Rannoch Moor

Very timely. I recently read John A McGregor’s “All Stations To Mallaig” which mentioned this trial. I had taken the impression that these may have been the Class 2 Moguls (which I know worked the Ballachulish line in its latter days) but your photos have saved me posting in the quest of further details.

Just discovered this fabulous thread - spent the last hour or two reading through the story of this super layout. All the best in your new parish Jonathan!

I'll post an update when I get back from my holidays the week after next - I plan so send off for the servo control unit and the 2 servos from MSE then. Then it will be the mor complex home signal arrangement. This has 2 home arms and 2 shunting arms to include. If youre content Steve (and they go well!) I'll put a short piece on them here if that helps others take the plunge.

Steve Thanks for the guidance and inspiration. Your work is great and I have enjoyed your post. More importantly I have taken some of your ideas on and progressed well on the way to my first working signal - the Caledonian starter for Kilbrannan Ferry. It is still to have the servos fitted and have the control wires attached behind but close to the (non-working) pulley wheels.

I posted pics of this West Highland stalwart on another thread but thought these might be of interest. Loco built from LRM kit to EM standards. Great runner (by luck!) and since the photo it has been toned down a wee bit through selective weathering.

Loch Treig has now been matt varnished, which has blended in perfectly the transfers and made consistent the finish that the Future/Klear had made a bit patchy. I have also glazed the cab side windows and spectacles. The sides with plastiglaze, but because this was a real challenge for the spectacles (backhead and roof in the way) I did them with Kristal Kleer PVA. It worked OK but I feel that they are never quite flat and even enough. Some light weathering will follow - working but cared for. Rather like the K1 in Tim Shackleton's weathering locos book... Phots to follow.

Thanks Horsetan, the Future is ideal for giving a metallic sheen although as Loch Treig is modelled in her twilight years (actually my layout is set a year or two after her withdrawal in reality) so she will have a reasonably weathered look that will matt down much of the sheen. Although that will be nothing compared to the layer of filth to be applied to the Standard 4 Mogul (Motherwell's 76001 which worked both the west Highland routes in 1960) seen in the background of some of the photos above...

Well, despite a paucity of reporting, I have actually made steady progress, and in about a year (between a new job, other modelling etc etc) Loch Treig is now nearly complete. She only needs a final coat of varnish, to detail and glaze the cab, and some light weathering. She runs well and despite a few challenges I enjoyed this project hugely. This loco is certainly not excessively difficult to build if you have some experience (at least one etched loco plus one or 2 with outside Walschaert's valve gear - a Comet kit/conversion probably ideal). Here are the photos for perusal.... The loco was primed with Alclad Grey Primer/Microfiller and painted with Humbrol Satin Black and lined with a mix of Modelmaster (ready made numbers, nameplates and crests and tender lining) and some Fox for the red boiler band lining) It was all prepped and then sealed with Future wax polish other than the cab roof and smokebox so looks a little stark in close up.

Will, Just discovered this - great work on bashing these locos. can't wait to see how your Glen will turn out. Sure it will be a smasher. Must get my K2 (Loch Treig) painted now it's finished. Gus

Just had a check after digging the test track out of the garage - no sign of any wheel drop on the tender or pony, although it was an unpowered push through as a quick check. It was conclusive though, particularly on the tender I feel. I did, however, detect that the pony and a tender wheelset had drifted slightly out of gauge though...! BTW, running the tender through by itself did also show that the wing rail did appear to provide support to the wheels.

I need to dig out my test track which has a 1:6 crossing incorporated in it! I do remember that the pony truck, which has smaller dia wheels than the tender did not seem to have a drop when passing the crossings on the layout. But then I was paying more attention to the valve gear and the avoidance of any hunting/tight spots so may have missed it....

Alan, Many thanks. Haven't had the chance to run the whole ensemble through the pointwork on the layout yet although the pony (which is quite heavily weighted with lead for track-holding) didn't suffer from this. One of the advantages of EM standards perhaps? As the layout is under a snowstorm of polystyrene shavings as I progress the landscape of Kilbrannan Ferry, I haven't yet had opportunity and won't for a wee while yet but will check and see. As to complexity, I saw this from the start as a potentially challenging build but although I had some prior experience of simple 0-6-0 etched locos and rolling stock (Connoisseur and Comet mainly) as well as some whitemetal outside cylinder locos and RTR conversions, this has been in some ways easier that I expected (although my obsessive reading of Rice etc over the years, and previous experience, have undoubtedly been essential). Posting on this thread has also been important - to both push my standards and to continue progress as I would hate to give up publicly! Whilst my main motivation has to been to share, I would be extremely flattered if it inspired anyone else to have a go - and particulary to support LRM or their other manufacturers by purchasing their wares. I felt that Tony Wright's article series in BRM overstated some of the difficulties in this kit, and from my perspective at least, as well as shortcomings in the instructions, but I have found this kit to be well made and the instructions to be generally as logical as a complicated kit's can be. I have found Tony's articles to be extremely useful though and would recommend anyone contemplating this loco to obtain copies unless they are experienced in etched loco construction.

PS The wire was actually parallel - it just doesn't look it in the phot above because the camera wasn't at 90 degrees to the line of the loco. (Well that's my excuse!) Gus

Sorry things have been slow but I have been settling in to my new job and also taking the lucky opportunity to refurb the model room into something presentable and properly user friendly to both railway and aircraft modelling - as well as my music collection! Here is a snap of the "man-cave"... As well as cracking a long progressing Lancaster and an RN DH Chipmunk (that was my first solo 30 years ago...), I have dug out Loch Treig and sorted out the floating tender and some other details, not least epoxying on the Scottish chimney, dome and the snifter valave aft of the chimney. The complete ensemble has been road tested and as well as looking reasonably adequate (IMHO!) is running OK too. The tender chassis has had its rear wheelset kept in fixed bearings whilst the middle and front wheels are floating in MJT 2mm bearings. These are left with reasonable vertical and rotational freedom and the front half of the tender is weighted using a small roll of lead sheet epoxied in place under the coal space. A hook rests on a loop soldered onto the loco drawbar which helps spread the weight load (relatively) equally on either side of the rear driven loco axle. The loco also has a similar roll of lead sheet as far aft as possible inside the boiler in order to concentrate tractive effort. The cab roof is not soldered on yet the way! The drawbar loop can be tweaked up and down using pliers to adjust tender ride height. Once all secured, the smokebox front can be secured. To ensure that this is level (as the ends of the boiler handrails need to be secured on the smokebox front...) I ran a piece of straight drawn wire through the adjacent holes for the handrail pillars (checking it was parallel to the buffer beam) ... ... and then used a wooden straight edge (trusty clothes peg!) across the holes in the front of the smokebox to ensure all was parallel before solder tacking in place as indicated by the wire in this old photo: Well, off to do some more... Happy New Year to all by the way :-)

Needless to say, bearings "reappeared" in the bag of brass bits and the pony is now completed and secured temporarily in place - will get a snap up when I get home. Regarding the blackening JB, certainly sounds worthwhile, although much to my surprise, the rivets really worked a treat and were used in all but one of the joints this time. I have, however, dipped tweezers in the blackening stuff to prevent them getting soldered if holding things together or acting as asbestos fingers!

Thanks Jol - suspect I've just mislaid them and they'll reappear the second that the new ones drop onto the mat below the letter box ;-)

Given that I haven't put together an outside valve gear loco for a few years, this one went together very simply - the adrenaline must have been doing its job! The pony truck also went together very well last night despite an apparent absence of any written instructions - although I may have missed them and in any case the drawing provided gave all the detail required. I did discover though that I had no 2mm bearings to fit and (rather surprisingly given the provision of ones for the driving wheels) none were provided (unless I've lost them!), so these have been sent for from dart castings along with some MJT 2mm hornblocks ready to set up the "weighted tender" resting on the drawbar. us

Will and Mark - many thanks for the additional inspiration. Tonight will be construction of the pony truck I hope, Gus

Back at the workbench after a bit of a break caused by holidays, change of job, and a bit of aircraft modelling to boot. Steamed carefully into operation by actually getting grip of the valve gear - first duty was to attach the small end of the connecting rod to the crosshead by inserting a 14BA CHD screw from the rear and soldering it to a tight but rotating fit by using the crosshead arm - solderig the lot solid was avoided by using tin foil as a mask between the latter and the crosshead. The following phot should explain further if required: The union links and combination lever were then secured. I completed the first joint using a brass lace-maker's pin, but since this seemed a little sloppy (although not critically) the rest was joined using the rather lovely stainless steel rivets supplied with the kit, any slight tightness eased by gently sliding a scalpel blade into the joint and very carefully prising out sufficient clearance. Finally the radius rods were attached and the expansion links (the arc shaped bits) folded up. I found all the holes to be correctly sized, only needing gentle clearing using a tapered reamer to establish the correct sized holes and the whole caboosh went together pretty quickly and easily although the tight clearances needed some careful handling. Because the chassis was down a grub screw (now received from Chris Gibbon BTW - very many thanks for superb service) rolling tests were easily conducted at each stage (apologies for slightly out of focus shot): The above shows the set up prior to installation of the return crank/eccentric and before securing the radius rod end to the weigh shaft ends. The return cranks miraculously secured themselves to the Alan Gibson crankpin nut without drama and the leads were correct to my eye first stab. While I remember to report it, the crankpin holes in the big ends of the Con rod were reamed to accept a "reversed" crankpin nut (ie so the wide end was outermost with the narrow part inserted into the con rod hole). The most fiddly and challenging part of the op was to rived the small end of the eccentric to the expansion link, although the most stressful part (as ever) was testing under power! A slight fouling by the RH lead crankpin and the motion bracket caused by knocking the latter slightly out of alignment was solved (clearances are microscopic!). Happy bunny... Finally a couple of shots with the lid on... (ignore the squinty dome in the first one - the sprue stem fouled the fly wheel!)

A bit frustrating this weekend just past. Mounted the cylinders and motion bracket onto the chassis and then fitted the body - very tight clearances! All well until a rolling test showed that the motion bracket was fouling the RH front crank pin. The trouble was eventually traced to the bottom of the footplate pressing down on top of the bracket and pushing it down and in towards the wheels thus reducing the already tight clearance to zilch... So, with a bit of nautical language, the bracket was removed, the top of the chassis frames filed down to be properly flush with the spacer to which the bracket is bolted. I also (gingerly!) filed down the top of the outer part of the bracket (where it lies flush with the outer edge of the footplate) and cleaned every trace of solder from the underside of the footplate. So long as the bracket is secured at exactly 90 degrees to the fore and aft centreline, that solved the problem. I am tempted to solder the bracket on but will resist unless forced - a temporary tack may be necessary though if I can't maintain alignment as I have no space to fit 2 bolts side by side. A final shot of the cab - still awaiting detailing which will get done after the loco is running with a full set of valve gear. Oh, nearly forgot - anyone know if High Level supplies replacement grub screws for the axle gearwheel? I seem to have mislaid mine which may be a bit limiting....

Thanks Mark - I will start snipping and connecting this weekend - one of my last before I move back up to Scotland permanently as I will finally say farewell to the Grey Funnel Line - at least as a serving member- at the end of the summer. Hopefully my new role as an Admiralty Pilot will allow a bit more time for modelling!

Aware things have been quiet down this bearing for a while. Have progressed some of the scenery foundations on the layout and have been sorting out the garden at weekends along with other priorities...! Picked up 61775 though last night, and all clearances have been maintained. I fitted the backhead into the cab (cyano) so I could at least claim another step forward and now (in between the above, plus finishing my Sea Balliol and tarting up some Bachmann blue and grey Mk1 s as a late period indulgence!) the time is approaching to pluck up courage to get on with the valve gear....

Tony and JRG, Thanks for the revisit! The paradox is the tight spot seems to have been cured (for now - construction continues!). I did have a little tweak (as suggested by Tony) when I took off the front crankpin nuts to countersink the rod. This seems to have sorted things for now (either that or opening out the hole did the trick...!) Back to slow progress though I'm afraid. Today's modelling time was spent making ply scenery contour boards and applying DAS ballast to Kilbrannan Ferry (the latter to the quay side sidings) and as I am duty next week, which means I am marooned at HMS Collingwood and Fareham, then 61775 will have to do without me fr a while... Gus

Thanks Tony. Worth a try - I had left that part intact to allow a bit of purchase to tighten the nuts but I guess I can replace them at worst - certainly easier than trying to add a few thou by shimming out the slidebar bearing surface...!

Having a (well deserved!!) day off got home yesterday and in between gardening and other chores, managed to countersink the front coupling rod holes, file down the chankpin bushes so they only extend half way through the bearing on the rod and reversed the previously shaved securing nuts as suggested by Mark - mechanically fine! Chassis runs smoothly, slidebars are now clear but there is still the very occasional clip of the rod against the inside of the crosshead (despite filing it down). There is a little sideplay by the crossheads on the bars - I have put a skim of solder on the bars to try and reduce it but I may try to reduce it further by putting a shim inside the bearing surface to stop any slop . I have also eased the slidebar centres out. Nearly there....!