Taking A Wrong Turning

Himself has turned his attention now to the missing link at the Rhyd Ddu end of the layout.

This is the part where the layout finishes and the track heads off into the forest cum fiddle yard.

It also includes a baseboard where the trains pass twice travelling in opposite directions.

As you can see this board is half built already.  This is as far as the line went when we exhibited the layout at the WHR Super Power event last year. We've come a long way since then.

The scenery here is quite complicated because the river is crossed for the second time in the top right hand corner and then immediately after the board joint the track passes over the level crossing called Bron Hebog, inspired by the layout may I add.

At this point it should then swing to the right and off into Beddgelert Forest.

However, this is as far as the journey takes us and instead our trains will charge around a sharp left hander. (15" radius for those who are counting)

As you can see from the picture below the boards are aligned in an offset pattern here, with some running across the way and the end ones up and down.

You cannot see the left hand end edge of the layout in the picture which, for those of you who've not had the chance to see it in real life, will give you an impression of just how big - in 009 terms - it's going to be.

Added Extras

Sad to report that I've discovered a flaw in the Artistic Director's exquisite plans for the latest Oberon Wood house.

As I've written here in previous posts I am building the house in two sections - a north and south wing.

The issue is on the south wing. The plans I was given suggested a roof profile with an equal slope on either side and the top point in the centre of the building, which is how I initially built it.

Then I came across one of my research pictures which shows it is asymmetric.

Fortunately the joy of building in styrene is that you can easily graft extra pieces on and blend them in with some extra solvent brushed over the join and some tactical standing.

When it's finished they'll never know. (Except for the fact I've told the whole world here, of course....)

The Tricky Bit At The Back

I've been mentioning that the most challenging bit of the design of the latest Oberon Wood house I'm building is to be found at the back.

A few of the houses - none of which appear to be exactly alike - have a distinctive long gallery window on the first floor, set back beneath an overhanging section of roof.

So how best to represent this on the model?

What I decided to do was fall back on the same styrene fabrication technique I use for scratch building carriages/

This is the first stage effectively creating a sort of comb out of styrene strip.

With another rail glued on top and some cills added to strengthen it the unit was glued into place.

You get more of an impression of how it's going to look with a section of slate effect styrene cut out and placed in position.

What do you think so far?

More Track Goes Down

The track work on Bron Hebog is tantalisingly close to being completed now with lengths being laid on the latest board.

This is the final stretch of the S bend around Cwm Cloch farm where the line has climbed all the way from Beddgelert station.

The ballast has yet to  be laid but that will probably wait until after the rock lining has been added in the cutting.

This shot give a very good impression of just how deep this is even in model form. 

Heaven help us if anything derails in there during an exhibition because you're going to need a very long arm to reach in there...

The Other Half

I've been making rapid progress with the latest house. The basic frame of the northern wing is now made.

This is the view from the front.

The bit of wall that juts out will become the entrance porch and the window frame you can see at the top is yet to be turned into a dormer.

Take a wander around to the back - the side that backs onto the cutting leading into Beddgelert station - and the design gets more challenging.

The obvious cut out section will eventually house a very distinctive, inset gallery-style window.

More on this to come shortly.

Place the two halves in position beside each other and at last we get an impression of the shape of the finished house.

As you can see the two sections are offset, and not only that but at the front there is a wide, deep gully, the lower half of which will have the porch in front of it.

There's also a separate double garage to make which will sit in front of the southern wing.

All in all a very interesting building to tackle.

Grass Cutting

I showed you a picture last week of some of the carpet underlay freshly glued in place on one of the new boards.

When it first goes down there's far too much of it and it's too long and tufty.

Now this section has received a good haircut and if you click back and compare with the previous shot a few days ago you'll notice a big difference.

You've probably also noticed how much we still have to do. Himself won't get a lot of time to laze about in his deckchair this summer.....

House Update

House number four - 24 by street number - is coming along nicely.

I've decided to build it in two halves, or perhaps I should say two wings, and this is the southern one.

That was the front and this, below is the view from the rear.

I've also cut out and prepared the parts for the other half.

Laid out like this it looks like one of those shape puzzles where you have to fit all the bits into a square.

This northern wing of the house is most definitely not a simple box.