Building a station building

[Stubby47]

As part of Shepherds Halt I want to depict the early phase of construction of the new station building.

I'm thinking footings with foundation layers of bricks but not much higher. Round about would be fresh construction materials and equipment, plus a workman's loo...

 

The date will be early 1941. So would the trenches be filled with concrete or something else ? Would there be scaffolding ? Would the fresh bricks be in piles, or stacked, or something else ?

 

Also, what would be the best thing to represent the bricks, walls, etc. ?

 

Any help, suggestions or useful tips and or products gratefully received.

[Rods_of_Revolution]

The foundation would be concrete much as today, the walls may or may not be cavity walls, so you can choose which you want to model. Scaffolding would be similar to how it is today, though there probably wouldn't be any if you're only modeling the foundations and a few courses of bricks. I think the bricks would arrive on pallets, being removed from the pallet by the labor as required, as to what type of pallet, it would be an earlier pallet design of some sort.

 

Regards,

 

Jack
 

[Stubby47]

Jack,

Many thanks for that.

 

So concrete could be made with grey filler, pallets from micro strip, scaffolding poles & planks from plastic rod & stripwood, that just leaves the bricks themselves...

[Mark Forrest]

Also, what would be the best thing to represent the bricks, walls, etc. ?

 

You could use these (admittedly a little over scale):

http://basecrafts.com/index.php/scenics/scale-model-bricks.html

 

or chop (multiple) styrene strips of suitable dimensions to brick sized lengths using a cutter such as a NWSL "Chopper"

[peter220950]

I suspect that pallets were not in use in the 1940's, bricks were generally hand loaded onto trucks and railway wagons and stacked on the ground. I seem to recall that they were layered in straw to help prevent damage in transit. Ladders were heavy wooden affairs and any handling/lifting etc. was generally by hand. Scaffolds were generally as today but a bit more primitive in materials and design.

 

A couple of interesting videos of sites in the 40's and 50's here, which give a flavour of what it was like.

 

 

 

[meil]

The foundation would be concrete much as today, the walls may or may not be cavity walls, so you can choose which you want to model. Scaffolding would be similar to how it is today, though there probably wouldn't be any if you're only modeling the foundations and a few courses of bricks. I think the bricks would arrive on pallets, being removed from the pallet by the labor as required, as to what type of pallet, it would be an earlier pallet design of some sort.

 

Regards,

 

Jack

 

Bricks didn't come on pallets even up to the 1970's. They arrived loose stacked on a lorry and they were unloaded by hand; one guy on the lorry throwing to one on the ground stacking, usually two at a time when you got the knack.

 

Common bricks were usually tipped from the lorry, facings as above.

Edited March 5, 2014 by meil

[Stubby47]

Mark,

Thanks for the link. Typically, they seem to be out of the 1:72 red bricks...  I've already got a Chopper, so need to find strip of the right dimensions (Evergreen ?)

 

Peter,

Those are a couple of great films, as you say they really show the details for the era.

 

Meil,

Thanks too for your input.

 

 

Looks like I'll need some piles of bricks, some stacked onto trollies, a mixed & piles of sand and bagged cement, plus scaffolding poles & heavy wooden ladders.

 

Not to mention a set of suitably clad workmen and I guess some sort of temporary office / hut.

Edited March 5, 2014 by Stubby47

[stephenashton]

A few points to add to the comments above:

• Don't model the scaffolding based on modern practice, there would not be any toeboards and minimum of handrails. 1940s health and safety: if you fall off it's your fault for not looking where you were going.
• Don't give the workers hard hats or florescent vests. What's wrong with a tweed jacket and flat cap?
• Do give at least supervisors ties.
• Do show cement being mixed on site, probably by hand on boards rather than in even a rudimentary cement mixer.
• Do show loads of sand, bricks etc. being wheeled up a ramp formed from one scaffold plank.
• Do show waste materials being thrown from scaffold without a chute or hoist.
• Don't show too much support for the sides of deep excavations. Working in areas as risk of collapse was known and accepted.
• Do show a supervisor (with his hands in his pockets) stood on the edge of an excavation just where he himself could cause a collapse.
• Lifting equipment would have been much more rudimentary and you might have some fun building a Heath Robinson-like hoist system.
• Don't be tempted to show the site office as much more than a wooden shed, certainly no portakabins, welfare facilities, etc.
• Do show one small wooden WC hut, but perhaps with luxurious weed growth behind it ... ;-)
• Don't show health and safety warning notices.
• Don't worry about fencing the site: if anyone strays onto site and hurts themselves it's their own stupid fault.
• Do show nightwatchman's hut and brazier. A guard dog or two wouldn't go amiss.

[Mark Forrest]

Mark,

Thanks for the link. Typically, they seem to be out of the 1:72 red bricks...  I've already got a Chopper, so need to find strip of the right dimensions (Evergreen ?)

 

Have seen them listed on ebay too, that was just the first result Google found for me.  Evergreen #143 (1mm x 1.5mm) is reasonably close to what you are after (should actually be about 0.85mm x 1.34mm, I think)

[Rods_of_Revolution]

Bricks didn't come on pallets even up to the 1970's. They arrived loose stacked on a lorry and they were unloaded by hand; one guy on the lorry throwing to one on the ground stacking, usually two at a time when you got the knack.

 

Common bricks were usually tipped from the lorry, facings as above.

 

I was assuming that as the military were moving bricks on pallets during the Second World War the idea would have caught on in civilian construction projects shortly after, as one would assume after the war there would be many many pallets knocking around and lots of construction projects to rebuild Europe.

 

Certainly during the 1950s in the U.S., pallets were very common; there was the famous case of a bloke in Los Angles building a tower out of 2000 of them between 1951 and 1953! Perhaps pallets didn't take off as quickly in Britain, unfortunately I wasn't alive back then to know!

 

Cheers,

 

Jack

[N15class]

As said above the footings would be concrete, not so deep as we do today. You only need scaffold once you get over shoulder hieght. The walls would probably be only a stretcher brick thick, hence why the pattern on out side shows headers and stretchers. But you may well get cavities in residentual properety. Also you would build up the corners first so that you can get everything lined up, then fill in between using your string line to get the walls straight. At that time the forman would have a gauge stick to make sure the brickies were building to the correct height.

 

only building happening during the war was generally for national security. A lot of building supples were in short supply.Like fuel etc the MOD or the war office at that time had priority over materials. I would actually be suprised if a station building would of been built. The country was still under threat of invasion, the coastal defenses were being constructed.

[Stubby47]

I accept that maybe general building would be curtailed during the war, but that doesn't fit with my fictional history. Plus this is deepest Cornwall and the building is 'sanctioned' by the War Office to improve the access to the SOE base, hidden deep in the woods near *******, and to the underground storage for munitions & supplies needed for any planned invasion.

 

The building points you've mentioned have been noted too - thanks.

[rosetheromani]

Bricks would be carried in a hod, a pole like a broom pole, with a triangular shaped top, two sides and a back, carried on one's shoulder with one hand and most probably a cigarette in the other hand. Definitely a watch man's hut and brazier, in the 50's quite often a nissen hut on site as store or mess hut. And that point raises the issue, if it was deemed necessary to build a station building in WW2, would they not just plonked down a nissen hut. Much quicker to build and in plentiful supply. Also in the 50's I remember mechanical hods, like a self contained conveyor belt designed to hold bricks.

[doilum]

My late father spoke of handballing bricks at Normanton during a wartime summer job.

Conversation took place circa 1970 when we were unloading bricks by hand for a kitchen extension.