young37215

Or how about these

You think you have a memory problem. How do you think I feel with all these duplicates?

Nice work, the upgrades look first class. You are using wire loops to replace the tension locks which frees up space for snow ploughs as well as bufferbeam detailing. I have done similar in the past but found they increased derailments on WHL4. I reached the conclusion that the curvature of 2nd radius curves and a reverse curve in 3rd radius was too tight for loops. It is frustrating because I only used 2 second radius pieces of track, everything else is minimum 3rd radius or lower. Have you any experience of running using your loops?

It's a brake van? Unusual but I dont think anything to cause surprise. Its position in the consist shows that it is not being used as a brake van so, presumably, it is an empty stock movement. 37178 heads north through Crianlarich with 7Y31 comprised of vans and TTA's so no wagon loads to worry about!

I had'nt even noticed the unusal signal post, it just goes to show how we all notice different aspects within a picture. Fortunately I dont need to worry about this as there are no plans for Spean Bridge to appear on WHL4!

Wagon loads occupied my thinking yesterday. I want to construct removable loads of timber and aluminum to fit into OCA and OBA open wagons. The timber loads are fairly simple, logs glued onto a strip of plasticard. Representing aluminum rolled slab is more of a challenge. I have some roofing lead sheet and considered making one or two moulds into which I could poor molten lead. This seemed like a lot of effort and so my current thinking is buying a strip of flat bar aluminum from Ebay costing about £5 and cutting it into suitable lengths. After some research on Flickr the best picture I found indicated that there was no uniform size to the rolled slab, at a guess it is either smelted or subsequently cut into custom sizes reflecting customer requirements. Whatever the reasons for the various sizes, modeling them as wagon loads looks straightforward and as Ian highlighted, the additional weight of the loads can only help with reliable running. The real 37108 at Spean Bridge with various sizes of aluminum rolled slab in 1983.

Hi Ian Your neat cabling is giving me an inferiority complex! I only have clips with nails where hammering them into place does nothing for what is on the top of the baseboard. I particularly like the screw based securing clips you use and feel compelled to get some. Nothing obvious showed up on Ebay, please advise where I can get them. Thanks Rob

37085 passes through Crianlarich with 7D10, the first southbound freight of the day. Last weeks discussion on the nature of freight carried on the WHL led me to spend time looking through Flickr at WHL freight trains. I concluded that southbound trains contained open wagons loaded with more timber and aluminum ingots than I had appreciated. Creating additional timber loads is easy enough but I am not sure yet on what to use to represent aluminum ingots.

Should we assume that you used toilet paper for the covers rather than you used 'used' toilet paper?

I am not so sure that much spoil was actually removed, the only major piece of work that took place during my timescale was the Crianlarich remodelling in 1985/6. From the pictures and other media I have seen the main focus of WHL maintenance was occassional rail/sleeper replacement and infrequent ballast drops to top up levels that had diminished over time. A new arrival to WHL4 is 37043, Loch Lomond complete with the trademark Eastfield white stripe seen on its first outing with a Glasgow to Oban service at Garelochead.

Well done Andy, the renumbered coaches will add to the realism of your layout. If you are feeling really adventurous you can now start checking that the bogies match those which were on your renumbered coaches. Changing bogies around is very easy, the single screw in on the underside of the bogie is all that has to be removed.

27041 had charge of loaded ballast wagons seen arriving at Crianlarich. I am not 100% certain of the sources of ballast used on the WHL, I believe there is/was a quarry on the Oban line somewhere and another south of Glasgow near Lanark. If anyone can add any more detail to this I would be grateful.

37175 heads 7Y31 0510 Mossend to Mallaig Junction Yard on the approach to Garelochead. There is work still be done to finish off the new section but running trains is reward for the efforts of the last week or so.

Thanks Warren It would be an interesting exercise to compare the fuel tank mounted speaker with the sealed units that I have installed. I dont doubt the fuel tank will be superior but I wonder by how much. I have got to the stage where I make a cost/benefit judgement now when deciding on what speaker to fit. On my class 37 fleet I am currently using a Zimo one that cost £20, they are not as good as EM2's but at 20% of the price, I think they are a decent and cost effective solution.

Thank Ian. Garelochead is not a popular location for pictires or video it seems. The best DVD I have for this is Railway Recollections Cab Ride No 49 which is an unedited view from Glasgow through to Crianlarich and is most useful for research. Although filmed outside of my time window in 1994, other than a reduction in the lineside maintenance and control of vegetation, little had changed in the intervening years. Within the constraints of the available space I managed to get comfortable with the gradient both sides of the line and decided that it was time for scenic materials. As so often is the case, the addition of the scenic material hides a multitude of sins and it finished of the 1m or so of section rather nicely. I added some fine leaf foliage to give height and was pleased with the effect although more is required to get the density of undergrowth that I want. Thanks Warren, I may add one or two pieces of vertical rockface but the DVD shows that there is very little exposed rock on the approach to Garelochead. Given that the next section heading south will be a rock faced cutting, I will have plenty of rockface in the area. I wanted to get the feeling that the line had been carved from the landscape. Eastern embankment dressed with material Garelochead station approach Looking south

If I was starting out again then I would do something like you suggest. As it is the eastern side is a much smaller area and it should be straightforward to align using a ruler or similar straight edged tool. Straightforward or not, I am still not happy with the area and will make further efforts to get it to feel right before dressing with scenic materials.

Your picture is the first I have seen of the replacement fuel tanks which have interested me for a while. I would love to hear how you get on with them and how the speaker compares with others you have used.

The 02xx ex Victoria to Ramsgate was 73 hauled in addition to the 0455 ex Faversham. For hard core desperados it was a move to score 2 x 73 which, prior to the Gatwick push pulls, were hard work to get for haulage. I only did the move a couple of times on all line rovers and clearly recall what a rancid environment the rolling stock was. Mind you after several days on the 1980's BR network, a rancid environment was about all that I would have been fit for.

I did'nt get as far as I had hoped with the eastern side at Garelochead because I could not get comfortable with the shape and contour of the area. What I want to achieve is the look of the line being cut into a ledge on the side of the mountain. To do this I need to get the angle of the embankment either side of the line aligned which I found challenging. Hopefully with a nights sleep and a fresh look this morning I can complete the 'groundworks' using some more Sculptamould. Painting and dressing with material is a much easier job once the base is sorted. 37033 is seen in charge of the 1605 Fort William to Mallaig mixed train which included the BDA's carrying steel for Mallaig. One of the BDA's is in Railfreight Red and will do for the single wagon and mobile crane engineers train I want to replicate. Fortunately I had not bought one of the Salmon's before the incorrect length error with the Flangeway offering was identified. Whatever the reasons for the errors, it's a great shame to see the problem and I hope that it does not stop other smaller players bringing models to market.

Hi Ian I think you will find that the Master/Slave setting is irrelevant when you are programming a Servo Controller. You programme the same way in either condition, the existence of a Multi Panel has no effect. Put another way, the Multi Panel drives the Servo Controller, it does'nt programme it. Rob

There are no lights, just 4 butons mimicing those on the Servo Controller. I have never thought about lights which would be a useful addition, when I use the tool I count the number of button presses to determine which number servo I want to adjust. A combination of this and the visual movement of a servo centreing on activation works for me.

I managed to dress the embankment with Woodland Scenics coarse grass materials yesterday. I ended up with an overall darker colour than elsewhere on the layout in an effort to replicate the damp environment typically found beneath trees and bushes. I will add further greenery by way of bushes but the main structural trees are all in place. The area to the west of Station Road was extended with basket liner and the Sculptamolded road was painted. Overall I am pleased with the effect but disappointed to not complete the scenery to the east of the track. For some reason my polystyrene cutter was very weak, cutting took what seemed like an age and it was only late in the day that I realised I had used the wrong power supply cable which had a lower output. With the correct supply in place I made light work of the remaining polystyrene and glued it all in place. Completing this will be todays activity. 37014 heads a test train through the area.

Occassionally I find that I have to re-set the servo limits which means I have to access the relevant servo controller. The link below takes you to a Megapoints piece of kit that has proved to be a godsend, rather than performing like a circus acrobat in attempting to get to the controllers under baseboards and view the movement of the servo at the same time, once connected to the servo controller the extension allows you to adjust whilst viewing servos with ease. https://megapointscontrollers.co.uk/product/servocontrollerremotebuttons/?v=79cba1185463

it’s clear that some books command high prices, simple economic supply and demand I guess. I am glad that I bought most of mine when they were first published and in plentiful supply. I made a little progress yesterday with Garelochead but still have a fair bit left to do. Still with the lockdown it’s not as if there’s a lot else to do so it will be back to this after dog walking duties are performed.

I am currently working on the scenic area to the south of Garelochead. I have managed to get down plaster cloth to create the embankment falling away from the track. If all is dry and looks right I hope to fininsh the 'structural' work today and maybe start on the scenery. 37049 had charge of 7Y33, 0952 Mossend to Mallaig Junction Yard seen passing through Garelochead. It is the area the right of the first picture that is proving challenging to develop.