Bill, great effort so far, i think i say for many of us that we are all fine with you laying off the repairs for a while so we can see the build more as it progresses.
Hi Bill ,, I think the reason you got the swelling where your joins are is because the styrofoam is not water proof but it is water resisant to a degree as water actually does seep into the styrofoam. How i know this is I am the owner of a scrap metal business here in oz & I got a job dismantling a major shopping centre for all its shelving , eighty seven 10ft by 4foot by 7ft tall fridge units , 2 x 5 tonne bread ovens and two or three cool rooms for refrigerated foods and frozen foods and for the butchery as well. When it come to the cool rooms there were panels lined with steel and styrofoam in the middle that were reasonably weighty as the panels were quite big. When it come to the panels and the doors nearest to the cool room doors they were so heavy I could barely budge them by hand. I couldnt understand why they were so heavy. But anyhow I loaded them onto my truck with a forklift and weighed near half a tonne for each panel by the forklifts scales gauge. When i got to the scrap yard the 5 finger grab picked up these panels and threw them into the scrap pile. When he grabbed these particular panels (the ones nearest the doors & the doors of the cool room) they sprayed outwards with water like a fountain when he closed the jaws of the grab. The operator of the grab pulled these watery soaked panels out and layed them down flat on the concrete and run them over with the tracks of the 60 tonne excavator. The water literally flooded out in torrents. I was amazed to see how much water they actually held. Now all these panels when in its together form were upright and i presume that capillary action was responsible for where the water had came from. The scrapyard deducted 2 tonnes from my load weight as they estimated the amount of water was that heavy and there was 4 panels and they dont like to pay for water (fair enough call too i say , and i dont blame them). I asked them about the water in the styrofoam to the boss man and he said m8 there isnt much we haven't seen here as scrappos and cool room paneling is like 1 big sponge especailly if they have been in there a long time and these panels were dated back to the late 1980's so 40 + years of water getting lerching into them from condensation and daily hosing out and the cleaning of the cool rooms etc.. Your doing a good job on your layout keep up the good work m8. Cheers from John in Australia.
Great to see the layout coming to life, you're quite right to focus on getting it to a state you're happy with even if there's fine tuning work left to do over a longer period - it's not a sprint!
I picked up a bag of the pink ballast a few years ago when I was able to attend Model Rail Scotland. Have some installed at the platforms/tunnel area and looks pretty good.
Hi Bill. Firstly, thanks for the email. Viewed this upload straight after reading it. Secondly, regarding putting repairs on hold, too right! Your layout comes first and if the people requesting a repair were to take a good look at all your videos, I'm sure there is enough information available to educate them on how to do it for themselves. It's probably down to sheer laziness on the part of most of them. I have educated myself to the point where I do not need to ask for help and I'm proud of that fact. At the end of the day, practise breeds confidence! Thirdly, the ballasting is coming along nicely. However, may I suggest you darken the brown thus imitating the shade it develops when covered in brake dust. Also, take a peek at 'The Angels Share Model Railways' channel where Brian, a fellow creative Scot, has done a magnificent job in creating a tunnel through rock. You could easily use his example for the hill you're creating in the corner. Cheers, Paul. 👍❤
Great to see the update. I had a similar issue with a paint on varnish on some scale model scenery concrete hard standing sheets where the varnish caused it to lift in places and for little blisters. Look forward to seeing your layout progress.
I agree about the Grey ballast making some layouts look bland or Drab which I’ve noticed at Exhibitions - Finding a balance between authenticity & Interesting to the Eye, needs a Small brush worth of Artistic Licence. Gr8 progress & thanks for the update 👍🏻
I have several scalescenes buildings on my layout, the very first building I constructed I sprayed with matt varnish. To my horror the paper and ink started to take on a hazy appearance so my next construction I sprayed the building with hair spray and it worked for me especially once the building had been weathered.
Hi Bill . You can get red ballast ie Scottish region stuff from Lanarkshire Model Supplies . Ballast looks good though . My local station Bishopton has a browned grey colour not unlike what you’ve got now . Did you see there’s a West Highland station . Laser cut, available from Peco . Based on Arisaig with matching signal box and waiting room . I’m tempted
That’s interesting, in the late 60’s when I lived in Glasgow , I played with Bishopton Thistle I would take the train from Westerton to the city centre then take a train from Glasgow Central to Bishopton. It was a long journey and lasted less than a season. Didn’t notice the ballast at the time, think all the stations were the same
@@charlie1872 Hi Charlie . Your trip to Bishopton interesting . I was in Paisley at the time but I remember the new electric trains , I think they came in in 1967 on the lines through Bishopton down to Gourock / Wemyss Bay . Before that I think it was Fairburn and Standard tanks on old compartment coaches . I remember wanting a model of the new trains, so that year I got the Triang Hornby AL1 from Santa . Well it was blue , electric and had three windows at the front ………so as close as I could get !
I notice you're using medium ballast. In my experience this is much too coarse for OO and I've always used fine grade mixed with a small amount of medium. Like yourself I mix my colours, using a combination of light and dark grey, brown and a little bit of black, just for good measure. As for doing the platform tops I use sheets of cork painted various shades of grey, which is also what I use for my roadways.
Bill, I have a Hornby GWR 0-4-0 loco, the pins holding the connecting rods onto the wheels can be pulled out a long way before they stop this causes the connecting rods to be very sloppy. Are the pins designed to be removed as I don’t want to try and remove them in case I break something. The loco is probably 1960-70s vintage.
As far as I'm aware fixative spray pretty much is varnish. The problem was spraying it onto self adhesive sheets as it destroyed the adhesive. The solution would be to use multiple very light coats. But the stuff I have stinks the place out so I'm not doing that.
@@oobill I might have to take our one down, similar to you I noticed that the ballast and glue swelled in certain areas causing it to have dodgey wobbling 😢 I think it's a result of being on the polystyrene perhaps?
