7mm When There Was Steam.

Prairie Tank

Western Thunderer
I am very fortunate to be part of the Heyside Group, which consists of extremally talented, highly knowledgeable people and me. If I have any problems or need a little help I am only to ask and it is there for me.

I was unsure (read did not have a clue) of how to signal my lay out so needed a little advise from Roger. I have fitted the first of the ground signals this weekend.
I have also been weathering some of the track and ballast. I gave up looking at photo's to find the correct type of ballast, there are lots of different colours/shades of the stuff and goodness knows how many variations of weathering!
I settled on grey ballast which I have washed with a 5 parts water/1 part Humbrol Rail Match Sleeper Grime. Once dried this was dry brushed with ash grey paint along with the sleepers, my lay out is set in summer time and I wanted to give the track work a dry dusty look.
Rails are painted in Panzer Ace Dark Rust and then dry brushed with Humbrol Rail Match dry rust.

The first photo shows the original ballast colour surrounded by the 'washed'.

John :)

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Prairie Tank

Western Thunderer
A little more weathering done to the 'Ash' and I am very pleased with how it is turning out. It has dried well and after a little prodding to make it more uneven and a good hoover off it is looking not to bad.
I have still to weather in the ballast in the last two photos.

John :)

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victorianman

Western Thunderer
Looks good , John. What was the source of the ash? Great example from you in that you seem to have constantly thought you couldn't do things , but turned out to actually be able to do them well once you tried.. Glad you persevered through all the frustrations; we've all been there (and back).
 

Prairie Tank

Western Thunderer
Looks good , John. What was the source of the ash? Great example from you in that you seem to have constantly thought you couldn't do things , but turned out to actually be able to do them well once you tried.. Glad you persevered through all the frustrations; we've all been there (and back).

Thank you for your kind words sir :)

I made the ash by mixing black lizard sand, Chinchilla sand and Avon talcum powder (borrowed at great personal risk from Mrs PT). I mixed several batches and kept them separate, adding more talc to each one to get a lighter version so I could vary it.

I found the best way to get it to stick to the board is to use a dropper to squirt and drip a 50/50 mix of PVA and Water to the area you want the ash on and then sprinkle it over until it looks dry. Dont touch it for at least 24 hours and then hoover over it to remove any loose stuff.

John :)
 

Prairie Tank

Western Thunderer
I have been doing more work on the lay out this evening. I have rubbed the 'ash' down a little, with my fingers, to give it a more compacted, less 'knobbley' look.
I have also been working on a second water crane, MRs PT has decided that she wants the water Tower I had planned for my lay out putting onto hers instead. I am awaiting the stand from Ragstone so it is just blue tacked for the photo.

Also added a pile of ash/ballast/what ever which I will cover with a tarpaulin held down with a couple of used sleepers and a wheel.

John :)

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paulc

Western Thunderer
Hi John , i went back to the beginning of this thread and re read the whole thing . You my man have your mojo back so well done , you have conquered your fear of electronics and your track looks very good . Scenically , well that was never a problem was it .
Cheers Paul
 

Prairie Tank

Western Thunderer
Hi John , i went back to the beginning of this thread and re read the whole thing . You my man have your mojo back so well done , you have conquered your fear of electronics and your track looks very good . Scenically , well that was never a problem was it .
Cheers Paul

Thank you Paul.

I am really enjoying the build and lovley comments like yours make it all worth while.

John :)
 

Prairie Tank

Western Thunderer
This weekend I have been working on a second water crane, weigh bridge and crane area and also doing a little weathering.

Richard and Roger off of Heyside kindly gave me a Skytrex stone plinth for a crane, a very nice bit of resin, however, I wanted the crane close to my weight bridge and office so I have covered it in Slaters brick, now all I have to do is get it to look like the office I bough from Larry G and then build the crane when it arrives.

I have started adding 3mm board to bring the ground level up to the top(ish) of the sleepers tis will be blended in with ash and ballast. I cut slots in the first piece of board for a drain, man hole cover and the weight bridge plus 'laid' a few slabs around the office and added curb edges from some plastic dowel.

BR had gotten fed up with repairing the wall by the weight bride so a barrier has been made from an old railway buffer stop that had virtually rusted away, with a couple of old sellers fixed on.

Having taken delivery of a weatherd van from Chris Klien and one from Larry G, I decided that a few of my wagons needed an up grade in the weathering department. My Esso tanker was first up, closely followed by an open wagon.

John :)

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Prairie Tank

Western Thunderer
A little more ash is now in place, I can not go much further with this until the rest of the track, including another turn out, are in place.

I have started adding some fencing to the crane yard, this is still to be weathered and rusted up, I also plan to have a guy in place who looks like he is starting to paint the fence black.
The lorry comes as a left hooker for some unknown reason, I have taken her apart so I can move the controls over to the correct side and add a driver. In this case a loco driver from the Modelu range. He will be resting his hands on the steering wheel when finished.

John :)

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LarryG

Western Thunderer
I worked on BR parcels (Passenger) out of Manchester Victoria in 1959. We had a load of Bedford OB type vans plus one pre-war Morris Commercial and one pre-war heavyweight Dennis. Ours was the Morris, a clunky lorry that just trudged along and I was always envious of the guys that had the swift post-war Bedfords. We got the Dennis Pig for two weeks while our van was serviced. The Goods men had 3-wheel Scammels & trailers and I used to get a lift in one from Central Station to Piccadilly when we finished unloading at teatime. They ran like they had oval wheels and leaned frighteningly without a trailer when on bends. By the late 1950's the external manually squeezed bulb-horn was quite unique in traffic. The livery was still blood & custard for parcels vehicles although a repaint I saw looked to have a somewhat darker blood. It is probable the blood bleached in service as it did on railway coaches.
 

Prairie Tank

Western Thunderer
I worked on BR parcels (Passenger) out of Manchester Victoria in 1959. We had a load of Bedford OB type vans plus one pre-war Morris Commercial and one pre-war heavyweight Dennis. Ours was the Morris, a clunky lorry that just trudged along and I was always envious of the guys that had the swift post-war Bedfords. We got the Dennis Pig for two weeks while our van was serviced. The Goods men had 3-wheel Scammels & trailers and I used to get a lift in one from Central Station to Piccadilly when we finished unloading at teatime. They ran like they had oval wheels and leaned frighteningly without a trailer when on bends. By the late 1950's the external manually squeezed bulb-horn was quite unique in traffic. The livery was still blood & custard for parcels vehicles although a repaint I saw looked to have a somewhat darker blood. It is probable the blood bleached in service as it did on railway coaches.

Thank you for this very interesting and informative reply Larry. Posts like this bring it all to life.

John :)
 

Yorkshire Dave

Western Thunderer
I have taken her apart so I can move the controls over to the correct side and add a driver. In this case a loco driver from the Modelu range. He will be resting his hands on the steering wheel when finished.

Before reassembly it might be worth removing the glazing and giving the cab, body and chassis a blast of satin varnish to act as a primer for light weathering and to remove the toy-like paint finish. It appears the body is plastic and I presume the chassis and cab are die-cast.
 

Prairie Tank

Western Thunderer
Before reassembly it might be worth removing the glazing and giving the cab, body and chassis a blast of satin varnish to act as a primer for light weathering and to remove the toy-like paint finish. It appears the body is plastic and I presume the chassis and cab are die-cast.

Thank you, that is a very good idea, I will do that Dave.

Yes the cab is die-cast.

John :)
 
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