Like Fagin, “I’m reviewing the situation”
Or, a Note about the decision to abandon the Cliff Railway model.
I had measured, drawn and made mock-ups of the various buildings at the lower end of the Cliff Railway to check that their mutual alignment was as it was expected to be. I was rather disappointed with the way the Mock-up buildings did not quite align correctly, and a couple of glaring errors were apparent.
The worst offender was the lower station alignment with the track, there is
Under the platform at the top station is a Sheave, which is based on colliery design.
I contacted Hornby Customer Services, to ask what was the diameter of the Sheave in their Colliery Headgear model and if it was available as a spare. They just directed me to their spares dealers, who had no stock and could not help.
A plea in the Help and Tips forum drew a response from Arthur (Thanks again!) who had acquired 3D printed Sheaves (57mm dia?) from Shapeways via Ebay, He tried to get his supplie
More trial (and error)
Having visited Bridgnorth again, I felt that I had enough information to attempt a trial build of the top station.
Sorry, no drawing with this blog, my computer with the Autocad program has died!
I was not happy with the foam-board used for the trial build of the lower station, so started with cardboard. I did try Corn-flake packet card as used by Chubber, but I thought the texture a little coarse, so I used a Supermarket Chinese, Meal for Two, take-away package c
I mentioned in my previous blog entry that the drawings of the lower station and guesthouse were the most advanced. To prove the correct positional relationship of the incline and the station a mock-up of the whole building was made, and give me an overview of the difficulties in assembling its complex shape.
Having read somewhere that foamboard could be used as a backing for styrene brickwork sheets, and thinking that it would make a sturdy box structure, I purchased a small pack of 5mm thick
After several attempts to rationalise the size and shape of the Bridgnorth Baseboard footprint, the bullet has been bitten and a chunk of 4mm plywood attacked.
I don't have access to an A1 Printer,so a printout of the model area was made taking several A4 sheets, which I laid out and overlapped as necessary, and the cutting shape marked with the sheet of ply on the Dining Table, being the largest flat surface around. The ply was then, (to the relief of household management) taken to the garage
I mentioned the likely need for sky-hooks when I added the sub-base for the top station. I had a think and studied the incline frame trying to work out a plan of action.
I cut the outline of the top station foot-print as it is at the footpath / station entrance level, made and attached a vertical "wall" to connect to the lower Patio level. Then tried to offer them up to the incline frame and track.
First I put the frame onto my Workmate bench, and realised that it was not upright!
Checked the
A belated up-date !
Since my witterings in March, I have been attempting to draw the buildings to scale and finding that the information to hand is not easy to translate onto a drawing.
A visit in May this year followed by another early in July gave opportunities to measure a few accessible items and take more Photos to aid in the counting of brick courses in attempts to fill in the dimensional gaps.
Immediately obvious in May was that the large square shop was changing hands again, the wi
With little progress to report, I thought that I would attempt to get the mojo working by posting a couple of pictures of the large-ish barn/workshop conversion in the yard behind the road-side shop, and indicate a few of the challenges that I face. Learning curves are a feature of this project!
A start has been made on the large square shop building in card, whether this will meet the standards I am hoping for remains to be seen, The prototype has a smooth plaster-type surface on all sides
The 805mm length of steps completed and inserted within the cork track base, cut and PVA-glued in place on a length of stiffened, varnished ply.
The track base and inserted steps assembly was sprayed with Halfords primer.
The steps have been painted (Acrylics) to represent the blue brick colour of the prototype. I have a blue brick base to my garage so had a ready colour check available just outside the window.
The second length of the track now assembled and along with the first length, rea
Some History, It’s been done before, and Track and Steps being made.
Since my last up-date, I have been attempting to produce CAD drawings of the various buildings adjacent to the lower station at Bridgnorth. This has highlighted the gaps in my information on every one of the buildings, but at least I have established their footprints and wall dimensions, and (in general) their relative alignment to each other. I am short of details of things like size and shape of windows and doors for a
I’ve been thinking… now there’s a surprise!
The subject of my mental exercises?... How do I build and store a Funicular?
And, just as important, how do I transport it should anyone be foolish enough to want it at a show?
These questions were prompted by two things, first the acquisition of a new(ish) car, downsizing from a Mondeo to a Focus, and second, the sketch posted in my previous blog, which allowed me to more accurately predict the likely final dimensions of the beast which I e
It’s been a while without an up-date in my attempts to model the Cliff Railway at Bridgnorth; home-life, and other activities generally getting in the way of progress on this project, although some head-scratching has occurred.
I have decided to adopt 4mm scale for the model, and have obtained sufficient parts for the track, using 14.2mm components and sufficient matching wheel sets for the funicular cars.
During a site visit arranged with the local manager (and the blessing of the owners) I
Although I started out with the intention of using a scale of 3.5mm/ft, and using 12mm TT gauge Peco Individulay of which I have residue lying around,to represent the 3ft6" gauge of the Cliff Railway, I am wondering whether moving to 4mm/ft using 14mm track might be a better option.
Having talked to a couple of 2mm and 3mm Modellers at the Derby show, I realise that Bullhead track is available at 14mm and my Individulay has flat-bottomed rail, the prototype has Bullhead-rail track.
Also havin
Got the saw out and attacked a piece of 4 mm ply. Produced a couple of shapes which were mounted back to back, and 9mm drill holes made in the corners of the areas to be removed, and three more made to take a dowel to maintain their location while cutting the pair together in the hope of producing a matching set.
Then my Jigsaw was resurrected from the depths of the loft.
I soon re-discovered how difficult it is to cut in a straight line, or indeed get the tool to go in the desired direction.
As the title implies no real progress to report other than a continuing intention to model Bridgnorth's Cliff Railway.
A series of domestic and family problems have prevented a visit to the prototype, despite the owners having given me permission to visit and measure etc.
However, I have made drawings of the proposed track bed and its support, this will be 90% hidden by surrounding cliff formations, and in an endeavour to keep the weight down I have put some fancy cut-outs into the sides.
I h
Bridgnorth, First steps in planning a Funicular Railway model.
Posting as a Blog as it does not seem to fit into any of the thread categories.
Having completed my “Challenge†model, which was my first Scratch-build of any sort, I thought I would cast around for a smallish project to follow on.
Having been to Bridgnorth a couple of times in the last 2 years, I looked at the Castle Hill Cliff Railway as a project which I could hope to complete in a sensible time.
http://www.bridgnort
