Garden Railway Forum

Looks great.

Ian

Great progress and imaginative and effective use of foamboard. It's really versatile stuff, isn't it?

Rik

One side of the Level Crossing fixed in place today.
The hot sun has caused some of the foamboard panels that were painted a dark colour to deform a little, but not a lot, and the odd extra screw here and there seems to hold most of the movement.

J0hn

Looking great what do you use to make your road surface

It’s getting more and more impressive. The heat won’t always be this bad…..hopefully.

The road surface is Woodland Scenics Fine Ballast stuck to the abraded surface of the foamboard with Gorilla Wood Glue. After everything getting a coat of Halfords primer, it is painted black and then dry-brushed with dark grey, lastly everything gets a coat of Wilco Yacht Varnish (clear satin).

J0hn

After a short break, another bit was added today.
The little shed was built in plasitcard as was the X sign and rail posts. Post and rail fence in foamboard.

J0hn

It’s looking better every time you put photos up of your line……..

I’ve just finished the varnishing of some lamp-posts (made from foamboard, plasticard and bits of electrical wire), which will be going to the Railway tomorrow.
I’m not sure exactly where each one will be positioned yet, and if they should be left out or find a place for a box in the shed.

J0hn

FBGR wrote: ↑Mon Aug 27, 2018 3:22 pm I’ve just finished the varnishing of some lamp-posts (made from foamboard, plasticard and bits of electrical wire), which will be going to the Railway tomorrow.

I’m not sure exactly where each one will be positioned yet, and if they should be left out or find a place for a box in the shed.

J0hn, Impressive lamps, well done. I'm not sure what the posts are made of, are they foamboard? If so, I think I'd be reluctant to leave them out if they were mine. I made some fence posts from foamboard and they didn't last very long when the local cats and other wildlife came visiting.

Thank you Philip,

The posts are made from 5mm thick foamboard, and the bottoms are reinforced with a 20mm panel pin (in a pilot hole). I have recently been using foamboard for post and rail fences, with 5 x 5 posts with panel pin up them, and these stay out and, so far, have come to no harm. For the fence posts, the foamboard, being a little flexible, seems to be better than using plasticard at taking minor knocks in exposed locations.

J0hn

Great looking lamps. They're going to look good lit up.

Sorry Ian, they don’t actually light up, and the wires are purely cosmetic.

I have enough trouble with doing the electrics on the locomotives.

J0hn

They still look great. I've got some lamps and was planning to link them up to a solar cell for charging up and lighting up automatically at dusk. I'm collecting the components, but I might be being a little ambitious!.

Another panel of the road has been done. The original intension was to have a skew level crossing over the siding, but now the road has been bent round to go off the edge of the timber board and onto the plastic decking.
The plastic decking is somewhat lower than the timber deck, with the track packed up to keep it level. This should provide a little bit more flexibility with regard to the scenery levels, so the step between the levels is next to be sorted.

We acquired a VW van recently, as shown. It is 1:24 scale. There doesn’t seem to be much in the way of vehicles available suitable for our date and location – racing cars and modern lorries just look wrong.

J0hn

I do like the VW van/pick-up but at 1:24 it is a little small. The ones I use are 1:18, just a fraction on the large side but closer to scale.
However..... location, location!!! If placed carefully they can look perfectly OK.

I have been slowly progressing, adding more bits to the road/grass/fence panels between the running line and the siding. I have now reached the bridge, so I thought I had better do an update.

This is the last portion fitted coming up to the bridge.
And this is looking back from the bridge towards the Station area.
This is the sorting out the next lot of panels for the area between the siding and the loco shed.
I mocked up a building and platform to see how it all fits together and check sizes. The mock-ups were made in foam PVC board, screwed together. The structures will be made in plasticard however, as I have found that the foam pvc moves and shrinks in sunlight.

J0hn

Looking great. Those two bushes look just the part between your line...

It’s been a little time since I posted, but I thought that the slow progress that I was making was making the postings a bit boring.

Anyway, I can now report that the area of the plastic decking has now been completely covered, including all the fresh buildings/sheds.

The box bush got the deadly moth and died, and this leaves a bit of hole in the middle, but this will be filled with something (plant) in the spring.

Here are some pics of the completed area

DSCF5530
DSCF5533
DSCF5534
DSCF5539

JOhn

That's all looking very good now, bet it must be very satisfying knowing that rot will never trouble you again.
Grant.