Day 2.

It does seem strange typing that after all these years.

With the liquid nails setting, there was nothing I could do to the layout itself. So I decided to cut the sleepers for the deck of the tipping dock to size. I had gone out and bought some basswood strip 5/16” x 7/16” after I’d dropped my wife off at the airport inn the morning. I picked that size because that was what Roy Link used for his sleepers on his 16mm Crowsnest layout. I made myself a simple little jig for scale 6’ long sleepers and started sawing with my razor saw.

A very simple jig using a mitre box and some foamcore

Timber decking for a 17” long deck. My deck will be 24” long. Back to the hobby shop then.

24” of timber decking

Not buying enough basswood strip on Thursday, I had to go back today and get some more. I still didn’t buy enough strip but manage to piece together enough from off cuts. 

This is one of those aspects of the layout build that I think doesn’t translate time-wise from a smaller scale. Having cut all the decking to size. I had to distress and paint/stain them all.

I’m still trying to find a good mix of India ink wash and acrylic staining. Sometimes it goes on really well (bottom picture) and then it starts to fade as it soaks in (upper image). 

We will just have to see what these look like in the morning.