barrowroad

Hi Alcazar, The system is just like the old bako one. Unfortunately I believe it is no longer available although I haven't asked the new owners of Alan Gibson about it. The packets I have are marked C&L but Brian Lewis does not have this product on his website. Robin

I have now coloured the walls using my favoured method with coloured crayons. The Berol Karisma ones are no longer available so I have substituted some from the Faber Castell range which have proved to be better. The building substructure is now assembled and I will add these walls to it shortly.

At last... I can add another entry! Here is the office chimney which I have constructed form some old Formcraft/Alan Gibson/C&L brick parts. The chimney is constructed from 4mm scale english bond brickwork parts - see photo - which are placed over lengths of plastic rods, which fit through the holes in the brick parts, to assemble a convincing chimney. I have a stock of these parts which I have previously used to build the water tower on my Sheep Pasture layout.

I have been unable to post anything since Monday so I'll do this post while I have access. Here is a good photo of the Office block; the section at the front with the lower hipped roof; whilst the Mess and Stores are at the rear, the stores being nearest to the shed building. The model is sectioned along the centre line of the Stores/Mess part of the building in line with the sectioned roundhouse. I have made some progress with the two elevations which make up the model, namely the front and the side. After the last posting I realised I forgot to add the lintels and sills together with the distinctive sill supports. Here are the results with both getting another burst of grey primer. I am in the process of making some chimneys out of some old Formcraft bits as these were not part of the laser cut kit. Watch this space.

Hi Dave, The shed building complex was originally scheduled in as the last part of my Barrow Road project because, as you say, it is a large and complex building. I don't think I could achieve the accuracy making the model myself from plastic sheet and/or other material, especially the corbelling and single brick sections, so after I had the opportunity to speak to Chris Dening, of York Modelmakers, at S4um last year I took the plunge. I supplied Chris with a set of hand draughted drawings which he has converted into the required CAD drawings. No doubt this added to the cost but my CAD skills are limited. The cost is not cheap but I have funded it from my involvement with the Avonside Jigs. Regards, Robin

Hi Missy, The brickwork is english bond engraved in the mdf so the courses are all at the same level. The corners are chamfered at 45deg and are glued together using 'Titebond' wood glue making sure the brickwork is in alignment - using a glass surface helps. Titebond sets reasonably quickly to give a very strong joint. I will try and photograph the joint on the office block when I fix the two walls together. Regards, Robin

After having a few problems with postings I will take this opportunity to add a few photos of progress on the Office, Mess & Stores building at the front right of the shed. This shows the parts of the kit with the roof sections at the top, the carcase to the left and the front and side elevation to the right, complete with the box at the top. This shows, from the top of the building downwards, the corbelling, the single string of bricks around the windows and the plinth. More to follow and the roof of the sand dryer has arrived!

Good to see you have made a start on the project - thanks for showing me the photos at Wigan. Regards, Robin

Paul, You need to get your Jinty finished! Robin

The drawings for the shed and all the associated buildings were made using a combination of plans, from maps I have in my possession, counting bricks from photographs and information from other sources. In the case of the chimney I got the drawing wrong. The laser cut parts for the chimney were cut to my drawings to form a structure 44ft high tapering from 3ft square at the top to 6ft at the bottom. I then received a new photograph taken from a new angle and closer position....... where has that happened before? The bottom 8ft of the chimney is actually 5ft 6in square! Fortunately I received this photograph about a week ago before I had made a start on the chimney. There was enough material to cut 32mm off the bottom and reshape the taper to form the square base. I'll leave you to judge the result yourself. I am advised the laser cut roof pieces are in the post so I will be able to make the hipped roof and finish the building. In the meantime I have made a start on the office/stores/mess complex.... Does anyone know of a source of Berol Karisma pencils... apparently they are no longer available? {Posted 21.15 4th Jan 2010}

Having assembled the carcase of the building I have now fixed the four walls into position. The building is now awaiting final finishing with the attachment of the roof. Unfortunately the laser cut parts for the roof have not arrived yet so I will now switch attention to the sand dryer chimney... watch this space. Here are a few photos to be going on with... The prototype..

Further progress on the Sand Dryer walls over the past few days with all four walls now ready for assembly. The detail on the wall adjacent to the shed building has been omitted because it needs to be a flush fit. I need to find a way of making the ventilation slats in the clerestory roof of the sand dryer and have decided to make a seperate unit out of brass.... further posting to follow.

The shed itself is 720mm x 670mm - not square on this model as the right hand side is to be sectioned for viewing purposes. The shed, together with the workshop and the out - buildings at the rear will fit on a board 4ft 1in x 2ft 2in, in old money. The sand dryer and office complex at the front will fit on adjoining boards. More photos to follow this evening as I finished the front elevation yesterday. Robin

More progress this afternoon with the front elevation of the sand dryer now complete. There are two 'I' girders above the window which I chose to fabricate from two pieces of brass section soldered together. The larger girder was cut and shaped from a piece of 4mm square section brass tube whilst the smaller one was cut from 3mm wide channel section. Once finished the construction followed that of the end wall posted yesterday, with the only additional work required being the forming of the 90deg corners on the plinth and the single course of bricks. Photographs of main line side of the dryer are rare but here is one to show what I am aiming to achieve. Here is the front elevation shown ready for painting with grey primer.

Hi, Alcazar, The whole shed building will be weathered when it is all built and painted to give consistent finish. Cheers, Robin

I managed a bit of time today to carry out the test colouring of the end wall of the sand furnace. For a colour guide I chose to use some of my own colour slides from October 1965. These were taken using Agfa film which was always a little on the blue side so I have corrected this using Photoshop. I have used an assortment of Berol Karisma crayons of various brick shades, some for the engineering brick and others for the more common 'red'. Having fixed the corbels I realised the crayon method would not work on them because the spacing is too small. Here I resorted to mixing some Bager Opaque paint of grey and black persuasion and applied it using a fine brush. The result is pleasing.

It's been a few days since I last did any work on the model, not that I've been idle. I have been doing some more research with a trip to Bath Green Park Station to measure up and photograph the roof support columns. Thanks to the Taunton MRC with their Superb 'Bath Green Park' layout; seen recently at the Wigan show; I have a ready made source of white metal columns. A package arrived this morning from Colin alias Alan Gibson Mk2 complete with a Christmas card... a nice touch. I'll add a photo of them when they are cleaned up a bit. A number of kind members of RMweb have also sent me some excellent photographs - particular thanks to Patrick - which have added to my knowledge of the buildings at Barrow Road. I will now have to make a minor alteration to the sand furnace chimney kit before assemble - still better to find out before! This morning I decided to make a start on one of the laser cut buildings. I have choosen the sand dryer as it is compact and has a blank wall which is ideal for a test build. So what do we get. The kit consists of the following parts The kit consists of a core structure of 2mm mdf with walls of the same material, which have the brick courses laser etched into the surface in English Bond formation. The window arches are cut in the same way. Overlays of 'Rowmark' hard plastic are then used to give the corbelling at roof level - 2 layers - a single string of bricks over the windows and a plinth at the base. Windows are cut in 08mm 'Rowmark' and this layer is laminated to the rear of the mdf. So to the trial with one of the ends. First I needed to chamfer the top row of 'engineering' bricks on the base plinth.On the prototype these are at 45deg. The plastic is hard so cutting with a knife is not recommended. After some head scratching I used a steel cutting rule which has an edge conveniently shaped at 45deg. I attached the plinth to the rule with double sided tape and sanded it down to give the desired shape. The laminated brickwork is then attached to the mdf using superglue being careful not to use too much. Each overlay is overlength at each end to enable it to be cut an sanded back to give a mitred edge. Finally it is given a coat of grey primer. That's it for now. The next test will be using some coloured crayons - Berol Charisma - on the brickwork. I have used these before for colouring a turntable pit on our group layout 'Brinkley' with pleasing results.

Hi John, I have a large collection of photos of the shed and it's surrounds. Let me know what you are looking for and I will see if I can assist. The current Midland Record No 30 published by Wild Swan has an article entitled the Midland in Bristol which may be of interest to you ..full of photos of St Philips and Avonside facilities. I believe a future edition is going to focus on the shed. Robin

Thank you all for your kind comments. I have been speaking with a former railway employee who worked on the coaling, ash plant and turntable at the shed in the 50's today and have found the turntable inside the shed is a 60 ft Cowans Sheldon unit not the 57ft I thought. As a result I emailed the Cumbria Records office today and received a prompt response by close of play today. They have records and drawings of the turntable which are now ordered. Good to find out before the shed progresses further. Incidently I am told a Garrett crossed the turntable during one of the classes frequent visits to the shed in the early 50's. Now there's a challenge!

Hi Missy, Thanks for your kind comments. I have looked up Rowmark on google but am not able to find any details of the chemical make up of this laser/engraving friendly plastic. It is Trade Marked so I assume the manufacturers are protective of their product. Incidently I owe you a big thank you for an introduction to laser cut buildings as my friend Morgan, who has been in contact with you, directed me to the excellent buildings you have on you own 2mm layout.

I took my Sheep Pasture layout to the Wigan Show at the weekend - what an excellent show and a big thank you to the organisers. York Model Makers attended the show and brought with them elements of a kit of laser cut parts for the roundhouse at Barrow Road Shed which they are making for me. The kit of parts is well on the way to completion so here are a few photographs to show the standard of work that can be achieved by this relatively new method - at least to the model railway world - of making accurate scale models. The specification for this model of the shed is to have fully detailed brickwork - english bond - on the exterior and interior of the shed, detailed roof with roof trusses and fully detailed windows and roof glazing. The shed walls consist of two layers of mdf, one 3mm and the other 2mm, whilst the window frames and doors are laser cut from Rowmark, a hard plastic used specifically for lasers and engraving. The shed window frames consist of two layers of Rowmark which sandwich a layer clear acrylic sheet for the glazing. These three layers are, in turn, sandwiched between the two layers of mdf to form a scale 2ft thick wall of 8mm. The project includes not only the roundhouse but the sand furnace and chimney, the office/mess/stores complex, a further store at the rear and a boilerhouse. At the rear of the shed there will be a four stall workshop of Midland Railway design to be accessed by 20ft loco turntables. All these photos show the parts temporarily assembled and held together by masking tape in order to test the fit of all the current parts. York Modelmakers can be found at:- www.yorkmodelmaking.com/modelrailway.html

I shall be modelling the inside of the shed which will be sectioned on the right hand side ( when viewed form the front ). The section will mean the shed is 175ft wide instead of 181ft. The right wall of the shed will be replaced with clear acrylic as will the sectioned part of the roof thus allowing a clear view into the shed front this, the viewing side, of the layout.

I am hoping to collect the shed from Wigan this weekend as a kit of laser etched parts. The shed turntable is a 57ft unit which will have to be scratchbuilt. I have a set of drawings and am thinking along the lines of an etched kit for the turntable itself. The 4 small turntables at the rear of the shed which give access to the workshop and latterley to the water softener were 20ft diameter akin to wagon turntables. These should be a lot simplier to construct.

Last night I managed to mark out the all the rivet positions, punch out the holes and fit the rivets. The attached photo shows all the finished sleepers in position on the template. At the front of the photo is my press tool with the rivet closing tool fixed to it. A croosing sleeper is positioned in the tool to show operation.To the right is the ply punch tool. Both tools are interchangable in the press. In between these tools are 3 sleepers showing the stages of fixing rivets into the ply sleepers. From left to right we have an 8ft 6in ply sleeper with holes punched. Next are two 2mm rivets , followed by the rivets positioned in the holes prior to pressing them closed. Finally we have a finished sleeper complete with rivets. The tools were obtained from the Scalefour Stores some time ago. Next on the work schedule is the three 1:6 crossing vees.