Rooftop details - Printable Version

+- (https://bigbluetrains.com)
+-- Forum: Branchline (https://bigbluetrains.com/forumdisplay.php?fid=45)
+--- Forum: Scenery details (https://bigbluetrains.com/forumdisplay.php?fid=44)
+--- Thread: Rooftop details (/showthread.php?tid=4259)

Pages: 1 2

Re: Rooftop details - MasonJar - 08-18-2011

e-paw Wrote:[Image: 20110804115756.jpg] This pic is of some ornamental iron work on the side of the same building (seen on the right of the first pic) They are only through bolted into the brick and have no structural purpose, only decoration. This was at one time the exterior wall so this was able to be seen from the street, But that was a long time ago..

That is not always the case though. Many older buildings have these to add structural integrity. They stop the walls bowing outwards because there's one on the other side of the building, and they are connected under a floor or inside a ceiling (mostly) by metal rods.

Andrew

Rooftop details - e-paw - 08-18-2011

Now for the roof of the Kennedy center it's self. [Image: 20110818143220.jpg] This roof holds several of these large HVAC units. This one is just over 20 feet long by 10 feet wide. It sits on a 'I' beam frame with conduit and duct work run underneath. In the background, the spotlights mounted on the roof could be added to a structure as a nice detail. The lighter rectangles are a thick textured pad put down to provide a non slip walkway.

Here [Image: 20110818143038.jpg] is another shot of one of the other units on the roof. This ones a little smaller.

In this pic [Image: 20110818143311.jpg] We have the highest point of the building witch was a Sears department store in a former life. The large gray hunk of steal is part of the condensate tower. Mounted on the wall above it are some cell phone "ears", that is a must have for any tall building set in modern times. A nice touch to a prominent building would be a large flag pole like this one. If you do add the cell phone antennas to a building the support equipment shown here [Image: 20110818143031.jpg] could be added as some extra details. Some times the phone equipment is placed inside the building.

Rooftop details - e-paw - 08-20-2011

[Image: 20110819111238.jpg] Here's a top view of the condensate tower that I showed earlier. In our top down world of model railroading it could be useful.

In this shot you have another view of the first HVAC unit and the elevator machine room[Image: 20110819111524.jpg]

If you're modeling an urban aria, a shot like the next two are good for reference. There are tones of details to copy. [Image: 20110819111544.jpg]


[Image: 20110819111851.jpg]

Re: Rooftop details - Mr Fixit - 08-20-2011

MasonJar Wrote:
e-paw Wrote:[Image: 20110804115756.jpg] This pic is of some ornamental iron work on the side of the same building (seen on the right of the first pic) They are only through bolted into the brick and have no structural purpose, only decoration. This was at one time the exterior wall so this was able to be seen from the street, But that was a long time ago..

That is not always the case though. Many older buildings have these to add structural integrity. They stop the walls bowing outwards because there's one on the other side of the building, and they are connected under a floor or inside a ceiling (mostly) by metal rods.

Andrew

I agree with Andrew on his answer. The iron work is there to spread the load from the tie rods, which were used to tie the outer walls together to prevent them from bowing out and collapsing due to thrust loadings from the weight of the roof or floors [static load] and from occupants or the weather [live loads]. Depending upon the age of the building these tie rod ends can take many shapes, particularly as steel became more commonly used in buildings as its price and availability increased as the 20th Century neared. I have seen them shaped like the figure S or the figure 8, used either vertically or horizontally. Sometimes you will see an older building has had to have extra such tie rod ends or corners retro fitted to deal with extra loadings or stresses due to insufficient tie rods originally.


Mark

Rooftop details - e-paw - 08-20-2011

I do know what you guys are talking about, but in this case those items are not tied to anything inside the building. No truss work or beams of any kind, just a washer and a nut.

Re: Rooftop details - doctorwayne - 08-20-2011

e-paw Wrote:I do know what you guys are talking about, but in this case those items are not tied to anything inside the building. No truss work or beams of any kind, just a washer and a nut.

Looks to be a case of there being "a prototype for everything" - in this case, nut/bolt/washer castings that appear to serve a purpose but are really just ornamentation. ( My apologies to Bernhard (modelsof1900), whose nut/bolt/washer detail is not only functional, but built-up rather than a simple casting.) Wink Eek

Wayne

Re: Rooftop details - MasonJar - 08-21-2011

e-paw Wrote:I do know what you guys are talking about, but in this case those items are not tied to anything inside the building. No truss work or beams of any kind, just a washer and a nut.

Often (not always) this is the visible portion of tie rods that keep walls from falling down. As people made masonry (stone or brick) walls thinner, they had to engineer strength into them, rather than relying on the mass of the wall to support itself.

Your picture seemed to illustrate the more elaborate "washers" that evolved, not only as ornamentation, but to spread the load over the face of the wall. As noted above, more utilitarian "washers" were often S-shaped.

Here's a picture of exposed tie rods. In this case, they are very utilitarian looking, and were added after -the-fact to stabilize ruins, not built as part of the original structure. Normally, these would be hidden in floors/ceilings. These look like they are made of structural shapes, not the rods commonly seen, and do not appear to have turnbuckles or other adjustments. Again, perhaps a function of being added afterwards.

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/10/Coventry_Cathedral_ruins_tie_rods.JPG">http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/c ... e_rods.JPG</a><!-- m -->

And sometimes, they are just for show, with no internal ties as you noted.

Andrew

Rooftop details - e-paw - 07-31-2012

I haven't added any pics here in a while and I don't know what happened to the other pics that were here, but I got a new one to post finally.


[Image: 20120730110421.jpg]

It's a view from the 14th floor from a building on 6th ave in New York city. If you scan the pic you will find four water towers mounted in different places, most look almost new. So even in a modern day layout the wooden water tower is still a fixture of an urban setting.

Re: Rooftop details - ZacharyWarren - 11-28-2013

Mr Fixit Wrote:Excellent thread idea e-paw.

One thing that I noted in your photos that you didnt mention was that your first photos show a tar roof that has since been spray painted a white colour. Now I suspect that this is the same material we have had sprayed on many of the roof areas of the school I work at. It is a special paint which has high value insulating properties and can be sprayed on many different surfaces.

Another area of roof detail that should also be attended to is Worksafe Compliant Roof Access and Fall Restraint Systems.
By this I mean guardrails and roof walkways [metal grating] as well as safety harness attatchment points and cable runs.
We are still in the process of having these all installed around the numerous school buildings, some of which are covered by Heritage Overlays, which can make things tricky.

Also if you happen to model any multi storey office blocks then you will need to provide details of the structures used by the swing stage scaffold systems used for cleaning and maintaining the exterior of the building. If you have concrete silos for your cement plant or for your grain silos, you could also model a swing stage scaffold being used to provide access to repair crews.

One more item that is now making its appearance on building roofs is 'Green Power' generating equipment in the shape of solar panels for water heating or electricity generation as well wind turbines of various shapes and configurations.
I will have to consider modelling these items for the Hodgson Mill plant on the Effingham Railroad. Hodgson Mill also has a segment of their website devoted to their 'Green Power' generating systems if you would like to learn more.
HodgsonMill.com

Mark

Pretty useful post.. There is so much to add on our roofs to attain better living.. I have got some wonderful ideas from the post and will try to implement them ASAP

Re: Rooftop details - shortliner - 11-28-2013

I believe that Noch are doing the solar roof panels

Re: Rooftop details - Sumpter250 - 11-28-2013

e-paw Wrote:I haven't added any pics here in a while and I don't know what happened to the other pics that were here, but I got a new one to post finally.
This isn't the first time, or place, where I have seen the "Photobucket message", "SORRY. this person moved or deleted this image"
Just because.......I went to the "Finescale" site where I have photos posted, that reside in photobucket, and they are still there, so I have no idea why "the above message" is there.

Re: Rooftop details - boppa - 12-04-2013

It appears that photobucket have shifted servers on you....

if you look at the missing or deleted link, you will see its at
http://s840.photobucket.com/user/gronku2/media/20110819111524.jpg.html

where the one with the pic is at
http://i840.photobucket.com/albums/zz328/gronku2/the gauge/20120730110421.jpg

Notice all the changes before the `/gronku2' bit- I dare say thats the issue... (and it appears you have renamed the `media' folder to `the gauge' somewhere along the line too)

Unfortunately short of going back and changing every link manually, I can see no way of restoring the pics as the original basically doesn't exist anymore...