4mm Llanfair ....

[Yorkshire Dave]

That's really captured the atmosphere of that part of North Wales, Larry.

Especially with no track.... .

Hat, coat, gone................. and chair left spinning

 

[LarryG]

I think this completes all the buildings needed for the layout. This weighbridge is by Rail Model. The story goes that it was a GWR replacement for a building that got clobbered by a lorry driver. BR painters gave it a repaint....

 

[LarryG]

Some people would shout 'Sacrilege', but I thought long and hard before putting the recently built station building through the chopper.....




The bleached out cream was given a new coat of Howes BR coach cream...

 

[LarryG]

The track needs to be sprayed with Howes Sleeper Grime to make an impression on the baseboard, then glued & ballasted down in convenient sections. I didn't have a catchpoint for the coal siding, so a point was used. Empty coal wagons could be pushed by hand into that short stub.....


Update : Bullhead track with flat bottom points below. All flat-bottom in picture above. Sprayed Howes Sleeper Grime....

 

[LarryG]

The two sunny days we had at the beginning of the week were too hot for gluing down track using the glue & ballast in one go method. Since then, we've had more than a months rainfall in two days in North Wales. I've noticed water on the railway baseboard via a split roofing board, but there is no chance of investigation yet.

 

[Richard Gawler]

I've just done a test area using Ballast Magic. This is a powdered glue you mix with the ballast and set off with a mist of water. My result wasn't strong enough for a permanent installation, but it was strong enough to stay put while I added a dribble of diluted pva. The result has set rock hard so good for a siding, less so for a main line.

 

[LarryG]

Track laying today at long last after months of messing about.....


Track laid aside while neat PVA brushed onto baseboard....


Track laid and ballasted before noon.....


All done by late afternoon....


Buildings in place just to see how things looked.....


Ballast was a mix of fine light grey and fine dark brown to give a speckled finish.....

 

[Richard Gawler]

Please Larry, are you using the PVA neat to do this or are you adding something into it to help it percolate upwards?

 

[LarryG]

Please Larry, are you using the PVA neat to do this or are you adding something into it to help it percolate upwards?

It's neat PVA, and the best I've found yet. It is applied thickly with a soft 3/4" brush. Track is lowered onto it and straightened with 3' steel ruler, then ballast poured on. It is firmly tamped with the fingers and hand for a while and the track re-checked in case it had moved. Then strips of 3" x 1" timbers placed on the track with heavy books on top.

Only after the lot is dry do I vacuum off the surplus ballast. This way, the PVA has time to peculate and attach a thicker layer of ballast.

 

[Richard Gawler]

Thanks Larry. A few years ago I had a go in a children's workshop run by Mrs Gravett. I soon learnt I was spreading my pva far too meanly. I don't quite know where it all goes, but it pays to be generous. I still have my sample weeds somewhere.

 

[LarryG]

The compressor and rarely used Airbrush were set up in the railway shed today. There then followed a dismantling session, which failed to make the Airbrush function. I've had three of these toys and they WILL stop working! So the job of weathering the track with rust washed down from rails to ballast was done with the trusty spraygun...

 

[LarryG]

Been offline for a few days changing the workroom around to suit a new digital BT connection, but it is better for it and the internet is much faster. I made the trap point last week before realising it should have been a complete turnout in that situation! Ah well, all good practice......