help with building size

[JohnDisdle]

Please can anyone tell me the footprint of the Dapol house kits, C027, and C057. I cannot find this information anywhere...Many thanks.

[JohnDisdle]

I can now answer my own question. These buildings arrived this morning.

The detached house W=10cm. D= 8cm. The walls are a rendered finish.
The pair of semis are W= 15.3cm D= 9.5cm. These walls are a smooth finish. I hope this may be useful to someone.

[BorderShed]

I can now answer my own question.

I felt for you - no replies from anyone with a test sample.
I had nothing I could add !
I even went looking for images (face-on, or at an angle that could be rectified) that could be measured,,,
but zilch,
sorry!

However, what might be useful for future genertions ( aka stumblers upon this topic !):
a measure of the height (and width?) of doorways - to be interpreted against possible representative historical age of the building

[JohnDisdle]

Hi Bordershed.

Thanks for trying.
I looked at card kits, but these look little better.
I was hoping to make a low relief building, but it would be difficult to cut down.
They are not built yet, and I am painting them before assembly. It's somewhere for the railway people to live, and I have room to fit them in.

[JohnDisdle]

I have finished the Dapol detached house. Everything fitted together very well, and it looks good.
The semi detached house will be next.


I have also built a Dapol four wheel coach,which was a Christmas present. This was not so easy.
Age and Parkinsons made it a very fiddly job. There is no hope of painting it in GWR colours, so brown ends, crimson sides, and a white roof will have to do.

The brass bearings should be one of the first things to do, not almost the last. The wheels were not a good fit, and I had to apply some heat to the sides to stop them falling out. Fitting the bearings, caused some damage to the coach chassis, which is not too bad, but I broke a coupling hook, and have now replaced both with an NEM.
It needs some weight to stop it falling off the track, and now weighs 75g. Maybe more weight will help. Changing to metal wheels also helped. But I cannot say it is a good runner. It derails sometimes on a bend or a point, especially if pushed.

[End2end]

I had nothing I could add !

Me neither. Most of my buildings are made from Linka or pre-made items, but glad you got the measurements now John.
Thanks
End2end

[Bufferstop]

There's a problem with the Dapol non-railway buildings, which is sometimes an advantage. Their features (doors windows etc) are reasonable for 4mm scale but the buildings themselves are rather small. The half timbered pub is little bigger than the thatched cottage, the church is little bigger than the single road loco shed. Some careful positioning is called for to avoid highlighting the differences. It mattered little when they were introduced, at two bob (10p) apiece the were cheap event at '60s pocket money prices.

[JohnDisdle]

Hi Bufferstop.

A quick measure around the Dapol detached house, makes the garage about 15ft x 8ft.
The lounge about 18ftx 10ft, and it would have a very small kitchen. So I don't think i'll move in yet, but not bad for about a fiver...

The 4 wheel coach has a new chassis from a VDA bought cheap from e-Bay, and now runs very well, with new running boards. The chassis is a little too long, but not enough to worry about. The advantage is the wheels are mounted in a sort of boogie, and that helps it round bends.
I spent a morning trying to get the Dapol chassis running, changing the back to back, etc. but had to give up.

[JohnDisdle]

I have now made the Dapol Station Booking Hall. There are no dimensions on their site.

So length over gents toilet = 140mm. Depth of main building = 50mm. Depth including awning = 76mm.
This is a very nice model, and the only difficulty was fitting the awning. It is supposed to fit under the roof edge I think, but it doesn't. It still looks ok though.

[Bufferstop]

How real roofs, canopies and so on go together is a bit of a mistery unless you can get up high to examine them. Our local station is a typical late GWR design, all built from the same book of plans. There's a gutter up there somewhere, but what it does behind the canopy is total obscured, and the footbridge is too darned far away to see. It's really annoying because the normal viewing angle for the model leaves it visible. The Dapol (ex Airfix) station is a nice compromise length just long enough to be believable, I don't know where it's based on but the signal box is Oakham which rumour has it was the Aortic designer's local station, so maybe she station is on the same line.