Nammoona Ballast Siding Progresses

Tuesday this week 6 members of the regular Tuesday night crew ventured over to my place.  Four (4) others were all overseas, one was on call, one was working and a couple of others had better things to do.  So we all met down in the shed and I showed off a number of detailing activities that I had been slowly working on since the crew was last in attendance.  The conversation turned to Nammoona Ballast Siding.  My plan is to permanently attach my vinyl backscene print that I picked up at Brisbane's May Exhibition from Wuiske.  I had plenty of offers to assist with the work required and suggestions of what to use to stick it to and how to curve the board and how to do it.  These get togethers are just great for seeking inspiration.  This area had a 1cm thick piece of polystyrene about 30cm high and 180cm long fitted many years ago as a scene separator, between Nammoona Ballast Siding and the next loop of the helix heading towards Fairy Hill Loop about 120cm higher and recessed behind Nammoona.  This sheet polystyrene sheet curves around and it glued to the next level in the helix's ply baseboard.  Since May, I had added my backscene to the front of the polystyrene sheet by just bulldog clipping at each end to the polystyrene sheet. 

 

So today after lunch I decided to cut a piece of white board that I was given many years ago by Peter Hamey.  This stuff is like a thin ply on one side and smooth white laminate on the other and was what I had used on all my facias.  Once the board was cut, I looked at my 1cm thick Polystyrene backscene in this area and sized it up.  I ran a knife around the glue and lifted it out in two pieces.  I then did some minor adjustments to the cut white board and shoe horned it into the location behind the loading embankment and against the ply on the next loop of the helix.  I then used three small screws to help secure the board into its new curved shape.  I then re-added the vinyl backscene print and used a few more bulldog clips to secure it back into place.  I then trimmed the vinyl backscene to size and it looks pretty good in place, if I do say so.  I then temporarily installed my cattle fence by springing the white board back and dropping the fence into the space created and then letting the board spring back out.

 

What next you ask, well I also purchased a few kilograms of ballast at the May Exhibition.  So I put that to work and ballasted the two tracks at Nammoona Ballast Siding.  So after the ballast was laid and wetting the water from a spray bottle, I dropped diluted white glue onto the ballast and let it set.  I then added about 50 sleepers around the area to help detail the scene.

The cattle unloading ramp, with fencing in front of the back scene.

Moving around the siding, showing some sleeper detail added after the ballasting.

Overall scene of Nammoona Ballast Siding.

Next weekend, I might get around to detailing some scenes between Glenapp and The Risk, with some fencing, detail items like two local crossings and some ballast in that area as well.

This is the area that will be detailed located between Glenapp Loop and The Risk Loop.

Some more detail added to Border Loop.  Again this will receive more detail in the future.

At the May Exhibition, while working on the Structure Building Stand, I built two sheds.  These have been located just south of Cassino, and are visible in this photo, along with some more trees at this location.  Fencing was also added along the rear of the railway boundary.  Still more to add to this side of the scene.

At Lismore, again more trees were added as well as some fencing around the railway property.  Visible is some of the excellent Jacaranda's that were made at the Brisbane Exhibition by Kerry Hayes and her crew of arborists.  These are now located in many places with price on my layout.

I still did not get around to testing the Raspberry Pi changes following some configuration changes I made to the Engine Driver Application on my phone.  That is a task for during this coming week.