A tale of track and ballasting...

 I've been experimenting with track painting and ballast this week.

I don't want a uniform look to my layout, as like the real thing, track colour and ballast varies over time as bits get replaced. To that end my approach is to take my time and complete the track painting and ballast in stages.

I purchased three types of ballast from Hornby - grey, grey basaltic, and limestone. I also purchased 3 railmatch paints - sleeper grime, dark rust and light rust.

These are the results:

The limestone and grey basaltic on their own are clearly overscale for TT 120. The grey on it's own looks... odd? I'm not sure why it looks so rounded.

I then decided to mix all all three:

Hmm, not sure! 

Moving onto a stretch of Hornby track (since that's what my roundy round layout uses) and I tried a mix of just the grey and grey basaltic rock. I also tried two different mixes for the rail sides; starting with a few drops of water I added all three paints for one half and then just the two rust colours for the other half.

Much better I think! I intend to use the mix of just rust colours for the sidings and less used sections of track. I'll also use the three types of ballasts in different areas of my layout, perhaps with some chinchilla sand or finer grey ballast added to improve the overscale look. The limestone for example can be used nearer the tunnel mouths with a transition to the grey/basaltic mix, and in areas like the engine shed I can just use the basaltic rock which dries darker. A black/grey wash with some coal deposits should help set the scene.

But first, I need to paint all of the track!

Update on the roundy roundy

 It's taking shape.

The baseboard arrived a few weeks ago and was promptly set up, drilled, drawn all over and painted.

The final track plan is as follows:

And so far it has proven to provide sufficient operational potential to keep my occupied during my running sessions.

Control is provided by my Hornby Select - currently connected by a digital power clip in a convenient place. A better permanent solution will be thought up in due course but this works for now.

Point motors are a Hatton's variety which I think were a bit of a bargain:

They're based on an old H&M design from what I can gather, which allows for both point control and associated accessories (signals, crossing gates, etc) using piano wire or otherwise. But, most importantly, these came with DCC decoders (and built in CDU) for the grand total of £9 each. So far reliability has been fine. Some of my points are located close to the edge of the board so some ingenuinty was required there (utilising the accessory arm and extended pin with the help of a glasses hinge screw and some soldering) to allow the motor to be orientated 90 degrees to the normal alignment.

Operation is relatively simple via the Select and the power seems to be enough to power everything so far whilst running sound locos.

I may look to build a control panel at a later stage as the method of operating them via the Select isn't the most intuitive but works for now.

Some buildings have started to appear too, sans painting, as they're quite enjoyable to construct. Big shoutout to 'In The Greenwood Laser' on eBay: https://www.ebay.co.uk/str/inthegreenwoodlaser?_trksid=p4429486.m3561.l2563

So, next stages are to test some more (read: play with trains) before I start ballasting and creating scenery (tunnel at one end), make some backscenes from plywood to attach all around the layout (with a 10cm lip at the front) which will then allow for lighting etc to be added too.

It's nice to have a semi-permanent layout where I can just run trains without too much effort, especially in time for all the incoming models I have on pre order for next year (Class 50, Princess Coronation, HST, 57' coaches, etc).

That all said, my end to end Vulcan layout isn't abandoned - it will just be taking a more leisurely time to construct as it's more of a diorama than a layout.