Pointy Stuff

Looks like the Salt Mine has got to me again. New job and new challenges have meant that train time hasn't been as much as it usually is as the Salt Mine demands much focus and pounds of flesh. Anyway, no use whinging.....no-one listens anyway. Also, being Christmas, the Vendors are showering me with lurve in the form of parties and drinkies and add to that family, you see why I haven't been getting much done. It's probably good to have a bit of a break now and then so when you get back to it, you have that much more enthusiasm.
Point building continues and I've nearly completed one with the just the guard rails and power feeds to go. Here's how it looks

A #6 Point for Hill Top

I'm reasonably happy with it so far and it should look Ok once all the rail is painted and weathered. Hopefully, there won't be too many mechanical issues with it. I guess I won't really know until it's installed and carrying traffic. So I've now only got another 8 to go................................. Remember how I was saying I wanted to have something running by Christmas, well given it's under 4 weeks away, I reckon my chances of making that happen are pretty slim. Maybe I'll get it together in my January holidays, we'll see.
Lastly I thought I'd post a shot of something different, Elscotto's 60ft Sellers turntable that he started for me. Here's a shot of it

This will become Picton's Turntable

I've also enlisted the help of the ARHS Resourcing Centre to look for plans of Hill Top and Thirlmere for when I can start building the station layouts. Looking forward to what they can turn up and once I get the track built, I can start on the intersting stuff...sometime in 2020.

On Track

Work on the tracks continued this weekend with all the track, except the points, gapped, fishplated and painted. I also soldered all of the electrical feeds to each individual track section / panel with dual feeds on the longer sections. I also made small razor saw cuts on the rail heads to represent the gaps between individual rails and then glued fish plates to the sides of the rails. I then painted the track with Floquil Rail Brown but will follow up with some highlights of rust etc here and there to give some contrast. I've only detailed and painted the viewable side of the rail as there's not point wasting any more time on track that will never be seen. Any way here's how its turned out so far,

The rail brown looks a different shade in real life

More contrasts will make it look better I think

I picked up some Extruded Polystyrene Board from Foamex in Revesby so I can build up the height of Hill Top so I can have the mainline ascend up to the level of the down refuge.

And a big thanks to Linton for sending me a whole bunch of plans for Picton Station, Stonequarry Creek Viaduct, the Engine Shed and Goods Shed. This should spur me on to get the top deck up and running as I'm really looking forward to getting stuck into something aside from track. I probably should take a break from the track but I just want to get it done so hopefully, it won't take too much longer.