Cadian 127th Regiment

218 - Railway Project - Part 8

Hi, it's time for part 8 and I think it's about time my brother-in-law and I came up with a name for the layout, I can't keep calling it "The Layout".

If you're interested, the previous posts can be found here:

Having rescued the layout on the last post, we could finally start cracking on with the landscaping.

Filler mixed with green paint first to give a good base colour, cover up joins and add some ground texture.

Quite a large section to cover and blend into the base board.

The base colour becomes a bit more "earthy" as you come round to the main station area. We tried to keep this smoother with the buildings being on here.

More green filler was applied in the far corner and along the top edge of this section.

The nice smooth filler continued down the ramp that we added in as a transition point.

And the green continued in the top corner here as well.

We are planning on creating a road that will run from the main station, down the ramp to the inner loop station and beyond, so this area received some dark grey filler to create a more industrial base.

And the road will also continue through the viaduct.

Finally we used the earthy filler to block out nay spaces that hadn't been touched, such as the large blank space on the opposite side of the inner loop.

Thanks for reading through and again wishing you all a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

217 - Railway Project - Part 7

Hi and thanks for visiting for Part 7 in this ongoing project.

Previous posts can be found here:

The last update was all about the buildings that will be added to the layout. Todays update is about the layout itself, and a minor problem we encountered.

When I say minor problem, what I actually mean is a major problem that meant we had to remove around a third of the outer loop from the board. The cause of this major issue was the angle of the inclines. We calculated the ratio of the incline before we started and then based everything around it. Track was added and then we tested the incline. However, we only tested the incline using a little 0-4-0 shunter with one carriage. The shunter worked fine, but when we started using the larger locos, they would not go up the slope.

So drastic measures were needed. The first of which was to remove the track from the offending areas and safely secure it before commencing repairs.

The repairs came in the form of an inch thick sheet of polystyrene. We had checked that this would decrease the gradient enough for larger locos to make their way up.

The inclines then got hacked out for the track to be raised.

And the curved sections were raised too.

The blank spaces were filled in with celotex.

Polystyrene was used to create the landscaping for the new sections.

The process was repeated on the other side. The siding was also raised, but has a slight downward slope away from the main loop.

Minor disaster now over. We used some grey tinted fine fill and relaid the loop.

Now it was just a case of trying to blend the new sections into the original base. We're so lucky that celotex and polystyrene can be cut and shaped. It allows us to add in the ramp on the right side and attempt to cover up our mistake. However, it's all a learning curve and this is only the second layout we've done and the scenery is a bit more complex than the first.

Thank you again for stopping to check out the update.

If I don't manage to get another post out before Christmas, I wish all of you and your families a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!