Sorry for the lack of posts over the holiday period, we haven't been away just other things intruding at times.
I have been doing a couple of things though.
In early December I installed the Werris Creek station building and platform on Ron Cunningham's Werris Creek layout. It didn't go quite as planned even though I had made a template of the space and worked out where the platform and building would go. Unfortunately, I didn't allow enough platform space for the awnings on both sides of the building which meant that the platform and building had to move further away from the apex of the North and North Western lines. The result was that the straight end of the platform on the North line had to be trimmed to meet the curve of the track as it wrapped around the room corner. Luckily the curved part of the platform is not really that visible and will be hidden once the Refreshment Room/Hotel building is in place (whenever that might be).
I decided that it was time for it to go to Ron's even though there are still a few bits to be done. The main things are the platform edging which I am hoping will be laser etched and cut so that it can be laminated onto the timber platform face. The second missing item was the small concrete paneled signal box on the apex of the platform.
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| Station just prior to the move with a rough first print' of the platform signal box |
So, as the platform edging was out of my hands I had decided to work on the small signal box. On our way last November to the Convention at Armidale we dropped into Werris Creek and I measured the signal box and took some photos, these were now referred t as I drew up a 3D version for printing. I printed the walls and roof on my Cocoon Create Touch FDM printer (filament) and the doors and windows and gable barge boards were printed on my new Phrozen Shuffle XL DLP printer (resin). While the walls and roof are not as good a finish as would be achieved with the DLP printer they are adequate and straight/rectangular models are difficult to keep straight with DLP printers as the resin is prone to warping caused by about a 0.5% shrinkage when curing. Some warping is evident in the doors of the South Box model, these were straight when printed and warped later.
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| Only photo I have found of the signal box in 1971 - Photographer unknown |
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| In 'Heritage' colours - November 2018 |
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| The model sitting in the grass on my Cassilis yard on BYLONG |
Please note that the current signal box is lowered slightly into the platform surface due to the platform having been raised. The model is correct for the period.
With the small signal box out of the way I decided that the next job was to do the same for the Werris Creek South Box which has long been demolished. I had two photos of is and a couple of sketches by an unknown person. This sketch was useful as it gave me an indication of what was on the rear wall of the South Box. The extra details around the signal box will be added once the South Box is in place permanently.
The prototype photos and the final result are shown here below less the deck at the front which will be built once the small scenery bank that it sits on is in place on the layout.
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| Unknown photographer |
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| Unknown photographer |
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| Sketches - Unknown Artist |
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| The model sitting in the grass on my Cassilis yard on BYLONG |
I have been up to some other modelling recently but that will be a subject for the next post.
