Engine Shed

The shed, which is a critical part of the layout, was my first attempt at scratch-building a significant structure; previous buildings have mostly been Scalescenes kits. The original is quite interesting anyway as the steelwork appears to lend more to shipyard techniques than conventional civil engineering. I had photos of the shed so I scaled these to the best of my ability, and bearing in mind loco sizes and track spacing. In later years the shed was in very poor condition, with no roof, but on my “what if” layout it’s been fully restored. Images of the original shed are available on the web, including here. I’ve not attempted a scale replica but it’s a representation of the original.

The steelwork is made from Plastruct components using PlasticWeld liquid. I drew up templates on the computer and printed them out for cutting the components and for the overall layout. I fixed the components in place on the templates with BluTack and ran the glue through the joints. It worked and made a robust structure. Finally I sprayed the structure with rattle can red oxide primer.

I borrowed from Scalescenes for the walls by again drawing the shapes on the computer and printing them on to A4 sticky label sheets. After attaching them to thick card they’re easy to cut out and assemble. The cladding is again downloaded from Scalescenes and wrapped around the assembled building.

The piece of new brickwork visible on the front of the shed is required based on original photos. The crane engines had a habit of reversing into the shed with their jibs still up, bending the steel girder. At some point the left hand end of the girder was bent up and back so far it knocked a chunk out of the wall. Matching the two sets of brickwork was fairly painstaking but I’m happy with the result.

The doors were borrowed from another Scalescenes kit modified to suit whilst the roof is just printed and stuck onto card.

Details of the “steelwork”, you
can also see the tiny LED lights detailed elsewhere

The shed in almost finished state, it’s waiting on the ground surface then the roof will be completed