Drew-1986

So the silence speaks volumes

Still very keen to see this project progress. Keeping everything crossed. Feel that if this project goes ahead, the RevolutioN Class 89 will gain further traction, and vice versa

Sorry, hadn’t realise Cavalex had come out and said they were still looking at it. Thanks Really feel if that project got off the ground, the Class 89 project would gain further traction and vice versa

I’m sure it hasn’t been mentioned but surely a modern Class 91/MK4/DVT would be high on the wish list for many modern image N gauge modellers. From a business perspective, DMUs like 175 or 185 would allow RevolutioN to work alongside another manufacturer to offer both N and 00 gauge. From my own selfish wishlist, would love to see an APT-P done

Any updates on this?

@WIMorrison thanks for that information, that’s a big help

That’s what I thought, just thought I’d ask, before spending any further time on this. Would I also be correct to assume it’ll require either ESU 50097 L Net Adapter or Piko 55044 SmartControl Loconet Converter before I even add either ESU or third party automation systems?

I am doing to pre layout build research and I am interested in dcc automation. I currently own a Piko SmartControl, which I know is based off the ESU CabControl. Would I be most sensible to be looking at ESU products for automation as they are mostly likely to be compatible with my current dcc control unit? Further information on this would be greatly appreciated

So I managed to find a very basic track design app for iPad, its terrible to be honest, but best I can do at the moment. I had to use Fleishmann track but this at least gives a basic feel to the plan. With a more in-depth layout design app, I would look to soften the curves at each end to possibly have them feature in the scene The area I have highlighted from Google Earth is 600m which I plan to condense down to 400m and then translate to my layout

I had thought that if I needed more depth in the scene, I could build a shelf over the fiddle yard, as looking from left to right on this screen shot, the right is the increasing hillside. Hope that makes sense

So having spent a little time mulling things over the choice of Slochd Summit, it has thrown some fresh questions into my mind. The 2 points of the passing loop are roughly 700m apart, based of Google Earth. Now its obvious that this location was going to have to have some compression but how and where is the question First thought I have is that the south rock cutting is the beginning of the scene of the left side of the layout, if it were to have part of the return loop to fiddle yard even better. That choice then has a knock on to the north end. My initial thought is that I don’t model the north point, having 2 lines exiting off scene on the right to return to the fiddle yard. However, to make it seem like the other point exists, I would have the signal just before the scene exit. Hope this makes sense. I definitely think I am gonna to have to increase the length of the boards, probably to about 3m, along with increasing the width. This would hopefully prevent the location being too compressed and losing the feel. Look forward to hearing your thoughts

@RobinofLoxley @Harlequin Thank you for taking the time to come up with your designs. I think now that certain limitations have been brought to my attention, my ‘brief’ requires a certain amount of adjustment. As things are, the limited space I have for scenics, having a station or a siding, potentially feels like they would become the focal point rather than the backdrop or the moving trains. I should mention some of the stock I actually have at present, which may or may not have an effect on they ideas brought forward, off the top of my head I’m sure I have 3 Class 47s, Class 156 and a HST, and a variety of MK2 and MK3 coaching stock, certainly stock that would have been seen on the Highland Mainline Looking at my original brief, if I was to model Slochd Summit, it would meet 4 of the 5 requirements, but replacing the siding for interest instead for a passing loop. Part of me would like to keep this fairly simple for the sake of interest and time. If I can make good progress with this early, it will encourage me to keep at it as my work takes me away for varied amounts of time I think I am very much going to look at definitely increasing the width of my base boards, and potentially the length too @RobinofLoxley having looked at Forsinard, I definitely think that’s more like what I can to achieve where the scenery is almost the most important part of the model. With regards to an amount of operational stuff to justify automation, I see this as almost as much of a chance to learn about automation, and to find out its strengths and weaknesses for future projects

So I spent a little time last night having a look at some of the locations mentioned. I couldn’t find much about Kincraig unfortunately, Dunkeld, although it had everything I might be looking for, its location and the station would end up being the majority of the layout, didn’t feel like the vibe I was looking for. @DCB so I then started looking at some of the passing loops, even going down as far as Edendon Signal Box and Dalnacardoch. I then took a chance to see if I could find any YouTube material when I found this - When I watched this I couldn’t help but agree about how well this would work with automation. I appreciate that this is very compressed, but isn’t all modelling. So I took a quick look on Google Earth too: That’s roughly 300 meters I’ve drawn on there. Using the rock cutting on the south side to disguise the fiddle yard entrance on 1 side and the gradient and large trees for the other. View point would be from the side of the dual carriage way. I’ve estimated it would give me about 45m of viewing from there, if I increased the width could take it up to 65 meters. Look forward to hearing your thoughts gents I should probably also say that I like the fact the potential this location could be modelled and a many number of time periods could be model, from 80s to right now

Kris, thanks for taking the time to do that. It certainly had crossed my mind that it would be too tight for that, and widening what I have maybe be a requirement. I’d very much like to avoid 1st radius curves

Couldn’t agree more about plans in your mind that becoming too difficult to replicate. Fallen into this trap many times I will definitely take a look at Kincraig to see if it something I could work with