Further progress on the station board

A quick update in bullet points:

- Much of the fencing has now been test erected after the necessary holes were drilled.

- The first water tank has had roof-top details added.

- Many signs have been produced on the PC and printed out - more on this in another post soon.

- The two platform flower planters have had flowers added.

- A model JCB has been acquired.

- Ballast has been finally weathered and rail heads cleaned.

- The Fridd Isaf farm sign has been completed ready for erection on the level crossing board.

- The wendy house has had its final (5th) coat of brown and now just needs its windows painting.

Colin

on a roll!

A recent trip to Oswaldtwistle Mills was rather productive indeed. In a corner of one of the old mill buildings were a load of fabric rolls. There were plenty of different types of fabric and colours...including a lovely navy blue. ummm I thought, this could be good for the layout's curtain to hide all the unmentionables that need to be stored under the layout during exhibitions. A quick bit of maths and I'd worked out I needed about 30 feet of the stuff. Good news, the roll I was looking at was 32 feet long by 5 feet high (enough for a hem and then some). Then I saw the price - £9.50!!!!

Readers will not be surprised to hear that said roll was duly loaded into the car and brought back to the Midlands!

Mum has been recruited to do the necessary sewing, I just need to get hold of 20 feet of sew-on velcro now!

Identical but not the same

Part of the long term grand plan is a 16mm narrow gauge garden railway. Dad has bought the Slater's Prince kit and we have a few waggons already. This last week I have found time to construct a pair of NWNGR single plank bolster waggons. These were used for wood extraction by the PBSSR and I hope to find a suitable piece of branch to balance on them. What's interesting is that one was ordered from cooper craft direct and the other bought on ebay (still sealed in the original bag). The right hand one is clearly a different colour, came with ballast weights and axle washers and was altogether much more poorly cast. weird.

On Rhyd Ddu, things progress well. More smaller conifers have been added, the two water tower frames have been sprayed black and installed, much more weathering of the ballast has been done (even though the flash in the below shots doesn't show that up!) and both sets of rail upstands for the nameboards have been installed. A tree has been replaced on the grassy side and the next job is fencing...

Colin

More trees and other bits

A quick update:

- A water bowser for the station approach section has been created and has had its first coat of yellow paint.

- The two structures for the water tanks have had small base plates added to the bottoms of the supports and have been sprayed satin black.

- 3 new trees from' skale (sic) scenics' (i.e. hornby) have been acquired today and will be added asap. The 2 canyon creek trees arrived (from Oregon) recently too and have already been added.

- Further (last time?) ballasting has been done after the hoover (dyson) removed a bit more than I expected.

- The first two uprights for the platform nameboards have been set in place

- The first planter has had its busch flowers glued in place

- Final weathering of ballast will be completed now I have some more woodland scenics stone grey. This has already been started with sleeper grime and slate grey.

Colin

Another Welsh foray

Back from Wales... we visited the FR - including a trip behind Blanche in the first class saloon 102:

The WHR, including a trip from Rhyd Ddu to Hafod y Llyn via the Aberglaslyn (wonderful!) and some time at Bryn y Felin paddling and watching trains.

and the Talyllyn from Dolgoch Falls to Nant Gwernol.

Happy days

Latest images of progress

Board 3 continues to make good progress. Final ballasting has now been achieved with some blending of colours to do. I got outbid on a model JCB on ebay, so the ballast pile will have to wait for its digger.

Around the steps area you can see the new side walls, the area of bark chippings and the new edging stones.

Colin

WHR and FR taster videos by John Wooden

No excuses not to visit! Make sure you make your way to the top left hand corner of Wales this Summer...

much to report

Progress has been fast, so fast that I haven;t had time to blog...!

Anyway, all 4 station lamp columns have been wired up and an extra light added for inside the station shelter (wendy house). These were wired in parallel to two pieces of copper clad (one for positive, the other negative). To this were soldered two brass right angles, making it easy to attach the 12v DC supply by way of croc clips. Wires were then run from here to the two adjacent boards (via the usual kyosho connectors) to the lighthouse LEDs that act as point indicators.

The wendy house itself has had 3 coats of raw umber, with one final coat to come. The slate roof has had two coats of grey, but will also have some weathering yet.

The KMX tamper shed (container) has been positioned, as have the two platform flower beds. The two planters have been painted and filled with soil.

The area around the steps/ramp has been tidied up and the steps have gained wing walls. These will soon have coping stones added.

The 4 Rhyd Ddu signs have been painted black and that wiped off to show the letters in white. The rail posts have been painted black ready.

Fencing has all been painted ready for installation next week.

The next jobs are:

- fixing the water tower legs in place ready for their tanks.
- adding the final details to the platform including finishing the wendy house and installing
- final spot reballasting (a few patches)and painting to merge in with the other ballast colourings
- adding flowers to the area near the ramp and the planters (these have already been made up using busch kits)
- adding signs
- adding the two new trees from canyon creek (they are in the post apparently).

and then it's on to the last board...

Colin

update with images

Hi,

Below are some images of where I'm up to:

Board 2 has been completed and sent back downstairs - a point indicator using a lighthouse LED has been added (this is operated by a switch on the point motor), the grassland has been upgraded, ballasting tidied, track painted and details like the gates, rail stack and anti-pedestrian pieces added.

Now attention is on board 3. Dad visited with his new Peter Spoerer lining pen on Friday and added the yellow line for the platform. I've also added grass to the bund at the top of the car park/yard area, added extra static grass across the open ground, removed stray ballast, spot reballasted and repainted the rails.

Next I need to add the walls at the side of the steps, lots of fencing and platform details... on the latter note the rail posts for the nameboards have been cut and painted black and holes in the platform drilled for them. I've also created 2 more nameboards, which despite running out of 'D's was fun. I made more from half an 'O' and an 'I'!