, regular and accurately sized replacements from wood.

A fair bit of work required - side dwarf walls, handrails, landings, infilling underneath etc., but they are much better. A new retaining wall with substantial coping's, will be built around the gasometer.

Stephen set-to fixing the glass fibre hill end panel, which had come loose. This had become important, as housed on the hill is the water tank serving the various buildings. The tank sits across the board joint and is bolted down, when required. Access paths around the tank and ladders etc., will be added.

Geoff had circulated an article on making plaster setts. The article was for a P4 layout and the work was superb. Geoff decided to have a go. It was successful, and said he would happily prepare large areas. However, Stephen was a little sceptical and thought it would be suitable for an area like the stable courtyard, the sweeping roads in the goods shed yard were more suited to rougher surfaces.

Gas production

The principle is that coke is burnt in a container (in the building) and the gasses taken out to the first cylinder where it is cooled by cold water sprays. It then passes into the second chamber, where it is 'scrubbed'. The gases are drawn through these containers by a motorised fan, that is driven by some of the gas. The gas is then relayed back into the other side of the building where it powers an engine (horizontal cylinder), coupled to an electricity generator. Surplus gas is stored in the gas holder.

A similar arrangement.

The electricity generator room would have been a clean area - the pride and joy of the estate. Geoff intends to recreate an appropriate interior, with tiled walls and floor, and good lighting. 

Thursday 12th February

Stephen was on holiday this week so Laurence & Geoff decided to take things quietly. (While the cats away etc. etc.)

Laurence had been building the retaining wall on the entrance to the Worton Court Mine line.  All the timbering had been erected a couple of weeks ago so it was now time to fit some of the reinforcing channel to hold them all prototypically in place.  This consisted of Plastruct 'I' beam and some 1:48 scale 1¼” diameter bolts; the latter representing the rock bolts which would have held the whole structure to the rock behind the wall.  We had some discussion about whether to use channel section or I beams, but as the channel would need to be made by filing the rear two ribs of the I beams we took the easy route.  Spacers were fitted in strategic places on the rear face so that the beam could be glued (Thixofix) to the wooden uprights.  Bolt holes were drilled with a 0.8mm drill in a pin chuck and then Butanoned (?) to the beam.  Basic painting followed, however this will be suitably enhanced with rust and detritus once all the beams are fitted.  Eventually there will be two rows of beams.

Following some work on a friend’s layout Geoff decided to try out some paper maché for the scenery base.   The advantage of paper maché is that it is light, hard and can be glued easily to the edge of a baseboard (or anything else).  No more problems of plaster bandage (Modroc) coming adrift, cracking or becoming chipped. We used two parts PVA glue and one part water, plus lots of small pieces of newspaper.  This was applied as a test section along the edge of one board.  About three or four layers of newspaper was all that was needed.  It dried hard enough to sand in about four hours. It will be given a coat of brown paint in the near future before receiving its scenic dressing.

Geoff decided to continue his construction of a retaining wall behind the rear corner of the gas works. The core is laminated from plywood and card to get the correct two brick thickness when clad with Slaters’ embossed Plastikard.  Flemish Bond was used for the sides and the capping was cut from Stretcher Bond.  Once all the pieces had been cut out the sides were stuck to the core using Thixofix, then the caps were fitted.  It was at this stage that we discovered that the coursing is not regular and the mortar lines could only be approximately married up.  Finally a wash of Butanone was applied to the joints and the whole assembly clamped up while we took lunch.

After lunch the caps were filed round to represent bullnose capping bricks.  Then a very fine knife edge needle file was used to cut the mortar lines on the edges.  If anyone looks very carefully you can see that the courses don’t always line up, but it’s almost unnoticeable.  The bullnose bricks were painted bluish grey and once dry, white matt Humbrol basecoat was painted on and then immediately wiped off with a piece of kitchen roll.  It seems to have come out well.

Thursday 5th February

Worklist:
Progress bridge stonework.
Progress goods shed.
Review work to gas generation building (what's the correct term?)

Despite the absence of Laurence, a productive session took place.

Stephen, having previously taken the decision NOT to create a dry-stone wall at the top of the bridge, extended the wall sub-structure and applied stone sheeting and coping stones to the final section. Decorators caulking was experimented with to fill in various holes and voids on the walls. It's like plaster filler, but with the feel of 'mastic' sealant, so it stays flexible whilst being paintable.

In the meantime, Geoff finished off the guttering to the goods shed, including joints and brackets. Once glued in place, etched access covers were added to the adjacent ground, and everything was painted. The back wall was then coated in said decorators sealant to enhance the mortar joints, but it wasn't successful and was washed off. Instead, standard filler was applied to much better effect. Weathering powders were applied to the wall and timber dock, then both were glued in place.

Stephen screwed the fence-post brackets to the plywood wall faces.

Then attention was concentrated on the gas production building. The roof was swabbed down with water and came-up very nicely. The building has not been set into the hill behind very well, so a section of the fibreglass profile was cut away and a brick retaining wall developed. To be continued.

There are a couple of pipes that run along the floor and stop. The consensus is they ought to go somewhere, so Geoff will have a think about them . . . 

As we packed up, the final discussion was about roads /yards. 

Goods shed yard - this is currently made of something (probably the oil version of cat-litter), which has been 'polished' smooth, and resemble crazy paving. The pieces can be up to a foot across and are self-coloured - beige. We have to extend this area down to the new buildings/sidings, so we'll test a light over-spraying to make the pieces less prominent and allow a transition to a painted plaster road.

Bridge - it came down to either a proper, made-up tarmac road or a rural track. As soon as we discussed the method of forming a rutted track, with occasional rocks and foliage down the centre and up the side walls, it was 'contest over!".

Thursday 29th January 2015

Worklist:
Progress the goods (transshipment) shed.
Progress the retaining wall.
Progress the bridge stonework.

Well, this week we made great strides in completing our individual projects...

Stephen finished off gluing panels of stonework sheet to the remaining (visible) faces.

Then there was a pondering, long and hard, as to what the bridge copings could be made of, before Geoff whipped out the router and rounded off the edges of some 6mm MDF strips. Stephen then cut them to length, cleaned them up and glued them on top of the wall.

We knew what we were trying to achieve, but it was still very satisfying to see the finished result.

Laurence finished installing the timber baulks for the retaining wall, and it really looks the part now. The steel-section ground anchor rails need to be applied now.

Geoff made up and fitted some gutters and RWP's. The painting of the corrugated roof sheeting was then progressed; silver for the new, galvanised sheets and edge trims, and 'fiery' rust for the existing sheets.