A whole month doing unimportant things ?  You need to get a grip on life Barry …..

Good luck with the move.

Thanks Peter

In railway shed terms I have spent 10 months doing unimportant things (!) but I guess making the house nice enough to live in (having walls, a roof, water, heat, toilets, a kitchen etc) really does rank above building some baseboards and laying those storage roads.  (Other opinions are available).

Part of my motivation has been to get some rooms finished so that the furniture (currently residing in the shed) can be moved out to make way for the railway.  Getting the dining room and a couple of bedrooms ready accounts for about 30% of the shed floorspace and the boxes of kitchen stuff occupy another 10%.  By the time I get 20 sheets of Kingspan 25mm insulation cut up and fitted between the timber supports of the walls and roof and have a good tidy up, I will have enough space to start.

This week the shed Fuse Boards go live so I can get the ring mains and lighting circuits in.  There will be 2 ring mains - one for heating, ventilation, the fridge and hoover etc and a second linked to a master switch for controllers, bench supplies, soldering irons and such like that I can turn off when I leave the shed.  That way, I know I haven't left anything important turned on.  I found some red socket faces for this second ring so I will know which circuit is which.

A local electrical suppliers kindly did me a lighting design based on the size and height of the shed.  I will need 9 LED Daylight tube lights in 3 rows of 3.  He has calculated that this will give me a bright but not overpowering light.  I have a couple of these units already in "warm white" so will use these in the storage area where there is less chance I will want  to take photographs or capture video.  I had the same arrangement for the old Yarslow layout and it worked well.  The cost of the units is less than a decent new loco so I am happy.  I will, of course, do the instal work myself making it a cheap option.

In the meantime, I am practising my baseboard building skills by making a pair of built-in alcove cupboard units for the back sitting room.  I ordered the timber for the job and included a number of 8ft x 4ft sheets of 9mm decent quality ply claiming that they might make good shelves.  "Unfortunately", they looked a bit lightweight so I will have to keep them for the baseboards in the shed and use the 18mm ply I also ordered instead.  It also looks as if I over ordered on the 2x1 and 2x2 planed pine as well…………

I couldn't resist recreating the photo that began a series of articles by the late, great David Jenkinson in the Railway Modeller in the mid 1970's.  His layout became the Little Long Drag - mine still answers to "Plan D" - I must find a better title!

So, its May 4th and the rubber hits the road right here.  The scruffy attire adopted by the author is fully in keeping with the job in hand - cutting and fitting Kingspan insulation to the shed interior.  It's messy stuff although not as bad as polystyrene!



Here is the Kingspan cutting kit - a measure, straight edge and a saw.  Its only 25mm thick and although its foil backed on both sides, a saw is more than adequate for cutting it.  The foil prevent all the nasty UV and interplanetary stuff getting into the shed as well as helping keep heat in/out and cold out.  I have 25 sheets of the stuff, each 8ft x 4ft (nominally) and will do the walls and ceiling before covering the whole lot with thin MDF.  I was advised to use WPB (water proof board) on my old shed but the outer skin of that was somewhat "open" whereas the new shed has 38mm log roll cladding that is sealed together.  Luckily for me, it also keeps out spiders which I hate - even the little tiddly ones :-(



Here is the work in prgress shot - note the vast quantities of stuff still residing in the shed!!  The light is provided by a single inspection lamp but I have just taken delivery of 6 "Daylight" LED tube lights, each some 4ft long.  They will be installed after the lining is sorted with all cables running on the surface.  If you can see a cable, you are less likely to screw something through it so I am not a fan of burying cable in non-domestic situations.  Note that mechanical protection for cable in workshops etc is essential and I will do this in the garage.

More to do tomorrow as I continue to insulate and organise the shed.  Once the lining is up, I will paint it sky blue, put up the lights and then start on the ring mains.  My carpet guy has managed to source me some industrial carpet tiles for the floor although, given the amount of stuff in the way, I expect he will be leaving me to fit them!!

Barry

Hi Barry,


Great news :cool:, much have been a very long tiring day judging by the time of your post.


Colin

Congratulations Barry

You must be a very happy camper. I have been very impressed with your patience and humour throughout this saga

Best wishes

Hi Colin

In fact I started after lunch and finished before dinner - there are still jobs to do around the house so I am mixing it in with shed "work".

John -People who know me would not describe me as patient!!  However, it is a trait I have had to learn.  The humour comes from a carefully nurtured madness……….

I took myself off to the woodyard this afternoon to order the linear timber and ply sheets to line the shed and build the baseboards.  I know that 4mm ply for the lining and 9mm ply for the baseboards would not be cheap but I had to come home and have a lie down  :shock: :shock: :shock:.  If I had stopped for a coffee and cake on the way home, I would have spent four figures  :shock: :shock: :shock:.

I have also taken the decision to order 2 more LED batten lights - each one has a colour temperature of 5800K which is in the "daylight" range.  I had two smaller ones which I rigged up but they were much dimmer and would have left Trinity Square/the branch line in relative darkness compared with Yarslow and the storage area.  Therefore I moved the old battens to the garage.

More insulation to be done tomorrow, helped by clearing out more stuff.  I built a bench and storage unit in the wife's garage today so can move out a freezer and drawer unit which she will host. 

Barry

  Barry, you have the plywood for baseboards! Well done that man and I can almost see the smile on your face, as you savour that first cut on the first baseboard!
   
  Have fun and feel free to enjoy that coffee and a cake soon.
   
  Bill
 :cheers

[user=2006]Barry Miltenburg[/user] wrote:

Hi Colin



I took myself off to the woodyard this afternoon to order the linear timber and ply sheets to line the shed and build the baseboards.  I know that 4mm ply for the lining and 9mm ply for the baseboards would not be cheap but I had to come home and have a lie down  :shock: :shock: :shock:.  If I had stopped for a coffee and cake on the way home, I would have spent four figures  :shock: :shock: :shock:.   


Barry

£10.48 ? that is four figures  so the coffee & cake £2.12 ?  Wait until you purchase paint!

Enjoy your woodwork…….

[user=606]Sol[/user] wrote:

[user=2006]Barry Miltenburg[/user] wrote:

Hi Colin



I took myself off to the woodyard this afternoon to order the linear timber and ply sheets to line the shed and build the baseboards.  I know that 4mm ply for the lining and 9mm ply for the baseboards would not be cheap but I had to come home and have a lie down  :shock: :shock: :shock:.  If I had stopped for a coffee and cake on the way home, I would have spent four figures  :shock: :shock: :shock:.   


Barry

£10.48 ? that is four figures  so the coffee & cake £2.12 ?  Wait until you purchase paint!

Enjoy your woodwork…….

 


My thinking exactly Sol ….. :thumbs.

Right - time for action!

Oh, hang on.  The workshop/garage electrics need to be finished to move out the freezer and that pile of garden stuff to make room for the bike thats in the way of the saw………..

You will be familiar with those "chinese" puzzles where you get 8 tiles in a 3x3 grid with one blank space and you can only move one tile at a time until you create the complete image?

Imagine that on a humungous scale and thats what my shed infrastructure project is like.  I am slowly moving the contents around to gain access to the walls to put in the insulation, but moving something puts it in the way.  That can be cured by sorting out the workshop which needs lighting and electrics to take the freezer etc.  Lighting done, electrics 90% done but the weather has gone alarmingly "Bertie" and its absolutely lashing it down, so its rain stop play for thre afternoon - hence this post.  Having done the insulation, I get a delivery of timber next week to do the lining (I'm using 4mm MDF which is actually the same price as hardboard can you believe).  That will require the stuff all being moved AGAIN!!

I calm myself down by looking at the 1/10th scale trackplan pinned to the shed wall and imagining myself with a cold beer and a couple of freights winding their way through the platforms at Yarslow…………..

Oh, the joys of English weather!

As soon as I sent that last post, the sun came out again and it was back to work.

I have thus completed the electrics in the workshop, manhandled the freezer into its new home and moved a 7-drawer chest that will be filled with loads of stuff that survived the car-boot/tip clear out.  Most of that stuff currently resides in my shed so it's good news all round.

The rain has now returned and it looks well settled in so I will call it a day and plan a whole day of insulation in my shed tomorrow.  In the meantime, I am eBaying all sorts of unwanted, "pre-loved" stuff (I love that description!) to raise some money for point motors.  I only need about 50 or 60 more………..

Three posts in one day - I must get a life!!

A rather soggy postman has just delivered a couple of these;




They are plug in controllers that are like timers but the "on" and "off" is temperature controlled rather than timer controlled.  I intend to set my oil-filled radiators on one and my extractor fan(s) on the other so that I can keep the shed at an even temperature.  Each costs about the same as a cheap wagon.  The black wire coming out of the side has a heat sensing probe on the end.

The extractor fans will be bathroom types but with the ability to shift larger-than-average cubic volumes.  Most bathroom fans assume you have a 8ft x 6ft bathroom and will change the air within a specified time.  Rather than have 4 or 5 of these, I can get a couple of heavy duty ones for far less cost.  Coupled with the foil backed insulation, I reckon that I will be snug as the proverbial bug.

Bill - I get the plywood for the baseboards delivered next week (let's hope for a better day weather wise than today) and will then get very excited.  I have cork, glue, track, points, pins, wire, joiners and enough point motors, relays, switches, solder, heat shrink and tag strip to make a real start on the storage yards.  As soon as I can, I am going to be running something, even if its up and down 6ft of straight track!!! 

Perhaps then I can get my thread back onto railways and away from DIY and house building…………

Brilliant

 :doublethumb :doublethumb :doublethumb :doublethumb :doublethumb

Best,

Bill

[user=2006]Barry Miltenburg[/user] wrote:

Right - time for action!
………..
You will be familiar with those "chinese" puzzles where you get 8 tiles in a 3x3 grid with one blank space and you can only move one tile at a time until you create the complete image?
………….

I didn't realise that you'd been in my "shed"! (our under-house space)

Every year it's the same ritual in March once it's cooled down a bit, solve the Chinese puzzle of 11 months random stacking (to put away another day) in time to make access for the man to do our annual full termite examination. He comes quarterly to inspect the monitors then the works from roof space to sub-floor in April.

This year I excelled myself, he even commented! So much "space" created that I started dreaming that just maybe I could create a long run for my mainline stock once I bit the bullet and migrate to a new setting…….. zzzzzzzz

Steady progress and looking good Barry. You'll get there… are there beers in the fridge yet? That is a very important part of the chinese puzzle.

Hi Marty

I can see the fridge but getting the thing plugged in…………..

Its modelling Jim, but not as we know it.

I really envy you guys who are wrestling with issues about uncouplers, short circuits, failed servos or how to kit bash model A into model B.  This is my current World - sheets of insulation have now been fitted into the walls and I will complete the ceiling tomorrow.  Baseboards are about 10 days away I reckon with tracklaying planned to start mid-June.

Yesterday I had a cold flash and the thought "does it have to be this big?"  After a lay down, I concluded that I was just being sent doo-lally by the polystyrene fumes.  Had I not escaped it's clutches, I might have considered running something GWR  :lol: :lol: :lol:

Thanks guys for your patience and moral support during a tough time waiting for the start date to tick around.  I am not afraid to say that I have drawn a great benefit from the forum over the past 12 months, both from a modelling standpoint and also personally.

 :cheers

Charming post Barry, very nicely put.:thumbs
Good luck with the plywood delivery.

Best wishes

Hi Barry.  Nice to hear about your progress, but, remember “ Earth was not built in a Day “. Best wishes Kevin

I like the picture above Barry showing your new railway home, which still looks cavernous, even with all the 'stuff' about. What fun lies ahead, as the journey continues!

John's post captures the mood very well, as the vast majority of us derive great support from this forum and long may it continue.

So boldly go with the continuing mission, exploring the expanse of this unravelling space and establish a new interim frontier, remembering that although Yarslow wasn't built in a day, 'tis amazin' what can be done over a Bank Holiday weekend!

Have fun,

Bill