Building a shed for the meat siding

I've previously outlined the cardboard-and-paper method I used to construct the overbridge, so I thought I should close out the last of the 'how-to's for Rozelle Street with a little detail on how I constructed the delivery shed on the meat siding.

A few years ago the Australian Railway History had a feature article on the station and yard at St Leonards in Sydney. Included in the article was a single black and white photo of two TRCs waiting in the meat siding at a simple, skillion-roofed building. The inspiration bug bit instantly upon seeing it and Rozelle Street presented the opportunity to create a similar scene. Aside from the ARH article I didn't have any other reference photos of the building and was having trouble locating information about it on the web. That was until one of my many procrastinations on YouTube found this video (from 16'21") which yielded some footage of the building before it's demise. I don't know who posted the video, but I acknowledge their ownership of the content. 

(Image Credit to YouTube user tressteleg1)
 

(Image Credit to YouTube user tressteleg1)

The original building is a lot longer than what I had room for, but by using selective compression I could capture the main features; the doors, the painted corrugated iron, the chocolate-brown doors, and the brick stilts.

With the hard bit done, I raided the kitchen cupboard for cardboard and made an approximation of the sizes based on the wagons I had at hand and the trucks in the second shot above.

Once I was satisfied that this would fit on a cardboard floor and with enough room for a rail-side loading platform, and allow the tallest wagons likely to use that siding to fit under it, I fit the floor and tested it again. 

I then started to add the corrugated iron patterns downloaded from Scalescenes. As with the bridge, the larger parts were glued on with a UHU gluestick, with PVA applied and spread thin over the job with a toothpick for the finer details. The trees didn't make the final cut for scenery. 

The doors were cut from a specific "doors and windows" printout by Scalescenes. They appeared close enough to me to resemble what was on the building to capture the look, and make it appear believable, if not prototypical. I also added a barge board around the top to both hide my rushed workmanship and because it's subtle detail in the original building.

To finish the model and protect it from any future additions/amendments to the scenery, I gave the whole thing a spray with matte clear (available at Bunnings) from a rattle can.

All up the building took around one-and-a-half nights to build, with a lot of the speed attributed to the materials and the quick drying time of the glues compared to structures I've built from styrene and resin materials.

I highly recommend this method as a quick, easy and pretty forgiving way to start scratch-building if you don't want to outlay a huge cost in tools and equipment just yet. If you want any additional info, feel free to leave any questions in the comments below.

Cheers,
Ben

New Year's update

Greetings all and Happy New Year!

The most recent development since my last update has been the addition of an IDR models X200 complete with Stay Alive and DCC sound. This came to Rozelle Street courtesy of my brother and his partner to mark a milestone birthday recently. It's a great little loco and a welcome addition to the fleet. I'm enjoying the coasting option while shunting particularly.

End of a layout

Hold your horses - Rozelle Street isn't going anywhere anytime soon. As I mentioned in this post about 12 months ago, the layout I had been working on in Sydney in 2014-2015 had been split over a few locations in storage temporarily after we moved. While doing a clean out recently I've come to the decision that it is unlikely that I would be re-assembling that layout anytime soon. The storage costs mount up over time and the branchline junction station concept wasn't holding my interest anymore. Plus, if I did put it back together I'd want to reconstruct portions of it to take advantage of lessons learned in building Rozelle Street.

In short, it had served it's purpose for me.

I put it up for grabs on one of the Facebook sites I'm active on after Christmas and am happy to say that both modules and the return loop have found a new home with a younger modeller who wants to finish the layout and exhibit it this year. It's nice to know it's gone to another modeller and gives someone a leg up.

2017 - Year of the...

Much like other bloggers have been doing in recent posts, I've been thinking about what I want to do in the hobby this year. Aside from the addition of the detail items I've mentioned in earlier posts, the arrival of the new loco has got me toying with the idea of building another layout which could support more varied operations. As I think of plans I'll share them here.

In short, this year I want to exhibit Rozelle Street again (and a little closer to home this time), and weather my cement fleet and meat wagons. Bit of an odd selection, but the cement fleet finishes a project I've already started (I think we all have this problem), and the NRY, TRC and MRC wagons provide a new challenge.

I'll add that progress and further musings here as it happens.

For now, here's to 2017!

Cheers,
Ben