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...
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?
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...
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.
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!
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.
.
...all very professional though 
