building

Modular building, part 1

I'm building a new building for Ranuska, a small hotel by the seaside. Of course, it has to be interesting and a little different, and I'm trying out some new techniques too.

INspiration

My inspiration for this build comes from a few places. First is a residential building from Bobrujsk, Belarus, from the Soviet Modernism era of architecture:

Closely related to this is the Nakagin capsule tower, built in the 1970s in Tokyo:

 

(Read a

Funicular mechanicals

Part two of my funicular building series...

Track

Funiculars need something to roll along on, i.e. some track. I didn't want to use regular N scale track though as this would look a bit over-sized for my tiny funicular. Instead I quickly (read: crudely) soldered up some code 40 track to 6mm gauge. To help with traction, I added a sheet of metal under the sleepers, the thinking being that if I magnetised the funicular, it would stay stuck to the track.

With the aid of some hot glue I attached the track to the scene and built up the surrounding landscape with some plaster. Some ballast was added, and then the whole thing toned down with some dirt-coloured watery plaster. This does a nice job of making the track look a bit worn out.

Cable

What I really wanted was a moving funicular. I decided fairly early on that a DC gear motor underneath the baseboard would be the way to go, driving a continuous loop of "cable...

Building the funicular - part 1

My funicular is now finished and operating well, so I thought I'd go back and talk about how I made it.

Inspiration

Right from the start I knew I wanted a funicular for guests to Ranuska to get to their accommodation. Early on I discovered the Elevador da Bica in Lisbon, Portugal and was immediately drawn to its nice colour scheme and cute design:

However I struggled adapting the design to the 36º slope that mine would have to climb. Then one day while browsing my regular blogs I happened upon a post by Phil Parker from BRM (a great train magazine by the way) where he had discovered this wee cutie in someone's garden:

Funicular is GO!

An exciting milestone in Ranuska was reached tonight: the sanatorium funicular successfully completed a return journey from bottom to top, and back down again!

The Utrainia News Agency was on hand to capture the moment:

Still a few bugs to iron out, but a very exciting moment for all Ranuskan's. More details to follow...

Crossing safety

I've now finished the railway crossing over the crossover; for a long period of time this was a chasm of railway tracks that would swallow entire cars whole! However all good things must come to an end and so I have patched up the holes. Always fun trying to squeeze bits of road between moving turnout blades!

The crossing is just an elaborate collection of carefully trimmed pieces of balsa, painted and weathered with powders to match the rest of the road.

I've also taken the chance to install some cross-bucks. Thanks to the wonders of the internet, these days even the Federal Highway Administration have the exact dimensions of railway crossing signs online. Saved me having to visit a real railway I guess.

Back yard gardening

"but that can wait for the next rainy spell" I said...

Well the next rainy spell arrived pretty promptly, so with little delay I settled down and made a back yard garden for the little E.L. Moore cottage.

Raised vege gardens

When I off handedly mentioned building a vege garden, the matriarch very quickly handed down her specifications: two raised gardens, on the sunny side of the house, at least 1 foot off the ground. No wide than arm's length, with good walking space between them. While you're at it, I'd also like a glass house.

Well! Not one to argue I rummaged around under the house and found some suitable ship-lap styrene siding that had seen better days. A bit of cutting and sanding later and I had the framing made up. I filled up the boxes with some of my usual dirt mix (glue-plaster-paint) and then mixed in some horse & sheep manure from over the fence.

A bumper crop of cabbages were soon well on their way, along with some stalk...