Wednesday 27th October 2021

Worklist:

Review new paper building.

Realign engine shed point.

Make bridge board scenery profiles.

Discuss engine shed siding ash pit.

Discuss engine shed design including work pit.

Review corrugated iron 'machine'.

Laurence was taking it easy today so just the other two.

Stephen's new paper building was dropped into place. The corrugated store with a loading dock worked well, although both agreed that incorporating a ridge across the roof would allow the odd triangular back-half to disappear.

The space next to it would fill the gap to the board end. The idea of a stone building was developed with an industrial ground floor with large access door, possibly windows, but with the backs of houses above. This combining of houses and industrial use had often figured in books relating to workman's housing. Stephen will create something for discussion.

Geoff then moved onto realigning the engine shed point as agreed the previous week. This meant moving the point back about 20mm and closer to the main line. Much experimentation was needed, including the introduction of a 3D printed Deceauville loco body and the 'engine shed box', before the final position was agreed.

Factors to be considered included the proximity of the building corner to the mason's yard siding (rather than the main line). It was mooted that if it was found to be too tight, it would be a nice feature to chamfer the building corner. Space for a loco to 'stand' in front of the shed doors to run forward to the siding was also needed. The final position was agreed.

The dimensions and layout of the shed were also considered, which included the inspection pit. So much thought went into it, that it made sense to build the pit next.

Steel sizes, step access, working space, wall thickness etc all became lines and dimensions on the board.

The drill came out for the corner holes, the jig-saw cut the floor out, timber strip was glued and screwed underneath to form the pit and a small panel of plywood created the pit floor. Some plastic steel sections were also found for the rail supports.

Meanwhile, Stephen had produced two MDF cut-outs of the bridge board ground profile. One will go onto the engine shed board to marry up with the bridge board face for the 6-board exhibition format. The other will be used on adapter board #4 for use in the workshop.

Finally, Geoff had found a free, corrugated iron machine 3D design and files on 'Thingiverse' and printed a set of components out. He'd also sourced some 0.1mm aluminium and copper sheet. A small piece of aluminium was manually fed through the 'teeth' and a superb piece of corrugated iron appeared. Although described as 'O' scale, it appears oversized, so Geoff is going to experiment with rescaling the components and try printing it again.

A wonderfully productive day!

Wednesday 20th October 2021

Worklist: 

Review Stephen's re-working of the mason's workshop building.

Build the tunnel.

Review the introduction of a row of cottages over the tunnel.

Paint adapter boards 3 and 4.

Stephen had been looking at a corrugated iron clad, 2 storey building and produced overlays for the cardboard mock-up. The metal sheeting would be a new material on the layout and the reduced height made more sense. The principle was readily accepted. He was concerned that the stone structure for the 18" gauge track waste dump would be out of place. Geoff suggested a timber frame structure which sounded good, but lacked the visual cut-off from the fiddle yard. Alternatively, stone piers with a timber track support sounded good. Either way, rambling foliage could be used to disguise the fiddle yard entrance. If stone was used, just the end wall of the main building could be in stone.... Lot's of ideas - TBA!

It was then decided to build the tunnel. This would comprise an 800mm long section on each of the boards. A void 100mm wide and 110mm high was agreed. Some left-over 6mm melamine faced MDF sheet was cut to size and some 20x20 wood strip sawn on the diagonal to form fillets. It was all glued and screwed together.

Everyone was pleased with the tunnel units, which were dropped into place. Stephen then modified the paper cottages he'd produced to work out how some could be fitted over the tunnel. Everyone was very pleased with the initial effect, although further development of the ground, paths, retaining walls and the cottages themselves would be needed. However, he highlighted a possible problem in that the gap between the engine shed and the cottages was very tight and an old box was used to investigate the problem. It was agreed that the track could not be shortened as space in front of the shed had to be maintained for access to the ash pit siding. Geoff's solution was to modify the point and slew the track and building around slightly. After close examination of the frog rails, Geoff declared it to be a viable option, which was unanimously agreed.

The change prompted the possibility of inserting some disused track, from the mason's yard to the rear of the engine shed, to imply the shed was originally used by the mason's. Another possible modelling feature to explore!

The proposed track alignment:

To develop the scenery further, the bridge board would need to be bolted in place to see how the ground rising behind the bridge fitted with the new area. A timber profile of the hill will also be made that can be fixed on the new board.

In between these labours and discussions, Stephen spray painted adapter boards 3 and 4 in matt black. These 'exchange' boards will be the only non-scenic boards in the new workshop layout.

Wednesday 6th October 2021

Stephen and Laurence had forgotten that a pub lunch had been agreed the previous week and they had brought their sandwiches. As the table was booked and Geoff was already thinking about what he would have, we decided to have a short session in the workshop before and after lunch. 

We decided to get a minimum of boards out and have a think about the scenery on the two full scenic boards - the engine shed and the mason's yard. First of all, a mock-up of the quarry track cover (a tunnel with an open side at the back) was created. This will probably be 6/9mm plywood with fillets. If reinforced suitably, it could be cantilevered, or a few small pillars introduced.

After a hunt around the workshop, some of the original cardboard mock-up pieces were found. The main building with the siding and the 'spoil-heap bridge' were dropped into place as were card squares indicating where the other mason building fronts would go. Boxes with thin cork off-cuts laid over them were initially used to get a feel for the hills, but screwed-up newspaper balls made a better job. A box was used for the engine shed to assess ground level issues around it. The central area where a row of workman's cottages had been discussed some 18 months previously caused the most trouble. These would fill in the backdrop, but also form the transition between the works buildings ground level and the much higher hillside profile at the bridge. Various arrangements of cottages and terrain were considered, but it was decided that research would be undertaken and paper/card cottages produced that could be moved around (and up and down) to find a final solution.

The quarry tunnel (left) and the siding entering the main mason's building en-route to the fiddleyard. We briefly discussed how much detailing would be required to disguise the sight of the quarry traffic, but decided it was something to consider later.