An even less well known sub clause allows exemptions from using the kits intended for the Wills and Ratio signal boxes under exceptional circumstances.
This applies even when said signal box is:
- at the back of the layout
- has no interior lighting
- has window panes smaller than any other building on the layout.
I thank m'learned friend Iain Robinson for bringing this to my attention.
Very nice it is to James, Mr.Robinson has a lot to answer for if you ask me :-)
ReplyDeleteYou really need a cat curled up on the cahir to really complete things!
ReplyDeleteI'm afraid to admit I did consider a cat. Perhaps I could get away with just putting a saucer on the floor?
DeleteI also attempted to build a chair to go with the desk, but that definitely needs better light to work by than I have at the moment.
At one of the boxes I work, we put the cat's food at the top of the stairs so she can come and go as she pleases!
DeleteUnless it's a specific example, the desk should really be a smaller one set at a height so the signalman can write at it whilst standing. Unless it was a busy box with a booking lad (who would make all the entries on behlaf of the signalman) then you don't need a chair or stool. Generally the entry will conincide with some other activity away from the desk.
I hope that doesn't seem too critical; the interior does capture the unique and homely atmosphere which only a traditional, mechanical signal box has!
A saucer by the stairs seems an eminently model-able idea. A quick dry run suggests that the floor in the model is higher than it should be, so looking in from outside the desk probably appears the correct height. whilst the levers would appear far too tall ....if you could actually see anything which I only managed with the aid of a very powerful torch.
DeleteThis is super! I am glad you didn't go down the route of just buying in the bits...yours has so much more character...besides, as I have found out to my cost, the castings are quite chunky and often dominate the interior. I'm sorry if I caused you extra work, but will sum up by saying that you have more than justified the extra effort involved. Of course, you're going to illuminate it now, aren't you... ;-)>
ReplyDeleteIain, I would do it differently if I did it again, but then that is part of the point of this whole exercise. It has highlighted that the floor of the kit is far too high, and the door far too short. I did wonder about illumination. If I'd wondered about it a couple of hours before I did I might have gone ahead and done it but it would be hard to retrofit it now. If I did I suppose my aim would be to recreate daylight levels of illumination. Really there should be a window at the back which would help enormously.
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