luke the train spotter

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.

Thank you! Tonight I've added the rest of the rodding which completes that point as its now connected to the base plate of the signal box. Not quite sure if I should add the deflection ramp which comes in the Wills kit, not many examples of it being used in the Speyside stations but I'm not sure why that might be. I found finding the right stonework pretty challenging, but I ended up using Slaters 0420 7mm Stone Courses. I think this does a fairly good job at representing the large squared off stone blocks. Pretty widely available, I bought mine on ebay (link below). Hope that's useful! https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/404081988166

I'm hoping to have most of the base scenery down and structures finished by summer. I've been starting to add some trackside details of shunt signals (inspired by @TechnicArrow 's use of ratio kits except mine are static) and Wills point rodding kit. Very fiddly jobs but will be worth it in the end.

I thought that I'd share the long term vision for Dalmunach now that progress has started to pick up. Currently space, time and modelling budget are all a bit tight but in the future I plan to rebuild the current fiddle yard into an additional scenic board which forms Phase 2 of the project. Phase 1 is how Dalmunach is currently being built, with the distillery a part of my imagination when operating the layout. This is a pretty long term goal and would sit Dalmunach on the edge of the micro layout category but no need to worry about that now. Whilst the Distillery complex is very small and would never need its own shunter I plan on running the ruston which would be cleared to shunt the goods sidings within the station limits. Hopefully this is useful when placing the snapshot of the layout in its wider planned construction.

With a productive modelling Saturday afternoon the platform has taken shape quite quickly. The whole structure was painted in a light brown halfords spray paint before being heavily covered in different washes and dry brushing to bring out subtle toned. This was left to dry overnight before a white line was painted on. I'm really pleased with how the sandpaper surface has turned out with a little bit of drybrushing, much easier and quicker than having to glue down a load of fine sand/gravel! Comparing my efforts to the platforms at Craigellachie below, I think it looks the part and colours are fairly close to the area. Once I was happy with the colours and textures a class 26 and suburban brake ran a gauging train to check clearances before I could stick the platform down. Currently it's being weighed down to prevent any warping (other tinned goods are available).

The planning effect on that wagon is excellent! The sense of scale you get from the staithes is pretty immense too.

A couple more hours of work and ta da a slight GNSR-ified highland signal box. The name boards are from a fantastic pack from ScaleScenes and really lift it. A slate roof and chimney has been added. I used this angle of the box at Ballindalloch as reference for the height and style. All in all a very enjoyable little project.

As mentioned above the signal box has been through a bit of a repaint. I started by sanding all the blue paint down and touching it up with the same white paint used on the rest of the building. I found that Vallejo flat earth was a good match for the GNSR brown so after some careful masking was used. I tried to mimick the painting on the box at Carron and I think it's definitely on the way. The paintwork needs a bit more touching up, a chimney adding, basic interior and a slate rough but I think I've overcome the mental block. Another job done is painting the fascia. This was just a light grey furniture paint but it gives a much tidier finish.

I didn't realise that the boiler and tanks were so much smaller on the 12" barclay! Makes a lot of sense really but I had assumed that they had much more similar proportions. You must have read my mind as the signal box is currently being repainted. I'll post a proper progress report tomorrow when I've got some pictures of it all.

The composition of this layout is fantastic. Enjoying watching the build on Facebook too.

There has been some limited progress though. I managed to get the track all weathered up, just using an old brown rattle (Humbrol) can then wiping the rails clean. I'll come in and weather the track properly with washes and powders once the ballast is down. The other jump in progress is I've started to paint the backscene. This is the same method as all my other layouts and starts with a white household emulsion that has been ever so slightly tinted with a blue acrylic to give a light blue hue. These pictures show it whilst the paint is still wet so it'll loose its glossy look once its dried. Another unexciting and rather dull job not worth its own photo was filling in all the counter sunk screws so I can paint the outside fascia. Once the fascia is painted I can get the name board attached and hopefully make a good start on the actual scenic elements of the layout. So far the job list stands at: 1. Platform needs finishing 2. Need to work out what to do with the signal box 3. Cosmetic point rodding 4. Bridge structure 5. Goods shed 6. Ballasting and track weathering

Definitely something to consider. I'm torn between something like Towiemoor or a small platform mounted box. Since I'm struggling to find time to work on the layout I suppose I've got lots of thinking time.

Good progress has been made on Dalmunach's platform. After looking at some more pictures of Speyside platforms it appears that most of them are much lower than the height I've built mine too, not wanting to start again I managed to use a kitchen mandoline (aka finger killers) to slide about 3 to 4mm off the total platform height. I think with the extra surfacing on top this actually looks much closer. To get the large stoney blocks I've used a sheet of 7mm slaters plasticard. The coping stones on the edge of the platform are pieces of 1mm plasticard. Letting all the glues set off for a couple of days before I come in with a sandy plastery mix to do thr platform surface. I'm also beginning to have second thoughts on the signal box. Whilst I initially liked how it looked and it's bold colour scheme it definitely doesn't fit in with the Speyside theme. I'll have a think about it and see if it could be bashed about.

Thank you! Very useful food for thought. If I had continued with the Cromdale layout I was planning on getting one of Hattons second runs of Barclays and converting it up to be the Balmenach puggy with some transfers I've drawn up but given the current state of affairs I think I'll be bashing my pre-existing barclay about. Hopefully someone takes on the tooling and gives us another run at some point.

Very interesting, did you keep the chassis or build a new one for it? I'll have to look into the coach wheel idea, I wonder if they would fit into pancake motor block or if that would have to get replaced by a new mechanism.

Thank you that would be very generous! I'll have to have a think about how best to re-wheel one so it clears the code 75 track. :)

Had a productive afternoon starting the station platform. Quite quick construction using foam board and a hot glue gun. Looking at photos of the platform at Carron it's possible to work out that construction was mostly large rough blocks of stone that were quickly weathered by all the muck around the rails. The mortar looks fairly thick but is difficult to distinguish from the stone because of the soot and muck. I'd say that this is pretty typical of all the Speyside stations except the halts and part of Craigellachie which had a wooden planked section. For those interested in this layout you may also be interested in First Generation Scottish Diesels. I picked it up second hand and it's already provided a huge amount of inspiration. A few photos I hadn't seen of the Speyside region including distillery shunt manoeuvres as well as plenty of branchline traffic to work out formations from. Only problem is it's got me thinking about adding a class 29 to the fleet... must resist!

All the track in the fiddle yard has been wired up so I can finally get trains running. Really enjoyed simple station operations and shunting a few wagons about the yard. Once I get some scenery down I'll post a video but in the meantime a few quick photos.

After a couple bits of on and off work on the layout there is some progress to report. Firstly the layout now has a name, Dalmunach, after the new distillery built on the old site of the Imperial Distillery at Carron. I liked the idea of a new take on a classical Speyside so pinched the name. Most of the progress made has been laying and wiring the track. Since the layout is dcc electrofrog this has taken me a bit of time but I think it's pretty much there. I've tried to keep the point control simple too, based off the wire in tube method but with a couple of tweaks. Firstly I'm using the PECO point polarity switches instead of the much cheaper SDPT switches I normally use which the wire passes through underneath the baseboard. This gives a much cleaner finish than the surface mounted approach I normally take. The wire is then guided with some pieces of cheap electrical terminal blocks hot glue gunned to the underneath of the baseboard. This wire then passes through the fascia and is formed is bent upwards for ease of use. I should add that the wire used is in fact 1mm steel rod from Scale Model Scenery. In the long term I will probably come up with a slightly more ergonomic attachment for the wire but this will do in the meantime. I don't have any plans of exhibiting this layout at the moment but if it does make an appearance on the circuit at least my hands won't be constantly in the scenery looking for little switches. Where the baseboard enters the fiddle yard I've opted to give the "ProTrack RailAligner" a go from ModelTech. These interlocking pieces of precut copper clad PCB board are a fantastic innovation and made the daunting task much easier. The baseboard with the fiddle yard on has the corresponding joiner and they slot together and the boards are held tight in place with a couple of bolts with winged nuts. Simples. And so with all that this is the current state of progress on the layout. You may notice that the Highland Signal Box is coming along though the roof is still loose so I can fit an interior and the paintwork needs touching up in quite a few places. But I'm having a lot of fun with this project and look forward to getting some trains running soon! :)

I like the little scenic section extension at the front a lot. I might have to steal that idea to add a bit more depth to Dalmunach.

A bit more progress today mocking up some of the buildings with a couple cereal boxes and masking tape. These are a bit crude but you get the idea. I would say that this 3D mock up stage is probably one of the most important stages of construction, to see if the scenic side of things will work. I thin on a whole I'm happy with it, the left hand side of the layout could do with a bit of work to avoid large gaps in the scenery to the backscene so some super low relief trees might need to be made for that. The goods shed on the right will be based off drawings of that of Blacksboat which has been preserved as a listed building. These drawings are available from the GNSRA which I keep recommending to everyone. The station building will be based off the one at Carron which is still standing though not in the best condition. This will probably be modelled in half relief so that it doesn't take up too much of the width of the platform. The signal box will be the Peco Highland box kit. This may be slightly out of region for this layout but I think it captures a huge amount of Scottish branch line character and saves a half relief platform mounted signal box scratch build that would be required otherwise. Anyways, rule 1 prevails. Hopefully with this combination of buildings I will be able to recreate an essence of the Great North of Scotland Railway in a slowly dying BR guise.

So in true layout planning style I've decided to rejig the layout. It felt a misjustice to model Cromdale without including the actual station so that project has been shelved for now with the full intention of revisiting it when I have more space to do it justice. So what's the plan? I've managed to free an additional 15cm up for the baseboard length which breaks the layout out of its Really Useful Box shell which creates a couple of problems. Now the layout needs to be extra robust so when I built the baseboard I used 8mm ply, extra bracing, plenty of screws and copious amounts of expanding Gorilla Glue which is pretty serious stuff! Hopefully this will do the job but means that technically this new baseboard has the same footprint as the external dimensions of the Really Useful Box. So what will I do with my very exciting additional 15cm? Well with the power of an additional point in the fiddle yard I should be able to fit in a run around loop and couple of sidings to serve a small Speyside terminus station/goods yard. So technically the Speyside line didn't really have proper terminus stations, but junctions at either end so my layout will be an imaginary spur off the line with a small distillery to justify construction, though this will be off scene. The track plan is very reminiscent of Port Pennan (Railway Modeller June 2010) which is a similar concept of a micro space terminus. I plan to add an additional siding for a coal wagon or two and to mix operations up a bit. The run around head shunt is large enough for a class 26 whilst the actual loop should be able to comfortably take a 2 coach train. This will require a slight shunting maneuver to get it fully into the platform but that's a compromise that has to be made given the space available. In practice I've started mocking up the location of points and stock with what I had lying about. I know that this may not be the most prototypical layout but I couldn't resist a project where my railbus could run for much longer!

Hopefully I'll be able to recreate the little piles of ash with some fine bbq ash mixed in with the ballast. A quick update on the layout, track has arrived and hopefully I'll get some free time to build the baseboard over Christmas.

I don't plan on any intense operating sessions but shuffling a few wagons around, maybe mocking up a delivery of grains, empty casks and coal for the distillery. Then the distillery shunter taking these wagons off stage. In real life these sidings would only be used twice a week so the prototype wasn't really that intense in operation. I think I'm more of a builder than an operator but certainly like the idea of using the layout as a good opportunity for photos of locos/stock.

With Tyneside Steel rehomed and its old shelf clear there is an exciting opportunity for a new project. I'm hoping to return to the region and themes I came across when building Distillery Yard, my favourite layout that I've built yet. However, for this layout to be a feasible project for me it must fit a couple different design briefs: 1. It must be Scottish, preferably based in the Speyside region and set in the early 60s to suit my current stock. 2. It must be robust and travel well - we are planning a pretty moderate relocation in the summer which means that this layout must survive the journey and be able to be stored easily. 3. It must not be large than 2ft by 1ft so that it fits into the same footprint as Tyneside Steel. Perks of living in a tiny flat. To resolve requirements 2 and 3 I have invested in a 64L 'Really Useful Box' which is living up to its brand name as its very robust and the perfect size for a small micro, fiddle yard, lighting rig and electrical bits. I know the SMS baseboards that fit into a wrapping paper box are very popular but I don't have the luxury of that much length and I'd like to have a self contained proscenium arch style lighting rig which may be a bit too tight with the SMS design. The interior dimensions for the box are 60.5x37x28 (cm) so ample room for a layout. I have faith that this box could survive a poorly packed removal van ride down the length of the country so that's a big box ticked. Thinking about what I could fit into this sort of space I kept finding inspiration on the Speyside Line. There is a decent amount of books about this region and the Great North of Scotland Railway Association (GNSRA) has a fantastic range of publications and an online photo gallery (however I won't be sharing any of these photos as they aren't in the public domain). There are also some fantastic photos on Flickr taken by John Boyes in the 1960s of branchlines and a couple distilleries (Dailuaine and Balmenach) that are worth a look. After a fair bit of research I found that Cromdale Station with its small goods yard and exchange sidings for Balmenach Distillery (worked by its own andrew barclay 0-4-0) had pretty good micro layout potential so I came up with this plan. A brief history of Cromdale Station can be found here: https://www.railscot.co.uk/locations/C/Cromdale/ The idea would be a compressed area of the red box where mainline locos (20/24/26s and J36/Caley 812/D40) would drop wagons off which would then be collected by the distillery shunter. I have squished the 2 points into one crossover which does alter operations but then I'm not planning on modelling Cromdale sleeper for sleeper. The track I plan on using is plain old code 75 wooden sleeper with electrfrog points - at least with a layout this size I won't need to buy much! This is on a 55cm x 30cm foamboard baseboard mock up. the Lower track enters the fiddle yard where the arrow is which would be the distillery branch in reality. The upper track would go back onto the branchline, but in my case the same fiddle yard as the distillery branch. Scenically the are has a lot of potential. A backscene of the rolling hills of the Cairngorms with a foreground of long grass and shrubbery with a sleeper built fence cutting off the yard. There is also an opportunity to feature the station/goods shed/stationmaster's house as low relief buildings but there isn't enough room to represent them at true 1/76 scale. A few pictures of the goods yard to get an idea of what I'd like to create. Any thoughts/comments/suggestions very welcome, this project is still very early days so plenty of time for things to change.