Below are a few pictures taken during the basic construction.        

 Photo 1 shows the L girders with the joists and ply track bed being laid.   Photo 2  shows how the risers work.   Photo's 3 & 4 show basic track laying commencing.    Photo 5 above shows droppers waiting solder tinning and then they are finally soldered as in Photo 6 to the rail sides of the underneath (hidden) loop section of tracks.  Those on the main line areas, once ballasted and the rail sides are painted a rusty colour they will become virtually invisible.  Photos 7 to 8 shows further track laying in progress. 

In the background of Photo 9 a trusty H & M controller is used to electrically test a section of track.  Photo 10 shows the track starting to be laid on the terminus stations approach. Photos 11 and 12 show the bare copper continuous 'Bus ring' that runs all around the layout. This is discussed in detail in the Electrical sections pages, but provides a common return path for all non DCC electrics.

The track is pinned into position with the aid of the very fine Peco track pins, which once the track is ballasted and glued they can be removed or if preferred left in place. The Ply top does mean a fine pilot hole has to be drilled at every pins location, but this isn’t to hard to undertake and I use either an Archimedean or electric mini drill with a fine drill bit – about 0.4mm. You will break many drill bits unfortunately, but as the Peco sleepers are fairly soft even a broken drill bit will pass through and into the ply tops.  Insulated rail joiners are installed where necessary as the track laying progresses. Using electro frog points offers much better slow running, but does involve a lot more thought on electrical track feeds and increases the number of insulated rail joints ten fold, but this has to be the price paid to allow slow speed smooth running.

Photo 13 above show the track laying commencing for the through station. Here the down main, down loop and down relief siding are starting to take shape. The space between the two down lines will eventually form the down platform.  I aim to be able to accommodate up to a six coach train and tender loco.  Photo 14 shows track laying almost complete.    Photo 15 show the northern approaches under construction, while Photo 16  shows test coaches on the main through station area.

Next the electrical feeds to the rails are installed. I prefer to use copper wire droppers bent into a off set “L” shape and soldered to the rails web.  However, these could be equally soldered to the rails underside before laying the track and these then pass through a pre drilled hole in the boards top to the underside where the appropriate feed wire is soldered to the protruding copper wire and then the surplus copper dropper wire is cut off, as in Photo 18 and figures 7 & 8 below.     I use pieces of old 1.0mm² T & E mains electric lighting cable which has been stripped and the bare copper wire used as solid droppers.  Track feed wires could be directly fed up through the baseboard and soldered onto the rails sides or underneath, but I like solid droppers, as these give a suitable underside termination point to test onto, should you ever be fault finding under the layout.  You can easily remove them if alterations are being made at anytime. Where as, underneath fitted droppers are likely to be buried in place by the ballast making it that much harder to access and if they break away froi any reason at any time you're unable to replace them!  Always clean both the rail’s side (or bottom) and the copper dropper before soldering. It’s amazing the amount of oxidisation that occurs on nickel silver rail over a short time and this can prevent the smooth flow of solder! I prefer to use a fibreglass pencil style cleaner, which really removes everything likely to cause a high resistance soldered joint.  Ensure no solder forms on the top surface of the rail or derailments will occur.

Above in Photo 19 & Photo 20 test trains of various passenger and goods stock are run to check track alignment and electrical connections. The next stage is to build the two through platforms.  Photo 21 shows the bare basics of the first platform under construction.  15 x 25mm planed timber form the base and cardboard ramp ends abut them.  Next the brick faced sides will be added then the platform surface.  Photo 22 shows the station over bridge and station building under construction. The construction is mainly from mounting card. Once all the main detail is moulded in card, the structure will receive  a covering of brick paper and other detailing such as girders under each archway added.

In Photo 23 the over bridge and booking hall is starting to come together and the two platforms are now in place.  While Photo 24 shows the passenger walk way and steps leading to both platforms. Heavy weathering (dirtying) of the structures has still to be undertaken at this stage.  Photo 25 shows the booking hall, lock up shops and road traffic. Photo 26 shows some weathering add with a few people walking the streets, but there's still plenty more detailing to undertake - more figures and lampposts etc all to be added yet.

After a brief lull in modelling I have restarted again. My choice now was - what platform buildings and canopy would I have for the through station at Elmswood? Normal card kits, such as the Superquick or Metcalfe version were ok, but failed to give me a long enough canopy roof, as I need around 33 inches per platform. So I opted to make my own roofs from mounting card and use three Superquick 'A4' Island platform kits for the actual platform buildings. Therefore each platform will have three separate buildings and a Gents toilet block too all under a long canopy roof supported as necessary in the non building areas on home made or ready made white metal canopy pillars (These still have to be resolved!).

In Photo 31 the construction of the two canopies can be seen. The tabs sticking out from the unpainted left-hand canopy will be cut off flush with the roofs edge once all the PVA glue has dried. Still to do are cut holes for the three chimneys, make up the chimney stacks and paint the roof a dark grey/black colour and finally weather both roofs.   Photo 32 The through station canopy and buildings are in place, still more to do though.  Photo 33 looks as though snow has fallen! But its just plaster bandage being used to create the embankment to the under bridge. The retaining wall has been installed too and now track ballasting can commence.  Photo 34  The same scene as in Photo 33 but now the scenic detailing has begun, but still plenty more to do!

In Photo 39 above the same area is again shown, now the bare plaster has been given a coat of Burnt Umber acrylic paint. The white plaster area will remain until the next section of the back scene is added then more plaster hill side will be added and joined into the section already moulded.   Photo 40 is again the same scene as in P39 but now with scatter laid and chalk face cutting sides finished. The area is still waiting rail edge rusting and a few other finishing touches. The loco just coming into view is A1  60168 'Aberdonian'.  

Photo 41 shows the cutting and tunnel leading under Elmswood's loco depot.  Photo 42 shows the difference between ballast that has been glued in place and that which has just been laid pending gluing. The glued area is in the background on both the lower and upper lines and has a darker almost shadowy tone.

Photo 43 shows prototype Deltic (NRM model) waiting for the down advanced starter signal to clear.  Photo 44 shows a corner of the layout now almost scenically complete. Prototype loco 'Falcon'  heads north, passing farm hand Fred Gates in the field attempting to mend his tractor while Mr Broad the farm owner has just arrived to lead a hand or a few words!  Photo 45 A rack of fish vans heads south hauled by A1A-A1A loco D5531, a very early Airfix GMR loco converted to DCC.  Photo 46 taken from Elmswood's flying school helicopter, shows Elmswood tunnel points and tunnel mouth, but no sign of the P.Way staff, who may be in the hut?

Photo 47 below, shows the new gantry and signalling. Fitted with four colour light signals and is pending final wiring back to the control mimic panel, the gantry signals having been pre wired from the gantry to the underside of the baseboard. The gantry is made of part brass and part plastic construction. Photo P48 shows the opposite side of the gantry.  Photo 49 shows the Midland Pullman (A Bachmann Blue Pullman) heading out of Elmswood Central.

I started off by painting the bare baseboard with a coat of PVA. Photo P51. Then once dried I mixed plaster filler into a creamy constancy and troweled the plaster over the the area to rail height. I used the trowel, well wetted, to smooth off the plaster. Photo P52.  Once dried, a base coat of grey matt paint was applied to the area where I needed the flagstones and the rest was painted a dark brown colour. Photos P53 & P54.  24 hours was allowed to pass before a watchmakers style flat bladed 1.0mm wide screwdriver and a 12 inch rule was used to carefully scribe the plaster into semi random flagstone effect. Photo P55. The area was then hoovered to remove the plaster dust and then an cheap black Ink Jet printer refill kit was used to highlight the flagstone joints and some flagstones too. Several applications of the ink were necessary and each one was wiped off after a few seconds with a dampened cloth to remove the surplus ink (Use rubber disposable type gloves when undertaking this) Photo P56.  After a further 24 hours had passed the whole area was sealed with a coating of spray matt varnish. Buildings were constructed and weathered then placed on the flagstones. Photos P57 & P58.  I have a depot managers brick built office, a dual staff workshop and mess room and a grounded van body as a stores area. Then outside a couple of flood lights, stacks of new concrete cable troughing ducts, cable drums, telegraph poles and various other bits of general clutter. The area was fenced off with spear point fencing and gates added to allow both vehicle, foot and railway access. A small scene of four railway S & T staff are moving a huge cable drum ready for a lorry to collect later in the day! PhotosP59 & P60 and top of article.