PhilHydePhotos: The Barn Station Blog

Here are photos and an ongoing diary of the exploits of Thierry, André and myself developing and building 'the Barn Station', starting in...

Click here to see the latest updates!

June 2017

In the barn, over the gym, on a mezzanine, a man-cave is born.

It's foetal form nestled on computer, planned by Thierry to have 160 metres of rail, laid out to have more than 12 trains running at the same time, with each section controlled to allow only one train at a time.

Nuts.

The first job was getting up there. I had used this area of the barn to store tiles etc. Each time I took stuff up there, I suffered vertigo and thanked the gods that frown down upon me for not falling.

We needed stairs...

November 2017

Once the plan of the rail system was finalised, wood was bought and cut into a thousand pieces each of the correct length.

Then we changed the plans.

Hey ho.

We started on the base. All went well. The legs were fixed in place, then the frame on top.

A palette of chipboard was bought to be fixed to the frame.

December 2017

With baseboard in place, we trialled the rail layout.

Yep, we changed the plan again.

January 2018

Boards finally in place, edging nailed on.

A thin layer of insulation was then glued in place to reduce vibration...

February 2018

...which was then painted to stop the bloody stuff flaking off.

Two levels of rail were then put in place.Surely we were within minutes of getting the system working?

The first train does a part circuit.

March 2018

Time to tart things up...

but then...

Temperatures rise, the rails distort. We looked on in dismay as rails buckled and our hard work stuttered to a halt.

The temperatures remained awesomely high, making working up in that oven impossible.

August 2018

Sourcing a cut-priced air conditioning unit did not take long. Fixing it in place did not take long. Getting a technician out to initialise the bloody thing took forever.

Whilst waiting, we fixed in place temporary air-conditioning which pulled the temperature down a minuscule amount (providing you stood right in front of it). This was enough to get started on fixing up insulation under the roof, although working after about 11am was still suicidal.

Cart before horse anyone?

September 2018

Having fixed all that insulating board in place, whilst incidentally inhaling bucket-loads of insulation, it did not take long to realise that, well, that it looked rubbish.

Time to tart up the ceiling.

Time to inhale more dust.

With the ceiling finished and the air con working (and my arms and lungs aching), it was time to tidy up and get rid of all that dust and debris.

At last! The the man-cave was a pleasant environment...

until you stepped outside...

More work to do...

November 2018

Finally started tarting up the rails. They've been glued down and soldered.

Next step, rust...

I've added ballast to a trial run which will end up hidden. Once perfected I'll start on the rest...

December 2018

Tunnel walls are being erected (can you erect a tunnel?)

and walls are going up...

January 2019

After realising the station would be arse-about-face, we re-routed some of the rails.

The farm terrain is taking shape, ready for sculpting.

By the end of February we hope to have the main rails functional, ready for a round-trip video.

Or I might go skiing...

March 2019

While I've been a gaily a'gardening-oh, my in-house engineer Thierry has been working on the automatic lights and braking systems, spending many hours buried in the gubbins of the Barn Station, fiddling with wires 'n stuff.
As a result of his bravery in action, he was awarded with some new wagons from the fruits of his loin.
(All that should translate well into French...)

So here's a quick video of his new acquisitions, also showing off some of his minuscule lights...

August 2019

Hey. where went all that time? Five months since the last post? Hmmm.

I have not been sitting here doing nothing, it's just that not all of my time is spent on this folly. I have other follies too!

Having got the system working, we decided that it looked a little too cluttered. The sidings had to go. Next Plan....

We decided to shift the sidings next door.

And so, after much hammering, cutting and (mostly) swearing...

In the meantime, Thierry has been designing an electrical control system. The idea is to have thirteen different districts, into which only one train is allowed at a time. Trains trying to enter the same district will be automatically warned and then automatically stopped. Once the district is free, a train in the previous district will automatically restart.

Well, it's kinda difficult, there is no existing system, we had to make one.

First stage, the overall electrical plan:

Then the plans were sent to china for them to made up into circuit boards:

A week later, thirty circuit boards arrive, plus all the diodes, resistors etc, some of which were not far off microscopic:

The finished underside of the board

The finished board with a standard relay module:

What's more, it works!

March 2020

We've done a fair bit of work on the Barn Station since I last posted. We decided that the sidings took way to much space up in the main layout, so we extended into the other half of the mezzanine. It's taken longer than expected, but we are now up and running again.

Also started on the scenery, I estimate another ten years should see it put to bed...

Here's a video catch up. Best watched with the amp turned up to full deci-deafening-bels....

January 2021

The recent (and not so recent) lack of updates about the Barn Station is not because nothing much has been done. It’s because I’ve been a lazy bastard...

And nothing much has been done...

So, to catch up, last winter I extended the system to build the sidings to house all our rolling stock (flashy phrase for trains). Then spring arrived, and with it a certain proliferating viral particle. Along with those little buggers arrived a certain elderly relative. This combination changed everything. Well, maybe not absolutely everything, I’m still not exactly sure what Dark Matter is...

All this meant a change of routine, and my mind was focused on just three things; cooking, gardening, and getting fit, in a vain attempt at hoodwinking the aforementioned bit of RNA. Somewhere amongst all this the Barn Station was not forgotten, not ignored, more put to one side. The adding of ballast to the turnouts filled me with dread, and my in-house electrician had suddenly become a masked stranger.

Well, finally, I’ve rediscovered my enthusiasm for it. I forced myself to finish the turnouts so that I could transfer my enormous talents onto the scenery. Gluing electrostatic grass has become my new passion.

The rails and ballast are sorted, (involving much sweat and swearing) and the grass planted between the rails is growing well.

The far end is yet to have scenery put in place, mostly because I’ve no idea what to put there yet. My initial idea of a miniature hadron collider now seems unlikely.

I’ve started camouflaging the beams in the most inaccessible part. This involved climbing over parts previously fixed in place, (becoming unfixed in the process) and involved straining body parts previously undiscovered.

At the far end of the building, miles of rails away, the farm is beginning to mature.

Grass, trees, weeds, fences... it now lacks only animals, people, and an illegal still.

Oh yes, and a lingering odour....

My inertia has now reached venting point; a video is now well overdue. But that must wait. We have temporarily broken free, fleeing in the Gnome to the distant mountains cloaked in snow, enveloped in clouds, drenched in isolation.

Thus the train is still delayed by unavoidable social distancing and a few inappropriate types of leaves on the track. Instead; the first episode of the new series of Gnome-Trek will be coming to a screen near you any day soon....

Maybe...

As we now find it difficult to get to the mountains, I've decided to bring the mountains to me...

March 2021

You'd think that between keeping the several acres of our garden under control, feeding the hoard of animal life, and caring for four young and fragile eggs, that I wouldn't have enough time to terraform an entire planet would you?

It's a cross I have to bear. Well, it is Easter after all...

This stretch of the Barn Station was always going to be a problem. How could I camouflage four rails leaving one visible, and keep some semblance of reality.

What I really wanted was for it to represent the Wye Valley, a connection between the Welsh pits and the English Channel. I guess I'll have to find a small corner in which to shove England...

Using some cast-off stone shards, it began to take shape. Although, any vague resemblance to the Wye Valley seems to be rapidly receding... it looks more like the Pyrenees...

So yes, the greenest of valleys it is not.

In the narrow space left between the mountains and the edge of the world, I added some foothills.

Then some grass

All these mountains are removable, in exactly the same fashion as real mountains...

Then a day spent planting trees...

The more perceptive among you may have doubts as to the realism at this point. Is it the mountain range? Or is it the fact that there is no bloody railway in the Wye Valley?

Picky picky.

The next job, after some weeding, feeding and turning some eggs, is to find time to work upon the backdrop. Thank God for the lockdown...

Now there's a thought...

Editor's note: There is actually a railway station in the Wye valley, now converted to a cafe, with a short stretch of rail. Mneh...

April 2021

Today is Sunday. This gives me the opportunity to preach about one of my favourite topics that, for some strange reason, no one wants to talk to me about; religion.

My problem is one of expediency. Much of my family in my adopted country of France (I am, after all, an immigrant) believe in an all-powerful being called God. Well, when I say 'All-powerful' clearly he has his limitations...

Um, er, no. Seriously, I do not want to upset any of my family and friends by stating that their invisible friend is invisible for a bloody good reason. So I will tactfully avoid the subject...

Whatever you believe, whether or not you feel that 'needs' outweighs 'facts', it is clear that religion has had far-reaching effects. So many people want to think that there is something beyond death...

Hey ho.

This has resulted in the construction of some of the most amazing erections known to man.

So I thought I'd give it a try (many puns intended)...

I soon discovered that the most important thing needed to build great religious edifices is not slavery, not taking money from the poor, not years of struggle, not overwhelming power.

It is simply an adequate supply of coffee.

Who knew?

Well, apart from God that is...

All this talk of superior beings and imaginary friends misses the point. Most important to all humanity is their innermost soul. Their love of life. Their taste for life. And this, my dear readers, is where religion wins.

Religion invented hot cross buns...

Taste supreme.

If a little large...

Epilogue:

I wrote this blog last night. I woke this morning with a sore throat, a cough and a headache. Do you think that 'He who does not exist' is trying to tell me something?

As you may have noted over the last few blogs, much time, effort, dosh, sweat and even tears, have gone into creating our garden; our little corner of paradise.

That got me thinking....

Why not create a little corner of paradise in the Barn Station?