Having finished my Christmas Dinner duties, boxing day allowed me a little modelling time. I had bought some styrene I beam some time back to create armco barriers to protect the Linkspan headshunt from wayward vehicles. Having completed the French drain and ground plain I thought I could give it a go. There are several ready made armco type barriers on the market but you are always paying a premium for not trying to scratchbuild so I thought I would give it a go. 

Initially I tried sticking the cutout stanchions onto the barrier then using it to mark out where holes were to be hand drilled in the base layer. It 

(holes drilled for armco barrier stanchions) 

Unfortunately the stanchions didn't line up well with the holes so I pulled them all off the armco and stuck them directly in the holes. Armco has a curved end to it which I replicated with a pair of plyers. 

Before sticking on the armco I painted the stanchions creamy grey and the armco yellow as this seems to be the colour scheme of choice for all traffic management items in Dover. 

(first section stuck on with holes drilled for the next length) 

The first section to be complete was around the concrete apron protecting the headshunt from yard traffic. I then started putting armco on top of the embankment and down the side of the ramp using the same technique. Because of the springiness of the I beam I needed to use clothes pegs to help keep the armco in place until the glue had set. The end stanchion was pulled out first time around because of the tension in the bending I beam. I therefore replaced it with a much longer stanchion which held nicely

(ramp armco held in place with clothes pegs) 

Whilst waiting for the glue to set I marked on the armco edges and holding bolts with a fine liner pen

(armco joints and bolts marked on) 

A bit more armco at the end of the ramp and the vehicle barriers around the headshunt was completed. 

(armco on top of embankment) 

(completed headshunt vehicle protection) 

Next challenge will be crushing up some chalk to finish off the base of the white cliffs before adding some additional signage then other than some minor traffic management clutter I think this part of the layout is nearing completion. 

Thanks for reading

(starting to come together)