luke the train spotter

A great article, the photos have captured the layout really well.

A couple photos I took at York. There's quite a few videos of the exhibition on YouTube, maybe worth a search to see a few running shots?

With the bits I picked up from the York show last weekend I've made a start on the platform detailing. Looking at pictures and videos of the Speyside line of in the 60s it's clear that the platforms were very minimalistic. John Boyes even documents a class 20 running a service removing platform furniture so some later photos show essentially barren platforms. I wanted to try and mimic this sparseness which requires a lot of restraint. I've settled for a basic sign, couple of empty casks (Skytrex) and a couple benches (York Models). I've got a couple of Modelu figures to paint up but I think I'll place these at the goods shed end of the platform so they are only visible from a couple angles, after all it's a station with dwindling passengers. Whilst I was at my parents over Easter I picked up my 4mt standard tank, numbered as 80126 which regularly ran the Killin line, perhaps it transferred to the Speyside once the Killin line closed. Here it is on its first passenger service to Dalmunach. The 2 coach train just squeezes into the platform and runaround loop. Another unusual visitor to the Speyside line, a class 17, also makes an appearance as a recent purchase being run in and chipped to add a bit of variety to the freight traffic. Since these locos struggled on larger freight trains I imagine that it's fairly plausible that one was transferred to the Speyside area to work the much less demanding freight trains, especially since the trains to Dalmunach aren't longer than 6 wagons.

Looks like a good start. I'm guessing it's an industrial setting with the hunslet?

'Sputnik' aka the local railbus service pauses at Dalmunach before running back down the branch. I don't suppose anyone has replaced the destination blinds and made their own?

With paper backscenes you want to be really careful applying them, just like you would do a phone screen protector. I find using as little glue as possible (but using a strong glue like wood glue or a high quality pva) and using a credit card or ruler to smooth out the air bubbles as you go. Perhaps sanding back some of the gloss paint on the backscene boards would give the glue a bit more purchase too? Looks good as is currently though.

With some time off for Easter I can look forward to progressing with the layout. The most recent progress has been with the signal box, making a basic interior leaver frame from plasticard and bits of wire and painting up a Modelu figure having a tab on the balcony part of the box. I imagine that on a station which only has a few years left in it there's plenty of time for breaks. And then onto the layout with a couple drops of wood glue. I'm quite proud of how this signal box saga has turned out so it would be nice to repurpose it on a future layout. You can only just make out the levers but it's certainly better that they're than not. The roof is still loose so I may add some lighting at some point, if I can get over my fear of having interior lights on when the layout is clearly operated in the day. Today I made the trip to York Model Railway Show, which is nice to continue an Easter tradition after covid. A really nice show, not much in the way of anything Scottish but a great mix of layouts/trade/etc, I managed to pick up plenty of detailing bits for Dalmunach but the highlight was seeing Port Pennan again, although non operational as it was incredibly inspirational to me and you can probably spot a few similarities with it and Dalmunach! Sadly this was under morbid circumstances as Ken Gibbons ,the layout builder, has passed on but his creative influences live on. An original classic Scottish micro!

I agree! I'm planning on picking up some static grass tufts at York and getting some of the scatter out too.

Thanks! I bought the seafoam from Gaugemaster but my experience with other retailers is that it's all the same stuff really. A box certainly goes a long way, I used about 1/3 the box for all the trees on Dalmunach and plenty of smaller ones for shrubs. The WWS tree spray is fantastic and makes the process super smooth and fast even if it is a bit more expensive than a can of hairspray which some others use. I'd say just go for it and experiment, WWS do some good YouTube videos I've used for reference in the past.

After having a lot of fun helping exhibit Morfrail at Newton Aycliffe yesterday, I felt pretty inspired and ready to tackle the big scenery jobs on Dalmunach. First up was the trees, these are made from seafoam sprayed with WWS tree spray and dipped in a scatter blend. Not an original or complex method by any means but a very effective one. I don't think I've mentioned seasonality of the layout before but it is set in late summer, when barley traffic is high which justifies the regular grain trains and large amounts of extra traffic. To match the September colours I made up a dark green, almost olive blend of scatter for the trees. I made about 20-30 trees and trimmed them into place with scissors. The key here was trying to balance differences in height without overpowering the station scene. I tried lots of different positions and combinations, taking my time and taking lots of photos to ensure I liked what I saw. I settled on a formation, removed all the trees and laid them out on the counter in the order they were to go back onto the layout. But before I could glue the trees down I needed to lay some static grass. This was a bit impulsive and I'm not 100% sure on the grasses used as they were mostly ones left over from when I revamped Distillery Yard's scenery a few years ago. This was applied around the signal box and in a patchy fashion around the goods yard and front of the layout. The trees were then stuck down with wood glue and this is the result so far. Dalmunach has come to life very quickly! The buildings are all still loose so they can be removed and finished but the contrasting colours have really started to pull everything together. Here's a couple pictures of the 26 sitting on the layout.

After a couple of pretty hectic days it was definitely time to decompress with some painting. I'd primed the station and goods shed at the weekend so I had a good base for brush painting with vallejo acrylics. The station is a rough colour match to Longmorn, using flat earth for the brown and a flat white/dark sand for the light creamy colour. I'm quite happy with it so far though a few bits could do with neating up a bit. The goods shed has also had a bit of paint on the roofing slates and interior. Nothing fancy just a couple shades of brown with dark washes all over. I love seeing the casks and crates through the open door. Doing this building interior reminds me that the signal box still needs one sorting. Looking at the layout as a whole I think the station building fits in well and hopefully it won't be too long until I get some greenery on the layout.

Instead of starting the painting on the station building, I've been working on the goods shed. I started by making a door and basic sliding mechanism out of plasticard superglued in place. I then started on the roofing slates. These are the same FairPrice models slates used on Dalmunach's station building but instead of laying the slate strips straight onto the roof I laid them onto wide overlapping strips of painters masking tape. The masking tape provides an immediate stick and I add a thin bead of wood glue between the layers, resulting with a strong bond once dried. This creates large strips of slates which can be cut to fit the exact angles/dimensions of the roofing panels. I find this is much more efficient way to roof buildings, especially when one large strip can be cut into multiple pieces for the same roof. As the roof was setting off I made a start on the interior. The GNSRA has some great photos of the interior of Cromdale goods shed so inspiration was easy to come by. The wooden frame is a combination of plasticard and match sticks. A quick raid of the bits box and there's enough clutter to suggest a fairly profitable flow of goods. Currently none of the details are fixed down so they can be painted separately. I'll grab some photos of shed on the layout the next time it's out. I may take a leaf out of @TechnicArrow's book and chop down a super low relief wagon to the back of the shed, we'll see!

A couple spare hours saw the roofing and guttering adding to the station building bash. Roofing slates are laser cut from FairPrice Models on Ebay and the guttering is a combination of scrap box spares and U shaped plastic strip. Once the roofing slates have all properly dried I'll add some mock led flashing made from paper strips then the paint shop won't be too far away. The building isn't quite sitting flush with the platform yet but some rear supports are on the job list so the building won't be tilting back as far just balancing on the platform.

Modelling time has been pretty limited over the past couple of weeks. I had a very enjoyable couple of days helping operate Hallbankgate and Portland Cement, at Birtley Model Railway Exhibition. Both layouts fun to operate and something beyond my normal modelling scope. Bringing it back to Dalmunach I've made a start on the station building roof. Not a huge project but a satisfying one taking my time to get the angles/corners correct. The piece of tamiya tape just holding a panel down as the glue properly sets off. This approach uses the original laser cut roof supports, cut down with plasticard roofing to save the hassle of glueing together pieces of the original kit.

I started work on the station building kit today, starting with a dry fit of all the parts to get an idea of where I would cut the model. I was very impressed by how robust the building is, the laser cut parts fit together perfectly and even though I had used no glue the structure was pretty solid. I'd say that this kit captures the look of the prototype pretty well apart from a few areas. The cross braces of 3mm ply that hold the kit together stand out quite a lot and ruin the neat laser cut wooden slats that run along the wall. These are more visible when looking down the building. This contrasts a lot to the prototype still standing at Longmorn and any of the other GNSR wooden station buildings. So something has to be done about that. I started by cutting out the sections where the cross sections are and bracing the inside of the walls with offcuts of the wooden sprue the kit came on. I now have a much smoother finish at the cost of the building being 12mm shorter than the original kit. Roughly positioning the building on the layout I think it's quite well proportioned and sits well on the platform. Onwards with the roof and end pieces.