Dymented - the Serious stuff starts!

[Philou]

Modelling never happened yesterday as it was a lovely spring day, almost a barbecue day but we didn't have any sausages or other suitable grilling food. So, what happened? Gardening, that's what. I started off pressure-hosing our decking as it had gotten covered in a green slime that had become slippery when wet - 'elf'n'safety' and all that. So one half was done before lunch and then it was coup de grace in the afternoon. Mrs Philou was pleased.

 

This morning it was doing the other half - all done before lunch. I have another deck to do in the next couple of but not tomorrow as out in the woods again log splitting and piling - hey ho - never a dull moment.

 

It isn't all bad as I have a smile on my face - see > :) as this afternoon I tackled the awkward centre girder doing a cut'n'shut by taking 6mm off at the level of the deck-plate, working on the assumption that the angle will cover the cut line and re-inforce it as well. I've had a dry run with the rolling stock and the bodywork now oversails the top of the girder - I kept the curved top. The bonus is I can maintain the trackwork at 45mm centres throughout but I shan't be putting the baulks on a curve (24m radius - so a very flat curve anyway).

 

Here we go, a picture for you:

 

 

^ There you have it - 6mm sliced out and then re-glued. I can recycle the slice as a flange.

 

 

^ This is the slime we get in the winter - admittedly here is the worst place as it doesn't get much sun even in the summer and even then only late in the afternoon. Not helped by a flock of about forty sparrows that over-winter in the ivy just above. Comes up nice and clean, though I shall need to get some treatment down before it gets too hot - but that's for another day.

 

Cheers everyone,

 

Philip

 

[Philou]

Evening all,

 

There wasn't anything to report yesterday as it was a day in the woods with M. le Maire splitting and piling those pesky logs. Just one tree left to do.

 

As there wasn't any wood to be done today, I thought I'd do some landscaping afer lunch - yah, real modelling with plaster and paper towels and water and PVA. Hands on job. That didn't happen as after doing the last of the decking, Mrs la Poste arrived with a very lightweight parcel that had no more than £30-worth of plastic angle in it asking for another tenner in VAT and collection fees - grrrr.

 

As it had turned wet anyway, I went into the barn and got the bridge bits out and started the angles again and I now have all the plate girders angled up and as there was a little time left, I also started to cut the ribs to length, so I'm under steam again! Huzzah!

 

More tomorrow and enjoy the weekend,

 

Philip

[Philou]

Hello chaps and chapesses,

 

Slow but steady. I got started this afternoon on the ribs and managed to get four of them in place - only another 50-odd to do ;) .

 

I have a photo showing how I tackled the angled angle:

 

 

^ All a bit Heath Robinson - I cut two pieces of angle of a correct length and glued them along two sides of the rib that too, had been pre-cut to length and notches cut to oversail the two horizontal angles along the top and bottom webs (draws breath). The rib, together with the two angles was then glued on the pencil line. 

 

Then taking the length of angle in the photo above, a notch was cut on just one part of the angle to allow it to bend. A tiniest drop of MEK was applied to the rib at the end of the pre-glued angle and the short piece of angle put into place - it didn't always work first time. By applying gentle pressure on the long piece of angle, the tiny piece was wedged against the first angle and then the long piece glued on the web.

 

This was repeated for the other three angles, though it became unwieldy once there was more than three long bits of angle wobbling about. The MEK had softened the plastic and I couldn't cut the excess straight away as intended. I modified this latter part by notching the angle and once happy that it would bend as required, I cut the piece off leaving about 10mm with which to hold and push into place. The short excess was cut off after a couple of hours (surprising how long it takes to go-off) and then sanded back using a fine grade nail sanding block (things you find in a make-up kit!).

 

This one side should be finished tomorrow, logging notwithstanding. As it rained copious amounts this pm, I doubt if we'll doing any wood for a day or two.

 

Cheers everyone and stay safe,

 

Philip

 

 

Edited March 24 by Philou

[Philou]

Thwarted!! Wood cutting WAS on the menu today though we hadn't actually agreed as such. I didn't do a stint this morning - it was all done in 45mins anyway. However, this afternoon some IMPORTANT WORK was done by cutting down two trees that had become dangerous at the bottom of our garden. The one had broken/loosened its roots and was leaning heavily against an adjoining one and had to come down in case it started to push against it. The other I - er - um - set fire to it about 5 years ago (not intentionally, you understand) and it's been decaying slowly ever since.

 

Anyway, today was the day that they were to come down. In fairness to M. le Maire with his tractor, a steel hawser and his trusty chain saw, both trees (20m tall acacias) were down and cut into 1m lengths, split using wedges and a sledgehammer, and carted to the front of the house in about 3 hours and no damage done in the garden or our neighbour's (with the exception of tyre marks in the grass).

 

Tomorrow morning, I will cut them into usable lengths for our wood-burner as they're both dry enough to burn straight away.

 

I did manage to do some ribbing this morning, but the finishing will have to held over until tomorrow afternoon - so there was some progress :).

 

Cheers everyone,

 

Philip

[Philou]

Hello chums and chumesses,

 

I got stuck in this afternoon with my trusty glue and plasticard and I managed to complete all the ribbing along the one side. I think I'm having to order some more angled profile - where is it all going? I shall source it this side of the channel especially as it costs no more than in the UK and I shall avoid any VAT (TVA) surprises. I shall need to see what they're charging for post (and I'm avoiding any Ebay Global Shipping too).

 

Photos? You want photos? I have a photo .............

 

 

^ There we are. All the ribs in place and just waiting for the glue to go-off before cutting the excess and lightly sanding down.

 

Tomorrow, I shall re-start the longest piece and as it's modelling day, I should get half of it done. I had already made a start at the end of the afternoon by cutting out some more ribs.

 

Cheers everyone,

 

Philip

[Philou]

On a roll today! I managed to get all the stiffeners and the vertical angles in place on the longest girder and also managed to do a quarter of the cranks too. I have a photo showing progress:

 

 

^ The stiffeners plus some the cranks in place. After having taken the photo, I finished the rest of the cranks on the side nearest the camera. Tomorrow, I'll shall do the opposite side and then come back to this side to do the cranks the other side of the rib and then finish off the opposite side after. Why all the shilly-shallying? It allows the MEK to go-off completely and the joint is set solid which I can the cut without tearing parts of the crank out of the joint - that happened yesterday, and I don't want a repeat. Patience is the word here.

 

 

^ Here's a close up of the crank. I'm quite pleased with the result and hence I don't want to tear it when I trim it back. My construction method was to make a sub-assembly of the stiffener and the two bits of angle, pre-cut at each end at an angle, and the three parts glued into place. The crank was an off-cut that was shaped at its end to match the profile of the already glued assembly (you can see the angled cut nearest the camera), a notch was then cut on the 'vertical' part of the angle approximately 2.5mm from the end, lightly bent and then using three hands (ha ha) a dab of MEK to hold it in place and then gently manoeuvring it into position with the back of a scalpel blade and another dab of MEK to finish it off. The excess will be trimmed after 24hrs and any bits longer than 15mm will be recycled into other cranks.

 

Buoyed up, I started on the central girder and managed to get some ribs in place before bad light stopped play.

 

I think I've cracked how to get it done as quick as reasonably possible, as I did all the above in about 4hrs - the cranks taking disproportionately longer than the ribs - but it's getting there - yay!

 

Cheers everyone,

 

More tomorrow,

 

Philip

 

[Philou]

We're moving, oh yes! No picture today as it's more of the same - I have all the plate girders ribbed save for the one side, and cranks galore - but lots remain to be done.

 

Visitors tomorrow for the weekend of Easter plus a few more days, so modelling activity will be restricted, but Mrs Philou says I can carry on for bit tomorrow and Saturday - what a good egg! She didn't really see the point of me 'wasting' my time with the cranks, but she does admire my patience :) .

 

Hopefully a photo tomorrow.

 

Cheer up everyone, the weekend is just around the corner!

 

Philip

[Philou]

Hello chaps and chapesses,

 

No photo - boo, hiss. All you would see is a sea of white plastic with various bits of angle sticking out from it.

 

Both the longest and shortest girders are complete along the one side, including the cranks. Both have had their ribs attached on the other sides and await their cranks. The centre beam is all ribbed up and one set of cranks done - there are 8 sets of cranks altogether (4 per rib). I can do up to 12 cranks an hour but I have to stop to rest my eyes and stop breathing the MEK vapours (not that there is much smell - but you never know). Only another 166 cranks do - I'm getting there!

 

The rest of today is a no-go due to real life and visitors having arrived and I shan't get to restart until Monday at the earliest.

 

Have a good Easter break and speak soon,

 

Philip

 

[Philou]

Ta-raaaaa! Hello chums and chumesses, I'm back!

 

Not a lot happened over the Easter weekend due to to visitors, especially Mrs Philou's youngest granddaughter who kept us on our toes.

 

I did do bits here and there and more today until I ran out of angle. There is more on the way and should have been here today, but it hasn't arrived yet. For the last wo days, I've been with M. le Maire cutting trees that had fallen into the highway due to some very heavy rain we had recently (it's a road restricted to frontagers but no legislation enforcing it and as it's within our commune, the mayor is responsible for its maintenance). Oooh, and I have some pictures:

 

 

^ Here's a general view of the bridge dry-assembled. I've had to fudge the right-hand to get it all to fit in-situ. Fortunately it's on the non-viewing side and shan't be seen. I'll know it's there and so will you (but stay schtum). Otherwise I'm happy with it. You can see the cranks that I did on the left-hand side as they're waiting to be cut when absolutely gone-off. The left-hand side is now complete.

 

The centre girder needs about half of its cranks to be made up and that too will be finished.

 

The right-hand side needs just 14 cranks on the inside face and that will be that. I did the upper inside face of it today too and that's awaiting trimming.

 

I have a total of 46 cranks to complete and at the speed I'm now doing them, they'll be done in a couple of hours.

 

 

 

 

^ Just views of the nearly-completed article (ignore the background!). You can see the over-long cranks and once trimmed, they'll all be lightly sanded back to the edge of their respective webs (all three girders need doing).

 

What next? I'm now taking measurements and doing sketches for the fitting of the baulks on the decks. I think I have it cracked (at least in my head). As I'm now going to have the baulks on a straight line, I think I can fix the one set of chairs (plus rail) on the one baulk and the repeat for the the other three.  When dry, I can then fix one baulk on each deck and using a gauge the second one can be set at a distance parallel to give 16.5mm between the rails.

 

Is this a plan or have I missed something?

 

Cheers everyone - another weekend is just around the corner!

 

Philip

 

 

[Philou]

Hello chaps and chapesses,

 

Not a lot happened either yesterday or today unfortunately. Yesterday was a visit to the much bigger town (not big town) for an appointment with a cardiologist - just an MOT. Talk about stress! At nearly every junction was a HGV pulling out of a side turn and going in our direction and even though we left with a bit of a time margin that was being quickly eroded away. When we finally got to the heart clinic and parked up, we were told 'Oh, it's no longer here it's moved up the hill.' It wasn't far but the hill was steep and my pressure went up quite a bit by the time I got there. As we arrived spot-on the appointed time, there wasn't any time to sit down and calm down! Long story short - he doesn't want to see me for 4 - 5 years.

 

It wasn't all lost as I did find some spray matt varnish for my card models whilst in town and I also picked up some square LED ceiling lights to complement what I'd already put in place. Did them this afternoon so no more dangling wires or dark corners in the railway room.

 

Annoyingly, my angle still hasn't arrived as I could have finished the girders as well. I haven't assembled the baulks as yet as I can't find some nice hard-drawn brass wire which I bought eons ago that would now be useful to make the transoms between the baulks. I did however find some small tools that I'd mislaid AND some 2mm brass tube in a rather large crate. The finer wire must in there as well so I'll have that tipped out tomorrow and reorganise the contents (for the umpteenth time!). Failing that, I'll consider using some 1mm² copper wire (got loads of it) that I can strip down. I shall amuse myself trying to straighten it!

 

No modelling tomorrow as we're off out to lunch - again!

 

Enjoy the weekend,

 

Philip

[Philou]

Hello chums and chumesses,

 

The angle STILL haven't arrived - they're arriving by Mondial Relay (not my choice). I shan't be recommending them to anyone as they should have been here on Wednesday or Thursday last week.

 

I felt a bit down as it seemed the project had stopped - so I had a sharp talking to myself and decided to go into the railway room and do some proper modelling and restarted the landscaping and I got another metre of polystyrene cut and shaped in the background. I was enjoying myself so much I didn't see the time go by and I was at it for three hours - at least I have something to show you tomorrow when I take a picture.

 

Cheers everyone and more tomorrow,

 

Philip

[Philou]

Hello chums and chumesses,

 

The angle has finally arrived - not at home - but at a collection point nearby. It'll get picked up sometime.

 

Snow hit the railway room as I did some more landscaping this afternoon cutting more polystyrene. Another three hours flew by, though I felt I hadn't done as much as yesterday. I said I'd do some photos today, so here they are:

 

 

 

^ Here we have the end of Dymented station with the mainline above. The retaining wall just in picture upper side left is to be extended as far as the end of the piece of track and the land battered back thereafter. Going around the curve there is to be a low retaining wall with the land battered back above until it meets the upper surface.

 

 

^ Here is the cutting leading out of Pontrilas in the Hereford direction (under construction, natch). The land is simply battered back here. I do have an overbridge to thread through from the inside corner towards the dip above the tin on the left. I'll need to get the bridge in place tomorrow so that I can adapt the landform. The tins, by the way, are there to weigh down the polystyrene whilst the PVA sets, and more layers will be done once the roadbridge is in place.

 

Here, as with the other areas where there will be a lot of raised land, I'm trying out a hollowed hill construction, by building a 'crust' of 'styrene rather than having a solid mass. Polystyrene is no longer cheap!

 

The next step before leaving the area will be to carve the 'stryrene to shape. This I shall do the old fashioned way using a bread knife (no Sureform unfortunately) as there's too much for the hotknife.

 

There we have it - under way again!

 

Cheers everyone,

 

Philip

[Philou]

Hello chaps and chapesses,

 

A bit of a bizarre day today. It started well enough by being up earlier than usual and out into the barn asap. It was quite cold but I managed to construct about half the hill (in the last photo of yesterday) before lunch. I decided that after lunch I would start the abutments and the deck for the road-overbridge and I just hit the buffers. I couldn't gather my thoughts and just managed to cut the road deck and mark out the abutment to the one side.

 

I think it's the new blood pressure medication that the heart specialist gave me - replaces all my previous medication, but apparently it'll take up to 15 days before the full effects start - goodness knows what they'll be if I feel crappy now :( . We'll wait and see. Tomorrow I must crack on!

 

At least there was some progress so it wasn't all doom and gloom :) .

 

More tomorrow,

 

Philip

[Re6/6]

K.B.O. Phillip! 🙂

[Philou]

Hello chums and chumesses,

 

Today was a learning day. I learnt that PVA does not dry within 24hours when sandwiched between sheets of polystyrene and that polystyrene is jolly hard to trim with any kind of toothed tool!

 

It all started when having cut my bridge abutments in ply, I decided I would chamfer the 'styrene to start landforming and the cutting through which runs the main line. A Japanese saw was to hand and for doing the 'original' landform (top of cutting and beyond) in nice shallow cuts, it was fine. Then asking it to cut at 45° (I know it should be 1:1.5 and not 1:1 - but y'know compression and all that) was a step too much. Out came a panel saw - nope - followed by a very coarse toothed plasterboard keyhole saw. That did the trick but cutting at an angle towards oneself at arm's length didn't give the angle I wanted and it was at that moment I discovered the PVA problem! I do have some repairing to do :(( .

 

In the end I used my hot knife literally shaving layers off. It ended up being faster than sawing! Any final shaping will done with the saw and top coating with PVA soaked kitchen towels and plaster. Lesson learnt. I shall pre-shape the edges with my hot knife as I build up the layers.

 

As @Re6/6 said above:

 

9 hours ago, Re6/6 said:

K.B.O. Phillip!

 

Every day is a school day!

 

More tomorrow and if there's something to show, I'll post up a picture :) .

 

Cheers,

 

Philip

Edited April 11 by Philou
spellink

[Flying Fox 34F]

Hello Philip,

 

PVA struggles to dry out when gluing panels of Polystyrene together.  You would be better off buying the adhesive used to stick polystyrene tiles to ceilings.

 

Paul

[Philou]

@Flying Fox 34F

 

Hi Paul,

 

Yeah, you're right. It will dry eventually but it takes up to 48hrs and I didn't exercise enough patience! Works better if at least one surface is absorbant.

 

I shall either do some more landscaping elsewhere or do the bridge retaining walls - it all needs doing.

 

Good news for yesterday which offset the 'styrene problems was that I now have the angle in my grubby little hands, so I can finish my skew bridge too.

 

Cheers,

 

Philip

[JeffP]

8 hours ago, Flying Fox 34F said:

Hello Philip,

 

PVA struggles to dry out when gluing panels of Polystyrene together.  You would be better off buying the adhesive used to stick polystyrene tiles to ceilings.

 

Paul

Or the stuff sold in mastic tubes for styrene and PE coving.

Another good adhesive for it is Acrylic Sealant, again in mastic tubes, and Decorator's Caulk also works.

[Philou]

Enough of this doom and despondency! I did something a little different today. I found out how a vacuum cleaner works and got rid of most of the 'snow' that had accumulated in the railway room ;) .

 

I also did some repairs to the cutting AND started the road over-bridge. Two of the four abutments are cut and in place and tomorrow first thing, the other two will be cut'n'stuck in place.

 

I have some pictures - all WiP:

 

 

^ Here is the over-bridge crossing both the four-track main-line and the branch. It's set at a grade of 1:10 and will be a plate girder bridge over the main and single brick arch over the branch. The road will wind its way towards the dip in the background.

 

 

^ This is the view from the other side. You can see the where I - er - over-cut the 'styrene. It's only a tiny gap in reality and a bit of sticking plaster will have that sorted. I'll continue raising the ground tomorrow once I have the alignment of the the bridge and the road approach sorted.

 

More tomorrow,

 

Cheers,

 

Philip

[Philou]

Not a lot happened today so no photos. Real life got in the way again as the weather was warm and sunny this morning, I thought I ought to coup de grace again as it's likely to rain next week. Mrs Philou wasn't best pleased because I'd taken the hopper off the back of the mower (otherwise it clogs or I've to empty it ever other cut and I CBA) and I ended up covered in green mulch ..... tee hee :))

 

I did get the other abutment in place after a struggle this afternoon and I did a teeny bit more of infilling with the 'styrene to link the one side of the bridge back into the cutting. If I can get the road base cut out of some ply tomorrow, I can get the big cutting finished, so perhaps a photo as well.

 

Toodle pip and enjoy the weekend,

 

Philip

[Philou]

I have a couple of pictures for you - ooh, pardon my manners - hello chaps and chapesses,

 

Today wasn't as fruitful as I hoped as visitors arrived and my modelling was cut a little short, but nonetheless I did get the road approaches done which means the bridge skeleton is done. All I have to do is to decorate it. I shall do that presently as I have another retaining wall to complete as well and I shall do them all together - saves getting the colouring crayons out more than once.

 

Right, pictures:

 

 

^ There we go - road starts here, up and over the branchline and immediately over the mainline.

 

 

^  The road continues then over the hill and beyond. I did think of doing a bit of forced perspective by tapering the road with as it approached the far edge. I chickened out as I've never done such a visual trick before and I didn't want to muck it up. The road was hard enough cutting to shape as it was! You can see what is left to be done regarding the 'styrene - not really an awful lot just needs time to trim before glueing.

 

 

^ ........... and yes, I did think to check clearances too!

 

Motoring at the moment and I shall then do some 'styrene tomorrow and then decorate the bridge and retaining walls over the following few days and the weather is turning chilly again and I shall stay indoors.

 

Cheers everyone,

 

Philip

[The Bandit]

A bit late now but for future reference - no nails dispensed with a sealant gun sticks polystyrene well. The cheap and cheerful stuff works just as well as the more well known brand.

[Philou]

Hello @The Bandit,

 

I DO have some no nails and it's been alongside me all the time that I've been doing the scenery - it may even be in some of the latest photos! D'oh!

 

Well chums and chumesses, I have some more photos today as I seemed to motor along, so I kept going.

 

Ta daa:

 

 

 

^ One hillside completed in 'styrene. Even though I had a hop-up, I found it a struggle to get into the furthest corner as it's over a 1m stretch - but it's done. The interesting part will be doing the scatter and hedge/tree planting. (The tins are there to ensure the 'styrene is weighted while drying.) It means that I have now 'styrened over 3/4 of the Dymented end (back drop only). I may well work my way back towards Dymented and finish off the embankments alongside the branch and in the station area, and that section will be done. Bandaging, plastering, and painting with scatter on top to follow. Could there be a bit of track laid soon after? I do hope so!

 

Cheers, more tomorrow,

 

Philip

 

[lezz01]

Very nice Philip. I's coming on a treat mate.

Regards Lez.

[Chimer]

Haven't commented for a while, but still watching with avid interest.  As Lez says, great to see the overall progress on the countryside, but loving the detail work on bridges etc too.

 

Keep on keeping on!