South Oak Road

Retaining wall and tunnel foundations

Having completed the main track work (excluding finer details that will be added later such as cable troughing, relay cabinets and point motors) it was into the scenery. Referring back to my original scale plan and 1/10 prototype model I began by marking out the features on to the baseboard. This is a crucial point in the process for me, it’s usually when I begin to move things around a bit and before you know it I’m on the slippery slope to scrapping the whole lot. Come what may I’m sticking to this plan and pushing on into the scenery stage, “amazing!” I hear my friends saying.

The back of the layout will consist of an imposing engineers blue brick retaining wall that leads into a single and double tunnel at one end. The above image of Kentish Town captures the feel of the retaining wall and tunnel that I want for South Oak Road. My first task was to cut out rough card tunnel portals and check all heights and clearances. With the height of the wall at one end established I was able to quickly begin shaping various insulation foam off-cuts to form the main topographic features. Leaving the top section of the hill as removable for track maintenance, all another elements were glued in place with PVA woodworking glue.