Love Lane, B.R. (E) c.1956-59

Scale7JB

Western Thunderer
Thunder definitely not stolen Peter, and many thanks for the pattern. I should think the best thing is to print up a full sheet of A4 and cut out what's needed and stick to the seat castings I have.

Thanks again..! Hopefully be up at John's on Friday..

JB.
 

Scale7JB

Western Thunderer
Jim McGeown of Connoisseur supplies card inserts for his 6 wheel carriages. I guess at the same time though there isn't a great deal of money in such a thing, especially in this day and age of Photoshop and high quality printing.

JB.
 

Heather Kay

Western Thunderer
Best Beloved and I thoroughly enjoyed our visit. We spent for ever chatting with everyone, and Peter Hunt managed to swap almost all my cash for some much needed odds and ends. A splendid day out, and well done to everyone involved in organising it.
 

Lancastrian

Western Thunderer
I think the 1st. Albury S7 meet was a real success :thumbs: judging by the numbers there, good to catch up with everyone I spoke to and apologies to those I didn't get to.

Col.
Agreed,
Although I only knew a couple of people, I was introduced to a few others. It was a very well attended meet, I was delightfully surprised at the numbers attending. Well done to the team for organising it. I'm looking forward to the next S7 meet I can attend.

Ian
 

Peter Insole

Western Thunderer
I know I have not posted for quite a while on the Love Lane thread, but have been persuaded that it is about time to show you what I have been up to!

While admitting to being somewhat single minded, or perhaps just utterly incapable of multitasking, a particular part of the main station building, waiting rooms and stationmaster's house have become something of a marathon!

Every Wednesday afternoon regular folk or other visitors pause briefly at my bench and query;

"You're not STILL working on that roof are you?"

Most people have good sense, and have been suggesting that although Love Lane is based on Chigwell it is otherwise fictional, so it is not necessary to be completely enslaved by the prototype! As the weeks pass, I sometimes wish I had been tempted to heed the advice; "Just bung some good ol' slates on, and be done with it..." or "Who's going to notice anyway?"

Trouble is; I am just too fond of the "Arts and Crafts" and "Deco" architecture. Growing up in the Barkingside area ensured that it is very much in my blood. Or at least where my soul resides yet anyway!

And that brings me to this problem:

Hips and dormers might be a roofer's bad dream, but a slater or tiler's task might have been eased by the use of leaded gullies and whacking great ridges over the junctions, thus hiding any awkward course alignment issues? Then at some point, architects came up with the bright idea of using small, pegged clay tiles with pitch specific "Arris" and "Bonnet" hips as well as specially moulded "Valleys". The wonderfully neat, clean and modern looking result may have caught on nationwide, but oh boy, what a complete nightmare to install!

Here is a rather rough and cobbled repair example of a roof with "Arris Hips" as inspirational reference...

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Firstly, the plain roofs had to be marked out for our laser cut tile courses.

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The dormers were removed to allow the course lines to be accurately ruled right across the roof on the front (and critical) elevation. I then had to be very careful to ensure that the tiles would align when the courses met at the ridges.

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Each gap between the tiles had to be cleared of excess glue for a tidy finish.

These are small tiles on a BIG roof, so there are an awful lot of 'em to do...!

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All seemed to be coming on quite nicely, albeit very slowly and methodically.

Oops, then I noticed an error had occurred - so would it mean going back to the beginning...?

See next post...!

Pete.
 

Peter Insole

Western Thunderer
That was a bit over the top, but as I am afraid that this thread could get rather long and boring I was tempted to go for the full dramatic effect!

Anyway, returning to the post:

Despite the added expense, and bearing in mind the quantity required, we decided that having the arris hips 3D printed was the only viable option for this project. JB (the other one) did a splendid job drawing them up and sent off an order for a trial batch.

They arrived in double quick time, but oh: Quite clearly we were pushing the limits of the material? Printed as strips of twenty overlapping tiles was
too long; each strip had developed an unacceptable curve and twist. They also proved to be extremely brittle. They seemed to self destruct just by anyone getting too close and breathing anywhere near them!

I have no doubt that both issues would be fairly straightforward to remedy, but unfortunately that would mean more precious time lost, and cost!

When setting out the tile courses, I was using a few shattered oddments of the above mentioned to ensure the correct starting points for each line. Silly, silly me... I had completely failed to take account of the roof pitch!

Slowly, each carefully laid line was shifting off vertical. I only discovered the error as the layers approached the two dormer tops. Arghhh!, almost two sessions worth of tiling would have to be ripped up, the old adhesive scraped off and smoothed and then the guide lines re-marked out...?

SAM_x1964.JPG

After I had a cuppa, a generous portion of Mrs. JB's super cake and several smoky "walks" outside in the garden, I had calmed down enough to see that the middle section, to the left in the above photo, was mercifully OK, and that the lower 10 courses were more or less within visual tolerances on either side!

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Got there in the end! The cardboard gables were trimmed and glued back on as the last act that evening!

I know it all looks a bit grubby, but that is the soot from the laser burn. You cannot really sandpaper paper and get away with it!

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Tiling these awkward so and so's took yet another session, and once again, the photo was taken after everyone else had gone home!

The untidy nibbled tiles in the joints will have to be covered with strips of very thin paper to represent the "Valley tiles".

Yet another job for later.

Pete.
 

Peter Insole

Western Thunderer
Now we come to the serious bit: Having laid the relatively straightforward tiles on the plain rear of the roof, it was time to face the really tricky sides!

The problem was ensuring that the courses were all aligned at the hips...

...and centred too:

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The only saving grace was that the horizontals would be visually interrupted by another gable, providing a small amount of wriggle room!

After twisting and turning the thing around while desperately trying to find the best way to accurately mark it out, I eventually decided upon this method:

I found that there were some slight anomalies on either side, so simply drawing right across and joining the points led to some tapering lines. Start on that road, and the error rapidly compounds. By clamping a straight strip of scrap on the vertical centre line I was able to check and correct any lines that had slightly drifted. When the procedure was flipped there were a few odd misalignments, but it was then possible to make the very fine adjustments necessary.

All a bit long winded and a right old fuss I know. The trouble is, roofs like this are a mass of geometry, so there is no getting away from it. Losing patience and concentration at any stage will result in a MESS of geometry! Unfortunately, that then tends to stand out and shout loudly from miles away!

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Whew, as far as I could see, everything has lined up? The big test will come when the Arris tiles are fitted - much, much later? I don't normally chew my nails - but there was affair amount of gnawing and gnashing going on at this point!

I also finally remembered to add the extra layer of tile strip along the bottom - BEFORE starting the first row... Hah, hah!

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Rather awkwardly, the first five courses had to start on this dangly down bit of the roof.

That dear old dollop Mr. Ashbee (and the Directors of the GER!) way back in 190o and something had no idea of the headaches they would cause someone, so many, many years later?!

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Don't look too closely, I think I only just about got away with it?

Every few courses, I only applied glue to the ends of a complete strip, let it set, and then cut away the dry middle to make absolutely sure that the verticals remained true. Naturally, I allowed myself to be distracted every now and then, forget what I was doing and habitually apply adhesive all the way along...

...What a wally!

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I have left the gap running up toward the ridge, hopefully to minimise the amount of fiddling that will be required with one-and-a-half ("Gable") and trimmed "Ordinary" tiles when the new Arris Hips are finally made and fitted?

There is one good thing about doing all this here at JB's - apart that is from the good company... AND the cakes!..., is that I don't have to keep running up and down ladders or scurry along scaffolding in the wind and rain to reach this lot!

Pete.
 

Osgood

Western Thunderer
...I have left the gap running up toward the ridge, hopefully to minimise the amount of fiddling that will be required with one-and-a-half ("Gable") and trimmed "Ordinary" tiles when the new Arris Hips are finally made and fitted?....

Just hang on there - it could be next Wednesday before the materials are available to complete the job.

A reputable roofing contractor would surely have covered the exposed structure with a well-roped sheet..........

Work In Progress.jpg
 

Peter Insole

Western Thunderer
Disreputable me! - indeed! - It's not as if I can blame the staff either!

Brilliant artwork Osgood - "Like" is totally inadequate!

Pete.
 
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