Ground cover bargains

I picked up these bargains at Bewdley railway station on The Severn Valley Railway earlier today. I could never claim to not having enough ground cover but these five bags cost just £3.00. A real ground cover bargain.

I also bought three narrow gauge railway magazines which will now be placed in the summer house as reading material for later in the year.

For anyone not familiar with Bewdley the station has a number of charity shop/charity coaches each offering fantastic second-hand bargains and best of all - the proceeds go to various renovations on the SVR.

Tony

Ogam & Stone - diesel engines and wagons

Just the one image this time. My 1:43.5 or O gauge engine stock (O-16.5) comprises 2 scratch built Kerr Stuart 4 wheel diesel engines mounted on to Tenshodo SPUD mechanisms and five scratch built wagons based on R.C.Link 0-14 wagon chassis (modified to run on 16.5mm track). The small green 'o' links with white paper attachments are the means I use to couple my running stock. The cut down paper labels make it a little easier to see and pick up with tweezers. 

They have been extensively modified and repaired since coming out of retirement with new parts and re-paints, but I have kept my trademark OSO Salt lettering and colour schemes. I made this simple stock box from a slide case I picked up in a charity shop some time ago.

At some stage I will add short YouTube clips of the engines running on the layout, but for now you will have to make do with this image.

Tony

Cold Comfort Lane - 1/35th scale narrow gauge layout - flocking and ground cover

For anyone not familiar with this project - you can see just how small the overall layout is at just 44 inches x 23 inches. Over the last week I have been flocking and adding ground cover texture to the major parts of the layout and now, with the exception of the back right (which will house a building or warehouse) the flocking is done. I have used a wide variety of different materials from home made ground foam, hanging basket liners and static grass mixed with ground foam. All of the flocking materials have been applied over a PVA Mod Podge mix with hairspray layers over the top. The materials have been fixed in place with a diluted mix of PVA and Mod Podge matt applied over a light spray of  isopropl alcohol.

The flocking has been done in sections about 1 foot square and allowed to fully dry over night before adding more. The tree was built from a mixture of thick plastic coated wire (a stalk for some artificial flowers) and picture hanging wire covered in acrylic medium and filler. The tree foliage was built up over ground foam clumps and lighter ground foam used as a highlight.

Throughout the flocking I have been testing and running trains to make sure that the flocking has not interfered with the track. For bigger images, just 'click' on the photographs.

Tony

Ogam & Stone - a narrow gauge railway layout

Last weekend while the two grandson's were playing with The Yellow Pelican Mining Co. narrow gauge railway layout I pulled this long forgotten 1:43.5 or O-16.5 layout down from the attic. Ogam & Stone has not seen the light of day or run for over 20 years and I was sure that it would not this day. However the boys wanted to see it run so I cleaned the track and connected up a power supply. It ran first time!

Since then I have repaired the damaged sections, added some more flora and repainted the black surround. Earlier today I received the Ogam & Stone vinyl nameplate and took these images.

Tony

Miniature Wargames issue 509 - A Glastonbury Chapel

The latest issue of Miniature Wargames (issue 509 September 2025) features a scratch built model of St. Patrick's Chapel, Glastonbury built and painted by me. Although not a 100% copy, the small chapel does contain most of the design elements of the original.

St Patrick's Chapel is situated just outside the visitors entrance to Glastonbury Abbey.

I have included a couple of images of the work-in-progress, but for more information see this post or pick up the magazine from your local newsagents.

Tony

The Yellow Pelican Mining Co. - August 2025 run-out

Sue and I were child-minding our two grandsons this week and one of the treats was to get Yellow Pelican out for a run.

I was surprised just how well it ran and how few repairs I had to do since the last time it was out on the dining room table. As you can see a great time was had by all.

Tony

Cold Comfort Lane - 1/35th scale narrow gauge layout - working electrics

Another weekend working on the layout - a 1/35th scale Narrow Gauge Railway Layout that uses HO-OO or 16.5mm gauge track and mechanisms to imitate 2 foot or 600mm narrow gauge engines and wagons.

In this second image you can see how I have used coco matting (lining for hanging baskets) and yellow imitation flowers bought from The Range to model wild gorse bushes. The yellow flower cost just £3.50 and I have enough yellow flowers to cover over half of the layout! Click on any image for a better view.

After a number of failed and miserable attempts at electrifying the track and getting satisfactory running. I have now fitted this 12volt PWM or pulse width modulation unit into the board. I can confirm that the 0-4-0 Hornby 'Smokey Joe' chassis run well (but not perfectly) on the modified Peco 'crazy track and flexi-track points. 

The PWN unit was bought from Amazon.

I have mounted the unit on to a scratch built brick and concrete base. To help with service the unit, I have mounted the concrete slab to magnets so if needed the unit can be easily removed for servicing.

The electrics have been very frustrating with a number of Hornby transformers or controllers failing to give satisfactory running. The new PWM takes some getting used to but I am so far happy with the results and the fitting.

Tony

Cold Comfort Lane - 1/35th scale narrow gauge layout - Groundcover

With the electrical work having stalled - I needed a distraction. I decided to start the 'flocking' or static grass application. I have used static grass, ground foam and dyed sawdust as well as sieved soil and ground up sandstone all applied over a PVA and Mod Podge base which was later sprayed with isopropyl alcohol before I added dilute PVA glue with a pipette. In these images you can see the still wet PVA mix pooling at the bottom of the terrain slope.

The bright yellow gorse flowers are cut down artificial flowers bought from Dunhelm - a UK based home decor store. The Gorse bushes are constructed from cut up coconut matting with ground foam glued to the upper edges. The individual flower stalks were then glued in place with superglue.

I have tried to add variety in terms of both colour and texture to the groundwork - something I have read about in various magazines and seen demonstrated on You Tube tutorials.

I will progress the ground cover over the rest of the board later as it does take some time to apply and ages to dry!

Tony

Home-made ground cover

This weekend, while waiting for the glue to dry on the newly laid ballast I had fun playing around with various home-made ground cover.

From top left they are;

Paint brush bristle stalks glued with PVA

Snow scatter that I have dyed green

Static grass tuft

Ground sponge (I used a wire brush to get the fine ground foam)

More static grass tuft

Minced foam dyed dark green (less effecting than the wire brushed sponge)

Dyed rough sawdust collected from my chop saw

Coconut hanging basket liner cut into short strands and then glued with PVA

I am confident that all can be used on the Cold Comfort narrow gauge layout.

Tony

Cold Comfort Lane - 1/35th scale narrow gauge layout. Clean up

I have spent most of the day cleaning up the track and ballast. I really want to get a dedicated power supply or transformer wired up but all attempts so far have been poor. I will need to purchase a better controller and will be looking out for one this week.

I am really pleased with the progress so far but frustrated with the poor running of my models. Hopefully I will have a more positive update soon.

Tony

Cold Comfort Lane - 1/35th scale narrow gauge layout - ballasting

I have just spent a couple of hours ballasting the track. I have used a mix of Green Scenes ballast, stones from the beach and some sieved sandstone. Once the loose ballast was in place I misted on some Isopropyl Alcohol and then a 50/50 mix of Mod Podge and water with a touch of washing up liquid dripped on with a pipette. In these images the ballast glue is still wet but as long as I don't touch it, it should be OK by the morning.

I purposely built up the ballast around the buffer stops in a haphazard manner as I wanted the area to look un-kept.

I did have a slight issue with the 'wet water' getting in to one of the points, but is seems to have dried up now and both points looks to working freely.

I'll try tidying up the track tomorrow so expect another update soon.

Tony