Garsdale Railway Workers Cottages: ‘Sixteen Tons’ of slate tiles.
Entry posted by Southern Fabricator
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Tennessee Ernie Ford might have been a handy help for roofing the original prototype building, but 16 tons is just my guess anyway.
Now for a different approach than the way I used to fabricate the roofs on the smaller station buildings I made earlier.
Because of the slight bow that occurred with them, (the roofs had to be massaged gently back straight), so this time I kept both roof halves separate whilst I glued the cut cardboard slate tile strips to the vanilla (paper still on) foam board.
I like this method:
Create a grid with columns 4mm wide vertically and rows alternately 3.5 and 2.5 mm horizontally.
Cut rows of tiles using both a 3.5mm and 2.5mm row.
To keep your tile strip aligned mark the under roof with a few parallel lines to the gutter.
Start at the bottom and lay a strip, lay the second strip on top overlapping to 2.5mm line and offset by half a tile.
Use PVC glue and a small brush. Keep going until you get to the top, and then do the other side.
The roof pieces are then sandwiched between a flat surface with weights placed on top and left for the PVA glue to cure. Apparently bookbinders use this method when covering their cardboard blanks with the finished outside material.
The 120 tile strips I had cut previously using my template made earlier.
I’m still researching easier ways (perhaps I should invest in a guillotine to produce them in bulk) without having to resort to using a printer.
The one thing you get with scratch building is some individuality in each of the tile roofs instead of uniformity.
I realise that this can be a very repetitive process especially when gluing the tile strips as well, but the outcome is satisfying when the roof is complete and painted with three coats of light grey despite the time involved.
This was about a ten hour effort on my part, but then we are having wet winter days here South of the Tropic of Capricorn and this helps one get ‘into the zone’ with few distractions.
Wet days do have a few advantages as one can spend time marking out tiles in preparation for all the remaining Railway Cottages… or not just now in my case.
The ridge tiles I also cut in strips rather than individual pieces, although the later would be appear closer to correct. I use cereal packet cardboard (approx 0.25mm thick) for the slates and also ridge tiles that when they are reverse folded for the ridge tiles you can sometimes get the rolled apex effect as well.
The roof sections on the entrance porches are yet to be attached with their slate tiles and flashings to the main building and then the main roof assembly will be done.
BTW thanks for likes and comments from those of you following my blog as I attempt to recreate Garsdale Railway Station by scratch building it from 3.0mm Foam Board.
I’ve still got a long way to go yet.
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