Pentrecourt Halt and the Occupation Bridge
 The area being worked on in the posts above represents a small halt between Henllan and Newcastle Emlyn.
Tucked into the bank above the Afon Teifi and adjacent to the Altycefan Road Bridge it is as interesting to model as it is picturesque.

The subject of my first real go at modelling in N scale a small diorama was built as part of a forum project.

The topic is here for those who are interested in seeing the circle completed.

It was a litmus test of my modelling skills, if I couldn't make a diorama then there wasn't much point in building a layout.

Pretty pleased with this in the end…



 
The module was never designed to "slot" into the layout and I was always aware that at some stage in the future the area would be rebuilt on the layout.

Some of it has now been built but for some reason the occupation bridge had been forgotten.

You can see where it should be in this sketch.





And where it isn't in this photo.




So… something had to be done.

Shaun very kindly took a photo or two of the real thing:




and I realised, with delight, that the previous arched occupation bridge wasn't actually what existed. Something slightly different to build. Bewdy (to quote a friend of mine).



Enthused, and believe me I was loath to cut the spline road bed, civil works on the railway formation commenced:




We are were underway at last.

Oh my word Marty. Seeing that last picture turned my stomach. The dreaded axe, or saw in this case, in action.

Good grief Marty …………..I hope the glue is well and truly set on that spline trackbed. :shock::shock:

After all that effort building it in the first place, It would be a disaster if it just boomeranged out wiping the surrounding scenery clean …………:???:

I'd forgotten about the module build - fantastic to re-read it all.  Some truly inspired modelling in there. :cheers

[user=6]Petermac[/user] wrote:

Good grief Marty …………..I hope the glue is well and truly set on that spline trackbed. :shock::shock:

After all that effort building it in the first place, It would be a disaster if it just boomeranged out wiping the surrounding scenery clean …………:???:

I'd forgotten about the module build - fantastic to re-read it all.  Some truly inspired modelling in there. :cheers

….a dreadful 'P-p-poing!' accompanied by whizzing noises….[breath duly baited]

 

Doug

:lol::lol:
I must admit I was a little concerned… less for the poinngggg factor :lol: but more for weakening the structure. The glue had well and truly set and the curve was fixed and strong, thankfully.

Previously an undercut has been necessary:



and the hassle encouraged me to take to the razor saw and replace the road bed with a small bridge piece, it seemed to work pretty well.



Then there was a need to work out what materials to make the bridge out of… this time it's a compilation of balsa wood and plasticard.

Here's the balsa craft pack available at the local mega hardware store:



The frame being of balsa and then a skin of plasticard. Why? The balsa is easy to sculpt/cut/shape and the plasticard provides both strength and the moulded brickwork , which to my mind, is better than paper brickwork (the paper bricks evident on the bridge on the left).

Here's the base for the occupation bridge, plasticard buttress walls in place.



Getting excited about the photographic potential for this scene
;-)

Marty

So are we.  :thumbs

vg

What do you stick the plasticard to the balsa with Marty ?  I've usually found plasticard difficult to stick to other materials (particularly wood) and offer much in the way of a strong bond ………:roll:

Peter,
I'm using a liquid called Tetra which I'm told is more versatile than MEK. Applied with a brush it melts/welds the plasticard. I've found that the balsa is sufficiently porous as to allow the melted plasticard to key into it. Seems to work. Time will tell.

Thanks Marty - I wonder if there's a European equivalent …….:roll::roll:

I'll see what Google has to say. :cheers

Some great work there Marty. As others have commented upon, the backscene works vey well. By having that group of houses in the middle distance you have achieved an excellent feeling of depth as though looking across a valley. The landscaping exercise is also interesting as I have kept away from plaster. Whatever you use though, the benefits of your open frame base board are very evident. Your railway is blending beautifully into the countryside.

Cheers Bob,
When I started this layout my goal was always to have the railway in the landscape. The spline roadbed and open baseboard were part of the attempt to get undulating country… I think I'm getting there.

I may yet build a spline roadbed on a descending curve on my layout Marty.  Yours is very impressive - I just hope I have the patience otherwise mine will caertainly become a boomerang …………:roll::roll::roll:

As you say. other than the obvious advantages of strength and flexibility (in terms of where you can get it to go), it's a great way to allow the scenery to "grow" around the railway.

I found it quite therapeutic to build, nice smooth flowing curves with proper transitions.

My problems could be that:

                                    a) it's in "OO" Gauge and
                                    b) It's double track

so. by my reckoning, that's one heck of a lot of strips of ply or MDF ………………..:roll::roll::roll:

Ah… Yes… There is that!

N gauge, single track was 10 x 3mm mdf splines… You could be up for quite a bit of therapy.

Maybe, as the 00 radius curves are larger than that available to N you could use a thicker, and less bendy, MDF spline, say 5mm?

Just a thought.

 They are good though. The tricky bit is getting the transition from a grade back to the horizontal BEFORE joining up to a flat baseboard section.

How do I know this?

[user=6]Petermac[/user] wrote:

My problems could be that:

                                    a) it's in "OO" Gauge and
                                    b) It's double track

so. by my reckoning, that's one heck of a lot of strips of ply or MDF ………………..:roll::roll::roll:

I'd recommend buying a cordless circular saw, fitting a 4" tungsten blade, and using that to cut out the curved sections in 6mm ply, it's what the 'smart' people are doing in boat building to cut out the curved ply shapes for stitch and tape boats. Despite being a circular saw, it will cope very well with smooth gentle curves….

Doug

Hmmm.  That's a thought Doug ……….

I wonder if a circular saw will negotiate a 3ft radius curve …………:roll::roll::roll:  I could use a jigsaw but the blades are the very devil to keep both straight and vertical.

If you set the blade to protrude only about 1/8th" I reckon it will do 3ft radius easily enough….

D

Er … it wouldn't cut through 6mm, Doug.

I've probably misunderstood the question.