Station platform covering

[cessfordalan]

After looking at photos and studying videos on U tube i cannot make my mind up  as to how to finish my platform surface of f on my 1930's G.W.R branch line terminus   . Should I use a scribed stone effect on cardboard or some other finish. Any advice and ideas please.

 

Alan [in the windswept Outer Hebrides  

[saxokid]

Ive used thin plastic card on Banks road station platforms,

cut into different size pavement shapes and glued down...

 

 

 

cheers neil..

[cessfordalan]

Hi Saxokid,

Thanks for your reply, I rather like the photo you sent with your reply but how did you get the [for want of a better word]  mortor lines to stand out so clearly as I am going to have a go at your method

 

  Regards 

 

Alan

[saxokid]

On ‎15‎/‎03‎/‎2019 at 17:47, cessfordalan said:

Hi Saxokid,

Thanks for your reply, I rather like the photo you sent with your reply but how did you get the [for want of a better word]  mortor lines to stand out so clearly as I am going to have a go at your method

 

  Regards 

 

Alan

Do you meant the rusty rails Alan??

 

 

 

cheers neil..

[Darwinian]

If the layout is set in 1930s in a rural location I think there is a fair chance that much of the platform surface would simply be ash/gravel.  I've represented that by using fine sand paper and then spraying it a suitable colour. Around my station building model itself there are plain flags, scribed plastic card. Have a look at pictures from the period / area you are interested in do something similar. There was a lot of variation, probably dependent on who built the station and the level and prestige of the traffic.  Most of the S.Wales valleys platforms  (my area of interest) that look like an ash/gravel surface in older photos appear to have been tarmacked by B.R. days.

 

 

[TheQ]

Away from the station buildings, ie more than 10ft, the station I'm modelling used rolled ballast as the plaform surface (not edges of course), so that's what I'll be using a thin layer of polyfill and  copious ballast rolled into the surface..

[Karhedron]

In steam days, most platforms only had paved areas around the buildings with macadam elsewhere. This is particularly true of less important stations like a BLT. This shot of Avonwich on the Kingsbridge branch shows the different materials typically used in this sort of setting. It even shows the transition from paving to macadam just beyond the platform canopy.

 

[Karhedron]

What scale are you working in? Gravel/macadam in N gauge could be represented by sandpaper of some sort. If you are working in O gauge, you might want something coarser. For the paved areas, I would favour plastic of some sort. You can either get plastic paving sheets or you can scribe your own pattern onto plasticard.

 

I would not use cardboard as it tends to absorb moisture during painting which makes it curl at the edges. Nothing spoils the illusion of reality in miniature like your platforms curling at the corners.