Glass and Metal Roof for a Railroad Station

by George Hardy

Like the Bridge Set of 1895, the main feature of this design is not the stones, but the glass and metal roof. This design, from the patent drawings, never existed as a construction set. Therefore, one cannot refer to the parts as "reproductions". Rob Buis and Fred Hartjes produced the parts -- Fred did the design work and Rob made the parts. Fred closely followed the patent drawings for the stone work, as is seen below.

Railroad station built by George Hardy. The roof covers a large area, perfect for a train station.

Note the wooden beams on which the roof hooks and glass are supported.

This side view shows the "X" cross beams which maintain the spacing between the roof trusses.

New angle which increases reflections from the glass, showing the roof construction.

Metal trusses and cross beams are clearly seen in this picture.

The original patent drawing of the truss. Note the hooks which support the glass plates.

This photo shows the cross beams, as designed. There are no braces to keep the upper and lower angles of the connection in the center fixed, unless one counts the wooden beams.

The upper and lower horizontal beams form triangles which stabilize the upper and lower angles of the center connection. I agree that only one of the horizontal beams is required, if one used "compression" beams. I used "tension" beams, so the two beams are required to avoid compression stresses. For the record, the beams are 177 mm long.

Railroad station built by Fred Hartjes. The look of the building is improved by the addition of the model trains.

Fred drew up the plans. The trains show the scale.

The side view gives a clear illustration that the roof towers over the stone base.

The details of the metal trusses. The addition of a truss-to-truss beam, adding a beam to for the third side to the crossing beams would have been a useful improvement. There is little stability in the connection at the center of the "X".