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.

'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.

Rosehearty was a great layout to see at the show, the caley 439 class stood out to me. A couple years ago I started to convert a Hornby m7 to one, I got to the painting stage and it stalled. I'll have to grab it from my parents house the next time I'm there.

Looks like its running well now, nice rake of wagons.

Yesterday I ventured up to Glasgow to visit Model Rail Scotland. Having never been before I wasn't quite sure what to expect but was blown away by the quality of layouts, great venue, friendliness of stewards and line up of traders. Everything seemed very well organised and the £15 ticket was excellent value for money. The hall had an enthusiastic buzz about it, you can't tell me the hobby is dying! The stand out layout for me was Tellindalloch, a Speyside inspired micro terminus layout which recently featured in Railway Modeller and was a strong reason for my impulsive trip. Here are a couple of my photos but they don't do it justice, the depth of scenery and immersion it created was fantastic. I'm sure there are many more photos/videos on Facebook and YouTube so well worth a search. Obviously this layout has been very inspiring for Dalmunach, the composition and detailing is pretty aspirational. Whilst at the show I found the Pop UP designs stand which sell a pretty good selection of laser cut Scottish railway buildings. After seeing their assembled Longmorn station kit I caved and bought one, thinking that whilst I was pretty set of a stone station building this kit looked too good in the flesh to pass up on. The kit is based on Longmorn but was a very similar design to Knockando so I don't think that it will look too out of place. I plan on cutting the kit in half width ways so it will still be low relief but building both sides of the kit up so in theory I could re-assemble the full building when I have space for a proper Speyside layout. Whilst I was out a parcel arrived for me containing a very exciting 3D print. Since ARC models stopped trading a few years ago it's been basically impossible to get your hands on a 12" Andrew Barclay kit but that has all changed thanks to the seller 3D Factory on ebay. I had come across some scale drawings and his CAD skills brought them to life. There are a couple of small compromises but the kit is very true to the prototype. It is designed to sit on a Hornby W4 chassis so I'll be on the hunt for one as soon as my bank has recovered from this weekend's model rail spendings. Sat here next to my larger Hattons barclay shows the size difference, as mentioned previously in this thread. The kit comes with buffers/roof/backhead but they're not shown in this photo. So now we can faithfully model our favourite distillery pugs with a touch more accuracy! For anyone interested the kit can be purchased here: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/375258225557?itmmeta=01HQDCZF41NKV06174RPMPAFQP&hash=item575f221b95:g:yGMAAOSwHkdlzgL9&itmprp=enc%3AAQAIAAAA4HChPcP4fbYH1Ot3GujHgGt7ewdqqO6lBdo84Ewtl0uorvvJH%2BFWhwO4iAWEsIYQcAHhhKSgS%2F0ssgc7rO9i4z%2BPOxkv8DvJwLmwl90I%2ByxGwQjRXUU893n9N4ncz0sYxVTUYfUkBs%2BKlxEKTaNvvd9QCG1vKcGm7jtzsp7BneCN2xwHbjcbkZJbB6er67C8QHlEIk4R9%2FcNrqN76De4y6779CoQHo9Bxf7xJP5dWq6qX4PUwsyTRH0BAI82ctWWe9HjBa8%2BAGHdB6%2Fvu72F0gYA%2B1sZxHIWHOuap9MKg0iX|tkp%3ABk9SR5Dy_ay7Yw

Thanks for the helpful suggestions! I'll have a look at scaling the large station down to 3.5mm scale and shifting it to the right. I suppose that's just a clever use of forced perspective! Looking at the prototypes most didn't have an additional shed but lots of platform furniture, I'll do some more research and see if there is anything I should include.

I'm thinking that I might be able to build it in half relief. The actual prototype scaled down would allow me to model the stone style building in that way. I've had a look at Pop Up Designs and have been very tempted by their kits, if they made a stone style station then I'd be sold! Unfortunately extending the depth of the layout isn't really an option but this angle from a couple weeks ago shows the amount of space I'm working with which is about 2.5cm.

Work continues on Dalmunach. Firstly a bit of impulsive backscene painting. This was done with thinned Vallejo acrylics, the same method as used on all my other layouts. I debated whether to use a printed backscene but quite like the painted look of some low mountains. These will be mostly covered by low relief trees so I kept the backscene pretty basic. The next thing I did was begin work on the station building. From the GNSR Association I obtained scale drawings of Blacksboat which I scaled to 1:76 then printed and mounted on foamboard. However, I'm not sure if the full scale version dominates the station platform too much so have mocked up a full size and slightly cut down version. The full size one: The cut down version: The cutdown one looks slightly more in proportion with the rest of the layout but looks pretty small next to the railbus so I'm not sure which one to build. Plenty of thinking time as it's not really a high priority job but thought I'd post it on here to show the thought process.

I think using a finer grade ballast helps give the track a more finescale look even though it's off the shelf code 75.

Full steam ahead on the workbench today. The bridge has been painted using a few different washes and acrylics. No special techniques but starting with a light primer gives plenty of scope when building up layers of colour. Quickly afterwards I got on with some ballasting, a bit sooner than I had been expecting, but with such a small layout this doesn't take much time. The ballast was distributed using a tea spoon and tamped by tapping the rail with a paintbrush. It was thoroughly misted with water then watered down wood glue was applied with a pipette. The ballast in question is this n gauge blend of Legacy Ballast from DCC concepts. Whilst slightly skeptical about a ballast which seemed to have premium marketing vibes, it was very strongly recommended to me by a friend because of its accurate colour palette for steam era ash ballast. On this slightly crude close up of the platform track I'd have to agree. Don't worry I was still tamping at this stage so the ballast level was lowered around the point rodding! Comparing it to this photo of Carron it looks like a pretty good choice though I suppose it could always be a finer size.

Work continues on Dalmunach today with a few more jobs ticked off. Firstly I did some thinking about the overbridge at the fiddle yard entrance and decided that the stonework/brickwork scratch build didn't fully appeal to me so opted for a simpler plasticard construction, loosely based off the road bridge at Blacksboat. I need to add some fences either side of the girder on and get it painted. I think in situ it has the right proportions even though they were mostly guess-timated. The coach acting as a gauging train to check the clearances. You might just be able to see the Cheerios packet as the only free space to ever really set Dalmunach up is the kitchen! As all the bridge glues were setting off I began some basic ground work. For this I've mixed a couple Vallejo earth texture paints before applying to the baseboard. I know you could probably make your own out of PVA, paint and sand but these tubs last a long time so they're not too bad. This sets me up to do some ballasting in the next couple of days and start some proper scenery.

That looks like a good option, I might have to give that a go on the next phase. The peco polarity switches are a bit pricey for what they are but hopefully are robust enough. Whilst I have some thinking time on how best to build the bridge and get the curves sort of right, I've made a start on the GNSR style goods shed. Scale drawings of Blacksboat were obtained through the GNSRA (well worth a join for any Scottish modellers) and scaled up then compressed a little to fit the space available. This is what I've got so far, plasticard shell clad with Wills 4mm clapboarding and a card roof. And Blacksboat goods shed (still standing as a listed building) for reference.

The joys of cosmetic point rodding has continued tonight, seeing the other point connected up to the signal box base and 2 additional rods being run off towards the fiddle yard to control the unbuilt point and locking mechanism of the phase 2 plan. In my mind the distillery siding is a separate locked ground frame so isn't connected to the main signal box as it wouldn't be normally used and would be treated as a private siding. Looking down the layout the point rodding definitely adds a different dimension to the scene, as D5301 waits for the ground signal to clear its next shunting duty. Another bit of progress is a quick foamboard mock up of the bridge which acts as a scenic break. The foamboard cut out is a but rough in areas and needs a bit of fine tuning. The plan is to clad it in plasticard like the platform construction. I'm roughly basing the bridge off the one at Cromdale station, which still stands today thankfully, so there's plenty of good quality coloured photos to work from. As always, plenty to be getting on with, hopefully I'll be able to find a couple hours over the weekend to work on a few more bits.