Wednesday 23rd February 2022

Worklist

Shape scenery foam laid the previous week and glue paper mache over the area.

Review progress on the engine shed.

Fit new ladders to inspection pit and dirty area generally.

Paint track.

Discuss problem with corrugated iron making machine.

Review new knobs for quick adjustment of the trestle height.

All three in attendance this week.

Stephen and Geoff worked on shaping the scenery foam fitted previously. Geoff then applied three layers of newspaper and PVA glue over the foam. He experimented on taking the PM right up to the track edge, over the sleeper ends, as an alternative to infilling the voids with plaster. The idea is that the decorative road surface will be applied directly to the paper and XPS foam surfaces to save weight, which has provoked some discussion in the group. The 'experiment' will be a useful test of its practicality.

Stephen had been working on the engine shed at home. The continuous smoke hood had been painted and an exhaust louvre through the rear wall added. A bit OTT for our shed, but a nice detail. LED lighting had also been completed and feed wires fitted. The pair of ladders were fitted in the pit and the whole area generally dirtied.

Corrugated iron had been applied to the rear side of the building as a trial. It was generally successful, but Stephen was grateful that Geoff's brief had been 'it must be in a bad state of repair'. Unfortunately, the roller machine started going out of alignment and additional sheets couldn't be produced to finish the areas attempted. The machine was examined and ideas suggested, but a solution needs to be worked out. (The roof panels are not fixed yet).

Geoff then moved on to painting the track at the yard end. A slightly different colour was used that got the thumbs up, so he'll have to go back to paint the other end again!

Geoff had been reviewing the setting-up process for the forthcoming show at Eastleigh, and he had identified the time taken to level the trestles as a problem. Double nuts requiring two spanners were the issue, so he had designed and made a 3D printed knob to hold a nut. A quick test proved successful, so he will make the other 19 in due course.

Next week is designated a trial setup session to make sure we had everything required, that it was in working condition and just as important, that we knew where to put it! As Laurence won't be joining us for the one-day show, Chris Holmes will again be stepping in to help and will make a visit the following week to re-assimilate himself with everything.

Wednesday 16th February 2022

Worklist:

Review new office building.

Trim down second front profile strip including slide-in water feature board.

Paint track.

Fit steelwork in inspection pit.

Fit XPS 'road' foam in extended yard area.

Fit 'scenery' foam behind new fascia board.

Laurence had car problems again, so just Stephen & Geoff.

Stephen had developed the original managers house front into the general office. Sited next to the new, larger managers house, the pair worked well. 

The paper mache overlay to the trackside scenery was examined and a light sanding of the edges finished it off. The PVA top-coat had dried solid and looked good.

After a brief discussion to agree the ground line, Geoff set about jig sawing the profile board to shape. Part of the discussion included agreeing to lifting the road at the front so that there would be a slope down to the track at the yard entrance. 

The removeable water board also had to be taken into account. The ground sloping down to the water will be fixed to the edge/underside of the plywood board top.

Geoff then moved on to painting track and Stephen fitted the steelwork supporting the rails in the inspection pit. 

Stephen had modified the engine shed roof trusses to enable the inclusion of a smoke hood. After research, this took the form of a continuous box with a discharge louvre in the end wall. The hood will also provide a structure to mount the LED's for the interior lighting.

Yellow scenery foam was cut up and glued behind the front profile and weighted/clamped down. Tapered grey road foam was layered to form the slope down to the road. Small lumps of foam were glued around the quarry to represent dumped spoil heaps. Note the new office building and lengthened c/iron store leaving a small infill building to be developed.

Finally, the main building was cut down to its new size. (Yes, it was agreed that the larger depth building was to accommodate manual wagon exchange prior to deciding to extend the siding onto the fiddle yard). The area of road foam was extended to suit the new building size.

Wednesday 9th February 2022

Worklist:

Shape foam scenery along front and apply paper mache.

Discuss gravel pit construction.

Create steelwork for inspection pit.

Fix front profile board.

Discuss buildings around yard.

Stephen had created a front entrance area for the office building, which also provided practice for applying brickwork plasticard to the buildings. 

Having researched the steel structure supporting the rails over the inspection pit, Stephen was able to rummage through Geoff's plastic boxes, locate and cut to size, a set of components ready for when access to the area was possible.

Geoff  shaped the foam previously glued along the front and inserted plastic sheet pieces to stop glue seeping into the board joint. He then applied paper mache over the foam scenery.

As he reached the 'flooded' quarry, it was time to discuss construction of the water. Never properly discussed before, Stephen and Geoff had different ideas - perspex or MDF, edge details, water level, etc. It was finally agreed to use 6mm MDF for the base layer and create the water effect using resin, something we had not used for over 30 years. Geoff prepared the supporting timbers, creating a good, flat base, then sourced and shaped a piece of MDF. (The finished water panel will be carefully stored off-board and will be slipped into place, when needed, to cover the board joint).

It was then the natural moment to glue the final front profile panel in place.

As they often did at the end of the session recently, thoughts returned to the remaining buildings around the yard. We had two buildings mocked-up in paper and corrugated cardboard, but there was still a gap. The awning and loading dock were stripped off the c/iron building, which opened up the yard nicely. Stephen was keen to make the building longer - Geoff was keen to introduce different building materials.

Geoff then declared that an office had always been in his mind adjacent to the managers house. The original, abandoned, smaller house front was still lying around and was dropped into place - it worked well. Stephen will develop the building/roof further.

The main stone workshop now came under scrutiny. Its size was fairly arbitrary, dating back to very early days when it provided a screen preventing views into the fiddleyard. The building was moved back towards the fiddleyard and the yard in front increased disproportionately. The walkway over the track was still viable, but could be reduced 'in mass' and design. The yard area definitely looked better. We will play around with the c/iron building and design an infill building between it and the 'new' office.

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It was later remembered that the main building mock-up was created before the idea of extending the yard siding onto the fiddle yard had occurred to us. Wagons would have stopped at the edge of the fiddle yard, and the exchange would take place within the building. Exchanging wagons in the fiddle yard meant the building could be reduced in size.

Wednesday 2nd February 2022

Worklist:

Progress managers office building and local area.

Rocks - finish carving and paint. Also paint hillside base coat.

Finish laying foam underlay in yard area.

Prepare and fit front lipping to baseboard.

Prepare and glue foam sections behind lipping.

Geoff & Stephen

Stephen had reviewed the office building (again) and increased the overall height to make it more 'important'. He'd also increased the window heights similar to a building in the Welsh industrial workers housing book he'd been using for inspiration. Side/return walls had been added which created depth - it was now a building. The building was now tried in place and varying base height were tried. A piece of plywood was used to envisage the paved area leading to the front door. Once happy with the design, some steps were made to complete the area. A wall or fence will separate the area from the adjacent workers footpath.

The Bridge board was fitted on the end to confirm that the mating of the two profiles was ok. Geoff did a little more carving of the rockface before giving it a coat of paint.

The hillside was then given a coat of brown paint. It took some time to remember what paint we'd used previously for both areas, but we got there in the end.

Stephen finished laying the foam underlay in the yard area. He also put a ford van on the yard to assess how big the yard actually was.

The baseboards had been made narrower than needed to allow for land profiles to be added once we knew what we were making. The last job of the day was to source and prepare a length of MDF for the front lipping/profile strip. Once glued and clamped in place, foam offcuts were glued in place ready to be carved to shape in due course.

We keep saying it, but we are often amazed at how things just fall into place and this week was no exception. the boards looked like viable sections of railway, which was very pleasing.