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


young37215
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4 hours ago, ISW said:

 

I'll be keeping an eye out for the 'spares' to replace them, me thinks.


Howes Models were, and I think still are, the UK agents for Heljan so they would be the first port of call for the spares. Having said that, they used to have a much greater range of spares including the various sprues of detailing parts.

 

Edit - no longer Howes for spares - see GEEP7's post below.

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13 minutes ago, BoD said:


Howes Models were, and I think still are, the UK agents for Heljan so they would be the first port of call for the spares. Having said that, they used to have a much greater range of spares including the various sprues of detailing parts.

I'm pretty sure that the Heljan spares parts are now being looked after by Gaugemaster. I'm not sure what the state of play is regarding the availability of the wheelsets though. The last time Howes got some in, they went like hot cakes. Made a world of difference to my Hymek and 47 though, so well worth getting hold of some if you can.

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Guagemaster do have the replacement wheels in stock but at £22.50 per bogie, it will cost the thick end of £50 to re-wheel a single locomotive. The price seems excessive but I guess its all supply and demand. Perhaps the fact that the wheels are in stock tells us something about the demand at that price!

 

https://www.gaugemasterretail.com/magento/Heljan-hn19853583.html

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19 minutes ago, young37215 said:

Guagemaster do have the replacement wheels in stock but at £22.50 per bogie, it will cost the thick end of £50 to re-wheel a single locomotive. The price seems excessive but I guess its all supply and demand. Perhaps the fact that the wheels are in stock tells us something about the demand at that price!

 

https://www.gaugemasterretail.com/magento/Heljan-hn19853583.html


That’s a bit of a swizzle.  When I bought them the pack included all 4 axles.

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13 hours ago, BoD said:


That’s a bit of a swizzle.  When I bought them the pack included all 4 axles.

 

The word outrageous springs to mind, the only need for replacment wheels is due to poor quality of the originals and the price has gone up 4 fold compared to just a few years ago now representing about 35% of the cost of a new loco.  Olivia's are selling complete chassis on Ebay for £45 which would represent far better value although I am not sure what wheels these come with. Fortunately for me, only 1 of my 3 27's has these wheels. I will not be ripped off and will keep my eye on 27032's wheels to check how often they need a clean. Heljan do seem to have developed an ability to hack people off. 

 

The thicker piano wire arrived yesterday so its fingers crossed and off to try to get the adapter to actuate the remaining point at Ardlui. A further cab ride of a train arriving at Crianlarich from Oban.

 

 

 

 

 

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Some positive news today, the 1mm wire solved the Ardlui issue and the point is now motorised. Apart from a problem with one of the siding points at Arrochar and excluding the possible fiddle yard motorisation, this finishes the point automation on WHL4. I can now paint the track at Ardlui as the next step in its development. 

 

27032 continued to potter around on engineering duties. Its wheels needed a quick turn on the Trix wheel cleaner as they had for want of a better description, oxidised overnight and were again causing challeges for 27032 to pick up power. Once done the loco performed faultlessly and is seen arriving at Crianlarich from the Oban line.

 

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Nothing much tangible to show for yesterdays efforts although I managed to get a few outstanding issues sorted with Doug coming over with his Lokprogrammer. Locos in the WHL4 fleet have their top speed, acceleration and deceleration rates adjusted to something more prototypical thus creating a standard setting. Several of the new locos needed these adjustments and the handful of Loksound V5 chipped locos required further tweaks to get to an acceptably realistic performance. By the end of the day these were all complete and the locos allocated and positioned for a new day of operations based on the 1981 WTT.  

 

We finally resolved the longstanding light out at one end on 37108 where the common return wire had come loose. Visually the wire was still in the correct position but under closer inspection it was clear that it was not attached to the contact. It took more time for the soldering iron to warm up than it did to correct the defect. Another result, now all locos have their headcode and tail lights working as they should. 

 

We did'nt make much progress on understanding Railcom and Railcom Plus which I had been hoping would automatically upload sound chip function data to the controller. This happens automatically on some chips and not on others which we believe is determined by the individual sound project. Ideally I want this automatic upload on all chips so that when running a loco there is a visual display on the controller showing what each function does. A manual upload is possible but with upwards of 20 functions on a chip, this is a time consuming and laborious activity.

 

Not much running took place, 27105 and 27041 are seen returning to the Ayrshire coast with their rake of Sealink coaches adex.

 

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Mostly loco servicing yesterday, I am working my way through the fleet cleaning wheels and lubricating the older locos. This does seem to improve the running although apart from 27032, nothing was so bad as to make the difference clear cut. That said judging by the amount of dirt that comes off of the wheels the servicing can only be doing good. 

 

The Ayrshire adex continues it' s return journey south seen arriving at Garelochead.

 

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Less activity of late with the summer weather making it easier to spend time outside and recharge my batteries. A little progress has been made at Ardlui with points motorised and tested the track has been glued down, painted with Railmatch sleeper grime and ballasting has commenced. It is a simple project at this stage making it easy to do small bite size chunks of work which suits my current low key activity.

 

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Looking good, out of interest, what make is the tall signal in the top photo? And do they work?

 

Signals are something that’s always scared me, I tried a Dapol one and when tightening the nut I must have over done it and it split the casing and dislodged the mechanism. Tried to fix it and couldn’t so gave up as a bad job.

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Ballasting underway and cable trunking being installed at Ardlui. I am intrigued as to why there would be any need for trunking, as far as I am aware there were few track circuited areas on the WHL. I have looked at a couple of old steam era books and cannot see the trunking, my best guess is that the semaphores had electric lights installed as replacements for the original oil lamps. Anyone more knowledgeable than me?

 

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19 hours ago, SHerr said:

Looking good, out of interest, what make is the tall signal in the top photo? And do they work?

 

Signals are something that’s always scared me, I tried a Dapol one and when tightening the nut I must have over done it and it split the casing and dislodged the mechanism. Tried to fix it and couldn’t so gave up as a bad job.

Signals are all hand built from MSE kits and operational being servo controlled by a Megapoints network. I was determined to have working signals when I set out and am delighted with what I have, you can see several signals in operation on my cab ride videos. The signals are all bought in, some custom built by from Stephen Freeman (an RMWeb member) and some from MSE direct when they produced a batch of their own kits several years ago. I have not attempted to build any of them, I dont have the confidence or competence to produce the standard that I seek and am quite happy to sub contract the activity. 

 

Further progress at Ardlui, point rodding has been added and more ballasting completed. The station platform is being covered in a layer of Woodland Scenics iron ore which is the best gravel I have found so far. It does need a little toning down but overall it creates a fair impression of the real thing. 

 

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On 19/06/2021 at 16:24, young37215 said:

Ballasting underway and cable trunking being installed at Ardlui.

Rob,

 

Who is the supplier of your cable troughing? Looks quite good.

 

Ian

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11 hours ago, ISW said:

Rob,

 

Who is the supplier of your cable troughing? Looks quite good.

 

Ian

 

Bog standard Wills cable concrete trunking which is easy to lay and gets secured in place when the ballast is glued. I add trunking and point rodding because there are relatively few man made features at most of the stations. The big feature I want to add but have yet to find an acceptable solution are platform lights. The lights appear to be generic at most of the WHL stations and I hope to persuade one of the small manufacturers to do a custom run of 10 or so for me. Platform lights and trees will help create a sense of height at Ardlui which I hope will feel enclosed by the surrounding mountains and Loch Lomond by the time I am finished. 

 

The station platform has been planted and glued in place. There is still plenty of detailing required on the platform but with it installed, next I want to start cutting and gluing the polystyrene to create the surrounding mountainside. I also need to cut out a piece of baseboard at the front to create a lower level where the road and station entrance sit.

 

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26 minutes ago, young37215 said:

Bog standard Wills cable concrete trunking which is easy to lay and gets secured in place when the ballast is glued.

Rob,

 

Thanks for the info. I'd recently bought some cable troughing from Ten Commandments and Scale Model Scenery for testing & comparison purposes, so to have a third 'option' is nice to have.

 

Ian

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The running line at Ardlui is protected from the small yard by a catch point. This is an old point rather than the traditional catch point which I am attempting to replicate. I was nervous about taking a razor saw to the point but it all went rather easily and allowed the remaining trunking to be ballasted into place. I also added some signs and other detail to the platform. 

 

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Like many WHL stations, Ardlui sits on a shelf cut into the mountainside rising above Loch Lomond. Below the station is the A82 which provides access to the station via an underpass. I want to replicate a small part of this which means I need to cut out part of the flat baseboard and create a lower level for the road. I am not sure that I am happy with the depth of the lower level yet but as a first step I have cut out a piece of baseboard and created a lower level that sits about 40mm below the running line.

 

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An attempted running day was fraught with operating issues which rather spoilt things. 
 

The biggest problem was at the Fort William station throat where I recently ballasted the 750mm piece of track between the station and fiddle yard. Annoyingly I created a slope on the code 75 to code 100 transition rail which causes wheels to lift and short out on the point immediately after the transition rail. The only solution was to rip the track up and relay it. 


Despite the frustrations we still managed to get further through a day’s operations using the 1983 WTT.

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15 hours ago, young37215 said:

The biggest problem was at the Fort William station throat where I recently ballasted the 750mm piece of track between the station and fiddle yard. Annoyingly I created a slope on the code 75 to code 100 transition rail which causes wheels to lift and short out on the point immediately after the transition rail. The only solution was to rip the track up and relay it. 

Rob,

 

The problem I find with such 'vertical discrepancies' is that Kadee couplings can sometimes uncouple themselves. Really annoying, especially when it happens on a gradient. Gravity tends to win, and I need to stop both the locomotive and the opposite running portion of the rake in quick order.

 

Ian

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1 hour ago, ISW said:

Rob,

 

The problem I find with such 'vertical discrepancies' is that Kadee couplings can sometimes uncouple themselves. Really annoying, especially when it happens on a gradient. Gravity tends to win, and I need to stop both the locomotive and the opposite running portion of the rake in quick order.

 

Ian

I’ve found a similar issue. It’s very rare but occasionally when my train goes ‘off scene’ after climbing the gradient out of Mallaig I can lose the Observation saloon. This is due to the slight difference in the height of the NEM socket on the Saloon where the Kadee on the coach in front lifts out of the Kadee on the saloon. A little bit of fettling of the coupler on the saloon should fix this I hope. Failing that I will have to get rid of the NEM socket and mount the Kadee directly to the bogie or chassis. I absolutely love the Kadee couplings but inconsistent NEM heights are an issue. I must add though that this is the only vehicle Ive had issues with so far. 

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I recently acquired a second hand rake of Bachmann grain wagons in the weathered aluminium livery as an intended replacement for my old Lima grain wagon rake. Although the Lima wagons have done me proud since I respayed them over 30 years ago and re-wheeled them with Hornby replacements when I started using code 75 track about 5 years ago, the fact is the newer Bachmann model is visually superior. I was hoping to recover some of my outlay be selling the Lima wagons on Ebay.

 

Yesterday on their first outing I found that the Bachmann wagons all derailed on the 3rd radius reverse curve approaching Crianlarich. On investigation I found that the tension lock coupling is fixed in place and has very little range of movement which is why they de-rail. The fixed coupling is out of keeping with most modern wagon models being fixed in place with a screw and 2 lugs. I think if I remove the lugs the coupling should be able to pivot on the screw but whether this will resolve the derailment problem I dont know. The question is whether I am brave enough to start hacking my new wagons around in this manner. The issue is frustrating and irritating, the old Lima wagons dont have this issue although the couplings are rather large and until I find an acceptable solution with the Bachmann's I shall be keeping the Lima wagons.

 

Bachmann converted grain wagon

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Fixed tension lock coupling arrangement

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Bachmann and Lima side by side, the Lima wagon is too tall and less detailed. 

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Lima couplings are secured on a single point which has a small range of movement meaning the couplings can pivot  

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4 hours ago, young37215 said:

 

Bachmann and Lima side by side, the Lima wagon is too tall and less detailed. 

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Glad that you've posted this, Rob, as I was going to ask you how you were going about this upgrade project which you mentioned a couple of weeks ago on another thread.

 

Looking at the two makes of wagons side by side and studying photos taken on the WHL and in one or two wagon books then a possible solution which may solve your running issues and give a more accurrate model of the vehicles used on the WHL would be to mount the Bachmann bodies onto the Lima chassis, although this wouldn't help recover the finances.

 

The reason I say this is that in all of the photos that I've seen of the ex-grain wagons on the WHL they all have the Pedastal suspension units as opposed to the leaf spring type but also they all have the 8 ribbed body (Bachmann) instead of the 5 ribbed (Lima) type. I've read that they were coded PAF.

 

The Lima wagon as it is looks a good representation of the Grainflow liveried wagons which did find their way onto the WHL in the late '80s. The Bachmann one is a good model of a PAV.  What I haven't found out yet is when the suspension units were changed, I need to have a look at Paul Bartlett's site.

 

The reason that I am 'so' interested is that I have a rake of the Peco N gauge wagons which are similar to the Bachmann version and have been looking for a source of suitable replacement  Pedastal suspension chassis, I can then use the old leaf spring chassis for some scratchbuilt PRAs or maybe have a crack at the PAB ex-limestone hoppers that were also used on the Alumina traffic, if you could find a 3D printed body in 00 this may be an option for you ? However I will be more than happy if someone can prove me wrong and show the leaf spring versions of the PAFs on the WHL as it will save me some work ! :mocking_mini:

 

Regards,

Ian.

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4 hours ago, young37215 said:

Yesterday on their first outing I found that the Bachmann wagons all derailed on the 3rd radius reverse curve approaching Crianlarich. On investigation I found that the tension lock coupling is fixed in place and has very little range of movement which is why they de-rail. The fixed coupling is out of keeping with most modern wagon models being fixed in place with a screw and 2 lugs. I think if I remove the lugs the coupling should be able to pivot on the screw but whether this will resolve the derailment problem I dont know. The question is whether I am brave enough to start hacking my new wagons around in this manner. The issue is frustrating and irritating, the old Lima wagons dont have this issue although the couplings are rather large and until I find an acceptable solution with the Bachmann's I shall be keeping the Lima wagons.

 

Fixed tension lock coupling arrangement

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Rob,

 

You may be able to get away with simply enlarging the 2 side holes in the tension lock, thus allowing it to pivot a bit but limited by the lugs. Such a change would be just about reversible. At least it does not change the main body of the wagon.

 

Ian

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