Category Archives: Ardglen
Layout update
Over the last couple of months, I have installed a lot of the xps foam between Doughboy Hollow and Ardglen and painted the backscene and ceiling “sky” blue.
The roadway was formed by cutting out tapered strips of the foam at the same gradient as the railway and gluing down, following the curves I had previously marked out using some scrap pieces of thin foam, allowing it to bend and find natural easements.
Once these were in place, extra foam was glued down to build up the embankment between the road and railway. This will be carved to shape later, as will the rest you see above the railway line.
As I was installing the foam in front of the track where the ballast siding is, I nearly forgot that there will be a couple of lever frames here to operate two turnouts. So after some quick designing, some recessed boxes were built into the benchwork to house these future lever frames.
The next jobs planned are to carry out some more ballasting between Doughboy Hollow and Ardglen where the track currently ends. I have also commenced work on some more turnouts for Ardglen with the aim to install these so I can lay more tangent track through Ardglen and through the tunnel. Carving of the scenery foam will also take place.
Cheers.
Well, I’m still here..!
Hi all,
Apologies for the lack of posts since April 2022. Here’s a brief catch up.
Bogie Ballast Plough
I completed the assembly and detailing of the Stephen Johnson Models bogie ballast plough kit.
I got it to the point where it received a primer undercoat, but that got stripped off again as I wasn’t happy with the finish. It’s currently still sitting on the workbench.
UP Staging Yard extension – Part 2
Work commenced on removing the existing turnouts at the other end of the Up staging yard to accommodate some new 3-way turnouts to complete the lengthening of these yards.
All the turnouts were removed and the PCB sleepers and rail salvaged. Two new 3-way turnouts were built.
New source of XPS foam for scenery
Ever since Bunnings ceased stocking the Knauf XPS foam sheets, I had spent time trying to source a replacement. I contacted a few suppliers but most wanted exorbitant shipping costs to Port Macquarie. I eventually found a building supply company near Canberra that could ship unlimited sheets to me for only $85. So an order of 25 sheets (2400 x 600 x 30mm) was placed just prior to Christmas. The cost per sheet came to $28, and as these were double the size of the old Knauf ones, they ended up being about $4 more expensive. I can live with that. Having replenished my stock of foam, I can now resume scenery work between Doughboy Hollow and Ardglen.
Spline prep at Ardglen for future turnout controls
One of my goals for this year is to continue tracklaying through Ardglen and onto Pangela. For this to proceed, some cutting of the spline at the turnout locations was necessary.
The locations in the main area of Ardglen were quite straightforward. This involved removing a section of spline with a router down to a depth of approximately 6mm to accommodate a piece of ply. Once this was glued in position, the remaining spline underneath the ply was cut away. Extra supports either side of the cut-out are also installed where required.
However, the turnout leading from the loop extension into the ballast sidings required a bit more thinking of how to get the router in there, considering I had already laid track on the mainline.
So a plan was devised to support the router over the mainline track using some old melamine shelving that I had. This did the job well.
New motive power arrives
In the last week, Auscision Models delivered their ALCo 44 class locomotives. I had pre-ordered four of these Mark I type. Another superb model. Looking forward to weathering these beasts.
As I mentioned above, I hope to complete a lot of work on the layout this year. One of the first jobs is to complete the ceiling panel and backscene prep over Ardglen for the sky blue paint. Then I want to get back into some scenery foam installation around Ardglen and where the tunnel will start. Once a few of the turnouts for Ardglen are complete, I can also commence tracklaying through Ardglen, through the future tunnel and onto Pangela.
That’s it for this update.
Cheers.
Ceiling panel install Doughboy Hollow to Ardglen completed
The final panel was installed yesterday. I have also temporarily installed the lighting to finalise their locations.
The next step is to remove the lights, fill the joins, undercoat the ceiling then paint with the sky colour. The lights will then be re-installed. I am very pleased with how it’s all come together. There is now plenty of light to continue trackwork and scenery in this section.
The top valance/pelmet will most likely be installed after the majority of scenery is complete.
Ceiling & valence framework installed
Hi all,
It’s been a while between posts!
However, I have been busy. I have been installing more scenery ‘mud’ on the large embankment and partly around the next peninsula towards Ardglen. The track has also been ballasted up to there as well.
I had come to a point where I realised to progress further, I needed to install more lighting.
I had always just moved around temporary fluro lights to where I was working, but this was becoming tiresome.
So the decision was made to install framework for the ceiling and valance from midway above the large embankment all the way through to Ardglen. This will enable me to permanently install the lighting for this section, so that I can continue to work in a well lit area. The same framework was also installed for the future top deck section back to Kankool.
Most of the layout timber work is from DAR pine, 70 x 19mm and 42 x 19mm. However, I was looking to save some money from this point onwards, so I decided to purchase large sheets of 19mm plywood and rip these down into 70mm and 42mm wide strips. The cost of the plywood is about half that of the equivalent DAR pine.
The ceiling will be made from 3mm MDF and painted the sky blue colour. The lighting will then be installed along with the valance up to Ardglen.
More photos will be added as the ceiling installation progresses.
Re-laying track
Well I can’t believe it’s 12 months since my last post. I just never seemed to get around to posting anything.
One of the biggest tasks undertaken was to re-glue the rails to the CV ties all the way from Kankool to Ardglen. I had discovered that the rail had started to lift in quite a few locations. I am still unsure what the cause was, but I’m putting it down to my initial glue mixture of contact cement and MEK.
I had been very apprehensive about doing it, but realised I had to just bite the bullet. Subsequently over about a six week period, I lifted 38 metres of rail, cleaned the old glue of the base and also off the CV ties, and using Pliobond straight from the tube, applied it to both rail and ties and re-laid the rail back in place. The process wasn’t too bad, as it was still all pre-curved.
During the process, I also increased the gap between lengths of rail from virtually nothing to around the thickness of a piece of paper.
The next biggest task had been to install more scenery foam nearly all the way to where Ardglen quarry is located. This was roughed in using previous techniques and is yet to be carved to shape.
More backscene board was installed, again, up to where the quarry is located.
More foam and trees
Work continues on foam installation in the area between the main peninsula and Ardglen.
As mentioned in a previous post, the track will be on quite a high embankment here with the New England Highway skirting around below.
I have also recently been purchasing and stocking up on seafoam “trees”. I have been able to successfully source them from Hattons Model Railways (https://www.hattons.co.uk/…/Gaugemaste…/StockDetail.aspx). They are the Gaugemaster brand GM195. I can get two boxes shipped here for around $60. There are literally dozens of “trees” in each box with a variety of sizes. Have a look at this video by Luke Towan as he describes how to make very realistic gum trees from the seafoam. https://youtu.be/IB6gMvN78fA
I also recently made the tree drying rack Luke uses in the video, and today I prepared some trees for straightening. Every month or so I get another two boxes shipped over and stockpile them.
Ardglen turnouts
Work on the bridge scene has ceased now that the bridge is in and the final ‘water’ pour done, so my attention has now returned to the first set of turnouts for Ardglen.
This complex of three turnouts plus catchpoint was started last year, and all that is required now is to fit the point blades and throwbars. The first of seven blades have been fitted this afternoon.
Tracklaying, turnouts, weathering & sound …
Hi all,
Well, it’s been quite a while since my last post, and since then, quite a bit has been achieved.
I have now got CV track and rail laid from the Sydney end of Kankool up to the approximate location of the Up Home signal at Ardglen, which is shown by the red line in the image below. A total length of around 38 metres (125 feet). This was achieved over about a six week period.
I continued with the rail laying process as described previously here.
Work has also commenced on the first of the Ardglen turnouts at the Kankool end.
During the last few months, I also spent some time finishing up the weathering on three more 45 class locomotives and the fitting of Loksound Select DCC decoders and sugar cube speakers.
I fabricated my own speaker enclosures to fit two 8 ohm, 11 x 15mm ‘sugar cube’ speakers, wired in parallel.
Below are some shots of the weathering on the 45’s.
Cheers.
Spline now 80% complete …
Hi all,
Over the last few months, I have completed all spline work within the Ardglen area, including the ballast sidings, and also to a point about halfway between Ardglen and Pangela.
This now means I have completed construction of 80% of total spline, which equates to 292 feet (88.5 metres) with just 74 feet (22.5 metres) of spline left to build through Pangela and to connect up to the helix.
The two images below are views of Ardglen from either end, showing the storage and goods sidings.
The next image is a shot further down the grade from Ardglen, looking back towards the ballast sidings coming off the quarry road.
The next image shows the shunting neck at the end of the quarry road.
The next image shows a general view of the section above Temple Court. I have yet to finalise setting the grade in this section. Temple Court has been covered with drop sheets to protect the scenery from dust and dirt whilst working above.
The next series of images show the spline from Ardglen tunnel through to a point about halfway to Pangela.
Cheers.
Layout progress update …
Hi all,
Apologies for the lack of updates since early Dec last year. I have been busy with some scenery in the Temple Court section as well as some more benchwork and spline construction.
Temple Court scenery
I’ve made a start on some static grass application but have not done much since Christmas. It’s been tricky getting the look and colours right, but I think it will look OK as it progresses.
Some pics below of the progress so far.
I still haven’t done any more with the rocky outcrop, but you can see lots of plaster castings sitting around for inspiration.
Lower level backscene, upper deck benchwork and spline
I also started installing the backscene from staging through Kankool, including the entry from staging onto the Chilcott’s Ck bridge scene.
The last picture above shows the new supports installed for the upper deck above Kankool as well for backscene support. As mentioned previously, I am using 3mm MDF as the backscene and this will be painted with the sky colour.
I had always planned to work on the lower deck scenery and trackwork from Chilcott’s Ck bridge to Ardglen first before the upper deck, mainly due to thinking I would have access issues on the lower deck for scenery work if I built the upper deck benchwork. In the last few weeks I have since decided to progress with upper deck benchwork, spline and scenery from Ardglen through to Pangela as the next stage.
This all came about after I had started to think about getting the bridge in place and laying track from staging through Kankool. But I realised that this may not be such a good idea as once the bridge was installed, and I had scenery in place, I would be working above all this with the ever present danger of things falling on the scene below.
So, the decision was made to continue with upper deck benchwork above Kankool and around to Pangela as well with spline construction from Ardglen to Pangela.
As I had already built the benchwork for Ardglen and the section above Chilcott’s Ck to Kankool some time ago (see previous post), I started to lay out the spline in this area.
As mentioned above, the plan is to continue with upper deck benchwork all the way from Kankool through Pangela and to build the spline from Ardglen to Pangela, then start on basic scenery formation. Once all the messy stuff with plaster is done on the upper deck, I’ll probably then look at getting the Chilcott’s Ck bridge installed and continuing with scenery through Kankool and beyond towards Ardglen.
Cheers for now.
Liverpool Range 