I started on the Goods Shed in January 2017 and it's now August 2017, 175 construction hours later and it's essentially complete, ready to plant. All that's left are the gutter down pipes and fitting the doors (those will have to wait for the layout as the south ones will be operated by servos).
So lets start:
The same construction method has been used as I had started on the Engine Shed and the Station building. 1mm Evergreen styrene"skins" and 2.5 x 4.8 (or 6.4)mm spacing pieces placed where the edges of window/doors are, plus a few extra strengthening pieces.
East (road) side.
Adding the additional ends and west side. At this stage I haven't added the 3.2mm "plinth" to allow for the additional height of PECO 009 track that Steve Phillip's drawings don't cater for.
The south face for the main part of the building is faced with Plastruct Concrete sheet, 91793 to simulate the rendering. It needed a white primer, as its base colour is grey, and then quite a few SR cream (at least my version of it - can't get Phoenix or other UK accurate paints here) top coats. It seems about right to my eyes and colour swatches from on-line forums.
The beams above the main door openings have been fitted and painted before "wallpapering" with the Scalescenes printed stone paper. Having done 2 previous buildings, it was much quicker, but because my photo paper is only 11" wide (US sizes) working out where and how joins were to be made meant I had to mitre the north ends. Doing that in paper is quite a challenge and it isn't absolutely perfect, but acceptable at normal viewing distances. There is also a butt join on the east (road) side but I've made it where the gutter downpipe will go.
The internal platform was added at this stage. I took the measurement from the Brown, Prideaux and Radcliffe book drawing as SP's "bible" doesn't show that. The roadside doorways' vehicle "bumpers" were added. Also all the brick arches were made using a software program called "brick arch" (free online from a model railway club in South London - can't remember which one) and printed like the stone paper. It's excellent as you can choose radii, number of rows, and colours of both bricks and mortar. Took quite a few trial and error printings, but worth the effort. Highly recommended.
The ventilator grills were added at both ends and the tops of the east and west walls were chamfered to take the roof flush. This is where my cordless Dremel drill was again used to speedy effect.
The inside of the east wall had a sliding door (not shown on any drawings and very easily missed when looking at photos). Credit to Ron Trill who pointed it out to me. I had to guess all the dimensions, but it seems to have worked out OK. It was an internal access to the outer lean-to building. Speculation as to it's intended purpose has not given a definite yet.
Showing the inner platform and also construction of the support beam above the doorway opening above the track. The 3.2mm "plinth" had been added before"wallpapering" and the additional depth can now be seen. The internal stone walls have been "whitewashed" - a very thin watered down coat of white paint so that the stone still shows through.
Some of the "wallpapering was done before adding the plinth, but it won't show once the ballast and ash etc has been added to the track.
Windows and doorways are now added using the same method as on the station.
The office door detailing for the window was taken by close examination of photos, but I think I have the vertical planking incorrect - according to the photos. I made them from SP's drawing before looking at the photo details! I didn't want to remake that window detail! The depth below the door steps is obviously too great but again it will be "hidden" once it is "planted" allowing for the ground depth detail. Well, anyway, that's the plan!
Checking clearances with PECO track and rolling stock. All looks good. Can't do it for the locos yet as Heljan haven't been able to deliver yet. So I'm hoping all my measuring has been accurate enough and Heljan have made their Manning Wardles accurately! At worst case I could add a bit more to the plinth as it will hidden under the "ground fill".
And now for the roofs. I made the main roof from 2mm Evergreen styrene (as per the station building roof) and the office/lamp room roof from 1mm styrene, with all the long edges chamfered. Looking OK. But fun was in store because I hadn't completely thought through the construction of the main roof. We'll see the problem in a few photos down.
The ends of the roofs had the exposed horizontal beams and part of the underside of the roof exposed. By using 2mm styrene for the main roof I didn't have that recessed view of the ends of the roof. I could remake it with 1mm styrene but I thought that wouldn't be strong enough without any internal bracing , which I didn't particularly want to produce - I'm learning about unseen internal construction! So the solution was to remake the roof with 2mm styrene and its length would need to be without any overhang at the ends of the roof. I then added 1mm thick strips of styrene at the ends so that I could also add the vertical strips to create the correct look. Learning lesson? Measure at least 3 times and think it through! At least I hadn't started the tiling.
Now for detailing.
The canopies above the loading bays each had 11 separate styrene pieces and were quite difficult to keep square.
The Dremel cordless drill with a routing bit, made making these supporting pieces and shaping them a lot easier than trying to file them.
Checking for fit. The corrugated roof parts come from ready made aluminium strips cut to length.
Primed in grey, lightly attached to a painting board. The corrugated roofs are not fitted at this stage.
The frames top coated.
Every modeller needs some encouragement!
Next tiling. I didn't fit the canopies at this stage as they would have been prone to breaking easily. The main roof could be completed, but the office roof could only go as far as the chimney line. Gutters were made, painted and fitted as per the Station building. But what to do about making the chimney. It's quite a complex shape and I wasn't confident I could achieve an accurate enough shape, so York Modelmaking came to the rescue again and produced a couple of bespoke ones. There was little difference in the cost of 2 over a single one. I was so pleased I made that decision as painting the first one I over sprayed with primer trying to cover in one spraying and filled all the mortar grooves!
The canopies were then fitted. along with all the advertising enamel plate battens. Theses were all cut to the correct lengths and spaced as per SP's drawing. The enamel signs were made the same way as on the Station building and glued on using Elmer's glue-stick glue - very similar to UHU stick.
By now the chimneys had arrived.
First coat of top paints after primer.
And finally fitted and the tiling on the office roof completed. I could now finally permanently fix the office roof to the building. The fire bucket bracket was made, painted and fitted. I had to guess it's shape as the 2 photos I had when zoomed in were not defined enough to accurately guess the shape. Buckets are from Bachmann.
The lean-to store at the back has been made, painted (with quite some controversy as to what the colour might have been - I quite like the green even if it may not have been used. Creosote seems to be the consensus.)
So what's left? The gutter downpipes which I can't complete until it's on the layout as I won't fix down the main roof until the track is installed and all clearances accepted. The roller door is made and the rollers are still "in my head" waiting to find someone with a miniature lathe so that I can turn them into grooved wheels to run on the rail. Otherwise I'll have to find a way to use my 240v B&D UK electric drill (powered through a step-up transformer). The south pair of doors have been checked for fit and will have to wait until "planted" as they will be operated by servos.
The next posting will be the coal shed. Subscribe for the updates. Thanks for viewing. We're slowly getting there!
