The Fireplace

The small fireplace with the skewed chimney stack that we always knew existed in the signalbox, but not its exact size or design, has now been completed after much debate, numerous rejections and several failures. Viewing the completed structure, you could be forgiven for thinking that it was much ado about nothing! After all, just how much work can building a small, plain, brick fireplace consist of? Well, let me tell you, there was absolutely no room to work with as the footprint of the fireplace was determined entirely by the small, supporting arch underneath (regular readers will remember from earlier blogs that this itself was in a terrible state prior to our comprehensive repair of it).


It was on this that we had to fit the complete fireplace and flue, the dimensions of which are important for a proper draught. The original flue was intended to be contained within the 18 thick rear wall, except we discovered at the last minute that the rear wall was 18 thick at one end but, at the fireplace end, it swelled to 21½, so the original builders, all those years ago, also realised at the last minute that space was tight! 


We soldiered on, eventually a brick design was agreed and a tortuous combination of brick and block, cut and positioned with care, gave us an acceptable flue size within the available space. As the fireplace sits across one corner of the ‘box at a 45° angle to the walls, all we had to do now was ROTATE the chimney stack through 45° so that when it pokes through the roof, it is in alignment with the walls of the signalbox. So, thinking cap on again, more cutting and re-aligning of block and brick and, ‘hey presto’, it worked and we now have the stack at the stage where we can simply build it up through the roof when we are ready and it will look like it always did – I hope! 

It worked - 'hey presto!'

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