Well, if you’re reading this, RMWeb is back. Thank goodness. Well done to Andy for persevering on behalf of us all.

As a result, I suspect that this entry won’t stay on the front page for long; I imagine there will be a few of us doing catch up blog entries... and why not.

Since my last posting I’ve made some progress with my depot diorama/plank, some progress has been positive, but not all.

I think in my last entry I’d mentioned using scalescenes card inspection kit which my second attempt had been quite successful, I’d used code 100 flat bottom rail to glue to the card, and soldered droppers to this to power this separately. Upon offering this up to C&L bullhead, I found that the gauge was a little out; attempts at removing the rail to reposition it were not successful and finally the pit was consigned to the recycling pile. Some soul searching, and suggestions, led me to acquiring a peco inspection pit, but before this arrived, I decided to give the scalescenes kit one further try. This time I strengthened the side walls by leaving some card material above the “lightsâ€... so a slight instruction deviation, more careful tedious cutting, but worth it. I then didn’t fit the rails to the pit top, instead, the pit was dropped into the baseboard hole and the C&L track sat on top with the timbers removed, leaving them in place either side, over the rest of the metre length. Height wise this was close enough, or so I though. Tests have shown that my ever-so-tight Deltic makes it over the slight undulation (well, most of the time anyway).

So this was the first step in getting back on programme. I used the hardstand prints from the inspection pit as the concrete apron around the pit, where the shed would sit, and along towards where the fuel point would be... and across the front track too.

Whilst I didn’t leave enough room for the LED strip that can be added, a strip torch placed under the board can produce a nice effect. Maybe I’ll add some lighting to the shed... at some point; there’s no rush.

The front track would stop short of the left hand end, with a buffer stop (I’ve since sourced a peco one and constructed with at the P4 gauge – holes elongated to gauge – but not much else yet... I might replace this eventually, but it’ll do for a start).

I laid some daler card down to form the hardstanding areas, which gave a double thickness that looks about right for scale. The front area was single thickness, which should be less of a step to the ballasted track in the foreground or rather that’s the plan.

Anyway, I finished adding all of the card, weathered a little with powders and tamiya pastes and then varnished to seal it all in. DO NOT USE ENAMEL VARNISH... I know this now. The result was more than a little disappointing.

After some thinking, I decided to print out some more sheets (ink ran out and had to source a replacement cartridge) ... then carefully cut out and stuck these down over the “wrecked†finish of the existing card using pritt stick, which allowed some precision positioning (which it needed).

After some guidance from the good old pages of the card forum on here, a suggestion was offered on how to waterproof these card items without use of varnish, and I was pointed to Lidl’s clothing waterproofer. There was none in stock at out local, but a rootle around at home found something similar – for shoes and coats... and a liberal series of coats to the card seemed to do the trick... checked with a few drops of water afterwards.

With the card now all settled, the rails had droppers soldered to them, holes drilled into the board for the circuit later. Then the tracks were glued down, the rear one being glued to a length of card that raised the rail level ... enough to give a shoulder for the ballast at the rear.

Once dried, I set about adding chairs to the rail over the pit. For this, I used Exactoscale chairs (S1s I think) that I cut the outer sections and used these to suggest chairs up against the rail. These were affixed with superglue and the gauge set as accurately as possible along the pit length.

Terminal blocks were then added to terminate the droppers, and all wired together and connect to the powercab socket ... which would be fitted to the rectangular opening.

A tedious but worthwhile job is that of removing the sleeper spacers... cut out with a sharp blade – a long thin one preferably – a Swann Morton No. 11 suited me in this instance... although the bits go everywhere; relaxing music at one side is useful to while the hours away in this task; at least it makes ballasting easier afterwards.

With it being my eldest son’s birthday this weekend, not too much modelling time was available, but that which was, was not then spent browsing RMWeb, which was er, taking a break. So, after all the “other†activities were complete, I used the airbrush to give the tracks a good coat of sleeper grime brown... and a careful application of dark rust to the chairs, including those on the pit, with rail tops cleaned off carefully with a white spirit soaked cloth afterwards.

The defueling point base and refuelling point base had a couple of coats of acrylic ... concrete colour, actually Citadel’s Dhenab Stone, as recommended by Will Vale of this parish... which was a good match to the printed card. The grills were picked out in a wash of black, with light grey dry brushed over one it was all dry... much work will be needed on these, but I thought that adding the bases would provide a point to ballast up to. The left hand end foreground area, by the buffer stop, needs a small office building... not sure what design, but I’ve ordered the Bachmann Scenecraft office, which should sit in nicely in terms of scale, but might need some backdating to fit with the loco selections.

I will need to find some more pictures of fuel depots, and the defuel bits I have a re devoid of instructions, so I’ll be trying to work out what to do with both of these Knightwing bits.

As for ballast, I was going to use the woodland scenics fine grey ballast that I’ve used before, but I’ve given some though to Carrs Ash ballast, which might look better for a depot... but maybe keeping the scenics stuff for the track at the rear.

A recent blog entry covered techniques for ballasting ... and mentioned the use of Kleer. I know that others on here use this method, but given its scarcity and multitude of uses, I’d always soaked the ballast and used watered down PVA, or scenics cement. As I’d acquired a couple of bottles of “old†Kleer a year or so ago, I thought I’d give it a try on my boys layout (around the loco shed). Wow! I dropped on some ballast, evened it out and carefully applied some kleer to the board to allow it to wick using capillary action – it just worked! Now it seems I can add ballast to the board without worrying about soaking the card beforehand. So, hopefully, it’ll start to come together.

I hope that I’ll have something to exhibit in a few weeks time; nothing will be finished, but a work in progress will be something I suppose.

On other projects, the Bachmann 47 was rewheeled this weekend. Removing the bogie frames was a bit of a pig; clearly Bachmann didn’t design these to be easily removed. I managed to drop the ultrascales in, but the bogie frames wouldn’t go back on – the new wheels fouled the frames, particularly the inner items.., so these were removed. The loco was tested on the board and worked fine, even if it was sunning on some very odd looking wheel frames... that project will be made “decent†before the BHMRC show, but probably not much else. The split headcode 37 is already sat on the 2^nd set of deltic ultrascales... but not chipped. It did get used as a useful track gauge checker with use of a PP3 battery to run back and forth when it was all under test though.

Finally, the loco stable has been expanded with a Hornby 31 entering the. With my recent preference for a money-saving haircut, which can now go two months between cuts, it was only apt that this was 31-111.., their “Skinhead†offering. It was picked up from a well know auction site for a price that I was very happy with; it’ll need some tidying and looks as though it’s not been run much, if at all... but it ran ok on the boys layout.. so it’ll go into the box, onto the surgery waiting list for chipping, detailing and rewheeling. I think I’ve probably enough to be getting on with now.

So, that's it for now... some progress yes.. not as much as I would've liked, but I'm happy to have achieved at least this.

Thanks for reading

Jon