Thornycroft Building #16 - Running Shed

In the photo below this building is the white ended building between the main yard and the road on the right.

 The Thornycrofts Motor Works, Basingstoke, 1928 - Britain from Above

 Function

The running shed was where chassis builds were stored until the body shop was ready to accept them. The small extension on the west side contained lorry test loads. These were one ton concrete blocks, which were bolted onto the chassis for test drives. The NW corner of the building contained a block of lavatories and along the front wall was a lean-to cycle shed. Each bay accommodated 5 bicycles, was fully utilised with more bicycles stacked outside.

Time Line

The dutch barn roofed section nearest the main yard was built between 1902 and 1919. The other parts were added between 1919 and 1928. By 1939 the small extension on the west wall had been lengthened to join the next building and by the 1950s the small yard there was completely roofed over.

Construction

Corrugated iron throughout with white finish. The front of the original building had a series of tall sliding garage doors separated by tall windows. The doors were later replaced with same style windows, except the lavatory end, which had shorter windows, presumably finishing above the water closets/urinals. The later addition of a cycle shed hid the lower half of the tall windows.

The enlarged building had a vehicle roller door (assumed roller) on the end and two personnel doors, one of which was for lavatory access.

The south wall of the complex was pierced all the way along with windows comprising a small frame above a larger one.

The saw tooth roof had skylights.

The Model

The next photo shows the model in situ on our full sized layout plan in a similar orientation to the real building shown above.

Designed in a graphic design application and printed on paper that is stuck to card. The building is raised on a 4mm plinth that will disappear into the ground on the layout. 

The front of the extension is unclear from photographs so the double doors placed there are guesswork. I would not be surprised if it was open to the elements since concrete blocks do not need protection. The hole in the end of the extension is where the strip light pokes through into the next building.

The large vehicle entrance doors are operational and made in a similar fashion to other models in this series.

Window frames and cycle shed frame are 3D printed in plastic but the glazing bars are too thick, a limitation of our printer. The cycle shed is populated with bicycles from the Peco range. Eventually the entire shed will be filled.

The South side window arrangement was taken from an artist illustration of the works as this side is completely hidden by trees and shrubs in photographs.

The model is shorter than the real building, being cut short by the back scene that it butts onto. Consequently the East end is blank.

This building has working interior lights (one strip from a Livarno 3 strip set sold by Lidl) so, all windows are transparent.

David