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


young37215
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On 25/02/2021 at 08:28, andyram said:

One suggestion, it would have been good to have had some kind of commentary to place explain each location etc.

Unfortunately social distancing rules meant that Paul Coia was unavailable at the time of production! I intend producing more video footage with sound once the lockdown restrictions are reduced and it is practical to have a friend or two in the loft with me to help out. 

 

37081 is seen approaching Crianlarich with 7D12, 1324 Mallaig Junction Yard to Sighthill which includes OBA's loaded with the newly arrived rolled aluminum slabs. Fortunately derailments are infrequent on WHL4 and those that arise are mostly operator error such as driving over incorrectly set points. Nevertheless anything that reduces derailment risk is welcome and the aluminum effectively doubles the weight of the wagon which, based on my experience, reduces derailments. I have now completed my weighing of all freight wagons, added weight where I consider it helpful and created a record to monitor performance.

 

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Edited by young37215
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23 hours ago, andyram said:

 You mention, in the last set of photos, that the Mallaig arrival uses the non-steam hauled stock. I noted  comment previously that you have added this to the sequence. Do you ever run it with steam?

 

There are no steam locos on WHL4 hence the regular diesel substition on the green and cream rake. 

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27 minutes ago, young37215 said:

 

There are no steam locos on WHL4 hence the regular diesel substition on the green and cream rake. 


I reckon a Black 5 or K1 would look great running on this layout :wink_mini::wink_mini:

 

Seriously, these are more fantastic pictures. 

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It is all rather frustrating is it not. I have promised another of this parish some photos of Helmsdale which is less than an hour from me and am obviously similarly restricted. Thanks so much for the video tour Rob and all these lovely daily trips to WHL

Cheers

David

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1 hour ago, Legend said:

Crianlarich is just an hour up the road from me but currently off limits due to travel restrictions . Everytime I see your thread it puts me in the notion to go !

 

I'm a bit further away but it has that affect on me too.

Hopefully, one day, in the not too distant future...

 

Until then, Rob, thank you for our daily fix.

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Great photos. Your layout is inspiring. 

 

Your earlier photo of 37022 at Mallaig reminded me of this one I took  of 37022 departing Glasgow QS. 

 

Like Fort William, it always same to rain when I visited GQS or Eastfield!

 

37022 at Glasgow QS.jpg

Edited by Alcanman
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6 hours ago, Alcanman said:

Great photos. Your layout is inspiring. 

 

Your earlier photo of 37022 at Mallaig reminded me of this one I took  of 37022 departing Glasgow QS. 

 

Like Fort William, it always same to rain when I visited GQS or Eastfield!

 

37022 at Glasgow QS.jpg

 

Having lived up here for nearly 13 years now, I can confirm it does rain a lot !!!

 

Stay safe,

 

Neil

 

 

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37033 arrives at Crianlarich with 8B13, 1315 Sighthill to Corpach where it passes 7D12 and the crews change over.

 

My dilemna of the day is Suttons or Heljan's ETHEL to replace my recently sold Hornby one? I am currently favouring Heljan weaknesses notwithstanding because I prefer the thought of a non powered loco but that could easily be swayed especially if more errors are identified on the Heljan offering.

 

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1981's daily operations require a minimum of 14 locos, more when engineers trains and conditional workings run. These are diagrammed with the passenger diagrams coming from Platform 5's Loco Hauled Travel and the freight allocations are of my own concoction. Like all diagrams operational issues can cause deviations from the diagrams although I usually follow them closely simply because it avoids having to think too much about which loco to use.  

 

As the picture of todays diagrams shows, a heavily work stained 37011 is allocated to 8V80, 1605 Oban to Sighthill seen arriving at Garelochead.

 

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I run WHL4 to a timetable largely based on the original 1981 WTT with a few tweaks and my Rule 1 extras added in. The handwritten changes marked are fine tuning of the WTT based on my operating experiences. For example I have delayed the first entry 1B14 by a few minutes to avoid congestion in the upper fiddle yard by allowing 2B21 to move to Fort William which clears a road in the upper fiddle yard.

 

8V80 was booked to pass 1B15 at Garelochead hauled by 37017 seen on its arrival

 

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Having been passed by 1B15 at Garelochead, 37011 departs with 8V80 heading to Glasgow Sighthill. Much of yesterday was spent improving the weathering on 37011 and changing speakers on the class 20 fleet. Hopefully these will have dried off over night and be sufficiently complete to feature in tomorrows pictures.

 

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Yesterday was a volunteering day so nothing of substance done on WHL4. 37011 and the class 20 refurbs are nearly, but not quite complete with just a few more tweaks required. Two of the class 20 fleet are now models of the 20's fitted with through steam pipes in the early 1980's to enable them to work in multiple with a class 37 on the sleeper service. 37051 and 20085 are seen on the approach to Crianlarich with 1T56, 1610 Mallaig to Glasgow with sleeping cars attached at Fort William going through to Euston. 

 

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Edited by young37215
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I bought another 20 recently, 20228 which from a 1970’s accident, has marker lights at one end and the original head code at the other. The model has been updated to reflect this and I was able to check the accuracy of the model against the full size 20228 which has recently arrived at the GWSR. The loco is still being restored but looks stunning externally. Hopefully she will be whistling along the GWSR before too long.

 

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22 hours ago, tonyg3 said:

GWSR opens 13 April be able to hear them at the Racecourse

 

I think it will be a little later for 20228 because she has outstanding work required to be completed before entering service. 

 

37175 heads 7D13, 1520 Corpach to Sighthill arriving at Garelochead

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On 14/02/2021 at 18:26, ISW said:

Rob,

 

To my ears that's a strange sounding class 20. When the video started I thought it was a Class 37 coming and that you'd mis-typed 37034 as 20034. I remember Class 20s with a more pronounced 'whistle'. Very odd.

 

Ian

Yes, the chair does sound a little excited for a light engine at slow speed. 

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There are 4 class 20's on WHL4 where under recent closer scrutiny I've decided that I am not that impressed with any of the sounds. To be fair to 20228 it has had little running time yet and it may be with some tweaks the Legoman sound can be improved. For the other 3 I am looking at ways to upgrade the sound through a combination of re-blowing chips and replacing speakers. Part of the challenge I face is that the models are some of the earlier Bachmann 20's with limited space for speakers which without surgery to their chassis limits my options.  

 

37175 and 7D13 depart Garelochead heading for Glasgow

 

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1 hour ago, young37215 said:

For the other 3 I am looking at ways to upgrade the sound through a combination of re-blowing chips and replacing speakers.

Rob,

 

That's the part of the 'rabbit hole', regarding adding sound, that is holding me back from adding sound to my layout. The majority of my locos are 1980s vintage, and just fitting a simple 8-pin DCC chip involves surgery. Adding lights is even more fiddly. Sound is something I'd 'like' but that'll be a while off.

 

Ian

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Over the new year I cleaned most of my track and all rolling stock wheels which was a time consuming and laborious job. I was therefore disappointed to see that already there are noticeable build ups of crud re-appearing on the track. I came across one of numerous threads on track cleaning which provided an explanation as to why crud appears. It is well worth a read if you want an explanation of the science. The upshot is that I have bought a can of WD40 contact cleaner and embarked on another round of track cleaning to see if this works for me.

 

 

In amongst all of the faffing with track cleaning, 37014 heads south in to Crianlarich with 6E46 comprised of empty aluminum hoppers returning to Blyth for refilling. 

 

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I am still working on the class 20 fleet with 20045 having reverted to its original speaker and sealed using blacktack as the double iPhone simply would not fit without distorting the body shell. Seen in the attached video, the sound is an improvment on the original video done a few weeks ago but is still not quite right. 

 

 

 

Edited by young37215
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