Brendam Warehouse Truck Loading Dock - Part 1, 2 & 3

[Len]

Part 1:

As I mentioned in the 'Small Sodor Display' thread, our Brendam Warehouse will be visible from all sides. Which presents a problem.

As can be seen here, the track side loading dock looks good, but you can see the inside floor is not complete:


It's even worse when viewed from the rear. What kind of transhipment warehouse doesn't have a loading dock for trucks?:


So I decided to do something about it, and made the template for an expanded floor seen in the 'Small Sodor Display' thread. Only there was a slight snag. I had to splice two pieces of card together to make it, since the warehouse is over 13" long, and the splice turned out to be crooked. So I decided to start over with a larger piece of card from the back of a 13-column bookkeeping pad that would let me do the template in one piece:


The trackside dock is roughly 76mm deep, almost 19ft in OO scale, which is much deeper than normally found for trucks. So I decided to make the truck dock 20mm, 5 ft in OO, deep, and include the rest of the interior floor with it. Here you can see where I marked out the dock, side walls, and the wall locations between the loading bays. The side walls are 5mm thick, so I measured in 6mm from the outside edge to allow some clearance. The bay side walls are 7mm thick, so I came in 8mm for the same reason:


The building and track side loading dock were placed on the template so I could determine the location of the inside edges of the trackside loading dock and mark them.


After moving the trackside loading dock out of the way, I connected the marks made in the previous step with black ink. The areas marked with red X's and slash marks will be removed, leaving the template for laying out the new loading dock and floor on heavier cardstock.


One thing I've found is a punch, like this, that can make square or rectangular holes is a handy tool for getting square corners when making templates like this. I prefer the rectangular punch, as it has a bit more versatility than a square punch.


Now I just have to dig out my cutting mat and free the template from the rest of the card. Part 2 will cover actually building the additional dock using heavier cardstock for the deck and supporting walls.

Len

[Len]

Part 2:

Laying out and cutting up the art board used for the new loading dock and interior floor.

The pieces will be cut from a 1.2mm thick, 16" x 20" piece of Canson 'Pure White Drawing Board'. It's available at many craft and art supply stores, and in a pinch can be ordered on Amazon. A good supply of sharp #11 X-Acto blades, and a comfortable knife handle, will also be needed.

First, I used the template created previously to lay out the new loading dock and interior floor areas. The parts marked 'S' within and above the floor area will be used as supports under the floor.



For 1mm, and thicker, cardstock I prefer a heavy glass cutting mat. With the heavier cutting pressure applied, I find the soft "self healing" cutting mats can give, throwing the cut off. A good steel rule is also a necessity. For long pieces I use a Shinwa 600mm stainless steel rule. It's thick enough to guide the cutting blade easily, and heavy enough to stay put while cutting. They are available on-line from a number of sources. This is the glass cutting mat I use, available at many craft and sewing supply stores:



The art board is too wide to fit across the cutting surface, so the initial cutting line is aligned with the bias marking running corner to corner. I find doing all of the longer cuts first, then the shorter cross cuts, works best for me.



The loading dock and interior floor seperated from the rest of the art board and the longer cuts made.



Floor supports seperated from loading dock and interior floor.



All of the primary pieces, except the support wall for the new loading dock, layed out. The sections marked with an 'S' will be used as supports under the interior floor. The pieces marked with an 'X' will either be turned into loads, or used in other projects.



Test fitting the loading dock and interior floor. Some light work with an emery board might be needed if the fit is a bit tight. The under floor supports will keep the new interior floor lined up with the trackside loading dock. Even without the front support wall and wood decking in place, you can see the improvement this will make on the rear side of Brendam warehouse.



Next time: Laying out the loading dock support wall, final fitting, adding the "wood" decking and "brick" dock wall facing, and glueing it all together.

Len

[Len]

Addendum to Part 2:

I got side tracked by my grandson, and forgot to post this pic with Part 2. It's a vertical shot showing how the new floor and loading dock will fit together with the resin piece that came with the warehouse. The openings between the resin dock and cardstock floor are for the trackside warehouse walls.



Len

[Len]

Part 3:

I've been a bit under the weather, so not as many pics this time.

Instead of trying to measure fractions of a millimeter, I just put the deck supports on top of the deck and marked them against the inverted track side deck:


Added the end walls to the deck support wall:


I downloaded the "brick" and "wood planking" from the internet and printed them out. Here the brick is being glued to the front of the support wall. I find applying the 'stick' type glue to both surfaces and letting them set for a minute, almost like contact cement, gives a better bond than just doing one surface. The roller is to eliminate any air bubbles. Once the glue is set, the "brick" will be wrapped around the end walls:


Here the deck is covered with the "wood planking". I played with the printer scaling setting to get the planks to match the width of the track side planks. The holes for the rear walls have not been opened yet:


And here are the "Before" and "After" shots of the rear side of Brendam Warehouse:

Before:


After - With the new lorry dock in place:


A bit of weathering, a coat of matte clear, and Sodor's lorries will be able to get loads to and from the trains with ease.

Len

[WoundedBear]

Well damn son.............you gotta quit hiding stuff like this in the Thomas forums Len. 

These card stock and photo print models are intriguing to me. I like the fact you can pretty much print your own parts, and the cost has to be reasonable.

Nice work Len. Keep it up.

Sid

[Len]

Sid - Yes, the cost is very reasonable. And the nice thing is, you can take something like this:
https://s3.amazonaws.com/ModelBuildings/FREE+BUILDING/Free-Sample-Model-Railroad-Building.pdf

Then print multiple copies, cut out the windows and doors, then build up layers to bring the frames out from the building. Or just cut them out and install Tichy, or similar, plastic windows and doors while still using the printed interior detail. You can even cut out the signs, mount them on thin card, and glue them back so they actually stand out from the building a bit. And if you mess up, you haven't trashed a craftsman kit that may no longer be replacable.

Len