Railway/In progress

I started work on the railway layout last year but progress has been slow due to pressure of work and the sheer physical hard work of building the benchwork on two levels round a room 27' x 17' - especially the vexed issue of crossing the doorway, the "trundleduct".

One of the goals was to have a station in which a decent length train could stop without blocking the throat. These pictures show the station benchwork with a temporary track on which is an A3 pacific loco and fourteen coaches; the target is a rake of 13 Gresley teak coaches. I think it is big enough :-)

The double loop was closed and powered on 31 December 2008, you can now run round on both inner and outer double loops; next will be some more sidings and the start of ballasting and scenic work.

A good find: Daler-Rowney Gesso, a black acrylic primer/undercoat, applies direct to plywood and leaves a slightly porous surface which will take paint or PVA for gluing down scenery.



March 09
This batch was taken with Michael's camera, the colour balance is not right and it does not focus as well as the usual camera, so I will try to get better pictures. I'd say this corner (the junction where the branch line leaves the main, which also has a goods loading dock) is around half complete at this point. The scenery on the hill to the left is easy but I am debating whether to buy the ready-made meadows I have recently seen or DIY.

The loading dock
This is a place where I have been testing my skills at brickwork and tarmac. I think it's quite acceptable for a first attempt. The brickwork is cast from Linka moulds, painted mortar colour, then dry-brushed with brick colour and finally given an ink wash of mid brown.

Black covers a multitude of sins
As the will tell you, black covers a multitude of sins. Here's an example:

Peco PL-11
A new switch machine from Peco! Mounts above the track (easy to use) but slightly obtrusive. An alternative to the traditional "lineside hut" approach. Did I really take 8 photos of this before finding one that was acceptable?

Older in-progress pictures
Not seen here (i.e. not started) is the sidings at the trundleduct end in the next corner from the branch operating well.