A meeting this afternoon with Graham. He brought his ‘Tin Turtle’ with him for some gauging tests. A little trimming was required, but it soon had good clearance. We may still have issues with the tallest wagon required on the layout, to this end Graham has purchased a kit of an ambulance covered wagon so that we can test further. This part of the layout will now be left until we can test.

More work has been completed over the weekend including work on the back-scene, drainage ditch, rough ground between the ballasted area and the dilapidated barn.

One thing that I have tackled today is the track on the first board. We found out that the temporary narrow gauge railways of WW1 used unseasoned or dipped sleepers, so  they were basic wood colour and not the treated dark brown colour. I experimented and mixed up some basic wood coloured paint and painted the sleepers, when dry I added some Coloron Wood Dye over the paint. It seems to have worked, but I will check in the morning and add another coat of Wood Dye if necessary. I have also painted the track sides and highlighted the chair with dark rust paint.

Below are some photo’s in the order I completed them.

The ballasting has now been completed on both boards – I will remind you that ballasting is made up of sand, grit, earth (wargaming war dirt and medium stones) and a little O gauge real ballast to top up. These railways were only used for two or three years maximum and anything to hand was used as ballast. I think the look is of a ‘temporary’ railway only.

The small drainage ditch along the front of the layout has been fashioned in cork and in real life even the soil from this was also used to ballast. Although the drainage ditch is only a scale 3′ wide, it will have water (varnish) added so it looks deeper than in really is.

The next thing I tackled was the bank at the back of the layout. This was made from three layers of 1/4″ cork glued together and then shaped as required, it was then covered with a thin coat of Polyfilla. It will then be glued against the backscene, painted and flocked. The final part will be adding hedging, bushes and small trees, some photo’s show the hedging balanced on the bank to see the effect.

The final part of this update, was a decision that had to be made, and we have decided that the tracks that emerge from the fiddle yard will be through a dilapidated barn. When these temporary railways were laid, nothing got in the way and buildings just had holes knocked through to gain access and any original doors were simply taken off.

Having not modelled this gauge before, I keep the one wagon in my possession and a couple of scale solders on the baseboards  to remind me of what scale I am working in. The swing on the bogie wagon through the entrance from the fiddle yard has been checked, however we do not have the tallest wagon available and this does cause some height concerns!!!  The basic sides of the barn have been formed as a template and test fitted.