01-01-2014, 12:22 PM
Koos and Dave:
Thanks gentlemen for the warm welcome back and your kind expressions of interest. A Happy New Year to both of you.
In respect of scenic elements, Koos: I've a couple of ideas I'd like to share with you, especially regarding the ash ballast that seems to prevail in this area. I'm going to conduct a test soon on some scrap rail and a suitable base and post up the results for consideration. I've procrastinated long hard about this aspect of the build and I think I'll opt for a method employed by Chris Nevard on his Catcott Burtle layout <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nevardmedia/collections/72157626123658415/">http://www.flickr.com/photos/nevardmedi ... 123658415/</a><!-- m -->
Essentially good old Das clay is stippled onto a previously prepared bed of ballast which is used as a key for the clay to adhere to bonded with white PVA glue. Suitably sized grains of ballast/sand/ash from a barbecue or log fire (take your pick although I've saved some ash from a barbecue or two during the summer which will require sieving) are then glued on at random locations adjacent to and below/between the rails, and the whole painted to suit with emulsion type tester pots from an out of town type hardware store. He makes it look easy, but I'm sure it's not which is why I'll keep an open mind and conduct some rigorous testing.
Thanks for your compliment, Dave, re my attempts at scratchbuliding my crossings and switches: more out of necessity really given the failuires of the proprietary stuff I had to hand. Made a start on the angled crossing today and have been taking some photos as I go along which I'll post up for anyone like yourself with an interest in such matters.
Incidentally, I forgot to mention the couple of Micro Engineering turnouts I bought from the States a couple of years ago. I was really disappointed with those, especially as they looked so nice with their code 70 rails. The problem involved the cast insert (frog) which although in line with the stock rails and crossings in both directions, unfortunately were proud of all of them. I checked to see if they'd been bedded in properly, but the problem appeared to be with the height of the rails of the cast section i.e. too high for the code 70 rails. The only solution I could see was to file down the whole section, but as I was loathed to interfere with the crossing nose in any way, shape or form without the correct tools to assist me, I considered it a recipe for disaster and decided to leave well alone.
I wonder if anybody else has encountered the same problems?
Jonte
Thanks gentlemen for the warm welcome back and your kind expressions of interest. A Happy New Year to both of you.
In respect of scenic elements, Koos: I've a couple of ideas I'd like to share with you, especially regarding the ash ballast that seems to prevail in this area. I'm going to conduct a test soon on some scrap rail and a suitable base and post up the results for consideration. I've procrastinated long hard about this aspect of the build and I think I'll opt for a method employed by Chris Nevard on his Catcott Burtle layout <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nevardmedia/collections/72157626123658415/">http://www.flickr.com/photos/nevardmedi ... 123658415/</a><!-- m -->
Essentially good old Das clay is stippled onto a previously prepared bed of ballast which is used as a key for the clay to adhere to bonded with white PVA glue. Suitably sized grains of ballast/sand/ash from a barbecue or log fire (take your pick although I've saved some ash from a barbecue or two during the summer which will require sieving) are then glued on at random locations adjacent to and below/between the rails, and the whole painted to suit with emulsion type tester pots from an out of town type hardware store. He makes it look easy, but I'm sure it's not which is why I'll keep an open mind and conduct some rigorous testing.
Thanks for your compliment, Dave, re my attempts at scratchbuliding my crossings and switches: more out of necessity really given the failuires of the proprietary stuff I had to hand. Made a start on the angled crossing today and have been taking some photos as I go along which I'll post up for anyone like yourself with an interest in such matters.
Incidentally, I forgot to mention the couple of Micro Engineering turnouts I bought from the States a couple of years ago. I was really disappointed with those, especially as they looked so nice with their code 70 rails. The problem involved the cast insert (frog) which although in line with the stock rails and crossings in both directions, unfortunately were proud of all of them. I checked to see if they'd been bedded in properly, but the problem appeared to be with the height of the rails of the cast section i.e. too high for the code 70 rails. The only solution I could see was to file down the whole section, but as I was loathed to interfere with the crossing nose in any way, shape or form without the correct tools to assist me, I considered it a recipe for disaster and decided to leave well alone.
I wonder if anybody else has encountered the same problems?
Jonte