Safe and dust free!

Approaching the deadline I set myself to have my layout completed, I finally did a major project I had been putting off since the beginning. I added the clear perspex panel to the front of my layout.

The custom-cut sheet of clear perspex came covered in protective paper.

For some reason or other, I had imagined that the cost of having a 1.83 metre long 3 mm thick piece of clear acrylic panel custom cut to order would come as a shock to the system. As it turned out, thanks to the boys at ASAP Plastics in Caloundra, it only cost me $25.

I first test-fitted the perspex panel before removing the protective paper.

Getting it home and up the 5 flights of stairs to my apartment, the next thing I was worried about was my own measurements. Although I had triple-checked the height and length required with my wife patiently holding the other end of the measuring tape, I was unsure about the actual depth of the channels that I had built to hold my reversible backdrop in place almost 12 months earlier. As I discovered when adding the painted sky blue backdrop, the combination of 5 coats of stain and varnish to the layout base, plus the sky blue acrylic paint used on the backdrop lessens the amount of play to slide the panels into place. So before removing the protective paper film from the perspex, I slid the panel into position to test it. It had been cut millimetre perfect!

The perspex is held in place within the stained timber channel frame I built into the layout frame.

As you can see in the above photo, the 3 mm perspex panel is held in place by a 5 mm wide timber channel frame that was built into place when constructing my bookshelf layout. Finally, almost 12 months later, the channels now hold the clear perspex in place, and my layout is finally dust-free!

The reflectivity causes problems with photography, but will keep my model railway safe and dust-free.

In person, the layout now resembles a museum quality display cabinet. However, I immediately noticed the reflective problems it presents when it comes to photography. While the perspex can easily be slid up and removed when I want to work on a model, clean the track or indulge in some rather complicated shunting operations, the bank-teller-like safety-screen I envisioned this being when it comes to taking it to model train shows, is going to cause viewing problems to the general public. So I dare say when on display, the perspex is going to have to be removed, leaving my expensive models at the mercy of over-inquisitive hands. At home however, especially in an ocean-side apartment overlooking the sea in Caloundra, at least my layout is going to be protected from dust, nosey visitors who want to poke at everything with their fingers, and that awful fine salt spray that seems to build up on our windows and even the TV screen. My track can now stay cleaner longer, and I finally feel safe to leave my models sitting on the track at the station, and proudly on display rather than tucked away in their boxes when they're not being 'played with' as my wife likes to call it.

What the clear perspex front does bring into question, is the top lid. Maybe once my staging tracks that will disappear through the mouse-hole door are complete, I may revisit the lid and see if I can replace it with a more durable varnished timber piano-style top. But for now, I'm happy to know that my small layout is now completely dust-free and almost finished.

See also; Replacing legs with panels and Let's build reversible backdrops

Running some CountryLink timetables

I like to keep running my trains fun. Yet even once my removable staging comes online later this year, I'll only have around 9 feet of line to simulate trains coming and going on my bookshelf layout. So how do you keep operations fun? Well, I'll reveal a little bit of my nerdy side here, only if you promise not to tell anyone.

First-up I'm heading west, on the CountryLink Broken Hill Outback Xplorer.

The other part I love about model trains is collecting railway timetables. So with my circa 1993-2007 CountryLink Xplorer now here to stay, I pulled out my set of 2003 CountryLink timetables and created my own fun. Simply by simulating station stops at Philden from the pages of the timetable for each up-and-back movement on my layout. Beginning with the Western timetable, my 2 car Xplorer set had to cover for what is normally a 3 car train on the Broken Hill Outback Xplorer. In this instance, Philden becomes both Sydney's Central Station, and every other station the Xplorer is scheduled to stop at between Sydney and Broken Hill.

Out west, all the stations are starting to look the same.

It sounds simple. Perhaps a little too simple. But running a train up-and-back all afternoon on a bookshelf layout, can in time become a little boring. By pretending that the Mondays only CountryLink service 445 due for a 6.20 am departure from Central Station is scheduled to stop at; Strathfield, Parramatta, Penrith, Katoomba, Lithgow, Bathurst, Blayney, Orange, Parkes, Condobolin, Euabalong West, Ivanhoe, Darnick and Menindee before arriving in the outback city of Broken Hill at 7.10 pm Central Standard Time, I give my highly detailed plastic model a sense of purpose and occasion each time it comes to a stop alongside the station building at Philden. And then there is the matter of returning the train to Sydney once more.

Next I head south....

Once back at Sydney's Central Station, there is just enough time for me to go to the toilet, grab a fresh cup of coffee and perhaps a light snack before taking out my CountryLink Southern timetable and boarding CountryLink service 621, the Canberra Xplorer.

....to the Nation's Capital of Canberra.

The daily 12.14 pm midday departure from Central Station will see my 2 car Xplorer stop at; Strathfield, Campbelltown, Mittagong, Bowral, Moss Vale, Bundanoon, Goulburn, Tarago, Bugendore and Queanbeyan before arriving in the Nation's Capital of Canberra at 4.20 pm.

Along the way I meet my fair share of passing freight trains and connecting road coaches.

On the return 5.15 pm evening service 624 to Sydney, I may even catch a glimpse of my 82 class locomotive shunting the cement works at Philden, or should that read Boral's Maldon cement works. I can never be sure as Philden is simply located 'somewhere in New South Wales at a railway station far, far away...' That's just the beauty of having a fictional model railway.

Changing trains, I'm now headed north west....

Back at Sydney's central station once more at 9.26 pm after my trip to Canberra, I may decide to call it a night, or board the other Southern timetabled Xplorer service, the Saturdays only Griffith Xplorer. I choose instead to stretch my legs around Central Station's grand concourse and once more grab a cup of coffee before pulling out my CountryLink North West timetable and boarding the combined daily 10.05 am service 223/225 to Armidale and Moree.

....on the Xplorer to Armidale.

This service operates as two Xplorer sets coupled together before dividing at Werris Creek. Today I am taking the 223 service to Armidale. After leaving Sydney's Central Station at 10.05 am, the train stops at; Strathfield, Hornsby, Gosford, Wyong, Fassifern, Broadmeadow, Maitland, Singleton, Muswellbrook, Aberdeen, Scone, Murrurundi, Willow Tree and Quirindi before reaching Werris Creek at 3.34 pm. Here the train divides in two with usually a 2 car set operating to Moree, and a 3 to 5 car set depending on passenger bookings to Armidale. For some reason or other, the authorities today have only rostered a 2 car set to Armidale. Leaving Werris Creek, service 223 continues stopping at; Tamworth, Kootingal, Walcha Road and Uralla before arriving at Armidale at 6.19 pm.

And finally the waiting road coach will take me back home to Queensland.

By this time, I've had just about all the fun I can handle for one day. The return 224 service to Sydney isn't timetabled to return until the next morning at 9.00 am, and it will be 5.00 pm before it arrives back at Sydney's Central Station. So I leave the train at Armidale and board one of the waiting road coaches, in my case, a fictitious connecting Deluxe Coachlines service to Brisbane that will take me home to sunny Queensland, (will someone please make a CountryLink road coach?).

So there you have it. That's how I came up with the name the South NorthWestern Xplorer for my layout. The train bloody-well runs everywhere! And for a small layout where you can easily tire of running a train back-and-forth, being a geek and running my Xplorer to an actual CountryLink timetable prolongs the fun just that little bit longer. Now next time if I board the train in Armidale, I wonder if I'll simply head all the way to Griffith?

See also; CountryLink resumes Philden services

Railway Station Part Five

Passengers will no longer get wet while waiting for a train, thanks to a weekend project that saw the roof and windows finally installed at Philden Railway Station. It seems that at last, the key building on my small bookshelf layout is nearing completion, and work on my layout is well on target to be completed by May 20th. If you've been following my progress on this blog, then you'll appreciate that's only 12 months after I cut the first piece of wood for the benchwork.

Before adding the roof, I turned the model over to drill holes through the floor for the light fittings.

Before I got stuck into installing the roof, I first turned the model of a NSWGR A-4 station over, and drilled 3 holes through the floor so as to easily be able to install the lighting from beneath the layout. Although the holes were positioned in each of the 3 rooms so as to not be visible through any open doors, I touched them up with some matching paint anyway.

Although the holes are in inconspicuous places, I touched them up with paint anyway.

I next turned my attention to painting the window and door frames.

I learnt from painting the window frames on my Model Train Buildings laser-cut timber NSW G-2 goods shed, that the more coats of paint you apply on MTB's timber kits, the more difficult they are to fit in the window openings. For my second Model Train Building's kit, its safe to say that I have now mastered putting these kits together, and building this station kit was not only heaps of fun, but has turned out to be one of the highlights on my layout. Keeping to my two-tone colour scheme of off-white and burnt sienna, I added white to the inner framework of the plastic window panes that are supplied with the wooden kit.

Fitting the glass panels was a pain. The trick is not to paint the door frames with too thick a coat of paint.

I simply kept the protective paper lining on the window panes where the toilet block is located.

After gluing the triangular roof supports into place, and ensuring that they were appropriately spaced to support each corrugated iron panel, I could then glue the completed windows into place. Remember how I said that the toilet windows would be painted out with a frosty white privacy finish that is common at most Australian railway stations? Well, I cheated. The clear plastic window panes inside the Model Train Buildings kit come with a removable white paper film to protect the surface. I simply left it in place undisturbed, and glued it to the window panes so that the paper coated side was on the inside of the building. It was so easy, yet looks so good.

I next painted the awning support posts....

I painted the platform awning supports in burnt sienna. The same colour I had used for the door and window frames along with the waiting room floor. Three watered down coats of this artists acrylic is enough to give it a good finish without coating all the fine detail on the laser-etched timber in a blob of paint.

....and glued them to the station sides.

The roof line of the station building is 250 mm long, while the structure itself is 238 mm long. There are 6 support posts on the A-4 station, and taking into account that the 2 end support posts fit on the inside corner join of the building, there are 4 posts to be spaced out evenly between all the door openings. I divided the distance between the outside posts by 5 and found that each post needed to be spaced 46 mm apart. However, the post that runs parallel to the waiting room entry has been fudged a little more than 46 mm. I can't tell by looking at it, and I doubt that anyone else could either looking at the photo above.

I painted the corrugated iron roof sections using a silver paint pen marker.

My much-loved silver paint pen has officially done its last project. It is the same pen that I used on my NSW G-2 goods shed that stands opposite the platform, so it was important to keep both it and the corrugated iron roof of my station identical. The thing I love about the Uni paint marker is that it takes about a tenth of the time to paint a model compared to using an enamel paint. The end result not only looks like authentic corrugated iron, but can be picked up and handled in less than 20 minutes.

The triangular roof support sections need to be spaced correctly to support the roof panels.

Getting the spacing right on the triangular roof supports is critical to fixing the roof in position. There are 3 pieces of roofing on each side of the A-4 station kit, and there needs to be 2 raised triangular pieces supporting each section for the roof to come together. Having said that, I just eyed up where to glue each triangular support by simply holding a section of the roof up to the model and drawing a small pencil line where I was to glue each one. I then glued the model together using some acetone based craft glue. I also applied a thin strip to the side edge where each roof section met. Finally, when the glue was dry, I applied one more coat using the silver paint pen marker to the entire roof area. It is the easiest way to cover up any join lines or glue marks. The other thing I like about the paint marker, is that it provides a lot neater finish when touching up the sides of the roof section above the fascia.

Painting the underside of the roof sections gave the model a better finish when viewed through a camera.

The newly completed Philden Railway Station is just awaiting the final details.

Although the model now looks complete, there are a few final details I need to see to before officially commemorating the completion of Philden Railway Station. There are 2 chimney stacks to be added to the roof line, along with the guttering and fascia boards around the edge of the roof. The small rear loading dock to the parcels room on the right needs to be finished with some timber stumps, along with the CountryLink station benches that I will add to the platform. And of course I need some passengers on the platform, to justify the South Northwestern Xplorer service that is a daily visitor to the station of course. But as usual, that is a story for another day. Tune in next time for the final chapter.

See also; Railway Station Part Six or Railway Station Part Four and Railway Station Part Three and Railway Station Part Two and Railway Station Part One and Building a Station Platform