Thursday 26th May 2016

Worklist:
Scenery
Coaling stage

Geoff had remade the 'confined-space' point actuator in the station. It's neater than the first version and has a chequer-plate top.

It was Laurence's turn to continue with the electrostatic grass application. As developed by Geoff, the process was - a coat of slightly diluted PVA (it helps to conduct the charge delivered through the brass nail), then a scattering of the scrub and shrubs, followed by a layer of the fibres shaken from the charged tea strainer.

Apparently, 80mm is the optimum height. However, there were a few loud cracks as the strainer shorted on the nail, but it stopped him falling asleep (to be fair, we all managed to do this, just not so often).  We also noted that fibres on smaller areas seemed to be more upright than larger areas. We can see this might be a reasonable conclusion, but further investigation is required.

Once fully dry, the loose fibres will be hoovered up using a stocking in the tube to save them for another time. After the mound, the strip along the front was tackled by Stephen and Laurence.

Stephen started the coal stage discussed the previous week. Because it's in a dead-end beyond the head shunt, the stage needs to be quite long to cater for the varying lengths of loco's. The kink is required for the curve, and makes an interesting feature. Vertical sleepers will be added for the back and one end.

Stephen picked up a £2 'Days Gone' Austin A35/40 from the 7mm stand at the Swing show in Bognor that was identical in size to an accurate 1:43 version. It was in purple Cadbury's livery with logo's, which was all removed with Nitromors stripper. However, it also removed the plastic headlights!

The road infill surface was laid last week and is far from level, but rather than fill & sand it, we intended to use the indents to try out some more of Gordon's texturing techniques. We have been very impressed with the chinchilla dust and prepared a test sheet of base coats - PVA, gloss paint and a textured paint spray. We'll see the results next time, once they're dry and the excess removed, but all have merits. The spray looks exactly like a finer version of the dust and could prove very useful.

Stephen had remade the portable track with more accurate sleepers - 4 x 15ft, 1 x 5ft and a non-standard 10ft length to use up some lengths of rail.

Also purchased at Swing was a pack of Grantline code 70 dummy fishplates. Geoff is fitting 00 versions to his own layout and thought it would be a nice feature on the 7mm layout. However, they were difficult to fit on the inside flanges of the flat-bottomed track, and protruded into the flange zone. They looked good on the outside rails, but thinner card strips on the inside locations still proved an issue and so the idea was abandoned, for now. They might look good on the ends of the portable track?

Thursday 19th May

Worklist:
Point levers
Scenery
Quarry yard

A full house this week.

Geoff talked through the work he'd carried out on the yard road. This had been augmented with loose tarmac, repair joins, cracks etc., as well as being repainted and textured with talc, another Gordon Gravett technique. More grass and foliage had also been applied.

Geoff found a bag containing several packets of Roy Link point lever kits, which Stephen had purchased 20+ years previously and dropped in the 'bits' box. It took quite a lot of work to form a suitable base as the sleepers would normally be extended. A right narrow gauge lash-up! However, after painting, the unit looked great.

Attention moved to the next point along, which was 'compromised' by its proximity to a fence, and a standard lever could not be used. Geoff made a plasticard lever/box more commonly used in internal locations where rolling stock passes over the lever. This type has a latching mechanism that means the lever is lifted and dropped back down on the same side, rather than passing over to the other side.

Laurence laid areas of scatter material, extending Geoff's previous work. This is a base layer, over which, a layer of electrostatic grass. (see footnote)

Following the previous weeks discussion, Stephen had made two lengths (15ft & 5ft) of portable track, to be stacked at the end of the quarry siding. However, in re-scaling a drawing, the ends of the sleepers were noted to be too short, which will have to be rectified. Geoff had also made some trackwork, so we should soon have a lovely pile!

A snapshot of the layout shows that were making good progress.

The coal yard layout was discussed again, as a difference of opinion came to light. The area between the head shunt and the main siding had been earmarked for coal, but Geoff thought the loco coal stage should be on the outside of the yard - separate from any 'domestic' sales area. Coal would be delivered to the stage directly from coal wagons, so no other access was required. Stephen will make a new stage instead of using the unit that had been moved from beside the water tower.

Electrostatic grass: The charging unit that has been used to date, was purchased off eBay and was made from a fly swat and a tea strainer. Although it worked, it provided a very weak charge that could not make grass stand as upright as required. Geoff had made a new unit using an ozone generator housed in plumbing fittings. Unfortunately, it failed to work, and a faulty generator is suspected. Geoff will seek to get the unit replaced in due course.

Thursday 12th May

Worklist:
Yard finishes, but mainly grass.
Mine Quarry platform.

Two again, with Laurence getting his 'bins' seen to.

The paper-mache verges had dried and been painted earth brown, and Geoff was now itching to have another go at laying electrostatic grass. The eBay-home-made charger was deployed, just like the first trial. A mixture of Noch fibre grass and ground rubber foliage were used, with varying success (upright-grass wise), but the overall effect was good. Lots of practice is required to get the effects seen on notable layouts like Pempoul, but that's going to be fun.

We'll have to see how much has actually stuck down, once the PVA has dried.

Geoff had been working on weathering to the yard paving, which really brought out the patterns nicely.

Stephen continued with the platform, by staining the timber edgings. Chinchilla dust was then laid on a layer of PVA, and painted to induce a feeling of hard-worked grunge. The van was repainted and weathered.

Although this siding originally served the adjacent mine, we now feel that a quarry could be more interesting as wagon loads would be more variable. We discussed having a pile of 'Jubilee' track on the end, which prompted a discussion on the various types. Don't you just love narrow gauge?


Geoff had recently taken delivery of some more vehicles - a Ferguson GE20 tractor, a Ford Popular car and a Ford Thames van.

Note the cracks induced in the road at the railway track (to be painted) - one of Geoff's pet details. Colour is really lifting the layout now.

As a finale, we cleaned the track to test a new chassis (Hornby 0-4-0, for Stephen's Gn15 layout). Instead of fine emery paper, we tried graphite. Talking to Christopher Payne (Portpyn) at a recent show, he'd enthused about using a block of graphite obtained from an artists supplies shop. Geoff rummaged through a tin box of old motor brushes. Stephen notched one to allow top and inside rail-faces to be cleaned in one 'pass' (it also stayed in the right place). Geoff filed one down to get between the wing rails on the points. We were both impressed with the performance.

Thursday 5th May

Worklist:
Yard and road finishes
Platform and surrounding area finishes

Laurence was on nautical duties so just two.

Geoff continued with the yard by fettling the cut joints between panels of plastic setts. First, a tool was made with a double-edged blade, like a scraper-board pen. This enabled the raised edges (which were clearly annoying Geoff) to be removed. In the end, a centre punch proved much more useful.

Pre-cleaning panels - the gaps had to go!

Foam inserts and then paper mache were applied to the edge of the road.

Stephen applied a layer of Smooth-It to the platform. It is quite sloppy, as recommended, which makes levelling interesting.

The van body chosen to provide a a secure/dry store on the platform was cleaned up and the base repaired. Dropped on after the plaster had dried, it looks the part.

Stephen then looked at the test panel of chinchilla dust Laurence had applied the previous week. None of the gloss cream paint was visible and the surface looked very good albeit a little too regular. Random sanding worked well, to make the surface more realistic.

Chinchilla dust, as applied

Chinchilla dust given a light, random sanding

Here, it's used to fill the areas next to the track ballast.

Following a discussion the previous week, Stephen had brought down a Corgi Bedford OB coach he'd bought over 20 years ago. It's 1:50, but this works well in the small space. It's not Geoff's favourite coach on the basis that it wasn't the most common model, but it works well. It's for the excursions that are starting to run to the embryonic preserved railway.

Missing from last week was a photo of the coal yard, which was given a coat of 'Yard Filth', made by Green Scene.

To 'finish off' the yard, Geoff applied a mixture of weathering colour.

And finally, we had a lot of PVA left over from the paper-mache work, so the hill got a dusting of green texture.

NB: the chinchilla dust has previously been attributed to Iain Rice, but it actually came from Gordon Gravett's excellent book on scenery.

Thursday 28th April

Worklist:
Yard paving
Surface treatment experiments
Mine siding platform

Geoff cut-out panels of embossed plastic paving and glued it on the yard. We were particularly pleased with the way the path strips had been adapted into an expanse of paving. The completed area was given a base coat of the same paint used for the bridge walls and the wall copings. Gulleys will be added.

In the central area between the tracks - the future coal yard - the plaster edges were fettled to blend with the track ballast and then given given a coat of the 'Filthy Yard' textured paint tested the previous week.

Over lunch, the postman delivered a consignment of 'chinchilla dust'. Geoff had read a book by Iain Rice describing its use in creating textured surfaces. Laurence followed Geoff's instructions and painted a test area with gloss paint and sprinkled it with the dust, which resembled dried bread yeast. We'll see what it looks like next week.

Stephen continued with the new mine siding platform. Having decided to use the Slaters van as a dry/secure store, the sleepers along the 'back' of the platform were lifted and refixed to form a wider platform. Timber packer sheets were glued inside the sleeper surround ready to receive the plaster infill (next week). Finally, a three-man effort - cutting and straightening copper wire pieces, drilling holes and inserting same - completed the days work of fitting lengths of rebar to hold the sleepers in place.