Into The Country

After leaving the station at the southern end the line runs out into the country. Originally I placed the lines too close to the backscene which restricted the space and made the embankment behind too steep, this looked wrong and left no room for scenic development.

To solve this a 10 cm deep extension piece was added to the back of the baseboard and this allowed room for extra scenery where trees, fencing and hedges could now be included. Where there was insufficient room to extend the baseboard the steep banking was cut away and replaced by a rockface cutting made from moulded plaster of paris sections.

The countryside section can now be improved and extended until it reaches High Fell Tunnel.

At the same time while rebuilding this section the opportunity was taken to build a walk-through entry,( a bit of forward planning really as each year it was getting a bit more difficult to crawl under)

The walk through was achieved by cutting a new section whereby the backsene folded around and the baseboard, normally secured by bolts and latches unclips and folds down. Maybe not the best solution but the easiest to achieve without a complicated hinge mechanism which would probably spoil the appearance when trains were running.

High Fell Tunnel

This was made by re-using an old tunnel mouth which was repainted and weathered, the shape of the hills was built up using sterene and foam off-cuts which were covered in layers of bandages soaked in plaster. The structure was painted a base colour of dark brown which was then covered in a static grass mixture to create a more natural effect.

I had to create a rockface cutting on one side where the branch line diverts as there was not enough space for a natural looking slope. To build up the scenic elements flexible dry stone walling was added which follows the contours of the landscape plus assorted rocks and vegetation.

Felldale Viaduct

A section of the baseboard was cut away and a new lower floor was installed at a suitable height to carry the viaduct across the gap.

Once the position of the pillars had been accurately marked out wooden formers were made to create a stream bed to run under the centre span.

The pillars and arches of the viaduct were spray painted a light sand colour then dry brushed over with three increasingly darker brown shades and a final wash of a watery black mix.

The embankments on either side were then made using bandages soaked in plaster built up on a frame of wood formers and compressed paper.

The roadway was added made by wetting and preshaping a piece of 4mm hardboard.

Once formed the embankments were painted a dark brown base colour and then covered in a static grass mixture to create a variegated effect

Further work was done on the stream bed by slowly adding more layers of varnish with some vegetation sealed in between the layers.

Clumps of stalks with their ends dipped in glue then a brown powder were added to represent rushes.

The top of the viaduct was then glued in place.

Oxenholme Station

Oxendale station starts to take shape. The platforms are made from balsawood sheets painted grey with the edging stones scribed on and painted white.

The platform faces were built up from layers of Slaters Dressed Stone, painted with a stone colour then dry brushed with different layers of darker colours.

Neodymium magnets have been pinned in place under the track to enable Kaydee couplings to be used, these will be permanently secured at a later date

This new section of line across the viaduct and through the station has been constructed using Bullhead Rail as opposed to the Code 75 used in previous sections of the layout.

I think the rail profile and larger sleeper spacing gives a more natural look to the line.