Matthew's layout has been progressing with the initial soil down and grass scatter started.While surfing the web I stumbled on a free 3d file for a ballast spreader. Not having a 3d printer of my own but knowing a work colleague had one, I asked her to print it off as I was interested to see how it performed. I received this last week and did a test run on the quarry siding on the weekend just gone and it performed wonderfully. It will be a great time saver. I still had to brush the ballast between the sleepers, etc but just to get the bulk of the ballast down it was perfect. I might just have to buy myself a new toy for my upcoming milestone birthday ;-)
So here are a few photos of the ballast spreader test run and an update photo of Matthew's layout with some temporary buildings placed to make the village scene.
 |
| The ballast spreader in black PLA plastic. Its positioning slots fitted the rails fine. |
 |
| Looking down the barrel to the dispensing slots. What can't be seen is the approx 45 degree ramp starting just below the slots and ending on the side wall (against the chock) which assists the ballast to free fall into the dispensing slots. |
 |
| The rail positioning slots underneath the spreader. The dispensing slots are located at the ends of the raised sections. |
 |
| Ballast in the spreader and drawn along the rails. Wow that was easy! |
 |
| The finished siding. It took three refills of the spreader to get this length done. Tidied up with a brush before gluing. |
 |
| The glue has now dried to make the ballast a darker colour. The reason why it is a brown-grey mix is that I wanted to give the impression of quarry soil spilt on the tracks from the loaders. The main line will probably be grey all round. |
 |
| View of the layout to date with some village buildings temporarily in place to give the reader an idea of what is intended. Still some grass scatter to do, then it will be completed by adding static grass, bushes, trees, etc |
