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Kirkallanmuir


Caley Jim
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Here endeth the saga of Kirkallanmuir Weighs signal box!   :sungum:

Well, er, not quite!  I decided that it would be nice to have some lighting in the box, but wanted to keep it 'self contained'.  I tried a couple of grain of wheat bulbs powered by a 1.5v button battery, but, while this gave a nice yellowy illumination, the battery died after a couple of minutes.  Nigel Cliffe kindly sent me some LEDs and resistors and rigging a couple of them up with 3 batteries (the LEDs need 3.5v) works well, although the light is a bit on the blue side.  i tried to correct this by painting some cling film yellow and covering them with that, but that just gave a rather insipid green colour.  I replaced this with a more orange colour which is better, but still a bit green.  More experiments required, methinks!

 

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Jim

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Work on the point rodding suffered a bit of a hiatus as I was struck down with a bad flu and spent a week or so in bed.  Recovering since then has allowed me to make progress, however and the run down the 10ft between the down main and down loop has now been completed.  The run starts with 9 rods :-

 

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And goes down to 4 rods which cross under the loop to then go to the turnouts on the far side of the bridge.

 

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Again, all the cranks are boxed in.

 

This board can now go back out to the garage and one of the end boards brought in to fit the rodding on it.

 

Jim

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The rodding on the board at the colliery end of the layout has now been fitted and the board returned to the layout.  As can be seen, my ploy to disguise the joint between the baseboards has been quite successful :

 

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From right to left the tracks are up main; down main; down loop headshunt; colliery branch; access to interchange sidings.

 

The station end board is now in my study to start on it.

 

Jim

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Installation of the point rodding has now be completed following fitting to the station end board.  For this I was fortunate in that the road surface on the bridge has not yet been applied, so the bridge deck could be easily removed to get at the turnouts beneath it.

 

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A view prior to painting.  the observant will note that the rod to the stretcher bar on the left hand turnout on the down main (leading to the down loop) stops a little short, but as it will be under the bridge it will not be seen and I won't tell anyone if you won't!   :secret:

 

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The same view after painting.

 

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And a view towards the bridge with the board back in situ.  Boxing in is again used to hide the rods crossing the baseboard joint.  I note that the boards could be better aligned. :fool:

 

The absence of rolling stock on these last few photos is because it has all been run onto cassettes and boxed in preparation for taking the layout to the Supermeet in Perth on 21st April.

 

Jim

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  • 3 months later...

Nothing been happening on Kirkallanmuir recently as I've been busy designing an etch for the footbridge for the Dunallander layout for the Grampian Group.  The artwork for that went off to PPD last evening.

 

It was Biggar Agricultural Show today and they have competitions in an 'Industrial' section.  Mostly baking, jam making, painting, knitwear etc., but they have a Class 'Article made by a Senior Citizen', so I tried my luck with the signal box!  :scared:

 

post-25077-0-98038200-1532202961_thumb.jpg  :beee:

 

Winner was an item in felting.

 

Jim

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Nothing been happening on Kirkallanmuir recently as I've been busy designing an etch for the footbridge for the Dunallander layout for the Grampian Group.  The artwork for that went off to PPD last evening.

 

It was Biggar Agricultural Show today and they have competitions in an 'Industrial' section.  Mostly baking, jam making, painting, knitwear etc., but they have a Class 'Article made by a Senior Citizen', so I tried my luck with the signal box!  :scared:

 

attachicon.gifDSC_0835.JPG  :beee:

 

Winner was an item in felting.

 

Jim

its is not the winning but the taking part

 

your a brave man than I Gunda  Din

 

Nick

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Only second? What a bunch of tossers running the show and judging it. If I knew where it was I come up and squeeze their sporrans. Felting! Pah!!!

I think the judges (whoever they were) are probably more used to judging handcraft items such as embroidery, quilting, knitting etc.  The 'Industrial' tent is run by the local 'Rural'.

 

To answer Argus' question, I'm not sure whether the sarking would have been covered by felt before the slates went on in the 1890's.  In any case, it wouldn't be seen.

 

Jim

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To answer Argus' question, I'm not sure whether the sarking would have been covered by felt before the slates went on in the 1890's.  In any case, it wouldn't be seen.

 

 

 

Whilst I haven't studied photos of (decaying) buildings from your locality, study of such buildings elsewhere suggests that the use of an underfelt was common practice even on quite minor buildings, stables for example. It probably meant that the slates were much less likely to lift in high winds as the "soft" felting prevented the wind from getting underneath. As you say, it is invisible on roofs in good state.

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Whilst I haven't studied photos of (decaying) buildings from your locality, study of such buildings elsewhere suggests that the use of an underfelt was common practice even on quite minor buildings, stables for example. It probably meant that the slates were much less likely to lift in high winds as the "soft" felting prevented the wind from getting underneath. As you say, it is invisible on roofs in good state.

 

But not in the 1890s though. I think it started in the nineteen thirties and was more widespread post war.  The places we have had dating from the 1850s never had any felting neither did our current place built 1920s. Admittedly there may have been more need in Scotland where the wind speeds are higher. The original sarking was timber pieces. I dont think the soft origninal felt would be that strong. Besides the liffting of tiles/slates is more often due to the increased wind speed as it rushes over the slop of a roof can reduce the pressure over the tiles. It is most unerving when you get tiled roofs chattering in 100mph winds.

 

Don

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But not in the 1890s though. I think it started in the nineteen thirties and was more widespread post war.  The places we have had dating from the 1850s never had any felting neither did our current place built 1920s. Admittedly there may have been more need in Scotland where the wind speeds are higher. The original sarking was timber pieces. I dont think the soft origninal felt would be that strong. Besides the liffting of tiles/slates is more often due to the increased wind speed as it rushes over the slop of a roof can reduce the pressure over the tiles. It is most unerving when you get tiled roofs chattering in 100mph winds.

 

But the derelict buildings that I examined photos of and which showed clear signs of having had a soft material between the timber under-boarding and the slates, all dated from the latter part of the 19th century (and were at least semi-derelict by the 1930s). The material may have been canvas rather than felt but the tattered remnants of it could be clearly seen. The buildings concerned happened to be in mid-Wales where slate was, of course, the indigenous roofing material, but if the practice was used on minor buildings there (one was a stable), I would have expected it to be more widely used. If one draws the side elevation of a slate roof in large scale it becomes fairly obvious why a thin soft material helped make the roof more secure.

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Becasse, the old Irish boats - ‘currachs’ - were originally covered in skins, later it was canvas, which were sealed with ‘Stockholm tar’ to waterproof. This early pine tar, used since the 14th century, was also used in roofing, so quite possibly canvas plus tar created a forerunner to tarred paper?

 

Jim, I agree that judges at an agricultural show would have been completely flummoxed with your model - it is outstanding and in a class of its own!

 

Marlyn

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Looking again at one of the photos, sadly unreproducable for both copyright and quality reasons, I now actually wonder whether the material might have been hessian sacking, possibly tarred, which would have been both cheap and readily available. What is certain is that there is something there.

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A point to remember is that slated roofs suffered from rusting of the nails, resulting in the roof becoming what roofers call 'nail tired', at which time the entire roof needs to be re-slated. This would no doubt be done using the current 'best practice's of the time. Thus the roof of a building from, let's say the mid-19th century, which didn't have anything between the sarking and the slates, might have been re-roofed in the 1920's or. -30's with felt in place there.

 

As an aside, my father claimed that wartime German incendiary bombs did less damage in Scotland because the sarking prevented them from going through the roof and setting the building alight. They simply slid off and landed in the road or garden.

 

Jim

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A point to remember is that slated roofs suffered from rusting of the nails, resulting in the roof becoming what roofers call 'nail tired', at which time the entire roof needs to be re-slated. This would no doubt be done using the current 'best practice's of the time. Thus the roof of a building from, let's say the mid-19th century, which didn't have anything between the sarking and the slates, might have been re-roofed in the 1920's or. -30's with felt in place there.

 

As an aside, my father claimed that wartime German incendiary bombs did less damage in Scotland because the sarking prevented them from going through the roof and setting the building alight. They simply slid off and landed in the road or garden.

 

Jim

 

Any such re-roofing would be later than your model though.  My experiece has been with English cottages the furthest north being in Shropshire. We didn't go in for sarking preferring the breeze to come through one side and out the other. Mind you any snow that blew in through the one side never went out the other.

 

Don

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  • 2 months later...

Work on Kirkallanmuir has suffered a hiatus over the past 6 month or so while I worked on the footbridge for Dunallander (see link in signature).  Now that it is finished I have returned to the signal box, installing two yellow LED's I bought at Perth Show along with a figure kindly gifted to me by Steve Harold.

 

As a result, I am pleased to report that the box is now manned and lit!    :sungum:

 

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His time would be better employed with giving the windows a wash rather than leaning out admiring the view!!

 

Jim

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  • 1 month later...

Another step down the path to insanity!!

 

I have been asked by a couple of people whether I could produce etched signal wire posts, you know, the little posts which carried pulleys on which the signal wires run.  Having given it some thought, I came up with this design:

 

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By folding the two layers of the post together, this would provide scale 3" square posts and the little discs could be folded over on one another to represent the pulleys, removing any which were not required.  Now in theory, that is all very well and it looks fine blown up to several times actual size on the screen.  However when the etch came back the reality was somewhat different!

 

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Remember, the posts are 0.5mm wide!

 

After three attempts to fold the pulleys, resulting in much frustration, language unbefitting an elder of the Kirk and a success rate of 0%, I decided that this was leading me further into insanity at a faster rate than I was prepared to accept.

 

So, a change of tack.  Being a parsimonious Scot I was unwilling to sacrifice the posts.  Plan B (there had only ever been a Plan A up to this point) was rapidly cobbled together and was:

1.  While still attached to the fret, fold the two layers of the post over and solder together, at the same time tinning the top of one side.

2.  With a sharp scalpel blade cut c0.5mm slices off some 0.4mm copper wire and set these on end on a sheet of white paper (so that I could actually see them!)

3.  Place the soldering iron on the lower part of the tinned side of the post so that the tinning was fused, pick up one of the slices on the tip of the moistened (i.e. licked) scalpel blade and place near the top of the post, making sure it was correctly orientated (i.e. circular face up).

4.   Repeat for as many pulleys as were required, spacing them at around 1mm centres and then remove the iron.

5.  Remove the post from the fret, file off the tag remnants and the hinges and also, with a very fine file, even the length of the cylinders representing the pulleys.  If you were ultra fussy, you could slope the face of these out slightly at the bottom.

 

Once a number had been assembled they were pushed into the edge of a strip of foamboard, which itself had been glued to a couple of scraps of MDF.

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The posts were then painted a brownish-grey and the 'pulleys' picked out in brown.

 

The posts are 10mm long, so a series of No.70 holes 6mm deep were drilled in the baseboard at 40mm (scale 20ft) spacing and a post glued in each hole, making sure the pulleys were all on the correct side.

 

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Mad as it may be and whether anyone will actually see the pulleys, I feel the result was worth the effort as it adds further atmosphere to the scene.  Only another 30 or so posts to make for the rest of the layout!

 

Oh dear!  is that two men in white coats I see approaching the front door?..............

 

Jim

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Incredible stuff Jim.

I was questioning my sanity adding hinges to one of your wagon kits this morning.

 

Clearly there are new levels to be obtained before the men in white coats arrive.....

 

Angus

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Nothing to do with the layout this time, but I spent today at the SRPS at Bo'ness where the only remaining working CR locos, 419 and 828 were running together and hauling the two preserved CR carriages.  Thanks to Jim Summers, CRA members had the chance to ride behind the two locos in one of the carriages on the 12:09.

 

419 outshopped  2 weeks ago in light blue after an overhaul :

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828 in dark blue

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The two carriages

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They were sitting in the dock platform until the regular train returned and then to two locos and carriages were attached ready for the journey to Manuel:

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Arrival at Manuel : (The Glasgow - Edinburgh main line is immediately to the right)

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The trip was followed by a talk from Jim MacIntosh on the history oft he two locos, with an explanation of the two different blues!

 

Not the best of weather, but a grand day out just the same.  :)

 

Jim

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I'm very jealous Jim.

I had hoped to be there but it clashed with us travelling back from holiday.

 

Judging by the weather waterproofs would be needed!

 

I don't know why but I think the light blue suits the tender engines better and the darker shade sits better on the tanks.

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