R.U. Pyro store

I am goint to start with something simple. A Pyro Store in 1/72nd scale. Here is the back side, now if I will just finish the doors, I can show you the front! ; )

Attached files [IMG]/community/52514=2611-Thorpe Abbotts Tower 003.jpg[/img]

Karl
Dont forget the Earthing Strip and Power source coming up from the ground and junction box onthe side wall . . .
Ian

This is EXACTLY why I love this site! OK clue me in: what is an "Earthing Strip"? I figure the power runs in conduit up to a J box, but the other I am clueless about. It is these kind of details that make it all worthwhile...

Earthing strip was approx. Inch + half wide of copper that was secured to the side of the building and into the ground by at least a metre.
On the roof, center of the buiding, it just stuck up in the air to attract that certain bolt of Lightning thus 'protecting' the contents.
In essence 'earthing' the electrical charge into the ground.:shock:

That's the theory anyway. What can really happen was graphically illustrated by a small 'protected' building in former WW2 the Bomb Store at Blakehill Farm. We had been working the area and finished for the day returning to South Cerney where we were accommodated. It was late summer and, that evening, there was a spectacular thunderstorm with very local lightning strikes and crashing thunder.

Arriving back on site at Blakehill the following morning, we found the shouldering remains of the store (A Component Store?) which had suffered a direct lightning strike. The copper earthing strip about 3/16 inch thick and around 1-1/2 inches wide was still hanging above ground in the shape of the building which had been blasted to rubble!. Empty of course!

Peter
Great story, thanks for sharing
Ian

Able wrote:

Earthing strip was approx. Inch + half wide of copper that was secured to the side of the building and into the ground by at least a metre.
On the roof, center of the buiding, it just stuck up in the air to attract that certain bolt of Lightning thus 'protecting' the contents.
In essence 'earthing' the electrical charge into the ground.:shock:

Just to be pedantic (!), you are actually referring to the Lightning Protection System (LPS) on the outside of the building. An earthing strip would be an internal fixture (approx waist height) to facilitate bonding of stores when required and would be interconnected to the LPS. An earthing strip would be unlikely in a RU Pyro store of this vintage.

superplum;52863 wrote:

Just to be pedantic (!), you are actually referring to the Lightning Protection System (LPS) on the outside of the building. An earthing strip would be an internal fixture (approx waist height) to facilitate bonding of stores when required and would be interconnected to the LPS. An earthing strip would be unlikely in a RU Pyro store of this vintage.

You are correct; on various sites - including Blakehill Farm - some buildings were reused post-war and had lightning protection added yet it was connected to a solid copper plate buried in the ground adjacent to the building and 'earthed' or 'grounded' electrical potential. From my experience, wartime build stores had no 'massive' lightning protection just a three or four core bare copper twisted conductor to ground from a rudimentary attractor rod on a roof corner.

As you state, an earthing or bonding strip was internal usually in process buildings and buildings which stored assembled weapons such as missiles which were individually bonded to the internal conductor.