Review Geoff's 'homework'
Coal staithes
Coal sacks
Grass
A full house this week and the first job was to review what Geoff had been up to - and he had been busy!
In the same way that we had modified the capacity of the main yard coal staithe, Geoff had looked at the loco coal stage again and decided it too needed to be bigger. The obvious way to do this was to this was to screw some corrugated steel sheets to the front! Then, he added a load of spilled coal on the ground and masses of ash and coal waste beside it.
A water tap and bucket would be handy. (Note the fence with its stiffening braces has been fitted).
A couple of signs had appeared, with beautifully small lettering which, on very close examination, turned out to be laser etched into basswood. The etching, on both sides, had actually created holes right through the wood, but these are only visible when light is viewed through them and nothing seems to have fallen out.
Some etched drain covers had been added to the main paved yard area. (The laser cut cardboard caravan is the 'temporary' office/ticket office/mess room etc.)
The modified seats had been painted and a new platform sign created. The letters, of course, are individually laser cut basswood. Geoff has been developing a 'railway-map world' around the layout based on the real area of Exton and Cottesmore (West) - just north of Rutland Water. More anon.
Stephen had previously cut, prepared and painted lengths of code 70 flat bottom rail and now glued them into place. As only a couple of short lengths were available, the internal sections were cut short in the knowledge that coal would cover the shortfall.
Some plasticine was applied and compacted inside.
And finally, various grades of coal glued in place with PVA.
As part of his coal assessments and knowledge of on-board loco coal storage problems, Geoff set about modifying some Bandai 1/48 scale sacks to create some spare bags of coal. The handles were made of stranded wire.
The final job was to apply some electrostatic grass to the new bank. PVA was applied and long filament grass applied using a proprietary unit.
We've adopted the habit of going over the newly applied grass with a hoover, with a grass-catcher attachment, which lifts the grass while collecting loose material.
There's another sign to be 'planted' by the patch, and some shrubs along the whole bank.
