Crossing safety

I've now finished the railway crossing over the crossover; for a long period of time this was a chasm of railway tracks that would swallow entire cars whole! However all good things must come to an end and so I have patched up the holes. Always fun trying to squeeze bits of road between moving turnout blades!

The crossing is just an elaborate collection of carefully trimmed pieces of balsa, painted and weathered with powders to match the rest of the road.

I've also taken the chance to install some cross-bucks. Thanks to the wonders of the internet, these days even the Federal Highway Administration have the exact dimensions of railway crossing signs online. Saved me having to visit a real railway I guess.

A few quick calculations later and I had 7.5mm long bars on 1.5mm wide styrene strips, on a 15mm high 1.5mm post; thankfully all of which I had in my styrene box. I haven't bothered to paint in the tiny letters yet.

I rather like the effect.

I've also taken the chance to install some lineside cabinets. These are Greenmax kit Nº 2128, from Hobby Search in Japan. This is my first Greenmax kit and I was pleasantly surprised at how well it went together. There was no flashing around the parts, and the instructions were clear with each part numbered on the sprue and in the instructions. It glued together in seconds and cleaned up very nicely with an emery board. Painting was a breeze with some Vallejo undercoat and then their "steel" colour which has a nice dark lustre; almost sparkly, without actually being sparkly.

I then gave them a good dose of weathering powders and now they look nice and neglected sitting beside the tracks.

Technically the boxes are ATS cabinets for Automatic Train Stop, so that if a train passes a restricted signal and the driver doesn't acknowledge it within a certain time, the train will automatically stop. That however is a topic for another day! Until then our drivers, both rail- and road-, can enjoy the extra safety the signs bring.