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Raising the roof

Started by cabbage, Jun 29 2020 12:22

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cabbage

I am inherently lazy -almost to a pathological extent... Over the past two years Brassica station has suffered the storm damage caused by fence panels hitting it  in80mph+ gales.. this means I have to repair it. So after this ywars atorms I decided that something has to be done to prevent me having to do repair work again and again(!)

So, I am building a roof for my station that "should " take my weight and thus survive impacts. It should be weather proof and not decay. This means Aluminium and Steel. Steel I love, Aluminium I loathe. But weight said that it had to be made of Ally.

There are not many span roof railway stations locally due to the Luftwaffe, Beeching and "modernisation improvents"... I needed to steal a design, fortunately having to rescue my Son and tje contents of his student digs from Keele gave me a good source of ideas.

The North Staffordshire Railways station HQ at Stoke on Trent is practically pristine. This is a ridge and furrow span of hlass and iron. Robert (Doddy) provided me with some photos of the iron work of the GCR Nottingham Victoria station. Some pencil work, some slide rule work and scouring of eBay later produced all the required raw materials.

Now I had to cut them...






The roof is going to be 80cm by 125cm wide and held together with A2 nuts and bolts and A2 2.4mm SS rivits. No, I am not superman, a friend has loaned me an air rivitter amd at 90psi will make short work of them.

The mext two shots show the end pieces of the ridges and the test piece. All the spans, laterals, furrows and verticals have been cut by hand with a hacksaw. I jabe gone through five hacksaw blades...









I am now going to look on eBay for a power hacksaw!!!

Regards

Ralph

Doddy

Designing and building a station of this magnitude is a rarity in any Railway Modelling scale let alone Gauge 3.

Hats off to you for your leadership and sheer persistance in continually tackling the most difficult of projects.




Doddy
"You don't know what you don't know"

cabbage

Robert,

Just accept that I am crazy and it will all make sense!!!

I operate on the principle similar the CIA teenage code breakers - they break the codes because they don't know the codes are unbreakable... Similarly I do things that other people say are impossible -because I just don't know that they aren't!!!

Regards

Ralph

cabbage

Ok, test assembly of parts made so far...





The kitchen table can expand to take the completed roof - but neither of us are sure how to get it out of the kitchen...

Regards

Ralph

cabbage

The last section of the span roof has been fabricated and I have bust the last 2.5mm drill bit. So, we await the order from Arc for five 2.5mm and (for some reason) six 10mm slocombe bits.

The roof will not be glazed for this year - but that does not mean rhat a "topping out" ceremony will not be performed! A bottle " Dark Drake" by the local brewery has been selected for the honor.

The wrapper to the frame is on order. This will be made from 20mm angle. Once completed it them down toaking the pillars that the roof sits on. I am thinking of 10mm threaded bar.

Regards

Ralph

cabbage

As you will see by the two shots below, the ridges have all been stitched together. The frame is light (witness the power of the index finger on the left hand). The A- on the frame is mine... One of the reasons I hate Aluminium is the fact that it leaves razor sharp tinsle swarf on the edges...









I await more parts (ugh!)

Regards

Ralph

cabbage

Thankyou Mr Candy! I have ordered four 3mm thick sheets of white Filcris that will for the platform surfaces. I am assired that a good flooring adhesive will bond it to the planking - but the support struts of m10 bar and nuts will make me sleep a little easier(!)

I am told by Royal Mail that my Ally angle will arrive Monday as hopefully will the additional 2.4 and 4.8mm rivits. I have been using a 10mm 'Bell' slocombe to drill the 2.4mm holes and a std 10mm slocombe to drill the 4.8mm
holes. They are far more robust than a twist bit...

Regards

Ralph

cabbage

I  not having a good week this week... I have replaced the broken slocombe and twist bits, I now have plwnty of 2.4 and 4.8mm pop rivits and now the jaws on the air rivit gun worn out. This is a commercial item and replacement jaws are on order and within 10 minutes of the postman I will be back at work!

It has been aweful to work on... The frame cannot really be forced in any direction so drilling holes involves pulling the piece and drilling into it. There have been times wjen I have become convinced my cobolt drill has become blunt only to find that it has cut a perfectly smooth shape in the Ally and is simply going around.  The perfect tool turned out to be the broken end of a "bell" slocombe. I think it just tears its way through the Ally rather than cut smoothly through it!!!

The frame ends are being fitted with their eight legs and the two false legs that complete the portico. The four sheets of white Filcris have not yet arrived, but given the weather Thursday looks a good bet -heavy thunderstorms are forecast. The Help Sheet for painting the white Filcris is written by someone who understood what he was saying but was quite incapable of saying it... I have bought a tin of Rustoleum universal grey primer and will splatter it with a brush.

Regards

Ralph

cabbage

Phase one complete!





The roof frame is now outside in the pouring rain - but it is Aluminium and Stainless Steel and the slight weathering will add to the primer adhesion!

Tea, some sarnies and a chunk of cake...

Regards

Ralph

cabbage

Here it; a just roughly plonked into position. The new stairs are yet to be sprayed but I think the impression is there.





Regards

Ralph

John Branch

Are those prize marrows I see, or something altogether more exotic?
John

cabbage

Those are actually Courgettes and Tomatoes in "Bed One". Bed Two has finished growing Peas and Kohl Rabi. Bed Three has finished growing Broad Beans. Bed Four is growing Squashes, Globe Artichokes and Root Artichokes, Bed Five is growing Strawberries and Cardoons...

Later this month Bed Three will have Leeks transplanted into it and Bed Two loaded with grass cutting and ground lava...

The orchard and fruit garden are where I grow the exotics(!)

regards

ralph

cabbage

Hopefully I can now post some pictures?





This shows the first piece of soffet board in place. The exterior of the building will be printed and bonded to it.

Regards

Ralph

cabbage

Well Filcris have delivered the sheets  of PVC that will form the new station surfaces. These will be attacked with the jigsaw in the morning. I have taken a couple of days off heavy work due to having to use pain killers, I have precious little cartelige in my knees... So, armed with my trusty (and slightly rusty) drafting tablet I have designed the new station frontage. As is my normal operation common items were placed on the tablet to provide visual inspiration!!!

Robert says that it looks like a cathedral, but given the use the only cathedral that would fit -is Carlisle Cathedral!!!




post pics


Advanced head scratching and lota of tea produced a SCAD file that resembled the drawing on the tablet.





Er for some reason this jpg is 90° left rotated(?). But it forms one quarter of the frontage. It took nearly 6 hours to print so that thw reprap can print one of these per day plus other parts.

Tea and biscuits - while the machines work - I told you I was lazy....

Regards

Ralph

cabbage

The first piece of Filcris has been sawn and bonded to the wooden decking. Cutting with a swan neck panel saw is dead easy, the main problem was where to cut a sheet that was 1.2m sq... The material is recycled PVC - so it is floppy. The pieces are bonded to the decking with EvoStick flooring adhesive, it says on the tub that it will do 4 sqm - I am down to half a tub after a piece 1.2m sq... (OK so maybe I did put it on a bit thick?). But apart from dodging the rain the operation went very well. The sheet is weighted to the wood with whatever heavy object was to hand!!!

Regards

Ralph