Veja Megstra - RhB Nm layout

[Frutigen]

12 hours ago, MrTea said:

Road barrier installed. Fence added.

 

I like that roadside fence - looks like metal tube through concrete posts. How did you make it?

 

Keith

[swisspeat]

This is all coming together really well!

 

I am almost tempted to get some of these Kato RhB models.

 

I have always modelled in HOm (despite having some nice AlpinLine Om stuff somewhere) but N certainly offers a great way to model true Swiss scale scenery!

 

Pete

[MrTea]

22 hours ago, Frutigen said:

 

I like that roadside fence - looks like metal tube through concrete posts. How did you make it?

 

Keith

 

Hi Keith,

 

The grey crash barriers on the right are by Noch. I’ve anchored them in a base of mounting board. They need a set of railings adding on the valley side to match the real location. 
 

The fence dividing the road verge from the trackside is a homemade effort. The posts are cut down cocktail sticks. Whilst the rails between them are rectangular styrene strip attached with super glue. 
 

Thanks for the tips on alpine grass BTW! I’ll have a look out for those and see if I can order some. 

[cornish trains jez]

This is looking great! Keep up the good work!!

 

Best regards and stay safe,

 

Jeremy

 

[MichaelE]

Looking good! I can't wait to see it finished.

[Frutigen]

22 hours ago, MrTea said:

The fence dividing the road verge from the trackside is a homemade effort. The posts are cut down cocktail sticks. Whilst the rails between them are rectangular styrene strip attached with super glue.

Thanks for that. I’ve got crash barriers where I think they fit but I was looking for something like your other fence for other locations. I’ll give it a try. 
 

Keith

[MrTea]

On 24/05/2020 at 08:37, Frutigen said:

Thanks for that. I’ve got crash barriers where I think they fit but I was looking for something like your other fence for other locations. I’ll give it a try. 
 

Keith

 

Hi @Frutigen,

 

Here's a close-up for you:

 

I think it's 2mm x 0.5mm styrene strip, if I remember right . Then I pushed cocktail sticks into the surface before trimming the tops off and painting them with sleeper dirt enamel. They've had a wash of light grey since to tone them down a bit.

[Frutigen]

Ta, that’s a really good photo and explanation. 

[MrTea]

The station side of the layout is starting to come together nicely now. I managed to spend some time last weekend getting the sub surface and the plaster bandage on. And then the other afternoon I was able to add a layer of filler to the outside and some earth colour paint.

 

The grey area at the back is the base for a shed. At the front the valley side slopes away quite steeply but will be covered in trees. I'm not sure quite what to use for ground cover in this area as I can find lots of tutorials (mainly HO scale) about making fir and pine trees but not much about what goes underneath them.

 

I'm basing the layout on Muot station but with the addition of a headhunt/loco spur to add interest.

 

The station building will be on the left of the picture. I've added card infill between the lines. On images I've seen online this area is very lightly graded chipping and very tidy for a wayside station by UK standards!

 

Much happier with the ground cover now! Although it needs a few small trees and some more vegetation adding to the rock face side.

 

Still wondering whether to invest in a static grass applicator for the verges and larger areas of field and meadow...

[PaulRhB]

Looking very good  

Static grass machines are well worth it, I am on my second. Upgraded to the Greenscene Flockit as it works as well as the more expensive German ones and John provides excellent support. Mine went ping after extensive use and it was sent off and repaired in 4 days. I only had to pay post to John and this was beyond a year. As a result highly recommended and it’s pretty tough, I lend it to mates and no ones had a problem using it. 

[PaulRhB]

What’s more normal flock makes an excellent base layer so you can add it later. 

[JimFin]

5 hours ago, MrTea said:

I'm not sure quite what to use for ground cover in this area as I can find lots of tutorials (mainly HO scale) about making fir and pine trees but not much about what goes underneath them.

 

In both HO and N - I have used fabric hanging basket liners for scrub undergrowth and forest base. They have to be the fabric type, not the coconut ones. for forest cover, shades of brown are best, cut to shape and then the fabric teased out to form clumps etc. It is one instance where I have found dyed lichen helpful and don't forget to add some old / stray trunks from previous growth. Mix it up with clump foliage, brown static grass. Image is from Neuburg in HOm but hope it helps.

[MrTea]

There is a slight problem area on the station board:

At the real location there's a steep track that leads up to the station building. It looks like there's an underpass or something next to the building but I haven't found any details about what the bridge or walling looks like.

 

It would make sense if the track lead underneath the tracks and up into the yard but I can't see any evidence of that.

 

I dropped the level of the land but I can't face excavating out under the tracks so I wonder whether I could incorporate a small culvert or stream coming off the mountain and running under the tracks? Does anyone know if there are any examples on the RhB that I could use for inspiration?

 

In other news, I've started work in the rock gallery at the other end of the station:

 

 

At the real location the points are directly after the tunnel mouth but on my version there is about a 70mm straight section to deal with the change in gradient from flat to the 4% ruling grade for the rest of the layout.

 

You can see in the photo above that the mainline and loop is lower than the siding which presumably is on the level in real life as the station itself definitely slopes.

 

There are some really interesting details crying out to be modelled including the overhead line apparatus and a p'way depot area with stored rails to the mountain side of the tracks.

[PaulRhB]

They have drainage culverts but not got any shots that show them from the side. Some are stone some modern concrete. 
This one was literally just tall enough to walk through. 

[A4CML]

18 hours ago, JimFin said:

 

In both HO and N - I have used fabric hanging basket liners for scrub undergrowth and forest base. They have to be the fabric type, not the coconut ones. for forest cover, shades of brown are best, cut to shape and then the fabric teased out to form clumps etc. It is one instance where I have found dyed lichen helpful and don't forget to add some old / stray trunks from previous growth. Mix it up with clump foliage, brown static grass. Image is from Neuburg in HOm but hope it helps.

Those trees look good Jim, what have you used to make them?

[JimFin]

Essentially classic "bog brush" stuck on a length of florists bamboo. Take a loop of soft wire lay in some teased out string and spin up (slowly!) with a drill. Drill and stick into top of the cut to length bamboo. Bamboos is painted with a dulux tester - mocha brown - dipped in n gauge ballast to give texture like broken branches. Spray the top matt black, trim and shape with scissors. Good coating of hairspray and dip into foliage in a bottle (cut out as photo), twizzle until fully coated, spray with matt acrylic varnish. Needed a cheap and quick method, there are 60 odd in that clump of forest.

 

Apologies for interfering with your thread MrTea.

[MrTea]

No worries at all Jim.

 

I've bought a couple of packs of ready to plant trees but was wondering whether I might need to go down the homemade route so it's really useful to know how you made yours.

[MrTea]

Another update from the station side of the layout tonight. Over the past couple of days I've started the scenery at the left hand end of the station.

 

This depicts the Chanaletta Galerie north of Muot station.

 

Looking north from the end of the yard. I decided to re-lay the end of the siding in the yard with a curve so it better reflects the real location (the point on the loop is a right-hand turnout in real life but that's a compromise I'll have to live with).

 

Whereas on the station section I used some spare polystyrene packaging for the base of the scenery on this area I've mainly used foamboard and strips of card. The portal is by Faller and I'll need to source some additional walling material for the right side of the stonework as well as along the front.

 

Looking from the valley side along towards the station. There will be stonework along the side covering the buttresses with arches forming the gallery. Below the track level the valley side will continue. It's difficult to tell from photos whether this is bare rock or covered in trees as per the slope in front of the station.

 

From researching via satellite images you can see the need for this structure as protection for the line from avalanches.

 

The roof is test fitted for now. I found some images online that show the south portal:
https://structurae.net/fr/medias/96860-galerie-pare-avalanche-de-chanaletta-km-79-de-la-ligne-de-l-albula-precedant-la-gare-de-croisement-de-muot

From looking at one I realised that the portals are built up above the level of the slope, presumably to contain any rockslides or avalanches and prevent them from spilling onto the track:

https://structurae.net/fr/medias/96859-galerie-pare-avalanche-de-chanaletta-km-79-de-la-ligne-de-l-albula-precedant-la-gare-de-croisement-de-muot
So I need to rework this slightly, either to extend the portal or cut the roof back. While I'm at it I'll probably make the slope slightly steeper.

 

Track layout inside the gallery. The track here curves quite sharply to make the loop of the layout whereas the real location is straight. In order to give the impression that the line carries on north I've laid a section of line which will appear from the outside to continue on.

 

One of the things I've learnt from this process is not to get carried away with sticking things down too soon! Here I should have painted the rails on the detached section of track as it's in a hard to reach place now the walls are in. But it won't be too much faff to lift the rails, paint them and fix them down again.

 

It's been quite an interesting exercise in measurement and creating angles and shapes in foamboard and card. I didn't realise until I looked closely that the portal isn't square on to the track. Also because the track slopes down by about 10mm along the length of the gallery that's made getting the arches straight quite and interesting challenge.

 

More to follow over the weekend - I've bitten the bullet and ordered some Sommerfeldt catenary components for the station area.

[MichaelE]

I did the same yesterday. $142 worth of RhB new style masts. The 389.

[MrTea]

Did a bit more work on the layout this morning, adding plaster bandage to the section I worked on the other night.

 

The mystery of the over bridge at Muot has been solved via another modeller's layout:
https://www.albulamodell.ch/wp/muot/

 

I ordered a Kibri 3 arch stone bridge the other day as part of a scenics order so hopefully that can be 'bashed' around a bit to fit the space.

[PaulRhB]

If not try my foam method, for the relatively small investment in a Hotwire I’ve made tons with it and I’ve only worn one wire out in about three years. (He sells spares too)
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/253160438428

 

[MrTea]

Bit more progress tonight on the gallery end of the layout.

 

 

Got the track ballasted (but need to work on blending the Kato roadbed with the chippings) and some ground cover down. I found out that Busch do two packs of scatter which aims to simulate forest ground cover and forest paths. What's nice about them is the muted colours and the blend of materials included.

 

The right half of this picture will be hidden by trees when this is complete.

 

I've been messing with the angles on the gallery roof. Originally it was a bit too flat I felt so I've introduced a slight slope from the back corner towards the tunnel portal. On the prototype there are small trees growing out of the roof and a massive rockslide further on towards the back.

 

 

 

This weekend's project is to amend the track layout in the station, paint the rails and start looking at where to place the catenary.

 

[MrTea]

So, as with most things on the model, it took rather longer than I expected to amend the track layout at the weekend. Mainly because I got distracted with building and installing a bridge at the south end of the station.

 

Here are a few photos showing the process:

 

The site. I was never particularly happy with this area, particularly the weird depression on the far side of the loop.

 

Rails removed. It was nerve-wracking cutting into the scenery but it shows the flexibility of using the Woodlands Scenics risers if you decide you do want to make changes in mid-build.

 

Kibri stone viaduct kit. It turns out this went together very easily and has lots of options for how to configure in or extend it with other kits.

 

Cut and shut of the parts to a single arch bridge 3 tracks wide. As the middle doesn't need to carry rails I could manage with cutting the supplied trackbed in half.

 

Completed span prior to priming. At this point I added additional the small walling sections to the left and right of the arch in order to blend in the masonry with the embankment.

 

Low level shot of the bridge installed showing the track underneath (there's not a lot of headroom but I didn't particularly want to hack into the fascia or the land in front of the track). The railings will follow once the ground cover has been added to this area.

 

Wider shot showing the right hand end of the station. I also removed the loco spur as it's not a feature of the real location and I felt it was unlikely to add much operationally given the single siding in the yard.

 

Generally I'm pretty happy with how this has turned out. Next job is to try and blend the scenery in with the Toua tunnel section of the layout. There's also a steep rockslide to replicate.

[MrTea]

With the dining table out of action due to other domestic activities on Sunday I decided to set up the layout for a running session.

 

 

Looking back to my last video in February it makes me realise how much the layout has developed but also how much is still left to do.

[MrTea]

Bit of an update to show progress on the Chanaletta Galerie section north of the station.

 

I've been focusing on one section at a time on the layout as there's limited space to work on the baseboards.

 

This is how it looked back at the end of May along with the reference photo I've used as a guide to get the overall shape and dimensions.

 

This is how it looks now.

 

I found this fantastic reference image on the website of an engineering company that have been doing some significant work on the site:

It shows just why the gallery is needed with the rockfall on the left hand end and below the ledge where the line runs.

 

There are also some useful images on this forum:
https://www.modell-bahn.ch/forum/index.php?thread/7081-rhb-bauwerke-heute-albula-schienenlager-bahnhof-muot-2005/

 

After much searching around for a suitable rock texture sheet I eventually created my own from photos. Although the Faller foam tunnel mouth sheets I used for Toua tunnel are available the matching walling sheets seem very hard to track down (and they are quite expensive). The advantage of using stitched together photos was that I could tweak the colours and print the blocks to a size that's a fair match for the real location.

 

I contemplated leaving the stonework on the tunnel mouth uncovered and trying to paint it to match, However, having had success wrapping the gallery side and creating the arches there it made more sense to create a print for the whole end wall and just leave the arch unwrapped. There's some work to do tidying up the edges of the tunnel walling and blending in the colours. But the overall impression works quite well and it doesn't look too regular or flat which was a disadvantage of some of the textured sheets I found.

 

View along the gallery.

 

One of the surprising things about the real location is that the tunnel has lots of trees growing on top of it. I've tried to replicate this using a mix of Busch and Noch conifers. It's quite difficult to gauge the right size of trees to use when buying online. I thought that one of the packs which was TT/H0 was going to be way too big but in actual fact they look just about right and don't dwarf the trains too much.

 

Detail shot showing the effectiveness of the print. There's a little bit of work needed to blend the walling into the scenery but I'm pleased with the overall colouring, particularly along the side.

 

Let me know what you think!