BobM

Evening all......Hope are well.....Threatening snow here tonight...here we go again! Have reapplied a pva / water mix to the ballast as it hadn't set at all...sort of a gritty paste....but have laid another mixture and will leave this a good 48 hrs to 'go off' ( railway day tomorrow weather permitting - otherwise it's hoovering at home) Here's the situation this evening.... Have also stripped off the cork in the area that is to be the 'Private Coal Merchant' yard.......will ballast later, but first I have to pluck up the courage to place another tube in wire control to the adjacent point.....at least so that it can be attached to the pip and the ballast go over the top of the tubing...if it all goes pear-shaped or I bottle out, then at least it can be taken up or covered..... Regards always..... Bob

Hi Guys....Early evening update....... Just looked at last nights ballasting....in some areas this appears not to have 'fixed'....so will revisit and reapply another mixture tonight..... Regards always.... Bob

The Only One - Donna Summer (RIP Sweetheart)

Evening Guys...... It's been 'snowing again'.....metaphorically speaking that is...... Will lets this soak in and settled for 24hrs and show how it looks tomorrow..... Regards always..... Bob

Hi Lez Cheers.....yep, getting this area ballasted over the next week perhaps....need to even it out a bit then do 'the business' with the pva / water mix to fix it down......then was going to research how to weather and grime it up......will search RMW for advice on products etc to do the job.... Regards always.... Bob

Evening guys........ An update on what is happening...... Have spent an hour or so, with the radio on a favourite station, just 'switching off' and not thinking of anything in particular, which is a change for me, (for what is left of what is laughingly know as a brain is usually racing ahead with all sorts of rubbish churning away), slowly spreading ballast on the next two sidings / headshunt roads......still a work in progress...... Regards always... Bob

Cheers Baz.... Keep em' coming.... Regards always... Bob

I Do I Do I Do I Do I Do - ABBA

Hi Guys... Would any of you kind souls like to pass on your expertise and techniques in weathering track, ballast, retain walls, tunnels, station building, engine yards...in fact any infrastructure weathering or basically anything adding characteristic grime, muck and sludge..... required paint colours, powders and products etc or if you can point novices such as myself to articles, websites or forums on here to gain any useful tips...... I know we can do this together !.. Regards always.... Bob

Tell Him - The Exciters

Hi Guys....... Hope all are okay.....? Have undertaken another hour or so on the sidings (have left Mercontrol for another evening)...... The ballasting done last night has been left to its own devices for 24hrs now and as the previous image indicates has dried and hardened very well, there are one or two patches where the cork can be seen through the ballast but I hope that future weathering can deal with this, either with weathering powders or cinder ballast.....but I will leave this until I have initially grey ballasted the whole initial sidings as a whole and treat individual spots..... The previously weather sleepers have been given a wash of a chocolate brown thinned enamel paint, applied in a dry brush and wet brush approach to get some variations in tone......this is now drying and we'll see how it dries....I understand enamel paint dries a lighter shade than when applied...? The next two adjacent sidings to receive their initial layer of grey ballast have been given an initial chocolate brown wash.....(my art teacher always used to drill into my head that when beginning a piece of either oil or water colour work to get rid of that white paper straight away....any wash will do but just get rid of it and you'll be away) so with those words ringing in my ears, the horrible black sleepers of peco track is now much more workable..... .......and at least on the weathered section the power is still flowing through and the switch works....! The grey ballast looks too grey at the moment...any suggestions on how to apply weathering and 'muck'..... The adjacent two (and next to be grey ballasted) sidings have been given a chocolate brown wash to take away the black plastic look of the Peco track.... The weathered siding is now drying and we'll see how it looks tomorrow evening, the artificial light in the railway room is not good so apologies for the poor images... Regards always... Bob

Hi Guys.... 'Let out' again from the nursery due to weather and lack of staff being able to get in..... Here is what greeted me on arrival back home.... to my untrained eye looks okay at this basic stage.... will add a little further colour to the base weathering to bring the sleeper 'to the front' and potentially add a cinder mix, then 'atmosphere' to the ballast itself in the form of oil, grease and weeds...? Will update later... Regards always.... Bob

Evening guys from a snowy South Staffordshire...! An update on this evening 'bits'..... Happy to report, the running repair to the 'torn pip' appears at the moment to be okay and firming up......but note to self, that Gorilla Glue does 'expand' quite considerably so it was fortunate that I was quite sparing with its application otherwise there would have been a huge 'blob'....however this can be trimmed away with a scalpel to tidy up....it'll be interesting to see how this finally hardens and whether this holds, finally doing the task in hand to allow me to recommence with the Mercontrol....? Anyway onto ballasting the siding...... Whether this is the correct methodology or the way you should do it but hey ho...... Firstly I assembled 'my troops'....... PVA glue A squeezy bottle for water spraying Fairy Liquid (to break surface tension) - 'other washing up liquids are available' Tub and syringe for PVA / water mix dispersal Mixed up a 50/50 mix of PVA glue and water with a couple of drops of washing up liquid...and drew a quantity into the syringe A liberal amount of water was sprayed onto the dry ballast to 'wet' the top of the ballasted area to allow the mixture to penetrate through the 'stones' easily, the washing up liquid should assist in this process.... the originally light grey ballast turning a darker, a 'wetter' battleship colour then the 'meat' of the evenings business began..... a syringe full of the pva mix was applied to the ballast....evenly as possible but to cover the ballast.... by the end of this process the whole thing looked as 'white' as it does outside my house at the moment! however it was noticeable how this mixture began the process of 'sinking' into the ballast it'll be interesting to see how this looks later and more especially in the morning..... Will let you know.... thanks for sticking with me along this journey...... Regards always..... Bob

Work today!

Hi....... Just to say that I have made a 'running' repair on the 'torn' point pip with Gorilla Glue, which I am hoping will harden and not be detrimental the peco plastic...we'll see...... also after tea will complete the pva/ water mixture for the ballasting of the siding..... Regards always... Bob

Hi... With the nursery closing early and now back at home due to heavy snow......have fine tuned the ballast laid last night...this looks level and even, may need to just flick off the few remaining 'stones' on the sleepers but as long as there aren't any close to the inside of the rails between the 4' I am happy to see one or two as no track is devoid of some stone on the sleepers...? Here is the base weathered, siding prior to the application of 50/50 pva and water mix...possibly being applied later this evening..... Regards always guys... Bob

Hi Guys..... Been 'dangerously' thinking again about Mercontrol....if I use Gorilla Glue (which I believe is epoxy) to repair the torn 'pip', when hardened would this allow me to re-drill a hole for the control wire to be reinserted and hold fast....especially if I then applied the glue to both...? I don't like being beaten or throwing on the towel without a fight....? Regards always... Bob

Evening guys..... Here is an update on ballasting.....undertaken this evening.... ........having spread a layer of medium grey ballast, began by using a medium soft paint brush to even the layer out..... then using a much thinner brush, slowly brushed the ballast off the top of the sleepers and between the sleeper ends.....further work to do.....this to be done slowly and taking time over it to hopefully get it looking good.....may be a bit too 'grey and clean' for a siding but can add cinder ballast mix and perhaps weathering powers / sprayer paint later after it has had its pvc / water mix applied..... Regards always Bob

Feet in the Clouds - Paul McCartney

Hi.... I know exactly where you're coming from my friend.... Regards always... Bob

Hi Guys..... Whilst my tea is cooking and the snow is falling heavily......I thought just five minutes on the ballast so...... .....first off protect the adjacent point from accidental spillage into the mechanism with a bit of tape.... then using Woodland Scenics medium grey ballast....this was spread across the weathered track..... and although only briefly started to be spread with a dry brush to see how it looked and would move around when brushed.....the previously weathered track began to appear from beneath; initially and hopefully looks okay....? Will update later.....when further ballast is spread Regards always Bob

Hi... Just checked the weathering wash and this has dried sufficiently to allow the ballast to be initially applied...hope to begin this later..... (after tea) ! Will update when so......plan to apply the dry base grey firstly... Regards always..... Bob

Hi... With the state of the weather here at home....if you could send a Red Cross Parcel please ensure it includes pancakes....! Bob

Hi Guys.... Having decided amongst ourselves yesterday to cancel our respective volunteering turns on the SVR due to the cold and wintry weather (and what a sensible decision that was gauging by the conditions outside currently here at Bobbert towers).......today was always going to be 'free'....so it was either housework or layout....and as yet the dust on the carpet hasn't reach to ankle depth, any hoovering can wait a little longer...when it reaches my bottom lip then I may have to do something perhaps...? Have begun the process of weather a short length of track, this what I intend to be the 'kip' for the guards van or a short loco stabling spur......the following image is very poor but hopefully will indicate what I am about.....? Working on the basis that no one sleeper, any length of track or piece of rail weathers at the same constant. I am not too worried about consistency, and as we all know peco sleepers are not a good colour, too black and shiny to leave as laid.... Therefore as a base coat, which is drying as I type and as I say forms only the base on which further weather will take place (will update on what this base looks like later)......I have used an uncomformed and thinned mixture of Revel matt 82 / 87 (solid earth RAF and dark earth respectively) and brushed this over all the sleepers, chairs and buffer stop as a general wash.......some over brushing then applied in some areas to give that patchy nature seen on most tracks.....the thinners seems to allow the wood effect of peco to remain visible too....? I will let this dry and revisit.....the image isn't good so sorry for this.....unsure whether to ballast immediately to see how the contrast looks (cannot see with the cork base) or further weathering to do then ballast....but will allow sufficient time interval so that the ballast doesn't stick to the sticky paint.... I do have woodland scenics medium grey ballast to hand, and also intend to mix in a high proportion of cinder mix too, as many sidings / yard areas were topped off with a cinder mix rather than ballast...Arley sidings are packed cinder......but they are concrete sleepers....if wooden it would be different... Suggestions and comments guys please... Lighting for this image is not good, so doesn't show weathering to best advantage... Regards always.... Bob

Cheers Lez You guys are so kind and supportive......I may look into fitting point motors from underneath as I progress with the layout..... fitting point motors stage by stage may be the best option for me as it should allow me to both undertake some scenic work and also work and fit from underneath the motors? .....I would imagine I would have to drill through the centre tie bar hole of the point, open this pilot hole gently out from underneath, then fit and wire up the motor......? My points are insulfrog, and are wired with droppers, so will this be a case of fitting and wiring the point up just to throw the blades...? Regards always.... Bob