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DonB

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  1. DonB
    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 a discrepancy of a few degrees in the angle subtended between the track and the back wall of the Station / Guest house building which threw all of the lower buildings away from their expected position on the baseboard. I did say in an earlier blog that the baseboard would follow the construction of the buildings….. I should have followed that reasoning!
     
    To correct the above discrepancy would mean totally re-building the baseboard, and re-aligning the incline together with the location of the top station building which also is misaligned to the track.
     
    These positions were “fudged” for the model to be shown as work-in-progress at the 2014 Derby Show, in the “Aspects of Modelling” corner. However I was unhappy with the display and decided to withdraw it from the second day of the show.
     
    I had followed the Downes / Robinson thread here on RMweb and talked to a few helpful people (visitors and exhibitors at Derby, and previously at the Stafford Show) about the way forward with constructing the buildings and also, in particular, the two carriages and came to the conclusion that I had bitten off more than I could chew.
     
    I have had nothing but encouragement from members on RMweb…and at the Mickleover group..... Thank you all!
     
    I am now more than two years into making a model which I had expected to complete in about 18months, so now I have the prospect of effectively starting again, and I have realised that I do not have the experience or skill in scratch modelling necessary to do justice to the prototype. The adage “old dogs, new tricks” applies I’m afraid!
     
    In its final form, it would need to be, almost by definition, a high quality diorama with a Rail based automaton with no operating requirement other than a start / stop switch.
    I have measured and studied the modern carriages, and cannot see a way to model them, and finish with identical units, although I had found sources of the control equipment required.
    The finished diorama would be a single dog-legged “block” approximately 350mm wide x 1.5metres long x 1.3metres high with obvious problems of storage and transport (should it be considered worthy of space at an exhibition !).
     
    I have, therefore, regretfully decided to abandon it.
     
    It has been a fascinating if ultimately frustrating experience.
  2. DonB

    Drive Motor and Sheave

    By DonB,

    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 supplier to contact me, which did not happen.
    Mention of the requirement for a sheave at 34mm in my Blog resulted in two offers within 24 hours!
    First was Etched Pixels who had a 3D drawing / file in which all he had to do (he said) was to put in the appropriate numbers to get a 12-spoked sheave with grooved rim for the ropes. He has been a great help, and obtained the three of them for me, so that I have spares, 3D printed in Nylon by Shapeways.
    Nylon was recommended to withstand the loads imposed by being a tight fit on a shaft, and the torque loads applied in use.
    The second response again for a Shapeways product was from Dazzler Fan
    Thanks to both for their interest and offers of help.
     
    A picture of the nylon Sheave as supplied by Etched Pixels (His copyright!)
     
    A reminder that this is only 34mm diameter. It has 3 grooves in the rim to guide the ropes attached to the carriages.
     

     
     
     
     
    The operation of the model's passenger cars has been considered, and a suitable 12volt motor and gearbox, together with mounting bracket, obtained from Technobots (http://www.technobotsonline.com ).Their description is:-
     
    "The 360:1 Mini Metal Gear Motor looks much like our other mini metal gear motors, except the motor is longer. And the gearing is in an enclosed cylindrical casing!
    These also have a beefier set of mounting holes, threaded for 2-M2 metric screws.
    Even more interesting are the motor characteristics. This compact brute of a gear motor offers a measured stall torque of 7.434 kgcm at 6V - thats considerable! Of course, with something this small, we trade the increase in torque for a decrease in speed at 23RPM at 6V. A suitable mounting bracket from our Pololu range is available."
    Elsewhere in their site they describe similar motors as having "Finger-twisting Torque" !!
    The prototype travel time from top to bottom is 1 minute ( +/- a couple seconds depending on the controller's braking of the operation.)
    The sheave at the top station scales at 34 mm and needs to rotate 17 times to move the carriages over the length of the track. So I need to control the sheave to about 17rpm. The motor / gearbox chosen has a 6volt no-load speed of 23rpm so will do the job admirably.
    The 15.5mm dia motor / grearbox and mounting bracket with a pack of the M2 screws.

  3. DonB

    More Trial (and Error)

    By DonB,

    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 case, which seemed a little more rigid and dense than the cereal pack. The card had a semi-matt coating inside and out. The inside is a uniform mid-brown colour, I needed more card for the large pitched roof and used an A4 Manila document folder.
     
    I thought the building would be best treated as two buildings butted up to each other, one with a footprint at the pedestrian footway level, the other part’s footprint at the patio level. These are the original building and the 2002/3 extensions. This was to lead to some height alignment difficulties later.
     
    Being on a learning curve in scratch building, I soon found that what I thought was the best approach to gluing one side to the next by using a folded tab could cause dimensional variations and that allowance for the fold had to be made and the depth of cut needed to be consistent to get uniform joints.
    In the building of the top half, the rear wall was in one piece with one inwards fold, and one outwards fold. Accurately locating the fold cut on the reverse side I found difficult.
    The front wall with Seven pieces and five folds finished about 6mm longer than the other one. Result – much un-gluing trimming and re-gluing.
    The lower half benefited from the earlier difficulties and assembled rather easier, being a sort of low-relief to be butted up to the top half, Here a couple of discrepancies in my drawings led to the roof line of the little stairway down to the patio being incorrect.
     
    A lesson learned was that to make a flat roof to the structure, make and cut it before gluing the side walls! It is difficult to measure a cardboard cavity with 8 sides, a couple of towers impinging and no interior access!
    Also that meticulous attention needs to be paid to vertical and horizontal alignments. The trial does not sit happily on its “perch” above the incline and needed temporary fixing to hide gaps and enable the photographs
    In general, the finished trial is I think, a good representation of the shape of the prototype and an eventual second attempt in plastic should look better, Hopefully!!
    The first two showing the building on its "perch", the difference in footprint height shown in the second


    And a couple more back on the cutting board:-


     
    The Model was shown at Weston-on-Trent last week-end, as work-in progress alongside a Scenery Demonstration, and there was a fair amount of interest shown,
    I was surprised that so many people did not know of The Cliff Railway's existence, even by people who claimed to be regular visitors to the SVR. Several older men commented that they did their National Service “Square-Bashing” at RAF Bridgnorth but were banned from going into the town, so did not know of it!
    Most FAQ was “Why did you choose to model this”…….Stock answer -”It seemed a Good Idea at the time!”
  4. DonB
    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 A4 foam board (Westfoam).
    I printed the drawing and glued it to the foamboard, then cut the wall shapes, and a base, plus an internal footprint to locate the walls,
     
    I am not convinced that the 5mm foamboard is the easiest material to use, even using new scalpel blades
    I found it difficult to cut accurately vertically through the 5mm, and where walls were to meet at an angle, other than butting up at 90degrees, creating matching cut faces was difficult. The material does not like being attacked with a file or sand paper to create angles or chamfers on cut edges, the paper or light card surface produced woolly, uneven fibres, while the foam interior developed an uneven rounded and rippled appearance, as if it was being pushed away rather than cut away.
    I also found it rather soft and local pressure "bruised" it easily resulting in small indentations in the surface of the board.
    Thankfully I did not have to cut window and door apertures for the mock-up.
    Much experimentation needed to obtain satisfactory results if I try this material again. Advice on this subject will be gratefully received!
     
    However, I continued with a trial assembly, having now decided to ignore the roof, and glued the walls in a series of sub-assemblies using a PVA with "instant grab". Here I was again flying blind and did not know if the foam would react or dissolve in contact with the PVA.
    In the event all seemed OK although when, next day, finally bringing the sub-assemblies together a certain amount of help from me to hold the thing together while the glue grabbed, resulting in a couple of gluey thumb-prints due to contact with non-permanent printing ink.! It will finish in the scrap bin anyway.
    All in all a catalogue of disasters! I'm more of a novice at this scratch building game than I thought!
     
    Then came the moment of truth, the assembly was offered up to the baseboard and incline. I was pleasantly surprised when it fitted nicely in the desired position and orientation, and allowing for the poor,crude finish, it "LOOKED RIGHT" although I have spotted a couple of changes that need to be made to the drawing.
    A photo looking down the model incline, typical of many pictures of Bridgnorth on the internet.

    Here's my version. Despite the heavy shadow, it is possible to make out the station doors above a 9-foot drop!The "platform" is like a shelf, only 12inches wide, an apron on the front of the carriage overlaps it in use.

     
    A view of the model at track-side base level showing the elevated station doors and mini platform position. Also a line indicates the 32 degree slope of the track.

     
    The front of the building,

    The doors half way up the front are to the guest house, the station door is at a lower level and underneath a 6-foot wide path in front of the guesthouse so not shown here.
    The model base is at the level of the end of the track. The print glued to the wall shows lines representing the station concourse floor level, next my best estimate of the concourse ceiling, then the guesthouse entry floor level and last, the guesthouse top floor level.
    To try to indicate the complexity of the building's structure this a view looking down on the model

     
    For me, this has been both a useful and frustrating exercise.
    Useful in that it confirmed the location and orientation of the building on the base board, also that my drawing was within acceptable limits given that a large proportion of the prototype is not accessible, some of the outer wall measurements being inferred from interior sizes.
    Frustrating in the choice of material resulting in unexpected problems, I thought for a while before deciding to show my crude attempt. Why is nothing ever simple?
  5. DonB

    Was Clamped, now Framed!

    By DonB,

    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 for cutting.
    All this despite having said earlier that the major base would follow the construction of the top and bottom station sub-bases.
     

     

     
    Once the shape was cut I then framed the underside, the sides were glued and screwed, and a (sort of) central stiffener added as shown below.
    A couple of cross-ways stiffeners will be added over the weekend.
     

     
    The rail incline frame was fitted with a couple of T-Nuts and bolted to the baseboard. Some careful measurements needed!.
     

     
    These photos show the basboard with the lower station sub-base and the upper station supports loosely placed. The station base awaits the winding gear adjacent to the rail head.
    Construction of the station building can then begin for fitting directly above. The "finger" of ply to the left will become the pedestrian passage to the top station entrance.
     

     

    Slow progress is being made in drawing the various buildings, much counting of rows of bricks in photographs and co-relating to the dimensions which I have been able to measure.
    Furthest advanced is the drawing of the lower station together with the Guest House directly above it, four levels in all, and two walls almost resting directly against the cliff face. Getting this drawn was the key to the position of the Track and its slope.
    The wide variety of window styles, shapes and sizes within this group of buildings is astonishing, and giving me pause for thought as to how to make them.
  6. DonB

    CLAMPED !

    By DonB,

    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 bench for level, packed the feet, and wedged the fixed (non- moving) part of the work surface to become a firm, level base, fortunately wide enough to easily support the frame which was then clamped to it.
    A new square (oblong!) spacer was made to correct the out of squareness of the uprights, which was probably due to a small amount of warping / twist since they were made a year ago, despite being varnished.. A whole array of clamps were employed to cater for any possible movement while the PVA dried.
     

     
    The top station horizontal sub-base needed a support and a bracket was glued to the frame, another clamp and a lot of fiddling with the spirit level !
    Two more brackets were made to support the sub-base for the patio area and also glued and clamped to the frame. If I make many more additions to the frame I could hang baubles and use it at Christmas!
     

    The whole station sub-base is shown here just placed loosely on the frame and its brackets but the top and the patio bases are not yet connected, while I think about how to incorporate the drive and control bits and pieces, and I suppose that I should be sourcing those soon.
     

     

    I realise that having written about a patio area you may not have a clue about the site, so here are a couple of pictures taken from one of the carriages while descending the incline during my visit a couple of weeks ago.
     


    Next, however, I need to tackle the lower station sub-base and the main baseboard. The out of square problems in the last couple of days has made me realise that I need to take a lot of care with the carpentry.
  7. DonB
    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 windows were white-washed and there was no sign of any work being carried out. This building is a prominent feature at the entrance to the lower station and I want to model it as it appears currently.
     
    However, in early July, I was fortunate to see a couple of men working on the building, who told me that the Undertakers currently occupying the rear half of the building have acquired the whole thing, and that a new name sign will eventually appear. Quite what will be visible through those big windows is something I’ll have to wait and see.
    The building was at one time an Electricity showroom and had the local Substation in the yard. I discovered that what I had thought was a brick garage in the yard is the Substation, still in use, the give-away being the new and freshly painted steel doors. They have been there long enough for the building’s Ivy cladding to have encroached onto the door opening.
     
    A small triumph was getting permission from the hotel’s owner to photo the rear yard and to check the building’s shape and size, and to get details of the storage building at the back of the yard. A surprise was that the yard is at street level, and thus about 6 ft. lower than the station entrance on the other side of the boundary wall.
     
    Some parts of the Guest house above the lower station remain a mystery, but I have enough to be able to draw all its outside features.
    I have taken measurements inside the lower station, and had sufficient access (without contravening H&S) to be able to photograph the rail-side walls of the building, and confirm that the lowest point of the track is about 5 ft. below street level. This has enabled me to fix the position of the platform doors, and the relationship between building and the track incline which has been a sticking point until now.
     
    The upper station had fewer mysteries, and a few measurements and pictures taken during the two visits should sort that out.
     
    Base boards
    The drawings which I did for the quarter-size mock-up shown in an earlier blog, have been corrected and printed out at 4mm/ft scale in sections since I don't have access to a A2 printer. So I have been able to return to the problem of base-boards.
    The incline frame-work made a year ago was modified to fit the track section. The extended dowels have been removed (seemed a good idea at the time!) and replaced by more sturdy blocks and a stiffening central rib. The original construction, whilst light, had no resistance to twisting, and had to go!
     

     

     
    and with the track section attached
     

     
    The drawings of the two station areas and the incline / track section were set out on a sheet of ply, and the likely outline of the base board pencilled in. This will not be cut yet!!
    There is also at the foot of the incline a card “box” representative of the shape / size of the carriage underframe.
    Wood for stiffening the base has been purchased, but the position of some stiffening may be affected by how the incline unit is attached to the base, something (another thing!) yet to be decided!!
     

     

     
    As indicated in earlier blogs the main base will be made after the sub-bases for the two stations, so that they will (hopefully) form templates for, and slot neatly into, the main base with its attached panels and frame work which will form the model’s surrounding “Box”.
    I don’t anticipate many problems with the lower station sub-base, despite the slope from front-to-back and side-to-side over part of the area, but the base(s?) for the top station will need a few “sky-hooks” during construction.
     
    The carriages and underframes are yet to be tackled, and the "motive power" yet to be sourced.
     
    Interesting times ahead???
  8. DonB
    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 with block-work being represented by the surface being scored. It appears to have traditionally been painted on all sides in various pastel shades over the years. See photo 3 below which also gives a glmpse of a collection of small linking buildings between the shop and the yard buildings.
    The yard has a number of interesting features, not least being the cliff face at the rear, which has a natural cave converted into a garage! I estimate the cliff face to be about 65 feet high at this point. Should be an interesting challenge to model. Note the safety fencing at the top. (pictures below taken with permission, obtained on the day, last August)

     
    To the right of the picture is the workshop conversion of whatever the original building was intended to be, this part of the building is alongside the lower station.
    The other half of the same wall is shown below, indicating a number of (interesting? and challenging to model) modifications to brickwork and doorways plus added skylights. I suspect that most of these alterations have occurred in the last 3-4 years or so, to accommodate the requirements of the current user, (Perry & Phillips, Undertakers! who also occupy the rear half of the ground floor of the shop building). I mentioned in my previous blog entry that I had model vehicles to suit the needs of the users, and have acquired a Limousine and a Hearse from Oxford Diecast. There will be no need to weather these items! The prototype vehicles returned from duty about 15 minutes after I had taken these pictures.

     
    This building butts hard against the cliff face, and I suspect that it does not have a brick end wall but uses the cliff as a wall, certainly the roof tiles are cemented to the cliff face. I did not ask permission to venture inside to check!
     
    The back wall of this building is plain with no openings or roof lights, and is mostly hidden by the steps leading up to the guest house over the bottom station.
    The end wall facing the shop building and the road has what appears to be older brickwork with an unusual pattern of ornamental bricks set into the gable end. When I first saw them, my thought was that they were perches associated with a Dove-Cote. The only evidence to support that theory that I can see is a blanked hole, of about two bricks size, set high on the left side. Any other suggestions??

    This picture also gives an example of the surface finish of the shop building, another challenge!
  9. DonB
    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, ready for placing on, and gluing to, the cork base. A decision is needed as to how to represent the “concreted-in” appearance with the sleepers barely discernible, compounded by the model track being Bull-head rail, while the prototype is currently flat-bottomed rail.
    I have a short section of track on a dummy base and have tried DAS to represent the ”concreted-in” look of the prototype, without success. It dries quicker than I can manoeuvre it into the gaps between sleepers smoothly.
    Time for a re-think!
    During a site visit last year I established the carriage and underframe width, and the clearance between the carriages as they passed each other in service. This gave me the track centres without having to clamber down onto the track, which I don’t think would have been allowed!
    Once the track is laid satisfactorily, the track base can be assembled onto the “ski-slope” frame which I made a year ago!( Speed is not one of my strong suits!)
    The frame will need some alteration to allow it to be fastened to the principal base-board once the outline for that has been established and it has been cut, stiffened , and primed.
    A start has been made on a sub-base for the cluster of buildings at the lower station, and a 4mm scale drawing of the site made to allow positioning of the buildings with as little deviation from the prototype as practical. The site slopes in two directions and spot heights have been established and marked on the drawing, since being posted here.
    An outline of the probable track alignment is shown, but is likely to need adjustment when I have re-visited Bridgnorth
     

     
     
    There is very little need for vehicles, since the top station access is a pedestrian walkway, and at most, only half of the roadway width at the lower station will be modelled . I have however acquired the three vehicles that I think I need. More on this in a later Blog.
    I also have an electronic circuit for the control of the funicular carriages. Trips to Maplins will be required.
    The circuit is basically the one used to control the “Glengarry Tramway” and has been passed to me by owner of that model funicular. Many thanks are due to Gary at http://www.glenngarytramway.co.uk/. for allowing me to ride on his coat tails, and answering my electronic numpty questions.
     
     
    Lots to do yet! I’m hoping to accelerate construction to snail’s pace.
  10. DonB
    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 at least one wall for each of the buildings, and roof details are needed, especially of the flat roof of the large shop facing on to the road. Also details of how some of them meet the cliff face.
     
    Some History
    As an aside, this large, square building, which is shown on the 1905 OS Map, and in an early 1900s Photo with chimneys, a pitched roof, and much smaller windows in the ground floor. http://www.bridgnorthmuseum.org.uk/index.asp?page=item&mwsquery={Identity%20number}={BDNNM:1000-2314}
    I had assumed that it had always been a furniture shop, and most Web photos show it with a name board “Phillips and Jones” fully across the front of the building. However, I discovered during this week, in the Shropshire Council Archives, an undated (but tagged as “late 20th Century”) photo showing it without the name board and carved into the façade above the central door “Electricity Supply”! The photo shows a workman painting the white lines on the centre of the road by hand!! The low-sided lorry in the background looks to me to be of 1950s vintage?? Any views??
    http://www.shropshirehistory.org.uk/ and put CCA_XPH_B_25_7_10/ in the search box.
     
    It’s been done before
    Also in the archives, a photo of a 7mm/ft model of the (as in 1900s) Cliff Railway made in the 1950s and exhibited at the Model Engineers exhibition in London in 1960. The size of the 7mm model in the photo has reinforced my decision to model in 4mm scale!
    http://www.bridgnorthmuseum.org.uk/index.asp?page=item&mwsquery={Identity%20number}={BDNNM:1000-1358/1}
     
    Track and Steps being made.
    On a more positive note I have assembled a metre length of the 14.2mm gauge track, and made a start on the steps which go between the two tracks from bottom to top of the whole length. The prototype steps are made from approximately 15” square x 30”long blue-brick blocks.You need to be fit the climb these 95 steps!
     
    I had thought of having sections of the steps 50mm long cast in resin, (and approached Phil Traxson just before he went on holiday), but an attempt at making a pattern for moulding was not satisfactory. So, having made a simple jig and a trial 150mm length from styrene section, I think that I will continue with this fairly tedious job, slowed down by the difficulty in getting decent ventilation in this cold weather, to avoid becoming a “glue sniffer”!
    Sorry about the colour, the Styrene is white (Honest!) ... picture taken with illumination by our domestic wall lights, no flash.
     

  11. DonB
    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 estimate to be about 700mm high, with a dog-leg base nominally 400mm wide and about 1250mm long.
    The combination of length and height in a protective box would not fit the into Focus and moving it in one piece round the house, perhaps (certainly?) in and out of the loft would be very difficult without damaging it.
     
    I looked to Mikkel again for inspiration, I think it was he who posed the question (in a modelling context) “How do you eat an Elephant?”… A bit at a time! Could I follow his lead here? (and get somewhere near the quality of his work?)
    Looking again at the earlier sketch, I thought that it could split into 6 or up to 8 separate sections to fit together 3-D jig-saw fashion.
    The sections, I thought, would be-
    1. A base board,
    2. The lower cluster of buildings including the bottom station, and hopefully the cliff faces, built on a sub-base
    3. The incline, including possibly the operating and control electrics, and including the cliff cutting faces either side of the tracks.
    4. The pedestrian walkway approach, the top station and café, with its patio at a lower level. The construction, positioning and support of this item is causing considerable head-scratching! Again a sub-base is required , and the control electrics etc. could be included.
    5. The two sloping areas either side of the incline representing the top of the cliff.
    It may be that because of the height of the cliff face, and the sides to the track cutting, these would need to be separate sections, hence the possibility of up to 8 jig-saw pieces.
     
    All the above would need positive location devices.
    Additionally, plain protective / cosmetic sides would come at a very late stage I think, followed by any protective box. I do not propose to have a back-scene.
     
    To examine the problems lurking in the above proposal, I decided to make a quarter size model of the model (i.e. at 1mm/ft scale) using card obtained from a well-known cereal packet, (if it's good enough for "Chubber" ........ ).
     
    First, a card base to the size and shape outlined in the sketch in my previous blog, was cut and stiffened with edges and bracing. A card track-incline was added and located by paper-clips to allow a little adjustment.

    Then a sub-base, also in card, representing the slope from road to station entrance of about 5ft.6” in the prototype. Allowance needs to be made for the fact that the track at its lowest point is about 4ft. below road level.

    Card representations of the buildings were made and attached to the sub-base.

    The foot-print of the upper station was cut and folded to the split-level shape of the prototype and supported by a card box.


    Offering these sub-structures up to the base showed that some minor adjustments to its outline would be necessary in the 4mm/ft version, and, in a departure from normal practice, the baseboard would not be the first thing constructed.
    Doing this model-of-a-model has also shown where more information is required to do this subject justice, so another site visit will have to be made.
     
    Sorry about the quality of the pictures, playing with a new camera in very poor light this afternoon!
     
    All this thinking is quite exhausting, ............. I'll go for a lie-down now........
  12. DonB
    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. There must be a way, but I've never discovered it.
    The wisdom of using the locating dowels was apparent when I had to file and sand the rough-cut appertures, and I then realised that I could use long versions of the dowels to hold and locate the two sides to support the track bed, possibly permanently. Time will tell!
    A couple of pictures showing where I've got to, the extended dowels can be seen, and the track bed is loosely placed, it will have track attached and ballasted lying flat for convienience :-
     

     

  13. DonB
    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 hope the drawing shows the intended assembled result....no dimensions shown on this one, but the angled track bed is 735mm long, and it stands 415mm high.
    Better get that saw out!
     

  14. DonB
    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...frailway.co.uk/
    It is a fairly short, steep, Funicular rising 110 ft. with a track length of 210 ft., a gradient of 38 degrees. (I read somewhere recently that snow needs a slope of at least 43 degrees for an avalanche to occur, so Bridgnorth Lowtown should be OK!)
    Originally a water balance operation, it became electrically powered in 1944, and the original Victorian wooden carriages were replaced with the present Aluminium bodies in 1955. Maximum load is 18 passengers per carriage.
    There are many short videos on u-tube and hundreds of pictures on the internet, but I have not found drawings, and a request on RMweb drew a blank! So I have contacted the new owners in the hope of getting drawings, and permission to visit with a bit more freedom than a paying passenger.
    The double-track layout is un-demanding, some may think that to model this Cliff Railway really is “pointlessâ€!, but capturing the cut through the sandstone rock cliff face will test powers of observation and scenic skill.
    It is of course the ultimate in simplicity of operation, no signals, no freight, no routes to set, no steam v. electric v. diesel arguments, no private ownership transition to Nationalisation etc, etc. and fits my interest in making rather than operating a layout.
     
    My intention would be to finish the model in the same 18 months time scale that it took to build (and dig?) the prototype.
    I will be using a scale of 3.5mm / foot. This is chosen since there is the established (TT) model rail-gauge of 12mm which matches the 42inch gauge of the Cliff Railway, there are figures and other model aids readily available in this scale, and the project would fit in the space I have available to build it. I also have residual stock of 12mm gauge Peco Individulay Track components dating from about 1958...(never throw anything way!!)
    I need to set myself the time challenge, being 14 years into retirement, and a smallish project is all that I can (should?) sensibly start now.
    I will be restricting myself to the buildings belonging to and immediately adjacent to the Railway, resulting in trimming the footprint to a sort of dog-leg shape, nominally 1 metre long x 35 cm wide x 50 cm high, triangular in profile, which will make it narrow and tall, presenting its own problems of stability!
    In itself, the shape would be unusual, but who says that model railways have to have a square or oblong footprint?
    CAD drawings are in process of being produced for posting. However, the arrival of the Spring gardening season is restricting available time for planning!
     
    I hope to make it with automatic operation, so that the viewer can set it working by a push-button. I will need help with the electrical circuits, but I think I have a likely source.
    I think one of my biggest problems will be capturing the curves of the modern (1955) passenger cars, and the ability to do so may determine the whether this project goes ahead, although I am considering the early wooden Victorian cars which lasted until after WW2 for which I have seen an un-dimensioned drawing and a number of photos, with the carriage chassis in their various operating modes.
     
    Currently I am having difficulty reconciling dimensions of buildings scaled from internet pictures with Ordinance Survey and Google maps. A site visit is high on the list of priorities.
  15. DonB
    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 having tried to do a couple of sketches of buildings, I am not finding 3.5mm/ft a comfortable scale to work with. (At my advancing years, I'm allowed to be awkward, so there!).
    So, I now need to establish the availability of a supply of 14 mm track, and a few matching wheel and axle sets to establish whether my indecision itch can be scratched! A plea in the help and tips section coming up in web site near you!
    Mike Bellamy will no doubt be along soon to remind me of Narrow gauge track options, and I was recommended to use soldered track whilst at the Club.
    Decisions,Decisions.....
  16. DonB
    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 took what I thought would be enough photographs and measurements to model all the buildings associated with and adjacent to the railway.
    The railway’s web site is at http://www.bridgnort...frailway.co.uk/
    How wrong one can be! On coming to make drawings, it rapidly became obvious that several important features were missing from my picture library. Another visit in the New Year will be required to fill in the gaps. (A visit in October was abandoned when the clutch in the car “died”).
    A 1903 O.S map was acquired, along with a modern O.S map, a downloaded Shropshire Planning map and Google Earth were all examined to get the orientation and confirmation of the sizes of the various buildings, some of which I had made measurements during my visit, but by no means enough!
    The small scale O.S maps were difficult to use because minor discrepancies between them, and of the thickness of the printed lines in scanned and enlarged prints, the O.S maps having thicker lines drawn on the south side of buildings making attempts to measure futile, (does one measure to the outside or centre of a line enlarged to 1.25mm thick?). I do not have the luxury of modelling licence and compression of the terrain.
    The local planning map was more helpful, but although from an O.S source, was out of date in a couple of important items. Google Earth was also helpful, but the satellite pictures were taken in high summer, so that vegetation obscures some detail. Roof detail of most of the buildings requires clarification.
    I have settled on the dog-leg outline of the base-board, but realise that the difference in height, bottom to top, still presents challenges in design. A sheet of ply-wood awaits marking out when I am satisfied that I have the necessary information. A degree in Civil Engineering would have been useful in this project.
    The attached sketch of a first attempt to gather all the information together revealed some information gaps, most notably the alignment of the track at the lower station and the size of the concourse which affects the position of the lower platform and, in turn, the position of the top station. The track is drawn at an angle of 60 degrees West of North, but the maps show it to be at 52 degrees. So back to Autocad after my next visit. The lower station is inconveniently under a Guest House, with no external access other than the door, so there is no alternative to venturing inside with a tape measure!
     

     
    The “Ski-slope” (thank you for the terminology, Mike Bellamy!) shown in earlier blogs will still be used, extended a little at the top because of the change of scale, and will house the motor and operating equipment.
     
    As far as I can discover, drawings of the carriages do not exist in the public domain, and the line owners do not have them. If anyone knows of drawings of the carriages, both the line owners and I would be delighted to hear from them. The Original 1890s wooden bodied ones were replaced in the 1950s by the present Aluminium bodies, which have been repainted this year, retaining the earlier paint colours and style, but with a blue roof panel replacing the earlier white. Modelling these iconic carriages will be a major problem.
    A couple of observations on the area. The buildings which I intend to include all existed in 1903, and remain largely unaltered. The notable exception being the Railway’s top station which was modified in about 2002/3, giving extra office space and a second tower and mini-spire, also enlarging the associated tea-room, and the outside walled area has become a very pleasant patio.
    An important change in ownership and use of the large square building alongside the lower station entrance has happened in the last few years. It seems to have been a Furniture Emporium, possibly since the 1900s or even earlier, but is now, I think, a beauty salon, although the rear part and the buildings in the yard are now occupied by an Undertaker! (Can I get 4mm hearse? Or do I keep it as a furniture shop? Yet more decisions!).
    More indecisive musing in the New Year......
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