Minffordd Update: Dimension Check

There's not been a tremendous amount happening on the layout for the last couple of weeks, which explains the lack of posts.

Most of the action has been on my workbench at home where I've been getting on with the main Cambrian station building.

With the main walls made and joined together I thought it would be wise to pop over for a test fit to check that will sit nicely in the space we've left for them.

The value of making the cardboard mock-ups was underlined because it fitted perfectly, as did the signal box.

In fact, I don't mind saying I think they look rather good.

 

Minffordd Update: Cabin Fever

This week has seen very satisfactory progress on the latest building project to make the Minffordd signal box / ground frame cabin.

The main structure is complete and the biggest remaining construction task is to form the steps up to the door.

As I wrote in a previous post, the first job was to create a master for the window frames which could be cast in resin in multiple.

Once they had cured and been cleaned of flash they were built into an outer styrene frame.

The front and the sides of the cabin were built around these with a laminate structure with wooden slat effect styrene and embossed brick styrene.

With carefully mitred edges to the brickwork prepared this was bonded together into a box.

When it came to making the 'crinkly tin' roof my habit of hoarding off-cuts paid dividends.

The transparent Wills corrugated sheet I had tucked away in the drawer is sold old it was the pack I bought for making the entrances to the wooden toilet block on Dduallt more than 30 years ago!

This accounts for why it is very much yellowed now, rather than clear.

Because it is so thin and bendy it's been glued onto plain styrene sheet to try to ensure the roof doesn't sag.

Minffordd Update: A Start On The Ground Frame

I've decided to tackle the Cambrian ground frame building next, and thought it would be best to tackle the hardest bit first - the window frames.

These are a fun challenge, but very fiddly to fabricate from strip sections which are no more than 0.5mm square.

(That's a 1p piece in the picture, for reference.)

So what I've decided to do - much the same as with the saw tooth barge board in the previous post - is to make a master from I can cast copies,

I'll need four of each for this project.

Notice that I've not called it the 'signal box', because although the pretty little cabin on the station platform contained more than a dozen levers, they only controlled the points in the yard.

Aside from the Weigh House this is the only other building on the layout for which I have any sort of drawing to guide me.

I am having to adapt a drawing for one of the Dutton 'Type 4' boxes which were very similar to the Minffordd cabin, except the one I'm building has larger sliding windows made up for a 6 pane unit and a 4 pane unit  (on the drawing it's 4 and 4).

My box also doesn't have a chimney breast at the rear, I suppose because it was never permanently occupied and only opened up when it was necessary to shunt the yard.