Amberly Petrol Station, Garage and Showroom - a working Diorama

About 10 years ago, while visiting friends for a week (another family) in South Wales, the husband and I snuck off for the day (yes, he is a railway modeller too) to a local exhibition. I remember one layout of just a TMD with a turntable that was just 4ft long and has inspired me for years (probably because I hadn't been to an exhibition for about 15 years!) The detail was fantastic, with a huge working tower flood light tower in the middle (you know me and LED's!).

That has nothing to do with this thread! But it makes a nice story!

Anyhoo's, while wandering around the trade stands, one shop had a glut of Cararama vehickles, and they was CHEAP! So cheap, he obviously wanted to offload, so I proffered a silly offer and he bit!
Now the proud owner of dozens of VW Samba buses, , what the pigin nora am I gonna do with them?
I need 200 cars to fill my layout and all my car carriers (I worked out recently) so assumed I was pre buyng for layout stock, but later thinking led me to a (yer a flippin dunce) moment, as of course they wont fit in the car carriers!
Dotting around the layout randomly will still induce, "there's a lot them ther campers!" reaction, so what to do?

Got it, were would you see a glut of one type of car? At a dealer's show room of course!
Thus my inevitable, "the layout will have roads, and a petrol station", became "with a car dealership".

Thus the seed was born for Amberly. It's been germinating for 8 years.

 

Not really Ian, might be another 8 years before the next spurt!

Some time in early 2017, I took the plunge and bought some Arduino's, having learned a few bits and bob's about them, one of the main attraction's is their ability to easily drive a servo (no messing about building 555 IC veroboard circuits). This prompted thoughts about a long festering need to animate things, and the ability to do more than just move to a fro. So I thought hard and made a list of all the animations I might like on the layout (which incidentally did not include a windmill!), based on what I like (seen before) and what I have not seen elsewhere. Amongst the results was an idea to make a working car lift, the sort found at your local garage or exhaust centre. But this lead to a dilemma, should it be the common four post type or the central hydraulic post type?
Well you might guess, the central post type would be easiest, but I thought I would have a go and having bought some brass channel at a show and had a bash at the four poster as well.
So now we have the elements, a petrol (station) forecourt {Amberley}, with a garage at the side with working lifts, a glitzy new car show room {Pete's Auto's} and a used car lot by its side.
I could have of course just bought kits and done some bashing, but decided to try my first scratch build ( mainly because I had just won £200 worth of Wills and various other plasticard sheets on Ebay, for considerably less - 1/3 their face value). So the garage and showroom were designed with an old second hand airfix shop as the garage in the center.

 

I think I will wet your appetite with a shot through the show room glass doors at the sparkly new motors in the showroom!



No it's not photoshopped!

 

"In loving memory of Milly"
The accompanying garage with lifts, to Amberly Petrol Station, will now be named MILLYFORD GARAGE in dedication to my German Shepherd, who unexpectedly past away this morning.

 

Cheers Keith, club meet is a good idea but I will stick with the building opportunity of the garage. We used to have a moggie and my aunt had an Anglia, bothe will be featured on the layout (in stock)
Cheers Pete, we had two before and Milly had a (female) 'mate', who is as old and still with us. Her name is Amber, hence the diorama's name, so now it will eventually remind me of both.

 

Charost, just for you, here is the links my thread and website

To continue.....

I had bought a batch of second hand continental buildings (cheap) on Ebay, years back and one stood out as ideal for the petrol station shop, it turns out it is actually the Airfix general shop. I added window shelves, a front floor for rigidity as I screw my buildings down from underneath (it will become clear later), a mid floor (to block light to upstairs), led lighting on the ground floor ceiling, reglazed (they were yellow), a new opening at the left side (doorway to showroom) and blacked out the inside. Suitable perspective photos were found and manipulated to be printed for the interior. The exterior was rebuilt (roof back on) and suitable painted/weathered etc.







Please excuse the picture quality, this was over a year ago when I was using a rubbish camera and no proper lighting!

 

So next part is the repair garage, a scratch build from Wills plastic sheets, corners mitred and a couple of windows fitted. An old continental plastic building has been butchered (for the windows and doors) to make an office/MOT waiting room at the side. The premise is that this will house my working car lifts (jacks), the single post hydraulic and the four post electric varieties. So it will have open doors and the roof will have roof lights that you can (almost) see through from above and of course abundant lighting!
The roof has realistic I beams (as you can see them with the lights on) and chains of my "industrial enamel shade lights" underneath.

 

After fitting the garage lights, assembly and a little rusting, the wiring is fed back to the office and combined with the office light and an external lamp, the wiring is suitably hidden in the back off the office by a partition wall.

 

Next up is the showroom, Pete's Auto's, a scratch build from Wills plastic, a very modern building added on to the side of the shop to the left. Some tough work cutting out huge plate glass windows was done using my patented scribe and after filing up, acetate glued in for windows.



The sides are fixed to a base sheet just a little above the floor.
The rear walls are 'slate' and will be on display on the inside of the showroom (duly weathered before assembly).



An aperture was left in the walls to be able to 'integrate' with the end of the shop. The front and side have a slate skirt. Finally, a right angle strip was added atop the wall to form a lipped soffit that will retain the (removable) roof.

 

The linoleum tile salesman said that a painted floor is too slippy and my customers would enjoy the warm feel of a kitchen underfoot, so after inquiring about its ability to withstand oil and rubber marks and being assured that they would just simply clean off with a quick mop, I bought a van load!