Moving towards Christmas, Gavin again had some free time and used it very productively on the ‘difficult’ corner baseboards with rounded sides. These had already been planned with some very involved angled bracing but with the appropriate tools, these all fell to his skill! Photos show the construction of the two rear corners and then the slightly larger front corner board. Legs were also constructured to fit each.

A good end to the year with lots of work to complete in 2017. Many thanks to Gavin, Richard and the rest of the Barromore team for all their help.

In early December Richard and I painted legs, and painted legs – and then painted baseboards. All while Gavin earned a crust with his big yellow machine.

Leg adjusters were also inserted.

The rush was on to get as much done as possible before Johnstown Road, Barrowmore’s O-gauge layout, needed to occupy the space for preparations before going to Warley exhibition.

All the legs for the seven boards now constructed are finished and were undercoated by Steve and Dave. While this was going on, Gavin and Richard worked on the first, non-scenic corner board. This is huge (4ft x 4ft3in) but relatively simple being almost square.

In October, Gavin had forged ahead with the rectangular baseboards, finishing the set and adding the cross braces to stop them flexing. The photos include shots of him using Brownlow’s table saw. Steve has been painting the undercoat on and the legs have all now been built from 2″ by 1″ pine.

In November we will move on to the more difficult corner boards, finishing the painting and then installing the joiners and leg adjuster.

We have finally started the new baseboards for the third phase staging yard. These will be of a higher standard than previously – being built by and in the Barrowmore MRG – and will use a trackplan custom designed to meet exhibition operating requirements. See the ‘Track Plan’ pages for more details.

Photos show Gavin building from three different thicknesses of ply. These have been cut on a professional table saw (with thanks to Brownlows Cabinet Makers, our neighbours here at Barrowmore) to a cutting list we generated. Any final cutting is done on Gavin’s sliding compound mitre saw which is very impressive – see the photo.

Sheets of ply are glued with urea-formaldehyde resing wood glue and then held with nails from a nail gun. Overall this is a very quick process although the complexity of design, with pockets to hold the legs and bracing, slows it down. Richard of course is seen giving expert direction!