Garden railway in 16mm: Wilmington Light Railway

[Greengiant]

To give me something to do over the winter months, I made a start on the buildings, the first up being the engine shed, so I made a rough mock up to judge size and positioning.



Then on the computer drew up some full scale (16mm) drawings.



Using these computer drawings, I dug out my old drawing tools from my art college and early paste-up days and set to work drawing the building out on PVC Foamex, this being a new material to me and inspired by the work of Nikki Wilkes, thought I would give it a go. I used a print out of brick courses taped at the top of the drawing board as a measurement guide when marking out the Foamex.





This I embossed and cut with a selection of tools.







Until eventually I had effectively a building kit of parts.



Assembly went quite smoothly and soon took up a lot of space on the workbench.



In my research I came across this superglue used in the double glazing trade, comes in a decent sized bottle and is very powerful, I tried a test piece first and the Foamex broke and not the glue joint.



Martin

 

[Greengiant]

I made a roof with trusses which is a very snug fit into the building and hoping this will hold in place when it gets windy in the garden, if not, I will find some way of fixing in it place.



The roof was covered in nearly 800 slates, hand cut and chipped or broken where required.



A set of steps for the pedestrian side door was also made, sanding the flag stones to simulate years of wear.



Now in position by the doorway. The first step does look high at the moment, but when on the railway the building is effectively 'planted' in gravel, so the building has 15mm extra added to the wall bottoms to cater for this.



As the build progressed, I felt the end of the shed lacked interest, so a driver and fireman rest was added.



Ridge tiles and end boards have been put on the roof.



Next I need to start getting some paint applied.

Martin

 

[Greengiant]

There is need for a cattle/sheep dock on the railway, so one was drawn up on a 600mm x 400mm sheet of 5mm PVC Foamex and scribed.



It did not take long to glue the main structure up, again, like the engine shed, this has an extra 15mm depth to the sides to embed it into the gravel.



Some posts for the railings were made by laminating some 5mm and 3mm PVC Foamex, then trimming to final size with a bandsaw on it's slowest speed setting.



I wanted the posts to have a pointed top, I have some five bar gates on the driveway at home so measured the angle of the pointed tops of the posts which came out as near enough 30 degrees. My mitre saw block only had 45 degrees, so I laser cut a saw and drilling guide to help with batch processing, also makes it a lot easier to hold a post than a mitre block would in this size. The photo shows the laser cut 2mm MDF jig with 30 degree guide and one of the two drilling guides. Also some of the post blanks and a selection of 2mm mild steel rod for the rail, which I am hoping will rust nicely over time.



How the jig is designed to work, first a post is inserted up to the end stop, then the first cut is made.



Which gives this first cut that gets a few passes with a file to smooth flat to guide.



Then the post was withdrawn and rotated through 90 degrees away from me and inserted back thus...



Another cut is made...



Repeat until the fourth cut...



Eventually I ended up with 15 posts...



Martin

 

[Greengiant]

Each post was put in the jig and drilled with one guide, then each one was rotated 90 degrees and put back in the jig with the second hole guide in place and drilled.



Ending up with 15 identically drilled posts, what I have not shown is the end stop also had a central hole to drill and tap the post base 8BA so they can be bolted to the main base.



The posts were bolted to the base, using a pin chuck to set the length of the steel rod to be cut.



Using the pin chuck as a saw cut guide, the pin chuck was clamped in a bench vice and the rod cut with a piercing saw.



Once complete, all the rods were threaded into the posts.





Martin