Love Lane, B.R. (E) c.1956-59

Peter Insole

Western Thunderer
Oops, got caught in a mini stampede there - posts seemed to be coming in from all directions!

As a postscript to my previous ramblings, I will say that for personal satisfaction, there is nothing like having a go at what appears to be an almost impossible task, and hopefully achieving a reasonable result?!

I would have thoroughly enjoyed hand making that little weighing machine, but it would have taken far too many precious hours work, and it certainly wouldn't have come out quite as crisply detailed as John's superb 3D design!

As the hut is so close to the viewing side of the layout, it will be nice to hope that anyone who takes their eye off the trains for just a moment, might spot some curious "gubbins" behind those super fine Crittall windows!

Pete.
 

Martin Field

Western Thunderer
I think it's only the corners that need to be treated with special care on both the sheet covered and laser cut stuff. The ease of correct bonding with laser cutting is a big plus, IF you are prepared to pay the price. Otherwise, I still like the thinner, more workable sheet covering, but corners and bond correctness must be dealt with on solid 9" walls.
By the way Pete, I love that building you've done and the colouring. Them pigeons do know how to poo, don't they? I DO like your avatar, too<G>
 

Peter Insole

Western Thunderer
I had a bit of a moment last Wednesday evening:

Just about managed to refrain from running round the railway room with my tee-shirt turned inside-out over my head or sliding across the floor on my knees - I didn't jump up and down and hug anyone either, but couldn't resist a sort of Andy Murray style clenched fist air-punch and a loud, vocal exclamation!

The Love Lane station roof is done...!!!

OK, I know the soffits and facias still need painting and the gutters fitting too, but that's for another day (or two, or three?)!

Here at last are the long overdue updates:

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This pic and the following are meant to show the strip of tiles added to the fillets.

What cannot be seen is how flippin' fiddly they were to align with the tiles on the roof proper! I couldn't have counted the number of times the roof had to be carefully prised off and then jiggled back down again before all six were sorted...!

Unfortunately the above also reveals that the ceiling is doing exactly what I feared it would do - as mentioned in a previous post!

Definitely the wrong choice of wood for the framing methinks.

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At this point I had felt that enough was enough! The angle of the lighting and the cruelty of the camera are such lame excuses...?!

Otherwise, it is sitting quite nicely now:

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The constant handling has polished the paint on the hips a bit, but a gentle swipe with some very fine abrasive should see to that?

So near, yet so far to go. All those gables, pediments, parapets and chimneys need their verticals flashing to finish.

Normally I use a self-adhesive aluminium foil for this job, but on here the material would be prone to damage every time the roof is removed. Thin plasticard, firmly glued would be more durable and hopefully only require any chaffed paint to be touched up from time to time?

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The line of arrows were drawn to remind me which way up to glue the strip so they aligned with the brick courses - with enough of them to show after it had been trimmed into the shorter lengths needed!

I forgot (of course) that I had cut and marked all the strips for a left hand slope, so had to turn them over and similarly mark t'other sides as well - and make sure that the arrows pointed the right way...!

Ahem!...

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Would it have been better to pre paint the strips before installing?

I considered it, but was afraid that excess superglue around the angles would be almost impossible to clean up properly.

As it happens, I was damn glad I hadn't! The number of times I had to (swearing profuse profanities) scrape them back off, clean, trim, chuck away and re cut new bits, replace roof to check fit, wip it orf agin' etc., before everything was more or less in the right place!

It would have been a right old mess and even more of a patchwork if they'd had paint on them as well?!

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Wow, what a marathon?!

There were just enough hours left in that last afternoon to paint all the lead and finally add the remaining pigeon poo to the ridges before tea and chocolate cake time!

I still had a mouthful of the delicious confection when JB asked;

"So, what's next then Pete...?"

My answer was unintelligible, probably rude - and quite disgusting anyway as I dispersed a load of soft brown crumbs on the sofa...!

Pete.



 

Peter Insole

Western Thunderer
I'm afraid that the weighbridge hut that JB referred to, and that which raised a few eyebrows a couple of weeks ago, remains part built, empty and still unattended to, but it will not be forgotten now! There has been a huge amount of structural and major reorganisation work going on at Love Lane, with many hands fully occupied, so it is not perhaps an opportune time for a diversion?!

If it were not already obvious to some, I will now reveal my true character: As all the mayhem goes on around me I have been resolutely carrying on in my "Area of peace and tranquillity"! I nipped out for a fag break one afternoon and returned to find several chaps moving my work table from a corner, complete with everything teetering atop, across to the centre of the room! At first sensing exposure, I have since been steadily disappearing among stacks of timber, plywood sheet, ladders, boxes, heavy tools and my own junk. Although frequently deafened by the noise of industry and occasionally enveloped in clouds of fine sawdust, there I sit, twiddling away at my self appointed task, hopefully hidden from view in plain sight! I am just reminded of that classic black and white, dialogue free film "A home of your own"; where we see Bernhard Cribbins chiselling away at a memorial stone on a building site, frequently disturbed, distracted and frustrated, but finally succeeding - only to discover at the grand opening ceremony that he'd made an absolute howler of a spelling mistake!

I know I'm not joining in with the great team effort, but I am so worried that the station buildings and their immediate environs are such a focal point on the layout, and the incalculable amount of time that will be needed to complete them is weighing very heavily on me!

Sorry folks!

I'm not done yet with the roofing work...

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A big problem has been working out the best method of fitting the flat, leaded roof over the ticket office and vestibules.

The dividing walls are widely spaced, but I don't want to put any other obstructions that will make access difficult. There is enough room for a lower ceiling though, so a decent "belt and braces" rigid affair should suffice?

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In "Bagshot" fashion, all the internal walls will remain dry fitted and held only by their slots, tabs and overlapped joints, so it was easy to whip the partitions out and cut some extra notches for the framing at the top corners.

The one above took somewhat longer than hoped. I had noticed a while ago that the thin extended part (out of focus, green wainscot bit in the picture) had been cracked by some clumsy handling (my own I hasten to add!) This was the ideal moment to finally get round to fixing it? Wise as it turned out, as the part was rather loose and would have been a right pain if it had dropped off and got inevitably lost! There was little alternative to adding a brace behind, so that required a section of the main floor to be trimmed away and filed to accept the extra material!

Once again (with measured apologies) I return to my old gripe about sticking plastic sheet to MDF! - I cannot emphasise enough what an absolute no-no that has turned out to be!

Neither the outer or inner walls are straight, the latter is particularly bad at the arched ends. There, they have curled with such force that any attempt to flatten would cause significant damage and a whole load of extra work!

This is not in any way meant to be a criticism of any individual! I only mention it yet again as a warning to anyone thinking of using the materials together! The mixture of (thick) wood fibre, plastic and solvent based or super-glue is a recipe for precisely this sort of problem!

Anyway, the main roof section was eventually trimmed to a somewhat irregular but reasonably snug fit!

I would have preferred ply, but accept that thin MDF would be OK. Besides, it must match the platform canopy material already used, and there is plenty of it to steal from JB's store drawer too! The trick for making the stuff behave itself would be the usual, deep as practicable framing...

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The double joists and slots at either end were measured to fit over the dividing walls, not only helping to keep them in alignment, but to allow white mountboard ceilings to be added for a nice neat box structure. The latter will be done after the lighting circuits have been designed and laid in.

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As you can see, I had great fun trying to work out the spacing for the lead battens - Maths and my name will never normally appear in the same sentence!

I think I may have found a hapless victim - sorry, "volunteer" to cut and stick down all those tedious little strips? You would think they had enough after doing the great long platform canopies eh?

But it was a long time ago!

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The end of a good, but still slightly unsociable days' work?

Next week; those right awkward staircases - I haven't a flippin' clue where or how to start on them yet...!!

Pete.
 
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