Weighbridge office

The station building plans are coming on slowly, but I've decided that it would be slightly silly to attempt the largest and most complex building first. So I decided to start with something much smaller and more straightforward - the weighbridge office.

I've only found one photo of the weighbridge office at Llanfyllin and that's in a general view of the station and goods yard taken from (roughly) the goods yard entrance. From this angle you can only see the end profile of the building, so my model is definitely not an exact replica. Instead I've used my rough guesstimate of the overall proprotions and basic style from this photo, then built up the rest of the picture using photos of other similar structures.

I drew the plans using Adobe Illustrator, and you can take a look at them (somewhat reduced in scale) here:

The basic bodyshell was marked out on 40 thou Slater's plasticard (I was going to use 30 thou which is a lot easier to cut, but decided the 1mm thickness of 40 thou would make measuring and ligning everything up much easier, which I'm glad I did). I also marked out a second piece for each wall, 1mm narrower at each side and 1.5mm lower along the top, to add extra strength and to allow the four walls to lock together squarely. As well as the walls I makrked out a floor piece (again double thickness) and the chimney. I lightly score the outlines using a sharp knife with the aid of a small steel rule and engineer's square, afterwards rubbing some pencil over the score-marks with my fingers so they show up more easily.

With everything measured up and marked out I then set to work cutting each piece out. This is done with several light strokes of the knife along the steel rule edge (first locating the tip of the blade into the existing marks to ensure an accurate alignment. After several runs of the knife you can gently snap the pasticard, then clean up the edges with the knife.

The next stage is to cement the double-thickness walls and floor together using Slaters Mek-Pak. It pays to line each pair up first and check the measurements and make any necessary adjustments with a file or knife. Most of my pieces were a good fit fortunately.

Mek-Pak dries (or more accurately, evaporates) VERY quickly so I find I have to work very quickly with a loaded brush to ensure one entire surface is flooded before bringing the two pices together. A quick adjustment of the alignment is usually necessary, then the two pices can be pressed together firmly, and a little Mek-Pak touched to each of the joins, allowing it to run into the seams.

These then need to be left to dry for several hours, ideally under some heavy books to make sure there's no warping.

My next task was to cut out the embossed brick overlay for each wall. I've used Slater's '00' red Flemish Bond (this is the bond used on all the Llanfyllin buildings). The same method is used for marking out and cutting the brick sheet.

In order for the bricks to line up seamlessly at the corners I find it best to allow the brick layer to overhang the edges of the walls by about 1mm, then to file a 45 degree mitre along the edge so that when the two walls are joined together, the bricks meet at the corners. This takes some patience to get right. If you cut or file off too much you get a gap - so its always worth erring on the side of generosity and then gradually filing away until you get the right amount. Its best to actually do the filing once you've cemented the brick sheet to the wall, as you can then check the fit as you're going along rather than doing it all in once go and just hoping for the best!

Finally, for now at least, I joined all the walls and the floor together. The chimney is attached to the back wall and was constructed in one piece with it.

More to come soon.

Lalnfyllin station building

Well, I've well and truly fallen under the spell of Llanfyllin, after seeing the photos in the Great Western railway Journal this month.

I've now decided to start work on the station building. This is something that I can work on even before I start on the track etc. although actual construction is some way off yet. I am currently working on producing a 'near-to-scale' drawing in Adobe Illustrator - I say 'near-to-scale' rather than 'scale' because I'm working purely on estimates from the photos. I'm also switching the two ends over so that the two-story station-master's house is at the left-hand end, since my station will be the other way round (don't ask me why - I suppose I could just as easily switch it over to be the other way round...)

Anyway, the idea is to produce a 'scale' drawing that I can use as a template for the actual construction (I started doing it with pencil and paper but soon realised that doing it on the computer made far more sense.)

Llanfyllin inspiration

Like Topsy (so the old phrase goes) it just growed! I seem to have ended up pretty much back where I started out... with a layout plan to fit the maximum available space in the garage, rather than a small-scale intermediate project!

The trouble is, designing small layouts isn't easy when the prototype is far from small. Even the less important branch line stations, and in particular terminii, occupied quite significant areas, and trying to squeeze too much into too small a space is likely to just end up looking wrong.

The latest design (I make no claim to it being the 'final' one - who knows when I'll arrive at that point?!) took a good deal of its inspiration from Llanfyllin, a Cambrian Railways branch terminus, featured in the latest edition of 'Great Western Railway Journal' (published quarterly by Wild Swan Publications). It's absolutely packed with atmosphere and I was immediately cast under its spell!

While still limited in terms of shunting potential, with only three goods sidings (and only two of those in the goods yard as such), I think the additional length would help create more of a feeling of spaciousness and hence realism.

The layout design isn't meant to be an exact copy of Llanfyllin (the track plan is quite different for a start) but rather is inspired by it. I would envisage basing at least some of the buildings (station buildings, signal box, goods shed) on the structures at Llanfyllin while using some artistic license in other areas.

As usual though, as soon as the next bit of inspiration comes along I'll probably change my plans again, so don't hold your breath!!!

In some ways though, the planning is equally as enjoyable as the modelling itself, and, I would like to argue, is as much part of the whole process as anything else (well, I would I suppose, wouldn't I?!).