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On old RMweb I ran a Workbench on buildng and painting Townstreet plaster cast buildings and personalizing Hornby and Bachmann resin buildings. The contents are still relavent today and I wondered if some of the contents might be of interest to newer RMwebbers.

 

I jumped in at the deep end with a Townstreet plaster goods shed but the methods of assembly and painting apply to all the Townstreet buildings including this Goods Shed. It was "glued" together casting by casting using 'Gripfill', a somewhat messy substance, but it suits me when speed is of the essence.

This picture shows Rowsley shed in the 1950s. Taken by Keith Miles, shedmaster at the time, and used here with his kind permssion. I copied the louvered vent above the entrance by carving the plaster.

A dead end shed makes for a stronger model....

The loco shed has had the basic diluted washes of brick (Railmatch No.424 dark brick), stone (Humbrol Matt No.63) and slate (Precision No. P995 Roofing Slate) applied. This is slap dash and it will be automatically tidied up when the black mortar is applied. The roof louvers were painted with diluted Railmatch No.406 Sleeper Grime matt enamel. I'm not too happy with the latter and might cover it with Precision No. P990 Weathered Wood. The 'engineering blue' brick courses are simply slate colour as used on the roof.

<BR clear=all>This is the 'extended' version of this Townstreet shed (1ft long) and the roof is not the neatest (where it joins) due to the castings being slightly bowed. I ran a flat file over the joint then re-scribed the slates.

The louvers and 'canvass' roof were repainted Phoenix weathered wood colour but some experimentation is needed here as I'm not happy with it as it stands. The interior walls up to 8ft from the floor were painted LMS buildings brown (Rowsley's were actually black bitumen), and white above.

More paintin took place picking out individual bricks after the black mortar had dried (mostly water, acrylic black and Fairy liquid). The loco shed is assumed not to have been repainted by BR and retains LMS faded brown woodwork including guttering and clerestory. A roof light was added to provide light at the 'office' end. It is false of course and was made from a Wills greenhouse moulding and a bit of glazing painted black on the back side. Etched brass windows have yet to be added and a lean-to block of offices on the back wall.

Loco sheds have offices and amenities but there was nothing suitable in the Townstreet catalogue and so there was nothing for it but to get out the Wills brick, slate and window frame sheets. The door is to the Shed foremans office. Next door is the fitters room and stores. The raised yellow brick waist was added to match the loco shed. Eventually there will be stand alone buildings for toilets, time office and boiler room.

Shed in situ with etched window frames and glazing fitted. The outbuildings (one is an oil store) came from Hornby Scaledale range and were repainted to match the shed.

The loco shed pits followed next. Slots had to be laboriously chiselled out of the baseboard to accommodate the Peco inspection and disposal pits. Sleepers were removed from some track and the two rails threaded onto the inspection pit 'chairs'. The floor of the pit and the track were painted Precision P990 Weathered Wood, a favourite of mine for just about everything wherever there's grime! The inspection pit wall was left natural colour (off white) and diluted acrylic brownish black run down the walls.

The next building required for a shed yard was a water tank. Again this came from Townstreet but I didnt use the tank that came in the kit. I've fitted an LNWR tank instead made from Plastikard. A planked top cover was made from Wills sheet.

 

The structure was painted to match the previous Townstreet brick buildings. It would be smoke-blackened later once I knew where it is going.

Seeing as I couldnt find a model of a portable conveyor for coaling the locos, a coaling ramp was put in as well as an ash pit for the disposal gang. I left the Peco rails attached to the ash pit and connected SMP track to it at each end. The coal wagon ramp is simply a strip of fibreboard chamfered off at one end. An empty steel wagon would be left beside the ashpit so that ash and clinker could be shovelled out of the pit and into the wagon. Locos entering this small facility first took water then drew back over the pit for disposal of the grate, ashpan and smokebox. Then they moved to the coaling road before going on shed.

I bought a Hornby Skaledale 'Coal Hole'. Many railway companies built them to various designs. Wagons of coal entered the building via a ramp and the contents were unloaded onto an internal platform. It was much easier to shovel coal off a floor. Some companies used small rail-mounted trucks that ran out onto the loading platform and tipped the contents into a tender. Mine hasnt that luxury so coal was shovelled into the tender instead! It is a bit extravagent for a small shed but it has solves a boatload of problems!!!

 

Trouble is, the whole disposal set-up had to be revised. The Skaledale building is an excellent product but looks rather modern, so I clad the corners and lower extensions it in Wills brick plastic sheet so that it vaguely resembles an LNWR structure.

The Wills plastic brick sheet arches fitted above the windows, and drain pipes makes back-engineering the building easy. A neat building all for the price of a coach!

The next building was a sand house. Gripfil kept it together while hardening. The clerestory was glued on with quick setting PVA seeing as there is no structural strength required. An etched brass window is included in the kit. The footprint including chimney base is 5 inches x 2½ inches.... the sandpit requires additional space. This model resembles the sand house to the right of Rowsley engine shed.

 

In addition to coal and water, sand was an essential supply provided at engine sheds for locomotive sanding gear. The sand house had a furnace to dry the sand to ensure it did not clog up the sanding gear.

Finally, a working loco shed. Compare this shot with the heading picture....

 

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