Line-side buildings (2) ... mostly roofs

Today decided to check the rest of the buildings: two were OK, two were coming apart (a job for later) and there were five that just needed their roofs repainting - so a little session in the late afternoon  in the shade to give the roofs a lick of paint....

Someone else asked for a bit of paint .....

  

                                    can you do my hat please ?                       thank you 

 The two new buildings - Sylvanian families Willow Hall and Beechwood Hall....

I bought these for approx £30 each of Ebay;  bearing in mind G scale building kits of this size are £150+ in cost, these two buildings will do for me and they fit in with the toy style look of the garden layout.

Line-side buildings (1) ...

One of the things that has been left un-done for a while is line-side building maintenance.  Usually in spring I get on and re-paint roofs and fix up as needed. Rather than get stuck in I thought it would be a good time this year to improve or replace some of the buildings if possible.

A couple of Sylvanian Families buildings which are nice and robust have been purchased off Ebay recently and await some minor mods before they go outside. One of the buildings came with an extra base part which is used with the building opened up, since I will have them closed the base which is grass green on one side was spare so I had a look at my buildings outside for one which would fit it.

A kiddies toy haunted house was about the right size, so I removed it from its old base and gave it a good clean inside and out (yuk - snails, dirt and creepy crawlies inside). Ready for its new base ....

 I fixed it to the new base with a couple of fix-it bocks and screws. The main and porch roof were given a coat of red-oxide primer (nice and robust weather wise). The figures were stuck on with dab of Evo-Stick which keeps them in place for a good while....

 Building back in place near Rockery Bottom halt...

lots more buildings to sort out ....

Evening running session ...

A hot weekend; it was so hot indoors yesterday evening I retreated out into the garden and played with a small train ....

Rockery Bottom Halt ....(3) - shelter roof

A further check on things stashed in the garage yielded part of a roll of roofing felt. Great for the halt shelter roof. So suitable pices cut up and stuck in place ..

...the halt gets its final engineers inspection

Rockery Bottom Halt ....(2) - platform and shelter

Today had a rummage in the garage for anything else that could be used to improve the look of the halt. I found a couple of smaller ceramic floor tiles, so cut these up and used them for the platform surface.

I took the plastic shelter building indoors for some work.....

 first thing done was to carefully take it apart and tidy up the edges ....

 then stick it back together properly. To help with the finish I used a bit of spare black plastic for the awning roof and part of the old base to cover the gap between the awning and the roof on the front.

 the halt now looks much better

(although I will have to find something to do the shelter roof with - further rummaging for oddments required...)

'In Print' and first running session this year ...

The CVR is in June 2018's Garden Rail magazine...

 So today after finishing my garden jobs (cutting the grass and some planting) I had a celebratory running session (the first of the year). Short train - battery Diesel loco, wagon and coach

 practiced stopping at the new halt ....

passengers in the coach had come to see the dinosaurs which roam on the upper central island...

I spent a pleasant 15 or 20mins running the train round the layout  😀

Rockery Bottom Halt ....

As part of refurbishing the rockery,  after removing some plants I sized up where to put a simple small halt for the railway...

The best place was just after curve before going into rockery cutting, a rummage in the garage yielded a spare split log roll and some brick pavers. So a bit of digging out and a slim trench made with a spade to put in the split logs...

 split log roll tapped (bashed) into in place with mr sledge and a brick paver tried for size ...

 used up the rest of the brick pavers to form the platform surface

I used an old 'Sylvanian Families' toy building as the shelter (needs work on the roof/front); engineers inspect the new halt ....