Harbour Walls, Quayside Platform and a sprinkle of Ballast

Well that about sums it up really.


Homework almost complete and the platform is screwed down,look at those beautiful flashing navigation lights on the platform fence, fantastic. The cladding of the dock walls is also completed, and they are covered with plasticard and balsa rubbing strips are attached.



Finally a light dusting of ballast to fill the gaps, and stand back and admire. (Very Nice...)

Oh, I almost forgot that the rail edges were painted with some railmatch dark rust (I think).

More Distractions

After our failed attempts to install the feeder rails into the baseboard last week a new plan is hatched. the key element of the new plan is disconnect the board, turn it over and solder with gravity on our side.

I'm pleased to report that all worked and soon we had the possibility of power to the end of the dock for those smart little LED's that had been fitted to the buffer stops last week.

After reconnection of the board you guessed it, were devoid of power. Ten minutes of head scratching and probing and mysteriously the power starts to function.. (Hmm, I suspect getting ready to fail again at the next exhibition)



At this point it is noted that one of the nice new LED's has failed, fortunately we have the technology and it's replaced.

On the Distraction front in DCC corner, a shiny new 56XX was suffering with slow running issues. As the loco came to a halt it would judder forward at great speed then stop (not very useful) a quick bit of CV adjustment (to be posted) and perfect slow running was achieved.

Very nice.......

Distractions and Homework

Amazing everything still works (just) one sticky point is quickly freed by scraping out the offending glue. With building taking place on several fronts the progress is impressive and I'm beginning to think we will finish on time. The dock platform is looking great (thanks to some homework), the station building is taking shape and the buffer stops are illuminated. (Hotel anybody) Back in the under baseboard domain a place that I appear to spend most of my time I try to install some copper feeder rails for the lighting circuits. After an hour I give up having burnt my fingers had globs of molten solder land on my head and only one joint in place. Now for the distraction a shiny new 66 with Digital sound appears in the club shed, that's it no more work tonight its time for play.



Sorry about the commentary!

Back on Track

It would appear that it's full steam ahead and the dock area track is ballasted. Using a precision ballasting tool (Jam Jar) and a sprinkling manoeuvre the ballast is poured into the track bed. Then using a brush the dry material is spread about to achieve the desired effect, at this point we keep clear of the moving point-work and will fill those later. Once happy the ballast is glued in place using the clubs secret ballast glue formula. (well it's not secret really, just thought that sounded a bit more dramatic! It's diluted PVA with a drip of washing up liquid as a wetting agent.) At this point it's worth mentioning that my preference is for Sainsbury's Spring Fresh but I'm sure other brands work equally well.




Notice the steady hand needed for this process.