Ballykay

[Flying Scotsman 4472]

As most of you know to enter my layout room I had 2 draw bridges on which the lower and upper decks ran across. I wanted to put a bridge and river on the lower section, but I couldn't do this and keep the lower drawbridge as when I would lift it the bridge would not clear the upper deck, so I decided to make a lift out module.

 

The module is built on an MDF board and the bridge piers are made of plaster and resin. To make the river I painted the base board black. Then I poured on a light coat of resin. Once this had dried I carefully placed my scatter to represent weeds, I then poured on a thicker coat of resin to give the appearance of some depth in the water. Several coats of varnish later and you can see the results below. As this is a lift out section to get power to the track I used a set of VW Transporter spring door pins. Once the section is locked in place it all pulls down and the pins push into the connector plates giving power to the track. To finish everything off an ID backscene was glued to some plywood and screwed to the back of the base board.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited June 24, 2013 by Anthony

[Flying Scotsman 4472]

As always best watched in 360p

 

 

 

 

[Riversuir226]

That bridge is excellent Ant, the water is very convincing:tumbsup:

[enniscorthyman]

The bridge is fantastic and the whole scene looks great.

[kevrail]

Great Job Anthony really impressive. What does it look like with the bridge removed as I cant visualise it. A couple of pics might make it clear in my mind.

[scahalane]

Great addition, it looks fantastic. What did you use for the stone work, I'm looking for something similar myself?

[BosKonay]

Wow! What's the secret on the water Anthony - it's amazing!

[Flying Scotsman 4472]

Wow! What's the secret on the water Anthony - it's amazing!

 

Lots of resin and varnish. Paint the board black then put a layer of resin down let it dry. Then put some scatter down and more resin keep repeating the process until you get the look of depth you want. Then finish of with a couple of coats of wood gloss varnish. Make sure you do all this before you put your grass etc on your banks as it will only act like a sponge and start to soak up the resin and varnish

[Flying Scotsman 4472]

Great addition, it looks fantastic. What did you use for the stone work, I'm looking for something similar myself?

 

The piers are made from plaster of paris and the retaining walls are resin

[Warbonnet]

Excellent stuff man!

[Flying Scotsman 4472]

Excellent stuff man!

 

Thanks Bro

[BosKonay]

Just stunning Anthony - I'll be hoping to achieve 10% of your standard under and around my viaduct!!

[scahalane]

The piers are made from plaster of paris and the retaining walls are resin

 

When you say plaster of paris, do you mean you scribed into the plaster or did you use a mold to cast.

[Flying Scotsman 4472]

When you say plaster of paris, do you mean you scribed into the plaster or did you use a mold to cast.

 

Cast a block of plaster cut to the shape you want and scribe the blocks of stone into it. Very time consuming but worth the effort.

[scahalane]

Cast a block of plaster cut to the shape you want and scribe the blocks of stone into it. Very time consuming but worth the effort.

 

Cheers Anthony I'll give it a go.

[Flying Scotsman 4472]

As I said we'll worth the effort. Just make sure you have a fine tooth razor saw and a sharp scalpel blade

[Shinkansen]

The scenic water/grass/weeds/algae/Retaining walls etc... look the business Plus some very impressive work on the viaduct it must be said. Rail bridges are of particular interest to me so it's great to see them included on someones layout. More of that sort of thing please. Where did you source the viaduct? Scratch built or bought? Top stuff Anthony.

Regards Tom.

[Flying Scotsman 4472]

Tom it's 2 airfix bridges joined together with some plasticard lengths and angles the bottom section is plastic channel from B&Q with an 8mm MDF trackbed. I'm not well up on bridges but looking at videos truss bridges don't seem to have any ballast on them so I need to do a little more research to see what I can do around the track bed. Maybe some channel running along side the sleepers to make it look like that's holding the track in place. Any ideas anyone.

[Shinkansen]

Im open to be corrected on this but I think the railway over-bridge on the Lower Glanmire road in Cork city may have a ballast deck. Even tough it has a steel truss structure supporting it as well.

The Ballyvoyle viaduct is similar, albiet with a different supporting structure i.e. Concrete Pier + Steel truss + ballast deck (probably a way of taking account of the curve and super elevation of the track).

It does make the Prototype very very heavy, requiring a massive supporting structure underneath. But for a model, simplifies things big time

[scahalane]

 

This Cork girder bridge is ballasted so maybe that's an idea, its what I intend to do anyway.

[Riversuir226]

Anto, theres usually a guard rail on the outside of the rail on both sides, the floor of the bridge is usually metal plating with beams running under the track bed for support, if you like i could get more detailed pics of the suir viaduct as i ll be in the area later on.

[Flying Scotsman 4472]

Thanks for the info and the pics lads more pics of the Suir bridge would be a massive help

[Kirley]

Glad you came up with a solution Anthony - the VW Transporter spring door pin was certainly out of 'Left Field'.

The bridge pillars look the part along with the water and plants. How do you lock it down to ensure smooth running across the gaps?

[Flying Scotsman 4472]

I use these Kirley. Toggle catches http://www.stationroadbaseboards.co.uk/cart_catches.htm

[Kirley]

I knew you would have a cunning plan...thanks

[Dave]

That's stunning work Anthony, love the water effect so simple. Bridge looks great, well done man

[Riversuir226]

Thanks for the info and the pics lads more pics of the Suir bridge would be a massive help

Anto posted up updated pics of the suir bridge, give us a shout if you need more.

http://www.irishrailwaymodeller.com/showthread.php/2013-A-walk-to-Dungarvan

[Guest hidden-agenda]

Looks first class a credit to your building and finishing skills:tumbsup:

[Flying Scotsman 4472]

Anto posted up updated pics of the suir bridge, give us a shout if you need more.

http://www.irishrailwaymodeller.com/showthread.php/2013-A-walk-to-Dungarvan

 

 

They are a great help Thanks Mate

[Flying Scotsman 4472]

Another few videos to come from Ballykay. Here is the first one. Now available in HD. Enjoy:o

 

 

 

[Grange Castle]

Love the Black and White footage. Superb detail, great layout Anto.

[burnthebox]

Well done Anto, what a piece of craftsmanship,fantastic layout, now get this, don't know about HD, but every now and again it was in B&W and it looked just totally fantastic, is that HD ? planned or otherwise,

[BosKonay]

Just gets better and better Anthony! Thanks for sharing!

[Kirley]

Really atmospheric and evocative of that era. It's great to see modelling of that time so well portrayed.

[Flying Scotsman 4472]

Thanks for all the great comments and feedback lads