Meanwhile, back in the lab.....

Am_Fet writes:

Its been a bit of a crap day at the factory.  The upgraded Tunnel Radio system for the Manawatu Gorge was installed and lit up.....then refused to work.  Hurried phone conferences between the workers and the boffins finally sorted it, but it took a big chunk out of my day.

As I was determined to have a break, I pulled out the bits and pieces for a quick wee project....

With Cabbage threatening to take the Patea layout to next weeks club meeting, I thought I had better make an effort and mock up some of the Cheese Store so the critics could envisage how things would end up.  I sat down and numbered all the different buildings of the complex like so:

Because I'm a weirdly methodical kind of guy, I made the earth shattering decision to start work on building one.  A quick CAD session last night with photos from a previous visit gave me some estimated dimensions to make a start with:

And so, after looting the office stationary for cardboard and sellotape a start was made.  All cutting was courtesy of the NTCC paper guilotine which made short work of keeping everything square....if only the operator was as efficient!  I seem to recall a school age DB using the same tool to great effect back in the days when the Batchelor and Bond Empire Railways ran from Maungatui to Opanaki....

So this is what I ended up with after about 15 minutes work....its as ugly as sin, but its not sposed to be pretty....its all about working out the final look.

Now to get it to Cabbage to see how it looks.  Next up:  Buildings 2 (Cool Store) and 3 (Engine House).  And negotiations are well advance for a field trip to the area on the 10th involving 2 passenger trains and 3 freight trains to get me to New Plymouth and back over a 40 hour period.