Ballast Laying Part 5

 First day of laying ballast on the central baseboard, as I got near the signal box I realised the edge of the platform looked a bit rough so I made a wooden step, painted it, glued it in placed, and weathered it. Failing natural light has stopped play!

Start of laying ballast

A bit more done

And some more

Even more

As far as I have to today

The wooden step at the end of the platform

Keith

Point Rodding for 2nd Pair of Points

 Today I set about install the point rodding at the 2nd pair of points, at least this time I have remembered to do it before ballasting the track! 😁

Point rodding installed

Painted with primer

Rodding painted with gunmetal metallic paint

Close-up at the signal box, ducting under the track painted to look like clay piping

Duct on other side of the track

The other point

Keith

Station Platform Part 2

 Busy sticky morning starting with 2 nearside street lamps fitted first.

Section of pavement beyond the platform glued to thick card using PVA glue

pavement section glued down with Evo-Stik using handy weights to hold down in place

All station buildings, waiting room, bus stop and cycle rack glued down in position with Evo-Stik

Stone wall around cycle rack glued in place with guess what? Yes, Evo-Stik

Steep slope in what will be rear gardens, reduced to shallow slope with Polyfilla

Putting my feet up for the rest of the day.

Keith

Street Lamps and Station Platform

I have drilled 3 holes in the offside pavement and fitted 3 street lamps.

First street lamp

Second street lamp

Third street lamp

After lunch I picked up locally this sheet of 2mm thick board

I cut off what I needed for the platform and pavement

Then set about cutting and forming sheets of paving slabs

All platform and pavement slab sheets glued down

Joint platform/pavement glued down with Evo-Stik and weighed down with handy weights.

Keith

Roadworks

 Road in front of the terrace on the central baseboard painted asphalt colour this morning, doesn't do paint brushes much good painting emery paper, tends to wear them down, I wonder why that is?

Road markings and pedestrian crossing painted.

Closeup of the pedestrian crossing.

First of the two bus stops.

The other bus stop.

View of all the road markings.

Keith

Painting Central and Right Baseboards and Road Laying

 This afternoon I masked off the central and right-hand baseboards ready for painting.

I painted brown the parts of the 2 baseboards which needed painting. 

I have probably painted more that I needed to, but at least I haven't missed any bits.

Section of emery paper cut to size and glued down with Evo Stik for road in front of the terrace.

Keith

Central Baseboard Pavement and Half Relief Buildings

 With all the upheaval of moving baseboards around yesterday, I managed to damage the section of spear point fencing I had fixed between the Railway Inn and the track.

Before I damaged it

I have replaced it by extending the stone walling

I have also glued the long section of pavement at the rear of the central baseboard using handy weights to hold it down whilst the glue sets.

Half relief buildings at the rear of the central baseboard now glued in place.

Keith

Leg Shortening and Refitting the Baseboards

 Very busy morning and afternoon today, 8 legs each shortened by 8", and all 3 baseboards refitted with much needed assistance from my wife Jo.

3 baseboards attached to the now shorter legs

Buildings, vehicles, etc. placed temporarily on the layout

Shelf fitted under the layout next to my workbench releasing much needed space on the workbench

The view I now get of the layout whilst sitting on our bed

Keith

Strip Down Day

 Today I cleared the 2 baseboards still standing of all buildings, vehicles, etc.

I then took the central baseboard down in preparation for shortening all legs.

Keith

Bench Day Today

 Bench day today, seating area for Bob's Hot Dogs trailer, alongside the castle ruins

Single bench and single chair alongside the ruins

2 benches and gate at the station masters house

2 street lamps for this baseboard

Keith

Change Around

 I have had a change around this morning. My workbench used to be underneath the layout but I had trouble with the low headroom, and as I intend to reduce the height of the layout by 8" 200mm it wasn't going to work.

So I have turned it 90° and out from underneath the layout. I still have some further work to do to it, like adding a shelf underneath the layout for the controller and soldering iron to sit on which will free up space on the workbench.

Keith