4mm Milford-On-Sea - was Plumtree Cross

[Nick C]

Well this is odd...

I decided to have an operating session on the layout yesterday evening, to check it all worked after ballasting. It doesn't. It has a short - or rather, several. After a visual check of everything, and some prodding with the multimeter, I tipped the board up and started disconnecting feeds. Ended up cutting the lot - short still present. Checked all the cast crossings, all fine, no continuity between them and the adjacent rails.

Then jabbed the probes into the ballast - and at about 2mm distance, enough continuity to trigger the buzzer... So I think I have conductive ballast? Has anyone else seen that? Am I going crazy?

It only happens with the geoscenics siding ballast - doing the same with the woodland scenics on the running line shows open circuit, and indeed those rails don't have a short. Both were glued down with WWScenics ballast glue.

 

[Nick C]

So with the layout on hold until I decide what to do about the ballast, I decided to try my hand at weathering, using some of the techniques from the first couple of chapters of George Dent's book.

The open is a Cambrian model, on which the varnish went white on drying, so I've tried adding in some replacement planks, followed by a brown wash - it needs more work to tone it down once dry. The van is a Dapol one, done with the brush-on-wipe-off technique. Thoughts and constructive criticism welcome!

 

[Nick C]

It's been a while without any posting - mostly because I've not really done any modelling since dismantling the abortive Plumtree Cross - work, the allotment, a holiday, and catching Covid took up most of the summer...

I've come back to the 'big' layout, the boards for which were visible under the other in earlier photos. Originally, the plan was to build Lyme Regis, but I've realised I simply don't have the time, or skill, to do an accurate model of a real place to the standard I'd like, so I decided instead to move it along the coast a bit - which also gives me an excuse to make a few changes to include different buildings and features that I like, instead of being constrained by a prototype, as well as adjusting the track plan slightly to give more operational interest, including making the bay platform fully signalled and adding a carriage siding for through stock.

Being off sick with Covid this last week has given me plenty of time to think about alternative locations, and I've picked Milford, as being somewhere that never had it's own railway, and so didn't really develop until the private car came along, unlike it's neighbours at Lymington or New Milton. A line could have come off the main line at Sway, passing through Everton, then finishing to the North-East of the current village.

The plan therefore looks something like this - buildings being placeholders from the Anyrail libary...:

Thoughts very much welcome, in particular:
- Should I stick to having a loco shed rather than the headshunt, as many LSWR branches did? Or should I extend the headshunt off-scene to a private industry (perhaps a boatbuilder at Keyhaven?)
- Would the 'box be better off at the end of the platform, or on the opposite side by the double-slip?
- Does the goods yard look too cramped? Would it be better with just two sidings? I could shorten the one through the shed and move that onto the shorter siding off the loco release crossover, drop the one by the crane, and then lengthen the coal siding.
- I'm not sure about the location of the cattle dock either - but can't work out where it would look best...