Our temporary feed to the Toyshed was upgraded so we could wire in another extension lead and run the cement mixer while we were laying the foundation blocks, but now we are going to need something a little more organised for working in and on the bodies.
Two 45m extension leads from B&Q and a handful of CEE.II 240v 16A connectors (a.k.a. Commando) and we have run a more useful supply to No 2. body (The Office).
The cable runs from the stone barn, overhead to the Goat Shed, and then along the inner fence line. We fed the cable through some polythene water pipe to give some protection for the last few metres to the back of the bodies. A CEE.II line socket on the end of the cable allows us to plug in a CEE.II to 4-Gang 13A trailing block, connect directly to the power inlet on the cement mixer, or to connect to the sheds.
The body is fitted with a 45 degree bulkhead plug. The cable from the barn can be plugged directly onto each box as required and ultimately we will have a junction box behind the four bodies where the main incoming feed can be split three ways. Once all the landscaping and groundwork has been completed, our 'temporary' feed will be replaced with an underground armoured cable. In theory - they say there isn't anything as permanent as a temporary lash-up!
The two brown gungy strips are beads of mastic where the lashing rails were fitted to the insides of the bodies. This all needs stripping off and then cleaning, and a little remedial work to the old screw holes. The rails were only held on with 10mm long self-tapping screws, but 120 of them at 2" intervals spreads the loading quite nicely. Having drilled the hole to feed the power cable (grey) through the wall, we determined that the walls are fibreglass laminated inside and out onto 18mm marine ply. Should last a couple of decades at least.
Each body will be fitted with it's own mini consumer unit with separate MCB's for lighting and power circuits, but for now (and until we get the doors on and render the boxes fully weatherproof) we have terminated the external CEE.II plug on No 2 body with a single weatherproof IP56 13A socket. The remainder of the cable on one of the extension leads allows us to reach into the two adjacent bodies - The Store and The Wood Shop. Eco can fettle firewood in The Store over the next few days, and I will be able to crack on with fitting out the Office.
Polythene pipe coming in under the rear of the bodies. The cones will hopefully stop us tripping over the pipe! Now, you might just be able to make out from the photo that the rears of the bodies are in as good a line as the fronts. With one exception. No 4 (Metal Shop) sticks a little further back. We hadn't actually measured the bodies...we just assumed they were all 20 footers. When we placed the last one and measured it up, it was a foot longer than the others. There were two possibilities at this juncture. Either the fourth body was a 20' unit and we'd been 'robbed' on the others and they were actually only 19' long, or we'd dipped in on number four and it just happened that that one was a 21' unit. The latter was the case, so our Metal Shop is just a tad bigger than we planned. Eight square feet of additional floor, or 64 cubic feet extra volume. Bonus!
Interestingly, you can clearly read the telephone number and web address of Nightfreight on the side of the first body, as well as just being able to see part of their logo. The signwriting (vinyl-cut) has been removed but the colour under the writing hasn't faded over time! The second box still has the original yellow stickering.
A little difficult to make out - taken on my crappy phone - but there is an extension lead plugged into No 2 box, running into No 1 box where Eco has the saw-bench set up. The rest of my afternoon was spent on repairs to the corners of the bodies where there was a little 'battle damage' and a few leaks. Hopefully they are watertight now and won't leak...fingers crossed. In 3 and 4 you can see the lashing rails which have not yet been removed/reprofiled/repurposed.
