Project 24 - Battledown Flyover #7 (track progress)

The track needed lifting by 1 mm on the bridge deck to mirror the level of the prototype. The obvious method was to use cork sheet as this may also absorb the sound from 'toy' trains as they pass over the bridge. 1mm thick cork was duly bought off Ebay but, what arrived was 4 mm thick! 

Evidently the vendor had no stock of 1mm (despite their listing showing stock available) and thought 4 mm would do! Well, I got a refund and searched for another supplier and I also wondered if I had anything that could substitute for it.

Right in front of my eyes on my desk was a spare sheet of 1.5 mm thick corrugated cardboard. Since this had air pockets then it too might be suitable as a sound absorber. In fact, a test with and without cork or corrugated board had no effect on sound absorption (probably too thin). Anyway, the corrugated cardboard was cut to size and glued in place using Copydex latex glue.

On top of the cardboard a paper track template was glued down to guide adjustment of the double sleeper sections of the track, which was glued on top using Copydex. Copydex with a little heat allows easy removal of track for reuse in the future.

The masking tape shown in the above photo was to preserve the raw plastic surface for later gluing in place the bridge sides.

My method of painting the track was to spray a mix of burnt umber and black acrylic paint (colours that I had to hand) then wipe off the overspray from the rail top.

When dry the cosmetic fishplates were glued each side of the rail at the joins

A mix of brown, yellow and red to mimic rust was hand painted along the side of the rails and over the chairs. The fishplates being picked out in black.

To Part 8.

To Part 1.