barrowroad

At present there is not much under the boards apart from the pairs of bolts to lock the boards together. I can reach under the boards - I have the advantage of long arms - with a Dewalt driver with ball head attachment to tighten or remove these bolts without crawling underneath. However should I need to get under a board it is safe to temporarily remove one of the X braces to gain access. Alternatively it is possible without too much trouble to climb inside from the ends:rolleyes: One thing I forgot to mention before is the alignment dowels. These are the machined steel alignment dowels from C&L which are fitted in the sides and ends during construction of the boards using a home made jig. Robin

At present there is not much under the boards apart from the pairs of bolts to lock the boards together. I can reach under the boards - I have the advantage of long arms - with a Dewalt driver with ball head attachment to tighten or remove these bolts without crawling underneath. However should I need to get under a board it is safe to temporarily remove one of the X braces to gain access. Alternatively it is possible without too much trouble to climb inside from the ends:rolleyes: One thing I forgot to mention before is the alignment dowels. These are the machined steel alignment dowels from C&L which are fitted in the sides and ends during construction of the boards using a home made jig. Robin

The front elevation is now complete, painted and features two sets of doors which can be opened. Bays 2 & 4 were the only ones used during the 1950/60s so I decided to carry out some modification to the Rowmark and glazing in order to make these two operational. You will see from the attached photos that I have achieved this by cutting the inner door rowmark to make it thinner down the hinge edge in order to fix a piece of square section tube. This tube extends to the top and bottom to form fixing points & the hinge is formed by inserting a length of brass tube inside the full length to enable the door to open. This has been repeated for each door. The brass tube is long enough to fit through the baseboard. It is my intention to make the doors operational sometime in the future.

Pete, The layout has 5 supports, the 3 longer ones of which are interchangable. They are designed to be assembled and levelled before the boards themselves are placed on top. Adjacent boards rest on the same set of legs. The support legs are fabricated using 'Hemlock' legs purchased from the stair rail/banister section of 'Wickes'. Ref Contemporary Spindle 41x900mm - W128401W., remarkably cheap @ around £2.60 apiece. Very straight timber! These legs have adjusters fitted into 'T' nuts in their base. Each support is made from 2 legs joined by 2 pairs of shaped 6.5mm thick beech ply. Legs are joined together by steel X braces which I had made by a local steel fabricating firm in Bristol and are locked to the legs using fixed wood nuts and allen headed bolts. Hopefully the photos in the S4 AGM Blog will make this explanation clearer but if you want me to identify any else with a photograph let me know. Robin

Thank you all for your input in resolving the STOP sign question. It never ceases to amaze me the knowledge and information available on RMweb. Thanks to Jamie for pointing out the different resolutuons available on Flickr - a useful fact of which I was not aware - next time. Jamie you are indeed correct that this photograph is from Bill Barkings Flickr site and it was very remiss of me to not give him the credit for the photo. I did note he is more than happy for people to use his images for private research and did look at his profile for an email contact to thank him. Unfortunately it is not available on his profile. I intended asking him for a higher resolution picture but have no need to now. For those who have not discovered Bill's superb photos I recommend using the link provided by Jamie. 11D thank you for providing the clearer enlargement. Thanks also to Tim, Boogy and Morgan for correctly identifying other missing words.

I have spent some time researching the wording for STOP sign that is at the entrance to the roundhouse at Barrow Road. This appears to be a standard sign at most Midland Roundhouses but obtaining a clear photograph has proved a challenge. Last night I found a good colour photo of such a sign at the entrance to Toton Shed and have identified the following wording. MIDLAND RAILWAY NOTICE TO ALL (DRIVERS FIREMEN) AND ALL ??????????????????? STOP. ALL ENGINES ?????????? TO ENTER THE SHED MUST BE BROUGHT TO A STAND AT THIS ????? ????? ?????????? If any of you are up for a challenge can you fill in the missing words? To assist I believe the lower line is likely to be a date and the name of an officer of the Midland Railway. I pretty sure the Drivers Firemen [in my brackets] in the second line is correct as well but if you have any other suggest let me know.

Thank you for your kind comments.

The inside wall of the Workshop has an 'I' girder under the upper windows either side of the building to support the travelling 15 ton crane. After pondering how to represent the girder & their supports I opted to fabricate the girder supports from plasticard and used a plastruct 'I' girder fixing them to the inside wall using superglue gel - I am pleased with the result. I will give some consideration to modelling a representation of the crane in due course.

Paul, After that performance I wish I'd stuck to the modelling tonight:scratch_one-s_head_mini: Robin

The entrance height is 13ft 9in - a tight squeeze but sufficient for most locos which are 12ft 6in to 13ft 2in chimney height.

Following the Scalefour Society AGM I have had a short break from modelling - no I haven't been away, I've spent the past 4 days up and down a 6.7m tower scaffold painting the gable end wall of the house. Now that job is finished I have made a start on the shed workshop which is at the rear of the shed. The workshop is a feature of most Midland railway roundhouses and was used to repair the small Midland railway locos up until grouping and continued to do so through LMS days - although by then major jobs went to the works. During Midland days they were known as 'outstations' and carried out work similar to a main works - here is a photo of the 8 bay workshop at Grimesthorpe Sheffield to give you an idea of the interior. The workshop at Bristol was a 4 bay version - I have only found one photo taken inside showing a Sentinel - either 47190 or 47191 - these engines were used on the Avonside branch as were the L&Y Pugs. Here then is the latest work on the Workshop. You will note I have made two sets of doors open and intend to make them operational - these are on bays 2 & 4. [ These are temporarily fixed with masking tape in their closed position] During BR days bays 1 & 3 had their rail access removed - the 20ft loco turntables were removed - leaving rail access via bays 2 & 4. At least this means I only need to model 2 turntables! During the post war II period the Workshop carried out minor repair work but latterly had a wheel lathe so that wheels sets removed on the wheel drop could be rolled into the workshop for turning. I have added an internal wall to the building as I have since discovered there was a seperate smith's shop at the roundhouse end of the buidling. The colouring process is now under way - here are two photos showing the two 'opening doors' and the front wall part finished.

As promised here are a few more photos taken at the AGM - thanks again to Dave and Morgan for their locos.

Hi Craig, I know my friend Chris Yates, who built the boards in his superb woodworking shop - ably assisted by yours truly - would be happy to accept design and build commissions for anyone interested in good quality baseboards. If anyone is interested please let me know and I can put you in contact with Chris. As for the freight train with Dave's 9F I have some photos taken by Paul using my camera which I will post on here shortly. The 'common fiddle yard' idea is a definite future possiblity!

The Scalefour Society AGM was held today in Bristol. Thanks to the Bristol Area Group for inviting the embryonic Barrow Road to it's first show. Assembly of the legs and boards were complete in a record 20mins - positioning the shed buildings, coaling tower and stock took a while longer, but I am very pleased with the ease of assembly. Thanks go to Chris and Morgan of the Glevum Group for assistance and to Morgan and Dave Holt for the lone of additional stock - photos of some of their locos will appear over the next few days. In the meantime here are a few photos taken during set up.

I am taking a couple of the boards, including the shed one, to Scaleforum this year as part of a demonstration of BR 1950/60s modelling - maybe you can see it there. Now Holbeck - that sounds interesting. Robi

Hi Dave, You are most welcome to bring some of your excellent locos especially for photographic purposes. Still not much track laid as I still need to do the outside pits but extra locos displayed on the layout would be appreciated. See you next Saturday. I'm off to Railex this weekend to help operate Clinkerford with John Darch - are you going? Robin

I have finished the rear elevation of the shed by adding a section to the wall to match with the end wall of the Workshop. This has been achieved by glueing a shaped piece of mdf to the top of the wall and overlaying a piece of Rowmark etched with 'english bond' brickwork. This is a modification to the kit as supplied. Also added for the first time is a shaped piece of clear 3mm thick acrylic fixed to the edge of the board to protect the sectioned wall of the Roundhouse. As the layout is due for its first outing - The Scalefour Society AGM - I decided to do a test assembly. The show is on saturday 5th June 2010 at St Martins Church Hall, St Martins Road, Knowle, Bristol BS4 2ND with the doors opening at 10.00 am and closing at 16.00. Here are a few photos taken today to show the latest developements.

Hi John, Looking good... see you at the weekend. Robin

Having made about half of the total requirement of inspection and preparation pits for the shed I decided to have a break and try something different - after all you can have too much of a good thing! I have managed to find the whereabouts of a drawing of the hydraulic wheel drop at Rose Grove Shed - I can recommend the National Archives website for those of you looking for original research material - http://www.nationala...ew.asp?ID=B6200 as I found the set of drawings at Manchester Records Office. They provide a copying service for a price and are sending me a CD of the drawing. Enough of that and down to business. I have made good progress over the past two weeks on the rear elevation of the shed in preparation for the forthcoming first outing of the layout - this is at the S4 Society AGM in Bristol on saturday the 5th June - only 2 weeks away!! All the components have been glued and assembled and coloured as per my posts previous posts so here are some photos. The last photo includes the finished inside wall of this elevation and also the 'Rowmark' window sections all ready to be glued together over this weekend.

While on the subject of the wheel drop I have enlarged a view of the wheel drop shelter taken from inside the shed. I am intrigued to know what was the purpose of the 'cupboard' doors at the based of the side wall. Another photo in my possession suggests their were similar 'cupboards' on the other side of the shelter. They could of course be for storage but maybe they gave access to the 'hydraulics' of the wheel drop. Ideas anyone?

The extension to road 14 includes the hydraulic wheel drop and I have just made a visit to the History Centre in Chippenham to obtain copies of drawings of the electrical operated one from Bricklayers Arms [ now on the Mid Hants I believe] and another generic LMS unit produced by Ransome & Rapier of Ipswich. I have yet to find one for a hydraulic version. As a result there is a space left - 11ft 6in - on this road while I await a response from Manchester Records Office who have some information on the hydraulic wheel drop at Rose Grove Shed. If anyone has any relevant information please let me know. In the meantime I have added extra ribs under the pits around the turntable in order to add strength this area. The photos show the three additional ribs clamped in position whilst the glue - titebond - sets. All the pits have been removed for this operation and are lined up in the background. The four slots for the workshop pits are also visible.

Work has progressed on the turntable pits and I now have 23 of the 24 pits fitted. Only road 14 remains to be made but this is causing a minor problem as it is the long road which contains the wheel drop. I know the shed had a hydraulic wheel drop which was situated on this road just outside the rear of the shed - it had a brick shelter with a corrugated roof - but I have been unable to find any information about it. If anyone can tell me which companies made hydraulic wheel drops or provide any other information it would be appeciated. Meanwhile here are some photos. The pits have been constructed from laser cut parts - 2mm sides and base of mdf - with 2 x 4mm plasticard strip 'baulks' on which the track will be laid. Each pits has a set of 4 steps at the turntable end which have been made from pieces of 0.125 x 0.375 plastic. All the sections of mdf have been pre coloured before assembly. Each pit floor has a drainage channel routed down one side. An etched drain cover will be added at a later stage. Pits 4 to 17 have the channel on the right and 5 to 18 to the left [viewed from the centre of the turntable]. The side elevation of the shed is also complete - apart from the guttering ontop of the wall - and features an open window, number 7 from the front of the shed.

Hi Missy, You do realise I have you to thank for the idea of using a laser - it was the post on your exquisite laser etched buildings for Highclere that showed me the light, so thanks again.

Having been effected by the Volcanic Ash Cloud - I should be in Canada - I now find I have time to start the inspection pits inside the roundhouse. The task has been made easier by a set of laser etched sides and bases from York Modelmaking such that the task is reduced to one of colouring and assembly. The pieces are sprayed with primer, coloured and assembled using a jig and clamps. Strips of 4 x 2mm plasticard were first added to the top of the side walls to form the timber baulks on which the chairs and rail will be fixed. The steps are then formed using a combination of 0.125in thick pieces of Evergreen plasticard to give sets of four 9in steps at the turntable end of each pit. A 2mm wide slot has been routed on one side of the pit floor to form the drainage channel. This channel is positioned to the left in half of the pits and to the right in the other. The pit units then fit inside the routed 21mm slots cut into the baseboard with the lip of the 'baulk' resting on the lower 2mm piece of mdf and between the upper 25mm piece. The semi circular cut outs with the twin holes are for the wiring - these will be covered by an etched floor to give the prototypical stonework of the roundhouse floor. You will note the two finished walls of the shed with the interior painted white to represent 'whitewash' with the bottom 4ft black to hide the dirt! An article on the shed and build of the front elevation of the roundhouse is due to appear in MRJ 200.