Wilmington Light Railway

[WLR_CD]

I have now painted the signal box steps.



Added some green paint to the woodwork.



Sited it on the railway to get a feel for how it will look outside.







Martin

[WLR_CD]

The engine shed, signal box and cattle dock are coming along now.



The cattle dock has now been going through the second stage of painting blending the colours together, a WIP photo.



The same with the loco drivers rest room, just half a wall to do.



The engine shed gets the same treatment.





Once this stage had been completed I 'planted' the office on the railway to get a feel for how it was looking outside.



Signal box is now on the second stage.



Chimney stack coming along.



Martin

[WLR_CD]

I have gone as far as I want to with the cattle dock for the time being, apart from some strips that are required for the slope.

Planted it in some gravel to get a feel for how it will look on the railway.









Martin

[WLR_CD]

Finished glazing the rest room, so attached it to the main shed. Pleased with the little opening window, but not pleased with the so called matt varnish on the roofs. Need to look into alternatives for this (more on that later as to what I ended up using).











Martin

[ge_rik]

Your buildings look superb. I'll bet they look good in situ.

Rik

[BertieB]

Wow. Beautifully done.

[WLR_CD]

Your buildings look superb. I'll bet they look good in situ.

Rik

Thank you. In all my railway modelling, it is the buildings I enjoy making the most, especially industrial. These will eventually be weathered, but I still have guttering and downpipes to make.

Martin

[WLR_CD]

Wow. Beautifully done.

Thank you.

Martin

[HansL]

Great work, Martin!

It's already creating a real atmosphere. For the roof, I would try brushing in a little cement dust very carefully. Thanks for sharing!

[philipy]

In all my railway modelling, it is the buildings I enjoy making the most,

Yes, I can totally agree with that Martin, I feel much the same.
Your work is fantastic.

[WLR_CD]

Thank you all for the kind comments.

The windows for the signal box have been cut from 2mm PVC Foamex.



Test fitted into the wall apertures.



The door from laminations of 3mm and 1mm. I have discovered PVC Foamex can also be glued with MEK, this made assembling the door a lot easier and not as time critical like super glue.



Also test fitted to the aperture.



I had a stack of empty CD cases, the recessed CD inlays were removed, then the clear cases were run through the band saw to remove all the return edges, this left me with a pile of flat polycarbonate clear sheets, nominally 1mm thick, from something that was destined for the bin.



The band saw does leave micro chipping to the edges, maybe a finer blade would have been better. However, it was easy to true up the edges with an OLFA laminate cutter.



I had kept the cut out pieces from the door to act as templates which was just a case of scribing with a scalpel blade to mark the sheet, then cut through using multiple passes with the laminate cutter. After the first couple of cuts with a ruler the Olfa can be used freehand because it follows the groove.





Martin

[WLR_CD]

I never seem to able to stick with one project, always having a number of things on the go at the same time.

A start has been made on getting the parts cut for the station building.

Inspired by the GWR one at Brynamman, which my friend Geoff Taylor has modelled in 4mm for his new layout. He kindly gave me copies of his original drawings he made for his model, which I adapted slightly to give the look I wanted for my version of the building and to suit narrow gauge proportions with regard to the main canopy, not forgetting scaling up to 16mm.

Platform elevation with an indication of the full length canopy valance, with a lean-to entrance to the righthand end.



Righthand end shows the profile of the canopy, the lean-to that wraps around the rear corner and an indication of the main chimney stack, with a second stack in the roof.



The public main approach face. Lean-to wrapping around, main chimney stack and a small canopy over the twin entrance doors.



The remaining end.



Micro chisel used for vertical mortar joints, ground blade to the correct width, thickened handle with Gaffa tape and an old door knob to make pushing comfortable.



Lining up chisel for embossing.



For the vertical board joints I scribed twice with different sized tools in an attempt to simulate shiplap. Does not show up well in photographs! These tools are usually used in cake decorating. This is the fine ball.



This is the thicker ball, handle beefed up with tape.



Bricks and boards scribed, window and door apertures cut out. The framing pieces will be added as overlays of 1mm and 2mm Foamex. This photo the shiplap form shows up better.



Both main side walls.



Lean-to drawn and scribed, ready now for cutting out.



For the main cutting I like these curved blades, for final corner cuts I use a scalpel.



The main chimney drawn and scribed.



Roof chimney drawn and scribed. The Pentel pencil I have had for about 35 years.



Chimney parts cut out.



Next on the drawing board are the inner bracing walls, then I wall have enough parts to glue up the basic structure.

Martin

[WLR_CD]

Having cut out the main parts for the station building, including inner walls, some basic assembly has taken place.

A view from the approach side of the building from the lean to end.



From the opposite end.



Two views from the platform side, the main canopy is yet to be assembled.





Martin

[WLR_CD]

A start has been made on the platform canopy framework.



The valence I laser cut in Trolase ADA sheet available from Trotec. Texturing was applied using various tools to scrape with.



Glued and clamped to the framework.





Now being fixed to the building.



A small canopy was made for above the main entrance doors.



Which was tiled and painted.



Martin

[WLR_CD]

Plenty of window and door frames to be cut out for this building. I did this in batches to reduce the boredom of so many.



Some door and window units under construction.



I laser cut a simple assembly jig for soldering up door handles made using small brass nails and washers.



Rather pleased with how they came out.



Building wall outer framework being cut to fit.





Martin

[WLR_CD]

Sprayed in white primer and masked up to start applying colour.



Colour applied.





I had some chimney top stacks in stock for that might come in useful one day moment.



Two stacks coming along.



All the main colour now on.



Doors painted and door handles fitted.



Martin

[WLR_CD]

Now on to the main roof, the base for this is made from 3mm black PVC Foamex. I now use black for this for no other reason than if I miss a bit when painting, it does not show up like white does. Only downside is the pencil lines for tiling do not show up as well.

Here the main sheets have been cut, the paper sheet has printed tile alignment lines, these are used to line up the pencil markings, saves measuring.



I ended up scribing lines in to make them more visible. This is the whole roof done.



Beads of CA are used to fix the tile strips.



It builds up quite quickly once you get going.



Tiling done, with just the ridge tiles still to do.



There are a few slipped tiles to break up the uniformity.



Martin

[WLR_CD]

Ridge tiles now in place and everything coated in matt varnish, just guttering, signage and weathering to do, but that won't happen for a while.









Martin

[WLR_CD]

I have always liked the idea of having a standard gauge feeder line on the narrow gauge railway. Could be an exchange siding with a lone wagon, or factory unloading point. Not entirely sure where it could fit in, but to scratch that itch and to find out the ‘bulk’ of standard gauge 16mm, I set about making a standard gauge wagon into a grounded box van type shed, then at least it will find a use somewhere.

Made almost entirely with PVC Foamex, apart from the wooden sleepers, although they could have been Foamex, but I had some sleeper strips leftover from the indoor line.

In one of the photos I have included a 7mm scale standard gauge wagon as a comparison.

I have a number of wagon reference books, so scaled up the drawings of a MR van, which I drew out first using Adobe Illustrator, once happy with concept, I printed out working drawings and set to work.

This is how far I have got in a few days of spare moments.













I scored some planking lines in the roof sheet, this helped with curving to fit.



I made the roofing sheet in two halves. This made it a lot easier to glue accurately working from a central line.



Roof planked.



Lots of little details to add, it has been a fun project so far.

Martin

[WLR_CD]

I have gone about as far as I can at the moment with the signal box. I do need to sort out a series of guttering fittings which come in useful for this and some of the other buildings on the railway.

Probably do a bit of weathering as well before placing the signal box in position on the railway.









Martin