Rowandale Moorland - Development History of Section Three

The base of the section at mid October 2019
As with the previous sections, the base is made from two 50mm slabs of builders insulation board, but this time glued together with Everbuild StixAll builder’s adhesive, which has the advantage of not having the strong smell of Evostik Impact Adhesive. Although this glue has a high-grab it does need the two sheets to be held together with weights for a few hours till it starts to set. The beams with the alignment dowels and clamping magnets are set into the top edge of the upper insulation board, adjacent to the neighbouring section, and glued in place with the StixAll adhesive. The beams of adjacent sections are glued into their respective neighbouring sections at the same time; ensuring an accurate match. The plywood side panels have been glued to the foam base and reinforced with wooden corner mouldings. The track ends have been aligned with the tracks on adjacent boards, but point motors are not fitted yet.
This is the track plan for the second corner section, just under four foot in length, which brings the double main line on a viaduct over a wide river. The single line from the goods yard on the first section continues to rise up the slope to join the main line. A single slip and point allow to access to both the up and down main lines. There is also a single point to the quarry sidings, which are on the last section.
Track has been laid and track ends alinged.
So that trains can be run again as soon as possible, these sections will initially just have the track bases and track laid. Points control and isolation sections will then be connected to the computer for route selection from the control panel. Topography, buildings and scenery will then be added to each section in turn.
History of Sections One, Two & Four are on Separate Pages Track layout for corner section three.
The full plan is shown here:
Full track plan.
The development of the sections of Rowandale; are each recorded on separate pages.
Basic topograhy built up with foam board. Landscape forms overlaid with filler. Landscape forms painted with emulsion. Detail of paint finish on rock faces. The topography of the section built in February & March 2020
The basic shape of the topography was built up from pieces of the insulation foam board; these were glued together with NoMoreNails adhesive. The gap at rear right, is where the points controller will be fitted, covered by a removable hill and with a signal box.
This was then overlaid with Everbuild OneStrike, low density filler. Once this had partly set it was smoothed and textured with a wet paint brush, to represent rock surfaces and grass areas.
Emulsion paint was then used to indicate the grass areas; later to be covered in scenic scatter, trees and bushes. Deluxe Materials Solid Water will be used to create the river, and a viaduct will be built to carry the tracks over the valley.
The rock faces have also been painted with emulsion; in several shades of grey, and when dry, washed with a darker grey to run into the crevices. White was then used to dry-brush highlights onto the protuberances. A detail is shown here.

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Note that the track is not ballasted yet.
River formed and grass & gorse added,  end of March 2020
Some intermediate waterfall “dams” and small bits of broken stone were added to the river bed. The river bed was then sealed with varnish and the front face sealed off with some stiff board, covered in plastic tape, and the inside edge carefully sealed with a thin bead of Deluxe Materials Glue-n-Glaze, a water soluble glue. The river was then poured with Deluxe Materials Solid Water, a two part resin which sets crystal clear in about a day. A second pour on the upper reaches of the river had to be poured, as the upper waterfall "dam" had a leak to a lower level; Solid Water is surprisingly fluid till it starts to set. Once fully set the front wall was removed, the water based glue washed off, and the raised meniscus along the top of the front edge, trimmed off with a scalpel. Generous dabs of ModPodge-Gloss were then added to form ripples and the waterfalls were build up with several coats. Turbulent areas of water were formed by using partly set ModPodge applied with a stiff brush, and when fully set, dry-brushed with white paint to highlight the rough water. Various Woodland Scenics fine turf scatter materials were then added to the previously painted moorland grass areas, together with bushes & flowering gorse.
Viaducts built and track ballasted,  end of April 2020
The viaducts have been built based on ScaleScenes card kits, and the track ballasted. The double track viaduct is the main line, with the single track viaduct splitting off to join ( via Section Two ) the main sidings in the town on the Section One of the layout. The back scene is from a panorama of Pen-y-Ghent in the Yorkshire Dales, taken several years ago.
A removable section of hill, at rear right, hides the servo motors for operating the points and relays for the sections of track that will need to be isolated when the points are set for access to the main sidings and to the quarry sidings on Section Four. The micro-switches for the electro-frogs and isolation relays have yet to be fitted and wired up. The flat area on the left of the removable section is the construction site for the planned signal box.
General view of Section Three, with completed viaducts. The rear double track is on the level, the single track is a 3% gradient. Eye level view through the viaduct arches. Servo motors for operating the cross-over points for access to main sidings from the main line. At the left of the removable section is a flat area ready for a signal box.
Signal Box built, drystone wall & sheep added, mid July 2020
In the close up views, at right, you can see that the plastic glazing is showing some fogging; due to me fixing an internal light into the roof with ‘super-glue’ and not leaving it overnight to fully dry off before fixing the upper half of the box to the base. ( In the “model world” I will let you decide whether this is due to the signalman leaving his kettle to boil too long, or if he has sneaked in a lady friend. )
This completes the scenic work on this section, with just the electrical switching of the rail isolation sections for the cross-over to sort out. Photographs of this completed section are here:
The drystone walling is produced by 3D printing in short sections by Peedie Models in Orkney. It can easily be moulded to follow the topography, sideways or up & down, by warming in hot water for a few minutes. The sections were glued together and to the hill using ‘gel-super-glue’, with any gaps filled with Milliput, then painted a mid grey, followed by a dark wash to fill in the hollows in the stones. High lights were then added by dry brushing with white and then green and brown patches for lichen etc.
The Signal Box has been added to the left hand end of the removable sub-section; again a Scalescenes card kit, though slightly modified.
Close up view of the Signal Box. Another view of the Signal Box. Removable module covering the servo motors which operate the points. Section Three now complete - July 2020
The relay logic for automatically switching the isolation sections was far more complicated than I originally thought! This was mainly because, in addition to the normal frog switching and necessary isolation around the cross-over, I wanted to include additional isolated sections of track; so that a loco could not be driven close to an opposing set of points. Also it was necessary to switch polarity on the approach track to the Sidings on Section One for certain train movements, and switching of the Quarry Sidings. In all eight isolated/switched sections were required for the cross-over and main sidings access, and a further three for the access to the Quarry Sidings. So in addition to the micro-switches on each of the four servomotors which operated the points, a total of five double-pole, double-throw relays were required. These were operated by the micro-swiches on the servos and interconnections between the relays, so as to achive the required track switching. The relays and connections were mounted on Veroboard and fitted between the servos {This took a little while!} hidden under the embankment to the right of the signalbox.
Isolation Switching completed - Dec 2021 Section Three now complete - July 2020
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