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

[mallaig1983]

Your rocks look very effective. Out of interest do you recall what part number they are? Particularly the one on the right of the tanks. I need to get a couple more.

 

Far be it from me to offer advice on something I haven't done yet but I will be joining my rock mouldings with sculpting plaster and carving in to this. I've watched quit a bit on this subject on YouTube. Recommend Luke Towan's videos if you are unaware of them. 

 

I'm enjoying your daily updates Rob. 

 

Andy.

[mallaig1983]

Ps I suspect there is a Knightwing kit lurking in your railway room judging by the stands that your tanks are sitting on?

 

Andy

[BoD]

I have used Polyfilla Deep Gap*  both as a 'glue' to fix the rocks into place and to fill any gaps.  Once dried you can scribe to match the faces or fill in with a bit foliage.  I suspect this is similar to what Andy does with sculpting plaster.

 

*Other brands available etc etc.

[young37215]

Not a lot to record today as yesterday was a working day on the GWSR where it was nice to get out in the fresh, if slightly damp, air. I can report that it is a lot easier moving sleepers on WHL4 than in real life! 

 

 

22 hours ago, mallaig1983 said:

Out of interest do you recall what part number they are? Particularly the one on the right of the tanks.

 

The mould is C1244, facet rock. I have 4 of the larger moulds which, if the WS adverising is to be believed, can be used to create a variety of smaller sizes by breaking the bigger moulds into pieces or by only part filling the larger mould.  

 

 

22 hours ago, mallaig1983 said:

I will be joining my rock mouldings with sculpting plaster and carving in to this. I've watched quit a bit on this subject on YouTube. Recommend Luke Towan's videos if you are unaware of them. 

 

I have made an initial attempt using Sculptamould which I aim to paint today. If the outcome is not to the standard I want then I shall try other suggestions such as the casting plaster.

 

 

22 hours ago, mallaig1983 said:

I suspect there is a Knightwing kit lurking in your railway room judging by the stands that your tanks are sitting on

Correct, its the Knightwing tank support sections. I have ordered Ratio 530 to use as the smallest tank.

 

 

 

Edited November 26, 2020 by young37215

[young37215]

The Sculptamould blends in with the rock casts and painted ok creating a run of rock face to the rear of the oil terminal.  The Ratio oil tank arrived which fills the gap nicely although it needs painting and taller supports to get closer to the real thing.

 

 

Today I intend completing the low relief outcrops that extend to the station throat. Slowly but surely this is progressing, I will be glad to finish this off and get back to running again. 

 

[young37215]

A quiet few days spent away from the layout recharging batteries as it were. Yesterday I returned the incomplete Mallaig scenic section to the layout because I wanted to test it all worked in practice and I needed to understand how the point motors located under the baseboard would affect the sidings and running line that sit beneath the Mallaig section. I am also waiting on signals and signal box which I want to install before finishing the scenery.

 

Once connected to the various power sources Mallaig performed faultlessly. I managed to run the 1981 morning timetable on the Mallaig extension without any hitch which was very gratifying because Mallaig was the last major point motorisation project. Apart from  a couple of sidings at Ardlui, all of the Megapoints controlled points network is now connected to the main control panel. 37175 and 37108 are seen waiting with their respective departures.

 

 

 

[ISW]

1 hour ago, young37215 said:

Apart from  a couple of sidings at Ardlui, all of the Megapoints controlled points network is now connected to the main control panel

Rob,

Are you using the MegaPoints 'expansion boards' or are you under the 24-turnout limit of a plain MultiPanel?

Ian

[young37215]

17 hours ago, ISW said:

Rob,

Are you using the MegaPoints 'expansion boards' or are you under the 24-turnout limit of a plain MultiPanel?

Ian

 

Hi Ian

 

When finished there will be around 75 servos controlling points and semaphores. I have 3 expansion boards for both switches and LED's making a total of 96 potential connections. Room to grow......

 

To avoid colliding with the under baseboard point motor brackets I needed to realign the track connecting the upper and lower sections. What this means for the scenic potential I have not yet got my head around, I will start placing polystyrene in the residual space to get a feel for what is now achievable. The sidings will also need some minor adjustment although this is easily achieved by simply tweaking the flexitrack. 

 

Original track alignment, where the track curves was directly beneath 4 point motor brackets hence the need to realign 

 

An old view with Mallaig section in place

 

 

Revised track alignment avoids going under the Mallaig section

 

View from the other end of the section, the track on the left is the approach to Garelochead

[ISW]

8 hours ago, young37215 said:

When finished there will be around 75 servos controlling points and semaphores. I have 3 expansion boards for both switches and LED's making a total of 96 potential connections. Room to grow......

Rob,

 

That'll be quite a setup! What's the mimic panel look like, is it a single unit? The reason for asking is that I envisage 3 separate mimic panels for my layout, each with its own MultiPanel controller. That way I can place the mimic panels around the layout.

Ian

[young37215]

15 hours ago, ISW said:

Rob,

 

That'll be quite a setup! What's the mimic panel look like, is it a single unit? The reason for asking is that I envisage 3 separate mimic panels for my layout, each with its own MultiPanel controller. That way I can place the mimic panels around the layout.

Ian

 

A single unit adjacent the main fiddle yard made up of two 1220 x 170 mm pieces of 3mm plywood. It's a lot of wires, switches and LED's but a fairly simple construction which started out as a test and has grown over 3 years to what it is now.  I started out with the intention of a control panel at each signal box but changed my mind when I realised that I would spend all day running around to the different panels. What I have works, it would not win prizes for its asthetic look but it does what I require of it. Should I ever win the lottery though an upgraded, glitzy control panel would be high on my list of things to buy.

 

Thanks to guidance from another thread I finally managed to seperate the chassis from the bodyshell of my PRA wagons. I found that a fine screw driver inserted under the bodyshell at the end of the wagon enabled a larger screw driver to be inserted and turned 90 degrees which released the body. I did break off 2 buffers on the first wagon but these glued back very easily and having learn from my error, the other 3 wagons were much easier and accident free. This allowed me to add 30g of lead to existing rather pathetic out of the box 44g weight resulting in a 70% increase which brings the PRA closer to the 90g of the VDA/VAA fleet. The PRA is a fabulous wagon and I hope the weight increase will reduce derailments which were becoming too frequent for my liking.   

 

The PRA's were enough work for one day, with Mallaig back on the layout I then spent a few hours running trains.

 

 

 

Edited December 9, 2020 by young37215

[young37215]

37178 arrives at Crianlarich with 1T16, 0740 Oban to Glasgow.

 

[young37215]

37178 continues its southbound journey seen first departing Crianlarich and a little later passsing 1B10 at Garelochead. The picture taken from the road looking over the subway is one of my favourite angles. The final picture shows the residual space between the upper level Mallaig and lower level Garelochead where I am plotting how to create the scenery so that it blends in with both stations.

 

[young37215]

37175 arrives at Mallaig and runs around 2B13, the 0845 from Fort William which returns at 11.00. This is a Rule 1 additional service using the green and cream steam hauled stock created partly for operational efficiency and partly because I wanted an extra train to run on the Mallaig extension.  

 

[young37215]

37026 on 1B08 0806 Glasgow to Oban seen at Crianlarich

 

 

[BoD]

Loch Awe too.

Now you are just showing off. 

[37Oban]

Seeing the 07-40 ex Oban - Glasgow and 08-06 ex Glasgow (Queen Street) return service brought back happy memories of jaunts to sample the delights of the Crianlarich tearoom on a Saturday morning when I lived in Oban in the mid-eighties.  Happy days!

 

Roja

 

[BoD]

Quote

 

Seeing the 07-40 ex Oban - Glasgow and 08-06 ex Glasgow (Queen Street) return service brought back happy memories of jaunts to sample the delights of the Crianlarich tearoom on a Saturday morning when I lived in Oban in the mid-eighties.  Happy days!

 

Roja

 

 

 

We need a ‘jealous’ button.

Edited December 13, 2020 by BoD

[young37215]

12 hours ago, BoD said:

Loch Awe too.

Now you are just showing off. 

 

Sorry, the picturewas taken a couple of days ago making the timing with your dilemna a coincidence. My version is the out of the box Mickleover limited edition which I want to give a light weathering.  I am sure you are aware that the MMRG are still selling this and currently at a lower price than I paid!.

 

Another Loch followed 37026 out of Glasgow with  37081  hauling 1B10, the 0837 to Mallaig. I still find it fascinating that back in 1981 1B10 was a summer only service, during the rest of the year there were only 2 trains a day north of Crianlarich on the WHL. 

 

37081 crosses 37178 at Garelochead

37081 at Crianlarich

 

 

[BoD]

3 hours ago, young37215 said:

 

I am sure you are aware that the MMRG are still selling this and currently at a lower price than I paid!.

 

I am now, thank you.

[mallaig1983]

14 hours ago, BoD said:

I am now, thank you.

Ironically my one may become 051 once the Accurascale 027 is released 

[mallaig1983]

10 minutes ago, mallaig1983 said:

Ironically my one may become 051 once the Accurascale 027 is released 

Oh and my 051 will become 114 for days when I backdate the layout. Incidentally my LL 114 will become 111 when I update the layout. It's a nightmare folks.

 

Andy

[03060]

6 hours ago, mallaig1983 said:

Oh and my 051 will become 114 for days when I backdate the layout. Incidentally my LL 114 will become 111 when I update the layout. It's a nightmare folks.

 

 

 

For a long time now I've had my Farish N gauge model with split, Black headcode boxes and original bufferbeam cowling earmarked to become 37 039 with terrier motif as seen in Tom Noble's Mallaig Extension book dated 28th May 1985 thinking that it must have been in this condition for quite a while ..... only to come across a photo last night taken of it on Aug 16th 1984 with Yellow headcode boxes ! (Freight Only vol.3.....last page.)   

[young37215]

I have spent many hours renumbering and re- renumbering my fleet as I learn of the idiosyncrasies of individual locos. I have built a collection of pictures from books and the internet to guide me on these. As for the differences between Vulcan and RSH builds I have had several versions of 37081 before I finally got one with the correct cant rail dividing bars. I have managed to get most of my split headcode fleet into reasonable representations of the real thing as they were seen during my 1980 to 1985 time horizon. My 3 centre headcode locos 175, 178 and 264 all need further work but I am not losing sleep over if and when I get around to it. Lockdown or not life is still too short to become a rivet counter1

 

Ex Western Region 37175 at Eastfield early 1983 has the additional irons to the side of the headcode and WR name boards. My model has no WR name boards or additional irons

 

 

 

Ex Western Region 37178 at Crianlarich May 1985 has the additional irons to the side of the headcode and WR name boards as well as a headlight. My model has no WR name boards, headlight or additional irons

 

 

 

Ex Easter Region 37264 at Eastfield March 1983 has a single lamp bracket above the headcode. My model has WR name boards but no lamp bracket

 

 

 

At some stage when I am feeling brave I will use a sharp knife to remove the name board brackets from my 37264 and add them to one of 175 or 178. If someone finds an easy solution to the additional irons that sit adjacent the headcode panel I might add these but I am certainly not losing sleep over them. 

 

 

 

Edited December 15, 2020 by young37215

[mallaig1983]

Really useful information there Rob but like you I can live with these tiny detail differences for now too. Perhaps one day when everything else is finished......

 

Andy

[mallaig1983]

Do you know where one might be able to acquire the 'Halfords' headlights?