Kyle of Lochalsh

[Modernist]

Do your two loco's have different manufactures chips in? I ask as I have this problem with one of my loco's yet others work fine - It almost appears to me that the signal is to strong at these points. The other possibility is dirty wheels.

 

Thanks Kris. Both locos have the bachman decoders installed. One thing I did notice, the decoder doesn't quite fit all the way into the decoder socket on the Black 5. I tried the row above, in which they fit better, no part of the pin left showing, but there's no signal there, so the lower row of sockets must be the correct ones(?)

 

The wheels look pretty clean, but I'm give them a brush. The track is more likely to be the problem but then why does the 24 run smoothly?

 

cheers

Darren

[McRuss]

Hello Darren,

 

I had a similar problem with my Black Five.

Look at the pickups. At my loco the tender pickkups weren't touching the tender wheels, so I bend them a littel towards the wheels.

On the loco it was the same, I had to bend them a little. Now my Black Five runs reliable.

 

Markus

[Modernist]

Hello Darren,

 

I had a similar problem with my Black Five.

Look at the pickups. At my loco the tender pickkups weren't touching the tender wheels, so I bend them a littel towards the wheels.

On the loco it was the same, I had to bend them a little. Now my Black Five runs reliable.

 

Markus

 

Nice one Markus! That does, indeed, seem to be the problem. I've all but eradicated it by pushing the pick-ups onto the wheel. It still stalls occasionally. Need to make the connection better, but they're delicate things!

 

Now can you do anything about my awful bloody soldering?!

[McRuss]

Darren,

 

sorry but I can't do anything about your soldering. At my Black Five on the first runs the loco wheels stalled, on track joints. But these got better after some running in of the loco.

 

Markus

[Scottish Modeller]

is that the black 5 stutters at every track join, soldering join and any other place it fancies. Just better at pointing out the deficiencies in the track or faulty?

Cheers

Darren, from a gloomy Kyle

Hi Darren,

 

This sounds similar to a problem I encountered with a Voyager that was jerky over any joint/point/trackfeed.

 

In the end it was traced to a misaligned pin/socket not noticed when the blanking plug was in and OK of DC. It was only when the decoder was plugged in that the running was terrible. Each joint of bump in the track caused an intermittent contact and loss of signal to the decoder which, in turn, caused it to be a jerky runner.

 

Eventually had to get the retailer to replace the Voyager. New Voyager one was fine - same decoder, same track.

 

Hope this helps!

 

Thanks

[Modernist]

Thanks, but Markus hit the nail on the head. It was a fault with the pick-ups. After adjusting them slightly I ran the loco back and forth on my track for a good twenty minutes yesterday and it stalled only a few times. Whenever it did, a poke on the pick-up got it moving again.

 

cheers

Darren

[Modernist]

Having laid track on one side of the station platform I've started work on the harbour area, mainly to take my mind off soldering for a bit!

 

Below are a couple of pics of the initial work. I used artist's acrylic for the water. The blue needs toning down a bit. I might use some artists acrylic glazing liquid I already have. Probably mixed with a bit of brown. Once I get the tone I like I think I'm going to apply layers of varnish for the water effect. Anyone recommend suitable varnish?

 

 

On the second pic you can see the inset track area I've been working on too. I used balsa for the 'concrete' initially primed with grey primer. It needs further painting. The track is just code 55 stripped of its sleepers. Not sure if this is the received way to create inset track but one of the fun parts of this is finding solutions as you go along! The locos did stutter initially over this area, but after removing balsa from the running track, cleaning and most importantly getting the gap between tracks correct all the way along, I got it working okay.

 

You can probably also see some of my awful soldering work. Try to ignore that bit

 

The harbour wall needs further weathering too. This is all intial work. I have some harbour bollards ready to install. They're from langleys. I primed them with Games Workshop Chaos Black, then painted with Games Workshop gun metal before applying a few coats of MIG rust wash. I just bought some MIG stuff for the first time - washes and powders. Here are the bollards

 

 

Another development is on paper, or rather my head, as the plan is very roughly drawn as yet. It is to extend the layout into an L shape. So instead of having a 2 feet fiffleyard at one end the scenic track will now meander around slightly, under the bridge further along (more protoypical) with the fiddleyard being on the bit sticking out. I'll post a pic of the layout once I've drawn it.

 

cheers

Darren

[Kris]

That has come on very nicely Darren. I think that the harbour wall looks fantastic, but the water looks overly patchy with the variation in colour being too great for the area.

Where did you get the boats from? They look rather nice.

 

 

 

 

Edit - typo corrected.

[Modernist]

Thanks Kris. The water looks quite a lot different already after one glazing I've just completed. The initial colours were just that. Something to work with/ build on.

 

One of the boats was from Langleys. Can't remember where I got the other from. Will see if I still have packaging.

[sixteen 12by 10s]

Hi

used gloss media on the water on Glenuig, when I was happy with the colours, I then coated it with layer after layer of artist acrylic gloss varnish.

The bollards, I used bits purchased from here http://www.cornwallm...p_fittings.html

I also used a few other fittings from this retailer for dockside junk, but watch the scale, the fitting manufacturers tend to give sizes rather then scale ratios.

Gary

[Kris]

Thanks for looking up the boats.

[Ben Alder]

Looking good- nice and spacious compared to what I had to cram in in OO. I used acrylic gloss medium as a surface on my water- you can get an element of 3-D with this compared to varnish.

Richard

[Modernist]

This is the water after a couple of glazes - one brown, one blue. Good thing about glazing for this, it creates depth. Still not the right tone. Maybe too dark blue? I suppose you have to decide whether to model the water as it is, without the light that it reflects or lighten it to suggest reflected light. Or does the varnish do that anyway? Never modelled water before so uncertain.

 

 

cheers

Darren

[shortliner]

Don't forget that water reflects the color of the sky - http://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/kyleoflochalsh/kyleoflochalsh/index.html

but with the amount of wet that falls it is often more grey than blue, see the full-size picture here.

http://images.google...6KMr_4wbSlvzOBQ

[Modernist]

Don't forget that water reflects the color of the sky - http://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/kyleoflochalsh/kyleoflochalsh/index.html

but with the amount of wet that falls it is often more grey than blue, see the full-size picture here.

 

That's what I was getting at above. When modelling water do you try to recreate its properties by creating depth then using something reflective on top to refelct the light, like varnish? Or do you actually paint the reflection?

[bcnPete]

Good progress - nice to see Kyle modelled full width - I could fit my boxfile attempt about 8 times in your space.....in fact, your water area is larger than my layout was

 

Talking of water, remember Chris Nevard's way is to apply several coats of PVA over a painted surface Have a look here at Cement Quay and Combwich where it works very well....

[Kris]

With water put something on to cause the reflection rather than trying to paint a reflection. As you say the water is a little to dark blue in colour. I thing that adding some grey to it might work. I've only ever seen water that blue when the sky has been cloudless on summers day and in deep water. The shallower it gets the more aquamarine it becomes. I don't know how deep the water is by the jetty. Finding this out might help you to decide how dark to make the water.

[Mike-Greg]

dont wish to detract from your layout

but what year do you set this in

I ask this because I am regulaly on the quay there with my ship loading logs for export

have been doing this since 1990

and it looks nothing like you have depicted there

 

rgds

Mike

[Modernist]

dont wish to detract from your layout

but what year do you set this in

I ask this because I am regulaly on the quay there with my ship loading logs for export

have been doing this since 1990

and it looks nothing like you have depicted there

 

rgds

Mike

 

Give me a chance, it's barely started! It's set in the early 60s. Sorry if it's looking unrealistic so far. Not sure how you can compare it as yet though.

 

I've give the water another glaze. Will continue with it in daylight tomorrow.

 

Darren

[Mike-Greg]

Its not to say your layout is not good

and what you have done is ok

 

Its just that the station platform doesnt extend that far down the quay

the bottom end is used by the navy (divers training school )

and the west side of the quay has no track work

it were we moor to load the logs

and normaly you will find 6000/7000 cubic meters of logs stacked there

 

 

but having said that this is from 1990 onwards

I have no idear what it was like in the 60s

is why I aske what year

 

sorry if I was maybe a little untactful

no disrespect to you or your work was intended

 

Mike

[Modernist]

Thanks for the details Mike. I was aware that the platform was a little further down the quay than in reality, but didn't know it would be that noticeable.I'll have another look at that. Being n gauge, and the way my layout is, there's probably no need for me to get this wrong.

 

From pictures Ive seen, I'm pretty sure there was still track along side of the harbour wall in the early 60s. There was still the cattle dock too, further down the line just past the bridge, which I forgot to mention earlier I now intend to include.

 

I'll post a pic of the new layout plan this weekend. Don't want to get too far into the layout if I have things wrong!

 

cheers

Darren

[Ben Alder]

 

 

From pictures Ive seen, I'm pretty sure there was still track along side of the harbour wall in the early 60s. There was still the cattle dock too, further down the line just past the bridge, which I forgot to mention earlier I now intend to include.

 

I'll post a pic of the new layout plan this weekend. Don't want to get too far into the layout if I have things wrong!

 

cheers

Darren

 

The track layout was certainly intact at the station until well into the diesel era, and there are plenty pictures of van traffic using the quayside sidings.But if you are thinking about altering any track, why not incorporate the track that ran along the west(end) of the pier? there is a view of the inset track about halfway down on the Railscot site of Kyle of Lochalsh, and there was a photo of the wagon turntable on another Kyle topic recently. It's something I left off my layout, and have regretted it since.

Richard

[Russ (mines a pint)]

-track layout was altered in approx the late 80's, think it was 87 but wouldnt like to be held to it! - rationalised when the sprinter trains came as less need for running round, tho think there was always one runround for excursion trains.

 

I actually think it looks OK for the old track layout- possibly a bit more quay beyond end of platform (there was originally a track or possibly two crossways with wagon turntables) It depends just how accurate you want it to be, looks like you have room to add the crossways track so even if the pier was longer in reality I think you could get away with it. Dont be dis-heartened anyway without a site survey or tape measure you are bound to get some compromises if you are happy with it thats all that matters!

 

Can recommend the Railscot site already mentioned which carries a trackplan- also there are lots of pics of the old layout on various archive sites, try googling 'Ernies Scottish Archive' lots of pics!

[Modernist]

Thanks Richard and Russ. The turntable(s) would be an interesting addition and presumably still valid for 1962/3. As I understand it there were two connected by track running the width of the quay. They would just about fit into what I have, once I've reduced the platform length. Something to consider. I could incorporate it into my new layout plan.

 

I'll check those links out Russ! I have been on the railscot site before. Good stuff.

 

Here is a a pic of the water as it is right now after more glazing. Nearly there I think, but maybe needs subduing slightly.

 

 

cheers

Darren

[Kris]

That water looks so much better now, the slight variation in the colour works.