Garden Shed

[Philip Hall]

Paul, you’re probably right about the carpet v. hard floor, but I particularly wanted a room akin to one in the house, with comfortable seating, music system etc. The carpet chosen is actually quite hard, good for sound deadening but easy to see things. The downside has been when we accidentally trod in some fox or cat doodah on the lawn and transferred it to the nice new carpet. I then found out how long it would take to clean it up.

Power sockets, I’m with Terry on this although I suspect I have gone slightly over the top. There are over 30 in the room, plus a dedicated ring with three sockets for the heating. There are two doubles on three walls about 3ft off the floor, four doubles around a central pillar and the central workbench about 5ft up, and five more doubles just above the level of my main sitting down workbenches. I had not decided where railway transformers and the like would need to go so just put in plenty of sockets. We put in the wiring and supply cable ourselves and only had the electrician in to wire it all up and install the lighting.

As for a master switch, we have something of the sort in my old workshop up in the loft, and this was just a RCD unit wired into the power supply up there. Every time I left the room I would just trip the RCD and both live and neutral would go off. It worked fine until just recently, when it kept going off, and I eventually traced it to the RCD itself (I think). I think constantly turning it on and off over about 20 years is not what it was designed for! In the new building, there is a separate consumer unit and our electrician sugggested that I treat the room as I would if it were in the house, leaving lighting and heating on as required but turning off soldering irons and the like. I had an idea of a master switch but it was pointed out that the electrical complications required to turn off power circuits alone but leaving heating and lighting on would be possible but costly. And the electrical bill was quite enough already.

Philip

[Serjt-Dave]

Scott. A lovey room you've got there. Very clean and tidy. I'll send me misses round, she has a nack of turning clean and tidy places into a complete mess. I don't let her into my man-cave.

You may be right Terry about the height of the power sockets. I did fix them a little off the floor just in case of any leaks or floods etc. I'm just about young and fit enough to bend down {ish} though getting back up is getting harder. As for switching off I'm very fanatical about things like that.

Paul and Phillip. I am a atheist so don't need to worry about the great carpet god. Cat and fox dodo's are a bit of a problem. As the shed is located on top of the cat's former litter tray they still leave gifts on the grass in front of the shed. I plan to patio this area which should solve this problem and drive them towards the back of the garden where no one goes. I used laminate flooring to strengthen the shed floor and I might lay carpet tiles in the centre of the room once the baseboards are fitted.

Dave

[Tony Wilkins]

A small observation on the very nice spaces that Dave and Scott have created and that is the power outlets are fairly close to the floor. My humble space is not nearly as smart since it is also used for woodworking and other heavy duty activities but all the power outlets are about one metre off the floor which is a good height to be above a workbench. This saves bending down to plug things in and switch off after you have finished. Also don't under-estimate the number of sockets you need near to a workbench. I have four double sockets in easy range of my usual working positi0n and often a least 6 are in use. It is also a good idea to get in the habit of switching things off and unplugging them before you go - just in case.

Terry Bendall

High Terry.
That was one of the things I didn't quite get right first go. I mounted double outlets about every 6 feet at waist height, which was fine until I installed kitchen cabinets along the first wall, only to find that they were at worktop height. I had to raise them a further 6 inches. Oops.
Regards
Tony.

[ScottW]

So will that be P4 or S ?

It will be S Scale, Paul. I started concentrating on S Scale around eleven years ago, although I still dabble with P4 from time to time.

Scott

[Terry Bendall]

A master switch perhaps?

There should be one of those anyway to isolate the supply coming into the building with separate circuit breakers or fuses for the lighting and power circuits. In addition Part P of the Building Regulations now has quite strict regulations on the installation of power to external buildings and the work has to be certified by an approved contractor. It may be OK now but when it comes to sell the house ...

Terry Bendall

[John Bateson]

Indeed Terry,
And a certificate needs to be lodged with the council by the contractor ...
John

[Tony Wilkins]

We had a similar problem with my parents house as the wiring was quite old, pre consumer unit. Although the wiring was checked by a qualified electrician when first installed, there was no paper work that we could find. We had to take out indemnity insurance in order for the sale to go through.
Regards
Tony.

[Le Corbusier]

We had a similar problem with my parents house as the wiring was quite old, pre consumer unit. Although the wiring was checked by a qualified electrician when first installed, there was no paper work that we could find. We had to take out indemnity insurance in order for the sale to go through.
Regards
Tony.

I've seen it done the other way ... ie bought as seen ... if the buyers are concerned then they can take out the insurance. Normally its a ruse to try and get something knocked off the price but if the buyers want the house you can play hardball. For a shed its unlikely to be a deal breaker ... likewise for a historic property ... of course for something more modern it should be part of the process anyway.

[Philip Hall]

We do have all the modern wiring requirements and certificates. We also had to install a new supply cable because the heating requirements would have overloaded the old cable which supplied the garage that used to be there. Lots of digging and hassle, but done now. The consumer unit does allow us to isolate various circuits, but in practice it is easier just to turn off and unplug things. I would want to leave the heating circuit on and the lighting anyway. Going down there on a cold night and falling over the railway en route to the consumer unit before light and heat appear does not appeal. Our electrician pointed out that it is no different to having the power on in your house as it’s been done properly.

We have a RCD breaker switch in my old loft workshop which turned off all power to the wall sockets when thrown, and that was very useful. When I left the workshop for any length of time I just tripped the switch. However, it recently failed, I guess by being turned on and off several times a day for twenty years, which I imagine it wasn’t intended to be used for. This is the reason I shall probably unplug things, but I might have to think about tripping one of the circuit breakers which supply the railway transformers, if the sockets turn out to be not easy to reach under the baseboards with all the other furniture beneath them. I am not sure whether transformers of the type we use for small drills and the railway itself would present a problem, but anyway I wouldn’t be keen to leave them on all the time. An alternative might be to supply each transformer with a short extension lead which can easily be reached.

Philip.

[Serjt-Dave]

Well I've moved in and judging by the size on the Templot I'm going to need to get a bigger shed. Also your right Terry about the plug sockets. Originally the layout was going to be along the window and my work tables on the other side. But it's going to be easier to have only a single line to remove by the door rather than two lines on a bigger baseboard so the layout is now going on the other side. So now I only have two double sockets for my work tables. The bigger of my work tables used to be my wife's parents dinning table which we then used for about ten years and rather than throwing it away I had it in my cellar where I used it to do my tailoring on. Weighs a freaking ton and was great fun carrying it out of my cellar. The other table is what I used to make and repair musical instruments on when I worked in the music trade nearly 30 odd years ago. Next to do is fit the exhaust pipe for my spray booth and also setting up my test track. I've got to think about my storage issue for unmade kits, books and spare bits and pieces etc. I don't want to have anything fixed like shelves etc but more sort of boxes on casters that can be moved about. I've got this crazy idea for having seats in the room. It might make working at the workbench a bit easier. What I'm thinking of is something like a bar stool where it can be lowered to work at the work tables and then raised when your operating the layout. Any ideas?

Dave

A Moved In.jpg

[Tony Wilkins]

How about a swivel chair (office type) as these are adjustable in height if they are tall enough for your purposes. I use one for my work desk as it is on casters it is easy to move. I have used cheap kitchen units for storage and have mounted one on large casters in the past as it needed to be moveable to allow access to the hot water tank in the cupboard next to it.
It is also possible to buy stackable plastic bins on a moveable base.
Regards
Tony.

[DougN]

Dave, my modelling room is the lounge (26ft x 12ft but also needs to be used as a lounge as well, it also has too many doors, windows and a fireplace so the trains a concerntated to one end!) , so everything is mounted on casters. even the book case though it is a bit heavy! with everything on casters it allows access to all sides. Can I recommend the "alex" units on casters from Ikea which are the right depth for rolling stock. I have 2 and one has my work bench on the top and i haven't see the top of the other in years as it always has stuff piled on it! My OO layout is even on casters so can be straight forward to move and access just about anything!

The P4 layout is still a number of years away BUT having the OO circulating while building for P4 is nice Also it gives the opportunity to have the quick fix of a train running and all the lovely new RTR stuff while the long game allows for the P4 to still progress!

[John Palmer]

Just to show how what appears to be acres of open space can vanish in an instant, here's a couple of shots showing the interior of my extended garage with five of the Burnham boards erected:

001.JPG

002.JPG

Still a few enhancements to be made, but most of the essentials now present and correct. I had hoped to re-use an old bench I made for the lathe, but it wouldn't fit once the Burnham boards went up, so I made a fresh bench with extension such as that used by jewellers with leather and a range of pegs that can be swapped at will. Rose-coloured seating is a draughtsman's chair with the biggest height adjustment range I could get, though I tend to stand when engaged in machining operations. The very ancient lamp head visible above the Unimat's mill/pillar drill lost its shade, but I improvised a replacement from an ice cream tub which might have been made for the job! Also shows cheap shelving unit with plastic bins, which serves as a useful mount for stocks of microstrip, tools, etc.

The second shot shows the french window arrangement that opens outwards so as to permit mounting of the two remaining Burnham boards. The spraybooth arrangement remains to be finally determined, but is functional 'as is'.

[Le Corbusier]

John, That looks fantastic, and all round access too

I like what looks like an old school 'Tuck box' hiding underneath.

[steve howe]

How about a swivel chair (office type) as these are adjustable in height if they are tall enough for your purposes. I use one for my work desk as it is on casters it is easy to move.Regards
Tony.

Gas-lift office chairs are fine, I have one in my den, office chairs on castors on laminate floors are something else! unless you like whizzing around, I found just as I was about to solder that delicate component in place....a slight movement of the feet and whizzz!...

I took the castors off
Steve

[Paul Townsend]

John, That looks fantastic, and all round access too

Fortunately John is of a suitable size to fit. Many modellers I know could not

[John Palmer]

John, That looks fantastic, and all round access too

Fortunately John is of a suitable size to fit. Many modellers I know could not

Ex-cavers can get to places the more corpulent cannot reach...

Gas-lift office chairs are fine, I have one in my den, office chairs on castors on laminate floors are something else! unless you like whizzing around, I found just as I was about to solder that delicate component in place....a slight movement of the feet and whizzz!...

My draughtsman's chair, somewhat unusually, is fitted with castors. Since such an arrangement is viewed with disfavour by manufacturers, owing to the risk of the chair tipping you off as you glide across the room, mine is fitted with brakes that lock it in place as soon as bum hits seat. This means that you have to position the chair accurately before you sit down, but does avoid the need to scuff the floor as you drag it to a new position.

[Terry Bendall]

Just to show how what appears to be acres of open space can vanish in an instant,

"Health and safety hat on" That rolled up drum of cable John has the potential to be a fire risk (heating effect of a coil of wire). I would suggest a shorter extension cable or alternatively fully un-wind it. "Health and safety hat off"

Terry Bendall

[RobM]

Just to show how what appears to be acres of open space can vanish in an instant,

"Health and safety hat on" That rolled up drum of cable John has the potential to be a fire risk (heating effect of a coil of wire). I would suggest a shorter extension cable or alternatively fully un-wind it. "Health and safety hat off"

Terry Bendall

As I once found out whilst filming for an art program........was using an extension cable which was partly uncoiled and was loaded with just 1Kw. After about an hour I noticed a burning smell which was coming from the reel, I quickly switched off and unwound the reel which was almost red hot, I certainly could not touch the unwound cable. Lesson learned. As a motor homer the number of times I see fellow campers with their hook up cables on a reel all neatly wound up.....I do get funny looks when pointing out the dangers.
Rob

[Tony Wilkins]

I have had a similar experience whilst doing a demo in a railway carriage. Already set up when I arrived. I plugged in my computer and display. My colleague's was already running. There was also a heater going as it was a cold day. About 30 minutes later everything cut out. Fortunately the cable reel had a thermal cut-out built in which had tripped. A quick rearrangement of our power cables resolved the problem, but we had to wait some time before the large cable reel would reset.
Perhaps I should also mention something that is often not considered when insulating a loft. The lighting or any other cables for that matter, should not be buried under the insulation unless they have sufficient excess current carrying capacity as the heat cannot escape so easily. Also beware of plastic insulation in contact with polystyrene insulation as the plasticisers in the PVC can dissolve the polystyrene.
Here endeth the heath and safety lecture.
Regards
Tony.

[John Bateson]

Is the heating caused by the resistive load of the cable or the inductive load? Anybody care to do a test with a cable wrapped one way round for half its length and the other way round for the rest of it?
But not in the new model railway sheds perhaps ...
John

[Paul Townsend]

Is the heating caused by the resistive load of the cable or the inductive load? Anybody care to do a test with a cable wrapped one way round for half its length and the other way round for the rest of it?
But not in the new model railway sheds perhaps ...
John

Just the resistive load.

[Paul Townsend]

John, That looks fantastic, and all round access too

Fortunately John is of a suitable size to fit. Many modellers I know could not

Ex-cavers can get to places the more corpulent cannot reach...

Gas-lift office chairs are fine, I have one in my den, office chairs on castors on laminate floors are something else! unless you like whizzing around, I found just as I was about to solder that delicate component in place....a slight movement of the feet and whizzz!...

My draughtsman's chair, somewhat unusually, is fitted with castors. Since such an arrangement is viewed with disfavour by manufacturers, owing to the risk of the chair tipping you off as you glide across the room, mine is fitted with brakes that lock it in place as soon as bum hits seat. This means that you have to position the chair accurately before you sit down, but does avoid the need to scuff the floor as you drag it to a new position.

I was in Ikea today and an antidote to loss of Will to live was to try their office chairs.
A few had brakes but reversed relative to yours.
Where did you get it ?

[Serjt-Dave]

Blimey I've got some catching up to do. So many posts since I last looked. LOL.

Tony. As for my chair I was hoping just to have two chairs which could serve both jobs, at the work tables and then raised up to operate the layout and thus avoiding cluttering up the room with too many chairs. However it looks like the office type chair won't go high enough and the bar stool type won't go low enough so I'll just settle for a office type seat to tide me over for awhile.

Doug. I like the look of the "Alex" from Ikea but it's having to go to Ikea to get it. God awful place.

John. I would be more than happy to be confined in a room with Burnham-on-Sea. It looks excellent and I can only hope I'll get Edington that far.

Yesterday and today I fitted the extractor fan outlet pipe for my spray booth so I can now spray without enjoying the flumes, and also erected my test track and got that up and running.

Dave

[John Palmer]

Just to show how what appears to be acres of open space can vanish in an instant,

"Health and safety hat on" That rolled up drum of cable John has the potential to be a fire risk (heating effect of a coil of wire). I would suggest a shorter extension cable or alternatively fully un-wind it. "Health and safety hat off"

Terry Bendall

<dads_army>Well done that man, I was wondering which of you would be first to spot that!</dads_army>

Actually, the cable drum is just there for storage purposes and isn't connected to the mains (you can see both plug and socket on close examination). The similarly coloured orange extension lead that is plugged in is used to feed our power distribution box, which is just visible in the other picture, beneath the layout. That's always switched off except when required for layout power. I use the cable on the drum for woodworking tools, which nowadays I always operate out of doors to avoid the railway room becoming shrouded in a blizzard of wood dust.

Paul, I've been searching in vain for the chair purchase invoice, but think I have identified this as the chair in question: http://www.industrialseating.co.uk/product.php?xProd=114&xSec=6&jssCart=2a88461d59171c2d6f2016d232077129. Not cheap, but decent quality and capability costs.

Dave, bear in mind that Burnham is a group effort and we started it almost forty years ago (including a fallow period of about 23 years). Edington should take you a lot less time, not least because you won't have half a town to build. From the nearest terrace visible in my lower picture up to the far end of the final scenic board (two boards beyond the goods shed visible on the board furthest distant) it's townscape all the way. Currently the loop platform looks like a repository for 4mm double glazing units as I assemble components for the next terrace (a mock up of this is to the right of the goods shed), and I fear there's no chance of all buildings being done by the time September comes around. Sorry about that.