MichaelW

Hi Jeff,

I go away for a week, and it's taken me the best part of two more to catch up!  Progress is still looking good.  I think you do need something above the tunnels - the photo's of Blea Moor tunnel may not show anything, but then it is forestry land around the tunnel mouth, you have open moor, which will have livestock, so you'll need something to stop them from sleeping on the track...

Looking at that last annotated photo Jeff, I think the wall at the edge of the open fell should stay at roughly the same height (which means it would cross the railway around the tunnel portal), rather than dropping down into the valley.  The path would cross the wall and continue on down across the lower fields, passing near (as opposed to next to) the building, and crossing the bridge.  Just a thought.

I've been topographically planning the scenic boards on Faux Malton this evening.  That's after I found and sorted the bits of wood I'd cut for them this time last year...

On that basis Jeff, you may need to add a couple more walls running up the hill to the one running along the fell.  Of course they could have been allowed to fall down...

Or lose the centre wall just on the top of the fell - there are more walls lower down, generally with a change of vegetation...

Oh, and another thought - air vents could be quite close to the end of the tunnel, it all depends on where the easiest access to dig the tunnels could be found.  I can think of a couple which are within two hundred yards of the tunnel mouth.

Hi Jeff,

Nice to see the grass progressing, the fell is getting a lot more definition now it's not just a single colour.  I like the idea of a sheepfold on the fell, but the one you pictured is quite big, which is fairly typical of ones you see in valleys.  Up on the tops they tend to be smaller as they are intended for the sheep to shelter in when the weather gets interesting.  Down in the valleys the profusion of walls would give them plenty of scope for finding shelter, high up on the open fells, there are few walls, and generally little natural shelter for them.  Of course, these days the sheep are hard pressed to fit in them as they all tend to be full of walkers enjoying their lunches (and when the walker is only wearing a mankini, they wouldn't want to be near anyway!).

Oh, and I agree, Spot is a silly name for a sheep.  It is of course a name for a zebra.

I'll get me coat...

Morning Jeff,

Those walls look really good.  Took me a while to spot that the brown hillside had turned green behind them.  Must mean everything is blending well!

And just as importantly, Peco track!  The change to marcway points and matching track certainly made a big difference!

NOTHING is unsuitable on here, Michael! 

 

If Scott can get away with photos of men in mankinis..... Need I say more?!

 

Jeff

Well, I think it may be safer just to give a link.  After all, it is some $%*ss!

Evening Jeff, I too have had a good catch up after an evening up the Club putting in  a new hillside and hopefully a farm in a country lane.

 

 

Bodgit

Have you been at the g*@!s again bodgit?    Or were you just constructing the land this evening?

Having said that, I've been playing with dead stuff on my 009 modules...

[*photo has been censored as unsuitable for publication on Kirby Luneside  *]

Hi Jeff,

Been catching up again.  All the hard work you've been putting into the ballasting and ashing has certainly paid off, the last picture looks really good!

Quiet!  Quiet?!?!?!  You think I've been Quiet?

Hmmm... you may have a point....

You're making good progress Jeff.  Your dedication to the boring task of ballasting your wonderful trackwork is impressive.  I look forward to seeing the results of your latest experiments...

 

Whist sipping a cold beer, this solution came to me and it works well.  Cut away the 3mm cork directly under the tie bar and cut a piece of 2mm Plasticard to sit in the hole.  This is roughly 35mm x 15mm.  It's very easy to cut and drill, so I cut out a 2mm x 10mm slot.  Stick the card in position, cover it in PVA and then add the fine ballast and hoover up the excess.  Once dry you have a ballasted piece of card that sits just below flush with the underlay.  This will allow the dummy sleeper to move from side to side without any drag and hide the hole through the baseboard for the Tortoise motor.

 

Gah!  I wish I'd read this before I did the ballasting for my latest layout...  As with all clever things, it's so simple, and so obvious, once someone lets you know how.  Glad to hear you're still enthused and progressing Gordon.  I thought you'd gone back to golf in the good weather

It's interesting that the "old guard" continue to put in a lot of posts, but we're still missing Billy and Jim. Hopefully they are ok. You are more than making up for them!! Lol.

 

We'll have less of the "old" please Jeff!

Young whippersnapper Lune

I hadn't realised the photo you were referring to was of Ribblehead post singling, it does make sense that the extra width available with a singleline on a double track viaduct would be used to make a 'safe' walkway for staff - it would also form a refuge for anyone caught on the viaduct as a train went past.  I wonder if pictures of the other viaducts on the line give any idea of what the ballast should look like?  I know we were looking at ones near Dent for inspiration when you were doing the ground around the viaduct - do any of them show the track?

I've found the page I linked to originally, and what do you know, photo two on this page shows exactly what we are looking for - what the ballast on a double track viaduct looks like - normal ballast all the way to the parapet walls. 

I have to be honest.... there were only 2 missing sleepers on the ballasted section, but others DO remain.... Most notably near the tunnel at the other end of the layout. So don't worry Michael. You aren't redundant yet!

 

Hope the 009 project continues to prosper.

Oh good!  I'll keep watching.  That ballasting looks good - very neat and tidy.  I think around the bridge that the cess would fill the space to the walls, rather than continue the same width as on plain track. 

I was about to say it looks wrong, but I think that's more due to the prototypes I've been looking at recently (narrow gauge trackwork is not quite the same as well tended S&C mainlines...).  The 009 hasn't progressed much due to the holiday, but much thinking has happened, and scenic plans for both are coming along nicely...

Thanks Peter. I'm only ballasting the cutting section at the moment - then I'll resume work on the Fell and walling.

 

HOWEVER, given the number of photos taken on the viaduct, I've decided I'm going to ballast that, and the approaches at either side. This will force me to finish the tunnel mouth (mostly painting) I started last December and - hopefully - it'll make the viaduct photos look a bit better.

 

Jeff

Ah ha!  Don't forget to put the sleepers in!

This post is for Michael! Here's the main line, with extra cork glued in (I use evostik - put the glue onto the baseboard and onto the cork, wait 10 mins and press together).

 

Come on Michael....can you spot the difference?

 

Jeff

You've finally fitted those sleepers!  

I'm going to have to find something new to say!

p.s. I'd like to point out that I've been away on holiday for a few days with no internet access, and it's not taken me this long to figure it out

You could put those missing sleepers in while waiting for the postman...

I've had similar problems with the WS 2mm ballast - in the end I decided it was down to the fineness of the sprayer used for the wetting.  Anything coarser than a proper mist caused problems with the ballast.  Eventually I found a plant sprayer that was designed for misting plants, and used that for the last set of ballasting on my 009 modules - which seemed to work fine when squirted across the track (so any big drips missed the ballast).  It certainly is an art to get 2mm ballast to stay in place...

 

The critics argue that this method doesn't give a "deep-ballast" effect. At the moment, I've no idea what'll happen - so I've got some offcuts of SMP ready to give it a try!

 

And the critics are right It doesn't give a 'deep-ballast' effect, but then, you aren't using peco with its deep sleepers, so you don't need the extra depth.  For SMP / C&L you only need a thin layer to come up to the tops of the sleepers, and you've got the cork to give you shoulders.  From my limited experience:

1) The consistency of the glue matters a lot - PVA doesn't need watering down a lot - I think Gordon S describes it as 'thick cream', I guess copydex will be similar.

2) Paint the track first - that way you can spray it, rather than having to pick out each individual sleeper (this also helps hide the colour of the cork under the ballast.

3) Take your time - you don't have to do it all in one go

It's a very nice stile, it's just you appear to have put it at one of the highest points of the immediate landscape on a ridge line.

 

It would be my thought that pathways, and therefore the stiles that serve them, tend to follow the line of least resistance, and would be more likely to be in the lower part of the field nearer the other wall.

 

As it is, you would have to make quite a steep climb to get to the stile.

 

I wouldn't worry Jeff - by the looks of things you could run the path from the corner of the aqueducts up to the other wall just as it disappears into the backscene - in my experience paths over moorland tend to run feature to feature (be they rocks, poles or stiles) - so much easier to find the way when it snows.

Your walling is looking very impressive Jeff!  I hope you don't run out of enthusiasm for it before you reach the other end of the fell!

Edit - got the aqueduct and tunnel mixed up...

I guess you didn't know, either!

 

Stumbled across it as I'm using my phone to access the Forum. My finger pressed the wrong bit of screen - very easily done - and up popped the numbers!!

 

Any increase in spelling mistakes is due to using the phone...!!

 

Jeff

I'm being a bit dim...  Where do you click to see the numbers?  I can't find it

Progress is looking good there Jeff, the cuttings look a good depth, and I like the way you've swept the hill up across them, so many people just have a flat top to their cuttings.

Been prepping for plastering today, though for me I think it will be Thistle undercoat tomorrow.  Also had a play with squirty foam.  I think I managed to do everything I wasn't supposed to with just the first can.  I'm now wondering how long till I'll try it for scenery...

I agree with the sentiments of the previous posters - looks great!  I like that you've left room for the rock walls to be fitted.

(I was going to comment on the shape of the hillside till I remembered the reason I can't find any plaster to do the walls in my house - it's all heading to the bunker to finish the Fell )

Like the new idea Jeff,  though you might need to re-profile (again!) the supports to give a much more gentle slope down towards the station, and blend that slope into the mass of Lune Fell that you've already built.  I suspect the aqueduct wouldn't be that curved, more threpunny bit shaped...