Petermac's Railway

My fault Peter, it's Styrene sheet, two ways to do it, either shave down the area and stick the styrene arch on, or cut out the whole area and stick in thicker sheet. I don't think brick will look right, better to cut the arch in one go, score the stones and nick the surface to make the stone match the rest.

Thanks Phil and I agree that brick wouldn't look good - a bit "toy like" I think and having looked at the packs online, I don't think I could make them look much like stone, even by using individual bricks and painting ……………………..

 I had thought of cutting some arches in styrene sheet, laminating them to get the correct thickness and scoring the top layer.  I could then cut back the Wills sheets to allow for the added arch and fill any gaps with Miliput or similar.  Not too sure I have the right tools to skim off the Wills sheeting.

I suppose I could even do those "soldier" stones using individual stones cut from a Scalescenes print - dressed stone or similar ……………….. :hmm
 

Wills being what it is, I think any sort of printed stone would stand out, ok from a distance maybe but with close photography? For cutting back the arches, I us a small flat chisel, it might be possible with something like a dentist bur as long as the speed doesn't cause too much heat.

Making the coping stones look like Wills is not that difficult, when flat coping s glued on, it needs to be as high as the highest peaks of the Wills stones, so, higher than the overall surface, the individual stones can be scored, making sure that the scoring is the same size as the rest, a flat bottom blade gives the right effect, in other words, not a V cut, once the individual stones are made, use a craft knife to nick the edges similar to the level of the rest, then randomly scoop cut the surfaces to create the stone effect.

A small flat chisel eh ?  Now I do have one of those so I'll give that a whirl - thanks for the tip.  :thumbs


 The thought of carving all those stones fills me with dread.  Maybe the odd stone, yes, but enough to do all those arches - I fear my life is too short…..or would be after that lot !  

I'll have a play with other mediums and see what I can make of them.

Score a line and cut with the chisel with a shearing action from the outside to the line, for the recess.

If I were you I would go for the easiest option, cut out the coping stone radius from Wills sheet, cut the coping stone piece from the same thickness poly, score the stones on the front and edge, then just nick the corner edge to represent the uneven stonework and glue into place…piece of cake :)

Thanks Phil - I think that's what I'll do.  That was the method I originally had in mind but wasn't sure what to use for the actual arch - odd though it may seem, I'd never thought of using the same thickness styrene, hence my wondering about styrofoam and other similar products .. :oops: :oops: :oops: 

The solution to a problem is often staring one in the face - it just needs an outside head to light it up !!!

I won't need to sharpen my chisel now either ………… :cheers

The only reason to use the same thickness is for sturdiness, but thinner is possible Peter.

Instead of getting on with what I ought to be - namely cladding that viaduct with Wills sheets - I had a bit of a play around with the main station area design.

Those who have been following this thread might remember the station buildings were to be raised with "ground level" above the platforms.  The idea behind this was twofold - firstly to avoid having a long incline in full view on one of the long sides of the unit and secondly, to utilise the wonderful station buildings I acquired from Pat (Mojo of this parish) which are too large to place at ground level in the available space.

Here is what I've come up with:



Originally, there were 2 buildings - the main station building with portico and, set at right angles to that, the office unit.  The latter was too long to set at right angles so I decided to cut it in half - actually 1/3rd and 2/3rds - and join the 2 parts to the main building.

Dismantling required removing the roof to cut it up and also to access the installed grain-of-wheat lighting which will be replaced with LEDs.  Contrary to what the photo might suggest, both the station building and the platforms are level :




The incline can be seen both at the far end and then emerging from behind the buildings.  It's well hidden, or at least, the station building will distract from it being there:




The whole station board is just sitting on aluminium bearers supported by either timber blocks or dowels both or which will be covered with Scalescenes papers and lifts off as a complete unit :




The entrance to the station forecourt will be from the right of the above photo entering here on this shot.  The idea is that a road will climb alongside the retaining wall for the incline beyond the station and swing off to the forecourt over a skewed bridge :




Pat didn't stop with the outside of the buildings.  The concourse details can be viewed through the archways and will be LED lit and populated with travellers etc :





You can follow the build of the station buildings here - starting at post No. 195 although the earlier posts are well worth reading too:

http://yourmodelrailway.net/view_topic.php?id=1861&forum_id=21&highlight=bradford+wheregate

Wow! Peter!.  Cladding can wait when you have such a great scene to create.  The eye will definitely be distracted from the incline and it will be great catching glimpses of trains running behind things.  And you acquired a super station which will be quite the centrepiece when lit up and populated.
Michael

Thats brilliant Peter…….talk about boldness be my friend….not sure if I would have had the courage to do that surgery. It is going to look great…. exactly as Brunel (??) designed it, not in the least contrived. I am very impressed.

That's going to look very impressive when it's all done but worth spending time getting it all right  ;-)

  Wow Peter, you must really not want to clad that viaduct to instigate such a magnificent self distraction scheme. The next ex-POTUS would be proud of you and probably would offer you a job!
   
  Seriously though, a great use of superbly modelled architecture I never knew you had hidden up your sleeve and as for the incline . . . incline? What incline?
   
  A good magic trick. What’s next?
   
  Have fun,
   
  Bill

Thanks Guys - I'm rather pleased with how it's turned out even though I say it myself.
I'm sorry to disappoint John but IKB had absolutely nothing to do with the building.  In fact, nobody did other than Pat (Mojo) - it's a totally fictitious station although "Bradford Westgate" exists but it's not a station.  The building conveys the soot blackened stone buildings of the 1940s and 50s West Riding superbly I think.

Phil, you're right - it demands much care and attention and will receive it.  It will be a real eye-catcher and takes pride of place on that side of the layout- 

Now this AZERTY keyboard has gone all to pot playing a game of guess where the  letters are………….

Well now, that was interesting.  The AZERTY keyboard went totally haywire mixing up several of the keys.
Fortunately, I had bought a new QWERTY board as a standby - in fact, 2 of them at a tenner each so I've switched it over.

Whoa there - hang on a minute - this one is also not working properly on the numbers row in upper case………..

1234567890 -=  That's all the top row in lower case - now, if I go along again in upper case, this is what I get:

!@#$%^&*()_+   If you look at your QWERTY board, you'll see that upper case 2 should be quotes, not @
                                                                                                           upper case 3 should be sterling, not #

I'll try some of the other keys but there are definitely errors elsewhere ……………….

Anyone any ideas - sorry, can't find the question mark !!!!!

It might be an American Qwerty keyboard….. or set to the American version.  Those Americans have to change all perfectly good systems!  
Michael

No Michael, it's a UK keyboard - at least, that's where I bought them from.
I've sussed the problem - I think …………

The keyboard automatic software hadn't installed properly and the computer was trying to mix both the QWERTY and AZERTY keys.

I've re-installed it and it seems to be working now - for the moment at least ………………… :hmm

The upside is, I've got rid of the AZERTY one which I hated,  but now I'll have to re-learn how to type in French ……………….

Well now Peter you could try one of the voice dictation packages ? No keyboard needed, but then it would take you three times as long doing a post as you try and persuade it to edit out all the sweary words when it doesn't type what you THINK you said  :It's a no no
 :cheers

Matt

[user=2080]Barchester[/user] wrote:

Well now Peter you could try one of the voice dictation packages ? No keyboard needed, but then it would take you three times as long doing a post as you try and persuade it to edit out all the sweary words when it doesn't type what you THINK you said  :It's a no no
:cheers

Matt

 :lol: :lol:

Happy New Year Peter, to you and all your loved ones.  Here's to a better 20201 and the opening of the viaduct and station at Maxmill.
 :doublethumb

Michael