O Gauge Goods Shed diorama.

As yet un-named diorama in O gauge. It will be used mostly as a scenic backscene.

At 3ft long by 8 inches wide it wont take up much storage space.

Track is PECO bullhead with a couple of buffer stops all ballasted with coarse chippings secured, as usual, with dilute PVA.

Few more bits to add as items are being built for another O gauge layout.

 

Ballasting Watershoot Bay.

The part I least enjoy as here it could all go badly wrong. This is one part of layout construction which needs time and patience!

The ballast, cream this time, was gently eased into place avoiding the immediate area around the points.

The sticks were added to keep the blades away from other rails- last thing you need is these stuck together.

Once satisfied with the loose ballast, I give the whole area a gentle mist- from an atomiser (remove smell of fragrance first) which contains water and a spot of washing up liquid. This 

aids the spread of the adhesive. A mix of 50/50 water and PVA glue is mixed in a jar and again a spot of washing up liquid.

I use a cheap polythene pippette to apply the mix to the ballast- others use an eye dropper.

Once the whole area has been saturated with the glue mix it is time to wait for it all to dry thoroughly- don't try and cut corners now or it will all end in tears!
 

Once dry the missed areas and the points can carefully be ballasted. Small amounts at a time and lots of patience.

St Mewan platform. 20,000 views reached!

  The views reached 20,000 over the last couple of day's- Thank you!

The platform edge has been fitted. Simple thin card folded and scribed to represent 2 x 4ft slabs.

The edge was masked with Tamiya masking tape and painted with an acrylic mix of grey, brown, green and black. when still wet the tape was removed to reveal an almost perfect platform edge white stripe. I say almost as a few touch-ups with white are required.

The platform was marked out with the Station building and Signal Box and then neat PVA was brushed on and very fine granite ballast sprinkled on to represent a stone surface. Time will tell if this has worked but at worst it can be re-done.

Ballasting the track.

The least favorite part of building a model railway has to be ballasting the track.

The tedious part is getting the ballast to go, and stay, where you want it and preferably not in the pointwork mechanism. I use a fine granite ballast from Attwood Agregates.

My way of securing the ballast is, once it is laid and relatively even, is first to spray with a very fine mist of water with a drop of washing up liquid. Once this is soaked then dilute PVA, again with a drop of w/u liquid is applied with a cheap plastic pipette. Nothing more to do but let it dry,overnight, and hope that it all sticks where you want it to.

For the clay siding I have applied some magnesium ballast to help with weathering the track once the loading buildings are set in place. This I have tried to blend with the granite ballast.

3mm East Boldre- ballasting.

 Here are the tools to ensure the ballast stays in place.

Firstly the dry ballast is given a mist of water with a drop of washing up liquid.

Then, dilute PVA, again with a drop of washing up liquid, is applied using a cheap pvc pipette. I prefer the pipette rather than an eye dropper, for me it is more controllable.

Just the wait for it all to dry and the track can be cleaned and re-tested.