young37215

The Hornby 5 plank china clay wagons have had tarpaulins added. These have been fabricated from toilet paper and PVA which dries quickly in the warm. As yet they have not been painted although I am not sure if this is necessary. Another little job on the outstanding list completed.

Managed to run a few trains today, 37033 and 37264 we’re captured at Fort William with 033 on the ECS of the green and cream steam set whilst 264 awaits departure with the 1630 to Mallaig

A fair question but I am not sure that weathering is actually necessary as the vast majority of pictures I have seen show the building freshly painted as in the 1983 shot below. What the picture does highlight is the number of posters that were attached to it which I have not managed to replicate yet. For the time being I intend leaving the building prisitine although, as with most things, nothing is set in stone. At Fort William I am trying to resolve the usual conundrum of both wanting more sidings and the maximum space to increase the scenic area leading away from the station. Trains leaving Fort William station run over a short 750mm baseboard before entering the Mallaig Junction fiddle yard. The board is 300mm wide and I think I can get 3 sidings off of the fiddle yard plus a small scenic section to divide the sidings from the running line. The sidings will create operational flexibility with freight wagons where I want to avoid the situation of immedeately returning the wagons of an inbound train on the next one southbound. Even with a shunt to change their order in the consist, sending the wagons back south straight away again feels wrong. I think I have got the balance right, I just need to run some trains to test out how it works in practice.

Chocolate blocks, I do'nt do sophisticated or exotic when it comes to electrics! I find gluing the stations in place with ballast means that they stay where I put them thus avoiding them moving and causing collisions with trains and potential derailments. Making them removable is a layer of complexity I do'nt need, worst case for me would be having to disturb the ballast to remove the station should the need arise. A few pictures of glued and ballasted Crianlarich station where I used some surplus thinned paint from the Fort William project as a wash to weather the platform walls. It is a lot more effort to do this in situ compared with doing this on the workbench. Another point learned for future reference...

I managed to return the Fort William baseboard to the layout earlier today. All in all it was very straightforward, the weight change was minimal and the only challenge arises from the fact the baseboard is only marginally shorter than the width of the loft. A couple of trees on the Crianlarich side needed resiting after being knocked over by trailing wires but otherwise it ony took a minute or two to complete. Once all of the wiring was re- connected, 37033 did a quick test run and everything worked as it should. The only adjustment required appears to be the guage on platform 1 which is rather tight although it should not take long to file off a mm or two.

The second backscene board was painted and put back today. The new ballast has been weathered which is as much as I intend doing for now. Additional detail will be added over time with the station back on the layout. Tomorrow I will find out how much weight I have added when I return the board to the layout.

Ballast supplies arrived today allowing me to complete the station throat. The various concrete walls were weathered, the new ballast will get weathered once the glue has dried. A blend of Woodland Scenics materials was added to the scrub area on a bed of dilute PVA. I will add the trees once the station is back on the layout. One of the two backscene boards has been completed with the block of terraced houses painted.

Hi Ian Despite WHL4 having most of the polystyrene it will need already on it, my garage is still full of offcuts saved for the 'I'll use it one day' event! I use PVA to glue polystyrene and find it very effective at doing the job. I am a recent convert to Sculptamold having seen Mr Everard Junction use it. I have just finished the 3lb first bag that I bought 18 months ago for about £10 which has done all of Crianlarich, Garelochead and the small amount used on Fort William. It is easy to mix up and simple to use when skimming over, filling and shaping the polystyrene base I typically construct. Having discovered Sculptamold, I would not think of using anything else for this sort of work. Try it out for yourself; I buy mine through Amazon although it is out of stock at present.

With the glue having set on the polystyrene used to create an embankment, I was able to Sculptamold the area. Once this dried it was painted and I fitted the retaining walls that separate the land from the railway. I am waiting for an order of ballast to arrive so that I can finish the area and secure the trunking. I placed a few trees to get a feel for how the area will look.

I've done it a couple of times, once in February 2000 with snow falling and a chilly wind. We stopped at Glen Ogle Head to look out and I do'nt think I have ever felt so cold anywhere in the UK. It was bitter with the wind chill but the views and atmosphere were worth it.

It's not a million miles away from the viaduct at Glen Ogle which would be a fantastic area to model.

Currently working on the station throat at Fort William. The ground behind the station rises up and is usually overgrown. It’s a bit of a faff as I want to leave space at the rear of the baseboard for a hidden siding that will extend from Mallaig Junction fiddle yard. The ground elevation should ensure the siding is largely hidden, it just adds to the tweaking to make it look right and work. The station canopy will also get an extension in the middle of about 100mm.

Agree, now we know how a crane feels! Fortunately the arm extension and reach required for my upper levels is modest hence I have not yet had any problems in moving boards.

Short answer is yes, the 2.7m long, 300mm wide section is removable as are the other two sections on the upper level of Mallaig and Mallaig Junction fiddle yard which are of similar lengths. This is of necessity so that I can access both sides of the baseboards to work of them. I dont envisage any of them being moved on a regular basis but I know that I can access them in need should a problem arise. The boards are 12mm chipboard with 30mm deep, 12mm wide batton screwed along each side so as to provide stability. The upper level is elevated above the main baseboard by the use of 100mm high pieces of wood placed at a 90 degree angle onto which the baseboards sit. When I lifted Fort William it was not overly heavy, more awkward and by lifting at the mid points it was farly easy to make the short transfer and 180 degree turn to the work bench. I dont think that the scenic work will have added so much as to dramatically increase the weight. Worst case is I shall have to enlist a friend to help me return the baseboard to its position on the layout. Hopefully I shall get to the stage of finding the answer later next week.

Fort William continues to be the focus of my attention. It’s taking longer than I had hoped but that’s nothing new. Yesterday I got to the stage where I was happy to secure the main platform in place. The gaps in the ballast were filled in and my usual dilute PVA water mix was dribbled on. This morning all seems well so I continued with the backscene and now have one of two panels completed. The platform lights all worked prior to the platform being glued in place. The lights have'nt been secured in place yet hence they are not straight. The services platform has been painted and ballasted The main platform ballasted in position The platform canopies were placed for testing, they will be secured later. An end board has been added and part painted to mimic the station building. This will get finished off once the paint is dry. The staff car park that adjoins the platform is under construction.

In the early 1980’s Cornish china clay was delivered to the Wiggins Teape paper mill at Corpach by rail. From 1984 this was delivered in PRA wagons, prior to this ancient 5 plank, wooden bodied 10’ OWV wagons were used. For WHL4 I have 4 of the excellent Kernow PRA’s which I intend keeping in pristine, as new condition. I am currently attempting to create a rake of 4 OWV’s which will be at the other end of the spectrum being heavily dilapidated and filthy dirty. Following comment on I bought a triple pack of Hornby 5 plank wagons and changed the spoked wheels for 3 hole disc ones. The wagons have been weathered using Railmatch frame dirt and weathered black colours as a base and an off white aerosol china clay top coat. All that remains is for me to decide on construction the tarpaulins used to cover the china clay. Pristine PRA's are a contrast

I think you will find the last of the blue and grey Mk 1 sleepers were the 2 used on the Scottish internal service which were replaced by Mk3's at the end of summer 1984. If you are interested in obscure liveries and want a challenge, how about the Mk1's that were used in the original version of the Royal Scotsman seen at Achasheen in 1988. Alternatively I believe that the current Scotsman has Mk1 sleepers in its consist if the 2018 picture below is anything to go by.

Interesting thoughts from Ian, I may well return to the suggestions if I don’t get on with the tape I have bought. My main task at present is getting Fort William to a condition where I can reinstate the station on to the layout. Following the mess created previously and in the hope of avoiding a repeat, I washed the remaining ballast and was amazed by the amount of dirt I removed. It took about 10 rinses to get to a stage where the ballast looked clean enough to use. The track has received a second coat of sleeper grime and looks much improved for it. The base for the service platform has been attached and ballasted in place. I have added a plywood screen to the rear of the station on to which I will paint a backscene. By this evening I had managed to fit the platform lights and wire them up so that they all worked when switched on. Tomorrow I aim to glue the platform in place and ballast the residual areas with nice clean ballast. In theory all that should then remain to finish the task is a little blending of sleeper grime on the new ballast and the station can go back on to the layout.

A new batch of servos finally arrived from Hobbyking today which will enable me to finish point and semaphore automation. I ordered the servos in late January but they were delayed due to the coronavirus outbreak. Now all I have to do is fit them…. I could not resist giving the air conditioned sleeper consist an outing to check everything is working as it should. It was photographed passing through Garelochead with 37175 in charge.

I use a Megapoints network to operate servos for point and semaphore control. I like the look of Megapoints custom control panels but what I need for 6 stations and 2 fiddle yards exceeds the capacity of my bank account. I constructed a trial panel out of 3mm plywood that I had lying around and was pleasantly surprised with it to the extent that I made a second panel in exactly the same way for the upper level section. What was a trial has lasted over 3 years and has become part of the layout functioning very effectively due largely to the simplicity of the Megapoints system. When everything is finally connected I will have around 75 servos in operation. I have never been happy with the pencil lines that I drew on the plywood detailing the track layout of the stations because they are too thin and not as visible as I would like. I am trialing some 3mm black tape which is much more visible but a pain in the rear to fit. I am in two minds at present, I think the tape is the way to go but I am struggling to get the necessary motivation to do all 6 stations and 2 fiddle yards Fort William station marked using a pencil Mallaig station with the pencil partially covered using tape

A quiet week with the pleasant weather resulting in more time spent outside. I want to finish off the renumbering programmes of coaches and locos so that I can run trains again should I choose. All of the coaches are now finished and back on the layout after a couple of hours with the airbrush and some hand painting. I have 2 locos left to clean and renumber but there is no urgency as they are both currently available for service. I managed to acquire a second Mk 3 sleeper which has entered service following a light weathering. Renumbered BFK has had its chassis and roof lightly weathered Renumbered Hornby BSO received a similar treatment The second Mk 3 sleeper after weathering Hopefully the answer before the questions start, the reason why none of the previous coaches have their wheels. I hand painted the wheels with Railmatch sleeper grime. A completed rake at Mallaig awaiting departure with the first southbound train of the day.

Snowploughs are a recurring challenge on most models because manufacturers insist on hanging them off of a bogie rather than the buffer beam as is the case with the real thing. The choice is then either a plough or a tension lock which causes me a great deal of frustration because my locos need a coupling at each end to operate in both directions. The result is I have a dozen or more pairs of Bachman ploughs sat in a box! PH Designs produce a thin brass plough to hang off the buffer beam but I have not around to trying them. I have tried hanging the Bachmann offering from the buffer beam without success, the authors efforts are interesting, I’d like to see more pictures of the solution used.

Today’s efforts were to finish the renumbering of 37175. Formerly 37192, loco has been cleaned, had a new nose end fitted, replacement Hornby class 50 oval buffers added as well as new number and data panel transfers. MU cables have been added but as with other locos, bufferbeam detailing will only be added once non tension lock coupling solution is in place. A little strategic weathering is still required to blend it all together together with a Matt varnish sealing of the new transfers. These can wait for the next air brush outing, the loco is back in traffic bringing the fleet up to full numbers.

My mothers parents lived in Bath. From their top floor I could see the main line to the east and I spent a lot of time watching the last of the western region hydraulics and the class 50,s that replaced them through binoculars. Yesterday saw the airbrush get an outing. I varnished all bar 2 of the cleaned and renumbered coaches which were returned to the layout once dry. The 6 fixed formation rakes of coaches are just about completed so I could start running trains again. New 37085 was finished off and returned to the layout for operations.

A fair and valid point. To maximise the longevity of the transfers I want to seal them, maybe I will settle for a splash of matt varnish rather than try and blend the weathering.