Slow but Steady Progress

 With a bit of renewed enthusiasm, I've started the the scenic work on the layout. Of course once that starts, running takes a back seat. Hopefully, I can plan some things well so that I don't need to move too many thing around.

The first part of the work, I started on the station on the corner of the layout. The blocks of flats were from the first layout when I was still in my old house in the coast. I'd like to use them all and they sort of just squeeze in. In front of them is the station on a rather sharp curve. There will be a huge gap for the little plastic people boarding the trains. Fortunately, it is high and a fair distance from the front, so it hopefully won't be too noticeable. I've yet to cut out the front platform. I've also decided to extend the rear platform. Just out of the image to the right is raised section with buildings on it. My plan is to put the station building up there and stairs leading down to the platforms, similar to Waverton.

Next I thought that I'd start on the top retaining wall again. I had started using Lego boxes. I got back into Lego during lockdown, right after the train room flooded, the layout went mouldy and I had to rebuild. I couldn't get straight into the rebuild as I had to wait for the walls to be replaced. So I had a few boxes and I thought that I could recycle them. I put Scalescenes brick paper on them printed on my inkjet printer. It didn't look too bad. However, after awhile, the walls started warping. I think it was because there was a printed side and a brown side. I glued the paper on the brown side so that no print could come through.

After having a chat with someone about my woes, they suggested going to Officeworks and buying some decent cardboard. Two sheets of 1000gsm card later and I have a 2.5m retaining wall.

Then I ran into brick paper quality control issues. I ran out of Miccador Matte Spray. Officeworks said that they stock it, but they didn't when I got there so I bought a cheaper alternative. It does not work as well. I am now waiting on a delivery of Miccador Matte Spray. The spray seals the paper so that the ink doesn't run. Something that the cheaper brand didn't seem to do.

I had enough pre-sprayed sheets (two) to start on the wall near the terminus. Looking at the photo, I think it might need a bit more added to it, maybe a girder.

It may not look like much but considering not much has been done lately, it's a big step in the right direction.

Until next time.

It's Been a While... Again

 Crikey! As I look back at the last time I wrote anything, it was over twelve months ago.

What's been happening?

I've been running trains. I haven't done much to the layout at all. However, I've added a couple of extra sidings at Tathra and I had to realign the head shunt for Junction Yard, which also meant that the up and down main lines needs to be realigned too. The cause was due to no clearance between the head shunt and the incline to the terminus, which meant that any plans for a back scene between them would not work.

None of those operating noticed this change. However, it shortened the head shunt by the length of a bogie and for some trains, that is enough to make things awkward. Trains and some of the sidings had a lot of thought go into them for operations. A slightly shorter head shunt means that longer locomotives will need more movement to shunt the same trains.

I reckon it's time to make a real start on the scenery. I need to get back to my 15 minutes a day philosophy.

In the meantime, here's some footage of the Transport Heritage Expo from the weekend just gone.

Until next time.