Action at Broadwater

Even though it has been slow, work has continued on at Broadwater. Some time ago I installed a Brunel Hobbies 3D printed water tank and I was happy with how it turned out. It is a simple kit with the water tower as one part and the supporting legs the second part. It was completed but the underneath hadn't been sceniced. A few weeds and grasses were added and quickly improved the look. A pathway was made leading up to the platform and on the path under the water tank I brushed some gloss Mod Podge onto the pathway to represent spilt water from the tank.

 

The water tank sits between the station and another temporary shed that will be replaced with a scratch built NSW style gangers shed. That should fill in the area between the station and the level crossing.

One thing missing from the rear of this baseboard at the moment is a backscene board. This will block out the ridges on the roller door that appear in current photos and need to be photoshopped out.

Broadwater is the first crossing station trains come to after departing Eden. The design is a familiar VR narrow gauge design with a main line, a loop and a dual ended goods siding. There is also another siding off the goods loop and a private siding that will require some shunting to get the wagons in out out.

 When designing this station it would have been easy to just run the track parallel to the baseboard edge but that is one thing I have tried to avoid on all stations on SCR. The curved lines look so much better than the straight track.

So far things have gone according to the 'plan'. Quite a while ago I assembled an Ian Lindsay model narrow gauge goods shed. It has been sitting on the ground for too long so I decided to build a platform for it to sit on. I probably cheated somewhat in its construction missing a few beams etc. Anyway the final product looks the part and because it sits low any missing bits are not readily noticeable. After gluing it all together it was sprayed with Tamiya light grey primer which after some weathering to tone down the grey turned out Okay. The shed sitting on the platform hides most of the planks.

All of the surfaces of the styrene were also scraped with a razor saw to simulate some grain, that is one of the down sides of using styrene instead of strip timber. The end result usually comes out okay.

 I am not sure of what the size of the platform should have been but as this layout is all freelance anything goes, as long as it looks  all right. One thing noticeable in the above photo is the gap between the wagon and the edge of the platform. Ideally this gap should have been smaller, that would have worked for the goods wagons but when I checked the clearances with an NA loco, the cylinders protruded way out so this is where the clearance spot will be. This gap is viewed from an angle where the gap is not that visible. Surprisingly a shay and climax loco I checked had better clearances.

 To try out the platform I had farmer Joe back his truck up and unload some potatoes and set up a photo shoot. The potato bags are an excellent product from  Stephen Johnson Models. They are available in both horizontal and vertical shapes. I painted the bags with some Tamiya Desert yellow and then weathered over with some diluted Tamiya Khaki  drab. An excellent product, even the bag seams and potato shapes inside the bag are visible.

To finish off around the platform some grasses, weeds and white flowers were positioned. That is the basics done but there is always the opportunity to revisit the scene and add more.