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The new Green Line looks very good an interesting fact about these coaches is that in WW2 they were painted grey and used as ambulance and also as club buses for the American Army dispensing coffee doughnuts chewing gum etc.After the war the RF took their place and extremely comfortable buses to ride on and nothing that is  provided today is as good.

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Love the car   ............    there is one which regularly ['though not frequently] passes through Old Sarum - in exactly the same colour scheme. It is  a Scheme I always liked, as it is more subtle than most others of that generation.

 

Returning the brake van to Westerham. And a early morning commuter gets a lift to Brasted Station.

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  • RMweb Gold

Enough of this messing about doing nothing, a start has to be made on the building of Chevening Halt. I have recruited a bunch of chaps who have had a great deal of success in building timber halts, notably Box Hill now Deepdene on the SECR LIne. I just have to wait for my moustache to grow before they will let me help them ( I am second from the right next to the chap who has lost two rolls of lino ) .

Thinking about how I am going to build Chevening Halt, I am going for a baseboard about 3' x 12"  which is going to be portable. This will be the board that will allow me to run trains through Brasted and on to Chevening Halt. As I have now run out of space in the garage, it will only be able to be used outside in the summer, also a small hole will have to be knocked out of the garage wall to join it up.

What I will do is put a small 3' fiddle yard that will fold under/plug in join somehow to the Chevening board and this will represent Dunton Green junction. As much as I would like to model Dunton Green station I just cannot fit it in anywhere. (at the moment) :umbrage:

So I will make a start on the platform next week, and see how things progress.

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  • RMweb Gold

On the 16th of April 1906 Chevening Halt was opened, at a cost including nameboard,steps,gates and lamps - of £50. It was a simple timber platform with a small shelter.

   Right I have no intention of spending £50 on my version, so a sheet of thin Balsa wood was brought for £1.50, and some scrap card left over from Brasted,

lets see how far this gets us. First off strips were cut off from the Balsa wood the width of a sleeper. Next they were laid out and spaced with some strips of paper, then some more strips of Balsa were glued on the back of the planks. The next stage will be to fabricate the supporting legs.

Some pics of progress so far. 

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  • RMweb Gold

Next bit to make for Chevening Halt is the supporting framework for the timber platform, now most of this will not be seen when it's landscaped, but I thought I might as well model it anyway, as it seemed easier to make it do it's proper job in supporting the platform than just make the front supports and bodge the back.

  Before I can continue with the construction of the platform shelter I have a question? Does any one know if the walls of the shelter in it's original form pre 1950's would have been constructed from clapboard, sheet material eg plywood or precast concrete. The  pictures that I can find seem to show the same shelter unaltered after the platform reconstruction which was rebuilt in concrete. So did they just replace the platform and leave the original shelter.The last 2 pictures illustrate what i am asking. Any help will be welcome.

  Back to the build, square section balsa wood was cut into lengths for the uprights, and strips of balsa were cut to length using a card jig for the diagonals.

These were then assembled in another card jig to ensure some kind of uniformity hopefully. All the finished supports were then glued to the underside of the platform surface, the pictures should explain it better. Well thanks for following me this far, my teas ready now so time to go.

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  Before I can continue with the construction of the platform shelter I have a question? Does any one know if the walls of the shelter in it's original form pre 1950's would have been constructed from clapboard, sheet material eg plywood or precast concrete. The  pictures that I can find seem to show the same shelter unaltered after the platform reconstruction which was rebuilt in concrete. So did they just replace the platform and leave the original shelter.The last 2 pictures illustrate what i am asking. Any help will be welcome.

 

 

You are quite right that the two shelters do seem to be identical, suggesting that it was not replaced when the halt was rebuilt. Sadly pictures of the original halt are few and far between.

 

There is, of course a third possibility. I cannot believe that Chevening would have had a concrete shelter when it was built in 1906. Concrete was in its infancy then and, in any case, the emphasis on the halts was cheapness, not permanence. The railway wanted to find out it it would be used before spending too much money. Sandhurst Halt, built around the same time, had wooden buildings and I would have expected Chevening to be the same.

 

However, judging by my garden sheds, cheaply erected wooden buildings don't have an infinite life and I wonder if Chevening's original hut had to be replaced in the 1930s or 40s. By that stage concrete was in vogue. If my theory is right, when the halt was rebuilt, the hut would still have been perfectly serviceable and it would probably have been put up on a concrete raft.

 

Just a thought.

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Next bit to make for Chevening Halt is the supporting framework for the timber platform, now most of this will not be seen when it's landscaped, but I thought I might as well model it anyway, as it seemed easier to make it do it's proper job in supporting the platform than just make the front supports and bodge the back.

  Before I can continue with the construction of the platform shelter I have a question? Does any one know if the walls of the shelter in it's original form pre 1950's would have been constructed from clapboard, sheet material eg plywood or precast concrete. The  pictures that I can find seem to show the same shelter unaltered after the platform reconstruction which was rebuilt in concrete. So did they just replace the platform and leave the original shelter.The last 2 pictures illustrate what i am asking. Any help will be welcome.

  Back to the build, square section balsa wood was cut into lengths for the uprights, and strips of balsa were cut to length using a card jig for the diagonals.

These were then assembled in another card jig to ensure some kind of uniformity hopefully. All the finished supports were then glued to the underside of the platform surface, the pictures should explain it better. Well thanks for following me this far, my teas ready now so time to go.

 

I cannot answer your question,

 

 but,

 

this book(let) may be of help, if you can get hold of it.

 

"SOUTHERN  Nouveau" An Essay in Concrete, No.1. by Chris Hawkins & George Reeve.  Wild Swan Publications.

 was in Kent Libraries.

 

Exmouth Junction, the SR. Concrete kit factory, from detailing wire fencing , platform construction, to foot bridges.

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  Before I can continue with the construction of the platform shelter I have a question? Does any one know if the walls of the shelter in it's original form pre 1950's would have been constructed from clapboard, sheet material eg plywood or precast concrete.

Good question.

Not knowing a great about construction when I was eight, but I actually think it might have been timber and asbestos sheet.

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  • RMweb Gold

Hi Ron,David, and Bigherb, thanks for replying, it does look like it could be made from timber and asbestos sheet rather like the old style garage buildings which would have been cheap to put up. I looked on the disused station site at Grain Halt, and on the web and that shows pictures of a timber halt and platform with a basic timber shelter. Later pictures show that it was replaced with a concrete shelter.

What I am thinking is that I will build it as it is shown in the pictures, as that will cover the time frame 1946 -1961 and when it is painted, it will at  normal viewing distance will be indiscernible from concrete or asbestos sheet.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grain_Crossing_Halt_railway_station

http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/g/grain_crossing_halt/

                                                                         All the best Adrian

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Hi Ron,David, and Bigherb, thanks for replying, it does look like it could be made from timber and asbestos sheet rather like the old style garage buildings which would have been cheap to put up. I looked on the disused station site at Grain Halt, and on the web and that shows pictures of a timber halt and platform with a basic timber shelter. Later pictures show that it was replaced with a concrete shelter.

What I am thinking is that I will build it as it is shown in the pictures, as that will cover the time frame 1946 -1961 and when it is painted, it will at  normal viewing distance will be indiscernible from concrete or asbestos sheet.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grain_Crossing_Halt_railway_station

http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/g/grain_crossing_halt/

                                                                         All the best Adrian

The first Grain Crossing Halt looks exactly as I would have imagined the original Chevening Halt to have been. And they were built in the same year when railmotor services were introduced.

 

I cannot find a date for when Grain Crossing Halt was rebuilt in concrete but the picture clearly shows that the design of its hut was different to that at Chevening.

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  • RMweb Gold

It's cold, wet, and windy, time to make the few passengers that use Chevening Halt a little more comfortable.

  It will be made from 2mm card, covered with some thin pulp board from the back of a notebook to represent the concrete/asbestos finish. I have glued the pulp board on to both sides of the 2mm card so that it acts as a balancing sheet to stop it warping.

  Here are some pictures that show the start of the build of the shelter, and a reference picture of what I am aiming for.

 Thanks for following, all the best Adrian.

   

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This is cracking stuff as ever!  I am just about to scratchbuild something (purely for fun, probably no space on any current railway) and have been investigating using bits & pieces from round the house as well as or even instead of texture papers.  That pulp board is a great idea!

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  • RMweb Gold

Now the the walls are up on Chevening Halt, it's time for the roof, ridge and sliding door to be made.

 The roof will be made from Slaters Platicard thinned on the edges with a scalpel, and the ridge capping is some sugar paper, laid over some piano wire and pressed into shape with my fingers, then trimmed to size. Roof, ridge and door have been given a light spray of grey primer from a rattle can. The sliding door is a piece of card covered with some plasticard and painted buff over the grey, then lightly distressed with an emery board from Mrs W Stations make up bag

when she was out ( I sense trouble on the horizon). Some pictures of what's been happening so far.    

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  • RMweb Gold

That's looking really good. The use you have made of everyday bits and pieces is great. I particularly like the ridge. It's the sort of thing bookbinders have been doing with string on leather bound books to get the relief, but I wouldn't have thought of doing it in that situation. Clever, and very effective.

 

Kind regards, Neil

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