PMuller

It has been quite a while ago I posted an update on my layout. Today I found some time to do some work on the layout. In the months between my last post on the layout I did some work. I redid the track and ballasting of it and I did some grass. I am not happy with the grass as it is because it looks more like a golf green than a field. Today I ‘planted’ the farm building I built before and made a couple of trees. Thanks for reading. Pieter

Hi everyone, I have not done anything to my half of the layout this week. But as promised I made a couple of pictures of my daughters half. She started with her half with the tracks looking like this: She did a bit of landscaping and started with some easy kit buildings: I expect to have more time myself next week to pay some attention to my half. Thanks for reading. Pieter

Hi everyone, Have not done a lot during the past weeks but there is some progress. I made a small bridge, ballasted the track and glued a lot of rocks. Still a lot more to do. Sorry that I did not make a picture of my daughters side. The promise still stands. Thanks for reading, Pieter

Hi everyone, In January I started these two layouts with my daughter. My attention got a bit side tracked by my other layout so I also forgot about it. The idea is that I would build one half and my daughter the other half. Each could build their own world. The only thing in common is the train that runs on it. The size of the layouts is 70x30 cm each. The track plan is also kept simple. On the first couple of pictures you can see the start of building them. The track plan on “my side” has been simplified. Soon after I started I decided to leave out all the points. Next time I will also add a picture of the progress on my daughter's side. Thanks for reading, Pieter

To get the spacing between sleepers right I made some spacers. I am quite happy with the result. It certainly looks better than the standard Peco sleeper spacing. Near a rail join the sleepers are closer together. In 4mm it is almost not visible but I thought it would just look better. With the spacers I can have 24 or 26 sleepers per 60ft rail. The amount of sleepers depends on which spacers I use. Just to do something completely different than finishing building the bridge I completed the walls and started with the garden wall. Not sure yet if the cows will stay or will be replaced by sheep. Thanks for reading. Pieter

At last, the bridge is in place. I felt that an other redesign was in place and also now I printed it steel like colour. It does need a bit of weathering though. I also need to correct the spacing of the sleepers before fixing them to the bridge. Thanks for reading, Pieter

I was not quite happy with the bridge. So I decided that a redesign was needed. The beams which actually carry the track are less bulky now and also have a I shaped profile. Also I added some side bracing as the bridge misses overhead bracing. I also had to test if the bridge needs extra reinforcement to carry a heavy locomotive. I weighed a Bachmann class 40 locomotive. This weighs about 750 grams. With some safety margin the bridge should be able to hold at least 1kg. My testing weight is a 1kg bag of rice. I thought that if necessary track can do the reinforcement but after a test I concluded that track does not help very much. Fortunately the bridge came trough the test! The piece of white plastic has a pencil mark on it. This marks the height of the bridge before the weight was added. There was not any noticeable movement. Thanks for reading. Pieter

I started with designing the bridge an printing the parts for it with a 3D printer. 3D design is kind of designing your own kit and is a lot more time consuming than I thought at first. This is how it looks after putting the parts together. Just for good measure I also took a photograph of the bridge with a goods van on it. Thanks for reading Pieter

At last, many of you might think, it begins to look like a railway. The track is on its place and ballasted. It still needs work as there are several places I missed with glueing. Just a close-up of the track at the right side of the layout. I now will have to wait until it is dry before I can patch the spots without ballast and start with weathering. Thanks for reading. Pieter

Progress is quite a bit slower than during the holidays. This weekend I managed to do the vegetation on the right bank and start with the boundary walls. Just to let you see how it looks like with farm and temporary bridge (attached to a piece of rail with a clothes pin). And this is how this part of the layout looks like with temporary bridge. The farm is not fixed to its place yet but it is on its approximate position. I found a couple of useful pictures on which I can see the water ripples and wave patterns rather well. Finding time to start making them is the problem at this time. So the pond like stream remains for now. Thanks for reading Pieter

Thanks for the remark about having a millpond. This indeed is not my intention. I am looking for images of small rivers and streams to find out how the ripples look in real life. To be honest I have a lot of photographs of rivers and streams but I have not found some where I can see the forms and patterns of the ripples well. After researching real life I need to practice on modelling ripples before doing them on the layout. Pieter

The water has cured quite right and I managed to cut the temporary end and get a nice and clear water edge. I started with getting bushes and trees "planted" on the left bank of the layout. To my taste the foliage of the trees are not realistic. I will redo it next week and take a bit more time and patience to get them right. Just to see how this bank looks like with the test print of the bridge in place: Pieter

When I decided on building this kind of bridge I was not sure which material to use. Especially the curved part is quite challenging to get right when building from scratch. I wondered if 3D printing could solve the problem. The first attempt on 3D printing the bridge. In this design I left out the trusses as I first wanted to find out how sturdy it is and if the details I want can be printed. The profile can be printed as I would like to see it. I still have to test if it is capable of holding a heavy model locomotive. If this is a problem I will have to re-enforce the bridge with two brass girders and use the print to hide them. Pieter

Since the last entry I added a lot of rocks to the river bed and its shoreline. Most of the rocks I added are above the waterline. In my previous test I discovered that I will not be able to model the shoreline once the water is in. Half immersed rocks cannot be added without looking unnatural. So just to be sure I added more rocks than necessary on top of the ones already in place. Plants and scrubs should be added afterwards because they otherwise will soak up some of the water product. When the rocks were drying I started on the abutments. After adding rail beds I wanted to see how it looked like so I added a piece of rail: After everything was dry I added a temporary end for the water. But before adding the water I 'played' surveyor on the layout measuring the distance between the abutments and all the important dimensions of the bridge. The current state with the water in. Has to dry under aluminium foil for at least 24 hours until it is cured. This leaves me time to start on designing the bridge.

To find out how I can make the stream I made a test diorama with two streams. I mostly was interested how I could make a nice edge on the layout as the water will end on the edge of the layout. I used the new Water system from Woodland Scenics for making the water. To prevent the water from pouring out I used a piece of cardboard as a temporarily end. In the first test I also covered the cardboard with kitchen foil but this caused a very irregular shape on the edge. Not what I had in mind. In the second test I only used the kitchen foil to seal the gap between the bottom of the stream and the cardboard. I made sure that the kitchen foil was not above the streambed. After the water product cured I used a fret saw to cut of the cardboard and surplus of water product. After a bit of filing and sanding the edge it is even transparent. I also started on getting colour on my layout. I also started with the river bed on the layout. With the experience with the tests I still have some work to do on the stream. The farm, piece of rail and signal are just put there to see how it looks like.