Dargan disaster

Hi Folks
Have been laid low for two weeks or so and naturally did not go to the train shed until now. Unfortunately with all the rain, the gutters and roof had been damaged by a fallen branch and water flooded the ceiling. The corner of my Dargan layout has been destroyed and naturally it is the area containing some of my favourite spots like the roundhouse and turntable. The fleischman turntable is no more, broken in two by rapidly expanding MDF. No sense sulking so just get on with repairs which will be long and tedious. Ever tried to cut through sodden MDF?

Have tried to upload photos but stupid photo resizer will not work. They are on PFM 1 Facebook though.
Cheers Richard

 

Would you believe that when I built that section, I had some left over MDF. Every other section is made from 18mm marine grade ply. You better believe it will also be used in the restoration.

 

Got the photo resizer to work...it wanted me to use the advanced options. So here are a few shots of the problem area.

What was the ceiling



And my roundhouse



And the start of the demolition phase



Much to be done

I hope to get back to my sign off phrase of

Cheers

and happy modelling

Richard

 

The most important visit right now is the plumber to fix the roof but I have a tarp as an interim measure

 

Thanks Gary. It sure does focus your attention on what needs to be done.

 

Thanks Gormo and I appreciate your comments. It has certainly focused my attention but tempered of course by the reality that it is just my hobby and not something like what has happened to those poor people in Northern NSW. Also I think you are right about something good coming. Is this a problem or an opportunity?

Cheers

and (hopefully) happy modelling

Richard

 

Thanks Andy. I will certainly be trying to achieve a good result.

cheers

Richard

 

Thanks Paul and I will keep all up to date with progress.

Cheers

Richard

 

Well some progress as the damaged roof has now been repaired and I can get started with the repairs to the ceiling. At least I should be able to have reasonable access as there is not a layout to worry about damaging when I stand in the area. Gormo wisely suggested that something good could come out of this. Well now that I am over the initial shock and looking at the restoration process, I see that I was never able to complete the back scenes for this part of the layout, problem being the support brackets for the overhead shelving which prevented installation of the backing panels to cover the brick work.



I have now installed new brackets which support the shelving from above and have now been able to remove the offending brackets.



So here is the first "something good"...the restored layout will now sport completed back scenes all the way around.

Cheers

and getting close to happy modelling again

Richard

 

Thanks Gormo..will do. Also I just noticed a strange typo on my initial post which I have now corrected. The first post was "something odd" and should have been "something good"...I wonder?

Cheers

Richard