chris p bacon

When we were children we lived in Japan and had to learn Japanese, looking back I now realise how easy that was in comparison to taking a photograph I now know why my pics look a bit rubbish in comparison,.........I've been looking through the wrong end.....

I've been looking at those too Mike, Steve White had one at Ally pally and the layers look superb. Any idea what you're going to do with underframe ? ( I realise I'm asking a bit of a silly question there.....) I'm working my way through my pile of wagons and did think about one of these 3D's afterwards but I do have a few locomotives to do and I do have all the parts for them......and there is an A5 and a G1 to do........

Not sure I'd want to find a "log" floating in a pool.. ..........actually it's going to be an indoor one, but there are a few more days of odds n sods before I start putting the timber frame up. Lady CPB asked if it showed any signs of injury, I said only if it's speed had been reduced to 50mph as that's how fast I seemed to be chasing it at! We are quite lucky that our garden is a 1/4 acre in the middle of town but thats no where near big enough for a hedgehog, so I've cut holes in the bottom of the fence at front and back and they use us as a through route.

Ok so slightly off topic from "Birds" but a few weeks ago I posted some pics of the Great Tits that fledged and then unceromoniously dropped 5 feet beyond ground level and ended up in the pool we are building. Well the pool blockwork is finished and other things are being done in readiness for the brickwork to go up on the workshop, so today I step outside and just walking past the pool notice some movement, I look in and now we have a four legged visitor. So I climbed down the ladder and tried to catch him/her, ended up cornering him/her and popping into a bucket. Looking at the sand screed they did a fair few laps trying to figure out how they ended up in the Sahara. Popped into a full shrub bed with lots of cover. I reckon I'm going to have to fence this at this rate!

As someone who suffered a burglary a couple of years ago I know exactly how a lot of stuff ends up in cash converters (jewelry that time).

I'm still waiting for a decision on whether it's a long or short tank of tea.......... Allan and I reckon I can get away with a Met version as light engine on the way from Doncaster to the Capital, at least it only needs a short siding in the fiddle Looks really good Jason, I'm trying to clear the workbench of wagons so I can think about picking up the A5 but I'm still not sure whether to make a chassis as the Single I have keeps stalling on the bench over the same issue.......it will probably be the caley then......

Happy birthday and all that malarky. I seem to remember at school being given "the bumps" but I suppose we have to check for medical insurance now.....

Good luck there........

Thanks Phil, That's along the lines I was thinking of. I've looked at the kits a couple of times and although the construction is straightforward enough I didn't want them hanging around while I tested out some painting options. I figured I would mask up the large area of glass with low tack tape and then using maskol (or similar) for the tops, that way it would all have a coat of primer, then mask the entire window for topcoating and a pen for the silver frames. I did think about painting them all on the bench before building but there is too high a chance of damage doing it that way for me. I reckon I'll move them up the build list looking at yours, although they're still behind another 5 wagons, 6 coaches, an N2, C12 and I really ought to finish my single before Rapido ! ......Oh and finish tracklaying.....

Hi Phil Like the thread, you can't have enough GN/LNER. I'm interested in the finish you have on the Mailcoach Silver Jubilee set, how did you achieve it ? did you mask up and spray or paint by hand. I have a set on the "to do" list but until I figure out how to finish it I won't start it. Dave........Chris.......Dave

Celotex and Kingspan are the same product just a different trade name, essentially it is a slab insulation (not expanded polystyrene which is Jablite or similar) it is a high spec insulation board. Both will do the job for you. With the wool type insulation roll it is ok if you lay enough of it which I doubt you can in a shed roof as you don't have the depth of rafter, the current spec for domestic housing is 270mm thick (100mm laid one way then 170mm laid at 90 degrees) an equivalent using Kingspan is about 100mm. The more you can put in the better in the long run, I'd say that if you can put 75mm in then that would be a pretty good ratio of cost against heat gain. Don't forget that as well as keeping heat in side in the winter it will stop heat generated by the (large) roof in the summer penetrating into the shed. You should be able to negotiate a better price if you buy all your Kingspan in one go, around here we have a company called "Sheffield Insulations" and they will deal with a one off customer if they are taking a large quantity (which you would), I'd see if you have a specialist insulation company nearby. The more insulation you can pack in the better, your shed is like my room, it is long and thin and would be awkward to heat if you have areas of high heat loss. The more insulation you have would mean that any heat you put into the building would be distributed more evenly and last a lot longer. This will be a cracking Railway room when you've finished, are you modelling anything in particular?

Sorry Andy but I am going to have to disagree with you on this one. Vertical boarding ceased here many years ago as part of general construction as the tendency to rot was just to great. Robust details specify that if a verticle board is used it has to be backed up by another board/structure. There is also the cost, for a start a T&G board is more expensive as it has to be machined rather than just sawn and has to be from "unsorted" stock, with the addition of a 2x1 or similar a quick calc puts the cost at X 6 and Gismo has 20+ linear metres to do. As a couple of examples I built a temporary workshop/garage at our house 15 years ago using exactly the same design as Gismo and using feather edged board, I took it down at the end of last year as we are now doing a permanent building and what took me 2+ weeks to put up, took me 6 to take down as it put up a fight (I'm 15 years older too!) it was taken down in sections and has gone to be other things, I didn't use membrane at the time as it was only meant to be temp but as we took it apart it showed no signs of rot anywhere and we were impressed with it. About 8 years ago I brought a Skandia Hus single storey building from the late 70's (Big 1/2 acre plot with planning permission for a massive 8 bedroom which wechanged to 2 - 4 bedroom houses) It was no more than 28 years old and would of been an expensive build at the time. The general construction was a 4x2 frame with ply over, tar paper then vertical Cedar cladding as you describe ((T&G with cover strip) when we took it apart the Cedar had shrunk and allowed a lot of water in, after a while the paper cover on the tar paper had rotted and then the tar itself had come apart allowing the water to penetrate into the ply and ultimately into the 4x2. Parts of the building had no support as the footplate had rotted away. From the outside it looked fine but the reality was that wihin a few more years it would have started to sag and lean. It did hve a very deep eave (Swedish style) to deflect water away and the gutter was in good order with no water staining so the walls had not been subjected to constant wet. We actually took it apart with a chainsaw and bars as we could not use machinery (protected tress) and it all went away in 3 x 40 yard roll on/off skips, simlar toi the sections it would of been delivered in. Doors - If they are a brought in door then sadly the stock and quality nowadays is pretty poor, there is also many points of rot with the joints.

For the exterior lap/feather edge board is it something like Larch or (even better) Cedar ? woods such as this is naturally long lasting before you think about preservative. Something I would do if you don't use a ply on the exterior is to wrap the building in a breathable membrane such as Tyvek. it is expensive but for about £100 you get a 50M -long 1.5M roll and you'll need it on the roof anyway. Just stapled onto the exterior before you clad and it'll keep draughts out and help with your energy efficiency (more comfy). If you're worried about it getting dark on the inside I would have a think about using Shiplap as a good quality board is going to naturally darken over time anyway even with the small amount of UV which the windows would let in. Maybe think about using a reasonable quality 6/9mm ply and painting with an emulsion. just batten over the joins for neatness. Re - the roof that you are describing doing (Rafters with insulation over and then counterbattened) is called a "warm roof" The minimum thickness Celotex you should use (without looking it up) is probably 50mm, you just have to make sure the junction of roof and walls has no gaps or "cold spots" - the insulation must meet so you have some cutting and filling to do there. If you want to beef up the roof insulation you could cut it then place between the rafters as you fit them. Just make a scaffold up (even out of pallets) as working comfortably makes the job better.

I'd be interested to see your costings, I do this for a living and although the sheds that you can get are pretty good I always say that with some average DIY skills most can build a shed for far less and to a higher spec. Yours is far larger than most and will obviously cost more but I know that you'll come in for less than the Keops cabin but with a far superior shed. I've looked at them before and for £9,000 you have to build it yourself and you get a felt shingle roof and no matter what they say you do need insulation in the walls, 56mm log walls would be fine as a leisure/lounging about in summer cabin, but for year round use it wouldn't be enough.

That's a good spec. 4 x2 will see you out, you should find that it is all treated nowadays as they stack outside, if you are going to use the UPVC cladding you'll need to ply the outside, doesn't need to be anything special just some half inch sheathing ply or OSB board, this will also give it immense rigidity and does mean you only need to use a single noggin half way up the studs (it's just a spacer effectively) We make all our panels on the floor then stand them up and join them together, the ply makes this so easy and even if you use lap/feather edged board on the outside I'd be tempted to still ply it anyway as it cuts down on draughts. The shiplap in the interior will look very nice but will be expensive as you've got quite a few metres to cover. If it starts to cost more than you like and you wanted to save a bit I'd spend all the money on the roof, insulation and outside and change the shiplap for a ply. For the floor as you have 100mm to play with you don't need to put a Kingspan between the joists as you have the space for one of the flooring grade polystyrenes (Jablite is one name) 75mm is more than enough in the floor and it'll save you some cash which you can spend on things like a GN Atlantic or the Stirling single or other GN locomotives.......

Looking really good Gismo. As you're producing a cutting list then I presume you're making it "The proper way". What's your spec for walls, roof and insulation

Off the top of my head, we have newly fledged blackbirds which have a light brown almost reddish hue to them in the garden, although they are not the size of a female thrush.

And I bet you say the mining subsidence is Puffins burrowing............M'lord...

It's actually an "Exercise Pool" (you swim against a pump) it's about 5'6" deep at present ending up as 4'6" when finished. They two fledglings had a fair decent into it when leaving the nest and were a real pain to catch as they just flew around in it amongst the block stacks. We're so posh in these parts of Bedfordshire........also saves having a monthly bath....

I'm working at home at the moment waiting for building regs on a site we now own so I'm getting on with building the new garage and pool. This work extends down the side of the house and has been ongoing for a few months now. The arrow is pointing to the roof of the utility room, this has become the ideal place for a Great tit to build its nest, the adults are obviously not bothered by us working as we keep predators away, we watch as they fly back and forth with endless mouthfuls of bugs and insects. The chicks inside have been getting louder and eventually the day will come when they will fledge. So today we have had endless heavy showers, I have been stop start all day trying to finish off the blockwork, at about 2pm we had a real downpour and I retreated indoors for about 20-25 minutes, when I come out I find that I have a couple of squatters in the pool Now when they fledged they probably thought "I'm only 5 foot from the ground this should be easy" what they didn't realise was there is a 5 foot hole, and so that's where they ended up. 15 minutes of gently catching them and bringing them up to ground level and they don't seem too impressed. If looks could kill! I got them up into a nearby tree and they have moved on from there. It does sound like there is at least another 1 or 2 left in the nest but the adults are chirping away to encourage them out. I might see if one is ok on the trowel, it might do a better job than me ..

Put it in a bowl with milk and it'll look like my breakfast cereal.......

Could be the 'Stool' was on the Bristol chart.......

I get told off by Lady CPB when I say Seagull. "There is no such thing" she says. it's either a - Black backed gull Blackheaded gull Herring gull etc etc I just tell her my tinnitus has kicked in and I can't hear her

What happened ? did narrow gauge stock fall through it........

Nah, you know the ploy soldiers use whereby one lays down on barbed wire and the others go over the top of them. . . . . . . . .yep it's the same tactic. . .