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

[young37215]

There cannot be much positive about the coronavirus situation but it does mean lots of time for modelling. I finished off a days running of the WTT yesterday along with making progress with 2 additional loops in the main fiddle yard. I have finally used the last of my 30 year old Peco points on WHL4, it's amazing that they have lasted so well with only a few having failed.

 

The Oban area of the fiddle yard, the 2 loops to the right are new.

97201 and tribometer train occupies one of the new loops, the other requires a left hand point to complete it.

37017 arrives at Crianlarich with a Glasgow bound train from Oban

 

 

 

[young37215]

Yesterday morning was a fine one and for once I managed to persuade my elderly greyhound to walk more than a couple of hundered meters. It was a pleasant change to get some fresh air and enjoy a good walk before the rain set in again. After this I spent a few hours adding droppers, motorising points and general tidying up. All tedious and time consuming essential work to ensure WHL4 runs the best that I can make it. 

 

A few more pictures from the previous days running.

 

37178 departs Crianlarich with 1245 Mallaig to Glasgow

37022 arrives Crianlarich with a Sighthill to Oban freight

27041 passes 37022 at Crianlarich with the return Oban to Sighthill

37033 awaits departure from Crianlarich with the 1636 Glasgow to Mallaig

 37033 departs Crianlarich

 

[young37215]

Yesterday was wet all day, Gracie the greyhound showed no interest in walking. To be fair, she has never shown any interest in walking in the rain and will generally only go outside for bathroom visits. The rest of the day she alternates between eating and sleeping. This all meant that I had time to get on with some of the infrastructure work on WHL4. I swapped the track from code 100 to code 75 in what I have started calling the Glenfinnan loop because I have more code 75 spare than I do my old code 100 and I wanted 1 of the 2 points for the main fiddle yard which is all old code 100. This course of action causes me to motorise the code 75 electrofrogs and I require the servo that changes the points to additionally drive a microswitch for polarity changes. I also finished off the new loops in the main fiddle yard.

 

Having lifted track I did not to run any trains, the following are from the end of the previous days operations.

 

 

37039 with approaches Crianlarich with 7D13, 1520 Corpach to Mossend

 

37012 crosses the viaduct and arrives at Crianlarich with the up sleeper

 

[Dougjuk]

Saw Rob today, he was hard at it getting the Glenfinnan loop functional while a started a little driving.  I did bring with me a Sutton Class 24 which was sent out from Oban on a test train before returning later in the day.

 

I also got a couple of the timetabled trains moving before we called it a day.  Rob needed to do some more work on the loop to get it fully functional.

 

Edited March 19, 2020 by Dougjuk

[BoD]

On 14/03/2020 at 08:02, young37215 said:

 

 

I have used a combination of sources:

 

1. WTT’s which include the booked number of coaches the virus.

 

 

Sorry to be a pain, but where did you source the WTTs if you don’t mind me asking?

[Scottish Modeller]

6 minutes ago, BoD said:

 

Sorry to be a pain, but where did you source the WTTs if you don’t mind me asking?

Hi BoD,

 

I managed to get some by keeping an eBay search going.

 

I also asked some of the 2nd hand book sellers to keep me in mind if any came to them.

 

I started to scan them and had them available through my Scottish Modellers Yahoo Group.

 

When that closed up I didn't make a decision about whether I would put them online again or not.

 

As  a result I stopped scanning them and didn't increase the number of pages I previously had available.

 

Thanks

Phil H

[BoD]

Thanks for that  Phil.  Looks like I’m late to the party. I’ll keep an eye out on eBay.

If they ever do appear again I would be really grateful if you would give me a  ‘heads up’

 

Sorry for hijacking the thread a wee bit.

[young37215]

12 hours ago, BoD said:

 

Sorry to be a pain, but where did you source the WTTs if you don’t mind me asking?

 

As with Phil, mostly through Ebay where they appear from time to time. I did find a couple at Model Rail Scotland but that was over 10 years ago. I now have copies covering the period from May 1980 to May 1987.

 

As Doug states above, an over running engineers possession mean that there was limited activity yesterday. The following show recently renumbered 37081 on its journey through Crianlarich with an Oban bound train. This loco's time as 37081 will be short because I have acquired a loco with the cantrail divider bars which I will renumber to 081. What this becomes I have yet to decide. If anyone is concerned about the apparent SPAD in picture 4, I hope they will be reassured to know that it was authorised by the signalman because of a problem with the signal.

 

[Legend]

Just captures atmosphere perfectly . Great thread

[young37215]

The last 2 days has seen Gracie walk much further than usual with one of her friends. She bounces around chasing her pals tennis ball before returning home exhausted. Today having eaten her breakfast she has retired to her bed and looks like having a duvet day which should mean I get longer modelling time. 

 

I managed to get some running in yesterday although most of my modelling day was spent pondering the upper level scenic section. I have decided that this will work best if I reduce the width of the baseboards so today I shall be cutting them in half, from 610mm wide to 305mm. This will ease the gradient of the embankment alongside Arrochar and on the upper level will enable me to model a typical WHL styled shelf/ledge and cutting on the side of a mountain of about 5m in length. On reflection, I probably should complete the upper sections before I do any more on the lower level because I will be reaching over the lower level to work. 

 

37108 brings the first southbound freight of the day, the 0707 Mallaig Junction to Sighthill, into Crianlarich  

 

 

37178 arrives and departs Crianlarich with the 0837 Glasgow to Mallaig where it passes 37108

 

 

[Dougjuk]

Looking forward to seeing the progress.

 

Doug

[young37215]

A couple of days spent hacking away at baseboards has resulted in progress although my poor old woodwork teacher would be having a fit if he had seen me in action! An engineers block means no trains have been running because I lifted several metres of track to complete the changes. These are largely completed and track has been relaid for testing. Unlike the other scenic areas, this will be a mythical part of the WHL because trains departing Fort William Yard will run through this area whether heading to Glasgow or Mallaig. I have in mind the line running along the lower edge of a mountaneous range with a summit at the mid point of the section, something like the County March summit just north of Tyndrum. I need some techincal assistance with the building the scenery in this section and will be consulting with fellow WHL conspirator 'Meanach' for guidance. 

 

The starting point, baseboards on the upper section were too wide for my liking.

I cut the baseboard in half and moved Arrochar 50mm closer to the wall; big improvement

Seen from the other end, this will improve the embankment profile to the left of Arrochar as viewed which was previously too steep

Off cuts of Celotex to be shaped hopefully into a mountainside 

Test running, 37192 heads south from Mallaig Junction Yard initially climbing towards the summit

 

37192 brests the summit

and begins the descent

 

[Dougjuk]

Hi Rob,

 

Well thats certainly fits the description of our discussion, very impressed.  I think the will give some fantastic opportunities for video and still photography once scenery is in place.  I think Ian would be very interested in the particular area, also Ardlui.

 

Not done anything mine, been spending time outside gardening just to give my head a break.

 

Will speak later in week.

 

Take care.

 

Doug

[young37215]

For the first time in 6 months the weather this morning looked great for golf.... more modelling it is then. Seriously though, I am fully onside with the Governments actions and complied with them today as I only left the house to take Gracie out for a walk.  

 

Following the work on the upper section, I reconnected the track and decided that I would run some trains to continue testing that the WTT works in practice. No nasty surprises occurred, infact everything ran very smoothly. 

 

37011 had charge of the Blyth to Fort William bulk alumina train again today and is seen at various stages of its journey through Crianlarich. 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 24, 2020 by young37215

[young37215]

37017 is the odd class 37 out on WHL4 being vacum braked and boiler fitted whereas all of the other 37's are dual braked and boiler fitted. Consequently 017 spent much of its time on the WHL working Oban services because the Fort William diagrams mostly included an element of freight work which was mostly air braked.

 

A Loksound V5 chip with Coastal sounds and a Zimo double dumbo speaker have been fitted. A little more work to finish 017 off is required with a replacement trademark headlight where the old one has failed and swapping the headcode boxes around with some of my spares so that the lights are more visible. In its short while on WHL4 and true to real life 017 has been a regular Oban performer. Pictures show 017 arriving at Crianlarich with the midday Oban to Glasgow train.

 

 

 

 

[young37215]

During my early 1980's timescale, freight trains ran in the daytime with 3 mandatory trains in each direction between Fort William and Glasgow plus a single Glasgow to Oban and return working. Until 1984 I believe that the Alcan hoppers were actually conveyed as part the Glasgow to Fort William trains with the block train only appearing as its own working from the May 1984 WTT. I exercise Rule 1 and operate the hoppers as a seperate train no matter which years timetable I am running.

 

Seen below at Crianlarich are 37108 on 1315 Sighthill to Fort WIlliam and 37039 on 1415 SIghthill to Corpach workings. Annoyingly 37108's headcode light works only at the other end whilst the rear lights work at both ends! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 26, 2020 by young37215

[young37215]

All running smoothly on WHL4 at present, my confidence to start securing track and motorising the remaining points is growing. The trouble is that I am enjoying operating the layout too much at the moment and the thought of disruption does not appeal. As a compromise I have started some minor work on several locos where I intend renumbering and other minor detailing tweaks. 

 

37014 heads for Glasgow with 7D12, 1324 Mallaig Junction Yard to Sighthill. 

 

 

 

 

 

[young37215]

I try and model the locos on WHL4 as close to prototypical as I can and have been tweaking a few of the fleet in recent days to get them closer to what I seek. I recently acquired 37033 from a fellow RMwebber in mid 1980’s BR blue. To back date the loco a couple of years to my early 80’s era I removed the headlight as this was not fitted until July 1984. I am considering changing the black painted headcode boxes to match the photo below because these were not painted black until 1985. 

 

 

I did a little research on 37033 learning that it moved to Scotland in January 1981 with dual brakes but otherwise in as built condition. A classified repair in 1982 saw the buffer beam valances removed and plated headcode boxes installed. Pictures from Flickr and workings shown on the Class 37 Loco Group’s website indicate that she was a regular, hard working performer on the WHL during the steam heat era. Her boiler was isolated in 1986 and she moved to Inverness in February 1987 after 6 years hard graft.

 

As acquired, 37033 crosses the Glenbruar Viaduct with a Mallaig bound train

Headlight removed, the holes have been filled and painted but need a little more work before a light weathering to blend in

Hole is now well covered but the weathering is a too heavy and needs reducing. A few minutes with thinners on a cotton bud should create a more sympathetic covering

 

Much the same for the opposite end, I am sure this can be cleaned up. Bufferbean details need adding but otherwise for my purposes, 37033 is largely complete

 

 

[young37215]

I have been busy preparing my Megapoints network for its final increase in size which will see it controlling nearly 90 servos once they are all connected. A few logistical issues have prevented me from completing the network because I am waiting on deliveries of servos from HobbyKing and additional wire from Megapoints and Brimal. I also need to find a new supplier of metal servo brackets.

 

Despite these outstanding items I am 75% done with creating and installing my second control panel. This is a copy of the existing panel which was built 2 years ago and has served me well. The second panel will sit next to the original controlling the upper level. The last 2 servo controllers have been connected to the network and tested. All of my remaining servos will be connected to these over the next few days which will see the pointwork at Mallaig Junction Yard and Fort William station automated. Mallaig and most of the semaphores await the outstanding items before they can be completed.

 

Track diagrams prepared and proved before scribing onto the plywood base

Fort William station track diagram

Control panel rear with the usual mass of wires, albeit the panel is only 50% wired at the time of the photo.

Control panel 2 installed

Fort William station track diagram scribed onto the plywood. In normal light the diagram is much clearer than the photo suggests. The LEDS to the right are waiting for wire and are not yet connected hence are not illuminated.

 

 

[Dougjuk]

Looking good for a full timetable run once we are free to meet up again.

 

Doug

[Marcus-Jay]

13 hours ago, young37215 said:

I also need to find a new supplier of metal servo brackets.

 

Might have missed where you were getting them from... .But I can not reccomend highly enough David's Dingo mounts:

http://www.dingoservo.co.uk/

The webpage (as of 08:20 4-4-20) states he is still open. I belive he posts parcels as part of his daily excercise.

[young37215]

37081 was an early boilered arrival to Eastfield in March 1979. She was one of the 5 Loch named locos which all had their nameplates unveiled at Glasgow Queen Street on 6th October 1981. The Class 37 loco group workings history shows that she received regular WHL employment throughout the steam heat era although she enjoyed a few weeks holiday working on the Far North line in September 1984. From my Flickr review, the trademark Eastfield white stripe was applied June/July 1983 and a headlight was fitted soon after. In early April 1984 large logo livery was applied. 37081 was transferred to Cardiff May 1986 and entered Crewe works in late May for major overhaul and conversion to 37/7. 

 

I have chosen to model 37081 as a named loco in original BR blue as carried for the period October 1981 and June 1983 seen below at Fort William on 9th June 1983

 

 

 

37081 V2 on WHL4 is a hybrid of 37049 nose end, 37003 bodyshell and 37401 chassis renumbered using Railtech transfers and Fox brass nameplates added. I intend leaving her in pristine condition with just a light amount of weathering around the chassis. 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 4, 2020 by young37215

[young37215]

37081 arrives at Crianlarich on its return from Oban with a Glasgow bound service.

 

 

[BoD]

Continues to impress.

 

Being able to actually run something can be fatal to doing some modelling.

[young37215]

3 hours ago, BoD said:

Being able to actually run something can be fatal to doing some modelling.

 

So true, I need to rip up some track so that it stops me running and allows me to get on with other work. You would think that with the current lockdown I would be powering ahead with construction but that is definitely not the case. So long as my outstanding electrical orders arrive in the next few days, I can motorise most of the remaining points and make the second control panel fully functional which will serve as a natural point to move on to other tasks such as painting track and finishing stations. There is no doubt in my mind that I need to get my head around the workload otherwise I am unlikely to move forward as I want. 

Edited April 5, 2020 by young37215