2mm A tale of two signalboxes

[David Varley]

One from the Furness and one from the L&Y.

The Furness version is for my embryonic layout based on Coniston and has been on and off my workbench in various stages of construction for several years now.

The real life box opened in 1897 with the base coming from a defunct box at Carnforth, and the model has followed a similar path, the base having been constructed way back in the mists of time and the top portion a more recent addition after one failed attempt. The interior is detailed, albeit that you can't see very much of it with the roof on and the next step is to add the roof to the weigh house which abutted the box.















And the real thing towards the end of its days ...



As for the L&Y box, that's for the Pennine 2mm Group's 'Lightcliffe' layout (see http://pennine2mm.blogspot.co.uk/) and is only just underway, the windows for the front of the box having been put together over the weekend.

 

[David Varley]

A little bit more done on Lightcliffe this morning - lower panels added, inset windows constructed, and holes drilled ready for opening out the spaces for the latter.

Discovered a slight height difference between the right hand window section and the other two sections but will hopefully be able to hide this when the roof goes on (the sections above the windows have been made deliberately larger than they need to be to allow for shaping when adding the roof).

 

[David Varley]

A bit of filing and fettling later and we have an almost complete front panel - corner posts to be added but will be using those to join the ends to the front and rear so will hold fire with those for the moment.



The build could get slightly trickier now, in that the box was built on an embankment and I don't have any shots of the rear or any good enough shots of the ends to show how far down the box went at the back. The left hand end (as you look at the box) appears to have been on the level but there's a partial shot of the right hand end that seems to show that that end wasn't. The same shot does show that there were locking room windows in the back of the box, in that you can see one through the front windows but there don't seem to have been any upper windows in the rear wall.

Think I'll tackle the rear wall next - put the locking room windows in at the same level as those on the front and extend it downwards far enough so that it's a case of chopping part off rather than adding and then work out how much to remove the next time I'm down at the club.

Back to work tomorrow though

 

[David Varley]

More progress on Lightcliffe 'box today - over-height rear wall (to be shortened in due course) and door end wall almost finished. I need to add vertical bracing to the rear wall once it's been shortened and the end wall is missing its triangular upper part.

I've also got the steps to add now that I've finally worked out which way they go! When constructed, as per the photograph in the first post, the steps came down the side of the box, but at some point they were reconstructed so that they came away from the box at 180 degrees. Question was, when did the change take place? We're modelling Lightcliffe in the 1930s and whilst I haven't yet found anything definitive to say exactly when the steps were moved, after a bit of hunting I managed to track down a 1938 picture which shows that the steps were still running down the side of the box at that time. Good enough, I think, to model them in that form.

 

[westernfan]

Great work on your signal box ,looking forward to seeing it built and painted

 

[David Varley]

Great work on your signal box ,looking forward to seeing it built and painted

Thanks - I'm enjoying building it. Slow and steady away though - it's taken three years on and off to get the Coniston box to where it is now, albeit with a total rebuild of the top section and whilst Lightcliffe should be a quicker build, there's still a lot to do before it's going to be anywhere near ready for painting.

 

[David Varley]

A day off today and managed to get a bit more done this morning ... and hoping to get a bit more done this afternoon.

Door end wall is finished and I've just started assembling the final set of windows for the non-door/toilet end. Also had a trail fit of the door end wall and the front wall and they seem to match up pretty well.

The finished door end wall.



And placed alongside the front wall for comparison.



The two walls temporarily joined together with a blob of Blu Tack.



And the final set of windows for the non-door/toilet end under construction.



Time for lunch!

 

[Rob Pulham]

Looking good David,

Can you tell me where you got the squares from - I tried looking on the Zona website without any luck

 

[Dog Star]

Can you tell me where you got the squares?

Try putting "Zona L-square" into a search engine... gives lots of suppliers.

 

[David Varley]

Looking good David,

Can you tell me where you got the squares from - I tried looking on the Zona website without any luck

Thanks Rob,

I couldn't find a UK supplier at the time so I ended up buying some from the US - http://www.rjrcooltools.com/shop_item_detail.cfm?subcat_ID=104

Very handy for assembling plastic strip, being as they're flat.

David

 

[David Varley]

Fourth and final exterior wall finished - slightly trickier than the others thanks to the external water closet but got there in the end, though it is still over-height. I'm aiming to get down to the club next Saturday to check what the level drop is off the back of the platform and will either build the box into the platform (which I've got to rebuild anyway) or put it on a false base. Next job construction wise is to put a roof on the WC and then get the steps for the other end of the box done.



Looks a bit wonky in that photo, but I think the camera's being a bit cruel - happy enough with it and looks good up against the front wall, though it's difficult to get a good photo of the two together at the moment because of the height difference (just use your imagination to close up that gap between the walls please!).



I haven't forgotten Coniston either - currently putting putting the finishing touches to the roof and painting the stone base and weigh office, having finally got my hands on a decent colour picture of the box (which I'm afraid I can't post for copyright reasons). Not very photogenic at the moment though!

 

[David Varley]

Limited progress the last few days due to real life getting in the way, but got a bit more done.

Toilet roof tiled and finial added (the tiles are chopped up slate slips whilst the finials are 0.75mm square plastic strip with a Ratio top fixed to one end and a 0.76mm solder ball to the other).







I've also made a start on the lever frame - 10 levers down, 20 to go (levers are Brassmasters affixed to 0.25x4mm plastic strip with 1mm strips of 4mm half round strip between to form the frame).

 

[David Varley]

Lever frame finished and fixed to the floor ready for painting ...



... and the staircase (a mix of Plastruct stairs and scratchbuilding) affixed to the door end wall.







David V.

 

[john lewsey]

Superb David

 

[David Varley]

A rather intense first week back at work combined with a dose of the lurgy has slowed progress, but I finally roused myself this afternoon and assembled the front and end walls on the sub-base. Suitably inspired, I then added the brackets and planks for the window cleaner's walkway and assembled and painted the interior.

Next job will be to solder up the handrails for the walkway and affix those which I'm hoping I'll get done tomorrow.

 

[David Varley]

It was an extremely fiddly exercise, with a little bit of cussing, but the window cleaners now have a railing (interesting to note that when the staircase was rebuilt the landing was extended around the corner of the box but before that it stopped at the end of the front wall).

Some rather cruel close ups follow ... as a result of which I've spotted a couple of things that need tidying up but otherwise it's getting close to time to apply some primer. Mind you, I still haven't decided whether to paint it as an L&Y box that the LMS haven't got round to repainting yet or as newly repainted one. Anybody know how efficient the LMS were at applying house colours post grouping?

 

[David Varley]

I'm a little bit annoyed with myself!

Having finished all the external detailing and filled a couple of the gaps around the windows I decided to give the model a bath in the ultrasonic cleaner (one of the advantages of 2mm scale - I can get the whole box in the cleaner!) before applying a coat of primer, except that before applying the primer I'm now going to have to re-tile the toilet roof (slate slips didn't like getting wet) plus I've lost the locking room door knob and the bottom of the finial on the toilet roof

As a result of comments elsewhere, I also decided to finesses the support brackets to the window cleaner's balcony by removing the "O" rings, as a result of which one of the planks has gone a bit wonky. I really don't want to remake the balcony, so may have to put a side board on to try and disguise it.

Ho hum!

On a more positive note, I've finally decided on the livery - faded L&Y just before the LMS painters arrive!

 

[john lewsey]

That really is lovely work David

 

[David Varley]

Thanks John.

I'm itching to get painting it now, but just need to sort out the these final few issues first.

David

 

[David Varley]

And primed ...





Really starts to come alive for me now.