OK, since most of us here have 1 ongoing topic on the progress on their garden railway (with a sidetrack to another topic now and then) I just follow the crowd and start one too (instead of lots of loose end topics - that I have trouble to find back again ). Well... here we go.

Last days I worked on repairing my roads. I used hypertuffa last year to make roads. Living in a country where rain is (unfortunately) served on almost daily base most of the year I found the hypertuffa suffered strongly from the weather on horizontal parts (read; roads and platforms...). Perhaps I did not mixed it in the right amounts or I can perhaps better use sand in it instead of soil/peat. Or perhaps I've let it dry to fast...
Anyway, the roads got full with holes and turned very dark.

I decided to go over it with a layer of portland cement mixed with fine sand. I also went over the station platform and loading dock (the platforms were concrete and the dock was hypertuffa, but much more harder than the roads) so it becomes more the same instead of separate casted parts.
I covered the whole with plastic bags after gently spraying water over it. Than I left it covered with the plastic for several days. This way the mixture (concrete?) dries slower but will get harder.

On the picture you can see the results. The covered part was the road that got the same treatment after the station part was done.





You can see the station needs a touch up also!

The sidetrack is embedded in the platform at one side. Perhaps the other side will follow also, not sure yet.

Now the roads gets a new top layer the railway crossings must look sharp too. I used strips of wood (collected on Newyearsday from old fire-arrows) and superglued + nailed them on the sleepers. The wood will turn more grey in time (or otherwise it will be painted) and hopefully the nails will get nice rusty look





Sorry for the bad quality pics. It was getting dark...

Nice pics again Paul - i do like the dock, very natural-looking

Thanks Clive!

I removed the plastic today and now you can see how the next part of the road turned out.



The walls are styrofoam strips covered with a mixture of portlandcement, sand and PVA glue (inspired by the chateau walls made by Mikey). Stones were scribed in when the mixture was still a bit wet. Than it was gently sprayed over with water again and covered with plastic for several days to prevent to fast drying.



The little brownish spots on the bottom of the walls are bits of moss and sand and a bit fertilizer pressed is the wet cement. Hopefully they will form a green border between the roads and wall next year.





The crossover is starting to color!



The gatekeepers house has gotten a higher sidewalk. Hopefully this will prevent the building against rainwater (it's a low spot) and 'road spray' during rainfalls.



It's not completely cemented; I used bits of styrofoam to raise and than covered with a layer. It's pretty strong though I doubt if its wise if I stand on it...



On this last picture you can see the difference between the new road (below the tracks) and the old and damaged road surface from hypertuffa (above the tracks).

Just need a Billard 80 railcar and it could be any CFD from the 1950's, very nice.

How did you get the concrete so smooth. What mix did you use exactly for this hypertufa stuff?

Everytime I tried it in the past it just cracked and disintegrated after a couple of days despite spraying and covering.

Thanks Carl!

Well, "exactly" is a bit of my problem... I varied it so much that I don't know for sure actually... But I believe my standard would be more or less the following mixture for the hypertufa:
1 unit portland cement
2 units peat (I used more like a mixture of soil and peat because I could not find pure peat)
2 units of perlite

I had this receipt (or the idea for it) from this thread (what was originally published on G Scale Mad): Options to avoid sharp corner, & steep grade ( Hind sight is wonderful)

If I'm correct the loading deck was originally made with this mixture and dried up reasonable hard. Also some rock surfaces were made this way and still are fine.
I believe I made the mistake to add more perlite and/or peat-soil in the mixture used for the roads last year. I found out this was not very solid and it cracked easily. Also rain made holes in the surface (specially on spots underneath the tree, when water is dripping from the branches at the same places). I can imagine that hypertuffa is actually not really suitable for horizontal / flat surfaces.

The mixture I used for the road repair is not hypertuffa any more, but more cement like:
1 unit portland cement
2 units fine sand ("silversand")

For the mixture used on the wall I added a big splash of white PVA glue.

For getting a smooth surface I simply used a cheap paintbrush. I bring the mixture on and spread it out with a trowel. Than I go over it gently with the brush. This way I can flatten out the trowel strikes/lines or smoothen bumps and let the new poured cement flow over nicely into the existing parts. Sometimes, when the surface gets to hard or sticky I use a spray bottle to wet it again with water and than use the brush again.

About a week ago I started to make a old castle or ruin kind of building on top of the "hill".
I decided to experiment further with styrofoam and portland mixes and see what it will bring.

First steps; rough forms with styrofoam (if you look closely you can see a half finished little Gn15 engine that will run on the hill).



The styrofoam is glued together with white glue. Wooden skewers are stick trough the foam to secure it in place.

East side:


West side:


Next I filled the inside with a hypertuffa mix. I used 1 unit portland cement with 2 units perlite and 2 units crushed sand (the one that you brush between new walkway tiles).
A thin styrene sheet is used as temporary 'ceiling' in the tunnel. It will be removed when the hypertuffa is hard.
I think when you build just plain buildings using the foam it is not necessary to fill it with hypertuffa or concrete or something. However I decided to fill it because of the tunnel and also because this is a favourite spot for neighborhood cats to jump up my fence. I will have to give them something stable to use as springboard, just foam would not be strong enough
I covered the thing with plastic and let it rest for a few days.

Filling:



Pieces of brick and styrofoam support the thin plastic sheet under the (small) weight of the hypertuffa. If this was concrete, it would have turned into a disaster due to the concrete weight...



After the hypertuffa had dried up under plastic cover (garbage bag is perfect for this) the outside was covered with a mix of portland cement (1) and crushed sand (2).
EDIT: just forgot to mention I added a big squeeze of whiteglue in the mixture. This helps a lot to stick the mixture on the styrofoam! Also painting whiteglue on the styrofoam helps the mixture to stick. If you apply the mixture on the styrofoam without it, it can be frustrating because it will fall off easily...
A stone patern was carved in. On the top, some sort of cobblestones were carved. I used an old screwdriver for the carving.
Again, after applying the mixture and carving in details; cover it up again with plastic and let it harden out for a few days.

BTW; the top is flat, like some sort of square. This will form a base for a tower that can be placed on the top and easily removed when necessary.




You can still see the styrofoam 'base' in the portals.



Next steps: detailing the portals and some finishing touches.

And on I go...

After the first layer was dry and hard enough I found the result a bit too 'granular'. This because of the used crushed sand. I went over it with a new, thin layer of a mixture using fine sand (silversand). This filled up the original grooves so I had to go over it again. But the result was a more flatter stone surface.
I than made the portal stone details. I used the same mix but added some soil/earth/dirt (just grabbed it out of the garden) and a dollop of whiteglue to it. This made the the mixture a bit feel like dough or paste. It now can easily applied and sculpted.





I also used some of it to make 'stones' on the lower tunnel portal.





As said, a little Gn15 railway is planned to make its runs around the little hill and through the building.
A solid base is made on the westside. I used the hypertuffa mixture as described above.







It than is covered up again with plastic and is now drying for the next couple of days.

Fantastic work Paul, a ton of character in that little scene!

Paul, I take it the intention is to have the Gn15 line operational? What will you be using for motive power source?

Looks like a bit of recycled Roman civil engineering - which is to say it looks great.

How does the white glue stand up to the rain (you do have rain in Nederland, don't you)?

I've seen a demonstration of a concrete/styrofoam mixture for building 1:1 scale houses. It's supposed to be very energy efficient.

Thanks guys!
Yes, the Gn15 will be operational. I'm using a mixture of Roco and Peco track. I had some out in the garden for more than a year now and they still look good; no corrosion at all.
The motive power from the engine I'm building is a Lima 3 axle H0 scale bogie (from an old Lima engine). It's powered by a 9 volts battery.
Had some picture somewhere but can't find them anymore... I'll make some new pictures of it soon.

Sounds interesting - I tried using a Tenshodo motor block, but it really doesn't like the outside track.

Those Tenshodo are too delicate, I guess. Just use a robust H0 toy train engine

BTW, almost forgot to answer Bill's question!!! The white glue holds good in rainy climate. Since I've read the book Practical Garden Railways by Peter Jones I use it to 'seal' buildings as well. Peter Jones layout was located in a very rainy and windy British climate and he swore by the use of the whiteglue as protection. He had build wooden structures that had a whiteglue treatment and stood up perfectly for many years in the outside (with some maintenance).

Great work Paul. I like to work in concrete too.....solid results !

This hypertufa stuff is a work of art, something I never quite mangaged before. It just resulted in a dismal crumbly peaty mess.

I need some tips.

The trackwork in the tunnel is excellent, looks like a real railway.

I just caught up with this thread, great work as Clive said a very character full corner. Looks like we need a 'Hypertufa teach in' sometime.

Yesterday we had a visitor all the way from Texas!
He arrived with the first train from Saint Aubin du Thenney:



You now already know who it is? If not, it was Bill (KleineDicke) who had the courage to face Belgium highways to drive from Normandy to the Netherlands for a visit to the CFJ.

And if that wasn't enough he brought some delicious cider with him! (BTW Thanks Carl! And sorry Bill, I realized I've kept it all for myself... ).
We had a great time and a lot of fun and my wife and kids found it very nice to meet Bill also. We did not spare Bill... he even had to meet my mother and father in law and some friend that came over... And Bill learned us a lot about the States that you won't learn from Discovery or CNN, like that there is nobody living in Detroit anymore

Here we are:



And some other shots from Bill's nice railcar crawling it's way on the CFJ narrow curves without any problem. We were very lucky with the weather; a nice sunny october afternoon (today rain's pouring down...)

I enjoyed myself at Paul's house. Belgian highways werent too bad; the drive into Antwerp to find my hotel was a challenge, though for both me and the little lady in my GPS.

When I arrived, the dining table was covered with trains etc., so I knew I was in the right place. His layout is nicely done - looks better in person than in photos. The hospitality was great as well - thanks again Paul.

That's a marvellous little railcar and such a brilliant setting!