I set myself the task of completing the indoor section of the railway this winter; as my definition of the season is January, February and March, I have achieved my goal with two days to spare.
The last month has been spent carrying out the scenic work and making all the fiddly little details that add life to the scene but take quite a while to produce.
The majority of the station fencing was recovered from the removed second platform at Culdaff. This needed to be cleaned up and repainted and then reconfigured to suit the new site; a small new section of fencing had to be added to this and a gate made to give access to the General Manager's office which is located at the bottom of the station garden.
The station lamps are Roundhouse kits, the two in the loco yard are finished in red primer but the three platform lamps received seven coats of acrylic moss green (the paint was very thin). I have fitted the lamps with 18v grain of wheat bulbs rather than the supplied LEDs, the LEDS will be used elsewhere in the future.
The last month has been spent carrying out the scenic work and making all the fiddly little details that add life to the scene but take quite a while to produce.
The majority of the station fencing was recovered from the removed second platform at Culdaff. This needed to be cleaned up and repainted and then reconfigured to suit the new site; a small new section of fencing had to be added to this and a gate made to give access to the General Manager's office which is located at the bottom of the station garden.
The station lamps are Roundhouse kits, the two in the loco yard are finished in red primer but the three platform lamps received seven coats of acrylic moss green (the paint was very thin). I have fitted the lamps with 18v grain of wheat bulbs rather than the supplied LEDs, the LEDS will be used elsewhere in the future.
 General Manager's office and garden gate. |  The General Manager in the garden, note the enamel signs. |
The enamel advertising signs were made from photographs of actual signs, most of them taken on the Bluebell Railway in Sussex, but the two Irish Whiskey signs were photographed during a trip to the Jameson's Distillery museum at Midleton County Cork in 2009, I knew I would use them one day.
The photos were cropped to size and scaled down, and then printed on high quality photo paper. Once the images were cut out using a scalpel, they were given a coating of Artist's clear glaze spray; when dry, the signs were glued to 30 thou black Plastikard sheet and glued to the station fencing. Curiously, all the signs advertise beverages of some kind or another, both alcoholic and non-alcoholic.
The station names on the benches and the large nameboard were made in the same way, but these were produced in Open Office Writer on the PC, this could probably also be done in MS Word, but Open Office Writer delivered just the right shade of green for me.
I also reduced and printed on plain paper, a GSR poster advertising the delights of travel in Ireland and a timetable, this is a scaled down copy of the July 1929 timetable for the Castlederg and Victoria Bridge Tramway. These were mounted on small pieces of Plastikard and stuck either side of the waiting room door.
The photos were cropped to size and scaled down, and then printed on high quality photo paper. Once the images were cut out using a scalpel, they were given a coating of Artist's clear glaze spray; when dry, the signs were glued to 30 thou black Plastikard sheet and glued to the station fencing. Curiously, all the signs advertise beverages of some kind or another, both alcoholic and non-alcoholic.
The station names on the benches and the large nameboard were made in the same way, but these were produced in Open Office Writer on the PC, this could probably also be done in MS Word, but Open Office Writer delivered just the right shade of green for me.
I also reduced and printed on plain paper, a GSR poster advertising the delights of travel in Ireland and a timetable, this is a scaled down copy of the July 1929 timetable for the Castlederg and Victoria Bridge Tramway. These were mounted on small pieces of Plastikard and stuck either side of the waiting room door.
 Name board, fencing, lamps and the Paddy whiskey advert, (I prefer Jameson's). |  Station building with timetable and poster, and alcohol adverts. |
The loco yard was cluttered up with various items including some nice Platelayer's tools from Back 2 Bay 6, sadly no longer with us, plus oil drums (Modeltown) and some real coal. A water crane from GRS was installed between the tracks and some Modeltown telegraph poles were planted.
 Ballast on the mainline and the yard surface. The telegraph pole is upright, the image is distorted by the camera lens. |  Platelayer's tools and coaling area. The ballast colour is more accurate in this photo. |
The mainline was ballasted by dry brushing Postcrete in between the sleepers and then soaking with water by using a hand held garden spray bottle. The station was masked off during this process to protect it from cement splashes.
The loco shed was given a floor by building up layers of plastic sheet to rail level between the rails and laying a piece of OSB between the two tracks, the rest of the shed floor and the loco yard was infilled with repair cement and then soaked with the spray bottle. Once dry, the shed and yard area was given a wash of diluted black masonry paint.
The loco shed was given a floor by building up layers of plastic sheet to rail level between the rails and laying a piece of OSB between the two tracks, the rest of the shed floor and the loco yard was infilled with repair cement and then soaked with the spray bottle. Once dry, the shed and yard area was given a wash of diluted black masonry paint.
The area to the front of the goods shed was given a bit of contour by building up with layers of foam board cut to a contour shape and then coated with plaster of Paris. This area, the station garden, mill yard and footpath and the front edge of the layout were painted with artist's acrylic Raw Umber. Once dry the areas were painted with diluted PVA and scatter grass or gravel was applied as appropriate, finally finishing off with various shades of Lichen.
 The mill yard. The square structure, that looks like a well, is where the mill race turns through 90 degrees after leaving the mill wheel and then runs underground. |  The lever frame and staff toilets. |
The final piece of detailing to go in was a six lever frame, made up from three two lever frames from Back 2 Bay 6. I am not a S&T enthusiast, so I have not modelled any point rodding; some one once said 'life's too short to stuff a mushroom', and I think that applies equally to adding point rodding! In order to disguise this glaring omission, I have made up a boarded cover for the cranks and rodding, made from planked plastic sheet, this runs to the edge of the nearest track, don't ask me what happens to the rodding after that!
 View looking towards the mill. |  View looking towards the loco shed and yard. |
Finally, the edge of the baseboard and the legs that support the workbench above the station were given a couple of coats of matt black in order to tone down their appearance.
With the exception of making a small diorama a couple of years ago, this is the first bit of indoor scenic modelling I have done since the early 1980s, and that was in the smaller scales. The finished result is not to exhibition standards but I think it conveys enough atmosphere to make it fairly convincing. I can now say that the railway is complete, but not finished, another possible extension is being planned for development in 2017/18!
With the exception of making a small diorama a couple of years ago, this is the first bit of indoor scenic modelling I have done since the early 1980s, and that was in the smaller scales. The finished result is not to exhibition standards but I think it conveys enough atmosphere to make it fairly convincing. I can now say that the railway is complete, but not finished, another possible extension is being planned for development in 2017/18!
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