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.

Thursday 4th August

Worklist:
Engine room decoration and gallery
Main yard crane
Coal stage

Geoff had produced a preliminary design for the engine room floor and now trimmed it to size, and fitted it. It was very impressive and just needs a few tweaks. The walls are still being designed - we can't wait to see them.

He then continued detailing the gallery, adding chequer-plate decking and 'cast-iron' brackets.

Geoff and Laurence returned to the yard crane and fabrication of the foundation gear in particular. Following the previous disaster, a plastic gear was considered, but Geoff decided to try the brass disk again. However, this time, the post was reinforced with a section of pipe and the die was then hand-fed - slowly the gear was cut.

Blank disk

Hand feeding

The final gear

And cleaned ready for use

The teeth are actually the wrong shape, so the disk was raised and the teeth cut again, twice, to 'square-up' the teeth. More than good enough for our purpose.

The rest of the base components were then discussed/designed and Laurence set about making them.

Stephen glued the coal stage in place and then joined in with the previous items. Once dry, grass was added around the lower edges to bed it into the surroundings. Ground up coal and some splodges of black paint was added to the staging. A bit too much coal on the floor for the railway manager liking!

Thursday 28th July

Worklist:
Develop engine room layout
Investigate use of the 'spare' crane
Continue with coal stage

The engine was fitted slightly further back than originally positioned and the generator was also positioned closer to the engine to be more visible. This meant that the space in front of the central control panel became very tight. Geoff re-planned the area, deciding to move the panel to the right hand end where more space was available. This should still allow the vertical ladder up to the gallery to be located on the side wall.

The 28 double-stacked, ground floor batteries are now in a single block, retaining the 20 single row on the gallery.

Laurence rediscovered the a yard crane, from Geoff's section of Cottesmore, that had previously been considered for the main yard. A group investigation determined that the crane could fit where first thought, although modified bracing arms, a new pivot base and manual rotation mechanism would be required. A cardboard mock-up of the base was reluctantly made by Laurence, but it did help determine the base gear size.

Geoff and Laurence set about making the gear using an 'unusual' method, but it was brought to an abrupt halt when the large tap snapped due to the flexibility of the disk mounting shaft. A more solid mount will be made and the teeth cut on the edge of the base disk in due course.

Stephen trimmed up the remodelled coal stage and positioned it to suit loco's in both of the assumed positions/orientations.

Thursday 21st July

Worklist:
Gas engine
Coke storage area

Just G & S as L was on granddad duties on the south coast.

Geoff completed work on the gas engine and refitted it in the building. The engine and drive unit were given 'the once over' and oiled. It was then powered-up and left to run.

The next job was making the dynamo. A lengthy hunt for suitable plastic tubing led to the total destruction of a fibre-tipped pen. A brass core was turned to represent detail at both ends and extra details/mountings were added in plastic.

 A strip of thin brass was cut and fitted around the pulley on the dynamo to represent the belt from the engine.

Stephen painted the plaster base for the coke black and then added a coat of PVA to take a base layer of coke (dyed grit).

A further layer of coke was laid and glued in place by the time-honoured ballast method (diluted PVA and washing-up liquid).

Finally, Stephen returned to installing the coaling stage. However, as the stage had been relocated since it was made, half of the back panels were now too short, so they were removed and new pieces made and fitted.

Thursday 14th July

Worklist:
Gas engine
Fence
Coke stall and floors

A full house, but no photo's!

Geoff worked on detailing his gas engine for a while and then, when he tried to reassemble it, realised that he'd glued the base around the wrong way. A purely aesthetic problem, but it had to be corrected. Making a platicard section to glue on the front was tried, but thought totally unworthy, so a new steel block was silver-soldered to the front and the whole block milled to shape. Geoff was finally happy.

Laurence continued to work on the fence extension. The previous weeks installation had been with Uhu glue, which, it was pointed out, would not be rigid or long-lasting. The new fence was removed, cleaned up and reglued with 'Araldite' (or the Poundshop alternative).

Stephen mixed up some filler and formed the base mound for the coke store. The remaining filler was used to infil the gap around the building base and level off the workshop floor.

Thursday 30th June

Worklist:
Gas engine paint finish
Platform fence
Play trains!

A particularly satisfying session this week. A few projects to finish off and playing trains on the whole layout.

The layout bases were assembled and cabled.

It was good to get everything out to be able to see what we have been working on, on individual boards. Although quite a way off being finished, it was very pleasing to see how it was developing.

It was also useful to test the track and points, which threw up a new problem. We knew we had a problem with John's points due to the way the blades and frog were one continuous element. This becomes a problem if the blades touch the stock rails out of sequence with the frog micro-switches. We were reminded that this situation occurs at each point-throw, so we have to ensure loco's are stationary when points are changed. However, one of the points caused a short when left in one direction. It was found that the servo horn had moved out of alignment which meant one switch wasn't activated, causing a dead short. This was easily rectified, but definitely something we'll have to keep an eye on.

As we started cleaning the track, Geoff announced that he was going to make a cleaning device he'd seen in a magazine. A section of aluminium channel, a bolt and some wood off-cuts, and it was ready. We all had a play and immediately put our orders in for one!

Whilst the building and features were being set out, Geoff completed work on his gas engine by cleaning off the red paint from the 'tyres', which finished it off perfectly.

We also had a couple of 'Whoops!' moments that had to be included at Laurence's insistence!

Laurence completed installation of the platform fence only to find, when the first item of stock was run past it that it was too close! It was so close that the holes had to be filled ready for re-drilling next time.

The second whoops was when Laurence was shunting his Decauville 0-6-0 in the platform and the front buffer was pulled off.

Thursday 24th March

Worklist:
Wall details
Equipment overhaul
Workshop

Geoff made a 'set' of piers for his wall, following the pattern of the main wall - American bond for the faces and stretcher bond for the sloping top.

 Laurence continued to clean-up and then paint the vertical drill from the workshop.

Stephen cut out and shaped more pieces of 9 mm ply to create the over-door panels and glued them in place. These join the new ends and the 'floating' corner piers. The front wall infill panel was cut to shape and two, curved arch window openings cut and filed to shape. The new end doors were discussed. Sliders were possible and would open the inside up completely, but would have to be formed in two sections due to the limited space on the end wall. Pairs of hinged doors were agreed, although after successfully making an operating roller shutter door for his Gn15 layout, certain group members were keen for at least one end to be treated similarly. Stephen just smiled, 'non-committedly'.

Typical Laurence working photo - note toothbrush and jewellers loupe.