Layout progress update 2

My holiday's have now come to an end and progress will no doubt slow down a little however I managed to get some more benchwork completed before going back to work.

I was asked in a comment to show a drawing of what the current plan is to be..... (it will no doubt change). Unfortunately I had lost my original drawing file and the 3rd Planit program I did years ago on an old computer. I copied the image file from a really old blog post and done some really quick and crude modifications to that image using 3D paint. The new sections of the mainline are shown in blue, while the branchline(s) is shown in green. This is for the lower level only as at this stage the top may not change. I will use Muswellbrook yard as the datum for explanation and it will be positioned on the Northern wall of my room.

There are two peninsulas within the room. One running east from the west wall and the other running north from the south wall. Both are divided by a floor to ceiling stud wall. The latter is the one I am currently working on. On the original plan the mainline was not going around this section of the layout. The main was to swing around from the east wall and run along the south wall directly into staging. The staging would be hidden below the scenic level. 

The new plan is to include an interpretation of St Heliers, the junction for the short branchline to the Muswellbrook no.1 and no.2 Collieries similar to how it was in early 1950. At around 1952 there was a proposal put in place to extend the loop east to Grass Tree, addition of both up and down passing loops and up and down refuge loops. It was also to include the addition of a type O2 signal box. Colour light signals were also to be installed at both the east and west ends of this loop.

This later plan is way to big for the space that I have and I want to stick with semaphore signals only. I do however want to include the signal box. This in mind I decided to change the name of this junction from St Heliers to Heliers Junction. This gives me the ability to model the pre 52 plan with a few additions. I will also wrap the whole passing loop around the above mentioned peninsula rather than try and model it in a big straight line as it was prototypically...…much more interesting. The actual junction will be part way around this S bend. This proved rather difficult and took some carful planning and moving about of the main curves, as it was suggested by my modelling group guys I should maintain a minimum 36" radius on the mainline, a little bigger than originally planed. Between the curved track running from the south wall and the main curve around the peninsula, there is only a small section of straight track to fit the point work for the Junction. 

Another issue that arose by having a 42 odd inch peninsula, that was not that big on the original plan, has now encroached on where the west to east peninsula was planned and was to include the helix to the top level. The mainline west out of Muswellbrook intended to run on a small 300mm wide scenicked section of benchwork around the outside of this helix. This would make that peninsula a 50 odd inch radius.  I have decided to move this helix to another special room under the house. Access to the helix will be from the west end swinging north out of Muswellbrook yard. I could now bring this other peninsula back to slightly bigger than 36 inches and have a full depth scene rather than 12 inches.

Back to the area I'm working on; The mainline, after it swings around the peninsula, will drop down grade and into staging along the back wall, while the coal branch will climb up and over the top of the staging. The coal loading facilities and associated sidings will be above the staging along the back wall.

The below images show this new peninsula and the single piece of Masonite roughly laid in place for the mainline. All the benchwork is pretty simple L girder and is all braced back to the bottom of the wall so I have no legs. I have used both dressed Pine and Plywood. Most of this is old crap I have saved from a couple deceased estate layouts I dismantled several years ago. It has a few holes here and there but wont be seen once the scenery base goes down.

For those that did not Follow Ian Millard's WordPress blog on his Liverpool Range layout spline construction here are a few details.

The spline sections are cut form a 3.2mm Masonite sheet in 25mm wide strips on a table saw. Two strips are laminated together using 'Sika' brand TechGrip high strength polyurethane adhesive and are laid out where the centerline of my track would be allowing this spline to naturally curve giving natural easements. Its held in place with two nails. 

I made spacer blocks from a 7mm sheet of plywood and again cut these into 25mm wide strips. I then cut these into 30mm long blocks. These blocks are then glued to the outsides of this centre section about every three inches. These are held in place using spring clamps purchased on eBay. Finally another two strips of Masonite are glued to these blocks on both sides. I staggered the joins on all the strips of Masonite. I diverged these centre two sections where the points would be. Once the spline is complete I will sand the top surface with a long sanding board.

I am assembling pretty much all of my spline roadbed flat on the layout frame. I will raise and set the grade on this once I have all the spline completed to the start of the storage yard. 

 See pictures below.

The above image shows the diverging spline for the first set of points for the loop at Heliers Junction.

Till next time.

  

 WOW! Nearly six years since I've posted. How slack...…!

As one can imagine, so much can happen over six years. Family, work, car restorations, model railway building etc. I guess the most exciting and the reason for lack of progress on the Muswellbrook layout was the building of the Australian Modeller shop layout. It was built with the assistance of several close modelling friends over a four year period. This was kept pretty secret as we agreed that people should go to the shop to see it. I also kept all the build progress photos from being shown, even Peter Wilks did not see many pics until it was delivered and installed in the shop.

Several people have asked why we would take on such a project as this would no doubt slow the progress of any personnel modelling projects. It was done as a experiment to try new ideas and different products. The methods and products can be used on our own layouts in the future to produce the best results possible. I think we achieved that on the AM shop layout by the many great responses past on to us. I will post a couple pics here but be sure to get to Australian Modeller to see it for yourself.

The display was installed into the shop last September and was well received by those present that day.

 

2020 was certainly an interesting one. My work load, seemingly from the COVID crap, doubled and finding time to do anything for myself was difficult. It was even a struggle to get the AM shop layout finished. I could imagine how many layouts don't get to that finished stage. I really wanted the AM layout finished before it was installed. Although it reached that finished stage in the end, there was still a few things I would have like to add. It was a weight off the shoulders when it was finally gone but am very proud of it as well.

Christmas Holidays bought a welcome break and I was determined to get at least something started on the home layout. Way back in November 2013 I had started on the roundhouse for Muswellbrook depot. Even before then some of the benchwork was in place for the main yard and depot area at Muswellbrook but that's about it. The roundhouse building has not changed but some benchwork has been extended.

I have also changed some ideas on the overall plan of the layout. Originally I was going to include a section of the mainline to climb over the Liverpool range. Way too ambitious for the size of the room. I have decided to model the junction just south of Muswellbrook called St Heliers. St Heliers was the junction for a short branchline run to the Muswellbrook No.1 and No.3 colliery's. This will give some extra operation to the overall layout and fill in the story of how the area was worked, especially for coal movements. Even this location once some research was done is quite large and spread out. The 1952 track diagrams show the proposed installation of an up and down siding which extended east from St Heliers to Grasstree plus up and down refuge and Guards van sidings. It was to also include the addition of a Type O2 signal box. Although I have read that this duplication to Grasstree was abandoned for quite some time. I am unsure if the changes and Box were made at that time. Maybe the knowledgeable can confirm. Either way, this proposed 1952 plan will not fit the area I have so will stick to the pre 52 plan of just the single loop with junction. I would still like to model the signal box and will most likely change the name to Heliers, rather than St Heliers, keeps the detail police at bay!

On with construction then. 

The L girder benchwork was run down the east wall of the room to accommodate the mainline. This prototypically swings right out of Muswellbrook heading east toward St Heliers. 

This section will include the Y that was used for turning the Garrett locomotives. This Y will be constructed on a partial swing down section so it can be stored out the way of the isle when not in use.

The pics below show where I am up to. All the plywood section has been routed for drainage and cut and and raised for variation of ground level. The curved slots at the right of the first pic are to accept the spline sections for the mainline and Y. I used the spline roadbed technique on the AM shop layout with great success. Although a little time consuming it gives natural transitions, or easements, between curves and does not tend to 'rollercoaster' like plywood. Ian Millard perfected this technique before me on his Liverpool Range home layout and was the obvious choice.

This picture shows the start of the spline for the mainline. The widened section is for the Y.

The spline sections are now complete for the mainline and the Y but are only temporarily supported. I need to adjust the mainline to drop down from Muswellbrook yard at 1.5%. I want the line to the Y to drop away at 2% so as it sits slightly below the mainline and on the side of the hill/embankment.

           

That's all for now. I will create a Facebook group at some point were this will be duplicated for the die hard Facebook fans that don't follow the blog.

Lets hope its not 5 years till the next post!

  

     

Branchline Modellers Forum

Hi All,
Yes I know I have not posted for ages and this is still not an update of what I have been up to.......It will come eventually, But thought I would let you all know about this:
I am helping run the next Branchline Modellers Forum here in Coffs Harbour on the 21st and 22nd November this year at Bishop Druit College. If you remember Stephen Ottaway, Well known for his superb Stephen Johnson Models Kits and the famous Branchline Modeller magazines, He is the driving force behind the show.
Details of the event are going to be posted up HERE . I advise you to be quick in registering when the time comes as we are going to be restricted to just 80 to 100 attendees. Also, Make sure you email your interest as invites will not generally be advertised. It is shaping up to be quite a good event and it will be a little different to other conventions. One requirement for all attendees is they MUST bring something to put on display. This does not necessarily have to be a model, it could be photos, plans etc. of railway related subject. The purpose of this requirement is twofold.  Firstly, it means that each attendee becomes an active participant in the event by contributing to the entertainment of others.  Secondly, that spending time looking at the resultant display, the size and diversity of which is a feature of the forum, is an important element of the entertainment on offer.  In the past, some modellers have even built small dioramas just to display at the BMF.Another attraction for the weekend will be a half day guided tour of the Dorrigo Railway Museum by director Keith Jones. If you have never been to the Museum and want to know what's happening up there here is the chance to ask your questions and look over some of the Museum priceless assets.
Be sure not to miss out on this.


Cheers
Ian    

Small bit of modelling - New Blog

Sorry, not much to report. Just a heads up for a new Blog. The Author is Ben Small. He is the exhibition manager for the Epping Model Railway show. One to check out in the future.

http://smallbitofmodelling.wordpress.com/

Cheers
Ian

Muswellbrook Roundhouse - Pt. 4 Trusses

One of the best things I have found by having this blog, and I am sure that other blogger's will agree, is the amount of information that seems to come to light by fellow readers. Most of the early info I have gathered for Muswellbrook RH has been from field trips and very limited photographs. Although I was only able to measure accurately the rear brick wall section, all the other areas of the RH to be built would be from either guess work or trying to scale from poor black and white photos. One would then have to be happy with the 'near enough' result and hope that you don't get the "It was never like that" comments.

Soon after my first posting of the RH construction, I was kindly offered by fellow blog follower and Modeller Phil Colins, a full set of plans for Parks Roundhouse. Parks was, as shown from the plans, virtually exactly the same as Muswellbrook. Actually the plans state change dates for Muswellbrook. Along with the plans were a disk with numerous colour photos of the RH and service facilities. Wow! Its the sort of stuff you just dream about.......Well me anyhow. And only last week another exciting email from John Proctor (another follower), appeared with more photos showing the exposed roof trusses during its dismantling stage.  With Phil and Johns kind permission I will share some of these as the RH model progresses. Thanks again to you both.

 Both the above sets of info have been invaluable for the next stage of the RH construction. Originally I was going to copy the roof trusses from the Plans from Ray Pilgrims link and modify them slightly to resemble a close enough Muswellbrook roof profile. However with a full set of plans and detailed photos I could construct almost exact replicas of the trusses. I do say almost as I have steered away from the anal detail by leaving off the nut bolt washer castings etc. The plans show a much more complicated set of roof trusses and the time taken to build just half of them is getting a little lengthy....Yep, I'm over it!

Although I constructed the rear wall from Urethane castings I wanted the character of an old RH and felt that a timber construction was appropriate to achieve this. The inside of the rear walls will hardly bee seen from the front looking in and when weathered a brown black should blend in OK.
A list of all the required timber sizes was made up and a stock take of on hand timber was compiled. I am using mostly Capler timber purchased from Gwydir Valley and Model Railroad Craftsmen with a few in stock lengths of Northeastern. All the timber was pre stained a stick at a time using the techniques described In Garry's Modelfx blog using the Minwax stains firstly with the Classic Grey, then with the Ebony. I added a slight brown tinge to them with diluted Feast Watson Brown Japan stain. In hindsight I could have skipped the classic grey step as the coatings of black and brown seemed to covered most of this up. I made a tray at work to keep all the appropriate lengths in order and to make selection easy.

The RH roof is made up of three different trusses. The main truss runs right from the front to the back and is positioned over the centre of each of the dividing stalls sitting atop the two runs of bearers supported by the main posts. The truss also sits on top of the rear wall posts. At the front, and in between these main trusses are the inner intermediate trusses. These sit on top of the bearers that span between the main posts. At the rear are two sets of rear intermediate trusses. These span from the centre bearer to the rear centre posts. The below photo of the plan shows their position more clearly.

Three separate jigs were made to construct each of the three styles of truss. These were made using sheets of 5mm styrene with the outline of the truss scribed in using a square, scale ruler and scalpel blade. Then gluing with MEK small sections of strip styrene either side of the scale sized timbers until the completed truss jig was made. Each of the timbers were then cut to length and glued together with white glue to make up the truss. I did however find that the pre stained timber did not allow the glue to penetrate and hold real well. Some pieces came apart when removing them from the jig. I simple re glued these into position using some thick CA. I also decided to go along and strengthen the joints with the CA to ensure it does not all fall apart at a later date. I still think the effort of pre staining is worth it.
Here are photos of the plan showing the three trusses and the first set of modelled trusses in and out of the jig. Note the unique vented ridge at the peak of the roof that will be correctly modelled.

  

And here is a shot of Muswellbrooks exposed roof trusses. With thanks again to John Proctor for the use of this photo.

While the slow process of the truss construction continued, I set about setting out the bearers over the drawing I'd done on the temporary base ready for the trusses. The 12"x8" bearers were cut and laid over the arced lines on both the front and centre posts positions. These were held in place with masking tape while the glue dried. Small pieces of paper were layed under the joints to prevent the whole thing sticking to the base. After the glue dried I drilled and pinned, using brass wire, these at the joints leaving the pin above and below the bearer by about 3mm. This will alow me to insert both the truss, and at a later date, the posts to the brass pins making a realy strong joint. The rear of the truss was also drilled and pinned so as they can be possitioned into holes in the rear wall posts. I will not be glueing these ones so I can hopfully remove all the roof section leaving the rear wall in place. The intermediate trusses will only be glued into possition. No pins required.

   Once I have most of the roof trusses fixed in position, I will need to relocate it all to its possition on the layout so as I can postion the posts on top of the styrene formwork for the RH floor. I will be starting some benchwork shortly so stayed tuned for that.

Till next time.

Muswellbrook Roundhouse - Pt.3 - Windows

I needed to make five sets of 24' wide frames that hold two rows of the etches for the actual window frames. I knew that scratch building all five would be very time consuming so decided to see if I could cast them in Urethane. I could also supply my mate Adam with some for his Roundhouse as well and of course anyone else who wanted them. The frames not only needed to be correct in size but more importantly be able to accept the etches.

I begun by selecting the correct scale size styrene for each of the timbers. The 4 main posts sat directly on top of the wall and each of the windows sills were rebated into them. Using an engineers square, I scribed a vertical line into a 1mm thick sheet of Colourbond. Just so happened to be able to get that from Work. The MEK affected styrene will not easily stick to the steel sheet allowing easy removal of the completed frame.
I started by laying the first post along this line and held it in place with a couple bits of tape. The plans show these posts as 12"x 8" hardwood. As each of the frames will be butted together I made these from 6"x 8" giving the required 12" thick post when finished. Next was to position the lower 4"x 10" bottom sill along the lower edge of the Colourbond gluing it to the corner post. Using the window etch as a guide I glued the centre 6"x 8" post to the lower sill giving the etch just a mick hair of clearance. This should compensate for any variances in the etches and shrinkage of the casting. Using the same technique as described above, I proceeded to add the remaining two posts, centre 4"x 8" rails/sill and Top 4" x 6" rails.
Although Muswellbrook does not have any louvers above the windows like Cowra's, I added spaces for the these to the frames as well. I plan to have Andrew do a 3D print of a louver section that can be simply cast in urethane and inserted into the frame. I will just be cladding over the frame with the Corrugated iron.
To hold the etches in place, 0.020" square styrene strips are glued around the inside face of each of the frame openings. This also acts as the beading that would have held the frames on the real thing. A small piece of the 1mm Colourbond was used to set the correct distance in from the back face for the square beading. The 0.020" looked a bit bulky so thinned these slightly by scaping the surface with a scalpel blade. When the etches are inserted from the back another piece of the square styrene is glued down the centre of the etched window frame. The lower sill was also tapered away at the front edge as per the drawings. I was now able to cast the completed frame.

The below photos show the second cast frame. I destroyed the first one trying to work out how to remove it from the mould. If you look closely you can see the 0.010" styrene beading that holds the etches in place.

     

And here is the completed frame with etches inserted from the back. With all the etches glued in place I can airbrush the whole thing before adding the clear plastic for the window glass.

Stay Tuned.

Ian

Muswellbrook Roundhouse pt.2 - Rear Wall

The rear brick wall has five straight double brick sections 5' high that wrap around the back of the roundhouse. The distance determined during the research process revealed that they are 24' long centre to centre. The fifth stall, closest to the road, in the following photo shows that the wall extended out past the corner post by three feet from the centreline of the corner post. You can see the timber stud for the corner of the wall set back this distance. The stud would have attached to the corner post.

 

I did not have evidence of the corner wall of stall no.1, as at present they have removed the wall for easier access to the yard, so I decided to stop the wall flush with the outside face of the side wall. This will need to be extended 6" past the centreline of the corner post (half the distance of the corner post which were 12"x 8" hardwood).  

 

I started by cutting five styrene pieces the required length and height for each of the stalls. I added scale 8" to the height to allow for the concrete floor which I will pour with plaster level with the top of the rail. This was actually done on the prototype as well only the step down was done in the slab before the brick wall was constructed......A bit like a brick veneer house. Next was to laminate two long pieces of styrene to each side of these short pieced. The long lengths were divided up with the correct lengths of each of the stalls so I could scribe and slightly bend the styrene around the back wall. This would give me a gentle bend at each of the angle changes and make the whole thing nice and solid.

 

I lightly glued to the temporary timber base 5 pieced of 20mm square pine on the back side of the rear wall lines previously drawn and set back so the centre of the three styrene pieces (the short ones) was over the centre of the line. Once the glued had dried I could clamp and laminate with MEK each of the three pieces of styrene together.

 

 

I wanted to detail the inside of the shed slightly so anything that would stand out needed to be modelled. This included the access doors to the machine shop located behind the rear wall. The rear wall at Muswellbrook has had these access ways bricked in and the different colour bricks used makes them stand out like the proverbials. As can be seen in the lower photo the large double doors can be easily seen from the front of the shed.

Photo Courtesy of Graham Harvey from his Flikr Site.

 

I was able to measure these openings while at Muswellbrook so proceeded to transfer these to the wall section and cut these out down to the top of concrete level. I just so happened to have plastic double doors from an old kit that are a close match to the dimensions. Next was to laminate Slaters English Bond brick sheet to the front and back face of the styrene wall. This was done in long lengths so as to eliminate any unwanted joins.

The piers at the rear of the wall at each of the angle change positions were done by simply adding a second layer of brick sheet over the first. It scales out just about perfectly. Of course at the correct width measured from the prototype. The chamfered top edge was also modelled by gently filing along the outer face at about 45 degrees. At least the rain will run off!  Seen also is the styrene 'slab' for the machine shop. The use of styrene rather than the poured plaster was done as it will most probably be never seen.

To be able to accurately move the completed rear wall section to its new position on the layout, I added some brass pins to the underside of the wall in all the angle change positions and located right in the centre of the wall. Holes drilled in the timber base keeps it all in the correct location. When I move it to the layout I will lay the temporary sheet in the correct location and drill through the holes into the bench work. On the inside lower face I added two 8" x 6" styrene strips glued together. I will use this as 'formwork' for the slab. My idea will be to mask the painted wall and pour the slab level with the top of the styrene and railhead.
Next was to paint the wall. I have never been real confident at doing brickwork so was time to try a few ideas. I have to admit that the following technique was described to me by Peter Lewis of 'Time and Patients' that we have all admired at the shows. I applied by brush a base colour of Humbrol no.82 matt 'Orange Lining'. This a real orange colour but will tone down with following steps. Next was to add a 'splatter effect' using Humbrol no.100 'Red Brown', no.63 matt 'Sand' and no.33 Matt Black. This is done by slightly thinning the paint with Mineral Turps and using a stiff brush and a gauze or mesh strainer held over the top of the wall, and brushing the bristles on the top side of the gauze. This causes the paint to splatter in fine uneven and random spots over the brickwork. The slight thinning allows the paint to flow slightly and settle on the surface rather than landing and drying in fine spots. Using the paint in the order listed above gives a great effect. Finally, I gave the entire wall a wash of white (with just a small amount of black to turn it grey) Windsor and Newtons water soluble oil paint thinned to a tea like mixture with Isopropyl alcohol to give the appearance of the mortar between the bricks. I ran a cork block slightly soaked in alcohol over the surface just to take off a bit of the white from the face of the brick. I will also use some thinned black to add some grimy rain streaks also. The photos might explain all this dribble better.

The top edge will be painted with Floquil Concrete to finish it all off.

Till next time.

      

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Muswellbrook Roundhouse pt.1 - research.

As usual, I have delved into yet another project before finishing the previous. There is however a plausible excuse for this....and its the one I'm sticking to!

I have made a start on constructing the roundhouse for Muswellbrook. This is actually the first piece of construction commenced for the layout. So, here is the excuse......I was asked at the last New England convention about doing some etching for the rear wall section of an Anton's roundhouse Kit for a friend and fellow Blogger Adam Homer. A sample section of the rear wall from the kit was sent to me for measurement and inspection. The Anton's kit uses a cast polyurethane frame with clear acetate for the window glass that has lines marked with a black pen to represent the window frames. Apart from the wall section being totally out of square, The window glazing with its black lines just looked terrible!
Originally Andrew and I (AndIan Models) set about to make an etch that was able to be inserted into the Anton's frame, but after much deliberation it was agreed that if we were to spend the time on the etching artwork we may as well make them correct. After all, I was wanting similar etched window frames to the Cowra ones Adam wanted. So, a new wall section needed to be constructed to fit the correct frames.

Fortunately for me, the rear brick wall section still exists at Muswellbrook along with the roundhouse floor and turntable. As Usual, Muswellbrook roundhouse was unique in many forms and I have never been able to get detailed plans of the roundhouse. Over several visits to Muswellbrook I was able to accurately measure the rear brick wall and roundhouse floor. The below three photos show the roundhouse floor and rear brick wall section still standing.

 

 

You can see in the lower photo that the stirrups atop the brick wall are still there. These held the base of the main posts that divide each of the window frame sections. There are three sections per stall. Some simple measuring revealed that the distance between the outer posts, or centreline dividing each stall, was 24'. Some time ago Ray Pilgrim 'Bylong Blog' posted a link to some roundhouse drawings along with a link to a flickr site with images of Cowra's Roundhouse. I soon realised that the dimensions matched the drawing. I was also able to scale off the below photo of the rear wall of the roundhouse to determine the height. These dimensions were also compared to those of the Cowra roundhouse.

If you compare photos of the window frames you will see that Muswellbrook's window frames were more rectangular than that of Cowra's Square frames. Although Cowra's square window frames differed by quantity per frame, The distance between the main posts are the same for both. Andrew was now able to draw up some frames from the researched dimensions of both Muswellbrook and of Cowra's two different frames.

Cowra Windows 1
Cowra Windows 2
Muswellbrook Windows

       After waiting patiently for these to be fitted on a test etch, a couple weeks ago I finally received the samples. Before sending the sample off to Adam, I needed to make sure that, A, the etches fit the correct frames, and B, that I was able to construct the frame and reproduce them in polyurethane.
From the drawing and the measurements taken at Muswellbrook I set about constructing the rear wall. Hold Up! Not as easy as that. For me I needed to work out the exact length of the engine shed and its relation, or position, to the mainline. As the drawing did not match the roof profile of Muswellbrook's, I needed to find out if these matched the drawings also. My last trip to Muswellbrook revealed that there were two main posts along the centreline dividing each of the stalls, however they were not evenly spaced like the drawing. The middle post measured 36'feet from the rear brick wall, while the front post was only 28' from the centre post. Looking at the below photo reveals that the front post was set back from the front line of the gutter, or end of the roof rafter which explains the set back distance of the front post. You can also see that I have drawn a line roughly along were the roof rafter and lower truss beam would be and measured the angle with a protractor. 11 Degrees. Pretty close to the drawing. I was told by someone that the roof trusses from Muswellbrook roundhouse were used to rebuild Cowra's???

 

Next was to determine the location of the roundhouse in relation to the mainline. I wanted to make sure I had the shed looking correct when on the layout. I used Google Maps to print out a satellite view of the loco depot area. I drew a horizontal line along the mainline, then using a square, drew a 90 degree line from that, intersecting the centre of the turntable. The filled in pits of the engine shed can bee seen on the image so a line through the centre of stall 1's road was drawn to the centre of the turntable. Again using the protractor I could determine the angle of stall no.1........23 degrees.

As I have not started the layout bench work yet, I used a temporary sheet of MDF to mark out the full size floor plan of the turntable and roundhouse area using the researched dimensions and angles. While at Muswellbrook I measured the distance from the turntable pit wall to the rear of the brick wall of the shed adding on 37'6"(half of the 75' turntable), equalling 170'. The scaled out measurements of the Turntable centre, pit wall, front and mid shed posts and rear wall were marked out on a strip of styrene, holes drilled at these locations and using a small pin through the location of the turntable pit centre, radius line were marked. The five rear wall sections were marked out at 24' centres using the straight line from the turntable centre point. I now have a completely accurate plan of the turntable and shed in its correct orientation. I could now start to construct the shed.

To be continued: