More little trains...

Real ones this time! Any holiday to Wales wouldn't be complete without a ride on one of the numerous narrow gauge railways! So last week we picked the one rainy day to travel on the Vale of Rheidol Railway from Aberystwyth to Devils Bridge. And here are the snaps!

These were all taken at Devils Bridge.

Buff part 2

Just rang the shop, and no, they don't have it in stock. To be honest they never seem to have anything in stock!

In the buff

Have spent half the day today putting down ballast on the Yuletide side of the track. This was the first ballast to go down and also the first ballast to come up. My gut instinct was to use granite grey ballast, but when the shop I went to didn't have it in bulk I decided to try Woodland Scenices fine Buff instead. I should have stuck to my gut feeling. Whilst it looked ok when I did a sample (ok-ish... I convinced myself) as more of the track was covered the more I disliked it. It went a little orangey and looked more and more like sand... exactly the look I didn't want.

I did a little research into ballast colours and if I had been modelling GWR I might have got away with it. As it is I am modelling Midlands/North east and it just looked wrong.

I have tried to remedy the situation with a grey paint wash but the effect was not great. So the final solution is to take up the ballast I have put down so far and start again. Thankfully I used a latex based glue (Copydex) to stick the ballast which makes taking it up a lot easier!

So the next job is to source some fine/extra fine granite grey chippings. Hopefully my local n gauge shop is open tomorrow and for once is stocking the items I want!