We have already reported  here the out-work construction of the station forecourt. In this article we describe its final positioning and the construction of the railway yard, with platforms, ballast and some changes to the track plan.

APlatforms must be built out-work to ensure an accurate painting. For the realization we use a 3-axis milling machine to make the sidewalls, the assembly ribs and the decking.

The components, with their width varying from 3 to 10 cm, thanks to the sectionable ribs, can be assembled to create platforms of the desired length and shape, therefore also curved or rounded.

L’assemblag

Assembly is relatively simple. The sidewalls are glued on the relative supports, taking care to offset the former when creating docks longer than 30 cm.
The ribs slots also serve as a template.

By using a caliper we calculate the exact platform width, we cut the ribs to size and fix everything. The frame is sufficiently rigid, but also flexible to assumes curved shapes.

We shape the decking to size and glue it to the frame. The ribs have a slight back that allows us to obtain a humpback. The track crossing descents are made by filing the edges. After the usual grouting and application of the manholes, we move on to airbrushing and weathering with pigments.

Let’s move on to gluing the platforms, fixing them to the layout plywood deck with cyanoacrylate drops. Once the ballast has been spread and glued, they will become a single body with the deck.

Sometimes, during the design phase, you do not realize the existence of unused spaces which can instead be very useful.
This is the case of the spare space inside the layout largest helical.
Performing a review, we realized we could create a return loop and even three siding for small length trains.

Fortunately, the track bend radius is identical to the Peco turnout radius to be installed, both for the return loop and for siding access. Two further turnouts allow us to admit our reversible trains, such as ETR234, Minuetto, Ale803 and TEE Breda. The trains routing, as usual, is provided by the software, which shunts the various trains in the ghost station to make them reappear in the layout visible sections with good realism.

The return loop is useful for hosting and reversing the track cleaning convoy at the moment. The loop polarity inversion is automatic and managed by a special home-made board connected to 2 sensors for each route direction . This kind of electric approach is very different and decidedly less invasive than the one based on the short-circuit instant detection.

We now begin the construction of the buildings group to be installed facing the station. The project includes three buildings joined on one side, architecturally different from each other, for the making of which we use real photos and a good 3D CAD designing.

We start from the first; a dilapidated building (even in reality) on which a heavy renovation work has just begun. We use the usual 3mm forex and various thicknesses plastic sheets, working where needed with a Valex electric engraver and various awls.

The real walnut slats roof beams are worked with a cutter and aged with acrylic colors and pigments.

Since the roof covering is completely missing, for which we imagined a partial collapse and a subsequent dismantling, we must also create the internal rooms, the rubble, the remains of the plumbing systems and the floor, for which a simple paper printing is enough.

We then create the construction crane on original (poorly dimensioned) Potain drawings, entirely with plastic sheets and strips and some small adapted photo-etched parts.

Let’s move on to the construction of the second building with the same materials as the first. It is a ground-sky building with a trapezoidal floor plan, always inspired by a real one.

The roof is made with Noch boards, similar to redutex, painted and weathered.

The shutters are made with the classic cable tie method, enriched with plastic strips, while frames are carved in 0.4 mm Evergreen plastic sheet and half-bullnose strip. The small canopy is made out of 0.3 mm Sommerfeldt copper-plated steel and etched acetate. We also apply the shutters stoppers, the intercom and the mailbox, the latter printed on photographic cardboard and thickened with plastic.

The top of the building has a small terrace on which we placed a copper-plated steel clothesline with hanging laundry. We then apply the chimney, antenna, dish and relative free cable.

We are now designing the third building to complete the work. It is quite complex and perhaps, we will need a milling machine for parts cutting.

We come now to the layout setting. We publish the progress although many details and satisfying weathering are still missing.
We finally position the passenger building and its forecourt, completing the work by joining the module to the rest.

We also temporarily place the 3 buildings group under construction in the area that will host them.

Here below a detail of the small park, still lacking the fence and the photo-etched gate.

The station yard seen from the left side; you can see the platforms and track crossing of a modern type, made with wide strapping. The ballast has not yet been painted and weathered on all tracks.

The right yard side is practically completed, only the typical italian concrete fence is missing.

In the picture below the detail of the Simplon Model toilet, a good resin model, we suggest buying the unpainted kit.
As you can see, the buildings are all already illuminated whose light will be driven by DCC accessory decoders for turning on the lights separately even within the same building.

At tracks level we did not miss the common electrical devices; pegs, junction boxes and turnout control boxes, also from Simplon Model

We now wait for different commitments to allow us to complete this part of the layout with the complete drafting of the ballast, the installation of the 9.5 m turntable and the overhead line installation.