Garden Railway Forum

It’s looking great John, loving your scenery...

Area behind the loco shed back corner fitted today. I have added an old water tank to add interest. Fence from old sleepers (foamboard) also makes a nice edge to the area.
J0hn

Looking good John.

Nice detail John.

Preparations for a new bridge (actually half a bridge) moved on today, with the offering up and fixing for position of the bridge hole, and trying to work out how to do the adjacent abutments and retaining walls.
We havn't worked out yet whether it will be a road (half) bridge or a railway (half) bridge.

J0hn

What is not obvious in this picture, is that I have made the bridge hole tapered / foreshortened, to give the impression of the hole going on for ever ( n fact it is just 9 cm deep).
Because of the viaduct / three arch bridge in front, you can’t see right up it anyway, so a progressively blacker hole should do the trick.

J0hn

Lovely modelling work.

Is that foam board you're using?

Ian

Beautiful sculpting for the stonework... most convincing.

It is Foamboard (foam PVC). Stuck together using the plastic rain water pipe cement from Wickes.

The main boards are 5mm thick and the sticking out bits of ‘stoneware’ were 2mm thick which has been attacked with a Drimmel before sticking on. The stone joints were made using an old electrical screwdriver. The whole of the surface has been dented using a pet stone pressed into the surface.

The viaduct / three arch bridge was done a few years ago using the same material.

I’m just using up the last of the sheets that I paid £1 plus postage for (Size A3). The stuff I recently bought cost £2 including postage but I had to buy 25 sheets.

J0hn

Thanks for the reply John.

For anyone interested in using foamboard have a look at what Emmanuel Nouaillier has acheived here. http://www.009.cd2.com/members/how_to/nouaillier_a.htm Modelling at it's very best.

Foamboard seems cheap enough to experiment with and looks like a very under rated material. My local Hobbycraft were selling four sheets for £10 last time I went in.

I'll give it a go I think. Another job to get round to!

Ian

A lot of what Emmanuel Nouaillier uses is not foam PVC, but a foam encased between two sheets of paper. He does wonders by pealing off one of these sheets of paper and pressing and carving into the foam innards.

Be careful when buying ‘foamboard’, as the foamed PVC is weatherproof whereas some other product also called foamboard are not.

Looking at the picture on the Hobbycraft Website, this looks like the cheap non-weatherproof material. The description says it has a polystyrene core – this is not foamed PVC.

J0hn

Foamboard seems like a bit of a minefield then. Perhaps this explains why it's not so widely used.

Thanks for the advice.

Ian

Very nice detailing John. Love the Viaduct, it’s brilliant.

FBGR wrote: ↑Wed Apr 04, 2018 1:18 pm A lot of what Emmanuel Nouaillier uses is not foam PVC, but a foam encased between two sheets of paper. He does wonders by pealing off one of these sheets of paper and pressing and carving into the foam innards.

Be careful when buying ‘foamboard’, as the foamed PVC is weatherproof whereas some other product also called foamboard are not.

Looking at the picture on the Hobbycraft Website, this looks like the cheap non-weatherproof material. The description says it has a polystyrene core – this is not foamed PVC.

J0hn

Just echo J0hn's post. when I looked in Hobbycraft, the board they had was the paper faced variety, with a lighter density foam filling. This, however, is the pukka stuff, available in varying thicknesses and colour.

Google “PVC foam board” brings up a few suppliers, including some offering standard sizes and the odd deal.

There are a couple of branded varieties, but check that it does say “PVC foam board”.

J0hn

Lonsdaler wrote: ↑Thu Apr 05, 2018 10:30 am

Just echo J0hn's post. when I looked in Hobbycraft, the board they had was the paper faced variety, with a lighter density foam filling. This, however, is the pukka stuff, available in varying thicknesses and colour.

Thanks Phil…

New Half Bridge / Retaining walls fixed in position today.
Having worked out how to fit these bits in, I am able to work out the length of the last bit of the retaining wall which I will now manufacture.

J0hn

It’s looking very effective with the Viaduct John.

I’ve not been keeping up with what has been happening on the FBGR for the past few weeks, so I’d better try and catch up.

The remaining piece of the retaining wall has been made and fitted.
It all looks a bit clinical at the moment, but hopefully it will look better when some more bits are (eventually) added around it.

The point on the station run-round, with its short siding/head shunt, has been removed and replaced with a curved bit of track.
This point was inserted into the engine shed second road to provide for a new siding onto the newly redecked (in plastic) section.
You may also notice that the areas between the engine shed sidings and the main line has been filled. I’m quite pleased with the look of the areas done between the tracks and the retaining wall and will continue with this in other places.

At the moment the new siding is bare onto the plastic decking.
There has been a long term plan to have a sawmill somewhere on the FBGR, so this may be the place.

On the timber decked section, the cross-over between loops, a little bush that grew into a big bush has been removed and the South fence sections have been refurbished with hairy grass, as has the section between the tracks where the Section House sits.
Work is continuing on the drop-in bridge abutments,but I don’t seem to have a photo of this at present.

Lots to do, with refurbishing some of the older covered decking area round the station (the new stuff looks so much better), extending this to cover other areas and finishing off the bridges that had to be hacked about when the plastic decking area was laid.

J0hn

Neat work as always John, how did you build the fence? Is it wood or foamboard? Looks good.