Thornycroft Building #14 - Experimental & Repair Shops

In the photo below this building is second in from bottom left of the site. (Click for a larger view).

J.I. Thornycroft and Co Motor Works, Basingstoke, 1939 - Britain from Above

Function

The western half was the Exprimental Shop where new and innovative parts were developed and trials undertaken. The eastern half was a vehicle service/repair shop.

Time Line

Built between 1928 and 1932 it was extended westward in the 1940s to join the next building. Close scrutiny of the larger aerial photos at 'Britain From Above' shows that the rear wall extended westward beyond the building. This may be an indication of work in progress to enlarge the entire building. The building did not survive to the end, believed demolished in the 1980s.

 Construction

The architectural design is similar to building#6, being brick with sky lighted saw tooth roof.

Two very tall doors at the front for vehicle access were roller doors. The rear is largely hidden in photographs by vegetation but tall windows can just about be discerned. This wall may also have had personnel entrance door(s). The East wall was pierced by tall windows. No photo available of the west wall.

The Model

Here is the model on our full size layout plan in a similar orientation to the above.

Building#6 designs were adapted to create the walls for this building, which enabled fast construction of the building shell.

However, the roof is another matter being a complex shape. Several weeks overall hobby time was needed. The sky light frames are 3D printed in plastic and stuck to transparent celluloid, a relatively fast process. The rest of the roof in card and paper plus assembly was what demanded most time.

 The roller doors are operational, constructed as for building #1.

In the next photo the extended rear wall is evident. This looks odd but as our period of interest includes 1930s and it was present in the 1939 aerial photos then it has been included.

Window/door details of both the west wall and rear wall (above view) are not clear from photos so they have been modelled with best guess for window provision.

All windows are transparent because this building will have partial interior lighting. What this means is the strip light for the building next door is long enough to poke into the repair shop!

David

Thornycroft Building #13 - Paint Mixing Shop

In the photo below this building is on the left of the site in the middle of the main yard between a dump of materials and another small but longer building. (Click for a larger view).

J.I. Thornycroft and Co Motor Works, Basingstoke, 1939 - Britain from Above

 Function

 Paint mixing.

Time Line

Built between 1928 and 1939. It did not last until the end, probably demolished shortly after manufacture ceased in 1969 when the site was taken over by a variety of small firms.

Construction

Corrugated iron. Available photos suggest 3 windows on the east end and a door on the west end and a couple of white panels on the roof, which may be skylights or vents. Nothing is clear in these respects.

The Model

Here is the model on our full size plan in a similar orientation to the above.

Made in the same manner as the Weigh House, except the roof is decorative paper stuck to thin card.

David

Thornycroft Building #12 - Case Hardening Shop

In the photo below this building is on the left directly behind the long building with three ridge roofs.

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

Function 

The left hand half was the Case Hardening shop. Case hardening is a process of heating a metal iron object to harden the surface layer. Inside the building were several electrically controlled furnaces.

On the end was a boiler house (construction post dates the photo above), the boiler(s) being fired with sawdust waste from the wood working shop. It may have fed steam to the pickling shed located next to the railway siding.

The right hand half of the building was the packing shed.

Time Line

The packing shed was built in 1916 and the case hardening shop added in 1919. The small boiler house on the end appeared between 1928 and 1939. The chimney was demolished later but the main buildings survived until the end. They had undergone some remodelling in later years, being extended across the rear alley to join the next building and the roof line changed from seven saw tooth's to nine and covered in corrugations.

Construction

The packing shed was of the same architecture and construction as building #6 and assumed to have a similar shingle roof covering for the period of our model. The case hardening shop was not the exact same style. It's wall construction is not clear from available photographs of the exterior. It could have been brick but an interior photograph suggests corrugated walls. The boiler house construction is even less clear but probably brick. The boiler house roof seems to have also been its water storage tank. A tall external chimney connected to the boiler house. An ash dump was located at the other end.

The Model

Here is the model on our layout plan in a similar orientation as above. Building #10 has been permanently fixed to it because it was was integral to the packing shed described here.

Designed in a graphic editing application, ink jet printed and stuck to card. 

The case hardening shop is shown in brick. If photographic evidence materialises to confirm it was corrugated iron then it would not be too difficult to overlay paper depicting this. The building butts to the back scene so the rear walls are not modelled. In fact the real building is deeper than that modelled, the remainder being in the back scene. The windows, including skylights, are opaque.

 

The chimney is 3D printed in plastic and covered in brick paper. None of the buildings on the layout are permanent fixtures and can be removed for storage. In the case of the chimney, being rather tall, it is a separate model. Its hollow interior enables it to be held in place by a bolt sticking up through the baseboard.

The boiler house, being a later addition, obscures the tall windows on the end of the case hardening shop.

The ash dump walls are simulated railway sleepers and purely fictitious as no clear photo of its construction is available. The water in the roof tank is a photograph of tank water. It is quite realistic with shadow and ripples.

David

Thornycroft Building #11 - Pickling Shed

In the photo below this building is shown roughly in the middle of the complex immediately in front of the building with two railway sidings entering it. (Click for a larger view).

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

Function

The building contained pickling tanks for cleaning metal casting surfaces prior to the machining process. The castings were submerged in a sulphuric acid and water mixture that remove sand and scale. Hot steam was used to heat the acid as this reduced the pickling time. An example pickling time is 60 centigrade for about 30 minutes. After pickling the castings would have been rinsed, possibly in a tank of lime water to neutralise residual acid and then again in clean water.

Time Line

Probably built when the siding complex was altered and expanded between 1902 and 1919. It did not survive until the end and was probably demolished when the sidings were removed in the 1970s(?).

Construction

Open timber frame with corrugated roof, although close scrutiny of the above photo reveals that the end facing the camera was partially covered in corrugated iron.

The Model

Here is the model on our full sized plan in a similar orientation to the above photo.

Being open framed the interior has been modelled. This is entirely fictitious for Thornycroft but is based on a photo of a pickling shed in India! 

The timber frame was designed in CAD as a kit of parts and then 3D printed in plastic.

The is the timber frame after assembly and painting.

Three pickling tanks were also CAD designed and 3D printed. Two girders (Plastruct) are fixed to the roof beams from which hang two hoists made with washers and wire. These hoists are used to lift either large castings into the tanks or a cradle containing smaller parts. The shed lies alongside a siding so that side of the shed has been given corrugated iron cladding for 'elf n safety' reasons. The corrugated iron walls and roof are printed paper stuck to card. This photo shows the interior before the roof was fitted.

David

Thornycroft Building #10 - Packing Shed

In the photo below this building is shown roughly in the middle of the complex with two railway sidings entering it. (Click for a larger view).

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

Function

The name suggests it is where materials were packed and unpacked. The facility extended into the adjacent building on the left. A wall existed between the two areas, possibly with access between them. It is not known if railway loading platforms existed. A covered alley was provided on the right hand side for access to/from the rear alley way.

Two railway sidings entered the building. The right hand siding continued through and across the wide alley at the rear and into the machine shop, tool room and stores on the other side. It continued into the next building finally exiting to the outside at the far end of the site. Consequently, materials could be unloaded from wagons directly where they were needed. The siding on the left, where it enters the building, was a head shunt for the loading/unloading bay in the foreground of the photo above. The head shunt continued across the alley at the rear but did not enter buildings on the other side. 

The left hand door slid in front of the right hand door. The door on the right gave access to the right hand siding. With the left hand door pushed left it still partially covered the left hand siding but allowed trains to traverse the crossover (This is the arrangement shown in the above photo). Use of the head shunt required the left door to slide right. Both sidings could be accessed when the doors were slid over each other to the right and in front of the first window.

Time Line

Built in 1916. It survived until the end.

Construction

Brick with corrugated iron valance/fascia and roof. The curved roof included a cupola. The doors were wooden.

The Model

Here is the model on our full size plan in a similar orientation to the above.

Designed in a graphic editing application and ink jet printed on paper that is stuck to card. Window glass is opaque except the cupola, which is transparent cellophane. Doors are operational with 90 degree tabs that run in a slot behind the valance. The building has a plinth that will disappear into the ground. The model butts to the back scene so, the rear has no wall.

The clearances required for standard N gauge track and rolling stock required compromise on the model design compared to the prototype. The opening is taller and wider causing the sliding doors to cover both windows instead of one when fully open and the valance style differs at the right hand end. I'm not sure why there should be a clearance issue if all is supppose to be to scale but, it looks acceptable. 

David