West Highland Line V4, a 1980's West Highland Line layout

[young37215]

15 hours ago, ISW said:

Rob,

 

I was doing some sorting / filing of old postcards from the 1970s and came across the attached. Thought it might be of interest regarding coaching stock formations. The photo is of Class 24 5116 on an Inverness to Kyle of Lochalsh service in 1973. The formation looks to be SO+CK+BSK+BG+SO.

The class 24's were history on the Kyle line by the time I first got to Scotland in the late 1970's with the 26's having taken over. Still a nice picture, what would many of us give to be able to travel around the highlands like this today?

 

[ISW]

5 hours ago, young37215 said:

The class 24's were history on the Kyle line by the time I first got to Scotland in the late 1970's with the 26's having taken over. Still a nice picture, what would many of us give to be able to travel around the highlands like this today?

 

Rob,

 

Indeed yes, although there are not many class 24 (or class 25) registered for mainline use. Maybe the North York Moors Railway could be convinced to run one of theirs (that is allow on NR metals to Whitby) to run to the North of Scotland? But there again, with only 6 coaches (including a BG!) the ticket prices would be a tad steep!

 

We can but dream ...

 

I did get to go to Mallaig behind a Class 25 + Class 26 on a special train from Merseyside back in 1979.

 

[young37215]

17 hours ago, ISW said:

Indeed yes, although there are not many class 24 (or class 25) registered for mainline use. Maybe the North York Moors Railway could be convinced to run one of theirs (that is allow on NR metals to Whitby) to run to the North of Scotland? But there again, with only 6 coaches (including a BG!) the ticket prices would be a tad steep!

 

I do'nt think that the NYMR locos are fully mainline compliant to go further afield and given Network Rail's general attitude to heritage traction, I reckon there is almost as much chance of someone inventing a time machine compared against  spending a fortune on the modifications required on a loco today. Still it's a nice fantasy to indulge in!

[young37215]

Some time in 1985, 37175 with the air conditioned sleeper rake seen at Crianlarich heading north.

 

[young37215]

On Tuesday I motorised 10 points in Mallaig Junction Yard and by the end of the day I had them all working from the control panel. This morning in anticipation of a friends visit I thought I would just test them again prior to returning the baseboard to the layout and was most annoyed to find several of the servos were no longer funtioning properly. The problems are most likeley down to my poor alignment of the servo brackets on the underside of the baseboard. 

 

To enable some running, we managed to return the baseboard to its rightful position but even this proved more challenging than I had expected. My baseboard construction has a gap of about 20mm between boards to enable Mallaig Junction Yard to be removable but even with this space, it was a right pain. Finally we managed to connect everything up and start running. As anticipated a couple of months inactivity has resulted in dust on the line and a several spiders having moving in which meant that running was less smooth than normal. We also found that I had over tightened the bogies on several coaches during my refurbishment programme which caused several derailments. All in all running was less satisfying than usual but still fun and it was great to catch up with Doug to put the world to rights.

 

Mallaig Junction Yard baseboard on the workbench. It will be back on here again soon. 

37012 had charge of the down sleeper and is seen passing though Crianlarich

[ISW]

2 hours ago, young37215 said:

Mallaig Junction Yard baseboard on the workbench. It will be back on here again soon. 

Rob,

 

Servo installation looks very tidy on the underside of that baseboard. I hope you are going to tidy / fix the cables to the baseboard?

 

Ian

[young37215]

17 hours ago, ISW said:

Servo installation looks very tidy on the underside of that baseboard. I hope you are going to tidy / fix the cables to the baseboard?

 

Hi Ian

 

You wil be pleased to learn that the cables are all neatly secured to the underside of the baseboard. Unfortunately this will be a PITA given I need to revisit and re-locate half of the servos!

 

 

Following the sleeper yesterday was the annual weedkilling train seen departing Crianlarich for Fort William. Newly acquired coaches from Invicta are in a livery applied following the Fisons trains sale to Schering Agrochemicals in 1986 which is just outside my timescales but close enough for me not to worry. The train needs weathering and I want a better solution for the spray coach than my old Trix inspection salon. To the best of my knowledge, there is no available model of the class 100 Derby Lightweight that was used as the spray coach at this time. 

 

27041 was the weedkilling train loco

Edited September 11, 2020 by young37215

[David Bell]

You can't beat a Class 27 on the West Highland

[mallaig1983]

6 hours ago, young37215 said:

 

Hi Ian

 

You wil be pleased to learn that the cables are all neatly secured to the underside of the baseboard. Unfortunately this will be a PITA given I need to revisit and re-locate half of the servos!

 

 

Following the sleeper yesterday was the annual weedkilling train seen departing Crianlarich for Fort William. Newly acquired coaches from Invicta are in a livery applied following the Fisons trains sale to Schering Agrochemicals in 1986 which is just outside my timescales but close enough for me not to worry. The train needs weathering and I want a better solution for the spray coach than my old Trix inspection salon. To the best of my knowledge, there is no available model of the class 100 Derby Lightweight that was used as the spray coach at this time. 

 

27041 was the weedkilling train loco

I was only watching this train feature on a dvd the other night (not a 27 on WHL tho). Id like to do a version for my layout based on the one in Tom Noble's Mallaig Extension in BR days. 

 

Looks great and more cracking photos Rob.

 

Andy

[ISW]

6 hours ago, young37215 said:

You wil be pleased to learn that the cables are all neatly secured to the underside of the baseboard. Unfortunately this will be a PITA given I need to revisit and re-locate half of the servos!

Rob,

 

But that's exactly why we make it easy to adjust such things, screws (not nails), labelling, modular construction ... However, Sods Law seems to run roughshod over our work!

 

Ian

[young37215]

37051 heads the bulk alumina hoppers north through Garelochead

 

 

 

[ISW]

On 10/09/2020 at 17:01, young37215 said:

Finally we managed to connect everything up and start running. As anticipated a couple of months inactivity has resulted in dust on the line and a several spiders having moving in which meant that running was less smooth than normal.

Rob,

 

I meant to ask, how do you clean your track? I've seen / heard of several methods, but I've yet to hear of a proven 'easy' method. I have a number of locos with traction tyres (yes, I know, sorry ...) that just makes matters worse.

 

Ian

[young37215]

19 hours ago, ISW said:

Rob,

 

I meant to ask, how do you clean your track? I've seen / heard of several methods, but I've yet to hear of a proven 'easy' method. I have a number of locos with traction tyres (yes, I know, sorry ...) that just makes matters worse.

 

Ian

 

I don’t clean the track that often, when I do I use a combination of a Peco track rubber and vacuum cleaner to pick up the debris or IPA on a cloth. I have a Dapol track cleaning car which is ok but far from perfect. I think it fair to say that I have yet to find the perfect solution to cleaning. 

 

I should increase the frequency of cleaning of both track and wheels but it’s such a painful activity, it invariably gets put off. Judging by the numerous threads on the subject I think most people share my view. 

 

Todays pictures show 37081 on the 0700 Mallaig to Glasgow at Fort William.

37033 substituting for the booked steam loco on the green rake. 

37081 runs round, 37108 awaits release having brought the ECS for the steam set into the platform 

 

A busy screen at Fort William with 37’s  033, 081 and 264. 264 sits at the head of the stock for the 1630 to Mallaig 

[ISW]

3 hours ago, young37215 said:

I don’t clean the track that often, when I do I use a combination of a Peco track rubber and vacuum cleaner to pick up the debris or IPA on a cloth. I have a Dapol track cleaning car which is ok but far from perfect. I think it fair to say that I have yet to find the perfect solution to cleaning. 

Rob,

 

Hmmm, pretty much my experience as well, although I resorted to a 'scotch green pad' clipped, to a flat piece of wood with a small handle, to clean the rails. At least it's thorough and works on turnouts as well (with care!). I also have the Dapol track cleaning car, but it probably needs running once-a-week over all the tracks to be effective. It can't clean up any built up dirt.

 

Ian

[young37215]

37026 in charge of 7B02 heads north at Crianlarich. Loco is the MMRG limited edition with an EM2 fitted with Legoman WHL loaded V4 chip and sounds awesome. More video is required to showcase the racket made!

 

 

 

 

[David Bell]

With that description I can almost hear it even without the video.

All good

Cheers

David

[young37215]

I could not resist attempting a video of 37026, it is not perfect but it does give a flavour of the superior quality sound that the EM2 creates. Lets hope that the Accurascale 37 delivers something similar.  

 

 

[David Bell]

The sound is awesome

[mallaig1983]

That's awesome Rob. Where have you mounted the speaker?

 

Andy

[young37215]

On 15/09/2020 at 16:46, mallaig1983 said:

That's awesome Rob. Where have you mounted the speaker?

 

Andy

 

Installing an EM2 is well beyond my technical competence, the speaker was installed by Richard Croft of Road and Rails who milled the chassis to create the space for the speaker. I must confess that I have not got around to stripping the loco down to look at the finished job, partly because I am afraid of what I might see and partly becuase I am more interested in listening to the loco! 

 

For me there is no question that the EM2 gives fantastic sound in a class 37, the best that I have heard. Where I am more open to discussion is the cost/benefit of other speakers that fit either in the fuel tank or unmodified bodyshell and cost 20% of the fitted EM2 with perhaps 75% of the sound quality.

 

At the end of the day it is a personal choice, I am delighted with my EM2 fitted locos but would not upgrade the entire fleet to EM2's.    

 

 

[mallaig1983]

Thanks Rob. After watching your clip a few times I was on the net looking into it. I came across the roads and rails option. I wouldn't have the skills to do that myself either but would definitely consider getting them to do one or two of my fleet also. Thanks for your evaluation of cost Vs quality. Useful information. Like you I hope that the accurascale 37s sound that good. Thanks for posting the clip. 

 

Andy

[young37215]

Finally managed to sort the point automation at Mallaig Junction Yard. All 10 servos have been reinstalled using aluminium brackets from RK Education which provide greater certainty with servo alignment and all now work as required. The bracket used is a new one for me found by a friend, my preferred Alurailtech ones have regretably gone out of production. The new brackets do not have provision for a micro switch but because all of the MJY points are old, insulfrog ones, I do'nt need any polarity switching. The wooden brackets will be used for semaphores once I get around to automating them. 

 

It feels like a weight has been lifted from my shoulders, now I can get back to running trains......

 

wooden bracket servo installation was unreliable

Mallaig Junction Yard back on the workbench

New servo brackets

Installed servo fits neatly into the RK Education bracket

Mallaig Junction Yard restored to the layout, 37011 awaits departure with a Glasgow bound freight

Sidings to the eastern end of MJY reinstated. 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 28, 2020 by young37215

[ISW]

2 hours ago, young37215 said:

Finally manged to sort the point automation at Mallaig Junction Yard. All 10 servos have been reinstalled using aluminium brackets from RK Education which provide greater certainty over servo alignment and all now work as required.

Rob,

 

If there's one type of job I dislike the most it's 'doing it again'. Fair play to you for biting the bullet and replacing the servo support brackets.

 

Ian

[young37215]

17 hours ago, ISW said:

If there's one type of job I dislike the most it's 'doing it again'. Fair play to you for biting the bullet and replacing the servo support brackets.

 

I can't say I wanted to do it but it was necessary to make things work. Hopefully the pain will pay a dividend of reliable operation. 37033 and 37081 await their heavily delayed departures from Fort William, they have been sat there for a week whilst I re-fitted the servos!

[37Oban]

Hi,

if there's one thing I'm good at it's biting the bullet and redoing things, sometimes more than once!  Yes, it can be a pita, but it pays dividends in the long run.  Better to get things sorted properly than regret later.

 

Roja