I have been slowly moving along with adding more scenery to my Cassilis station in between those other life matters.
Here are a few photographs to show what I have been doing. The backscene has been removed to assist with access, so the views down the yard showing other parts of the layout will not be part of the final scene. The backscene is normally at the rear of the loading bank and the view from the operating position/aisle is of the rear of the station building and the rail side of the loading bank.
The edge of the ballast has been removed to allow the placement of the loading bank.
A view down the yard with the Wollar Goods Shed placed for effect.
View of detailed Rail Central platform - Check for carriage clearance
Loading bank in place with expanded polystyrene shaped filling
View from behind station platform across to the loading bank.
View down the Cassilis yard to the terminus end
Since the ballast was held in place with Long Life Floor Polish (see the last post for an explanation) it was relatively easy to remove the ballast along the edge of the goods siding to give the appropriate clearance from the rail for the loading bank. The Long Life acrylic clear doesnt set the ballast as hard as diluted PVA does which allows it to be removed easily.
I topped the expanded polystyrene backfill of the loading bank with plaster; while it was wet I drifted on a thin layer of brown tile grout and then over sprayed it lightly with methylated spirits to break the surface tension for the following spray of water. As usual with thick plaster it has cracked in a couple of places due to shrinkage and this will have to be corrected. I intend to run a bit of PVA into the cracks then apply some more tile grout and follow up with a spray of methylated spirits and then water to set the grout. Note that the tile grout would likely have Portland cement in it so if applied in depth it could be hard to remove later if required.
The soil bank at the back of the platform was also done with the tile grout over expanded polystyrene and the platform top was done with some Chucks Ballast fine rhyolite material. The plastic top of the Rail Central platform was coated with full strength PVA to assist with bonding of the fine rhyolite.
Well, that is about it for now, I hope to keep on keeping on with Cassilis.
