Scenery well under way

December 28th, 2008

Still on track to finish the scenery in time for the Benson show on 10th January. In the last few days I have finished all the ballasting and have made good progress on the scenery.

This is the latest view of the farm scene on one of my end boards:

and a close-up of one of the tractors on the ploughed field, showing some of the ‘seedlings’ to the left of the tractor:

I have test fitted the yard lights and will be fixing them down and wiring them in the next day or so. I am almost ready to start installing the yard fencing, then will get to work on the road markings and the weathering. There are still two more buildings to come, under construction by two very helpful friends! Thanks Don and Graham! 🙂

Here is a view of the latest progress of the intermodal yard:

and a close-up showing a container stack, the loco shed (with refueling & sanding facility), and the yard lighting.

More updates to come in the next few days.

Progress update…finally!!

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:

Intermodal Yard paving installation progressing well

April 28th, 2008

I’m almost halfway through the intermodal yard paving on the first board. I have also been test fitting the loco storage track details – the loco shed with refueling, water and sand facilities as well as an old BN hopper to be used for sand storage for the sanding tower.

Latest photos are on the scenery progress page. I’ll be hopefully finishing the paving on the first board tonight – this bit is the trickiest as all the tracks here are curved…the second board will be easier as the tracks are all straight, so a lot easier to install.

To keep things simple I am not installing paving between the yard tracks – there are quite a few intermodal yards like this, so I will take advantage of that 🙂

Right, off to feed the cat, dinner for me then back to work on the modules!

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