North Chimney

Just for the sake of completeness.

Extension Chimney

This one looks more like a chimney. It was not very well constructed originally but they did see the need for a bigger flue. Both this one and the south one were full of debris, the middle one was clear, perhaps the middle one was used after the railroad era?

Flashing will cover much of the base when the shingle roof is installed.

Chimney complete, nearly

The chimney on the south end. When the flashing is completed it will partly hide the pedestal that comes out of the roof.

It has been a long time since the chimney profile was so complete. Even a 100 years ago this top course or two were missing.

The bricks will be cleaned up.

South Chimney

Men at work on the South Tower. Starting to look more like a Depot than a Barn. Not that many barns have 3 chimneys.

Roof detail

The original trim has been removed and a wood fillet put in. This will allow the roofer a straight edge to work from. The original roof was nailed initially into the trim. Not such a good idea and not something sold enough after 130 years to be done again.

I chose this photograph because of the bird.

Another view of our dry stack.

A bit more definition but you can see how it steps out and comes back in.

North Extension Chimney

Keen eyes will see the roughness of the finish. Less apparent until you get up there and see is that the chimney is nearly square. Perhaps they were asked to build a chimney with a bigger flue? This was built one or two winters after the previous chimneys.

New Chimney

Bob, for scale purposes, next to our dry stack of the Addition Chimney. This was nearly square as opposed to the other two which are more rectangular. The base came above the ridge line, then returned to 2x2.5, then flared out for 3 rows with 2 rows on top.

The actual build will be slightly higher due to mortar joints. We will put a removable cap on painted black to keep the water out.

Freight Room Chimney

This is the only one that can be seen clearly.

If you look at the bottom right and left where the brick rests on the shelf you can see the original white of the mortar where the top layer has broken away.

Brick sample

One of the requirements for the mason is to build a sample wall with the mortar mix and finish.

This looks very white, but it is the original colour, grime of ages has changed the top layer, as will it change this.

Unsurprisingly the chimney in the extension was built to the same standards as the extension, not very good. So the finish on the joints here will be a little rougher.

Chimneys

We are now into the Chimney rebuilding phase, here is one of the beeter photographs that we can clearly dates of what they looked like at in 1896. The ruins in th foreground are the Pacific Hotel.

Wildlife and the Roundhouse

Birds do not usually get so big around here, an Emu in Como.

Leaves

Just for a change here is a photo looking north from Como, the leaves are tuning.

Supports underneath

Old wood for new supports. The electrical cable is not original!, when we rewired the Hotel we made provision for a supply to the Depot.

External view of north extension.

Sun going down over a sunny day in South Park, the Roof is now as straight as it ever was.

Roof work

The north section shows the new and old wood, We now have a structurally solid framework for the re-roofing.

Paint

An interesting shot showing the few paint elements on the building. The light grey and mid green are the original colours, the dark green and red are from the 1920's when the Depot was painted in the Burlington scheme.

East Inside corner

East Side, North Extension

This photograph clearly shows the vertical gap and the need for vertical posts rather than horizontal beams.

Pad Supports for North Extension

The extension that forms part of the L extended over lower levels. The original wooden supports went into the groud. The part in contact with the dirt had rotted away over the 130 years. The wood is much better quality than can be obtained now so will be reused but this time onto a concrete pad support.

North West Corner Support

New timbers placed on gravel based as per the original. This will all be hidden by the siding, eventually.

Men at Work

More men at work, in this photo the temporary roofing is being removed and new wood being put in to replace/strentghen missing or deteriorated beams and bracing..

Battery Room?

These two photographs show the small room behind the Agents Office. Whilst we can not be certain, the 'waxed' paper and battery terminals suggest that this was used for the storage of the batteries used to power the telegraph. The power output of batteries at the time was very low, so they needed a lot of them, possible 100. They would have looked like mason jars filled with acid and a cathode and anode.

Historical Photographs

We have no definitive early photograph of the Depot. This is one of my favourites. Taken from the south it shows a train arriving from Boreas, but presumably not the one the child is waiting for. Note the platform suggesting that this is pre 1910.

Summer 2008

For reference this shows the Depot in the summer of 2008 after volunteers had propped it and put in the temporary supports.