After a summer lay off and an initial burst of activity on locomotive detailing, my day to day operation of WHL 3 is picking up. It is at this time of year that all of the summer gremlins appear, spiders webs get noticed and the amount of dirt that accumulates on the track as it lays idle becomes evident. Therefore I have the usual track cleaning to look forward to which is currently in progress. Historically I have employed the time old Peco abrasive rubber but having read numerous posts on RMWeb, I am trialling both Dapol's track cleaner with their fluid and IPA. No clear winners yet but it will be interesting to compare how each provide longer term protection against dirt.

I have also noticed a deterioration in the electrical continuity meaning that loco stalls and momentary drops in power resulting in a frustrating loss or interruption of sound are more evident. I am not sure why, when building the trackwork which totals about 150 foot from end to end, I connected power at several points along the line. Not a text book power BUS but it seemed to work well at first; now I can only think that I will have to create more connections. This is not the end of the world but a pain in the arse I could do without. I intend dusting off an old multimeter that I was given in an effort to check track voltages in an effort to identify the various weak points. This will be fun as I am clueless when it comes to power related tasks! Hopefully I can master the meter as it should enable me to confirm that the problem is power related rather than some form of track distortion.

Despite all of the niggles and before an as yet undiagnosed short circuit which curtailed operations, I managed to run a half a days WHL operations as shown in the following pictures.

37026 at Garelochead on the first down freight of the day 7B02 x 2

37022 at Bridge of Orchy on the down sleeper 1B07

37014 arrives, runs around and awaits departure from Fort Wiliam on the days first up train 1T24 x 4

37027 departs Garelochead on the first down Oban 1B08 x 4

37192 on the approach to and at Bridge of Orchy on the first up freight of the day 8D10 x 5

27041 arrives at Fort William yard with empties from Corpach paper mill x 3

37192 arrives at Ardlui with 8D10 x 2