A Modular Layout for "O" scale trams Part 3

I've been doing what all modellers do! I've been fiddling with a number of different ideas and consequently I haven't achieved much for awhile. While I have been waiting for the side frames and the trucks for my two 4 wheelers I have been looking at the end boards for my modular layout again.

I didn't realise that it was May the last time I worked on them. How time flies. The tear drop back scenes are in place. These will extend above the roadway the width of a sheet of A4 paper. Space is really restricted on these end boards so I intend to glue photos of Brisbane houses to these boards to make a continuous scene. I'm going to have to go out and photograph some suitable houses very soon.

As I said space is very restricted and the next photo shows the footpaths tapering away to nothing on these end modules . Both boards have been given a thin coat of mat varnish to seal them so I am ready to put down the plaster roadway.


The 1/4" holes are already drilled for the steel rod I have for the span poles. I have created a problem for myself now. The inner row of holes are so close to the back scene that I can't get a drill in to clean them out after I have plastered the roadway. No sure what to do but I have a friend who can weld a 1/4" drill to a rod for me and get it to spin true which is something I can't do. That will let me keep the drill chuck above the back scene.

The end modules are not that far from being finished and I have been thinking about the rest of the modules. They will have full with footpaths so I'm thinking that the next two boards will be a typical 1950s/60s set of suburban strip shops with their false fronts and awnings that came out to the curb. Often the awnings had holes cut in them to fit around the span poles. But I had better finish these two end modules first.

Plus my trucks for the two 4 wheelers have arrived and the truck side frames can't be too far away either. So hopefully I will be back on those models soon.