Upton Blewbury

All under control . . .. famous last words

We shall see

Cheers

Matt

 

The Back scene First I needed a back board, light weight , removable and damp proof so out came a couple of full length 25 Cm wide ceiling panels, siliconed together and then simply Velcro ed to the wall. the join between the two boards was filled with decorators caulk, flexible and paintable. The curve around the corner was made using laminate floor underlay panels (from B&Q) left over from a floor Job, again Velcro ed in place and the join filled .So I'm left with this full length board , 50 Cm high



which was painted blue



Rather than buying printed back scenes I decided to Try painting my own so started building up layers of greens for the hills and blues and greys for the sky From this




And this













Until leaving it at this
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The hills are probably too dark for the area I'm doing but once I start actual scenery I'll blend it and lighten it as I need. Oh and I splashed some yellow paint on the back wall of the work shop to make it a bit more cheerful. So that's the backboards done for now Now to look at the ' Uppy downy ' track

Next up the Track boards

 

Ok to bring it up to date. . . .

The Uppy downy bit
So I've got the flat baseboards and the high level terminus, I wanted to try and introduce some rising and falling lines rather than just flat boards, Introduce some circles of track for the GD to run trains with at least one station she could stop at, and have an area where I could do some shunting. First I experimented with different levels of sloping track to see if I . . . .
Yeah forget all that wall of text stuff, a picture speaks a thousand words so here goes a couple to explain where I'm at right now.

First the high level terminus








This will represent Upton & Blewbury, A single line coming in from Didcot ( stage left through the tunnel) Twin track through the station with a spur for a goods siding , cattle dock etc This will then return to single track spiralling round and down, running through Churn halt and finally running into the sidings next to Compton ( that's the two stations and the Holt I'm looking to model ) The actual platforms for Compton station will be on The two rising and falling Ovals running round the outside of the layout. More pictures then bringing me up to where I am now











Probably clear as mud So each of the rising sections mirrors the baseboards below, not in actual size but they share the same join between boards and are going to be individually wired so they can be removed at any time. they are made up the same way as the High level board, with ceiling boards and fibreboard on top and at the moment are just supported on free standing blocks. So this means although I've experimented with the inclines, If I have problems once I start testing the actual track I can lower the incline a bit. The spiral down was tested before and works but at the moment what you see on the high station and the spiral itself has just been plonked down as a visual aid while I run the loops. Again the polystyrene and white wood strips are just representing the approximate position of platforms. As I said I'm not trying to build the actual line , just get the feel of this sleepy backwater line ( now being preserved and used as an overflow for Didcot )
Ok now I'm up to date, Progress will be slow through the winter as its baltic out in the workshop. Any time I do get out there will be used to continue the loops so I can get something running to keep the GD happy and then work on getting the spiral down positioned right. I will be wiring and testing as I go and once I'm happy with the track I will be glueing it down ( it's held in place by track pins at the moment which get a surprisingly good grip in the plastic under layer )
Once I have these lines in place I can work out what space I have left by the side of Compton station for a small shunting yard and if the heights work out ok then possibly a through line exiting stage right
Cheers for now
Matt

 

hiya Gormo, The tunnel is purely cosmetic and in reality trains running up and down that line will terminate at Upton and Compton respectively. The trials of the sloping board worked OK so I'm hoping the full scale one will as well and as the whole of the upper track base is canted. . . if I need to I can lower it a bit to help . We shall see
Cheers
Matt