Macland Terminus
Macland Terminus
“Macland” is the DCC OO gauge layout in the top barn that belongs to our Landlady, and which the Club have agreed to refurbish where necessary and generally maintain in good working order. It has recently had some repair work done to the main terminus station, and in particular its platform area, to improve the looks of the layout. This included:- ballasting track holes, relaying the platform and platform edges, re-placing the shelters and improving the station cover and building.
For the Ballasting, we started by mixing two different shades of ballast to try and match what was already on the layout. Once we had reached the same colour we used a teaspoon to place the ballast into the holes and places that needed to be touched up. We did avoid the points as they are waiting to be wired into a point decoder. We then used a small paintbrush to brush the excess ballast into crevasses that needed it.
Once that was completed we used a pipette to carefully apply a mixture consisting of 50% PVA glue and 50% washing up liquid to seep down between the ballast and fix it in place.
Updating The Platforms.
Once the ballast had set we then turned our attention to rework the platforms, including relaying the yellow lined platform edging, patching the holes on the platform and re-building the station cover, and not forgetting the road outside the station to be made into a British road. Just lacking the cars and traffic at the moment.
This photo shows the new edging with the thin yellow security strip, which was quite a task to apply. The platform holes were then covered up with matching Scale scenes patches stuck on using a Pritt stick.
We then needed to drill new holes in the platform for the support of the large station canopy. Once they were inserted we used the technology of today (a mobile phone spirit level) to make sure the posts were level. Once the posts were stuck in place a little bit of plastic was stuck to the top of them to make it easier for the canopy to fit.
Once completed, we have added details like station nameplates - “Macland Central” - seats, passengers, clocks, platform numbers and posters. The final task will be to add new platform sides. Then the terminus will be finished. On to the next task!