Stewarts Lane 'Electric Loco. Shed'

[Colin parks]

Hi Shedmaster,

 

That is a very well-finished coach, whoever made it!

 

Colin

[Shedmaster]

Good Afternoon all,

 

I've not posted on my thread for a little too long, as I've been away scratching my head and waiting for some inspiration - to enable me to get my 'beloved' floor modelled properly.

 

After many trials and tribulations, I have finally managed it ( sound familiar? yes, yes, been here before haven't we........? ).

 

The floor for my 'Electric Loco Shed' has now been translated from the original architechts floor plan, via CAD drawings, to laser cut, 12mm thick Acrylic sheet and it has just arrived home with me :

 

This is the 10mm thick, 'Electric Loco. Shed' floor.

The three bars, one short and two long are the three underfloor 'pits'.

The small rectangles are the locations for the 'I' girders of the building.

The end you can see in the picture is the main door end of the shed, hence the short 'stub road' pit on the left.

 

This is the 2mm thick, top ramp part of the floor.

Various parts from this sit on top of the main floor at the door end, after I have profiled the ramps to a uniform shape right the way accross.

 

Okay, thats all for now.........all hell is gonna break loose here soon when wife and kids get home, so I'd better get this lot packed away before " Daddy, look what I've got", Nooooooooooooooooo !!!!!!!!! C R A C K.....

 

Regards,

 

Shed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Jack00]

Its so nice to see a depot scene that isn't code 100 track with a thick layer of filla.

Very nice work indeed.

The ex-pullman coach with the graffiti is very nice work too. There was once 2 near Penzance at the site of the old steam/diesel shed stabled up for years and they remind me of your effort so much.

 

Cheers

Jack

[rs4]

It's been a while...glad to see you back

[Guest Dave.C]

all hell is gonna break loose here soon when wife and kids get home, 

 

I know that feeling very well. The floor sounds promising, I hope it works. 

[Grimleygrid]

Welcome back Mr Shedmaster, good to see an update on your thread.

 

I am looking forward to seeing your project progress especially the depot floor as very soon I am going to be tackling the concrete floor on Boxenby.

 

Good to have you back, it will be good to see some Stewarts Lane 60s on shed!

[Shedmaster]

Hello again,

 

Many Thanks for the welcome back and support...

 

I have been out and measured the new floor and can finally sign this off as being 'correct'.

 

So, what's the plan now then ?

 

Because the models I own are all non-prototypically gauged at standard 'OO' gauge, I am sticking with that gauge for the rails to avoid a major re-wheeling project.

 

To enable me to have a perfectly smooth 'concrete' floor inside my shed, I have opted for 10mm deep acrylic sheet, with 2mm sheet used to form the ramps at the end. This means that the pit sidewalls are a little deeper than the Peco pit mouldings but the same width, allowing me to use the Peco pit 'step' inserts for my project, without making the steps myself.

 

• The next steps will be to fix the acrylic floor to a 2mm base sheet, to lock it together and stop it flexing and cracking. This also becomes the floor of each of the pits.

 

• The ramp ends will be formed and fitted.

 

• The steps will be fitted to the ends of each pit.

 

• The rails and chairs will be fitted directly to the floor.

 

• The floor can be readied for painting, I'm told I can 'Maskol' the rails and chairs to detail paint them later.

That's the plan anyway.............looking forward to some real progress now.

 

Kindest Regards,

 

Shed.

[shanks522]

Glad to see this progressing Shed, Always an enjoyable read. 

 

Graham.

[Shedmaster]

Hello again,

 

What's this............two days worth of posts from Mr Shedmaster in a row ? Blimey, must have news.........

 

Yep, I've been cracking on today, very pleased with myself for finding a supply of 2mm HIPS in my shed from which I could make the base for my acrylic floor.

 

I had to be a little imaginative here though and fix it in such a way that I could get a full coating of Plastic Weld just where it needed to be !

 

I got plenty in for the job........and a HUGE brush :

 

 

My job for today was to add the base sheet which also acts as the floor of the pits, and then I was able to add the Peco pit step units, nice and simple as the laser cutting accuracy allowed these to be a snug fit :

 

 

It looks a bit messy at the moment I know, but thats what primer is for later on !

 

Of course, I'm saving the bestist job for last, forming the ramp sections.

 

I've had a couple of rails and chairs in place today to check alignments with gauges as I go, and there seems to be no issues here. Very promising so far...............about bloomin time !

 

Time to walk away methinks.................just for now.

 

Kindest Regards,

 

Shed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[rob D2]

Glad to see the return of this !

[Shedmaster]

Welcome back Mr Shedmaster, good to see an update on your thread.

 

I am looking forward to seeing your project progress especially the depot floor as very soon I am going to be tackling the concrete floor on Boxenby.

 

Good to have you back, it will be good to see some Stewarts Lane 60s on shed!

Hiya Mr Grimley,

 

Many Thanks for your continued interest.........I can assure you that my 60's will be the first thing coming on shed for gauging purposes !

 

They'll have been stored so long when this flaming shed becomes operational that I'll be needing to rebuild them as Super 60's !

 

I think they may still be indulging in a run to Toton though..............for a quick makeover !

 

Kindest Regards,

 

Shed.

[Shedmaster]

Good evening,

 

Just a quick progress report.......

 

The ramp sections of the floor are now finished and ready for fitting, these will go to make the complicated shape at the door end of the shed.

 

I finally found just the tool to do the job, so set each piece of 2mm acrylic securely onto double sided tape, before slowly filing away the front corner of each piece :

 

 

......a little while later and this is going really well :

 

 

All I've done here is work horizontally from left to right, stopping every so often to brush away the dust and check the consistency of each ramp. 

 

I'm well pleased with progress, it's only taken several years to achieve such a simple thing as forming a ramp in 2mm plastic !

 

The next job now is to fit these pieces to the main floor in the right place, so that the rails sit in perfect alignment.

 

Thats all for now,

 

Shed.

 

 

[Pete Harvey]

Looking good.

 

How are you going to fix the track in-position Shed?

Edited November 21, 2013 by Pete Harvey

[Shedmaster]

Looking good.

 

How are you going to fix the track in-position Shed?

 

Hi Pete,,

 

Lovely to hear from you, hope to see you on Sunday ?

 

The top of the acrylic sheet represents the concrete floor.

 

The rails will sit on exactoscale chairs, which are to be glued directly onto the acrylic sheet, giving me the prototypical look with a gap underneath the rails.

 

Kindest regards,

 

Shed.

[Shedmaster]

Good Morning,

 

Just a quick progress update on my layout so far..........

 

The laser cut ramp sections have been shaped and added to the main floor, with all the positions checked and double checked before gluing. Any errors here would mean that the rails passing through, do not sit tight against the sides of the acrylic at the right gauge. 1mm base strips were laid in for the running rails and also the check rails to sit on, as I won't be trying to fit chairs in this bit. Finally, the central 'concrete' bit that sits in the four foot was added, this slither of acrylic represents the floor that sits between the check rails :

 

 

I am using 'Exactoscale Bridge Chairs' for this project, with C&L finescale code 75 'Bullhead' rail and so my next job was to 'key' the whole top area of the acrylic sheet before going any further. This will ensure no issues when gluing the chairs directly to the acrylic and will also give the paint a good key later on.

 

Starting with No.1 road, I marked out the exact position of each individual chair, having measured precisely how wide they sit using guages and then their exact position drawn from various research material :

 

 

The fun began in positioning the chairs on each rail to the spacing I needed and then getting the first datum position glued down, from this I just followed my markers and I hope they look about right to you guy's ?

 

 

 

Thats all for now,

 

Kindest Regards,

 

Shed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited December 10, 2013 by Shedmaster

[JeffP]

It's looking really good. Two questions, if I may?

 

I've had dealings with Perspex before, over a number of years, and can safely say that the ONLY thing I ever found that would successfully weld the stuff was chloroform, aka trichlormethane. How are you finding the Plastic Weld works?

 

Secondly, everyone now seems to be getting stuff laser cut, from your acrylic, through cardboard to mdf and even thin ply. But how does one go about getting it done? you mentioned coming home with it, was yours done locally?

 

And do you need to be able to draw in CAD to get it done?

[Shedmaster]

It's looking really good. Two questions, if I may?

 

I've had dealings with Perspex before, over a number of years, and can safely say that the ONLY thing I ever found that would successfully weld the stuff was chloroform, aka trichlormethane. How are you finding the Plastic Weld works?

 

Secondly, everyone now seems to be getting stuff laser cut, from your acrylic, through cardboard to mdf and even thin ply. But how does one go about getting it done? you mentioned coming home with it, was yours done locally?

 

And do you need to be able to draw in CAD to get it done?

 

Hi JeffP,

 

Many thanks for dropping by my thread, in answer to your questions......

 

I'm finding that the PlasticWeld has worked very well so far, and where I have made so many schoolboy errors and had to release things afterwards, even on this attempt, this has also been possible without issue for a little while afterwards.

The most important bond for me at the moment is gluing the rail chairs down. I tested my theory some months ago by gluing some chairs onto a scrap of acrylic and to this day, they are holding solid. However, be warned that this stuff melts the chairs, as it is supposed to. I have had to be very precise in positioning things because I have not been able to go back and correct them afterwards......the chairs would just squish !

 

Now then.......the laser cutting.......:

 

If I'm honest, I got very lucky here, not only getting proper drawings to convert to laser cutting files but having a friend who could and would translate these........Mr Pete Harvey of this forum.

 

If you are able to source the proper measurements for your work, the next job is to have the drawings made into a CAD file, which is what gets fed directly into the laser cutting machine. It is most important to get this bit right at the drawing stage.

 

Once armed with these drawings, I scoured the internet looking for local laser cutting companies with a large laser bed size and sent my drawings in for a quote. I found out the hard way that cutting on the correct side of the line makes a massive difference!

 

The reason I brought this one home was because the first attempt arrived with a crack in it from the delivery process. I could work around this but not the errors in the width of the pits, which I traced down to 'kerf' measurement issues. So, on this second attempt, I realised how close my laser cutters were to me and so collected in person to ensure safe transit and eliminate delivery costs.

 

For your info, I used http://www.cutlasercut.com/

 

The nice thing about collecting in person was the guided tour and seeing how things are done. I saw some bloomin amazing things that they can do with a piece of wood for example. Another interesting thing was the work they are doing for Coca-Cola, in production of the mould thingy's for the individual can name labelling process.

 

I hope this is at least a little helpful........I'm finding the laser cutting gives me the straight lines and symmetry that I like and so will be using it quite a bit throughout the build.

 

Kindest Regards,

 

Shed.

Edited December 10, 2013 by Shedmaster

[rob D2]

You are deffo not rushing this shed,

But should be an epic shed in the years to come, patience is a virtue !

[JeffP]

Thanks for the response, Shedmaster.

[Grimleygrid]

Good morning Mr Shedmaster, very nice work. You must be pleased.

 

The chairs laid directly on to the acrylic with bullhead rail really does look the business. Your perseverance has definitely paid off. I think I may have to enrol you as a consultant for overseeing the depot floor project at Boxenby.

 

Whilst the 09 looks very good sat on the depot floor, Steadfast really finishes it off. In my opinion!

I am looking forward to seeing more Brush Beasts on shed.....

 

Keep up the good work.

[JeffP]

It's certainly an interesting project, not often one sees a shed for e.m.u.'s modelled.

 

I have great memories of Stewart's Lane, sneaking in through the old sausage factory at the back, emerging through derelict parts of the old steam shed...you never knew where you might find a class 33 parked.

[big T]

Hi S.M

 

Like others, I used to watch your old thread with interest.

 

I'm glad that you have decided to carry on (again!!  ) with modelling, and will definately be keeping an eye on your latest developments.

 

There has definately been a shift towards Architectural modelling, with the buidlings/landscapes providing the main focal point for the layout with the railway running as part of it, rather than the other way round, which I feel provides a truly realistic end product.

 

I am intrigued by laser cut products too - added dimensional detail. Is this a costly exercise?

 

best of luck for your amended venture!
 

Trev

[Shedmaster]

Hi all, Good Evening,

 

Progress is good here at the moment, I'm actually getting some modelling done !

 

Thanks for your nice comments and support, this is spurring me on nicely to know that there is still some interest in this, after many false starts.

 

However, taking this into account Mr Grimley, I'm not sure you'd want to be taking any advice off of me......you could end up with a touch of De ja Vu ? lol....

 

I'm currently working on the fitment of 608 individual rail chairs, over the three shed roads.

 

The position of each chair has been marked and two roads are complete :

 

 

I've been double checking everything as I go before committing with any glue, and this has really paid off :

 

 

Who needs multi-million pound track laying machines, when all you need is a couple of Lima Loco. weights and accurate rail gauges :

 

 

During work, I've brought in some of the various Stewarts Lane vehicles to get a feel for the overall look :

 

 

Stewarts Lane's 33 201 has been used here for general checking and I reckon the rails/pits are shaping up well :

 

 

 

After taking a whole day to lay and check just one road, a very rushed play time came and went.

 

Our 60 001 and 60 019 will be staying on site until No.3 road is laid in, and then electrical testing will begin :

 

 

Finally, Trev, many thanks for popping in. I would say that this laser cutting business can be as costly as you make it. I've been daft enough to start my project in wood, change my mind a couple of times and then find faults, all after the cuts have been made. However, I wanted the accuracy and the symmetry and think the laser cutting is working really well for me now. In hindsight, I would have spent a lot more time in the early planning stages.

 

Kindest Regards,

 

Shed.

Edited December 13, 2013 by Shedmaster

[d winpenny]

Coming along swimmingly keep it up

 

David

[WCML100]

great work thanks for sharing