Had a little photo session this afternoon using Ian’s Locos with some of my weathered coaches. Basically it shows a local passenger train coming in and taking water before running around and also a parcels train getting ready to depart.

I may have one more session before the layout goes, running some of my weathered locos etc, albeit from a different region.

As mentioned yesterday – I was going to weather the first of the locos and wagons for Bowford, well I did this today and the results are below. It is great when you put weathered items on a weathered layout – it all comes together for an overall picture.

Well, that’s it, I allowed myself five weeks from start to finish and I have taken one day over the allotted time. Having said the layout is finished, I still have two Locos and some wagons to weather, but they were not in the original plan.

The next job will be to move the layout to its new home with Ian T. and set it up, probably this week. It will then be back to weathering Locos only, although I have a OO layout to weather for another Mate, Ian H. and an O Gauge layout to help out with, this is making a concrete base at a cement factory, all the rest is already finished by my Mate Graham.

Busy day today – I have added all signalling, point levers, yard crane, loading gauge and water column. this leaves just Yard Lamps and Station lamps which I am waiting for delivery. Vehicles and People are in the hands of Ian, I believe they have already been purchased.

And Finally the station name boards are made and are waiting for transfers to complete.

It will be ready by next week and should move to its new home during that week.

Been going as far as possible with board 2 today. All buildings, trees and bushes now glued down, only a yard crane, yard lamps, vehicles and staff to go on board two now. Board 1 also has all buildings etc glued down now and is only waiting for signals, water crane, station lamps, vehicles and people. I set myself five weeks to make this layout and I still have three days to go, whether I finish by then is down to Ebay items still to arrive.

Today I have finished board one, that is apart from signals and water crane. All station fencing is complete and weathered, all lineside fencing complete and weathered, and lastly the pond and stream plus the surrounding field are finished. It would be nice to have some sheep, anglers and a farmer in the fields – maybe later.

For the first time I have taken the airbrush to the layout. I have blended all the track area with sleeper grime, black and a little gloss varnish in places. After the airbrushing, the track was cleaned with thinners and then with a track rubber, the whole area was then vacuumed to pick up all the debris. I am not a fan of this type of cleaner as it leaves residue, but for this job it is essential. I use liquid track cleaners from this point.

I weathered the sides of the platform as well, the top will be done later. Most of the Platform fencing is now glued on, this will also be lightly weathered at the same time as the top.

I also gave a dusting to the road, the level crossing and the goods yard buildings.

I had Ian T down to see me today, we went through the layout so far. We decided to move the various small buildings around a bit, we also decided where the trees were going to go and holes were drilled for the lineside fencing, although nothing in glued down yet. After Ian left I decided the next job was ballast picking on all the track, this is to ensure that we don’t have stray pieces of ballast in places they should not be – a good check now is better than poor running later, After I was happy with the track I started painting the track sides with ‘sleeper grime’ cleaning the tops of the rail with white spirit as I went along. I guess about 50% is now finished – I will add various stains latter. You can really see how much better it looks compared to the unpainted track.

Another very busy day – Backscene painted Blue, then I have painted hills, trees and bushes. The buffer stops have been painted and further areas of textured paint added.

I also had time to prepare the station fencing etc., but it is not glued down yet. I have painted and weathered the coal depot.

Today has been a big step forward in the layout development.

A lot done today, Grassing and ballasting finished, pond and stream varnished, road painted and goods shed area painted with textured paint.

I have also weathered about 9″ of track to see how it could look, the last photo shows this. I brushed on sleeper grime although I will air brush in the main.

I ordered a Yard Crane today, this completes the goods yard.

Tomorrow is backscene painting day.