This door swings out, and the hinges should be very strong, preferably of the kind used on barn doors, so that it can be lifted off its hanging with ease, and so that the long shaft of the hinge will act as a support to prevent undue sagging. An arrangement must be made to lock this door. It can easily be secured on the inside by a bolt, and outwardly by hasp and padlock.
Fig. 1.
There remain, now, the peaks or gables at the ends, to be provided for. Many of the railway men get their roof canvas sufficiently large to come down and cover this, but I think a better plan would be to make two triangular platforms of boards, fitted to your peak, cleating them together just like the lower walls. Then place about four flat staples in the outside of your end walls, and let iron hasps bolted to the lower edge of your peak boards drop into them. This would hold the bottom of the peak and the top of the end wall squarely together. In addition to this a couple of bolts should pass through the upright and be secured by nuts, so as easily to be unscrewed. ([See fig. 14.]) There should be no middle cleat on the inside of the gable. The general character of these walls appears in several of the illustrations, but the cleating is shown in [fig. 1]. Screws should be used throughout instead of nails. The woodwork remaining to be shaped, consists of the uprights, or centre-poles at each end, the ridgepole, rafters and braces.
Fig. 2.
The two uprights in my model were 8 feet and 9 inches in height; a greater length would add pitch to the roof. These uprights should be made of clear, firm stuff, 4 inches by 2, and should be thickened at their lower ends by adding pieces of similar size, as shown in figures [2] and [4]. This upright stands inside of the wall, and edge-wise. Into its upper inner edge must be set two iron “eyes” having an inner diameter of three quarters of an inch. (See fig. 3). The uppermost of these is placed about two inches from the top of the stick, and the second six inches below. These eyes should pass clear through the timber and be held by nuts on the other side. Six feet from the bottom of the upright, a hooked bolt should be passed through the timber, the hook facing outwardly, and having enough space between it and the wood to allow the wall to come between. Its purpose is to hold the end wall snugly to the upright: therefore it must be loose enough so that it can be turned up while the wall is being put into position, and then turned down to clamp it firmly, as in [figure 4].