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

[03060]

Do you reckon that the Sealink coach in the GQS photo is a 1/2 brake, Rob ?

[ISW]

11 hours ago, young37215 said:

 

Rob,

 

I've been pondering track weathering, as that'll be a task in the coming year. Based on the above photo of yours, it appears that you airbrush the track 'in place' and then add the ballast (the 'normal' method it seems). However, I don't see any signs of post-ballasting weathering, such as more light airbrushing. Any reason, or am I missing something?

 

Ian

[young37215]

11 hours ago, ISW said:

Rob,

 

I've been pondering track weathering, as that'll be a task in the coming year. Based on the above photo of yours, it appears that you airbrush the track 'in place' and then add the ballast (the 'normal' method it seems). However, I don't see any signs of post-ballasting weathering, such as more light airbrushing. Any reason, or am I missing something?

 

Ian

Hi Ian 

 

Not enough hours in the day to have done everything yet!

 

I intend making the effort to change the uniformity of the ballasted areas in time although it's not something I have done before. I have inadvertently done this at Fort William as is shown in the pictures below where the dusty ballast led me to spray a second coat of paint after ballasting. This has created a more random effect although it is all sleeper grime. I generally use Railmatch paints and my thinking is to use a mix of frame dirt and weathered black to change/darken the appearance of the 4 foot. 

 

37264 brings 2B18, 1855 from Mallaig into the station

37049 arrives with 1B14, 1636 es Glasgow to Mallaig

The green and cream steam rake sit in the siding

 

 

[young37215]

On 21/10/2020 at 08:40, 03060 said:

Do you reckon that the Sealink coach in the GQS photo is a 1/2 brake, Rob ?

 

Hi Ian

 

Its difficult to be certain but the window arrangement of the front half of the coach looks like a brake coach. If so then its a BSK as they were the only brake coaches given Sealink livery. Given the front coach of the rake is a BSO, another brake is not essential although my experience is that two or more brake coaches in a single rake were commonplace on the WHL.

 

The Sealink coaches are an extravagence on WHL4 but I do like the colours.  

Edited October 22, 2020 by young37215

[ISW]

2 hours ago, young37215 said:

Not enough hours in the day to have done everything yet!

Rob,

 

I know the feeling ... Good to hear you have a plan to weather the track, although RailMatch paints do appear to be 'out of favour' at the model shops near me with none of them stocking it. When I get around to it, which will be a while, I'll be trying Humbrol acrylic and enamel paints to see if they are any good. 'Ease' of painting is also important to me. I don't want it to end up as a chore.

 

Ian

[Legend]

2 hours ago, young37215 said:

 

Hi Ian

 

Its difficult to be certain but the window arrangement of the front half of the coach looks like a brake coach. If so then its a BSK as they were the only brake coaches given Sealink livery. Given the front coach of the rake is a BSO, another brake is not essential although my experience is that two or more brake coaches in a single rake were commonplace on the WHL.

 

The Sealink coaches are an extravagence on WHL4 but I do like the colours.  

 

I thought they were hideous at the time but they do add a splash of colour to the scene .  What you don't see is the bright yellow vestibules they had !  That veneer woodwork crudely painted over bright yellow . Yuk!  It was the 80s !

 

Great layout as always . I think the ballast on Ft William looks pretty good 

[03060]

6 hours ago, young37215 said:

 

Its difficult to be certain but the window arrangement of the front half of the coach looks like a brake coach. If so then its a BSK as they were the only brake coaches given Sealink livery.

 

The chaps at Frizinghall M&R say thankyou for your photographic observation ..... they wondered which poor unsuspecting customer they were going to sell that last Farish Sealink BSK to !!  

[young37215]

A slight variation for today’s post where pictures show scenic development between Arrochar and Ardlui where I had been planning the line running on an embankment with a water feature below. Whilst pondering it occurred to me that Craigenarden viaduct is between the two stations and would be an interesting challenge to model. There are’nt many pictures of the viaduct on Flickr but I found enough information to enable the thought to develop. As so often Spannerman's albums are a wonderful source of 1980's WHL material:

 

 

 

The RailScot website describes Craigenarden as an 8 arch castellated 396 ft long and 58 ft high viaduct on a gentle curve to the west side of Loch Lomond. It is a well known bridge being on a beautiful section of the Loch Lomondside road with a tight corner and narrow width; perfect for modelling.

 

I don’t have the inclination to scratch build the entire viaduct. Some searching around revealed a 4 arch Auhagen HO viaduct where two joined together look like they will make a pretty good representation of Craigenarden. The Auhagen viaduct is straight compared to the shallow curve of the real thing but otherwise it looks the part. I have adjusted the depth of the baseboard to that required for the model and added a temporary bridge to enable trains to run over. This has been in use for a few days to get a feel for how it works. The Auhagen models arrived yesterday so it is out with the glue today to start construction.  

 

[ISW]

3 hours ago, young37215 said:

The Auhagen viaduct is straight compared to the shallow curve of the real thing but otherwise it looks the part.

Rob,

 

Have you considered cutting the off-the-shelf viaduct into its constituent arches and then gluing it back together as a polygon / curve? Would look a bit nicer.

 

Ian

[young37215]

Yesterday was split between viaduct building and running trains. I slept in this morning which I am not sure whether to attribute to the solvent used in viaduct construction or a couple of pints of Timothy Taylor's Landlord bitter last night. Hopefully I can get the viaduct installed temporarily today to see how it looks and works. I have not discounted the suggestion of introducing curvature into the viaduct although I am uncertain if this is feasible and/or how it would work in the available space. One step at a time, I will review the situation once I have seen how the straight option looks in situ.

 

37022 had charge of 1B15, 1815 from Oban to Glasgow seen at Crianlarich and Garelochead on its journey south

Edited October 24, 2020 by young37215

[03060]

There was an article in the Railway Modeller several years ago which showed you how to 'curve' the Ratio viaduct kit(s), I don't know what month / year it was, but somebody might. I may still have the article in a file in the loft, I'll have a look later.

 

Regards,

Ian.

[ISW]

4 hours ago, 03060 said:

There was an article in the Railway Modeller several years ago which showed you how to 'curve' the Ratio viaduct kit(s),

Rob,

 

Have sent you a message with the quoted article. Happy building ...

 

Ian

[young37215]

The viaduct has been temporarily installed as built. It is not all glued together yet and it remains possible to change the alignment if I choose to do so. The viaduct comes as 2, 2 arch sections making 4 arches per kit which slot into gaps at the top of the pillars. I have 2 kits making 8 arches in total so at least that is accurate for Craigenarden. The height at 150mm equates to about 35 feet which is about 60% of the real thing so not quite so accurate. However it looks OK and my initial reaction is positive. 

 

I am grateful to the 2 Ian’s for identifying and finding the article on introducing curvature to an ‘out of the box’ straight model. The physical constraints of the Auhagen model and the experience of the article author shows that considerable work is required to introduce curvature which is work that I doubt I could do to the standard I want and work I am not inclined to commit the time to. The clincher is that I don’t think I have enough space to create the curved track alignment that a curved viaduct would require. I am still pondering curvature though and will make a final decision over the next few days.

 

First 4 arches emerge.

Nearly done

All 8 arches constructed, they currently rest in the pillars and will only get glued once I am happy with everything

Track laid across the viaduct

Track alignment for curvature would be a challenge in the limited space

 

Edited October 25, 2020 by young37215

[ISW]

2 hours ago, young37215 said:

The clincher is that I don’t think I have enough space to create the curved track alignment that a curved viaduct would require. I am still pondering curvature though and will make a final decision over the next few days.

Rob,

To 'help' (?) your pondering I've done a quick mark-up of your photo with a possible curved alignment. I've probably exaggerated the curves a bit so feel free to 'flatten' them if it helps. You'd probably need a few 'hills' either side to give a reason for the curved alignment ... Them rocks look a good excuse!

 

Ian

 

[young37215]

22 hours ago, ISW said:

Rob,

To 'help' (?) your pondering I've done a quick mark-up of your photo with a possible curved alignment. I've probably exaggerated the curves a bit so feel free to 'flatten' them if it helps. You'd probably need a few 'hills' either side to give a reason for the curved alignment ... Them rocks look a good excuse!

 

Ian

 

Thanks Ian, nice idea but the curve across the Craigenarden viaduct runs in the opposite direction to that you have drawn.  If I am to incur the pain of building curvature then it will have to reflect the actual viaduct which is challenging because there is limited room between the viaduct and Arrochar station. I feeI at a bit of an impasse, I want to be as prototypical as possible but I cannot see a way of achieving curvature without major upheavel. Based upon the Auhagen kits design, I will have to cut out a couple of mm from each of the arches to make the polygon effect curve which offers too many opportunities for mistakes. 

 

The line at this point on the WHL is cut into mountainside justifying lots of curvature and plenty of rocky outcrops to be avoided making the scenic potential considerable. Having spent time pondering I decided to runs some trains instead and get a feel for how the viaduct looks. There are no railings or walls on the viaduct yet, the Auhagen kit includes railings whereas Craigenarden has brick walls with castellated parapets. Fortunately the kit includes additional plasticard like sheets of the same style blocks which will I will cut into strips to form walls.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 26, 2020 by young37215

[ISW]

1 hour ago, young37215 said:

Thanks Ian, nice idea but the curve across the Craigenarden viaduct runs in the opposite direction to that you have drawn.

Rob,

 

Sod's Law applies. I suppose that was bound to happen!

1 hour ago, young37215 said:

I decided to runs some trains instead and get a feel for how the viaduct looks.

That viaduct looks great, with a really imposing structure. I can see why you wanted to include such a viaduct.

 

So, you'd be looking at an alignment something like this:

 

Ian

[young37215]

I spent some time running trains and getting used to the viaduct. In general I like the effect but something is missing; I do'nt know what at this stage and so will leave things as they are until I get a clearer picture in my head.  I have added some of the wall to the enclose the track on the viaduct which improves the appearance no end. 

 

37017 had charge of 1B11, 1254 Glasgow to Oban including an observation car, along its journey through Garelochead and heading north from Arrochar across the viaduct. The first picture showing departure from Arrochar highlights the available space into which I need to work out if I can get the amount of curvature into the track to warrant curving the viaduct.

[Legend]

Looks good as always . Is it that the Viaduct is very enclosed with foliage , and once you’ve created that it will look more at home? I know the real thing is curving and ideally yours should too , but maybe you can get round it a bit by portraying the sharp bend in the road beneath  To give impression of bends . Having travelled the road last Friday , even in the rain it was spectacular with all the Autumn colours . You are going to need a lot of trees! 

[mallaig1983]

On 24/10/2020 at 10:11, 03060 said:

There was an article in the Railway Modeller several years ago which showed you how to 'curve' the Ratio viaduct kit(s), I don't know what month / year it was, but somebody might. I may still have the article in a file in the loft, I'll have a look later.

 

Regards,

Ian.

Last night insomnia took a hold. Decided a bit of reading might help so returning to bed from getting a glass of water I grabbed a random magazine from the spare room. Complete coincidence it was this one. I see that the details have already been forwarded to Rob but it's Railway Modeller, November 2015 if anyone else is interested.

 

I think it looks a decent representation as built Rob. Once blended in with the rest of the scenery should really look the part.

[young37215]

I changed the angle of the viaduct to see what the effect was. By removing the straight lines the whole area looks more fluid and the viaduct appearance is visually different. I’ll play with this for a few days before making any decisions. 

 

[03060]

Morning Rob,

 

that looks a more interesting perspective, I like the way that the line on the approach weaves it’s way to the viaduct which will make the longer trains ‘snake’ their way along the track avoiding a few rocky outcrops on the ledge before passing over the gulley.

Very West Highland Line in my opinion (for what it’s worth.) Thanks for letting us in on your thoughts.

 

Regards,

Ian.

[slow8dirty]

Yes, nailed it. That simple change of perspective makes it seem just so much more "fluid". Just the opinion of a long time lurker/admirer 

[BoD]

It's amazing what a difference such a simple change has made.  It looks right somehow.

[young37215]

I am grateful for peoples opinion on changes to the viaduct. Avoiding straight lines is very much the rule when it comes to the WHL and the revised position certainly ticks the box as far as these are concerned. Rocky outcrops, trees and bushes will proliferate when I get around to the scenery as has been suggested. 

 

Eastfield pet 37081 seen in pristine condition as usual on arrival at Fort William with 1245 Mallaig to Glasgow.

 

 

[young37215]

I spent some time yesterday adding droppers to the power BUS on the revised Viaduct section. Once this is complete I intend adding the polystyrene that will form the outline of of the scenery. This is not in keeping with my plans but I am intrigued to see how the section will look. One aspect that I am not yet clear about is using the Woodland Scenics rock moulds to create the various outcrops that I want. I have not got any of the moulds yet, there seem so many to choose from and I am uncertain at which ones best reflect the geology of the area. Does nyone have a view or, better still, do we have any Geologist's on RWeb who can give a professional perspective of the rock found along the WHL?

 

37049 had charge of the 0700 Mallaig to Glasgow seen towards the end of its WHL journey as it arrives at Garelochead.