Well my control panel has been fairly grotty for quite some time. The base of the control panel is a Grainge and Hodder box. Laser Cut and very robust. After my aborted O gauge project, I decided I would try to re-use the main part of the control panel but with a new top. The inter-connecting parts from the old top section were removed and I found a piece of hardboard to fit the new control panel for PRINCE’S STREET.
Well as you can see, it was dirty!
While working on the new layout, the white piece of hardboard has got dirtier and worse as the months went on.
I’m Sorry about the above picutre. It was so bad I couldn’t even be bothered to rotate the image. The piece of hardboard, didn’t start off dirty but with so much glue, paint and other materials around, it was bound to get dirt on it so I decided I would clean it up later. Well I thought I would do that today.
I started by wrapping some masking tape around the switches and removing all the little labels I had added while setting up points and isolation switches. There were also some hints for the double switch as I had avoided all the other wiring methods and ended up with a bit of a mess!
I had some white paint in a rattle can so once I had the board ready, I started to spray. Then I stopped. I realised the white paint would not cover the grubby marks on the hardboard, so I decided I would paint the board first with a dusting of grey primer. This really blocked all the dirt and the white then went on really easily over the grey.
I found some self adhesive black PVC so I cut a piece off the roll and cut some strips of the self adhesive vinyl 5mm wide. I then stuck them in place to show the track layout.
Unfortunately, there were some marks in the top left hand corner that I couldn’t quite cover so a name panel seemed like the thing to do. I think it looks OK!
It was then time to re-label everything with the label machine I had bought for situations like this. It’s not high-tech and it’s not perfect but for my simple DC O gauge layout, I think it’s OK and it works!
AND FINALLY…
I found this character while looking for something else and thought I’d pose him on my layout. I was always told to avoid strange looking men who hang around street corners so this was my first idea. Can you spot the drain covering. Would this still be on a cobbled street left over from days past. Let me know what you think about this scene.
Thanks
Shaun
Princes Street Station 