Brick piers to support

Hi All      I have got an idea for a small platform, a plain ordinary building found in a little used location.But, this Is nothing to do with “state of the art”. With brick pillars supporting the structure , by cutting brick sheet into strips and glued together, and when it is finished painted a weathered brick colour. Can anyone give me some ideas?  Best wishes Kevin 

Hi Kevin,

Lego.

Nigel

Hi Nigel.   Thank you, but this is 4 mm, not any fanciful Gauge . Although I have seen loose 4 mm bricks advertised on flea bay.    Best wishes Kevin 

Hi Kevin,

Smallest is 1'9" square in 4mm scale. Which is almost 2.5 bricks. Add brick sheet sides and it becomes a triple brick pier (s, f, f, s) about 2 feet square. You did say "nothing to do with the state of the art". Now you're going 4mm scale. SE Finecast on square styrene rod if you want S, F, S, for about a 16 inch square pillar. Or Wills brick sheet mitered pieces. Printed sheets wrapped around wood would work. I Hope you are not planning on doing a lot of them. 'Cos there is a lot of precision cutting, sanding, mitering and gluing involved.

There are some nice single and double brick piers in Shapeways in HO. krmodels. If you can live with 3.5mm instead of 4mm. Hang on a minute, that's how undersized the track is.

Pointe is, from 3 feet it looks fine whether you use 3.5mm or 4mm scale for this. Especially under a platform.

Nigel

Hi Nigel. Thank you for your reply. A very well considered response. Meanwhile I have been faffing around cutting up Wills brick sheet and just doing a back to back job with “ plastic weld “ , then wait and see.  But then it is my first serious ( almost) attempt to do any scenery. And that is where the weathering comes in, and the pillars will be in the dark?
Best wishes Kevin 

Hi Kevin,
Check out http://www.paperbrick.co.uk/  for free printable bricks - I have not tried it(… yet) but you could take the image and "weather it" using "Paint" or similar on your PC to manipulate the image before printing it.  

As for the platform, I have made platforms from foam core ( freebie from a picture framer) at both ground level (for my Canadian Based layout and an exhibition layout in On30) and door levels (for a club layout) for stations and loading bays of factories. The brick pillars could also be shaped from foam core scraps. Have you got a particular prototype that inspired the idea or is it a generic one? 

Good Luck in any case with it!

Cheers from Oz

Trevor

Hi Trevor. Thank you for your reply. I will make a note of that, but, with me being a “ clumsy Pom Modeller “ , I will do a “ mock up in Plasticard “ before I go around looking for freebies from picture framers. The foam core idea is new to me as I have never done any scenery before. As for the Prototype let’s see how it turns out first???  Best wishes Kevin  

Hello Again Kevin,
You sell yourself short with the scratch building skills and I intend to show you how effective a simple building can be.

The drawing below is a simple signal box -  you can right click on the image and paste it into a Word Document or similar using the scale rule above the left hand signal box face - The diagram showing the foam core I think is fairly self explanatory.  It does not matter about even cutting the edges smooth because they will not be seen but I would suggest that you keep a sharp blade handy at all times and the edges will be smooth for when you - replaceable blades are fine.




The Instruction from my web page reads as follows 
I use a simple box shape made of foam core (which I am graciously supplied for nothing as offcuts from my local picture framer) to a shape that will fit the inside of these buildings.
TO GET THESE BUILDINGS
Right Click on the Image of the building you want and click on "Copy Image".  You should then be able to paste your picture straight onto your Word Processor, Publisher or Graphic program. Use the Scaling measure to size your building to your scale.
I suggest that you print them onto  A4 sized single sticker paper which will cost you about $1 a sheet here in Australia but you can fit multiple buildings on a sheet in the smaller scales.  If you really need to scrimp. you could make a number of signs to various sizes and fill in the gaps!
Once you have Printed your buildings…
1.   Make your sides so they are exactly the size of the sides of these buildings. Foam core cuts best with a box cutter or exacto knife and scalpel blades but be aware that the blades will blunt very quickly (about 10 reasonable cuts) before they will start to tear the foam core.  Seeing you will not see these surfaces anyway, you can extend the life of the blades.
2.  Make your fronts and rears of block buildings the HEIGHT of the buildings but TWO thicknesses of the foam core less than the width.





For the  Signal Box

Align the marker at the top of the drawing with the ruler. Hold your SHIFT key down scale the line so that it is 10.5mm between the vertical markers in HO , 6mm in N scale, 12mm in OO scale and 21mm in O scale.
Make your roof and a porch from scrap card. You can place masking tape over the roofing to represent tar paper/malthoid  and try your hand at making a staircase. I would suggest Ken's method of using an old Credit Card etc for making a stair case (I'll edit the reference in later) but lets get you started first!
Hope this helps not just you but someone else here as well. I have a few more on https://sites.google.com/view/stagnesrailway20
Just follow the links

Cheers

Trevor

Hi Trevor.  Thank you for your reply. I do know one picture framers shop a bus ride from me .but I have never been a customer, and in the current climate I don’t know how to approach him/ her? But I will endeavour to visit the shop, or I could visit the local model shop.  Best wishes Kevin 

Hi Kevin,
I would just go in, tell them what you want it for and ask for offcut pieces - I presume it is similar to here where the waste bins are weighed so the framers are usually more than happy to get rid of strips etc and save paying for the disposal … the same with strips of acrylic/perspex/clear plastic sheet. 

Good Luck

Trevor

Hi Trevor.  Thank you again. I promise you that I will visit the framers shop soon .  Best wishes Kevin 

Hi Trevor.  I am in the middle of building my platform, and I googled platform height UK outline, but I got some different opinions? Now I could just get a carriage out of its packing , but I am looking for a definitive height.I thought that I saw on YouTube a Modeller recommending 18mm., according to what I have just read it could be as low as 12 mm. Would you please put the record straight.  Best wishes Kevin 

Hello Kevin,
It really depends on what looks right for you … it is your railway.  The issue is compounded a little by the heights of the rails etc, so for example an N scale train with the older Peco track would look funny if you almost have to bungee jump to get off the train, particularly with underlay if you use that!. 

Having said that, I remember getting off the under and overground trains at Willesden when our daughter was living there and that was almost needing a parachute given my crappy knees that I no longer have or an elevator to climb up. Other platforms in the UK struck me as being low or almost floor height. It would not be a problem now

The question is then what looks right for you… personally I would take one of  your passenger coaches at rail height and measure to the floor of the coach if passengers were about to board it and suggest that in OO scale,  2mm/3mm representing 6 /9 inches would be your maximum tolerance because of safety for those precious plastic passengers who seem reluctant to actually get on… only kidding! I don't think any of my climbs were more than 9 or 10 inches but it has been 9 years since I was last there - our daughter and son-in-law came back here about a month after we left!.

In this case Kevin, the ball is in your court and it is what appears good to your eye!  Good Luck,

Cheers

Trevor

The OO standard loading gauge states the platform surface should be 12mm above the rail top Kevin, so allowing for the height of the sleepers and rails, which in code 100 rail is 4.5mm, the platform height should be 16.5mm if the track and platform are both sitting on the same surface.

But as Trevor says it's what looks right, so 18mm will probably be fine if there is no track underlay.



Ed

Hi Trevor.  Thank you again. I am certain that all train platforms were standard at one time, but have gone to pot with different kinds of Rolling stock. I will do my best.  Best wishes.  Kevin 

Hi Ed.  Thank you too. I have noticed that getting down from a train to the platform can be tricky in the 21st century.I will have to remember that on my layout.  Best wishes Kevin