Just a few odd items about the track laying, realising that wiring and track laying are considered by many to be the boring bits. One member of the West Group when asked whether he had been having a look, said that he would get back to it once I had finished the boring bits, when I enquired which were the boring bits he said the baseboards. Ah! Honesty! (Thankfully I do have a few good friends who keep me grounded.)
The thread only started so that my friends in the West Group could see the layout develop as we were going to show it at Glasgow and it was going as a work in progress and I hoped they would pick up enough of the features to be able to chat with the public with some knowledge behind them. The thread has fulfilled its purpose and I am considering finishing after tonight. I will continue with the layout of course, but will not cover the scenic development or stock, except for the finishing of the Barclays as it will be nice to complete the Barclay thread.
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There is a country road runs through the centre of the layout and I am adding some filler around the area to simulate the ash infill this will be rubbed down after it has dried. It is easy to see the double check rail as it goes through the crossing. It may also act as a catch all if there should be any wagon derail coming out of the sidings
I really hope not! The final proof will be when the layout goes to exhibitions.
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In this photograph I am making up the cess areas. On our journey up from Birmingham we stopped off for coffee and discovered they were giving away their old coffee grouts to their customers. I came away with two large bags thinking I might just use them to give me a textured surface when modelling and if it did not work then it could go out into the garden to nourish the flower beds.
I dried out the grouts - nice smell of coffee throughout the house and this image shows me gluing it in place, with the right hand areas painted in a rather dull grey paint as a base colour. It may turn out not to be a good idea,
but who knows.
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The ballasting stage is being done here after a bit of operating The track in the foreground dropping down to the colliery is ballasted using ash ballast heavier grade. The Wemyss tracks climb away using brown ballast of a superior nature and a finer version of the ballast in the sidings beyond down to the works yard. The scene is a bit too perfect as far as the track goes and there will be weeds developing here and there in the cess and a few in the 4ft here and there, which show up in photographs of the site taken during operating days.
I was given some super photographs by a friend the other day and have picked up a few from some of the people attending the show, so from my viewpoint it was worth being there just for that.
Well that is as much as I have on the development of the layout so far and I will take a break from posting for the time being, although I will take photos of the more interesting bits for my own record. Hope this has not been too boring for anyone reading the thread, if so I do apologise.
Until then, happy modelling everyone!
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