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Wednesday 24 January 2018

4mm Scale Corfe Castle Station Building - 2

The building plan published in 'London & South Western Railway' by Robert Antwell, isbn 0-7110-1420-5 is the basis for the design. In common with other books of plans for modellers that I have seen it is probably not the original architects drawing. Therefore, its accuracy is questionable.

This uncertainty can be mitigated to a large degree with reference to photographs of the building, especially if a full frontal view can be found. These can be scaled and overlaid on the plan to check proportions and architectural details. Even so, the camera position, usually at about 5' off the ground, distorts dimensions due to perspective.

I have already found that the Chimneys of the Station Master's House are incorrectly positioned on the plan when compared to a photograph in the manner described above. At the end of the day (and without a site visit to measure every dimension - virtually impossible or, an architects drawing) all we can hope is to get as close as possible and there is no doubt it will be recognisable as Corfe Castle Station Building.

Importing a plan and/or photographs into a graphic editing Application and then scaling is a great way to start the design of a building because all the windows, doors and other architectural features fall into position without effort.

This building lends itself to being designed in a modular form. This, together with room dividing walls results in greater rigidity.

The photo shows the first module shell, which is the gable end of the station master's quarters, shown overlaid on the first sheet of the card kit.

The prototype has many intricate ornate details and many of the smaller ones will need to be simplified or omitted for practiality. So far, one feature that gives cause for concern is the roof rafters that (unusually) protrude through the walls. These are highly visible on the prototype and whilst time consuming parts to make I feel must be included. I could think of no easy way to represent the protrusions so, 25 rafters for this module alone will be made. You can see the slots at the top of the side walls where they will poke through.

Sometimes, having designed parts and built the first one a flaw or difficulty is revealed and the design process has to be repeated. I hope that will not arise too often but these rafters are a point in question. If they are less visible on the model than the prototype then they may be removed from the card kit to make construction simple.

To Part 3.

To Part 1.


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