Barchester

A 00 Gauge Model Railway

May 2005

The new hill will now sit astride where the roadway was going so that means in and out tunnel portals for the road traffic. I have made the portals from card layered with plaster and then the stonework scribed into the plaster.

 

This picture shows the two road tunnel entrances over which the hill will be built, the one   behind the other, and over to the left is the tunnel for the canal to vanish into. It may all look   a bit improbable at the moment but should come out right in the end.

 

 Click on image for a larger picture.

 

I am using a mix of dried tea leaves and finely crushed sandstone for the country road surfaces. The new hillside now has all the plaster rock work in place and nicely stratified with a knife point. Using water colours on the rocks as they can be fine tuned when dry with a finger and wet cloth. Bought a mini drill set this month which will help out with a lot of jobs.

 

A shot of the road tunnel entrance with hill in position, road surfaced and hedges put in.
  
 
 
 
Click on image for a larger picture.
 
 
 


Lining all the country roads with hedges and planting as many trees as the scene calls for, it's beginning to look something like now.
 
         
 
This is the other side of the hill as the tunnel road approaches the timber yard and canal basin. Once again the country road has been surfaced, trees planted and hedges in place.
 
 
 
Click on image for a larger picture.
 
 



Blunder, blunder, blunder. Enthusiasm and lack of thought again. Just realised that there are two points under the hill which have neither been wired up or had the point motors fitted. I have two choices now, one, I can destroy the hill and landscape I have been working on so that the pointwork can be wired up and have the motors fitted, or, choice 2, change the mainline to a three track entrance to the fiddle yard and change the bridge width to accommodate them. This would do away with pointwork under the scenery as well. So choice two it is. I have managed to get the two points out but have broken both in the process so I will have to send off for more. I will also need more track. What a disaster.
          Have managed to cut through the scenery to release the bridge without too much damage and have adjusted it's width to allow for the extra main lines. Because of this I have taken the opportunity to make what I hope are final changes to the track plan and to utilise most of the 30 or so coaches I have to opt for mainly passenger traffic. All the industrial buildings will now be part of a road system and not attached to the railway. There will still be a small rail goods yard for the occasional truck and van movement.



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