Philou

@woko You'll have a long wait I'm afraid! I've only just set up a new wall plate with its joist hangers and a new beam with supports ready and waiting for the arrival of joists...................... Thanks for the info though, it is useful having seen what you did and the quantities you used. I had seen on a video that air bubbles could be a problem - good tip about the heat gun! Cheers and good luck, Philip

So, what was the resin? What quantity did you have to use for the depth you've shown? Did it take long to cure and did it smell? Just asking as I shall have two short river sections to create once I'm on my way. Cheers, Philip

Don't forget that whatever compressor you go for, if you're contemplating doing airbrushing indoors, do have adequate ventilation! Cheers, Philip PS: I had a Lidl compressor that was adequate BUT it didn't have a tank and would run continuously until it would seize from being too hot! They recommended 10 min run and 10 min cooling - so not good if you're doing a lot of ballast for example. Go for one with a tank.

Ah ha @Andy Hayter ! I did think which month rather than year. Good news is that I called into the timber yard this morning and provided the sawmill have got my wood ready, it will be delivered to my door tomorrow as he has a large order to collect. We're lucky in that we live in an area that there is so much wood, they don't quite know what to do with it. (Things have become complex as the environmentalists think that we are vandalising the forests in France and we have to import a certain amount per year, whereas France would be self-sufficient AND have sustainable wood management without having imports! In these parts, wood is left to rot as we can't get rid of it - otherwise we pay to have it taken away - go figure!). Cheers, Philip

Not much happened over the last few days - new post and base put in place, a couple of concrete pads cast and half my cleats in place ready for the joists. What I have done is to strap down the beam to the post - I could have pushed it over had I been minded to - all nicely secured now. I have to now wait for the timber yard to have his stock and deliver my bits to me - I think he said by the end of the week - fingers crossed. Here's a photo or two: This what they use here to hold formwork against the wall. If similar exists in the UK, then I've never seen them. Easy to use, hammer the spike into a joint and tap the bottom of the 'spoon' along the spike until the 'spoon' jams the wood in place. Pour and wait until the mortar/concrete has gone orf and just tap the bottom of the 'spoon' back up the spike and off it comes. I've seen something similar in an old carpenters' worktable for holding down pieces of wood instead of sash-cramps. One of the new posts in place supporting the old and new beams. Five more to go (including those needed to form the new stair-well). Cheers, Philip

Here we go - a couple of pictures showing the new supporting beam in position but to be finally levelled. There hangs a tale too. Due to the long timbers being in stock for about three years and having arrived direct from the woods (mobile sawmill in the forest near-by), there was nowhere that I could stock them flat (too long in any part of the barn) and they took on a slight hog as they were laid at an angle. This I shall use to my advantage as in a similar manner to a prestressed concrete beam, I have laid the three pieces hog side up and I expect the weight of the new joists to gradually force the beams down (my weight was just enough to reduce the hog a little on one - three is another kettle of fish), and with 26 joists due to arrive, I think that should work, otherwise it'll be down to some big sash-cramps. Anyway, they're in place and today's job was to form some concrete pads on which to place some timber plates to act as bases to the new timber supports. These should be with me during the course of next week. Monday's job will be measuring out and screwing in place cleats to secure the free ends of the joists. They too, should arrive with the supports. (I think that once the new supports are up, I ought 'hide' our removal boxes with gawd knows what in them with a bit of plaster board ). Cheers, Philip

@JeffP I did originally consider embedding the beams into the wall, but as the wall appears to have been - well, shall we say - distressed in a previous life, and the mortar has crumbled, I decided I wouldn't do anything to disturb the wall, other than on its external face. I used the same method for our sun-deck at the back of the house - and that's been subject to various live loads over the past three years and nothing moved - it being of a similar size to that of my railway room. Lime mortar IS the way to go. I've used that extensively on internal and external walls where I've repointed. There is some in the last photo above. The wall-plate can't fall off the wall as the joists will be secured onto the beam at the other end and the free-ends of the joists will be extended by non-load bearing timber work so that they touch the house wall at that end - no movement will be possible. Thanks for the info on Velux, I shall go for some windows in the roof - not only for light but ventilation too. I won't be doing any windows in the wall as there's only one external wall available (the two others are party walls) and that wall is the lowest at about 1.5m high where I shall be having some landscape on the layout that will be already 900mm off the floor. Update later regarding the works done on Thursday (none yesterday due to a family birthday). Cheers, Philip

Australian innit! Nice whizzy panel - looks very professional. Cheers, Philip

If you do decide to use your garage, you will need to consider insulation, ventilation, heating and lighting too. There are a number of threads concerning the use of a garage as a railway room. Before making your mind up, you may wish to explore the threads. I hadn't realised that the Building Regs had changed so much in that respect - bit of an eeek moment when I read @woodenhead's comments above. Good luck with whatever you decide - and the most important rule is - have fun! Cheers, Philip

Levelling of the beam was done - or at least the line was levelled. I can now buy my supports (columns) tomorrow. The hard bit comes later as the wall from which they will be supported is at an angle and I'm going to have to put my thinking cap on as how to secure the feet without disturbing the wall. It's as near-dammit dry stone. The earth/lime mortar turns to dust when disturbed. Cheers, Philip

I have been a good boy this morning. I managed to get the other two out and onto the trestles. They been trimmed to length and given a going-over with a plane to clean them up along the edges AND they've been manhandled onto the mezzanine. The one I did yesterday is in place but not levelled nor in its final position. The levelling I shall do this afternoon as it's decided to rain - forecast for the next two days. I shall be able to continue working in the dry. Cheers, Philip PS: It's heritage weekend here in France, and our local station will re-open on Sunday afternoon for a talk about the arrival of the classic Ligne 4, the creation of the station and its heyday, followed by a small repast of local produce. I'm going as the French side of the family (great-grandparents) were involved in its design and construction and that of the viaduct at Chaumont. We have still the original plans.

Well I didn't do all three today as one was quite heavy enough all by itself, thankyouverymuch. On the plus side I did manage to get it up on the mezzanine (we do posh barns here), and just a case of lifting it 1m or so into place tomorrow morning. I shall probably only get one other done tomorrow as I should like to level the first one up - even if only temporarily. It will take a bit of time. Cheers, Philip

Well, the temporary joist is down AND I've managed to get the 8.2m long one out on my own, just as Mrs P got back. Had a moan that I'm always doing things when she's not there but was happy to help to lift it up on to trestles. Honour spared all round. Here are a couple of photos. One of some old loon acting the goat as he was very happy that the first wall plate was secured in place. The second one shows both now fixed and joist hangers in position (may have to do upload twice as the photos are quite large). and this is what an 8.2m beam looks like. I've three in all to make up one single beam 150 x 210 x 8.0m that will support the free ends of the joists. This new beam will repose on new timber columns secured onto a stone wall below. All the columns will have to be made individually as the stone wall also has a fall - ho hum. Right! I'm off out to play as the wood is now in the shade and I can get to work. Hopefully, I can get all three trimmed today as the weather is set to turn to rain during tomorrow. Cheers, Philip

@Chimer <--- me! I held off doing any moving of the long beams as its Sunday and I didn't want to call on anyone for help. I screwed my joist hangers in place and my new joists ordered today (even on a Sunday here - I only intended to leave a message but he picked the 'phone up!). There is unfortunately a 2 week wait for the timber to arrive in stock. There is also a great scarcity of 22mm OSB (Orientated Strand Board that I was going to use as flooring) over here and prices of it and metal studwork has doubled. Apart from a lack of HGV drivers, the Chinese have bought HUUUUUGE amounts of building materials. Is it the same over in Blighty? Mrs Philou is going to town tomorrow so whilst she's not about I'll take down the joist that I used for setting out (not quite as sturdy as my newly ordered stuff), as she always wants to help and I'm afraid of an accident waiting to happen - I know what I'm doing but she doesn't! If it's dry, I'll take the long beams outside and trim them up as they're a tad rough. Well, that's the idea but if too heavy I'll have to wait until Mrs P gets back. I'll post up a photo later of the wall plate in place - on her 'phone at the mo'. Cheers, Philip Edit: I always thought OSB was Ordinary Shuttering Board (used as such) but its not its proper name.

Psst ..... Llanelly was good until 1966 when it became Llanelli. Probably a good number of other Wenglish spellings became wholly Welsh at the same time. I'm only sorry that I don't do 7mm as it looks a very, very nice model. The photo near the top of the previous page was superb - the only real give-away (to me) were the slightly oversized windscreen wipers. Cheers and have fun with them, Philip

Hello chums, Well it's been a bit of an up-and-down start to the building works. I managed, single-handedly, to heave the first wall plate up onto the old joists (I called them beams before - doh!), and slide it into its position. Levelling it was quite simply a case of using differing thicknesses of timber to jack it up. Afterwards, it was a case of marking out where the joist hangers were to go so that the anchor bolts wouldn't conflict with the joists. The plate was displaced and suitable stones identified, approximate positions marked on the wall-plate and then drilled. There was a minor issue that the wall is definitely not flat but has a slight curved and the wall plate curved oh ever so slightly in the other direction, meaning that the ends were about 50mm clear of the wall.Had I realised before I could easily have turned the wall-plate over and used the curve to an advantage but is was too late as the cut I had made couldn't be handed! 'Hey-ho, never mind, the anchor bolts will draw the ends back in place.' Did they heck! What the French use a lot are hammer type fixings were the plug remains captive within the wood, and once the free end is in the hole in the wall, that's it, you can't compress the plug any more. So with much heaving and lots of naughty words in French and English, I managed to get the three fixings with which I had started out of the wall (two blocks of mud-stone shattered under the strain), leaving me with three now useless plugs - expanded and now bent beyond bug - er, US. I cut off and removed the now bent plugs and left it for the rest of the day to tackle it the next day. Having thunked a bit, I went for BIG anchor fixings M12s with M19 hex heads 160mm long with 14mm plugs that went into the hole first. I redrilled two new holes to replace the shattered ones and two enlargements for the bigger anchors. Starting with one biggie at each end, (having checked that all holes lined up) I slowly wound them up and yup, the ends gradually drew themselves towards the wall. It was just a case of then using the 'standard' hammer fixings in the remainder. Hoorah! Following day was much the same as before except the mud-stone was of even worse quality - if that was possible - having a couple split/shatter whilst drilling. Having decided that the curve was now even worse that the previous one, I went for broke and used three biggies right from the start. It worked, and 24 hours later, they're both still up! Today's joy was hoisting the first of my 6.2m joists in place to enable the setting up and levelling of a new beam parallel to the wall plate. I needed Mrs Philou's help in swinging the joist around and over the scaffolding boards (very tight fit and out of my reach to pull on the pulley rope and swing it at the same time). Once the free end was on the scaffolding board, it was relatively easy to put it into a joist hanger. Levelling was done by packing. Tomorrow's fun is to manhandle three 8.2m 220mm x 50mm beams into place to create the new support for the joists. It'll get done! Here are a couple of photos of the first wall plate hoisted but not yet levelled nor fixed. The rope is there for me to hang myself when it goes titsup. I'll post a couple more in a day or so as there isn't much to see at the mo'. Cheers, Philip

Yay! After very many long years, false dawns, missed proposed start-dates, 'other things that must be done, loss of mojo and possibly most importantly a decidedly very empty piggy-bank, Dymented is finally under way. Since I last wrote anything here, an extension to our sun-deck was created and a cheapie spa put up. Having done that, the barn was cleared of some of the accumulated rubbish trailered away and tipped. My sectional scaffolding has been set up and this morning secured - no wobbles!! I've also cut to size my wall-plate. The good news is that having kept the old beams, I now have somewhere where I can rest the wall plate so it can be secured at one end and then levelled. My scaffolding has ended up at a reasonable working height so no crawling boards required - hurrah! Tomorrow will be securing the wall-plate in place using rag-bolts - many holes to drill in a very dry stone wall - some of the stone is mud-stone and is not the best in which to drill. It'll get done. I'll post up a couple of photos now and again so as to show progress - today's progress will be for tomorrow. I have redone the plan in SCARM but I want to tweak it a little regarding Dymented station - so WIP at the mo'. The 3D plan has started over again and is very much WIP, but here is the Ledbury viaduct corner (no colour - shades of grey at the moment as it otherwise eats up too much memory). (Saunters off whistling happily to himself). Cheers, Philip

It would seem to me that the motors should be operating as a pair and not singly with the blades either 'up' or 'down' ('up' as shown in the upper part of the diagram just above). I would have thought that the two blade movements in the lower two parts of the drawing shouldn't (or wouldn't) be permitted. As @Izzy says, if they're Insulfrog points, you simply don't need juicers (or insulated joiners for that matter - unless there are Electrofrogs immediately either side). Cheers, Philip

Concrete used in paving slabs must have around for sometime - just look at the number of old station photos showing slabwork. It's too regular to be anything else. IIRC, the first reinforced concrete was used to make flower pots and the idea took seed and it just grew from there. (Late 1800s by Freysinnet (again IIRC)). Cheers, Philip

'Tis me again! Just catching up on this really interesting thread - especially of all the things that are seen but unseen. About 4 pages back was a photo of a old factory wall with a window opening over which were wooden lintels and the question was asked 'how much weight were they supporting?' The answer to that is ' Not a lot'. When determining the load carried by a lintel (in a non-load bearing wall), it's not a vertical column of material that is/was calculated, but a triangular-shaped one (usually 45° if brick or stone) as it is considered that if the lintel DID collapse that the brickwork/stonework would self-support anyway going upwards due to the pressure of the bricks against each other resisting further collapse. Hence the small window shown would only have a small triangle of missing stonework had the lintel rotted away. There may well have been a photo posted earlier of a derelict buiding showing such an effect - brick IIRC. Cheers, Philip

There used to be acetate sheet that had a special coating one side to permit printing. I used it a few times - but quite sometime ago now and I don't recall who was the supplier. Cheers, Philip

I suspect the sign was put in place so that workmen did not attempt to cross from the depôt to De Crouche Place over the railway tracks themselves - 'elf'n'safety' innit. As an add-on, I wonder if the sign was directed specifically at non-railway personnel?

I agree with 'dismissal' and I think it's 'disregarding' this rule .................... Where's @The Johnster when you need him? I expect he read the notice at some time Cheers, Philip

diaeresis = umlaut over here. I can do ¨ on my keyboard but not 'beta'! Not wanting to stray OP too much, but can anyone tell me why Märklin has never gone for insulated wheels on their stock? I've got some nice wagons but can't use them on 2-rail until they've been re-wheeled. I should have thought there to be some advantage in being able to run two locos on one track a la Trix 3-rail system. Perhaps it is already possible under analogue? Cheers, Philip

Good news for those modelling in the 'Senior' scale. Nice to see some 'new' old faces coming back for us in the smaller scale . Could be an expensive 12 - 24 months ahead. Cheers, Philip