Great Chesterford Junction Part Two

.....I was thinking of doing ridge capping with the Aluminium foil again. I did that on my foot bridge and it worked OK...but your Lead flashing idea sounds more prototypical for the period...........so I will do some more study.......I`d rather go down the foil road as it`s easier, but we`ll see.
Thanks for the suggestion Paul....
Gormo

 

G`day Folks,
I got a bit more sorted today.
My lighting track wires were soldered ( tinned ) in the locations where the cross members will sit on them, and then a coat of Black for the non soldered areas.
Connecting wires for the lighting bus were also soldered to the ends of the lighting track





The light housings were also modified. I am now using the inner ( clear ) part of the screw head caps as they are a bit smaller. They`re on the bench here drying after a spray coat of Brown from a rattle can. The painting on these things requires at least two coats to avoid light bleed through the paint. When dry, they will be painted Black.





Then painted the roof for the roof vent.





Then started fitting the long lighting tracks. The protruding ends were trimmed off when the glue dried.









The track comes off the truss near the top of the wall and then descends the wall corner to the base.





Wires out the bottom





The cross members were then cut a bit longer than required








I am still deciding whether to go one light in the middle per cross member, or to fit two per cross member and possibly remove a couple of cross members. In other words, if I have too many lights in there it will light up like a Christmas tree.
If I use enough resistors and have the supply voltage low enough, I guess I could go the full compliment of lights, but I think the way forward is some testing.
When in doubt do some testing......

Gormo

 

Thanks Richard........food for thought there......
Gormo

 

Had a bit of a let down with my original lamp housing idea.
I was using modified grommets to hold the LED`s in the screw end caps, and the grommets don`t like the spray paint from the rattle can.
It goes on and remains a slippery mess......and won`t take to the surface.
So back to the drawing board and looking back over what I have done before, I decided to use just the grommet alone as a lamp housing, and paint them with acrylics.
The grommet size is actually more realistic, so probably having a stuff up with the screw cap idea was a blessing in disguise.
We learn (hopefully) by our mistakes.
This is a yard lamp I made some time ago using a grommet as a lamp housing.







Gormo

 

G`day Gary,
Yes all that is feasible and I`ve done similar with wiring feeds before, haven`t used a rivet for a housing though.....it`s a good idea...
I persisted with the grommets though and they`ve worked OK this time, so onward and upward today.

LED`s soldered to the lighting track cross members. The cross members were cut once the LED was firmly in place. The little white cross pieces are cut down miniature tile spacers that have been drilled to allow the legs of the LED`s to pass through them. They are effectively separators and they are also Super glued to the cross member to give rigidity back to the arrangement.





The cross members were then soldered to the longitudinal members making sure polarity was correct every time.





Then connected a 9 volt battery supply with a resistor in series to test the circuit





Then some touch ups with the paint after the ends of the cross members had been trimmed.





Testing with the roof temporarily fitted




There will also be an outside light fitted to the front of the building......that`s drying as we speak.
So i`m close now to getting the roof on.....it seems to have been a long slog to get this far, but here we are..

Gormo

 

Gormo

 

Thanks Phil and Toto....
Yes Toto......if you look at pics of old steam sheds, a lot of them seem to have a lighting track set up in the roof from which they then hang lights suspended on a long dropper. Some have the lighting track down lower resting on roof trusses.
Anyway, I thought, why not use the lighting tracks as the power feed instead of running separate wires.....seems to work OK....
This afternoon I found some time to do a bit of testing.
My original plan was to air brush the outer brick paper of the shed with suitable greys, charcoals, maybe even black paint although Gary warned me off the blacks.
So I had a crack at it on some left over paper off cuts from the build that had been suitably sealed etc..all the usual stuff...they were ready to go.
I tried spraying from a distance and various adjustments on the nozzle, then tried closer in etc... until I was getting the effect I felt was good.
Now this is where testing is good folks.
When the paint dried if you view it from front on......it looks good, however......and this is the killer.......when you view it from a side angle it looks like paper that`s had a coat of paint put on it. The problem being that brick paper has no texture like plasticard which would look fine viewed in the same way.
So that`s the end of the paint method. I could do it and it would look fine mostly, but every time I would get a side view of it , it would drive me crazy ...
I also did some testing with pastels, and it looks fine from any angle........so forget the paint and go with the pastels...horses for courses....
Before moving much further forward in the build, I need to get some things sorted out.
I had punched holes in the base of the building at each internal corner. The holes were for wiring feeds wherever they would come from and any spare holes would be used to drop over locating pins in the base board, so that I can accurately place the engine shed after it is removed for any reason ( track cleaning, derailments etc. )
As it turns out, I have three spare holes




The shed was carefully aligned so that the holes for the pins could be marked out. I have used cut down flat head nails with heads removed as pins. The holes were drilled slightly under size so that the nails would be a snug fit.





I may tap them in a little further and also will paint them Black.




Then marked out holes for the wires to feed through. The holes were drilled to suit the size of a straw. The straw will be a hole liner to prevent the wires getting caught when being fed through the base board. A little Super glue is applied to the straw externally before it`s slid into place. That should keep them tidy.





Now some clearance testing













This job had to be done before the roof goes on.
Well folks .....there is a severe thunder storm knocking on our back door, so time to shut down the electrical stuff.
Adios...Gormo

 

Yes that`s a possible Gary.....oxyacetylene bottles......
I`ll store that one......I can always raise the nails a bit.
The young chap with the shiny pants will get a dusting over to take the shine off him.........I doubt whether Toto would let him in the front door after I`ve dirtied him up.
Gormo

 

G`day folks,
A bit of weathering was applied to the building today using chalk pastels.
This allowed me to then fit the roof and roof vents as shown below.
There are still chimneys and barge boards and walkways plus guttering and down pipes to go yet, but the hard part is done.











Gormo

 

Well thanks Gary........
You`re very kind and I think the kit has good bones......it was just wearing the wrong clothes.
Once these kits are put together they are extremely strong and should last for years.
I got some more done today. I want to finish it and then do something else for a while, mind you there is still a workshop from this kit to build as well.?
Speaking of the strength of these kits, the pic below shows the building loaded up with books to weigh the roof down until the glue set.



Next thing to tackle was the ridge capping. I decided to follow Paul`s suggestion and go with lead flashing, although I did not follow his instructions.



Instead of using spaghetti, I used lengths of gal wire and Superglued them into the cavity on the top of the roof.




Then cut some A4 paper strips 10mm wide and scored them down the middle so they would bend accurately. The strips were then liberally coated with PVA and applied to the ridge of the roof. I then went along with a wire former and shaped the paper around the wire set into the ridge cap whilst at the same time pressing it down firmly onto the roof.



It was then left to dry off



Then proceeded to paint the flashing to simulate weathered lead colour. This is a mixture of Black and White Acrylic paints which is applied lightly and then dabbed dry with a facial tissue to give that irregular / random look.









Since these photos were taken, I`ve gone over the roof with a dark wash and probably in the next day or two, it will get a dusting of pastel as well.
I am currently putting the chimneys together, and once they are fitted, the building will be complete.
More as it happens
Gormo

 

....Lust for Rust.......I might just use that.
Well Chris......when is the last time you saw a steam shed from the 1960`s that was absolutely pristine out of the box perfect.??
I thought " What the heck ".....let`s go for the end of steam, completely run down, nobody gives a hoot look.
There is still more filth to be applied and it`s fun doing it I must say......
Gormo