Thursday 27th November

Worklist:
Point repair
Ballasting
Rock faces
Platform surfacing

No Laurence this week, but work continued at a pace regardless.

Geoff set-to sorting out a point that had a reduced throw following his ballasting session. After extensive investigations above-ground, the point motor was taken off to discover a stray piece of chipboard causing the problem! However, poking around had messed up the ballast, and careful re-application of individual chippings was required!

 Meanwhile, Stephen was wrestling with the tunnel mouth. He fettled two of the plaster rock pieces to form the main outer/lower wall of the siding. A new piece for the mine line was added, each held with PVA glue first, then, when all pieces were in place, more plaster was poured into all of the gaps.

Two smaller pieces were fitted to a recess on the back-scene and, no doubt, a few more will be applied to the hillock over the tunnel. These areas will eventually be covered with grass, shrubs and trailing plants.

Geoff then tackled the platform surface. This had been discussed on several occasions, but with no firm idea emerging. With lots of plaster flying about, it made sense to give it a try. A batch was made with brown paint added (to avoid white chips grinning through in future), poured onto a primer of PVA and spread with a straight-edge.

The excess will be sanded down once completely dry, but even as laid, the effect was very pleasing.

Meanwhile, Stephen was tackling the inside of the tunnel. He'd planned to prepare a plaster layer poured onto a crumpled tin-foil sheet and press it onto the outer wall. However, realising the void was quite large, he started off by laying a wall of plaster by spatula and fingers. This soon took on a roughness not un-rock-like. Geoff likened it to sprayed concrete (so clearly unimpressed), but we'll see what it looks like next week.

The bent plastic rock sheets cracked as they were glued and had to be touched up with plaster. A lot of cleaning up of stray plaster required next week!

Thursday 20th November

Worklist:
Continue with timber retaining wall.
Continue with bridge and tunnel walling.
Start ballasting.
Fit the tunnel magnet.
Amend the wiring at the end of the line.

Laurence prepared the rest of the timber sections of the retaining wall, cutting to length and staining to match the existing. Gluing them in place and applying the steelwork won't progress until the tunnel mouth decoration has been completed.

Stephen moved the bridge and tunnel mouth stone sheeting along (a bit):-

Bridge - the extent of the facing stonework surrounding the mouth was determined and the plastic sheet cut away. The material for the applied facings was discussed and layers of thin card agreed. A template was made and Stephen decided to work on this at home. The top edge was roughly shaped to the top of the wall line and a small section 'invisibly' added at the highest point. It will be cut down to suit the final wall line in due course.

Tunnel - the area for the arch was cut away. The vertical 'quoins' were formed by cutting and bending the remaining sheet (with difficulty) so that it formed the lining into the opening. It looks OK at present, but gluing it securely in place is another thing. The arch will also be scribed thin card.

Geoff had a go at ballasting, using 4mm scale chippings. The original Cottesmore ballast was industrial cat-litter (for oil spills), which John used to supply from work. It comprised a mixture of sizes, which the 'mainline' ballast doesn't have. We'll review the completed section in due course and see if it can be 'softened' a little. It looks good though!

Stephen was keen to have a lighting feature down the mine tunnel and had been searching for tiny LED's. 1.8mm and 2mm units were found at approx. £2 each. However, Christine, his wife, came up with a surprise - a Wilkinson mouldable LED pack that she was using for free-standing Christmas decorations - £3.50 including the 2 AA batteries required. The loose wires between the surface-mount LED's were twisted together and the moulded plastic surrounding each LED was disguised with matt black paint. At a scale 14' between lamps, they will need to be adjusted, but the effect was perfect!

The final embellishment for the day was when Geoff cast a couple of units from a proprietary rock mould used on a school project. It comprised one large and one long-thin strip, both of which will be used on the tunnel area - superb.

Whilst the board was vertical, two outstanding items were attended to. The magnet on the mine line was made up and fitted in place. The original Cottesmore wiring scheme required the last 6" of track to be separated from the main board sections. This allowed them to feed the adjacent board, as described elsewhere. These feeds were repeated to feed the fiddleyard, but it confused operations. A few snips and resolderings joined the ends to the sections on the main layout and moved the end sections into the fiddle yard.

The editor has been chastised for implying that the gluing of the platform edgings was a little late. Delving through the archives, it was noted that the edgings were manufactured in January 2014. First post on the blog!

Wednesday 12th November

Worklist:
Bridge - parapet walls, facing stonework.
Tunnel - retaining wall timbers, facing stonework.
Platform edging.

A two-pronged attack on the bridge:-

When fitting the road surface, the natural contours of the block supports was followed, to take advantage of the undulations. However, we agreed that the parapet height, should be constant off the road surface, so Geoff produced small sections of card and MDF to the agreed height and glued them in place. As well as fixing the height, the additions will increase the core-thickness of the wall to give an overall, finished thickness of just over 18", once the plastic stonework is applied.

We also decided that the coping will be a bull-nose section, flush with the faces of the wall (i.e. no overhang). A suitable section will be sought/manufactured - probably in timber, or MDF.

Stephen applied himself to the stone face sheets and was pleasantly surprised to find that the pattern repeated itself. After some judicious cutting-out, a backing strip of plasticard allowed two sheets to be joined and cut to shape. Discussions took place on the design of the arch edging stones. A Google image search provided excellent prototypes and a clean stone edge with wall stones trimmed to suit was agreed. (Watch for developments).

The tunnel mouth stone sheet was cut to shape. However, the narrow piers either side of the opening didn't lend themselves to the same treatment, but a similar arch sitting on plain stone jambs was a perfect alternative.

Laurence took another batch of 'sleepers' and progressed the tunnel mouth retaining wall. Before he started, Geoff got the belt sander out and flushed-up the montage of timber base-work. An interesting effect was achieved, soon to be covered up.

Laurence also returned to the platform (not before time!) and glued the edging stones into place. We were all surprised how it brought the platform to life.

The centre will have a skim of filler applied and (possibly) a sand finish.

Unfortunately, Blogger 'Lightbox' has ceased to display the images in the usual manner. We think it's a system fault, but we'll keep looking for a solution.

Wednesday 5th November

Worklist:
Develop tunnel mouth.
Develop retaining wall.
Develop roadway and side wall/fence.
Glue the cardboard road down.
Develop bridge cladding.
Repair tunnel track and install magnet.

A congested three weeks that saw us miss one and shift the following two meetings to Wednesdays. We're also trialling an early start to allow S&L to beat the homeward traffic better.

On arrival, Geoff announced that he'd found a problem with the first section of track going into the tunnel - a 'ski-slope' of a joint. The obvious answer was to cut it out and form it correctly. As he started, it dawned on us that it was also the section we were planning to add another magnet to allow shunting allied to the mine siding. Doing it with the track removed was infinitely easier than with it in place, so a 'stroke of luck'. The magnet hole was marked out and corner pilot holes drilled. Two small holes marking the centreline of the track were also drilled, to assist locating the magnet from underneath.

Geoff used his oscillating saw to cut the hole, then continued to form the new section of track.

The remnants of the old tunnel mouth retaining wall can be seen above (Pyruma facing removed), beside the new retaining wall base. We hadn't given the old wall much thought, assuming it would be reinstated with DAS stonework or similar. However, Stephen had prepared a sample of the timber sleeper wall we were considering and we immediately decided to extend it right down to ground level. This required the old ply base to be removed and a new base installed, continuing the new section. A bit of wall reshaping was also possible to ease a tight spot.

The new timber wall (temporarily on masking tape) was offered into place. Plastic RSJ beam section and some 'chunky' bolt head details were purchased at ExpoNG at Swanley the previous week. These will represent 'ground anchor spreader beams' across the front of the sleepers. The sleepers are 5mm balsawood, in 12 ft lengths, stained Peruvian Mahogany.

In the photos above and below can be seen the results three other tasks. The roadway side wall has been cut away on the inside. This lessens the bulk of the bridge stonework and adds a bit of interest. The outside wall will change from bridge stone to dry stone wall. We pressed Laurence into action, making the rail fence posts. The tunnel mouth parapet has been increased in height. We're not sure of the final arrangement of the rocks/ground over the tunnel, but this seemed like a good idea. 

Also at Swanley, we spotted some Slaters 7mm stone walling very effectively used on a large industrial layout, and purchased some. Our final task was to offer this up and work out how to form the bridge mouth edging and join the next sheet. We decided to cut whole stones away around the opening and infill with DAS scribed accordingly. This can extend into the opening. Some plastic brickwork sheet will line the inside of the bridge.

We've not used this sheet before, and aren't sure how to join two sheets. However, it is coursed, so we marked out whole stones along the edge, and will cut the part-stones out. We hope that doing the same on the next sheet, will allow us to use DAS to infill between the two.

Stephen glued the cardboard road bed down and in-filled the gaps in the parapet walls. John had used liberal amounts of Pyruma on the bridge walls, but the plywood alone now look a bit thin. If they are covered with 'plastic stonework, they might need thickening with an overlay, beforehand. However, a DAS wall finish might achieve the desired thickness. We'll have to see....

As usual, we spent a little while taking in what we'd achieved. It's always a pleasant relief when we realise that the layout has moved along and still remains a believable entity!