Sunday 7 February 2010

Go West - Warragamba needs you.
Last night I decided to visit the shed. As those of you who reside on the east coast of Orstralia would know we have had a ton of rain this week.
So as I gingerly opened the door and slowly cast my eyes roofbound it all appeared to be there and no dripping bits. Great, any shed that has come through the last couple of days without a leak is doing well. I kept looking at the two hundred projects that I need to do and couldn't decide on any of them.
Stuff it all I will drive a train round the layout, after all thats what its all about isn't it? In order to do a complete lap involves closing a hinged section and line up two sections of track. Well thanks to the rain we have been getting, the wooden hinged section appears to have swollen and the rails didn't join up. And naturally I didn't get to drive a train last night. So that was the end of that and I came inside and did a bit of computer work.
Sunday and after filling up the green bin with garden refuse, I needed a break and decided to go visit the shed again. And after another night of heavy rain I again checked the roof as I went in. All appeared well until I noticed a pool of water on the floor. I have traced this water to a build up on the outside wall and it has decided to take a shortcut through my shed. Luckily this doesn't affect the baseboard so no real damage was done.
Then aargh! I noticed the ballast looked considerably darker at the end of Bega platform. Yes wet and some pooling on the floor. If you remember a previous thread where the bats and rat poop have crashed down it appears this section was in trouble again.
Out comes the ladder and up onto the roof I go. It appears no matter how much gooey black crap you stick over the joins, it eventually dries out, cracks and back to square one. More rain in. Of course we don't notice leaks when it doesn't rain.
What the problem with the roof is that on the original shed roofing iron only came in certain lengths and this shed roof needed a small section at the end to finish off. So I have decided to only way to completely cure the problem is to order in longer sheets of gal and redo the last section. And then I might be able to stop blogging about bloody leaks in the roof.
Almost as annoying as the leaks is the number daddy long leg spiders that reside in the shed. The smart ones are hidden away under the baseboards and the dumb one are clearly visible ready for the vacuum cleaner. I missed my chance about two weeks ago when I saw a mummy long legs had given birth to about fifty or so kiddy short legs. Last time I looked for them they had left the web. I wouldn't mind them if they would only stay up on the roof but they insist on visiting the layout and making bloody webs all over the scenery and its a pain to remove.
Another spider has decided to build a home in the sliding window and has used the buildings for the Candelo Canning Factory to drape his web over. Maybe if their webs were green, then they would look like vines.
So as you can see this weekend has been a downer. Then as I was looking around the future Bega Loco area I noticed a heap of black dots on a piece of white styrene. So on closer inspection it appeared to be an ant graveyard. I can only guess they have taken up residence in the ceiling above and then when they cark it, they just dump bodies and parts and other rubbish down towards the layout from the flourescent light above. Obviously no dignity in the ant world, just get the parts and chuck them out. Surely if you were married to an ant, just keeping your husbands head to one side wouldn't hurt anybody.A little bit different to the usual model photo with a train in it, I have included a photo of exhibit A showing the above ground cemetery for ants. If they weren't dead when they were chucked out of the crack, they would have been when they hit the styrene. One wonders why all the resident daddy long legs don't wonder over and help themselves to a meal. Maybe if I put up a sign "Hungry Cracks Takeaway" they'd come.
Well sorry I couldn't be more rail oriented this post but I have to tell it as it happens.

5 comments:

  1. Bob,

    We had a huge amount of rain last night in Brisbane as well. A friend around the corder emptied 200mm from their rain gauge this morning. Luckily my shed had no issues.

    On anothe rnote, in your last Blog - Maiden Runs - there is an abolutely brilliant photo of 3827 crossing a great bridge. Can you tell me where you got the bridge from as well as the piers. They are just what I need for Cougal spiral. I fear I might have build mine from styrene.

    Craig

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  2. Hi Craig,
    For the bridge sides I used Micro Engineering parts. They are #80 - 180 (85') #80 - 166 (50') #80 - 167 (30'). You also need Bridge shoes 80-034. These are the hinge between the bridge and the top of the pier.
    I ordered direct from Walthers online on a Thursday night and they were delivered the following Wednesday. There are 4 sides in a packet.
    I cut styrene spacers in between the sides and once painted you can't tell. i have used these ME sides on a few bridges on SCR.
    I had to model the piers in styrene in a tapered style. I also based my piers on Cougal Viaduct. I also scribed them to represent the formwork used in the pour.
    Hope this helps
    Bob

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  3. Bob, I'll have to say, you sure have an adventure in your modeling! Rat poop and now beheaded Ants. I can't confess to having anything that drastic to deal with, apart from the Mice I inadvertantly let into the house when I opened up a wall to build a helix a couple of years ago.

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  4. You do seem to be having a lot of structural issues with your shed Bob. You are right about the black goop, I can remember my Dad cursing it's creator as well!
    It may be time to 'bite the bullet' and pull the roof up in total, water proof it and relay the tin again. Sounds daunting but I did my Dad's garage in a day and it's about the same size as yours. I'm putting a product in my shed roof called Air Cell, its a sarking and insulation in one. I'd be happy to help out if want to go that way.
    You have a huge time and money investment in your shed and it a shame to see it under attack all the time.

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  5. Bob,

    Fully understand the frustrations. My garage (the proposed train room) has a leak from a cracked tile and the outside drain is clogged up somewhere, resulting in lots of overflow AND extra overflow from two nearby drainpipes that feed into the drain - result, lots of water pooling and getting into a gap in the brickwork and seeping into the garage!

    The rain is nice but happy for it to stop now so I can get the drain blockage sorted out!

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