School house build

[bparrish]

So I'm at it again.    When my grand daughter was here last summer she pointed out that I had no school house on the railroad.  I promised her I would do something when they got here for Christmas.   That's when I noticed last week that I was down to about 10 days............

five alarm stupid ! ! !

So here is the start and I'll put up more in the next days.    I'm doing it with a removable roof so if I have time I'll put an interior in it.  But for now.

Here is the layout.  I do this horizontally so I can get the windows on the same clap board level and just get a notion of how it will look.  The kit manufacturers do this for you, but it's not tough.







Then here is the roof layout.  Again, I'm doing this to be removable so I cannot just build it into the wall structure.   I do stuff like this with the sticky side up and it goes really easily.   I do the rafters on 2 foot centers.  The pencil lines are just a guide to keep things square to the sheathing.
Anything hanging out later will be nipped off to fit.



Once placed on the walls I clean off the eaves to the length I want.  The nipper is a xuron that is pretty sharp but even then I swell up the crush with alcohol to get the ends back to size.





More later.

see ya

Bob

[carl b]

Looks good Bob. What scale?

[GPdemayo]

Promises to keep.....you can do it Bob.....I'll be looking in. 

[PRR Modeler]

Looks great.

[Janbouli]

I don't have a school on my layout either,never thought of it , yet so obvious every town had one . I'm currently building 2 churches , they too have to be on almost any layout.

[deemery]

At least in the US, more churches than schools in most towns :-)


dave

[postalkarl]

Hey Bob: 

You are off to A good start. I'll be following along. 

Karl

[Bruce Oberleitner]

Hi Bob,
Looks like another award winning structure is in progress!  Have a Merry Christmas my friend.

BTW, years ago I picked up a tip from Scotty Mason.  When he had to cut the roof rafters he used a finger nail clipper.  Granted this will work better for smaller boards where your rail nipper work for everything.  It also puts a small "curve" cut on the wood but only nit pickers notices that kind of stuff.

[bparrish]

Bruce....


But you swell it out with alcohol. It goes back flat. 


A common wire cutter is a crush devise but a xuron is much sharper. Also, I have further sharpened it for this use. 


Thanx for looking in.


Bob

[bparrish]

So here are the next steps...

A look at the inside with the bell tower fixed to the front.


Now a look at the front with the bell tower.


A look at the tower scaffold for the roof.


And from the front........ try not to see the sanding fuzz.


Here is the start of the stone foundation.   I use a plaster casting of two rows of stone and then crudely cut the corners.  I use common yellow glue and build it on a sheet of packing plastic or a zip bag.  Not even super glue likes to stick to it.  I will then peel off the plastic and place it on a sheet of sand paper and deck down both sides to flat.   Often I will put a dab of super glue over the yellow glue just to not have it come apart.

This will get painted and then alcohol dyes on it before planting on the railroad.


More later

[S&S RR]

Bob


Looking good!  I read through your thread and realized I don't have a school planned for my layout, either.  Churches yes, more than one, but no school.  I think it's something we block out of our memory or something.  Note to self add schools to the towns. I remember having a discussion with Mark Dalrymple about the structures every town should have - I don't remember schools being on the list?

[ReadingBob]

At least in the US, more churches than schools in most towns :-)


dave

In the coal regions it was churches and bars.  Lot's and lot's of bars.  Homes with the downstairs/front converted to be a bar.   

Bob - Great start to the build!

[deemery]

At least in the US, more churches than schools in most towns :-)

dave

In the coal regions it was churches and bars.  Lot's and lot's of bars.  Homes with the downstairs/front converted to be a bar.   

Bob - Great start to the build!

Remember when I did a bar in the front porch of a City Classics Company Houses??   

dave

[PRR Modeler]

Looks great.

[bparrish]

So I'm getting close.    The grand kids arrive on Saturday and i'll make it ! ! !

I got the window frames and glass in this afternoon.

I started clearing a spot for the school house in East Boise and made up a swing and teeter tauter for the play ground.

For now here is the under side of the roof and the tower roof.


And the underside of the tower roof.  Nothing trick.




And the bell for the tower.  This is a twisted wire gizzzmo with a brake wheel for the pull rope.   The brass bell is made from a bleed valve taken from a player piano action.  My first job was in 1962 when I was 15 in a piano restoration house in Chicago.  That tells you that I have been queer for brass for that long.  I have been carrying around brass parts from stuff for that long.

I'll get some more bench time later tonight and really get after this




More tomorrow.
see ya 
Bob