Chinchilla dust test appraisal
Road resurfacing
Grass
Coal stage
The first job was to review the panel prepared last week to test three methods of laying the chinchilla dust that we want to resurface the internal roads with. Two methods used so far are gloss paint and PVA glue plus a newcomer - textured spray paint. We marginally prefer the PVA as it gives a regular finish and is easier to work with. However, the spray paint was very interesting on two counts. Firstly, it is very 'wet' and so soaked up into the excess dust forming small mounds. Secondly, it was indistinguishable from the dust itself - only the bottom half of the test panel is dust, the rest is paint.
We opted to use the PVA method and so, once the extent and minor details were agreed, Geoff started laying the dust road.
Stephen spent a short while gluing small amounts of grass material around the quarry siding area. He then remembered that the coal stage needed to be finished and so Laurence stepped into the area to carry on laying the base layers for the grass areas. Two different techniques were employed to test different effects.
As a final thought, we decided that the safety fence along the platform area should be extended to, and possibly across the the board joint. Laurence went through the bits-box looking for remnants for re-use. It's simple Ratio panels that can be easily replicated with plasticard, if need-be.
