Waverley West, Princes St Gardens and Haymarket MPD

[thompclass37]

love the night time shots, very atmospheric

 

[Legend]

Blown away as always .  Loved the video and these night time shots superb 

[stewartingram]

I'm normally opposed to lighting on layouts, never realistic. It seems to be forgotten that a) normal model lighting is usually far too bright; b) lights are usually not on in daytime; c) lights exist away from the trains and platforms (eg everywhere!).

Then I saw these - excellent, properly done!

 

Stewart

[Clagmeister]

Still looking as fantastic as ever.  First time I've checked in for a long time, thought there may have been an embryonic Oban to go with WW by now?

[SvenL]

Hello . I am currently looking for a possible layout of Haymarket. Set about 1950.

Does anyone know where I can get photographs around the area?

I have found very good photos of the station itself but not much on other buildings in the background .

 

Sven

[luckymucklebackit]

1 hour ago, SvenL said:

Hello . I am currently looking for a possible layout of Haymarket. Set about 1950.

Does anyone know where I can get photographs around the area?

I have found very good photos of the station itself but not much on other buildings in the background .

 

Sven

 

Have you tried the Canmore Database https://canmore.org.uk/

 

Jim

[SvenL]

wow that site is a treasure trove. It will take me a long time to sift through but wow.

 

Thank you Jim

[Waverley West]

Hi folks,

 

Just thought I'd post a few pics and give a pitstop update to my progress, as despite (because of?) my absence from RMWeb, I've actually been pretty busy on the modelling front when time allows. 

 

The big project at the moment is a fourth push-pull rake, this time of ScotRail-liveried Mk 2d's. With no prospect of a new RTR release on the horizon, I've been thinking about how I can improve my rake of resprayed Airfix Mk 2d's. These are basically a sound coach, let down mostly by the shape of the windows and the glazing. The lack of sufficient tumblehome is another issue, but I didn't tackle this when I resprayed them some years ago, so I'm just going to let that lie. I decided to bring my Mk 2d's up to the level of my HSTs and other Mk 3s by fitting them with Shawplan's Extreme Etches window frames, Lazerglaze glazing and interior lighting. They already have detailed and painted interiors, although the addition of a few newspapers dotted around will improve them further. Work is now well advanced and I hope to post some pics of the finished rake soon.

 

In other news, I've been working on some details for the station throat, including some power cables which are attached to the wall by the entrance to The Mound Tunnels, along with various other details such as wheelbarrows and wall-mounted relay boxes and a curious-looking tap alongside Platform 11/12. More on those later.

 

Various minor permanent way works have also been going on with the aim of eliminating derailments on the layout and these have generally been pretty successful, making derailments much less frequent and operating sessions a lot more fun. The big task will be to do the same to my fiddle yards, where derailments are still far too frequent.

 

I also have a major track possession planned for the Christmas holidays, when the Princes St Station will be refreshed in the same way the station throat was during Lockdown 1. The trackside walls will be repainted/reclad, the existing trees replaced and the track reballasted with grey/brown ballast for that mid- to late-1980s look. I need to look into lowering the footbridges as well, as they are currently too high.

 

Well, that's what I've been up to, so without further ado, here are some piccies taken during some recent operating sessions...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hope to be back soon with some more developments.

 

Stay safe one and all,

Dave

Edited November 25, 2020 by Waverley West

[St Enodoc]

4 minutes ago, Waverley West said:

Hi folks,

 

Just thought I'd post a few pics and give a pitstop update to my progress, as despite my absence (because of?) from RMWeb, I've actually been pretty busy on the modelling front when time allows. 

 

The big project at the moment is a fourth push-pull rake, this time of ScotRail-liveried Mk 2d's. With no prospect of a new RTR release on the horizon, I've been thinking about how I can improve my rake of resprayed Airfix Mk 2d's. These are basically a sound coach, let down mostly by the shape of the windows and the glazing. The lack of sufficient tumblehome is another issue, but I didn't tackle this when I resprayed them some years ago, so I'm just going to let that lie. I decided to bring my Mk 2d's up to the level of my HSTs by fitting them with Shawplan's Extreme Etches window frames, Lazerglaze glazing and interior lighting. They already have detailed and painted interiors, although the addition of a few newspapers dotted around will improve them further. Work is now well advanced and I hope to post some pics of the finished rake soon.

 

In other news, I've been working on some details for the station throat, including some power cables which are fitted to the wall by entrance to The Mound tunnels, along with various other details such as wheelbarrows and wall-mounted relay boxes and a curious-looking tap alongside Platform 11/12. More on those later.

 

Various minor permanent way works have also been going on with the aim of eliminating derailments on the layout and these have generally been pretty successful, making derailments much less frequent and operating sessions a lot more fun. The big task will be to do the same to my fiddle yards, where derailments are still far too frequent.

 

I also have a major track possession planned for the Christmas holidays, when the Princes St Station will be refreshed in the same way the station throat was during Lockdown 1. The trackside walls will be repainted/reclad, the existing trees will be replaced, the track will be reballasted with grey/brown ballast (as per the 1980s). I need to look into lowering the footbridges as well, as they are currently too high.

 

Well, that's what I've been up to, so without further ado, here are some piccies taken during some recent operating sessions...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hope to be back soon with some more developments.

 

Stay safe one and all,

Dave

I do like the cropped night shot with the lady holding on to her hat - obviously Edinburgh born and bred!

[LongRail]

Dave with regards to eth issue of derailments out of interest which code of track are you using.

Great photos again by the way

[Waverley West]

2 hours ago, LongRail said:

Dave with regards to eth issue of derailments out of interest which code of track are you using.

Great photos again by the way

 

Thanks Gary.

 

Code 70 mainly, although I have used code 100 on some short off-scene sections where curves are tight (down to 2nd radius). The fiddle yards are generally code 70 (although again with some code 100 on tight curves). I sometimes wonder whether code 100 points in particular would have been better there.

 

Dave

[Waverley West]

21 hours ago, LongRail said:

Dave with regards to eth issue of derailments out of interest which code of track are you using.

Great photos again by the way

 

Hi Gary,

 

Re. derailments, the majority of derailments on WW can generally be put down to one of two causes:

 

1. Slight misalignment of rails across board joins, especially on curves. I've found that these vary with temperature as the rails contract and expand, being fine on some days and nothing but trouble on others. I've recently been working to eliminate the troublemakers by cutting the rails short on either side of the joint and inserting a short length of rail across the join with a rail joiner on each end. Previously, the rails on either side terminated at the board join, where they were soldered to a screw. I've found that the soldered joints can sometimes break due to contraction and expansion. My Bachmann 47s in particular couldn't cope with any ridges at joins and these have had their centre axles modified so that there is some play on the axle, although this is limited as the bogies on these locos are all-wheel drive, unlike the old Heljan design which could cope with far more in the way of track misalignments.

 

2. Close coupling mechanisms on Heljan wagons and Hornby diesels (the bane of my modelling life), especially in the case of longer rakes when the mechanism won't return to centre after a curve. Reverse curves are the worst. My rake of Heljan BOC tankers, Heljan Cargowaggon bogie wagons and Hornby diesels (50s, 56s and 31s) are the worst offenders and all have had their CCMs extensively modified to get them to work better. Interestingly, the CCMs on my new Bachmann Mk 2f's work faultlessly in both push and pull mode.

 

I do expect a lot from my track and stock, as I run up to 6/7/8-coach rakes with touching or near-touching corridor connections in both pull and push mode (push-pull sets and HSTs), not to mention reasonably long rakes of mixed bogie and 2-axle wagons, through what is a reasonably complicated track layout including curves of down to 2nd radius in places. Derailments on the layout itself are now thankfully much less common, making operating sessions much more fun.

 

I now need to turn my attention to the fiddle yards. Here, I think the causes of derailments are a little different, as the track just runs across the baseboard joins. Unevenness at board joins is one issue I need to look at here, causing vertical rather than horizontal misalignment. I must confess to trying to squeeze in too many fiddle yard roads too, along with reversing loops in each fiddle yard. There's plenty to think about there, but for now, I'm just enjoying some reasonably derailment-free running sessions on the layout itself.

 

Cheers,

Dave

 

 

Edited November 26, 2020 by Waverley West

[LongRail]

Dave that’s an interning explanation I suppose I think of the layout as a permanent fixed home layout but I also seem to recall it has been moved into its current location or is my memory playing up?

was going to suggest the short length of rail across the joints as I was reading, but then you said you had done this. 
 

Do you get much temperature range ? I wonder how well insulated the roof is?

[45156]

Dave - would your PLEASE stop posting images of Waverley as it was, and get back to posting images of your models

 

Regards

Stewart

 

ps - we never did get round to a visit, but one of these days.

[Waverley West]

3 hours ago, LongRail said:

Dave that’s an interning explanation I suppose I think of the layout as a permanent fixed home layout but I also seem to recall it has been moved into its current location or is my memory playing up?

was going to suggest the short length of rail across the joints as I was reading, but then you said you had done this. 
 

Do you get much temperature range ? I wonder how well insulated the roof is?

 

It was moved around 9 years ago when we last moved house. My idea was to rebuild it so that it could be moved again at any time, which I did, with a reasonable amount of success too. Nine years on and it doesn't look like we'll be moving again any time soon, so the incentive to keep the layout portable is diminishing. The solution of using short lengths of rail instead of abutting rails either side of the join retains the portability aspect though, so it's the best of both worlds. The method is also quick and has so far been pretty successful too. 

 

As regards temperature fluctuations, the layout is kept in a room above the garage which has been pretty well-insulated on both the walls and the ceiling, and it's had central heating installed, so the layout doesn't experience extreme temperatures. It does still fluctuate though and it can get pretty hot up there in those long, drawn-out baking Cumbrian summers we get here every year.    Seriously though, it can get hot in the layout room if I forget to open the veluxes on a hot summer's day. In the winter, it gets as cold as any other part of the house when the heating is not on.

 

So the temperature fluctuations are relatively limited but they do seem to be enough to affect the rail joints at baseboards sometimes. It's the only explanation I can come up with as to why the layout runs beautifully on some days and rubbish the next. Recently though I've been trying to do something about this and the early signs are promising, with a steady reduction in derailments on the layout.

[Waverley West]

54 minutes ago, 45156 said:

 

 

ps - we never did get round to a visit, but one of these days.

 

Absolutely, Stewart, absolutely! 

[Waverley West]

On 15/10/2020 at 21:28, Clagmeister said:

Still looking as fantastic as ever.  First time I've checked in for a long time, thought there may have been an embryonic Oban to go with WW by now?

 

Cheers Mike. Nice to hear from you again. There's still far too much I want to do with WW and I'm still enjoying the layout far too much. It's difficult finding the time for WW at the moment, let alone another layout! 

 

Dave

[Waverley West]

Hi folks,

 

Just a quick couple of phone shots to show some of the details I've been adding to the station throat recently. Various relay boxes, a wheelbarrow, a couple of point clamp boxes (the blue boxes) and what I presume are power cables of some sort attached to the wall next to the tunnel entrance. A couple of PW workers deep in discussion as well to add a bit of life.

 

The brick hut will be repainted at some point and there are plenty more details to add as and when I get round to it.

 

 

 

The ScotRail Mk 2d push-pull rake is now nearing completion too, with just corridor connectors to fit, but that will need a bit of experimentation to determine the best way of doing it.

 

More to follow soon I hope.

 

Cheers

Dave

[lambiedg]

Dave

 

This shot appeared on the RailScot site today.

 

it purports to be from 1981 but I’m sure it’s your layout!

 

Edited December 13, 2020 by lambiedg

[Waverley West]

Hi folks,

 

Well, things are a bit hectic here chez WW right now (as usual), but I just wanted to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. At least 2021 can't be any worse than 2020, can it?! A big thank you to everyone for dropping by this thread over the year. It's your input and feedback which makes it all worthwhile.

 

I hope Santa brings you all the trains you've asked for and that you can make the most of whatever it is that we are, or aren't, allowed to do over the festive period.

 

With the absence of a visit by the in-laws this year, I'm hoping for a bit of extra quality layout time this year over the next week or so. I'm hoping to make a start on the refresh of the Princes Street Gardens section. That's the big job ahead of me right now. Work on the fitting of lights to WW's coaching stock is also ongoing, and I have a Coal Sector 31 ready for sound-fitting on my workbench which will be allocated to the nuclear flask train. This will also free up a Coal Sector 26 for MGR services.

 

 

Stay safe,

Dave

 

 

[David Bell]

All the compliments of the season to you too Dave.

Cheers

David

[bootneckbob]

Don't know how I've missed your layout over the years but I have to say just found it and it's stunning. It should serve as motivation to get on with mine, but I fear it will never be anywhere near as good as what you've achieved. Time to lower my expectations. I even made my suffering wife watch a couple of videos of your layout! That'll bite me in the arse cause she'll tell me yours is better when mine's a little more complete.

[Waverley West]

Hi folks,

 

Firstly, a belated very Happy New Year to you all! 

 

Secondly, I thought I'd post a quick update on my recent exploits. I've been managing a fair amount of time up in the railway room since the start of the Christmas hols and Lockdown 2.0. Work has been under way on the Princes Street Gardens Refresh, to match the recent station throat refresh.

 

The walls have now been clad in the new stonework, which was painted at the time of the station throat refresh (I managed to plan ahead for once). This is as yet unweathered, but it's the same colouring as the station throat.  The challenge will be to get it to look similar after weathering. The capping stones on both sides of the line have also been added and now just need touching up and blending in. 

 

The two footbridges have also been lowered by around 25mm, to better match the prototypes in the gardens, which are (or at least were before electrification) surprisingly low. 

 

Yesterday, I took a very deep breath and began removing the old ballast in preparation for reballasting in a colour more typical of the 1980s. This was surprisingly successful and little damage was done to the wiring which was hidden by the ballast. I might even redo some parts of the station throat ballast, as the ballast in the station area sits a little high in places after simply being placed on top of the old ballast.

 

Anyway, as a picture paints a thousand words, here are some piccies. WARNING: THIS POST CONTAINS GRAPHIC IMAGES WHICH SOME RMWEBBERS MAY FIND DISTURBING (I certainly do). IT SHOWS THE LAYOUT IN A STATE OF UNDRESS IT WAS NEVER MEANT TO BE SEEN IN.

 

After lowering of the first footbridge and cladding of the walls...

 

 

 

Work in progress to reconstruct the second footbridge after lowering...

 

 

And now for the really upsetting scenes...

 

To remove the ballast, I wetted it and left it for 10-20 minutes and then scraped it away using a teaspoon. It's currently being left to dry so that it can be hoovered up without blocking the hoover.

 

The capping stones on the trackside walls have now been added. Lots still to do of course, but I'm pretty pleased with my progress so far, even if it does look a right mess. I wish I'd got it right first time, but I guess that's the joy of modelling - you're constantly learning and improving. Hopefully, it'll be a case of two steps back and three steps forward. Time will tell, I guess!

 

The bank on the left-hand side will be cleared of grass and some low bushes/vegetation added. I will then make some replacement trees using the method I developed for the station throat, which I was very pleased with.

 

 

 

In other news, 31130 has now been fitted with sound. Two Railfreight 26s have entered the works for sound-fitting too, as part of my plan to increase the number of 26s and 27s on the layout (which currently stands at six). 

 

In other sound upgrades, I have also sold the first two of my old HST sound-chips and ordered two replacements from legomanbiffo. The other two HSTs will follow suit soon. I've also pre-ordered the new InterCity Swallow buffer-fitted versions which are about to be released. If I can work out how to attach a working coupling to it, one of these will hopefully be used for HST drags. There were some interesting HST drags in Scotland in the late 80s/early 90s which I fancy recreating.

 

Light-fitting of my coaching stock also continues, with the four-coach Mk 1 rake used on Fife services alongside the early Mk 2 rake now complete. Another three Mk 1s are now in the works being fitted with lights, to enable me to make up a 7-coach Mk 1 rake for excursions/specials/extra services with unusual traction.

 

Well, I think that's all for now, folks. Hope to be back soon with another update. The big jobs ahead of me right now are the reballasting and weathering of the walls. Once those two jobs are done, the rest should follow without too much stress (he says hopefully).

 

Stay safe,

Dave

 

Edited January 11, 2021 by Waverley West

[lmsforever]

Coming on well its amazing what you find to do on a layout  very brave of you to dig up the ballast you have started me thinking about my station area it dose not look right.

[Waverley West]

4 hours ago, lmsforever said:

Coming on well its amazing what you find to do on a layout  very brave of you to dig up the ballast you have started me thinking about my station area it dose not look right.

 

Thanks lms. I just keep looking at photos, videos, etc. and ponder how the layout differs from the real thing and how I can improve it. I think I'm gradually getting closer and closer.

 

Digging up the ballast was definitely a deep breath moment and I nearly chickened out and just put the new ballast on top of the old stuff. Having done it, I think I might go back to the station area and dig up the ballast there now too.     

 

Cheers 

Dave