Rail200 - ballast, gravel, and water

Time for an update of progress over the last week, which has been focused on the ground cover around the tracks. I wanted a mixture of ballasted track and areas buried in gravel/ash, so for the latter areas I started with a layer of DAS clay. 

A simple jig allows the clay to be rolled out to a consistent depth. 

This was laid between the tracks on a coat of PVA, trimmed around buildings, and smaller pieces or offcuts used to fill the gaps between the sleepers, so bringing the ground up to sleeper height (or slightly below).

Ballasting was surprisingly tedious. I didn't want dilute glue finding its way down between the wooden base of the "modular" track and the surrounding foamboard as I'll need to remove that later. So, I applied neat PVA alongside that track and sprinkled the ballast on. 

Neat PVA was also applied around the moving parts of points and ballast applied, acting as a dam to keep the dilute PVA from getting where it shouldn't. After that ballasting took my usual route - applied dry, misted with water with about 20% IPA added from a spray bottle, then diluted PVA dripped on using a pipette. Then ages spent picking ballast from where it shouldn't be...

The ballast is a bag of granite chippings I've had for years and there must be the best part of a kilo left, so it will do a good few more small layouts. This time, the ballast had a slight greenish tinge when the glue dried, I've heard of others having this problem but I've never seen it - perhaps because this was cheap PVA rather than Resin W?

For the gravel/ash surface I applied fine sand (rescued some years ago when the kids grew out of the sandpit) over a layer of dilute PVA. The sand is applied through a tea strainer which helps give an even covering. The cocktail sticks (halved) hopefully protect the holes for the canopy supports.

I'm looking for a better solution as the sand needs painting! I applied a couple of coats of a dirty grey, changing the shade slightly for variation. 

When dry I applied a wash of dirty brown in a slightly patchy fashion, followed by an even more patchy application of smoke grey weathering powder over the still damp surface. 

The result is intentionally uneven and varied, although perhaps a little darker than I was aiming for as ash surfaces look surprisingly light from a distance. The shape of the sleepers just showing through the surface works quite well, the area providing easy access by foot although with the rails proud. I'd like the change from fine gravel/ash to ballast to be more blended, but I can't figure out how to do it. 

The ballast also had the dirty brown wash, which has removed most of the greenish tinge as well as toning it down. While the paints were out I painted the pond surface a muddy green colour, and blended it to a muddy brown colour near the edge, using acrylic paints applied very wet. This had previously had several coats of dark brown with a rub back in between to smooth the ply. Once dry, the water was added using Deluxe Materials Aqua Magic, a thin layer first, then a thicker (~2mm) later which was left to dry for a couple of days. I'd dammed the front with masking tape, the Aqua Magic is thick enough not to leak through it, but thin enough to self-level, and I did have to use a scalpel to remove the masking tape! The result is pretty much what I was aiming for - a still pond. 

Sett in my ways

A large part of the area of this little layout needs to be roadways and quayside, which to look the part should be cobbles or setts. From past experience my favourite approach to this is to use DAS clay, and emboss the setts or cobbles, which I used (in 7mm scale) for Landswood Park Farm. It is, admittedly, rather tedious to do - but as I found with Slugworth fettling plastic sheet to be a neat fit to the rails and rebated for the sleepers is also tedious. The way the clay fills the gaps between the sleepers without a large void in the flangeway looks much more realistic, and the embossing can be adapted to suit the geography.

A handy tip I learned from a fellow Sussex Downs 009 group member was this trick for rolling out the clay to a consistent thickness. I used an offcut of melamine covered shelf, with a couple of strips of 2mm card stuck down, but any smooth surface and thickness of spacer to suit would do. A simple knife for cutting the clay and a ruler for when a straight edge is useful, while a damp cloth keeps the clay usable for longer.

As seen in the last post the ground is built up to sleeper height with 2mm card, so 2mm of clay brings the height up to a little under 1mm below rail height. To prevent undulations over the sleepers small lumps of clay are pushed in between them, inside and outside the rails - this can be rough, as seen at the rear of the picture. I lay the clay on a layer of PVA, I don't know if it is necessary but figure it won't do any harm. The embossing is done with simple home made tools...

... here are the tools, as you can see no expense spared!

• On the left a piece of 20-thou plastic allows straight lines of various lengths to be embossed. 
• The black piece has two notches for the rails, dragged along the track at about 45 degrees it ensures the clay either side of and between the rails is just below rail height
• The thin black piece is critical - it's 40-thou or 1mm thick, and has another piece set about 1.5mm back from the end - it is simply used to open out the flangeways, by running it along the inside edge of the rail with lip on the rail (it just bumps along the rail spikes ensuring the gap is deep enough)
• The cobbles are embossed with 2mm plastic tube, with the end chamfered inwards to give a sharper edge and a more rounded impression. One tool has a cluster of 7, one a line of 3, or the other end can be used for a single cobble (but that would be very slow!)
• The square(ish) sett moulds were made from 20-thou plastic with a thinned edge, and 10 thou microstrip 2mm wide. Each set is about 2.2 x 2mm, again a large cluster of 9 and 3 in a row were made - partly dictated by the size of microstrip and partly because 3 fits neatly between the rails (about 7mm)

Embossing is then a case of ensuring the clay is level and below rail height, opening up the flangeways, and imprinting the desired pattern with the mould tools. I went for setts around and between the rails, and cobbles (presumably cheaper) elsewhere, The impression doesn't need to be deep at all, and the moulds can overlap previous impressions to help align them or fill awkward spots. In places things aren't perfect, but overall the impression works well. Quayside edging and kerb stones are made to suit. These buildings were simply pressed firmly into the clay to create a small foundation.

An overall view with the embossing complete, the quayside and the road across the back. The rest of the track will be ballasted, and the lane off towards the front will be gravel (sand) for variety. It was tedious, but not as bad as I feared - I think it took about 7 hours over two days, plus a couple of evenings to make the tools.

Hmm, that's a lot of cobbles to paint!

A close-up of the road. The clay can be laid to any gradient including compound slopes as here, while imperfections in the embossing and small bumps add to the realism I think. There's no pavement so I've added a line of setts along the edges, really this should be a gully for drainage but I didn't manage that level of detail!

Finally, a few final areas of landscape have appeared - the river-bank at the end of the quay, and a slope at the back of the fiddle yard. So now very little ground remains level apart from the quayside, the track, and the areas where buildings stand.

I have collected some details to add, both by Langley; some drains and manhole covers which I need to set into the clay, and some bollards for the quayside. These are in two forms - cast round bollards that look like they could tie up an ocean liner, and some well-worn wooden posts. At the moment I'm not sure which I like best.