Saturday, April 17, 2010

Inspiration (Part 1)

Hanger side

Stretching my legs before Trainwest in the morning I found the sides of the neighbouring hanger, now a storage depot for Avon Tyres, appealing. Not the most picturesque location you might think, but I have in mind some structures for the layout in a box (must think up a proper name for this one day).

A wall such as this shouldn’t be a difficult construction job, some brick plastic for the base and Wills sheet above this with windows from clear(ish) plastic. Dimensions can be modified to suit the location in both height and length.

Getting the colour right will be the biggest challenge. You might say that it’s green, but the connoisseur of green will spot several shades. The original paint has faded unevenly from a blue-green to yellow-green and then a coating of moss or algae has added at least a third paler shade. In the morning sun this all looks lovely. Later in the day the differences in shade aren’t so marked.

The other feature of the wall is the building of small and now derelict, brick huts. These aren’t physically connected with the main building so the purpose is unclear.

One problem I do have is date – when did box steel like this arrive in the UK ?

According to the helpful Wiltshire Council website, RAF Melksham, which became the sports centre, opened on 12th June 1940 as No 12 School of Technical Training. Assuming the hangers haven’t been rebuilt since then this means I ought to be OK for a BR period setting but any earlier would be less plausible, unless anyone knows better ?

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