Bomen Station –construction part 4

In times of severe flooding, the NSW Railways ran a shuttle train across the Murrumbidgee River between Wagga and Bomen on a fairly intensive schedule.  This was an important service, allowing schoolkids, and workers to be able to access either side of the river for school, work, or in my case sightseeing.  The cost was $2 economy for a round trip.  4836 had lost its bicentennial writing, but not the livery.  There were 3 FS coaches if my memory hasn't failed me   With the opening of the Olympic Highway high level bridge in the mid 1990s, there was no longer a need for the  flood train.  Although it will still form part of my future operation, just too good an opportunity to have a commuter special to liven up the session.

As I had previously made a cardboard mockup for the roof, I felt confident that I could cut out the  corrugated styrene using the same measurements.  The styrene I used was only recently acquired from “All Aboard” at Mittagong, as it came in a fairly large sheet, 30cm x 80 cm – the width of 30cm is just wide enough to cover the full width of the station roof, without needing to join.  Fairly expensive, so I didn’t want to muck it up.

The triangle sections cut from the main roof, make up the parts for the end roof sections 

I also cut some roof trusses from 0.040 thou styrene.   To cut a long story short, there were some adjustments and chamfering to get the roof assembled to it would fit the roof without falling over the edges, or leaving too much of a gap.  All of the trusses have been reinforced.

Checking the roof for size.  Thankfully, it fitted

An evergreen strip 0.010 x 0.100 for the fascia board was painted, and fitted to the edge of the eves.  The guttering was next.

Chimneys.  I studied my photographs, and drew up a rough diagram showing the size and height – based on counting bricks.  Using the discarded brick styrene from the window and door cutout, I fabricated  a set of chimneys.  Each chimney has 24 pieces of plastic, each piece cut and shaped to size – not a task for the impatient.

Waiting room chimney, with sketch.  Note the stretcher bond brick pattern - don't look too closely, as my chimney model used the wall offcuts, which were not stretcher bond.  The thickness of the Slaters brick styrene sheet is very close to the half brick difference in the prototype's stepped design - and I think I have captured this look nicely.

Holes were carefully cut into the roof, and the chimneys dry fitted. 

Once completed, the chimneys were then brush painted in the brick colour.  I also painted the roof corrugated iron "tamiya aluminium"  

The doors and window openings on the station were all cut and shaped by hand, and unfortunately, variations happened with things that should have been identical.  This meant some bespoke work – particularly on the doors with the crownlights. 

I cut all the "woodwork" from paper, which I painted then fitted to a thick piece of CD case clear plastic with PVA white glue.  This will then be attached to the inside of the station, and only the slightest hit of the brown around the crownlights will show.  Whilst this is a cheat, from a distance hard to tell it is not a high quality plastic part.   

The first one took around 2 hours, but I had settled on a technique, and the others were faster.  By the time I got to the simple windows, I had the time down to  around 10 minutes each

Some weathering on the roof, and chimneys, dry fit the roof to the building, and time to beat the weather, to catch some last minute sunlight for picture taking. 

Well that is it for now.  The guttering, plumbing, and lead flashing will have to wait.  And I have not yet given up on fitting an interior, or lighting.  The next structure for the station should be the Lamp room/gents toilet – followed by the signal box that disappeared after 1983. 

I hope you managed to get to the Rosehill Gardens exhibition last weekend - it was a good one.  I was lucky enough to share a car on Monday for the long day trip from Junee.  The bonus was that I also acquired some more models for the layout, including the elevated water tank from Mechanical Branch Models, which I need for Borambola  And it was also good to catch up with the traders who make this great hobby great.

The layouts were most inspirational too - if you didn't get to the exhibition, do yourself a favour, and , check it out on youtube. 

Stay warm.