Peter Borcherds December 23rd, 2008
Well, it is about time I added a progress update!! I haven’t been able to work on the layout for a while, but finally have had time to get cracking on finishing it off in time for the Benson show on the 10th January.
The ballasting is 90% done, the intermodal yard is finished and waiting for weathering and installation of the yard lights, fencing and buildings.
I have decided to put a farm scene on one of my end boards, and spent tonight starting construction on a laser-cut kit of a wooden barn, my first attempt at a wooden kit! So far, so good…although I have learnt that I should try to dry-brush the paint on, rather than just brush it on normally…warped wood does not look good on a barn! :-) I managed to get it mostly straight again thanks to a hot halogen lamp – I’m not used to working with wood kits, so am learning as I go!
I also built two Walthers windmills, with one the full height (this will go on the other end board), and the other one down to the lowest level to go next to the farmhouse.
So far I am on track to get it all finished in time for the Benson show – luckily Christmas & New Year give me the free time I need, and it is full steam ahead! Luckily scenery is my favourite part, so I am finally beginning to enjoy building this layout…
Right, time for bed, but will do another update this weekend.
In the meantime, here are some photos of the buildings so far:
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Peter Borcherds August 14th, 2008
I’ve completed ballasting track 1 and 2 on the front of module 1. I have done half of track 1 on module 2, and will hopefully get more done tonight.
The photos below show the progress so far, along with a few photos of a train on the tracks and signals.
I am going to add some detail bits between the two main tracks to make it a bit dirtier…looks a bit bare at the moment.
Right, here are the latest photos:
An overview of the ballasting progress so far…
I still need to put an LED in one of the NJ International signals (the one with the black target), and I need to paint the target on the other signal (which is fully functional with an LED). I am hoping that the rumour from BLMA about their N scale modern signal bridge is true as that would work perfectly on this part of the layout…but will have to wait and see! In the meantime, I am using the NJ International signals for this section of track.
A couple of photos of a BNSF Autorack train going past the signals
An overview shot of the layout
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Peter Borcherds August 10th, 2008
I’ve finally got round to starting the ballasting. I have completed track 1 on module 1 and will be finishing off track 2 this afternoon and starting on the second module.
So far, so good. I’m impressed with the Arizona Rock & Mineral ballast I bought in Denver in May. The only tricky thing is fighting gravity, as it is heavier than normal ballast, so profiling is not as easy.  I’m having to put a layer of glue on the slope of the trackbed to hold the first layer of ballast, then using that as grip for the next layer.
But in the end it is ending up looking quite good. See for yourself in the photo below. More updates to come soon…
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