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

[ISW]

2 hours ago, young37215 said:

Watch this space, hopefully the 12V DC at a couple of Amps is too low to frazzle me or anything on the layout!

Rob,

 

So long as the LEDs are the 12v type and you have them in series; they only need about 200ma each.

 

Ian

[young37215]

21 hours ago, ISW said:

Rob,

 

So long as the LEDs are the 12v type and you have them in series; they only need about 200ma each.

 

Ian

 

I am more concerned about my ability to wire the LED's and resistor correctly than the small amount of power they will need! 

 

With operations ongoing, 37112 had charge of 8D10, 0707 Mallaig Junction Yard to Mossend seen on the approach to Crianlarich.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mallaig1983]

More wonderful photos for us to enjoy Rob. Thanks for sharing.

Good to hear WHL4 is back up and running after your recent issues.

[young37215]

I managed to wire up the LED in the signal box yesterday but do'nt have enough LED's to complete the station building. Although expensive the Woodland Scenics lighting control unit has a dimmer switch for each LED which means I can reduce the harsh glare of the LED on full power. Just as well because the illuminated signal box reveals the lack of detail within; just one of more on the 'outstanding tasks' list.

 

Operationally the revised Megapoints network arrangement is performing faultlessly. It did not get much use yesterday, the limited activity saw 37112 departing Crianlarich on its journey to Glasgow. 

 

 

 

[ISW]

2 hours ago, young37215 said:

Although expensive the Woodland Scenics lighting control unit has a dimmer switch for each LED which means I can reduce the harsh glare of the LED on full power

Rob,

 

Being a bit of a cheapskate, my plan is to utilise warm white LEDs from those Xmas lights you get this time of the year; the 'micro lights' type with a 'blob' over each LED. You can get them in strings of 100 for a few Pounds. For dimming I have a few "Mini DC Motor Speed Control Driver Board 3V-35V 5A PWM Controller / LED dimmer" boards I got of t'Bay a while back (https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/163091515028?hash=item25f9030694  ). Yes, it's more of a fiddle than RTR and I will only be able to control 'strings' of LEDs not individually but that should be okay for my needs. I just need to make sure I have access to the LEDs for any 'maintenance' ...

 

Ian

[young37215]

26 minutes ago, ISW said:

Being a bit of a cheapskate, my plan is to utilise warm white LEDs from those Xmas lights you get this time of the year; the 'micro lights' type with a 'blob' over each LED

 

I would happily do cheapskate and have dozens of LED's from an old scrapped car headlight waiting to use but the Woodland Scenics station lamps were the closest I could find to suit Crianlarich hence I had to 'bite the bullet' and pay the inflated prices for WS plug and play system. 

 

Having completed all that I plan for now on the upper levels at Fort William and Mallaig Junction fiddle yard, my next main piece of activity will be adding scenery to the southern end of Ardlui down to my variation on the Craigenarden viaduct. As a first step I started on the viaduct which comprises 2 Auhagen 11344 viaducts joined together to create 8 spans. As supplied the bridge deck parapet has railings wheras Craigenarden has a brick built, castillated parapet which I have modelled by cutting  Auhagen stone sheets 48578 to make a wall. These are glued to the bridge deck with any gaps in the brickwork filled and allowed it to dry. Once filed flat I intend adding Scale Model Scenery coping stones because I don't fancy attempting to 'castillate' the wall. The next step was to break up the single 'out of the box' colour by painting the mortar using Railmatch concrete thinned to about a  50/50 mix onto the brickwork. For some reason although the paint runs freely it only adheres to the mortar in areas where I have added filler despite my having made several attempts to cover it. I am not sure why, once the latest coat of paint has dried I will wash the viaduct with warm water and washing up liquid in the hope that this degreases it and allow the paint to adhere. 

 

filled gaps in the viaduct masonary

 

 

paint adheres to mortar in the filled areas but not elsewhere

 

 

several coats of paint later and with little success I decided to go back to running trains!

 

 

 

 

[ISW]

12 hours ago, young37215 said:

I would happily do cheapskate and have dozens of LED's from an old scrapped car headlight waiting to use but the Woodland Scenics station lamps were the closest I could find to suit Crianlarich hence I had to 'bite the bullet' and pay the inflated prices for WS plug and play system. 

Rob,

 

Now that's not a resource (old car headlights) that I'd ever considered for a model railway! Whatever next ...

 

Ian

[young37215]

Spent some time chopping polystyrene and glueing it in place to create the outline of the scenery leading south from Ardlui. It is a fiddly business which shows little for the effort until you get to the stage of adding plaster cloth and paint. Hopefully I will be at that stage by the end of the week. 

 

In between creating a snow storm whilst cutting polystyrene, a few trains were moved. 37178 had charge of 0700 Mallaig to Glasgow seen waiting departure at Ardlui where it passed a northbound Regional Managers observation salon hauled by 27041.

 

 

 

 

 

[young37215]

Polystyrene and glue the order of today, progress has been slow but is begining to show signs of what I am looking for. To break up the monotony I recorded another video, this time 37051 heads 7D19 at Garelochead. The loco could have been louder although in fairness it was heading downhill. 

 

 

[young37215]

The mountain construction is taking longer than I anticipated, hopefully I am getting closer to finishing. For a break I spent a few minutes wiring up an LED strip to fit into the station building. It looks fine although a little on the bright side. I'll fit the wires properly once I've sorted the station lamp that is currently out. 

 

 

 

 

[ISW]

3 hours ago, young37215 said:

For a break I spent a few minutes wiring up an LED strip to fit into the station building. It looks fine although a little on the bright side.

Rob,

 

That third photo you posted is really effective / realistic. You used your break to great effect.

 

Have you only used LED 'strip' on your layout, or have you dabbled with individual LEDs (plus thin wires ...) anywhere? Just wondering about the advantages / disadvantages of each.

 

Ian

[Purnu]

On 14/11/2022 at 15:23, young37215 said:

 

 

 

 

Your layout evokes so many childhood memories of life growing up in Scotland. The above image struck a chord, I knew I’d found something a while back on Flickr that I thought you may appreciate.

 

 

Keep up the wonderful work.

 

[young37215]

20 hours ago, ISW said:

Rob,

 

That third photo you posted is really effective / realistic. You used your break to great effect.

 

Have you only used LED 'strip' on your layout, or have you dabbled with individual LEDs (plus thin wires ...) anywhere? Just wondering about the advantages / disadvantages of each.

 

Ian

 

Thanks Ian, the lights are a pain in the rear but they do add something. The first LED strip I used was just a few weeks ago under the canopies at Fort William. There are various types of lighting, all are LED's all powered from the same 12V, 8Amp sources that power the Megapoints network except for the WS kit. I have used whatever light I can find to best represent that found on the real thing, some are 12V DC, some 5V DC. Of the 5V some came with a resistor fitted, others required supplied resistors fitting. The only really thin wires are those on the Woodland Scenics Plug and Play which are a faff, everything else has 7/0.2 wire as a power source. All in all a real cross section of what is available, the only thing I do'nt like is the thin WS wire which is difficult to work with. The rest were all easy enough to put together. What I do not know is how to reduce the brightness of the 12V LED's, can anyone tell me?

 

The mountainside saga continues, my efforts to make it look like the track bed has been blasted through a rock cutting are beginning to bare fruit but it is taking time. 

 

Line climbs away from Ardlui

 

 

Gradient peaks at the entry to the cutting before falling down towards the viaduct

 

 

Ruler used to shows the how the profile of the land would have been prior to the railways construction. 

 

 

 

[ISW]

4 hours ago, young37215 said:

the lights are a pain in the rear but they do add something.

Rob,

 

Indeed they do, and in your case they've added quite a lot. Well worth your efforts.

 

4 hours ago, young37215 said:

There are various types of lighting, all are LED's all powered from the same 12V, 8Amp sources that power the Megapoints network except for the WS kit.

That's quite a beefy power supply you have there. More than enough for the LEDs, even allowing for the MegaPoints consumption. Myself, I have a separate 12v 2amp supply for my under-baseboard lighting, which is all 12v LED strip. This'll also be used to supply any building lighting. I have a special bus wire for the lighting around the underside of my Upper Level. However, for buildings I'll (probably) be using 5v LEDs and so will need a "Mini DC Motor Speed Control Driver Board", for which I bought a few a couple of years back on the recommendation of @47137 to reduce the 12v down to a controlled / variable ~5v that should enable a suitable light level. I suspect that the same can be achieved with a simple resistor.

 

4 hours ago, young37215 said:

The only really thin wires are those on the Woodland Scenics Plug and Play which are a faff, everything else has 7/0.2 wire as a power source. All in all a real cross section of what is available, the only thing I do'nt like is the thin WS wire which is difficult to work with.

If those Woodlands wires are like the ones you get of commercial RTR LEDs then I know what you mean. They have a mind of their own. I'd imagine that 7/02 would be okay 'to' a building but not 'inside' the building. My plan is to use thin enamelled wire, taken from an old transformer I dismantled.

 

You'll have to explain what WS wire is as that's not a term I've come across.

 

4 hours ago, young37215 said:

What I do not know is how to reduce the brightness of the 12V LED's, can anyone tell me?

The simplest is a resistor of suitable size / value. However, some experimentation is required to get the desired result. Hence the option of a "Mini DC Motor Speed Control Driver Board" where you can adjust ad-infinitum. I see the resistor as a method of 'balancing' the brightness of separate buildings, and the "Control Driver" to set the 'overall' brightness on each baseboard (to avoid more jumper cables between baseboards).

 

Ian

 

[young37215]

18 hours ago, ISW said:

You'll have to explain what WS wire is as that's not a term I've come across.

 

WS = Woodland Scenics, the wire they use is very thin and challenging to work with.

 

18 hours ago, ISW said:

The simplest is a resistor of suitable size / value. However, some experimentation is required to get the desired result. Hence the option of a "Mini DC Motor Speed Control Driver Board" where you can adjust ad-infinitum. I see the resistor as a method of 'balancing' the brightness of separate buildings, and the "Control Driver" to set the 'overall' brightness

 

I'll keep trying with resistors to see what can be achieved. The WS electrical controller appears similar to the "Mini DC Motor Speed Control Driver Board" in that the power level can be adjusted from each of the 4 outputs individually. 

 

Some progress yesterday, I managed to complete 90% of the cutting using WS molds and infilling gaps with plaster to create the rock face I was looking for. This is a removable section in order that I can access the Fort William baseboard that lives directly above. I then started the process of adding plaster cloth to the polystyrene based mountains and managed about 50% of the task before giving up for the day. Some more plaster cloth work and a few areas of Sculptamold should see this move a long way forward.

 

Cutting is given its first coat of paint

Cutting drops neatly into place

 

Shaped polystyrene awaits plaster cloth 

 

[billywhizz]

Hi Rob. The rock faces look really effective. What do you use for painting them? 
Regards. 
Bill. 

[young37215]

14 hours ago, billywhizz said:

Hi Rob. The rock faces look really effective. What do you use for painting them? 
Regards. 
Bill. 

 

Hi Bill. All rocks are coloured with Woodland Scenics paints applied using the techniques in their 'How to colour plaster rocks' video on Youtube. The WS paints are easy to use and deliver good results based on my experience.

 

Yesterday I painted about 50% of the surface area of plaster cloth laid the previous day with emulsion. I am not sure about the colour but it is the same tub of paint that I used at Ardlui; I might add a wash of a darker paint as a second coat. The remaining area was treated with a combination of plaster cloth and Sculptamold  which, assuming it is all dry this morning, will leave me free to paint these areas later today. There will be a little fine tuning required and some more Sculptamold work but if all goes well I might just get a base layer of scenic material down on the by the end of the day.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[young37215]

A slow day yesterday largely because the previous days Sculptamold had not hardened sufficiently to work on it. I managed to paint a few small areas and added some more Sculptamold to infill gaps but progress was limited. On touch this morning the Sculptamold is still damp and probably needs another 24 hours before painting. No big deal, I need to cast some more rock and can always just play trains.

 

The view of the cutting from the viaduct looking towards Ardlui, additional rock casts will be added 

 

 

The rising gradient away from Ardlui towards the cutting

 

 

Birds eye view of the cutting, I cannot ballast any further until the viaduct is fixed in place because the rail needs to lift up to allow access to the viaduct

 

 

Embankment on the approach to Ardlui duly Sculptamolded

 

Edited November 23, 2022 by young37215

[mallaig1983]

Viaduct, cutting, and ledge. This will be a beautiful section Rob. I enjoy watching your section builds and I’m sure this one will be wonderful when complete and hopefully the video camera will come out shortly afterwards. Yes sculptamold does require patience especially at this time of year.

Its looking really good already.

[young37215]

Substantive progress on the southern end of Ardlui at last with scenic material added and a few trees planted. Still work to do but I have done the bulk of the task, I'll plant more trees and add bushes etc over time. Next will be the area leading from the new cutting onto the viaduct heading further south towards Arrochar. 

 

Scenic material from Woodland Scenics coarse turf range added

 

 

Testing is required, 37033 heads north with the Alcan hoppers

 

 

 

 

 

[37114]

Looking really good Rob, definitely no mistaking where the layout is set.

[billywhizz]

The 2nd to last photo looks particularly effective with the rake of grain flow wagons snaking into the background!

[young37215]

I planted a few more trees on the new scenic section south of Ardlui but am constrained as to how many I can add because there is a narrow window where a tree does'nt obstruct the drivers view of the signal or start to intrude into the Fort William area. There is also consideration of the fact that ready made trees are expensive. That said I managed to buy some more yesterday from Wayland Games who were having a 'Black Friday' sale where quite a bit of Woodland Scenics stuff was discounted up to 30% which enabled me to re-stock following the planting at Ardlui.

 

It is also nice to be able to spend some time operating again, 37085 this time is seen arriving and departing Ardlui over the new scenic area with 1T32, 1226 Oban to Glasgow. The wonky home signal seen in the last couple of pictures has been re-glued in place following my knocking it loose during the scenic work. The repair was easy, getting the servo to actuate the signal correctly was not. 

 

 

 

 

[03060]

1 hour ago, young37215 said:

I planted a few more trees on the new scenic section south of Ardlui but am constrained as to how many I can add because there is a narrow window where a tree does'nt obstruct the drivers view of the signal or start to intrude into the Fort William area. There is also consideration of the fact that ready made trees are expensive. That said I managed to buy some more yesterday from Wayland Games who were having a 'Black Friday' sale where quite a bit of Woodland Scenics stuff was discounted up to 30% which enabled me to re-stock following the planting at Ardlui.

 

 

 

This shot really captures the feel of the 'narrow trackbed on the ledge' Rob. I can see the issue regarding trying not to obstruct the view of Fort William with tall trees but I'm sure that you will be able to do quite a lot with lower growing bushes such as Rhododendrons. This area of the line between Arrochar and Crianlarich is also my own current area of focus as I try to winkle bits of the WHL into my modelling room and I'm finding that it has not been 'overly' photographed which is probably due to the tightness of the path that the railway cuts along the mountainsides. The best general impression being the aerial shots on the 3 'drivers view' DVDs that I have, otherwise it's just like snaking through a green channel.

 

Does any body know of any drone type You Tube clips that are worth viewing, please ? It would be helpful to see a few more shots like this one of Creag-an-Arnain viaduct, by Craig Bradford.

 

https://unsplash.com/photos/tlZzfkOeHio

 

Regards,

Ian.

Edited November 26, 2022 by 03060
Photo link added.

[mallaig1983]

That’s a great piece of work Rob. A lovely stretch to watch the trains meandering through. Wonderful.