Construction of an Ash Pit for Lakeside
I decided that with the turntable now in position I could now start developing that area and one of the things that I wanted to have in was an Ash Pit next to the smaller single engine shed so yesterday I made this up. I used scraps of off-cuts from my Plasticard box to make the basic shell and again rummaged through my other boxes of left over bits and found some brick patterned plastic sheeting which I then lined onto the inside of the basic shell which I had just built.

Before even starting this I researched old photos of Ash Pits to get an idea of what they looked like and there were various shapes, styles and sizes to choose from but there was one photo I liked and so I decided to chose that as a basis for this one of mine. It consisted of the normal dug out pit lined with brickwork and a concrete floor with a concrete ramp leading up to the top of the pit, the track rested on a central brick pier via two wooden long beams stretching the length of the pit and at each end the wooden beams were resting on another brick support jutting from out from the sides, the two rails of the track were then laid directly onto these wooden beams.

After making the Ash Pit up I then set about painting and weathering the pit using various paints and all applied with a brush rather than an air brush, fine granuals of spilt coal was then added along with two workers shovelling it into a wheel barrow.

I have now left that to dry out and will add the ash tonight once I know it is fully dried and I will use ash taken from my ashtray for the ash as this gives a very realistic effect. The result so far can be seen in the two photos below. The track in the photo is not the track I will be using and is only there to give me dimensions and also to just show the effect.

The tractor in the background will be used for hauling away the ash

All I need to do then is cut a hole in the baseboard and lower it into position and then put the track over the top once dropper wires have been installed. Once installed I will upload some more photos of the final Ash Pit. This turned out to be a very relaxing job to do on a dull, rainy day and cost me no additional outlay as everything used I had already in my 'Spares' box.