Rowenwood

[glencairn]

Coming along nicely, dursleydog. Well done.

Glencairn

[dursleydog]

Had some more time to work on the layout and more kits arrived! Built my station and station building (really love that metcalfe wayside station kit) which means most of the major infrastructure is now in place. The track is all painted now, it will get another light weathering once the ballast is all down.
Backscenes have been put in place and retaining walls finished, which with the platforms being finished have really started to make the thing feel like an actual model railway now. Scratchbuilding the retaining walls has saved me an awful lot of money compared with my original plan of buying metcalfe kits, even if I have a simpler design as a result.

The Station Platform

The metcalfe station building looks good in the corner, I'm going to enjoy getting lots of small details on the platforms to really bring it to life, but my first detailing project is going to be focused on the shed area. I'm currently planning to scratchbuild a small brick coaling stage and I've ordered a few other small bits and pieces for this area. I've also got a small lump of coal that I'm going to grind up and scatter coal dust over the fine cinders ballast for the shed area because the ballast probably isn't fine enough for cinders, and to make small lumps of coal for the coal staithes and coaling stage.

[glencairn]

Looking good, dursleydog.

Glencairn

[Bufferstop]

Hi dursleydog, coming on nicely, but it does show up one of the disadvantages of printed retaining walls. repetitive patches! It's not your fault, it's a consequence of repeating "random" variations. If you can get an editable version of the file you print there's something you can do about it. I print one copy to the highest quality I can the scan it and save it as a "JPG". Once you have the editable file copy sections of it and paste them back over the top in different places, have fun thinking how many ways you can make the bits look different, flip bits from side to side, combine bits then recopy them and paste them somewhere else, and as you are doing it print off copies at various points in the process. You end up with a much more random wall.
I'm going to have to redo a bit of my backscene as the house roofs have come out repetitive, I didn't notice before I did the "perspective squeeze" on it, so I'll have to do the whole lot again, but that's a different story, which I'll leave for another day.

[dursleydog]

Hi dursleydog, coming on nicely, but it does show up one of the disadvantages of printed retaining walls. repetitive patches! It's not your fault, it's a consequence of repeating "random" variations. If you can get an editable version of the file you print there's something you can do about it. I print one copy to the highest quality I can the scan it and save it as a "JPG". Once you have the editable file copy sections of it and paste them back over the top in different places, have fun thinking how many ways you can make the bits look different, flip bits from side to side, combine bits then recopy them and paste them somewhere else, and as you are doing it print off copies at various points in the process. You end up with a much more random wall.
I'm going to have to redo a bit of my backscene as the house roofs have come out repetitive, I didn't notice before I did the "perspective squeeze" on it, so I'll have to do the whole lot again, but that's a different story, which I'll leave for another day.

Yeah it’s not perfect but it’ll have to do. I was going to go at it with some weathering powders at some point and hoping some uneven weathering will mask the repetition. Your method sounds an interesting way around it, but unfortunately my printer is a bit rubbish!

[dursleydog]

Dammit, had to bin the station and start again. Tested the gauging of it with my 9F and some mark ones and all was well, but my 08 shutter fouls on the platform! Attempts to trim it down just ruined the edges of it and it looked scrappy. Had to buy another one, with lesson well and truly learnt to test with ALL rolling stock!
In happier news, ballasting is ticking along nicely and surprisingly quickly, and with the new platform kit I may have also picked up a ‘Castle’... Whoops...

[RailwayRobbo]

Dammit, had to bin the station and start again. Tested the gauging of it with my 9F and some mark ones and all was well, but my 08 shutter fouls on the platform! Attempts to trim it down just ruined the edges of it and it looked scrappy. Had to buy another one, with lesson well and truly learnt to test with ALL rolling stock!
In happier news, ballasting is ticking along nicely and surprisingly quickly, and with the new platform kit I may have also picked up a ‘Castle’... Whoops...

I can sympathise with you. I did exactly the same thing on 'Petersdale'. My 08 now works exclusively in the goods yard LOL.
Pete
RailwayRobbo

[dursleydog]

Dammit, had to bin the station and start again. Tested the gauging of it with my 9F and some mark ones and all was well, but my 08 shutter fouls on the platform! Attempts to trim it down just ruined the edges of it and it looked scrappy. Had to buy another one, with lesson well and truly learnt to test with ALL rolling stock!
In happier news, ballasting is ticking along nicely and surprisingly quickly, and with the new platform kit I may have also picked up a ‘Castle’... Whoops...

I can sympathise with you. I did exactly the same thing on 'Petersdale'. My 08 now works exclusively in the goods yard LOL.
Pete
RailwayRobbo

Sadly my 08 is intended to be used as a station pilot so there’s no way around it

[dursleydog]

Been working on the small engine shed area, used a mixture of fine cinders ballast and round up real coal to create a few small piles of coal around the area. I also rusted up some spare lengths of rail and some (not seen in these photos) spare wheels and scattered them around as some shed clutter. I added in some wooden crossings and bought a couple of water towers, so the area is beginning to come together now.
Other little projects include the new buffers which I've painted a filled with some real coal, and scratchbuilding a small wooden coaling stage.

Standing in the shed is the current fleet of locomotives, Castle Class 'Sir Daniel Gooch' arrived yesterday and is a fantastic little model. Sits quite nicely alongside 9F 'Evening Star' and my little 08 station pilot. Still need a few more for some proper terminus station operation though, so next on the list will probably be a Dapol Pannier tank engine or a BR Standard Tank Engine for those local services.

[lenht1951]

What did you use to get the platform surface looking so good

[dursleydog]

What did you use to get the platform surface looking so good

Firstly, thank you!

And secondly, all I used is the Metcalfe stone platform kit. It’s a really good little kit with tonnes of flexibility and their tarmac surface has a nice matt finish to it.
I’m going to spruce it up with some weathering powders down the line to make it a little more grimy and run down.

[dursleydog]

Some photos of the steadily improving scenery.

The decorated buffers with coal.

The engine shed, with the scratchbuilt coaling stage on the right. This was the 2nd attempt after the first one in brick just looked rubbish!

The (current) full lineup. 'Sir Daniel Gooch' simmers away in PLatform 4, with 'Evening Star' sat in Platform 2. The Class 08 shunter on pilot duties moves empty stock out of platform 1.

[Dublo]

Nice one dursleydog, Rowenwood is really starting to take shape now. Looking forward to seeing it develop further.

[dursleydog]

Been working a lot on the station area recently, finally getting into some of the finer detail which has taken some getting used to in N, found some of it very fiddly!
Started by picking up some canopy kits, station benches, and lampposts before spending a fair few afternoons being laughed at by my artist girlfriend for my painting technique however, the end result looks pretty western region and probably neat enough. I also bought some signals off ebay and eventually balanced them long enough for the glue to set. I've stood the platform signals on some wooden boards built with some scoured and painted card.
I also picked up metcalfe kits for a goods shed and yard crane which fills up that little corner really well. After this, I bought some Sankey Scenics personalised signs and dotted them around the station and yard areas.
Ticking along quite nicely now! Next big big job will be some scatter and grass to finally cover up the remaining baseboard.

Detailing on the station platforms.

The Goods Shed

'Sir Daniel Gooch' passes the array of signals at the platform end.

[joshv8]

Gee this has progressed well. Awesome job! I'm constantly amazed by the realism achieved now by card kits and brick papers. It reminds me of the layouts I used to see as a boy, thanks for sharing.
Josh