A spot of painting today. First the booster transformers…



Now the bridge and sky background….





This one shows how the N gauge layout fits above the 00 one…

Dave

The detail you are putting into your catennary system is extremely good i doubt if you would ever see many layouts with detail like that  plus the size of your railway as well its a great achievement

cheers Brian

 

It's beautiful work, Dave.  I have been meaning to ask you about the grey overspray on the red retaining walls.  Are you going to change the colour of the walls later?

:doublethumbHi Dave,

Echo Max and Brian …. aspirational work here, mate.

John

keep going Dave it`s coming good, great stuff.

:doublethumb:thumbs:lol::lol::cool:

Thanks guys for the encouragement! Max I still have the paint for the wall somewhere so it will be getting touched up when i've finished making a mess! Today I have decided to build the sliding covers that will fit over the holes in the garage wall. Once fitted I can then get rid of the two big car wash sponges that currently fill the holes! Expect an update later. ;-)

Updating earler as I need to empty camera memory card. First heres the holes in the wall……



Some plexi glass and washers…..



New garage door….





As usual with these things the second one always comes out better. At leastI tapped the holes on the second one!





 There now dosn't that look a bit better! :lol: 

 

 Very clever Dave and a neat and tidy job too :doublethumb

That's a cat flap and a half

Love it, a regular drawbridge.

you just want another gold star!

:thumbs:thumbs:lol::lol::lol::cool:

:hmm  very ingenious indeed.:pathead

That's excellent, Dave.  Very neat. :thumbs So long as you remember to open them before the running session.  . . . maybe two Tortiose motors wired into your DCC switching matrix . . . :hmm

An ideal solution, Dave and certainly more weather proof than the sponge.

Perhaps it would be a good idea to add a simple hinged flap on the outside to shut down when there's driving wind and rain :question:question

Very neat Dave, who's a clever lad then :pathead

Phill

Thanks guys. Jeff this area is actualy roofed over with clear sheeting and about 2' above the openings is a very wide shelf where the recycling boxes live! My main concern is we had a problem with a certain roland and I didn't want anything getting in and distroying two years of work. Today the axe will come out for a slight rebuild of the layout. I would like to add a typical WCML style bridge with the distintive concrete arch so the track will be carfully lifted some ply pushed under to widen the baseboard then the bridge built so expect some pics tonight. ;-)

Ok here we go then. Well to start off with heres the finished entrance to the garage….



Once painted it will blend in quite nicely and will provide a secure anchor for the OHLE. Moving on to todays build. This is the area in question……



Basicly its the point where the railway comes off the wall and turns to enter the garage. I always intended to build a bridge across here at some point so to get an idea I did a mock up…





First job was to remove some of the OHLE…





Next all the pins were removed and some 5mm ply slid under the tracks….





The branch line was realigned before being pinned back down. The Ohle supports were then replaced. The two single masts were recycled from the back of the garden…





Now the fun part. I wanted the bridge to resemble an electrification rebuild with the distintive concrete arch. After some thought I came up with the following. First heat up some plexiglass sheet on the gas hob and bend to shape…



Mark out the underside and then cut some grooves in using a mini drill….



Quick coat of paint. Note I only cut the grooves so far across…



Turn right way up…..



Reason I didn't cut right across is you wont see all the arch. Moving on wooden frame..



Wills brick sheet….



Add arch…



Fit walls….











Overall view…



Now with the basic bridge in place the layout when viewed from back up the line realy looks like the WCML. Mission acomplished!

 

 

You do not muckabout Dave, it probably takes you longer to take photos & do the posting on here than build the bridge. - Well done indeed.

Good job, Dave, mission accomplished indeed :exclam:exclam Sometimes the simple approach is the best, not to say the easiest and here's a case in point. Excellent progress. :thumbs:thumbs

You're the master of inner vation, Dave.