Barchester

This is another model that I tried to research on the web but again I was disappointed with my efforts. Nothing that appealed at all and certainly nothing that was good enough for Barchester from an appearance point of view. So, once more it was our own design team that came up with the goods and the following building is the result. Card construction almost throughout, again of varying thickness plus the invaluable white PVA glue. Anything special or different in construction methods will be mentioned in the text that goes with the photographs.

This first picture shows that the fuelling unit is to have two tracks, the main track, between the platforms will be capable of refuelling locomotives and also off loading fuel from rail tankers while the outside track, which will be on the right of the photograph will only allow for off loading of fuel. 








Construction is pretty straight forward as you can see. Platform sidewalls and surfaces are all of card which will be suitably scribed. The fuel tanks, crude at the moment, are just rolled up copy paper. The lattice work is made from blank post cards with the cut out side frames being stuck back to back to give a nice cross girder effect. The lattice girder work is to carry fuel lines across the track and there will be two of them. The first is in position and the second, all the pieces of which you can see in the photograph, is waiting to be assembled.








You can probably tell from the above photograph that the unit has changed position. The reason for this is quite simple in that I didn't think it would balance out with it's sister building, the locomotive washer, in it's first position. What has happened is that the two units have exchanged places. You can now see where the two tracks are going and the scribing has been done while the second gantry is straddling the track along with it's mate.


This next picture shows the fuel tanks coming along and the fuel monitoring boxes. One of the staff can be seen supervising. The monitoring boxes are not in their permanent position as the fuel pumps will be going where they are but they help to fill the picture up.











Now we can see the off loading delivery pipe work. At the moment it is just leaning against the gantry so that for modelling purposes you can see what it looks like. The pipes are made up of BBQ kebab sticks, very cheap from and plentiful. The red discs on the gantries give an idea of where the lighting for night time operation of the unit will be whilst the red domes are flashing warning lights of fuel levels in the receiving tanks.


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So the fuel pipes now cross the tracks ok but as you can see there is only flanged pipework for fuel delivery going to the track in the middle of the unit so now I have to add further pipework so that fuel can be delivered from both tracks.











I have included the next photograph to give an overhead view of the position shown in the previous picture. I think it helps to show exactly what is going on.










This next one is another overhead view and now there is the complete fuel delivery pipework installed so that both tracks are now capable of taking delivery from rail tankers. The fuel monitoring panels have been moved to their position against the gantries and the refuelling pumps, with their hose pipes, are in the correct place. The hand wheels for isolating the delivery pipes are made from press studs, a very handy source for all types of wheel. So far everything, apart from press studs for wheels, paper clips for tank breather pipes and kebab sticks for pipes, has been made from paper and card using white PVA glue to stick everything.









Now it can be clearly seen how much progress has been made. The fuel storage tanks have been finished with ladders, walkways, isolating valves and vents. Danger signs, made up on the computer, have been put up and 'light' fitments have been added, one for each track.









The next job was to add canopies to one of the platforms. I suppose there should really be a canopy on either platform but when I placed the second one in position between them they hid too much detail. The canopies are all card again except for the cross cables on the canopy supports which are lengths of florists wire.








Here is an overhead shot of the same scene and I think you will see what I meant about the second canopy. You can also see that some of the ballasting has been done. All that is required now is some white fencing, there is a project on how to make that, some ground work, grass and a timber crossing over the tracks for the workmen.

White fence and a bit of grass added to almost finish the job off and make things neat and tidy right at the edge of the baseboard.

This is the final picture of the refuelling unit series and shows the timber track crossing for the staff so that they can get between platforms without too much trouble. Cardboard again but this time stained with Colron wood dye. There are some great colours in this range of wood dyes, especially the driftwood which is used for old timber.







That's it then folks for another project. I hope this page may have given you some ideas or helped you to take the plunge into cardboard modelling.


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