And The Doors Fell Off (1)

Because the Hinges Have Rusted!

Keen and observant readers with a photographic memory may remember that fbb bought a second-hand Bachmann wooden locomotive shed for his outdoor model railway.

The model is made, not of wood, but of cast resin; i.e. thick plastic. The doors open with delightful but tiny hinges ...

... made of fine wire; fine steel wire; fine steel wire that rusts; fine steel wire that has rusted away completely in only a few short months. The loops into which the wire hooks hook have disappeared without trace.

So the doors fell off. It came with one broken door ...

 ... and now had three more!

When fbb was nobbut a lad, he could have bought a Hornby Dublo engine shed, made of plastic but lacking "character".

You can buy one on EBay today in  slightly worn condition for £32 or new and shiny in an original box for £64.

Or there was a much smaller Triang version ...

... barely large enough for anything other than a small 0-6-0 tank engine. Expect to pay between £10 and £20 depending on state of the model and quality of the box.

One modern modeller has suck a dozen of these together to make something a bit bigger.

But that's the problem. Whilst in the real 12" to the foot railway there were some very small engine sheds, as here at Tewkesbury ...

... most were big. A Model of Saltley depot (Birmingham) would fill the whole of fbb's back yard and spill out into the adjoining car park.

The Hornby Dublo model was designed to be extendable but was quite expensive.

The answer came in the late 1950s with the Airfix kit.

At a modest three shillings (15p), this, too, could be extended to create something bigger ...

... with little linking pieces being included with every kit. But young fbb's layout back then was not sufficiently large or well funded even to run to 3/-. He would have had to buy another point and some more track to lead to the shed and pocket money was inadequate for such mammoth capital investment.

But the present fbb came up with another of his cunning plans.

(Oh dear!)

Might it be possible to use the doors section of the kit to replace the hinge failures and, as they would be all plastic, they would be impervious to the East Devon weather?

Young fbb's rejected 3/- (15p) kit would theoretically inflate to a little over £3 in 2017. Today's Airfix kit, sold by Dapol, is £8.50. OUCH.

That's a lot to pay for two doors. Cheaper to leave them off altogether. Then fbb had another idea.

Two in one day - wow!

Why not use the rest of the kit to extend his existing engine shed to hold a couple of extra locos? This would also make the model more interesting and less like a "bought-in" product.

That's when fbb's problems started.

 More sheds and doors blog : Sunday 5th February