Still here :)

I haven't forgotten you blog readers :)

Have a few side projects going on but ill be back to the railway world soon!

Smooshing

Hi All,

A bit of progress today. As well as fixing up some ballasting I was unhappy with I did a bit of smooshing :)

What is that you ask?

Well its the first step in a technique used in Chris Nevard's Catcott Burtle to acheive the Cinder ballast look.

I could not find any Das or Humbrol air clay, so I went with a cheap brand from the local emporium. At first I had no success due to it flaking and cracking to easily, but I found if I put a blob of clay on top of the sleepers and spray a decent amount of water on it, the cheap clay would quickly turn to the consistency of  peanut butter! Its an easy job then to spread it over the sleepers with my fingers or a stiff brush.

This is a bit messy and alot goes on the rails, but its nice to get off by wetting it again and running a stiff brush* and running it down the in and outsides of each rail.

*I simply cut the bristles on an old 10mm brush down to about 5mm.

Ill take a few photo's once it has dried a little.

WIP

Here's a quick snap showing the ballasting in progress and a mock up of most major elements to go with the handful of half finished structures I have completed so far.

This is my first layout and so the first application of ballast was patchy (not enough glue!). I applied additional ballast to fix the holes and I have to tidy it up and remove loose bits from the sleepers before I glue it.

I'm deciding if moving the goods shed (currently at the end of the far siding) to the end of the near siding.
I don't really like the extension of the yard into the canal...hmmm

And if you have been following this blog, you will notice my layout is no longer sitting on a bench but has its own legs :D The top of the layout it 1.25m off the ground.

It will soon be moving inside our of the cold and dusty garage :)

Ballasting started

Well after a long hiatus, I have finally laid the ballast!

I laid it using the traditional PVA method. I spray misted it (with a drop of washing liquid) before applying PVA but I had a bit of a problem with the spray nozzle, which kindly sent larger droplets hurtling towards the ballast in amongst all the nice fine, non-ballast-disturbing mist. Needless to say, these larger drops made a few spots a little rough so i'm not 100% happy with the result, but we will see what its like once I weather it.

Before I do that however, I will be 'ballasting' the sidings using a method suggested by Chris Nevard to replicate the cinder used for ballast during the time period my layout is set (have a look around his Flickr album to see his method).

In essence, this involves spreading modelling clay between the sleepers and painting suitable colours (obviously its a theres a bit more to it than this :P)

Photo's to come.

Electrics Finished

Hi All,

At long last I have finished the electrics! Here are a few photos. None actually showing the electrics, but at least I can prove I have been working, albeit slowly :)

A few close ups of the proposed station showing my first Loco, a 2-6-0 4MT :)

Almost the entire layout. Excuse the mess in the garage, I will move to a cleaner place once I begin the scenery. The boxes are a few buildings I have yet to build. The furthest being the station masters house, and the closest being the signalbox.

Yet another station shot.

Thats all for now.

Track is laid!

I cant believe i've actually started!

The title says it all :)

I have complete construction of the base, layed the cork and begun laying track :) I must say OO is a pleasure to work with compared to N scale!

Oh, and i've started assembling my structures :) Perhaps I should have painted them before assembly, but i'm sure they will work out well. I'll post photo's once there is something more interested than half completed projects! But rest assured progress is being made!