Dave John

I had a look, they seem to just do bespoke signals. I think I'll have a go at the diy route, I have been hoarding materials scavenged from various places over the years. Challenge accepted Mikkel .

I had a look at the scalefour frame. I messed about with some bits of card , but I felt that it was just a bit too small and the levers too closely spaced for me to operate comfortably and easily. Personal view, but I want to be able to use this with my train watching specs on rather than my close work specs.

The levers will be brass . I think i will try laminating the frame from styrene, it is surprisingly strong at 3 or 5 ply. Even if I decide to move up to brass the silhouette cut parts can be used as accurate templates.

I'm not sure yet Compound. I have an idea about simple mechanical interlocking but I don't know whether it would be robust enough. If not then I know how to do it electrically.

I have never been entirely happy with the control of points and signals on Kelvinbank. Three way switches allow a signal to be set to on, off or auto. Switches set the points, in auto mode they also control the signals via short timers. It is vaguely interlocked, but not perfectly. All workable but somehow not in keeping with the period feel of things. So. Lanarkshire and Dumbartonshire section of the CR during the Edwardian era. Built in the 1890s. Boxes would have a Stevens & Sons frame. Like this one; Some research on the model frames available showed that none were really what I was after. I only need a frame of nine levers to work Kelvinbank the way I want. The very good ones are expensive and none have that Stevens & Sons geometry, with a lever about 4 “ long. A long lever pulled forward from the vertical rather than an over centre arc. Hmm, diy time I have never scratchbuilt a lever frame. Starting with the above sketch it seemed like a good idea to have a mess about with a styrene mockup. Here is the third attempt. I think that is what I am after. The stop block is sprung, gravity doesn’t quite scale. I bought some v4 roller microswitches off some lot called temu, 30 for 5 quid and they seem perfectly ok. Bear in mind that I am not trying to make a scale model of the frame, rather a practical working frame in the style of Stevens & Sons. The lever spacing has to be overscale to avoid getting my fingers stuck. Next stage, cutting nine levers from 2mm sheet brass.

I have learned a lot from this. I knew of the atmospheric railway but little of the details. Really excellent research culminating in a model which if not unique is certainly very unusual. I now understand why it proved impractical and was abandoned so quickly. Thanks too for the link to the Indonesian system, I had no idea that existed.

Very impressive Mike. That certainly illustrates how it worked. I didn't realise that the hangers were cranked like that. Must have involved a lot of work at the termini, lifting the whole piston frame and moving the whole coach ( via a point? ) to the return track.

Hmm, I tend to think that a rtr 7mm wagon made to the accuracy of yours would cost an awful lot more than 40 quid . That brake gear is exquisite, but why did they put the horse loop at the brake lever end ? Compounds figures for 4mm are about right, I reckon £10 - £15 for a scratch build wagon , heading towards the £20 - £25 mark for a kit. I had to look it up , but I gather a "deltic" represents about £ 250. Ouch. I also note that Historex are showing better stocks of rivets and bolts. It was your use of them that led me to experiment with them in 1/50 scale. Now I'm an addict ....

I remember the vacuum systems in shops, brass cans that twisted open and had a felt pad at the ends. The coach body looks a good print. It will be interesting to see the running gear, I have often wondered how it worked in practice.

Well, I chopped up some old sprue, and gave each bit a rub on some rough sandpaper. glued them to a bit of plasticard so the just sit in there . A shot of halfords grey primer. Then tamiya acrylics, black white and aluminium badly mixed, well thinned and splashed on. Finally I have some stuff in a pot labelled "rust it" which I bought from a squires stand way back . I think it is a mix of rust and acrylic paint. Splash some of that on . All very visceral but seems to work . I must take my camera and photograph the organ bellow weights at Cottiers . They would be late 1900s and locally sourced . Glasgow is full of Victorian cast iron if you know where to look .

According to the 1907 wagon census the Caledonian had 1861 pig iron wagons, of which 1300 were to Diagram 16 in various build lots to either 8 or 14 tons. Certainly the CR moved a lot of pig iron from furnaces to steelworks and foundries, but these wagons were used as a sturdy one plank dropside for anything that needed moved. One of those wagons that turned up everywhere and is very useful for forming short rakes on the layout. These two are from the whitemetal 51L kit, they go together easily. Designed for fixed W irons, but I prefer etched W irons on a copperclad chassis, the wheelsets can be left out for painting and it gives somewhere to mount the aj and the buffer springs. A photo of the underside to illustrate that ; Posed for a photo ; A slightly elevated view. The pig iron loads are removable, made from old plastic kit sprue stuck to a bit of styrene. I have various modelling ideas in the pipeline but various things have to be done round the flat first.

Some of us have been building vans with magnetic roofs that can easily be removed for a while. Makes painting the roof simpler, weight can be added simply and it gets round the issue of an accident with glue whilst trying to stick them on.

I totally support the idea. I have a feeling that the way things are going there will be a lot of potential modellers who have time but not financial resources. I have only bought a couple of OO items in years so I can't contribute anything practical. My own approach is the 1/50 scale project, 100 % scratch build though I'm a bit odd and lean towards the making rather than the running side of things .

For the parts of my layout yard that are covered in setts I used code 75 bh for the running rail and some code 55 ish N gauge rail as the checkrail. Construction was copperclad with some brass shim so that both heads were level. The effect is like that second pic , the inner rail is narrower that the running rail. In EM I think that the space between the running and inner rail is a bit wider than true scale but it does mean that the sets between the inner rails are supported and it is practical and cleanable.

I think the brake gear was worth the effort with so much being visible around the wheels.

Given that it is just a background project the tank wagon has come on well. I spent a bit of time faffing about wondering how to make something that looked like the clamping straps and hawsers that hold the tank on. Eventually it dawned on me, at 1/50 the simple answer is just to make some straps and hawsers and hold the tank on with them. So I splashed out a tenner for 50 m1 nuts and bolts. Some bits of brass and m1 nuts and bolts. Five strands of 5A fuse wire for the hawsers, bit of soldering. I have tried to model all the brake gear, reservoir, cylinder and triple valve all piped up. Rather a fancy paint job, but why not. I decided to keep the sand colour for the tank, makes a nice contrast to the general dark grey of the rest. Since both Mikkel and I rather like it that makes it a committee decision. A couple of pics with a figure to give a sense of size. I’m happy with the way that has worked out. Perhaps a bit crude, but solid and workmanlike. One of my objectives for the 1/50 project is to enjoy some model making without breaking the bank. I estimate that tank wagon has cost less than 20 quid to build. A lot of simple fun on the bench for that price.

Thanks Mikkel. Still some detailing to do and I'm not entirely happy with the goods shed. More stock needed too.

As a study of the architecture of the Victorian West end of Glasgow this is a good read: https://www.waterstones.com/book/along-great-western-road/gordon-r-urquhart/9781840331158 Also; https://www.abebooks.co.uk/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=31021391942&searchurl=an%3Dmorton%26sortby%3D17%26tn%3Da%2Bhillhead%2Balbum&cm_sp=snippet-_-srp1-_-image7

Many years ago there was a kit by Anchoridge for the CR pug which could form a basis for this. I'd guess the chances of finding one are slim.

The body needed a fair amount of sorting out, a lot of bits fell off when it was being stripped. It isn’t the best paint job, but painting is not my favourite activity. As ever with the CR a lot of awkward brightwork but I have tried to tone it down a little to give a practical in use look. I also simplified the lining a bit. The main reason for the rebuild was to improve running. So a bit of video showing 263 on a trip working. It now seems to run fairly smoothly. The lining for that was from my last sheet of Modelmasters LNER / CR lining and it seems to be out of stock everywhere. The issues with Modelmaster have been discussed elsewhere on rmweb, so I don’t want to go into them here. Suffice to say it seems I’ll have to find an alternative source with sufficient radii to fit CR locos.

Had a look through my stuff. As you say lots of photos and video, but not drawings. Also there is preserved coach at the Glasgow museum of transport. Actually it only a stones throw away , I should nip down with a tape measure ....

Looking at the pictures I think the sector logo is stuck onto a board fixed to the side of the brake van. Since it is just coloured squares I'd be tempted to copy the logo using a simple graphics program and print it out on a decent photo paper. Just a thought.

Some early ones on the Caledonian. Class 96 built 1849 but converted to 0-4-2. Class 188 built 1858, class 120 built 1872, class 631 built 1874. Some of the 631 class lasted through the Edwardian era. A comprehensive study can be found in https://www.crassoc.org.uk/web/node/284

Going back a couple of pages to Tony having to break a glue to remove a roof and then stick it back on. I use magnets. Not only for van roofs, but coach sides as well. Makes painting and final assembly much easier and if you need to get back in for detailing or adding weight removal is dead easy. A rough example. Thats a 3mm cube magnet on the roof and a bit of tinplate from a paper fastener on the body. I think some rtr models in the larger scales do this sort of thing, but it would be easy to do with plastic mouldings with pockets for magnet and keeper moulded in.

There was also extensive tobacco traffic in Scotland since historically Glasgow was a major import centre. The Caley had a number of D39 ccts thirled to various companies specifically for the traffic.