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

[Vecchio]

There will always be a bit of a mess. Example: my mimic board (homemade) using the multi panel board plus one extension. There are 44 switches on it (4 megapoints controller boards under the layout). I tried my best and even shortened some of the cables, but a mess it is.

 

DSC_0724

 

and now inside. The 2 banana plugs on the left are for a test power supply.

 

DSC_0723

 

 

[ISW]

1 hour ago, Vecchio said:

my mimic board (homemade) using the multi panel board plus one extension.

Hmmm, hinges; very 'up market'. My skills limited me to a screw-on top. However, I did install the MegaPoints boards 'on' the underside of the mimic panel, so that I could remove it all in one piece.

 

Ian

[young37215]

My cheap and cheerful control panel still carries the heading 'test' despite having been in place for about 4 years. That said it has worked really well, the recent outage highlighted just how integrated the Megapoints kit is in operating WHL4. Long term I plan a more up market panel but that will have to wait until the layout is complete and the track layout is finalised. More servo cables arrived yesterday and have been fitted completing the second Megapoints network.

 

Fort William is ready to return to the layout with operational uncoupling ramps and a few bits additional of detail around the station. I have not added the MAS signals I had intended, I am still pondering how I want to represent these. With Warley just a few weeks away I am hoping to find inspiration on a day out at the show.

 

The ground frame by the station building that controls access to the run round loop.

 

 

Telephones comprised of Scale Model Scenery phones mounted on 2mm rod painted a concrete colour. There is nothing wrong with the phones but they are so small I think I could have simply added a small piece of the 2mm rod painted grey and nobody would be any the wiser.

 

 

Platform lamps have been secured and station name boards added

 

 

The uncouplers were beastly to align but once in the correct place they seem to work well under test. First picture shows a typical alignment challenge, the second shows a fitted uncoupler

 

 

 

Final picture comes with a question, when did the Fort William 'welcome to the highlands' sign get erected? The Scotrail marking makes me think it was probably after my 1980-85 time window.

 

 

 

[ISW]

2 hours ago, young37215 said:

Rob,

 

That's a great bit of ballasting you've done there. Very realistic.

 

Ian

[ISW]

2 hours ago, young37215 said:

The uncouplers were beastly to align but once in the correct place they seem to work well under test. First picture shows a typical alignment challenge, the second shows a fitted uncoupler

Rob,

 

Having gone down the Kadee coupler route, I'll have to install some magnets to achieve the uncoupling. It'll be interesting to see if the 'challenges' are about the same!

 

Ian

[young37215]

14 minutes ago, ISW said:

Rob,

 

That's a great bit of ballasting you've done there. Very realistic.

 

Ian

 

Fort William station was a mid 1970's new build meaning that it was only a few years old for my 1980's time window. Ironically the appearance of the ballast is more luck than design because I deviated from my normal approach of spraying track before ballasting due to the amount of mess that the new ballast created to the already painted rail when laid (Pages 18 and 19 of the thread explain in greater detail). This resulted in spraying a second layer of sleeper grime with the ballast in situ with the result being much closer to reality. 

 

 

 

I have now added a few oily patches to the areas where locos tend to stand. 

 

 

[billywhizz]

Hi Rob. Interesting top photo of 37027. Sadly undated on Flickr. I am assuming could be summer 1984. Does anyone know when 027 lost its white body side stripe? By May ‘85 the loco was in large logo. (I’m sure the upcoming SDEG 37/0 book will have all the info) 
Another question, was there a shunt maneuver to reposition the ETHEL at the opposite end of the train prior to working back to Glasgow? All the photos I have of the sleeper service at Glasgow QS ready to head up the WHL show the ETHEL between the loco and day coaches. All the photos I have seen of the rake at FW show the ETHEL between the sleeper coaches and loco. 

Glad to read you are now making progress with the electrical issues and at the point where the layout can be run fully again. 

 

Regards, 

Bill. 

[mallaig1983]

20 minutes ago, billywhizz said:

Hi Rob. Interesting top photo of 37027. Sadly undated on Flickr. I am assuming could be summer 1984. Does anyone know when 027 lost its white body side stripe? By May ‘85 the loco was in large logo. (I’m sure the upcoming SDEG 37/0 book will have all the info) 
Another question, was there a shunt maneuver to reposition the ETHEL at the opposite end of the train prior to working back to Glasgow? All the photos I have of the sleeper service at Glasgow QS ready to head up the WHL show the ETHEL between the loco and day coaches. All the photos I have seen of the rake at FW show the ETHEL between the sleeper coaches and loco. 

Glad to read you are now making progress with the electrical issues and at the point where the layout can be run fully again. 

 

Regards, 

Bill. 

I believe that all 37s had lost their white stripes by summer 84 after Eastfield had had their wrists slapped by senior management and sent to sit on the naughty step. 

[young37215]

3 hours ago, billywhizz said:

Another question, was there a shunt maneuver to reposition the ETHEL at the opposite end of the train prior to working back to Glasgow? All the photos I have of the sleeper service at Glasgow QS ready to head up the WHL show the ETHEL between the loco and day coaches. All the photos I have seen of the rake at FW show the ETHEL between the sleeper coaches and loco. 

 

Short answer as I understand it is yes, there was a shunt. Like billywhizz, all the pictures that I have seen show the ETHEL between loco and coaches irrespective of the direction of travel. Given that the diesel engine on the ETHEL was running throughout, I suspect regulations required it next to the engine in order that fire risks could be managed to best effect, little different to running double headed. A Flickr search of 'ETHEL Fort William' returns a number of interesting pictures which support the view of a shunt taking place. The picture below is captioned as a shunt and you can see the shunter waiting to couple the ETHEL to the sleeping cars.  

 

 

Typical picture of ETHEL, Mk3 sleepers and air conditioned coaches at Fort William during the day time layover. I hope the loco was powered up!

 

 

On WHL4 I shunt all sleepers, Mk1 and Mk3, from the platform. I position sleeping cars at the front of consists where on arrival at Fort William the loco detaches and runs around before departing for Mallaig with the day time coaches. This leaves just sleepers in the platform which are then shunted to the siding for servicing at a later time. By adding auto uncouplers I am hoping to be able to complete this activity without any manual intervention. As can be seen from the picture below, my approach is not un-prototypical although in this shot the air conditioned coaches are at the rear of the train. 

 

 

All in all I think you can do pretty much anything you like within the physical constraints of the track layout and be prototypical. As the picture below shows, you can even run the ETHEL out to Tomna Faire if you choose where I am guessing it would be refueled.

 

 

[billywhizz]

Hi Rob. All makes sense now! Did’t know the day coaches added at GQS then went on to Mallaig. That explains the slightly more complicated shunt Thanks for taking the time to find and share the photos to help show how the shunt was completed. On the 2nd to last photo. I think that formation is correct. Looks to me like the service has not long arrived and the loco is running round. The day coaches would be behind the ETHEL, then the sleepers at the rear. 

Thanks again. 
Regards. 
Bill. 

[03060]

10 hours ago, young37215 said:

 

Short answer as I understand it is yes, there was a shunt. Like billywhizz, all the pictures that I have seen show the ETHEL between loco and coaches irrespective of the direction of travel. Given that the diesel engine on the ETHEL was running throughout, I suspect regulations required it next to the engine in order that fire risks could be managed to best effect, little different to running double headed. A Flickr search of 'ETHEL Fort William' returns a number of interesting pictures which support the view of a shunt taking place. The picture below is captioned as a shunt and you can see the shunter waiting to couple the ETHEL to the sleeping cars.  

 

 

Typical picture of ETHEL, Mk3 sleepers and air conditioned coaches at Fort William during the day time layover. I hope the loco was powered up!

 

 

On WHL4 I shunt all sleepers, Mk1 and Mk3, from the platform. I position sleeping cars at the front of consists where on arrival at Fort William the loco detaches and runs around before departing for Mallaig with the day time coaches. This leaves just sleepers in the platform which are then shunted to the siding for servicing at a later time. By adding auto uncouplers I am hoping to be able to complete this activity without any manual intervention. As can be seen from the picture below, my approach is not un-prototypical although in this shot the air conditioned coaches are at the rear of the train. 

 

 

All in all I think you can do pretty much anything you like within the physical constraints of the track layout and be prototypical. As the picture below shows, you can even run the ETHEL out to Tomna Faire if you choose where I am guessing it would be refueled.

 

 

 

Having looked at more Flickr images (having clicked on these) regarding the shunts involved it seems that this is a great source of potential modelling entertainment as the follow on photos (by Ted Arisaig) show 20048 taking the Ethel into Tom-na-Faire where it is then further shunted (I presume) by 37188. The Ethel would then need to be returned at some point to the station area and presuming that it has been towed there would further need running around again before being added to the sleeper stock (would the lack of any 'warning yellow' on the Ethel's ends prevent it from being propelled back to the station ?)

 

There is also another photo of an Ethel up against the buffers of Platform 1 which implies that it has been pushed there at some point during manoeuvres, possibly being then extracted via the run-round loop.

 

This (FW) small, seemingly inocuous station plan just seems to go on giving and giving where interesting movements occur, see previous posts regarding Observation coaches and Steam services.

 

Regards,

Ian.

[03060]

On 07/11/2022 at 10:50, mallaig1983 said:

I believe that all 37s had lost their white stripes by summer 84 after Eastfield had had their wrists slapped by senior management and sent to sit on the naughty step. 

 

Not sure of exact dates but looking at Flickr images it had gained it's white stripe by Aug '83, still had it in mid Jan '84 but had lost it by Aug '84.

[Pacific231G]

10 hours ago, billywhizz said:

Hi Rob. All makes sense now! Did’t know the day coaches added at GQS then went on to Mallaig. That explains the slightly more complicated shunt Thanks for taking the time to find and share the photos to help show how the shunt was completed. On the 2nd to last photo. I think that formation is correct. Looks to me like the service has not long arrived and the loco is running round. The day coaches would be behind the ETHEL, then the sleepers at the rear. 

Thanks again. 
Regards. 
Bill. 

Boo Hoo. I still miss the old Fort William station (though I don't suppose those who had to work it did!) It had an amazing level of operation for a terminus with just two points with sleepers, restaurants, observation card and even tail loads coming on and off like someone operating a shunting layout at an exhibition. . It was the first place I ever found it interesting to watch diesels at work.  Good to know that some such operations still take place.

[billywhizz]

I’ve also just gone through the Flickr photos after clicking on the image. Lots of formation info there as well as the interesting snippet of class 20’s being used as heating units before the ETHELs arrived. 
I have been struggling to work out what to do since taking the decision to mothball the P4 Glasgow Queen Street project. I have now converted all the stock back to OO. From the great inspiration on this thread and @mallaig1983 I can see a West Highland based project appearing next year so I can use the stock I have accumulated for GQS. 

[young37215]

Although the ETHEL's were only used for about 3 years, the sleeper operated in different ways during this time. In 1983 on introduction of the Mk 3's the sleeper split at Fort William with Mk1 day coaches going forward to Mallaig and the air conditioned coaches remaining at Fort William. From May 1984 the sleeper terminated at Fort William with a seperate onwards Fort William to Mallaig service. The second to last picture in my last post is from 1985 when the sleeper consist remained intact at Fort William and was simply shunted to the siding to await its return south that evening. I suspect that the ETHEL would have been detached from the consist in the platform which would then have been shunted to the siding. The ETHEL would then have been retrieved and shunted onto the front of the south facing train. 

 

Whilst the new Fort William is a very simple station, as others have commented there are numerous variations of movements and shunts that can be performed making it an interesting part of WHL4. Hopefully my Fort William will be reinstated minus the spirit level on Thursday, all of the work is finished and I just need assistance to move the baseboard back onto the layout. 

 

 

 

 

 

[billywhizz]

Thanks for the additional info on how the operation changed while the ETHELs were in service and apologies for the ETHEL hijack. Some really useful information and photos though. 
Photo below of my ETHEL built by Dave Roome from the spares after his class 25 conversion projects. I haven’t dared to convert this back to OO (yet)

[young37215]

Progress this morning, Fort William is back on the layout meaning I can run trains again. Everything new works although some fettling with the auto uncouplers is required because whilst they work, the length of plasticard that sits on the sleepers needs to be extended. At present the short pieces that I installed mean that the window for stopping and being able to uncouple is too small; I need a greater margin for error. Doug was kind enough to lend me some of his DCC Concepts ground signals so that I could get a feel for them. Intial reaction is positive, I think they addd to the feel I am attempting to create. 

 

Most importantly was running some trains, 37178 had charge of the 0700 Mallaig to Glasgow and managed to complete the run round at Fort William without any manual intervention. 

 

 

 

 

 

[BoD]

Funnily enough I've just passed Ardlui Station.

 

Crianlarich was busy with a couple of track machines in.  Sadly weather this week not suitable at all for photos for backscene.  Still, it’s  an excuse to come back again.

Edited November 10, 2022 by BoD

[billywhizz]

Great to hear Fort William is operational again!! The DCC Concepts ground signals look the part. 
Regards. 
Bill 

[young37215]

On 10/11/2022 at 15:22, BoD said:

Funnily enough I've just passed Ardlui Station.

 

Crianlarich was busy with a couple of track machines in.  Sadly weather this week not suitable at all for photos for backscene.  Still, it’s  an excuse to come back again.

 

I have not managed a trip to the highlands since 2016, hopefully I can find a way in 2023.

 

I added 2 LED strip lights to the underside of the station canopies and managed to hide most of the wires, these add to the lighting effects although there is little need for lights during a Scottish summer. Maybe I need to draft a winter timetable...

 

 

 

Edited November 11, 2022 by young37215

[Vecchio]

18 hours ago, young37215 said:

Most importantly was running some trains, 37178 had charge of the 0700 Mallaig to Glasgow and managed to complete the run round at Fort William without any manual intervention. 

 

I like to hear that, I am as well using uncouplers, even on H0e. It is correct, to find the right position is key, and you have to make some discrete sign next to the track which helps you to find this position (as the train will block the view to your uncoupling bit).

[Alcanman]

Good to see Fort William back in action. Looks great.

[6990WitherslackHall]

7 hours ago, Alcanman said:

 

It's strange seeing a photo of 37264 without the black domino headcode.

 

 

[young37215]

8 hours ago, Vecchio said:

 

I like to hear that, I am as well using uncouplers, even on H0e. It is correct, to find the right position is key, and you have to make some discrete sign next to the track which helps you to find this position (as the train will block the view to your uncoupling bit).

 

There are position markers as suggested, my problem is stopping accurately on top of the 20mm piece of plasticard I used for the uncoupler. In hindsight these should have been 50mm plus in length to make life easier, the Peco auto uncouplers are even longer. 

 

I managed to get some running in yesterday which was a pleasant way to spend a few hours. I also tested the lighting on Crianlarich as I want to  wire up the lamp at the southern end of the platform(left hand side of the first picture)  as well as adding lights to the station building and signal box. The Woodland Scenics power supply has a couple of unused ports which will do for the station building and signal box LED's. Annoyingly I found one of the Woodland Scenics lamps on the platform was out which will be a right bar steward to access and might just stay as it is. I need to reduce the brightness of the yard lamp which requires a resistor and is something I have not done before. Watch this space, hopefully the 12V DC at a couple of Amps is too low to frazzle me or anything on the layout!  

 

 

[mallaig1983]

I wasn’t going to bother with lights, to much of a faff but maybe I should have a rethink. They look really effective and create a nice end of day atmosphere. Very nice.