Needless to say, pieces for the clock tower and viaduct had to be constructed in segments so they could be spray painted various colors, then assembled. "The exciting part was having the train go through the clock tower," he told me later. I think it was a vision of that moment to come that led him to persevere without fail.
At each stage, new elements kept coming to mind, he said, and were added. The roof required lots of time—for dormers and individually laid basswood shingles, soffits, fascia, brackets, windows, coins, flagpole and more color.
The dormers on the clock tower roof went through several variations, including arched copper roofing which did not work or satisfy! Finally the new dormers reflected the northern rigors—and all buildings were seen as needing concrete, even concrete shingles. And still, we both laughed, the whole layout would have to be understood as under a bubble against the fierce extremes of weather at the Pole!
The clock required finding a dial image on the computer. Then it was necessary to find the right transparency and score the isinglass to cover and brighten the clocks appearance. It was backlighted, which created another challenge, in that the roof system had to be removable. Along the track viaduct, red runway lighting was a natural but created another design problem—where to store the battery packs. It was decided the north face of the viaduct would be Christmas Hall and the south face would be the freight adventure. East and west would be supported by ground works for the laying of the tracks and cutting into the glaciers with retaining walls.
And January sped by . . .
No comments:
Post a Comment