jennarivo

I've been a bit quiet as of late, however work has been progressing here and there mainly on vehicles. Here's a couple of Farish buses repainted into something that hopefully resembles Highland Omnibus livery. I still need to figure out how to finish them with destination blinds etc. however I'm quite pleased with the way they have turned out. This is my first attempt at airbrushing with acrylics as well which took a bit of getting used to... Hopefully more to come in the not too distant future.

Did these run north of Inverness? If so I could be persuaded for one or two, I haven't come across any in pics yet though...

I was lucky enough to see these coaches and kits in the flesh last night at club. They're very impressive with some rather fine detail, they also look relatively simplistic to assemble. Well done Linny. Shaun

Evening all, A few weeks ago I picked up another couple of Dapol class 26s on ebay (26026 and 26040). I needed (wanted) a couple more to allow me to run a prototypical day's service, five are required to operate the daily passenger/freight workings and I thought an extra one would be handy to run an occasional double headed or special service. Here they are with snow ploughs and discs fitted. There was no need to renumber 26026, as apparently I must have renumbered the previous one I bought. Although as I already had a 26040 this became 26033, I also removed the stag emblem as these didn't appear until a bit later than I'm modelling

Not much activity over the last week or so, I've been away with work a lot recently. I did manage to get some pics in daylight hours for once. Although the room the railway is in is north facing it does get some decent light for a few hours during the day. A couple of engineers vans in the sidings awaiting their next tour or duty. As the layout has to be stored from time to time, I didn't really want a normal type back-scene as I felt it would need to get handled too much and be susceptible to damage. Plus the layout sits diagonally across the room and can be photographed from all sides. Instead I'm hoping to go for a digital version and although this one is not quite right for the area it should give an idea of what I'm planning. cheers Shaun

Thanks Mike, you beat me to it. My method is exactly the same. It's quite simple to do and 26s just don't look right without them. I did fit the full three piece set to one end of one loco, but all the others are done using this method as I wanted to have a choice of branch locos available to be able to shunt at the station which can require the use of both ends

Hi Marlyn - It's ok, hijack away, it's all relevant. Hi Richard - Yes, definitely interested thanks Shaun

Something that seldom seems to have made it into photos on the Far North Line, but happened all the same, was fish traffic heading south with passenger workings. Here's a grubby 26030 with a far too clean fish van in tow entering Georgemas with the Wick portion of the last southbound service of the day.

Thanks Gary, you found me then! Very little progress this weekend. Just some pics of this evening's play session. Quite fitting for the current weather, although no snow here at Georgemas so must have just been a test run. A pair of grubby 26s running through from Thurso to Wick with independent ploughs.

I've actually cheated a bit with my signal boxes I was going to use 0.010" rod glued into the groove on Slaters 1mm planking. However, after some trials I decided that it was going to be far too fidgety so I proceeded using the 1mm planking alone. It doesn't stand up to close up scrutiny but (I think) it looks alright from a distance. The corrugated roofing on the boxes and platform building is Evergreen corrugated plasticard with 1mm (0.040") spacing. Although afterwards I stumbled across the Redutex range of self adhesive textured sheets, they do a few different corrugated offerings and it was this i used on my PW hut. Some of their patterns are a bit questionable but the corrugated ones seem ok. They also have the advantage of being substantially thinner than the plasticard equivalent. The other place that I've used a Redutex sheet was for the tiled roof of the station building The colour scheme that I've used on the signal boxes and some platform buildings was prototypical although not for the period that I'm modelling - I just quite liked it. I don't know when it initially appeared as the earliest colour photos I've seen date from the late 50s, it was phased out at Georgemas during the late 60s / early 70s. I've been quite lucky for photos, it seems that Georgemas has been one of the most photographed station on the Far North Line, I've referenced over 400 so far that pre-date 1990. A great source of Far North Line pics is Ernie Brack's flickr page, see here https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishswissernie/albums/72157691625089715 cheers Shaun

It's been quite some time since my last update, although work has been progressing at my usual slow pace. Some pics from last night. The station building is finally fixed in place - only about three years since I started it. It's not quite bedded in fully yet but is coming along. Some bits and pieces starting to appear on the platforms now too.

Hi David, looking good - what have you used to represent the phone lines? cheers Shaun

It's been a good while since the last update - the best part of a year. In that time I've bought and renovated another flat which I finally finished in June and have moved a tenant in. This month has mainly been taken up with the usual influx of visitors although I did manage to set up the layout and do a bit of work for a few days in between visits. It's not really obvious from the pic below but the pillars of the road bridge have been considerably widened after it was quite rightly pointed out that they were much too thin. I've also added some plants and bushes alongside the platform, which going by the pictures I have of the actual location disappeared in the very early seventies, I just felt that the fence looked a bit chunky when there on its own. A couple of, not quite finished, engineers vans sit in the bay platform awaiting their next tour of duty. I started working on these about a year ago and they are my first attempts at repaints. The mess van is an NGS Stove R repainted in black livery and the CCT was originally in engineers red although it was just too bold in colour so I stripped it back and repainted it in a more faded, and hopefully realistic, condition. Same as above in B&W, I can't quite remember where the hand cart came from, although I do recall it being very well designed and easy to construct. I should manage to get the layout set-up again over the next week or so. I intend to re-lay the fiddle yard track as I didn't make a great job of it initially nor did I make best use of the available space. I've also been working on a few NGS wagon kits that I picked up at the Glasgow show in February. That's all for now, hopefully back with more in the very near future. cheers Shaun

Thanks for the links, unfortunately progress has ground to a halt at the moment. This year the visitors just kept on coming and coupled with a wedding or two there has been little time for the layout. The modelling drought looks set to continue well into the new year as I have acquired another flat that needs an extensive renovation and this will be my little project until Easter or thereabouts. cheers Shaun

Thanks Richard. I'm quite pleased with how things are going - albeit slowly. Now that I've started to weather some stock the 'straight out of the box' stuff just looks out of place. I'll probably be focusing on the stock over the next few months fitting couplings so I can have some joining/splitting/shunting fun.

Update time. Well the summer is now over and I've achieved very little on the layout itself over the last few months, I have however been squeezing in some kit building/re-paints. I've had a few NGS wagon kits lying around for some time now along with a number of wagons in a livery which didn't quite fit my time period. So I decided to make the most of my time while the layout was stored in a cupboard and what seemed like an endless stream of guests occupied the railway room. I've also been putting some thought into automatic uncoupling systems. I had originally been intending to utilise Dapol's (not so) easi-shunts on all stock until it became apparent the the delayed action didn't really work on bogie stock let alone short wagons. As a result of this I'm still using them on passenger stock for now but have begun installing S&Ws on everything else. Anyway, some pics of progress. Some of the newly built / repainted wagons on uncoupling trials. The stiffeners on the Peco ferry wagons in the first pic really are awful, I wasn't sure if it would warp sides if i removed them so I opted not to, I'll have to find a suitable load so they are hidden from view. The same rake this time alongside the loading dock. Still some needing buffers and couplings painted. 26013 arriving from the south with the daily freight, like the passenger services this would also be split/joined/shunted at Georgemas into Thurso and Wick portions. Some wagons would also terminate at Georgemas. An unidentified 26 looks like it's ready to head south with a short freight, however it can't because someone has neglected to fit S&Ws to a brake van yet. cheers Shaun

Correct, that's the water tank base and Thurso had a very similar one too I believe. I must admit I don't think milk tanks ran up here, I haven't come across any in pictures north of Inverness, although I'd love to be proved wrong - I just quite liked them and thought, what if... cheers Shaun

Thanks for that, I think I've come across that one before. Looks like the loco has sustained some battle damage at some point - not sure how to model it though.....

I had a long overdue running session this morning and took some snaps. Not much visible progress over the last few week, a few tweaks to the station building and small coal yard has appeared on the Wick side next to the North box. Signals have also been started from MSE components and some mast can be seen in the pics below as i try to determine what height "looks" best.

Thanks, I'd been wanting to try the Noch laser minis for quite some time, I'm not convinced there were any/many there in real life though, but I'd bought them so they were going on. I've also planted a rhubarb patch behind the station building.

Plenty of train joining and splitting to come.......... So true, in pretty much half of the photos I have come across everything is wet, it makes it difficult at times to determine colours. Here's a shot from today showing the almost finished article sitting in place with the glue drying. A dark wash yet and a bit vegetation will finish off.

Not much to report recently, except that work has commenced on the Snow blowers which reside just beyond the station on the Inverness side. Apparently these were designed to deflect the wind away from the line to prevent it being fowled by drifting snow - although I'll stand corrected if need be........ In reality these are positioned just beyond the points however my points are a tad closer to the station than they should be and are just out of shot. Cheers Shaun

Hi all Thanks for all the kind comments. The station building has had a bit more attention this week and is now structurally complete. The rear porch has been added, as has what was once the gents toilet block. Some Ratio telegraph poles have also been painted and set in place; they're not fixed yet hence the wonky-ness. No trains this week, just some b&w progress pics of the station area. Shaun

Always goes down well..............

Today's inaugural running session went reasonably well with only a few minor track adjustments necessary off-scene. Not really sure if it qualifies as an actual running session though as I spent most of the afternoon taking stock out of boxes, mostly for the first time - lot's of locos to run in over the coming weeks. A few snaps below: A few BG/GUV vans in the sidings at the Wick end, this is probably the only part of the layout that will get any natural light shining on it. An overall shot of the station area. I'm quite happy with the station building so far, still a bit of detailing and weathering to do before it's ready to fix in place and bed in. 26013 arriving from Inverness with a mixed goods. The farmer appears to have abandoned his tractor and my thinking juice visible in the background. The Wick end sidings again, this time from a different perspective. My version of Georgemas has a pair of independent snowploughs based in it, one of them resides in the PW siding for most of the year. That's all for now, cheers Shaun