Lynton Lamp Hut

SR Lamp Hut, Corfe Castle, Dorset, before restoration

This was the only picture I could find of a "real" SR Lamp Hut, which I had taken many years ago on the Swanage line, long before restoration. but at least I had a "feel" of it. The photo was taken from a long way away (I didn't even "see" it then) so I've had to zoom in considerably, hence its graininess. Better than nothing though. To me there's nothing like having a picture of what you are trying to reproduce. It gives me that depth that a drawing has great difficulty in portraying. Hence I have a large collection of photos, in books, the L&BR magazine from issue No. 1 and plenty of actual photos bought mostly decades ago in sometimes the most unlikely places - just keeping my eyes open, because one day I might build a model of it!

As with the Signal Cabin (see post of August 31, 2014), I made a scan of Steve Phillips' drawing from his book. It looked pretty simple - should be able to get this done in a couple of hours!! Well, working out how it could fit together BEFORE cutting styrene was an important part of the planning. Even then, the first couple of sides had to be re-made. The roof was made using a piece of 2mm styrene and marking a line from corner to corner for the top. Then with first a fairly coarse file holding it an angle equal to the slope of the roof and parallel to the first side, I filed it down to near where it needed to be ensuring I kept it just below the centre point of where the 2 corner to corner lines intersected. I did this on the other 3 sides and then finished it off very carefully with a fine file to the exact contour. It was actually quite easy as long as you keep the file moving absolutely straight and not in an arc, which many people tend to do - just takes practice and a keen eye and a steady hand.
This is the hut before the roof edging pieces were added.

Now the "box" is ready for paint. I used Woodland Scenics' concrete water wash for the body and black tarmac for the roof. Humbrol satin 131 for the SR green.

And here it is painted. I'm not too proud of the green, I need to tidy up those edges. At normal viewing distance you cannot see, but when a train enters the station with my micro video camera, or close up photos, it could become very evident. One of those tasks it's easy to put off.

The enamel sign was made using the method described in the Signal Cabin post. The 2 "cast" (etched) signs will be made in due course - it's expensive making one-offs.

Well that's the Lamp Hut made. Now if I had been thinking ahead and had really looked at the whole plan of the station environs in detail, I would have seen that there is a second identical hut, used as a coal store for the station. I've only found one photo showing a part of it and none showing the doors, so I don't know what, if any, signs it had. Bob Barnard has one on his 4mm Lynton layout - a gerat inspiration. Now I have to try and remember how I put it together to make another one! Taking photos of progress does have advantages! I thoroughly recommend it. I didn't keep an exact track of the time to put it all together, but I estimate it was about 10 hours and not the 2 I had originally reckoned on. The second one will probably be much closer to the 2 hours - we'll see!

The next post will be the Engine Shed. See you then.