Countryside Loop progress

The rear of the loop will be covered over, with an access hole to allow access to any derailments. I shaped some thin flexible plywood around some hardwood uprights which give it rigidity. I've managed to put a simple platform in against the rear wall. Next step will probably be ballasting and finishing the lid of the box section.

Class 156 at Countryside Loop station

Countryside loop shaped and painted

I used a proxxon jigsaw to cut the countryside loop to a bit of a smoother shape, and gave it a base colour of brown. Next step is to box in the hidden section behind the stone wall and then then start working on the terrain. 

Countryside Loop Wall and Tunnel

The countryside loop will be partially covered by a rock wall with two tunnels. The rock wall shown below was made from extruded foam, the kind which is quite solid and does not fall apart into lots of little white balls. I hacked it up with a bread knife and then sprayed it: grey, dark brown, tan, yellow and white. It looks okay for a first attempt. The tunnel entrance is my custom design which I created by editing a Scalescenes rock-wall texture. Each individual brick in the arch was positioned manually at varying angles to complete the arc. I added some smoke effect to the tunnel entrance simply by brushing on black pastel dust.

Class 27 exiting countryside loop tunnel

Countryside Loop under construction

Since the layout won't completely go around the room (I kinda need to use the doorway), there has to ulitmately be two loops in the circuit, one at each end. This is so that the trains can run non-stop without constantly reversing the direction.

The first loop I'm building is the countryside loop, since this is going to be the simpler of the two. The plan is to create a canal / country-inn scene in a depression created in the loop and have some cottage style housing around the outside. I plan to put a hill over a semi-circle of the loop and have two tunnels, so that it's not so obvious that it is simply a loop. The tunnel can give the impression that the circuit continues elsewhere.

The lock will lead to the canal bridge eventually

Old-style cottages for around the edge of the loop

View from above shows the loop which is attached onto L brackets which are screwed into the wall

Pastel Dust Weathering

Class 43 HST

Although I eventually plan to airbrush the trains, the scraped-pastel and cotton wool-dab-on method gives some pretty good results.

Class 156 Sprinter

Some tidying up required on the station here, the spray glue which I used to glue the paper to the 1mm card tends to unstick unless you really spray a lot on. The Class 156 is one of the longest indiviudal carriages I have and it catches the edge of the platform on its departure, so some modificiations are in the pipeline.

Arrival of new rolling stock!

I know that it's kind of the wrong way around, but I have a disease which causes me to keep buying trains, even if there's not enough room for them on the layout. Please pray silence for the new class 27 and class 108 DMUs!

Class 27 Diesel towing a Mk1 DBSO in Intercity livery plus a couple of MK2A coaches

Class 108 DMUs at a currently unnamed station

The Techlab Network starts construction

The Techlab Network is (will be) an N gauge railway based on British Rail rolling stock in the late 1980's. In this blog you will be able to see the development of the project from the start (well, almost the start) to the finish.

Creating a British Railway layout in Switzerland has its challenges, mainly in that the shops here have no British model railways stock, so everything I have is imported from the UK. This usually involves trips back to the UK and careful suitcase packing.

My plan is to try to keep the layout as realistic as reasonably possible, and without completely taking over the room. I still plan to use the Techlab to make other things. I've got a particular interest in constructing model buildings from card.