what tunnel mouths have you used on your layouts?

someone on ebay (or it may be more than one person) makes plaster moulded tunnel mouths and sells them on there... has anyone any good or bad experience of them?  they are in various styles, stone, concrete, brick and double or single.

also I noted these ones...

peco - large stone blocks style and plastic

graham farish - only have twin bore and dark brick

javis moulded out of something

metcalf card kits

woodland scenics more american looking ones

didn't really see any that jumped out at me. I would like single bore double track if anyone has any other suggestions...


Tim

All tunnel mouths on my layout are Peco stone ones as that was all I could get at the time.

You can just make out a single track one in the background of this grainy photo

It looks well set in its place and is pretty clear to me in the picture there (possibly a bit too clear with that white pointing )

Tunnel portals... yup, I seem to have a few on the layout; these are all Japanese, so probably not what you're looking for, but posting as a reference anyway. Let me know if you need the details of any.


hillsides-2018-12-01_01 by Rail Squid, on Flickr


tunnel-test-e4 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

I've just singled the track and gone to the N gauge  peco tunnel mouth. I believe it was an OO tunnel mouth being used as a N gauge double tack before. In both cases, I'm not found of the shape of the mouth continuing round for more than 180 degrees, that wasn't a common shape. Thinking about it I suppose I could have removed a bit of the lower levels of the tunnel mouth  as Both, I think, are excessive in height.

However I don't have the time to created my own by putting a layers of polyfilla on plasticard and scribing my own.  That may be a upgrade project for the distant future..

NPN of this parish recommends cutting Peco portals around  to make them more prototypical.

Having carved plaster on a plywood former for a viaduct,  I can't say I'm happy with it. Yet another 1970s technique I picked up on, and thought cool back then.

These days, concerns like Woodland Scenics produce varied tunnel mouths, and, although expensive, if I'd had that choice back then, I'd probably select from those. 

Yeah - I prefer a smaller bore than Peco allow so lop about 5mm off the base of the plastic moulding, dependent on the height of the running rails. My underlay is 1½mm rubber

Hi Tim,

I have 2 rail tunnels, and like you, was not sure which to try. I did not want to use cardboard, so got a Peco plastic one, and a Woodland Scenic Plaster one.

This is the Peco plastic one, during and after final landscaping ......





And this is the Woodland Scenic plaster one ......





They have completely different characteristics when it comes to painting them. I used enamel on both, but the plaster one needed a technique more like painting rocks and cliffs, as the plaster is very absorbent. The plastic one used the same method for painting buildings with brick courses.

I also "adjusted" the openings, but had to be very careful with the plaster one, as even though it was about 3 times the thickness of the Peco plastic one it was very brittle.

I did break it  but a little bit of glue soon fixed it as it was a clean break 

Hope this helps,

All best wishes
Kevin

Quote from: Phoenix on January 07, 2019, 12:17:34 PM

This is the Peco plastic one, during and after final landscaping ......

I've always considered the above item to be bridge sides rather than a tunnel portal?   To me tunnels should have a round bore for proper load distribution of all the earth and rock above.

Have used the Peco Tunnel mouths, although the single portal on the right I think was a Knightwing one ? Decided to add a bit of decoration above the tunnel mouths just to make them a bit different.





Andy.

This is the peco tunnel mouth, as you can see it swings in at the lower entrance . Ideally i'd like the curved top, but then going to vertical sides

That is the Peco one I used.

I needed straight sides as my clearances are VERY tight 

The plaster one had straight sides, but the Peco one was not too difficult to adapt. I cut the sides straight down where I needed to, and notched a bit of plastic strip to represent the courses, and stuck it on under the curved top.

All best wishes
Kevin

I prefer to make my own tunnel mouths to fit the topography of my layout better.  I mainly use plywood and base them on actual locations (I have 5 in total).
Parsons Tunnel:

Dawlish:

The other three are Redruth Station, Greenaway and Dainton.

I've used the Scalescenes downloadable card kits  (RO 14 tunnel portal) with a brick finish, time consuming to build but economical.

Pleased with the results even though they have no textured relief on them.

Ian.

I'll be scratch building because the tunnel portal at the location I am modeling is very distinctive.