Pandora Posted May 25, 2022 Share Posted May 25, 2022 On 25/02/2020 at 09:19, 03060 said: The driver of 37 191 looks as if it might be Callum MacRaild from The Train Now Departing programme featuring the Mallaig line. Still one of my all time favourite programmes. Regards, Ian. The link to the West Highlands Line episode programme on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OeYYUGqi5V4 Sadly Callum passed away at the age of 66 years: https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/12250841.callum-macraild/ 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
mallaig1983 Posted June 8, 2022 Author Share Posted June 8, 2022 Anyone not following the Accurascale class 37 thread won’t have seen the link to this on there. It’s a great watch and anyone with a soft spot for the West Highland in 1983 will certainly enjoy from 35mins onwards. Enjoy 5 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
mallaig1983 Posted June 8, 2022 Author Share Posted June 8, 2022 I’ve only watched the first few minutes of this one and I need to go and have a lie down. Nice bit of entertainment while on a tea break at work. Better get back to the graft and save it til the morning. Enjoy too.. 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium 03060 Posted June 8, 2022 RMweb Premium Share Posted June 8, 2022 (edited) What a great find, thanks for the links, the first I know I have seen before (but will watch again later) whereas the 2nd is new to me. 1984 is already top of my 'Time Machine' settings but I reckon that this is as near as I'll get again in this lifetime !! Regards, Ian. Edited June 8, 2022 by 03060 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium thegreenhowards Posted June 9, 2022 RMweb Premium Share Posted June 9, 2022 Super videos, thanks for sharing. The first reminds me of how much I missed of the 27s on Edinburgh Dundee’s while chasing 37s up the West Highland. I regret not having devoted a bit more time to the McRats! Andy 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium 03060 Posted June 13, 2022 RMweb Premium Share Posted June 13, 2022 A little heads up that there is an 8pp article in the latest Backtrack titled Fort William to Mallaig in 1986. I have only read part of it so far, which described a journey on the West Highlander steam service but there are some good colour photos from 1987/88 of both steam and diesel services including one of the best photos I've ever seen of 20138 at Tom-na- faire depot. Backtrack Vol 36 • No6 June 2022 (purple cover) for anybody interested. Regards, Ian. 1 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
mallaig1983 Posted June 26, 2022 Author Share Posted June 26, 2022 Having been following the brake vehicles discussion on Rob’s WHL4 thread and following the link to the PTMs I downloaded the 1980 and 1983 files and have been working through the latter and making notes. I have used these notes to write up my own version and laid it out in timetable order. Then I got all my rakes out, un-elasticbanded the boxes and started again. My rakes were all set up slightly wrong as per the PTM details. I have substituted a BSOT for an RMB in 1T24 the 09:19 FW - GQS and 1B14 the 16:24 return. This is because I don’t have enough BSOs to convert and I rather like the RMB anyway. I have seen evidence of an RMB on the WHL in 1983. It’s on the Diesel and Electric Blue vol 1 dvd and is in the consist with the saloons on Glenfinnan Viaduct hauled by 37112 so that’s good enough for me not to have to invoke rule 1. Looking at the PTM I have learned that the 1983 summer timetable the 07:00 MLG - FW was 4 coaches and not the 2 that I’d planned for. I’m putting that down to the fact that I must have only seen non summer timetable trains in photos. No bother as the two extra TSOs required were relieved in other sets by the 2 BSOTs. In the PTM there is no mention of the MK2 BFKs that regularly featured in trains. However declassified BCKs feature so I’m assuming that the BFKs fell into this category. One coach I have had to cut out Is a TSO in the in the Euston- FW portion with the sleeping cars. My Fort William loop will only have the space to accommodate 6 coaches so something in that set had to give way. 3 of those coaches were attached to 2 others from the earlier MLG-FW service and if I cut one of those out then there’s a knock on effect later in the timetable. So all in all I have exactly the right amount of coaches to operate the service. However I have a CK that I don’t need and I’m short of a BSK so ill have to keep an eye out for one of those. For now a BG has been thrown into the elastic banded bundle in its stead. It’s been a really interesting day going through that lot. 6 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
mallaig1983 Posted August 26, 2022 Author Share Posted August 26, 2022 Apologies if I’m seemingly turning RMweb into Instagram. That’s not the case but I was excited yesterday to get to Mallaig for the first time since I’ve been building the layout. I also went in search of the remains of the slipway and was able to walk around the site and found a small section of the rails. Most of the area is littered with rocks and stones from the building of the road. I also took plenty of useful photos. 16 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Bell Posted August 30, 2022 Share Posted August 30, 2022 Looks like you had a good day in Mallaig, weather not too bad either! Cheers David 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
mallaig1983 Posted August 30, 2022 Author Share Posted August 30, 2022 1 hour ago, David Bell said: Looks like you had a good day in Mallaig, weather not too bad either! Cheers David 1 hour ago, David Bell said: Looks like you had a good day in Mallaig, weather not too bad either! Cheers David Weather was mainly good all week thanks David. In fact this was the worst day weather wise but it was mainly dry with occasional sunshine. Girlfriend was happy seal watching around the harbour leaving me sufficient time for a decent grice. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Bell Posted August 30, 2022 Share Posted August 30, 2022 Perfect! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DavidBird Posted September 7, 2022 Share Posted September 7, 2022 On 26/08/2022 at 12:50, mallaig1983 said: Apologies if I’m seemingly turning RMweb into Instagram. That’s not the case but I was excited yesterday to get to Mallaig for the first time since I’ve been building the layout. I also went in search of the remains of the slipway and was able to walk around the site and found a small section of the rails. Most of the area is littered with rocks and stones from the building of the road. I also took plenty of useful photos. Sorry to have missed you... 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
mallaig1983 Posted September 7, 2022 Author Share Posted September 7, 2022 1 hour ago, DavidBird said: Sorry to have missed you... We were only there for the afternoon David. We were doing Skye and Lochalsh with the van and popped over for a few hours on the ferry. Pint in the Steam in, fish n chips from Jaffy's, paced out the station building and a general grice. Was lovely to be back after 3 long years. I hope you’re keeping well. ps when did the Spar close? Went in search of venison sausages! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
mallaig1983 Posted September 11, 2022 Author Share Posted September 11, 2022 (edited) Just a quick update on a little progress over the weekend. The yard area between the station platform and the loco shed has now been surfaced. I used the geoscenics pot hole road kit (x2) for this and added different colours as I went. I wanted to represent the grotty look of this area as it was at the time and I’ve used shades of brown in the glue that I soaked it with when layed. I’m really pleased with the result and it was a very pleasant job to do. It’s much finer than the grey ballast I was originally thinking of using and to my eye looks the part. It’s a large area that now needs a start to be made on detailing. This area was filled with junk at the time. I’ve spotted boats, vans with wheels missing, compressor trailers, fishing gear and lots and lots of fish boxes. There’s also another building to make for the corner of this area and a wall and some gates for the entrance. Still plenty to do but it’s starting to look the part. Having paced out the station building a couple of weeks ago, curiously watched by a group of young adults dressed in Hogwarts regalia (I think they thought better than to ask me what I was doing) I’ve been able to scale the rest of the building. I have a drawing but without measurements but my shoe is fortunately exactly 12 inches long so I managed to do that silly one foot in front of the other shuffle along a couple of the walls. So with those two measurements recalculated to 4mm to the foot I was able to measure the drawing and calculate all the other dimensions. So a start has been made this afternoon on a mock-up of the building using old cerial boxes as I have no more greyboard left. Bit flimsy but it will at least show me the size of the structure and give me some idea of how I’m going to put it together. A piece of the far corner had to be trimmed to fit on the layout but I can live with that. A couple of pics of the surfaced yard. Edited September 11, 2022 by mallaig1983 Added extra photo 17 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
mallaig1983 Posted October 23, 2022 Author Share Posted October 23, 2022 A little update to the thread. I’ve been working on the station building over the last couple of weekends having made a mock up a few weeks ago. There’s still a long way to go but I’m happy with progress so far. I’m grateful for all the photographs I’ve taken and those available online from back in the day. These have been invaluable but my greatest asset is the drawing supplied by Rob and the dimensions I managed to translate on to this by pacing it out on my site visit the other week. Thanks again Rob. The component parts are in grey primer and the main building has been assembled. The extension requires windows and doors before I glue it but I thought it was at a stage worth sharing. It’s a slow process and I don’t expect to win any awards but it’s a very enjoyable project to be building at long last. 10 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold young37215 Posted October 23, 2022 RMweb Gold Share Posted October 23, 2022 Looking good so far. You will enjoy the challenge of the roof's, lots of fiddly cutting and cursing required! 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
mallaig1983 Posted October 23, 2022 Author Share Posted October 23, 2022 19 minutes ago, young37215 said: Looking good so far. You will enjoy the challenge of the roof's, lots of fiddly cutting and cursing required! 19 minutes ago, young37215 said: Looking good so far. You will enjoy the challenge of the roof's, lots of fiddly cutting and cursing required! Yes I’ve already been contemplating that joy 😬 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Bell Posted October 23, 2022 Share Posted October 23, 2022 That is looking good. Cheers David 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium 61656 Posted October 23, 2022 RMweb Premium Share Posted October 23, 2022 I haven’t caught up on here for a while, but progress looks amazing. Really impressed! 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DavidBird Posted October 24, 2022 Share Posted October 24, 2022 Are you doing the roof with or without the skylight? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
mallaig1983 Posted October 24, 2022 Author Share Posted October 24, 2022 (edited) 3 minutes ago, DavidBird said: Are you doing the roof with or without the skylight? without David. I don’t think it was still there by 1983. It seems at the time the extension was built the main building got re-slated and it was covered over. Edited October 24, 2022 by mallaig1983 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold young37215 Posted October 25, 2022 RMweb Gold Share Posted October 25, 2022 1982 building view, new slate on the roof and no skylights. 5 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
mallaig1983 Posted October 25, 2022 Author Share Posted October 25, 2022 I’ve been studying this photograph and referencing it against others and it has raised more questions than it answers. Happily I think I have answered the one that had me completely baffled. Note from the BR drawing and my own photograph taken a few weeks ago that they are the same. However looking at the photo Rob has linked at first I thought there was another part of the stone wall where the right hand door should be. It has taken me an hour to work out that this looks to me to be a sheet of ply effecting a temporary repair to a broken window! I can laugh now….. another point I have noticed is that the full height window to the left of the double door in some photographs appears to have a horizontal rail at waist height. This is random as it’s there in a 1977 pic (Tom Noble’s West Highland Mallaig Extension page 58) and in clearly not I’m the 1982 view above. However it is showing in a 1984 dated photograph. All sent to confuse. I won’t be modelling the door in it’s boarded up state 🤣 6 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
mallaig1983 Posted October 29, 2022 Author Share Posted October 29, 2022 (edited) I’ve been working on the station building roof this afternoon. I was expecting the swear box to be brimming but it’s gone surprisingly well. I thought I might have raised enough cash for an Accurascale 37 but sadly there’s only enough for a couple of sugar mice. That said I haven’t yet had a bash at the dorma window roofline so there is still time. Little teeny tiny bit of tweaking required but happy with a good afternoon spent modelling while my footie team were winning, away! Reasons to celebrate. As I seem to be struggling to contain my mojo of late a couple of side projects have also been ongoing. The area around Mallaig station in 83 was very different to how it looks today. It was very big on sheds! I’ve already built the former loco shed (ok it does need finishing) and grounded an Oxford Rail North Eastern banana van but this was a mere scratching of the surface. Other students of 1980s West Highlandness will hopefully recognise the scene that is slowly coming together. A couple of sheds, one large, one small have been scratch built over the last couple of weeks and although require weathering have been placed on the layout out of the way. Again not built with any knowledge of dimensions it’s a work of guesstimations. Finishing required admittedly but guttering and drainpipes etc are on the shopping list for Warley. Edited October 29, 2022 by mallaig1983 11 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post mallaig1983 Posted October 29, 2022 Author Popular Post Share Posted October 29, 2022 (edited) Slowly but surely we’re getting there. Edited October 29, 2022 by mallaig1983 20 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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