I’ve been working in Derwin’s Drop a lot this week. Why the rush, you ask? We have some guests coming from Moncton on Saturday for a day of layout visits and operating, so I wanted to get rid of the last little bit of all-blue foam on the layout. With the recent changes to the track arrangement there I was ready to start scenery.

Anyway, last evening I painted the road and the base for the freight shed. I am planning to put a layer of plaster over the road to try Harold Minkwitz’s cracked road method, but I won’t get that done before Saturday, and I wanted to tone down the black foam. I dry-brushed a coat of “Linen” and “Grey” acrylic tole paints over the road. It seems to work, for now.

The “Linen” tole paint looks pretty good for concrete as well, so I painted the freight shed lot with it. Then scribed some expansion joints and added a cost of india ink/alcohol mix.

I painted the fence at Chemical Hazards. It’s hard to tell that it’s just a bunch of 2.5″ air nails. They look fairly good as a board fence.

The surrounding “land” got a coat of dark and light brown tole paints to get rid of the blue foam look. Grass, secondary roads, bushes and stuff will come later.

I’m happy with the area for now. It’s far from finished, but it looks a lot better than it did before.

I’ll have a post about our Moncton visitors next week. Until then, stay warm (P.E.I. Hit By Major Ice Storm)! Hopefully Derwin gets his power back before Saturday so we can operate the Canadisle Rail. Oh, and so his family can eat and be warm too!

Scott

I’ve been using a different method, for me anyway, for roads on the BS&T.

On my old layout I used a lot of plaster to build up streets and roads. It was a lot of work to try to get them smooth enough to resemble a road. Then if something happened to chip the plaster you have an odd coloured pothole.

So, I used a tip I read on Harold Minkwitz’s web site (Inpirations – Dirt Roads, Bushes, and Grass). He uses 1/8″ craft foam for streets. You’ve likely seen examples of these streets in other posts on the BS&T Blog.

One of the best uses of this product is for grade crossings. The foam is the same thickness as code 100 rail (sorry for all you more scale conscious model railroaders using smaller rail <wink>) so it makes perfect grade crossings. All you need to do is hold the foam in place and run a sharp knife along the rail to get a perfect fit. Anywhere you need a gap for wheel flanges just trim the foam a little narrower.

This grade crossing (below) in Derwin’s Drop would have been almost impossible to do with plaster. I wouldn’t have even attempted it. But I did this the other evening in about 20 minutes.

The wheel flange clearance may be a little tight, but the foam gives enough that I don’t think it’ll give me any trouble. I ran an S-4 through this about 10 times, at different speeds from a crawl to normal speed, without a hitch.

I’m going to try Harold’s method of making old cracked pavement in this area. He applies a thin layer of coloured plaster over the foam, paints it to simulate old asphalt, then presses on it causing the plaster to crack. Instant stress cracks. Then pick a few pieces out to make potholes.

Later,

Scott

Well, last evening I did a little more work in Derwin’s Drop. I mentioned in my last update that I was going to move the ground throws closer to the fascia, and therefore the operator.

I installed longer push rods for the ground throws and routed then between the ties in neighbouring tracks. This required cutting the joiner sections between the ties so the push rod would move freely. Fortunately I was able to get a straight path under the adjoining rails.

Yes, I have a mixture of turnouts on my layout. I know some people will only use one brand or the other, but I’m cheap, err… frugal. I take whatever I can get for the least amount of money. In this case the turnouts were free.

Anyway, now even Derwin can operate at Derwin’s Drop, unless there’s a derailment at the back. But that’ll never happen! Not on the BS&T! No way! HA!

Scott