Drystone Moss: A 006 pizza - track ballasting

Ballasting is one of those jobs that I wasn't looking forward to, mainly because it has a reputation of being tedious and easy to get wrong. In the end I quite enjoyed it, but then I haven't really got much track to work on. I started by experimenting with loose ballast on a bit of scrap wood before letting loose on the pizza.

The usual method, laying the ballast then wetting with water with a drop of washing up liquid using a sprayer didn't work for me, the sprayer wouldn't mist as much as needed and the ballast clumped together as soon as the water hit it. I then tried using an eye dropper instead of a mister, that had the same result. Maybe our washing up liquid isn't suited to the task. So, after watching a couple of youtube videos, I tried a 50/50 mix of water and meths. That did the trick so that's the method I used. For glue I first tried watered down PVA, and again I wasn't happy with the results so instead I used WWS (War World Scenics) static grass layering glue applied with another eye dropper. This worked well.

The tools used;

Note that one eye dropper has its own bottle, handy as I filled it with the water/meths mix. The brushes were used to move the ballast around. The large spoon is sold for melting sealing wax in, the middle sized one is a Nuffield spoon and the smallest is a Tamiya paint stirrer. All three proved their worth adding ballast where needed in the quantity required. The back of the Tamiya stirrer also found use gently tapping ballast in place.

I found that by doing short sections at a time, 4-5", and allowing the glue to dry for a few hours I could do about 3 sessions a day. By not doing too much in one go I wouldn't get bored and could keep up what I hope is a reasonable standard of work.

Woodland Scenics fine grey was chosen, I wasn't sure what to use so I went for a middle-of-the-road choice. I deliberately kept the shoulder uneven, I want the track to look unkempt without affecting the running of small mechanisms so grass between the rails is out (for now).

Rocks next, but first, a brew

Paul.

Drystone Moss: a 006 pizza - forming the landscape

The inspiration for Drystone Moss comes from a place called Drystone Edge, which is located in the Staffordshire Moorlands close to Buxton. It's an area that I know and love, hence the fact that I've used it as inspiration for this project. It also gave the pizza its name, losing the Edge and adding Moss as there are a few areas of local moorland that end in Moss. I have of course played fast and loose with geography and history, no railway was ever built in the area (and if there was 18" would never have been considered) and the terrain would have been unsuitable anyway. However, worse crimes have been committed in the name of narrow gauge modelling...

This is how the area looks;

Drystone Edge is a ridge, situated close to the more famous Axe Edge;

The ridge is best described as bleak, especially in winter, but for some reason I'm drawn to bleak. I've been up there on foot and on the fatbike.

Obviously I'm not modelling a ridge, but more of a hilltop with a tramway contouring around it, running between here and there through the middle of nowhere.

The landform is made from expanded polystyrene packaging, carved to shape with a Woodland Scenics hot wire cutter and a snap-off blade knife;

The lines are there to mark out a path to the summit, where there will be a small rock formation;

I spent a lot of time carving, thinking, asking my wife Dani for her opinion, before glueing the landform down with UHU POR. Then I covered the polystyrene with a thin layer of filler, doctored with PVA and a mix of mars black and burnt umber artists acrylics;

In the photo above you can see where I've carved a hollow.

The underlying soil is peat, quite dark in colour;

To represent that soil type I mixed up more artists acrylics (Daler Rowney), again using burnt umber and mars black with a dash of warm grey;

As for a reason for a railway, there have been coal mines on Axe Edge as well as peat cutting (the peat was used in the local spas for bathing in!), nearby Orchard Common also saw some small scale coal mining and there was gritstone quarrying and lead mining locally as well. So, my excuses are in!

Ballast next, but first, a brew;

Paul.

Drystone Moss: a 006 pizza - track painting

Before I think about scenery or ballast the track needed painting. Vallejo acrylics are my go-to model paints at the moment, perhaps not the best choice in this instance? I started with the sleepers, but being copperclad they needed two or in places three coats as copper doesn't seem to take paint easily. I used 70.990 Light Grey and 70.872 Chocolate Brown mixed together, I made up a mix, painted sleepers at random until the mix ran out, then made up another, each mix being slightly different thereby giving some colour variation. One good thing about a round layout is that one can rotate the board as you're working which made painting just that little bit easier.

For the rail itself a mix of 70.950 Black and 70.843 Cork Brown was used, again I tried to vary the mix as I went along. And again the job was made easy by the layout being round, for the rail outer faces I tilted the board on the table, and for the inner faces I held it vertically in my lap.

And onto the problems.

First of all there is the problem of painting the copper sleepers. Next time I might experiment with an undercoat of black car body acrylic from a rattlecan as I think it would adhere better, then once dry add a top coat using Vallejo.

Secondly my preferred method of cleaning track is to use lighter fluid on a cotton bud. This does the job, and certainly removed any excess paint from the rail head, but has also removed patches of paint from the sleepers where the cotton head overhangs the rail. So I need to look for another method, maybe trying a nail buffer as used by Jerry Clifford on his 2FS layouts. Track rubbers have no place in my house!

Next job will be forming the basic landscape, but first, a brew;

Paul.

Drystone Moss: a 006 pizza - track and electrics.

 Before I laid any sleepers I marked out 4 circles using a pair of compasses. These were used to show the positions of not only the running rails but also the sleepers. I then drew a series of radial lines from the centre, to help get the sleepers straight. Then I could start glueing the sleepers, made from copperclad strip from C&L cut 14mm long and gapped, down with UHU;

I haven't fixed every sleeper in place, just enough to solder the track to but still leaving the marker lines visible.

I started with the outer rail;

To get an even curve I used my rail bender.

The rail wasn't quite long enough, so I had to bend and lay a small section to close the gap, adding extra sleepers where the rail was to go;

I cut the end of the rails so the joins were made on a sleeper, which hasn't been done yet in the above photo.

After soldering the extra piece in place I could then use my 3 point gauges to position the inner rail;

However, I had to take up the inner rail as I made a mistake when making the gauges and had to machine up a new pair. We live and learn. Once I'd made the new gauges then the inner could be laid.

Yet again I had to let in a short length of rail, and I staggered it's position in the circle to help avoid any kinks;

Here's a view of the join on the outer rail;

Now that the track was laid, and double checked (it did need a bit of adjusting in a couple of places, but hey, I'm new to this!) I could wire it up. I drilled holes next to the rails and soldered the wires to the underside of the rails. To add redundancy I soldered two wires to each rail, at the joins, just in case any of my soldered joints fail. The red wires go the outer rail and the black to the inner;

To keep everything tidy I used to self-adhesive runners to hold the wires in place. I tested the wiring with a multi-meter and as everything was as it should be I then glued the rest of the sleepers in place;

My laser-cut van has been temporarily fitted with an experimental 6mm gauge wheelset. Fun can be had tilting the board so the van runs around the track! At this stage I haven't soldered the rail to the extra sleepers, I don't think it necessary.

I do need to fill the gaps in the sleepers where I insulated them, and maybe add some cosmetic spike detail, but right now its time for a brew;

I also need to build a loco and some stock to go with it!

Paul.

Drystone Moss: a 006 pizza - baseboard

 I've finally decided to not only build a layout but also to realise a long standing ambition to build one in 006, that is 4mm scale using a track gauge of 6mm to represent 18" narrow gauge.

The baseboard itself couldn't be simpler, just a 14" diameter piece of 1/2" MDF, badly cut from an odd offcut with a jigsaw;

The three screws hold the feet in place, these being drawer handles bought cheaply (damaged packaging) from a DIY superstore;

They're beech, and I gave them a coat of linseed oil. Also to be seen is a bracket made from aluminium angle, screwed in place and drilled for two banana sockets, which sorts out the electrics rather neatly.

The MDF was first undercoated, to seal it, then sprayed with Rustoleum Painter's Touch matt black. This is perhaps a bit overkill, but at least the underside will look smart if the track and scenery don't go as planned!

The next job will be cutting up sleeper strip and laying track, but first, a brew;

Paul.