First Sod

Some of my O gauge layout has now had the final coat of paint applied, which opens up the opportunity to start laying the track permanently.  I've laid some of the track temporarily on the undercoated (white) table, which was easy to draw the appropriate centrelines etc. on, however this all needs to come up again in due course.  So today the newly varnished ballast board was nailed down and the first track properly laid!

Here is the Peckett contractor's loco, plus SE&CR van, on the new section of track.  I couldn't be happier with how it all looks and functions!

Originally I had planned to paint the 'ballast' board a light grey, which I have seen on other layouts, but once I started working with the 3mm MDF I realised how good it would look with just a coat of satin varnish.  Obviously not a terribly realistic representation of real ballast, but it's a toy-train layout!  I nailed the MDF down with hardboard nails, positioned under the sleepers so that the heads can't be seen.  The Maldon Track is screwed down through the ballast into the plywood top so that everything is very firm.  The Maldon Track is superb to work with, I'm very happy indeed with the choice to use that.

Each step of building this layout is somewhat challenging, and I really never know quite how it's going to turn out, but I'm certainly happy with everything so far.  Cutting the curved 'ballast' so that it's a nice, smooth curve will be interesting, watch this space!