west highland Mallaig and the Road To The Isles

[mallaig1983]

And obviously as you all well know after any construction these things need to be tested right? 37039 again being very noisy departs Mallaig to thoroughly test the new section.

 

 

[mallaig1983]

Well IPA has been unsuccessful for this particular body. It’s had a week or more in its bath with daily brush scrubbing but I’m giving up on that method. I shall be revisiting the drawing board on this one.

 

 

[03060]

Just came across this photo of 37026 'Loch Awe' at Mallaig taken during the filming of the 'Weir's Way' programme that was discussed a while back on here, thought that it might be of interest, if only to include a wee man in a red bobble hat sitting on your platform with his rucsack !! LoL.

 

 

Photo taken by Lothian T (Flickr.)

 

Regards,

Ian.

[mallaig1983]

Thanks for sharing Ian. A nice wide angle shot and bang on date. I hadn’t seen that one before and as always with any new photo I shall carefully study and see if anything I haven’t seen before crops up.

Wonderful photo.

[sulzer71]

On 26/01/2023 at 10:57, mallaig1983 said:

Well IPA has been unsuccessful for this particular body. It’s had a week or more in its bath with daily brush scrubbing but I’m giving up on that method. I shall be revisiting the drawing board on this one.

 

 

I've found the EWS liveried 37s to be an absolute pig to remove the paint from with IPA

[mallaig1983]

3 hours ago, sulzer71 said:

I've found the EWS liveried 37s to be an absolute pig to remove the paint from with IPA

What did you find worked best for the job?

[sulzer71]

14 hours ago, mallaig1983 said:

What did you find worked best for the job?

Left them in the IPA well over a week and attacked them with a very stiff brush , they p****d me off that much they have been dumped in the spares box

[mallaig1983]

9 hours ago, sulzer71 said:

Left them in the IPA well over a week and attacked them with a very stiff brush , they p****d me off that much they have been dumped in the spares box

Ah, that’s where mine currently sits too 😬

[mallaig1983]

Gosh, was it really January I last updated this thread? To be fair not a lot has been happening on the layout but I’ve not been completely inactive. I have made a start on detailing the yard area that always looked full of clutter in photos of the era. I have never seen a photo of a JCB here but I have seen a MF digger surrounded by clutter in a photo at Oban and I thought it looked rather good so I have added a digger. A recent find was a photo of a small dumper truck posed with its bucket tilted. The 3D print I bought had it fixed closed so I have thrown a fish box into it. The compressor trailer isn’t the same as the one featured on many photos but it will do. The grounded boat features in some 1985 shots but I had to have it. It is only a start to the detailing here and I need more scrap and a lot more fish boxes but I’ve enjoyed this little project. 

 

I have just noticed that the grounded boat is in the 1983 photo that Ian posted above so happy days.
 

 

Edited April 17, 2023 by mallaig1983

[mallaig1983]

[mallaig1983]

This model JCB would have been fairly old by 1983 so I decided it needed to be suitably work worn, oily and rusty. Very fiddly but good fun to make. Looking at this photo I now see that I had forgotten to put the hubs in the centre of the wheels. 

[David Bell]

Lovely work. Really brings it to life.

Cheers

David

[thegreenhowards]

Getting there Andy,

 

I’ve still got a hole in the baseboard where much of the Glenfinnan yard will be, so you’re well ahead of me!

 

Andy

[mallaig1983]

With to almost imminent arrival of the Accurascale 37s of which I have had 2 on order since I started building the baseboards I was going to end up being a little celebrity heavy on the loco front. With 37112 in her wrap round yellow ends and 37027 Loch Eil, 37012 Loch Rannoch (renumbered and renamed from the second 37027) and 37026 Loch Awe I decided a long time ago that 37026 (MMRG exclusive from Bachmann) would end up getting renumbered. As this loco has the single riveted roof panels 37051 was a prime candidate so this work has now been carried out. 
I have been pondering how to fit the snow ploughs to it as the ones supplied use the NEM socket which obviously is a bit of a pain if you want to fit couplings. Earlier versions of the Bachmann ploughs came in 3 parts which were much better as you could fit the side sections to the bogie without the need to fit the centre section into the NEM pocket. This is what I’d done on 37039 and although the ploughs in reality should be fitted to the chassis rather than the bogie this would limit the movement of the coupling on my 4th radius off scene curves. One of those model railway compromises it would seem. I had another pack of these earlier 3 section ploughs so these were to go onto 051 but on emptying the contents of the bag I seem to only have 3 side sections but 3 centre sections 🙄 So I cannot complete the plough fitting. I have a set of the NEM mount ones and two pairs of the Rusty Rails 3D print but these are designed to fit the chassis. I will need to modify these somehow to fit the bogie. If anyone reading has done this themselves please don’t be shy as I’d love to hear what technique you used.

 

37051 still needs to be sound fitted but here she is at Mallaig today. Note the ploughs at one end only.

 

 

Edited May 1, 2023 by mallaig1983

[mallaig1983]

Just a little work today on 37192. The Railtech sheet I acquired for 37051’s numbers also came with West Highland terriers so I applied these to 192. Rather annoyingly 192 was an RSH example and my version is a Vulcan so it doesn’t have the correct contrail grills. It could be years if ever that a more prototypical version is available so I will have to make do for now at least. I bought some brass headcode plates back in the day from A1 Railmatch for £1.50 (I must have done an extra paper round to be so flush) and if I remember correctly they were earmarked to go on a Hornby model. These will go on 192 and tge primer is drying as I write this. This leads me onto my second request of the afternoon. Railmatch #202 Warning Yellow is not a perfect match for the Bachmann yellow end. Have any of you found a better match? 
 

Here is 37192 also at Mallaig.

 

 

[PaulRhB]

2 hours ago, mallaig1983 said:

I was going to end up being a little celebratory heavy on the loco front.

There’s no such thing as too many 37’s 🤣

[mallaig1983]

10 minutes ago, PaulRhB said:

There’s no such thing as too many 37’s 🤣

Trouble was of the 7 I will have when the Accurascale ones arrive 3 would have been namers and 1 would have the yellow wrap rounds so in my eye that’s 4 celebrity locos. I needed more of the more mundane fleet and I really wanted 051. I also want 085 if and when anyone makes a suitable RSH version. 188 would be nice too while we’re at it. Oh and 108…………. 😀

[mallaig1983]

The current fleet. However not all are sound fitted yet.

 

 

 

[thegreenhowards]

051 was my favourite 37, so great choice for your conversion. 
 

For yellow warning panels I use precision P134 , signal yellow. This matches the Heljan O gauge yellow very well. I can’t speak for Bachmann though.

[meanach]

I found Phoenix precision warning panel yellow post 1984 to be a good match but I often mix my own paints to get a perfect match.  

[mallaig1983]

Swapped West Highland for Welsh Highland today. As a long time member and volunteer at the Welsh Highland Heritage Railway this is where I do my 1:1 modelling. The original 590 is what first grabbed my attention in a photograph back in 1982 and started a life long love affair with the WHR around the same time my other love affair with the West Highland began. Something rather special about railways through the mountains whatever the gauge. This is a sister of 590 that has been restored to represent the original and entered traffic yesterday after 20 years of overhaul and a lot of money. Also included is a photo of the interior of coach 23(35) which was a 4 year labour of love for myself and my small team a few years ago. 
Ok this is somewhat off topic for my thread but it’s important to me and I just wanted to share.

Back on modelling Mallaig tomorrow!!

 

 

[mallaig1983]

This photo of Carr 23/35 was taken at Beddgelert last July.

[mallaig1983]

And just to celebrate its delivery I did indulge in a little moment of rule1 😀

 

 

[mallaig1983]

Happy 3rd June 1983 40th anniversary day to all you all.

 

On this day in history 20148 covered for a lack of a 37 on the Fort William to Mallaig mixed train. It was not the only time this had happened before or since but it did happen once in 1983 and it was somewhat exciting to a 13 year old me when the photos were published in one of the magazines of the time. 
 

It would have been rather rude not to have a re enactment to mark the occasion.

 

 

[mallaig1983]