A Signal Box for Acorn Wood

[Stuart Birks]

On the recent tour of the Dodcot museum organised by Castle from this forum he very kindly took me to the Frome Mineral Junction signal box which is not normally accessable as it is on a running line.

 

I was able to take some photos which has enabled me make the drawings for my model.

 

In this photo I have made some attempt to correct the perspective error allowing me to get some reasonably good measurements.

 

 

And a couple more shots

 

 

 

From these I have made a CAD drawing

 

 

I have finally started construction. This is just the brick base. I experimented with scribing my own brick courses directly in the plastic sheet but I was not happy with how it went. In the end I have gone for SE Finecast brick sheet glued to plasticart for strength.

 

 

 

 

The arches over the windows were again from a SE Finecast sheet and the brick cut out to let the arch brickwork in.

 

I must say a big thank you to Castle for enabling me to get these photos. I have a lot more of the inside when I come to detailing it.

 

Stu

[Stuart Birks]

A bit more progress but this has been much more difficult than I expected to get it all straight and square.

 

 

 

The interior will be detailed but not lit so I decided not to try and model the roof beams but to use the roof to keep the window frames square. The lack of interior roof detail will not be visible when it is placed on the layout.

 

Stu.

[allan downes]

A  really great start Stu. Looking foreward to the finished job. Don't falter now !

 

Cheers.

Allan

[Stuart Birks]

The signal box now has a roof. This has been made the same way as the station and goods shed so they all match.

 

 

 

Stu

[SGTBILKO]

Very neat indeed! I look forward to seeing the finished article.

[Stuart Birks]

Having made a bit more progress with this there ar a lot of things I am not happy about.

 

This is how far it got

 

 

But this will be scrapped and I will start again. I will still use the Frome box as the basis.

 

Stu

[Stuart Birks]

I have taken a long time to decide how to do the brickwork for this box. At the recent Bristol Model Railway Exhibition I saw the LCUT stand and their buildings looked impressive so I thought I would order some panels and giv it a go.

Of course none of the panels matched the sizes I wanted so I thought I would just need to re-cut their finger corners. This proved impossible so the next attempt was to mitre them. This seemed to work so this is the result.

 

 

The gaps underneath don't matter as the bottom 5mm of the building will be burried.

 

Stu

[BrushType4]

You've done much of the work on CAD already, why don't you get your model laser cut? I can see you're an excellent modeller and I think you'll not be happy with the compromise on the L-Cut kit bashing.

 

 

[Stuart Birks]

BrushType4 thats an interesting suggestion and well worth considering for future buildings. The L-Cut panels did not take well to the chopping about as it is very easy for the top layer of the brick to come off. Ok on an old building as you can pass it off as ageing but not so good on a building supposed to be in good condition. Also the depth and appearance of some of the brickwork was not consistent.

 

I did however persist with the build and this is the final outcome.

 

 

It also has inside detail but I have so far not managed to get a good picture with the roof on so this is how it looks with the roof off

 

 

I went a bit over the top with the roof beam detail as it will never be seen but at least it let me support the instrument shelf in the correct way.

 

Stu

 

 

[BrushType4]

Thats a brilliant job. I put the roof beams in to when I can.