derek

Amazing stuff. Its a pity to see an end to it.

Drive for five talk will start soon

LUIMNEACH ABU !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My God! How did I miss this? The craftsmanship here is truly mindblowing. The work on those buildings is nothing short of spectacular. ....... So, do you actually live in the attic or do you leave it from time to time? Makes me want to rip mine up and start over, but then I realise that I would never have the patience ( or skill) to come any where near this layout. Fantastic. Keep it up

Thanks Denis. 027 is dragging a few blow ins around the place for now . Will put that right when the Park Royals arrive Gonna do a bit of "trackside" work, next. Fill in the gaps between the obvious edge of the grassmats and the ballast.

Have things looking a lot greener now. Just used grass mats , couldn,t justify getting a static grass set up for the area I was doing. Would probably never use it again. Mats worked out ok I suppose, but there was a lot of follow up work to try and disguise the joints. Used Heki mats on the old layout a few years back but discovered that Marks Models dont sell them anymore. The lads there recommended Noch instead, so I gave them a go. The backing on the Heki was a lot stronger, I thought, and the Noch grass went black when in contact with PVA glue. Still though, I am happy enough with the result so far. Here are a few pics of the latest bit of progress That grass is really too pristine. Going to have to "dirty" it up a bit. Hmmmm, reminds me of something. Oh yes.......

God! That 078 is absolutely beautiful. Drooooooooolllll............

Prob wouldnt have the work for it at this stage. Maybe if I re do the bridge and tunnels on the old part of the layout....... Oh, and stone walls of course. Hmmmmm.............

The Borris Railway is indeed wonderful, just had a look there. Seriously impressive. And that roller thingymebob looks the business. You would want it for something as large as that excellent viaduct. Wonder where a man could get hands on such a thing?...........

Yes, I remember you mentioning him in a post you called "nostalgia". Had his certificate and all, as a signalman. I,d say you are not a bit proud of him

Got to the end of the dreaded ballasting thank goodness. Got most of the embankments roughed out too. I never want to see that styrofoam stuff again. Had a go at making a second bridge over the river - far more enjoyable than ballasting and embankments. Fleshed out the bed of the river and painted it ahead of pouring the water. (what do you mean I can,t use water?) Seriously though, I have a box of Woodland Scenics deep pour water waiting to go. Probably wait until more of the scenic work is done before going near that. Busy times..... Oh , and while my back was turned, ivy grew on the bridge.

This is the template I made for the bridge. Found the ol Das clay had a tendency to take it,s own shape, so I made a "form", packed the clay in and then ran over it with the template. Had to do a bit of fine tuning with a fine, flathead screwdriver afterwards, but I think it turned out fine.

not forgeting "junction". Hmmmmmm , wonder where you got that bit?.......

.

Hi Denis, just wondering where you got the name for your layout? Are you a fan of Steven King,s son, Joe Hill ( also a horror writer) or did the name come from some other source.?

No bother to it at all. May I commend you on the neat bit of woodwork, cutting that piece of yellow pine for the side of the slope. (Cant switch off from the day job)

It sure will. Cant really say I,m a fan of the 121s though. I know, I know....... : "blasphemous kinda talk". Probably the only one on here who isn,t

All sold lads. All four went in one lot. Thanks for the interest and offers, but I hope you appreciate that I couldn,t risk being left with just one.

Just had a look at your double bridge. Very impressive. Thought I was the only one to use tester pots for painting. All my buildings are painted with colours from the rooms in my house. Dont know if I would fancy carving out stone individually. I used a pattern made from an old tv card. The soft clay lends itself to this type of work. Had enough of carving to last me a lifetime when I made the bridge and tunnel faces on my original layout from mdf. Bit slow making the pattern but it saved a hell of a lot of time afterwards

Hmmmmmmm............... Maybe this was an exercise in building the shed of all sheds, and everyone got on board?

Never heard of the stuff. Happy enough with the clay. Its fine as long as you can keep it in shape until it dries. Do you use it?

Sean, what incline did you go with ? Did you stay within the 1 in 50 guidline or did you push it a bit? On my layout , I went with 1 in 48 and I having no problems. Just wondering if I could have got away with a steeper gradient. Depends on what you try to haul up it I suppose.?

Had a bit of grief joining two different backscenes. Had to get out the tins of paint and try get a bit creative on its ass. The sky didn,t turn out too bad, the trees less so. The dark green bunch of trees had to go so I decided to stick a bridge and road in front of them. (As you do). The bridge follows no particular design, just from my own head, like most of the layout. I,ll probably have to do a disguise job with a lot of foliage. A LOT of foliage. It just kinda looks a bit random at the moment. I discovered too that the makers of this particular brand of backscene edit the skyline so you can join/blend them easier. The distance from the tree tops to the top of the scene is the same in every different backscene. As long as you dont cut them, which I did before realising the whole editing thing. Oh well, we live and learn. Just had a power cut as I was updating this. Lovely Irish weather. Thank goodness the content was saved automatically. Well done to whoever made/maintains this forum. Made from Das clay. Great stuff to work with. Not even sure if its called a culvert though.

Made another little bit of progress. Not sure what its called( culvert maybe?) . Basically a tunnel facing. A way for the little yellow tractor to get to the layout from wherever it is he lives. Did a bit of ballasting too this week. God! Now there is a task that would make you peel your eyeballs for a welcome distraction. I go for the old double sided tape method. Tried PVA glue before, but the train running noise was atrocious so I didn,t go there again.

The sides are self supporting (arched pieces). Under the track is a piece of plywood supported by my old falllback, two pieces of mdf. The uprights between arched sections are glued to this with the arches in turn being glued to them, tying the whole thing together. Clear as mud?