Cadian 127th Regiment: train

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Monday, 11 May 2020

224 - Railway Project - Part 14

Hi everyone, thank you for popping by for the latest update. I hope everyone is well and managing through the lockdown.

Let's jump straight into this one:

Disaster has struck across the layout! Either that or someone has been using rolling stock to hold some fences up while they are glued in place. Yeah, they we're being used to hold the fences up.

Oh no, another disaster! Oh, wait. Yeah just more fencing.

This fence is already up. And has had a coat of brown wash to try and dull it down a bit and make it less "new".

The main station now has some flowers and bushes out front. Ties it into the landscape more. You can see our tarmac mix laid down as well. This was made using a very small amount of ballast and tarmac scenics.

We'll end this update with a nice shot of the whole layout. Definitely can tell the progress when looking at some of the older photos.

Thank you all for scrolling through.

Keep safe and keep modelling.

223 - Railway Project - Part 13

Hi all. Thank you for dropping in. I hope that everyone is safe and well with the ongoing Covid-19 situation and that people are coping as best they can.

With the lock down here in the UK, I've haven't been going to my brother-in-law's house to do anymore to the layout. He is still working on it but progress is slow.

So this update is where we got up to about 6 weeks ago when I was last there.

Now we're getting into the little details. So some fencing was added. This will be treated to a wash so it's not quite so new and clean.

Some different fencing with some pre made tufts and a lone tree added near the housing.

The larger hill has received the treetment (get it tree-tment, sorry). The pre made tufts and flowers were added as well. My brother-in-law wasn't entirely convinced when I told him to buy some packs of these but they just provide a bit of height and colour variation to the hillside.

You can also see where we've weathered the retaining walls and laid the tarmac road.

Finally, the manor house got the extra details too. Some tufts and trees and a hedgerow with gate.

It's nice to finally see the little bits coming together on the layout and it's starting to look a bit more finished rather than an expanse of green with some track in the middle.

Thanks again for taking the time to read/view this.

Keep safe and keep modelling.

222 - Railway Project - Part 12

Hello everyone. I hope you are all keeping well with the current goings on in the world. Maybe I'll get around to painting some models....or not!

Anyway, my brother-in-law and I did mange to get a little bit more done to the layout before everything decided to go completely mad.

Now that we've got a lot of the groundworks etc done, we started thinking about little details. So first of all we have a bus stop, sign and bin. Metcalfe kit naturally. Nice and simple but will look good by the station.

Then we also have some benches. Again pretty simple to put together.

And they look very nice when they are complete. Not in need of much weathering either.

More benches! This time picnic ones.

Complete with umbrellas. Will look very nice by a certain building.

And finally a loading crane, complete with chain and hook.

Thank you for dropping by. Hopefully this has been a nice distraction from the world.

Keep safe and keep modelling!

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Wednesday, 26 February 2020

221 - Railway Project - Part 11

Hello and thanks for visiting for Part 11 (!!) of the railway project.

Last time we got some ballast down, now it's time to start building on that detail.

Now it was time to start getting some flock and grass down. This is all from Woodland's Scenics, unfortunately I haven't got the specific code for which one's we used. The sidings and left side incline got a nice covering.

As did the right side hill. We also wanted to add some retaining wall to the siding on the outer loop. Our initial attempt was just a little bit tall.

And that was the same with the other end of the wall.

With a little bit of measuring and cutting, we got a nice height wall that scales nicely with whatever is in the siding - such as the Intercity shown above.

Not content with the one wall, we got to work building another by the main station. Only a low wall this time. Just something to stop cars or wayward pedestrians falling off the embankment.

The wall does extend all the way to the station itself. Here it is almost finished. Just a few more pillars to add so it doesn't look quite so odd.

And that's today's update done. Thank you for looking through the latest update.

Keep an eye out for more and a big announcement!

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Tuesday, 11 February 2020

220 - Railway Project - Part 10

Hi everyone! Thank you for dropping in for Part 10 of this railway project. Still no name for the layout- I blame my brother in law!

Today's update will be about ballasting! Exciting isn't it?

We actually decided to do a test of our ballasting on a small section of track before diving into the whole thing. The process we used is one that's tried and tested by railway modelers:

- pour the ballast on the track and be happy with how it lies, so not covering the sleepers completely

- mix water and PVA glue 50:50 and add a little bit of washing up liquid

- apply to the ballast using a syringe

- leave to dry for a minimum of 24 hours

Here is our test section once fully dried. Not too bad. With a bit of weathering it will look a lot less clean.

So we cracked on and did more ballasting on the inner loop.

And even more ballasting on the sidings on the inner loop. This section looks quite impressive and has enough space for some little scenes going on.

And ballasting in front of the station which really does look good. Starting to look like a railway now!

The weathering will be done using washes and possibly the airbrush to just add grim just to make the ballast look less like it's come fresh out of a packet.

Thanks for taking some time to view this update. Stay tuned for more!

219 - Railway Project - Part 9

Hi all, thank you for taking a look at Part 9 of the railway project.

I think that now we are on part 9, I can't keep listing the previous parts so you will have to look through the archive at the bottom of the page if you haven't seen them before, sorry.

In the last update, we had laid down a load of fine fill to create roads and texture and generally make the layout look like more than some insulation board glued together.

Having laid the fine fill, we then went about removing it. Only small amounts though. Using the buildings and platform as a template, we removed the fine fill that would be underneath. This then means that the platform sits a little lower than the landscape, making it look less plonked in place and more part of the scenery.

The same was done for the rural station on the inner loop. A Stanley knife and scraper were the only tools needed.

Station back in place and looking less like it's floating above the ground.

Across the back of the layout, by the viaduct, we wanted to add some retaining wall in. Unfortunately, the Metcalfe retaining wall kit isn't the same height as the Metcalfe viaduct. Whether this is a genuine mistake or the kit is designed to not work with the viaduct, I have no idea.

So we added a block of celotex underneath the retaining wall to give it the right height.

And then started to shape the celotex to look a little less like a big concrete block.

Then it was time to go back to coloured fine fill to blend everything in together.

Even more fine fill!

And this is how the layout is looking at the moment. Pretty much all of the celotex has now been covered with our makeshift landscaping material.

Our next challenge is to start ballasting the track and getting some flock and static grass down. Wish us luck! And thanks again for taking a look.

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Monday, 23 December 2019

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!!!

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