So welcome to an update of several parts. Firstly, the ballast is down on the town side. I did in fact complete sticking this down about a month ago, but only today have I had chance to tidy it up, make sure it wasn't obstructing the rails. I seems in places I got the glue mix wrong and the ballast has come away when hovering. But I have other plans for the area in question anyway so I'll deal with that another day.
For the ballast I have used Woodland Scenics Fine Grey Blend. I originally used Buff coloured ballast in the same range, but I disliked it. The new ballast is much better.
To fix it in place I used 50:50 Copydex/Water solution with a few drops of washing up liquid. Copydex being a latex based glued. Firstly the ballast was CAREFULLY sprinkled onto the track, trying to make sure between each sleeper was filled, but not overly filled! (This I learnt from my first attempt - there is such a thing as to much ballast!) I then took my trusty miniature "Henry the Hoover" and sucked up the stray ballast around the edges of the track to create straight lines. Henry is invaluable when ballasting, every railway modeller should have one! Finally I took a pipette and carefully dripped the solution onto the ballast. This is when you realise how important the washing up liquid is as it helps the solution soak through the ballast more easily as it breaks the surface tension of the solution. Once applied leave to dry for at least 24 hours. Or in my case, a month :P
Using a latex glue over PVA seems to have a few advantages. The major advantage is that because it is rubbery you can peel it off the track and base board without it ruining either - excellent if you make a mistake! (...such as changing your mind about the colour! *ahem*) And from reading around it appears it does not colour your ballast as much as PVA can. The rubber also apparently softens the noise of the trains when running.
On the downside Copydex can be more expensive than PVA, and it has a slight odour of something close to cat pee when wet - it is thankfully odourless once dry!
Once the ballast is dry the track needs a thorough cleaning to ensure there is no debris stuck to the insides of the rails and between the blades of the points. One note of caution, always ensure your points will still operated before the glue dries.
Prior to ballasting I weathered the rails with a 'rusting' solution using Miniscenes Model's "Realistic Rust". It was an experiment and given the size to n gauge rails its not that noticeable, although on closer inspection it does make a difference... and where it is built up it looks quite effective.
So, after all the cleaning and fixing a few small power issues I finally tested the track. And I'm glad to say everything ran like a charm, including the steam locomotives, which have a habit of finding problems in the layout! For the full test I ran a goods train, usually the most troublesome of trucks, and it ran like a dream! All in all, I'm pretty pleased. The ballast needs weathering yet with soot and weeds and this will be done at some point in the future.
And so on to the loco fleet! I have two new additions. One is a Warship class diesel in maroon which I got for my birthday, and the second is a class 37 diesel in green which I have been waiting for Farish to release for ages! Both are late crest era. The warship isn't strictly the right region (its more south west) but I liked it so I don't care! :) Both are Graham Farish DCC plug and play loco's, and it seems someone at Bachmann/Farish have been listening to the consumers because the new Class 37 was very easy to get into to fit the chip!
An interesting side note with the DCC chips. When I got the Warship I got two Digitrax chips instead of the Bachmann chips. They seem to act very erratically, not responding to the controller sometimes when I change the speed and then suddenly changing speed later on. I have replaced them with Bachmann chips and the problem disappears. Its probably a configuration issue, but I have no idea what to do about it at the moment.
So, with out further ado, here are the obligatory photos of my latest work and the new loco's :)
