Silver Sidelines

Not a new embankment but the same paper and paste techniques used to replace the coving and cover the opening for the old Central Heating flue! The last fortnight has been dominated by swapping out the oil fired boiler for a heat pump, and making good the plaster and paintwork.   Crawling around in the eaves makes a change from ballasting.   Not sure which I most prefer! Since my last post, ballasting of the mid-level single track junction has been completed.   It is maybe reminiscent of central Wales with an ex LNWR connection to an essentially ex GWR line.   The LNWR had running rights to the junction   - but not the branch terminus.   The shed to the side of the junction is supposedly of GWR origin, the view below was obviously taken on a Sunday.

This week has been dominated by the removal of our oil fired central heating - so not much railway modelling. The single track junction is now ballasted: I think the track was laid before the rest of the layout was completed and access to the ends of the sidings now requires great physical stamina and not a little patience!   Hence the Blog title 'A stretch in time!.   As usual I have provided card bases for the Goods Shed and Engine Shed: A picture with work in progress and then another showing the buildings in position.   There is a coaling facility planned for the siding to the right of the engine shed but that will have to wait for another day (year) The junction is supposed to represent somewhere in mid Wales where a single track   ex GWR line meets up with another single track ex LNWR line.   This allows the use of a range of Bachmann / Mainline BR (WR and LMR) rolling stock:

No heat wave here in the west of Scotland.    In the meantime ballasting has passed under 'the bridge in the middle'. Two pictures looking up and down the line. And a more general view which highlights where some of the 'civil engineering' works have still to be finished off. The bridge itself lifts off to allow access to the tracks beneath. I have added a picture from the past to show how plans change.   The diamond crossing with 'insulfrogs' was replaced with a single slip with a switched frog for infintely smoother running.   Also a loco spur was provided at the end of the goods sidings to hold spare engines. A good example of where allowing time to reflect (play trains) highlights where improvements can be made to the track layout prior to casting everything in stone i.e.ballasting!

Not so much ballasting more a bit of history: My old Superquick engine shed in its latest position - a rare picture with no engines. The shed dates back to the early 1980s and my Bracken Ridge Layout.   It was part of a pair of sheds which were customised to fit my track spacing.   The sheds were made narrower.   This was achieved by separating the gable ends from the walls.   If you look carefully you can see where the brick arch from across the entrance was separated from the rest of the gable wall to enable the new narrower gable to be lowered back onto the side walls. Another scanned image from the past with Airfix Castles, a Lima Crab and some Mainline ex GWR and LMR types.   There is also a Hornby Dublo 8F which lives on with handrails and tender 'borrowed' from an old Mainline 'Scot'. The Bracken Ridge layout was never completed (as with so many layouts) and everything was packed away and moved   to Park...

The ballast has reached the loco yard:   Where there are to be buildings I have glued a piece of cardboard down to the board prior to ballasting.   The cardboard is cut ever so slightly smaller than the building footprint so that it doesn't show beneath the finished building.   I also took the opportunity to make a 'concrete' floor for the engine sheds. Here is the footprint for the old Superquick shed: And here the footprint for the Skaledale Shed: And then the finished product:

There has been lots of rain so there has been lots of progress with the ballasting: Here the ballast has reached the main station.   'Upstairs' ballasting has progressed in both directions, towards the branch terminus:   - and some more at the junction: A back breaking task reaching across the layout.   The second 1 kg bag of seed has now been used.   Must be approaching half of the visible trackwork.  

The 'ballast' has crossed the viaduct and arrived at the junction: The 'branch' is ex GWR but the 'junction' provides a connection to the the old LMR.   The foot bridge is the ubiquitous Hornby model cut down for platform use:   A view from the main line, the engine shed will have wait for another day!  

P rogress with the ballast on the mainline: As originally constructed the exit from the goods yard / station was a simple diamond crossing with dead frogs: This was then changed for a single slip.   The switched frogs give excellent running characteristics.   However the rather abrupt 'turn left' is too tight for some engine / tender combinations and is in restricted use.   The change from 'diamond' to 'single slip' required the insertion of a new 'pink button' on the control panel to operate the 'turn left' solenoids.   The original 'straight across mode' being catered for by the existing buttons:   Now a close up of the newly ballasted crossing:

Mixing and pasting track ballast loomed large and I am attaching details of the procedure that works for me.   I prefer the small poppy seeds to gritty mineral sands.   I use wallpaper paste as the adhesive.   It should offer less resistance than PVA should there be a change of plan or track repairs needed. I use simple tools, a small plastic bowl (ex Christmas Pudding basin), stainless steel spatula and a small screw driver: I use a heavy duty wallpaper paste which has been chopped finer using the Kenwood liquidiser in the kitchen.   Hopefully the finer powder mixes more quickly and easily.   To make sure that the mix can be used well before it starts setting I only make a small batch at a time.   I use around 8ml of water (1/2 a tablespoon): I add sufficient dry paste powder to make a stiff mix (around half a teaspoon full): I then stir in sufficient dry seeds to make a stiff porridge.   In this example, just ove...

A back of envelope calculation indicated a requirement for circa 3.5 kg of ballast.   Four bags of poppy seeds were purchased.   Four weeks later the first bag has been all used up. My wife confirms my suspicions.   Instead of four bags, the visible trackwork will probably require at least five bags.   Four weeks to use one bag, 20 weeks to use five bags. Completion in six months is a possibility? There have been discussions on the web regarding the optimum width of baseboards.   The Longsheds Layout was constructed with maximum 3ft width boards.   This is fine for operating.   However for ballasting the width is a bit of a problem.   The solution presently adopted is to start ballasting at the most difficult position - 'upstairs' on the viaduct at the back: Then when my back starts creaking the centre of operations moves 'downstairs' to the main station boards: The darker patches of ballast are still not dry. ...

Base board construction and track laying is complete but as a number of observers have noted the track is unballasted and the scenery is lacking.   This blog details progress with these tasks. This first image shows completion of the ballasting to the mid level junction station: This image shows the start to ballasting at the branch terminus:   Ballast is blue poppy seed otherwise known as maw seed and it is mixed with wallpaper paste.   It will be interesting to see just how durable the 'product' is.