Model Railway Forum

OMG That's far to neat!!!

You will have to redo it all again, as penance!

Seriously, and as to be expected, First Class work.

So what is your secret "patent mix on the rails"

Four parts double sieved chinchilla sand plus one part Woodland Scenics medium grey ballast. The rails and sleepers were pre painted with Humbrol no. 29 but will get some extra airbrush work in the fullness of time - the grey of the ballast should take some grime, rust and grease quite well.

That mix has come out very well - look forward to seeing what it looks like in a few months(days??) when the landscape has been finished.

It definitely needed the ‘magic touch’ of the Woodland Scenics ballast.

Not rising to that challenge Barry - although I have been looking at the static grass options online.

Steve M wrote: ↑Wed Jun 23, 2021 10:43 am It definitely needed the ‘magic touch’ of the Woodland Scenics ballast.

Not rising to that challenge Barry - although I have been looking at the static grass options online.

I've still to have a go at static grass. I recently bought a Gaugemaster applicator, as my home made one didn't work. I need some longer grass - 2mm is to short for general coverage.

Barry, have a look at the WWS website, some useful guides are on there.
For best results the grass needs to be built up in layers - starting with the 2mm, then add longer strands of different shades using their layering spray.
I used their products on Low Ghyll and Peco relabel the WWS stuff under their own name.

https://www.wwscenics.com/

Update on the layout for this week.

I completed the ballasting yesterday and cleaned the track this morning. One disadvantage with the Chinchilla sand is that there is some shrinkage when the glue dries. The coarse grains that I sieved out are only slightly affected in areas where the layer is a bit thicker but perfectly good at normal sleeper depth. I used some of the fine dust to fill in between the mainlines - that suffers a little more so I may have to consider rewetting those sections and scraping the centre section clear of fine ballast.

Test running revealed two sticky point motors which were quickly cured with a drop of oil on the solenoid core. Two other points seem to have developed dead frogs, but only on one of the exit roads. I suspect that there may be a fault with the DCC autofrogs so at some point I will check the wiring and potentially replace them. Is there a way of testing their operation off the board?

I’m edging towards a decision on the use of the three sidings directly opposite the signal box. I have my eye on the NER engine shed that Bachmann plan to release later this year - this is a reissue so I’m also keeping an eye on eBay in case an old version pops up. The only challenge is that the corner of the shed potentially hangs off the board by 1cm - a small ‘bump out’ panel might be needed.

2021-06-25_01-14-21 by Steve Mumford, on Flickr

I think the ballast has turned out very well Steve.

Nice job, looks very real.
I have/am in the process of removing the two "Pips" on all my Peco points tie bar ends. I think it makes the point look a little better

Brian wrote: ↑Fri Jun 25, 2021 2:26 pm ....................................I have/am in the process of removing the two "Pips" on all my Peco points tie bar ends. I think it makes the point look a little better

Deffo not needed unless using top mounted motors. The tie bar looks just like another sleeper.