Ladmanlow Sidings and other C&HPR locations

[Alister_G]

Well the PW gang are having a fine old time digging up the trackbed:

 

 

 

and someone seems to have abandoned an old rusty stop block in the middle of a field...

 

 

More tomorrow,

 

Al.

[westerhamstation]

Hi Al. all part of the fun of railway modelling. All the best Adrian.

[Alister_G]

I've been beavering away with the cork, laying the ground cover.

 

 

Where possible, I've removed the old 5mm infill, and replaced with 2mm pieces, and where I couldn't shift the old stuff I've pared it down with a scalpel.

 

I'll see what it looks like painted before I decide if that's good enough.

 

 

However at the other end, with all new 2mm cork, it looks really good:

 

 

So, I'll plod on, adding to the ever growing mountain of chads where I've cut out the sleepers.

 

 

Thanks for looking,

 

Al.

[Mrkirtley800]

Looks like hard work Al

Derek

[Alister_G]

Looks like hard work Al

Derek

 

It's not that bad, it just requires standing and bending over the layout whilst making fine cuts with a scalpel, so I can't do more than about a quarter of an hour at a time before I have a rest and do something else, as my back is killing me.

 

Cheers,

 

Al.

[westerhamstation]

Hi Al, thats coming along well, worth the effort and back ache. What are you going to do with the cork chads? must be something that they can be used for . All the best Adrian.

[Rowsley17D]

Hi Al, thats coming along well, worth the effort and back ache. What are you going to do with the cork chads? must be something that they can be used for . All the best Adrian.

 

Copings for drystone walls?

[Andrew P]

The hard work on the Track Bed will pay dividends later once Ballasted and looking superb.

[Alister_G]

Hi Al, thats coming along well, worth the effort and back ache. What are you going to do with the cork chads? must be something that they can be used for . All the best Adrian.

 

 

Copings for drystone walls?

 

Bloody brilliant Jonathan, great idea!

 

Thanks very much,

 

Al.

[Alister_G]

The hard work on the Track Bed will pay dividends later once Ballasted and looking superb.

 

Cheers Andy,

 

I hope so, it should look good when it's painted and buried under a load of flockage and static grass

 

Like you, overgrown sidings are a favourite.

 

Al.

[westerhamstation]

Hi Al, me again. Perhaps this might be another option turn it into Vegan Ballast with one of these meat grinders, it does work but don't tell Mrs W Station. All the best Adrian. 

[Alister_G]

I dare say you've tried this already Adrian, to go with the Acme ballaster?

 

Al.

[Alister_G]

More work done on the groundcover, infilling all the sleepers between the rails.

 

 

You can see that at the siding end, all the plain track is done now, and it's beginning to look good:

 

 

 

Meanwhile, at the other end, all the remedial work is complete:

 

 

Just got to infill the pointwork, and then I can start painting it.

 

If I do a few feet every night this week, I should be able to start painting and laying the final covering before the weekend, but we will see how things go.

 

I need to turn the board round to cut in the last large pieces of cork at the back of the layout.

 

Thanks for looking,

 

Al.

[Enterprisingwestern]

You've already won the 2019 award for model railway perseverance!

 

Mike.

[mullie]

And fruit growing!

[Alister_G]

As I said to Westerhamstation some time ago, bananas are an essential part of the modelling process...

 

 

Al.

 

 

 

(PS: and laying all this cork is certainly driving me bananas!)

[Alister_G]

And speaking of perseverence...

 

The wall building is still going on, and here's some detailed photos of the process.

 

I take a section of plastruct rectangular styrene rod, which is 6.4mm x 2.5mm

 

 

and whittle away at it with a scalpel, removing the edges:

 

 

 

in a fairly uneven fashion to try and make it look like raw limestone.

 

Then I cut away the corners at the end, again to get rid of the evenness of the rectangular strip:

 

 

 

Then I cut off a length sufficient for a single stone

 

 

 

and dress the cut corners in the same way as before.

 

Then I add it to the wall:

 

 

Doing this lots and lots of times, with different lengths and shapes, ends up like this:

 

 

This section is nearly the full length now, but needs another layer, and then the capping stones.

 

When I've had enough of cutting cork, I can sit in front of the PC and whittle rocks whilst browsing RMWeb or YouTube, it's a great life...

 

And then when I'm fed up of rocks, I can go and cut cork. Variety is a good thing, always...

 

Thanks for looking,

 

Al.

[Alister_G]

A quick update.

 

Three hours of work spread over three days has resulted in this:

 

 

 

 

 

Not a lot, you might think, but cutting each tiny piece of cork to the right size, and gluing it in place without getting glue all over the sleepers and rails is a time consuming task.

 

So I'm satisfied with progress, and should be in a position to paint the cork by the weekend, which will quickly make a big change to the appearence of the layout.

 

Then I can look at adding ash and static grass to get the scenic finish I want.

 

Thanks for looking.

 

Al.

[NHY 581]

Coming on Al. All looking very nice indeed. Well worth the effort.

 

 

Rob.

[Alister_G]

A further update.

 

All the cork infilling has been completed, finally, and is now ready to start painting.

 

You can see from the photos that I haven't attempted to infill the sleepers where the moving part of the turnouts are. This shows up very obviously at the moment, as the cork is so light in colour, but hopefully after painting won't be so glaring.

 

 

 

 

 

 

You can also see that I have nearly finished the curved section of wall. It just requires the cap stones adding, before it too is painted.

 

Mr Dapol Bloke is admiring the scenery. At least, I hope that's what he's doing...

 

 

 

I'm hoping to make a start on the painting this afternoon, however I'm currently suffering from Flu, so I will be taking things steady for a while.

 

Thanks for looking,

 

Al.

[westerhamstation]

Hi Al, looks good, nice neat job. I stood well back when looking at it as I don't want to catch your flu, hope you feel better soon. All the best Adrian.

[RJdeVries]

I've just viewed the whole topic, looks nice and it allows for a variety of different

consists, it gives me some inspiration to in filling in the trackwork.

 

Regards,

 

Robbert Jan.

[Alister_G]

I've just viewed the whole topic, looks nice and it allows for a variety of different

consists, it gives me some inspiration to in filling in the trackwork.

 

Regards,

 

Robbert Jan.

 

 

Hi Robbert Jan, thank you very much.

 

I used to follow your Leek Junction thread, but it all seems to be a bit quiet now, do you have a different thread now?

 

EDIT: Just found your R & J Colliery Ltd thread. Excellent work, will be following along.

 

Cheers,

 

Al.

Edited January 12, 2019 by Alister_G

[Alister_G]

I've done various things this afternoon.

 

Whilst watching Harry Potter, I added the capping stones to the curved wall section, with Rowsley17D's idea of using the scrap cork "chads" left over from cutting round the sleepers.

 

 

 

These are stuck on with PVA glue, so I've got to wait a while before they set hard enough to paint.

 

And speaking of painting, I've completed the first couple of sections of the ground.

 

Painted using thinned down Humbrol Acrylic 123 and then real ash spread on top whilst the paint was wet.

 

 

 

 

 

I think that's just about got the effect I was after. The painting might improve when my hands stops shaking...

 

Thanks for looking

 

Al.

[Andrew P]

Excellent work on the wall and Track mate, I love that Track colour, superb.