Aberkeld Jcn-Highland Mainline in the early 1990s N Gauge Code 40 Finescale

[JBM37404]

Here I go again switching from one gauge to another and back again. I have had much work going on in the house and my O gauge Terence Lane Shunting plank has spent much time on its side with little work done, That said its not a huge task to finish it off so my thoughts turn to the next project.

 

I have missed being able to run full length trains in model form and have an itch to return to some Scottish modelling which I had last done when I was a teenager around 30 years ago. Around that time I managed to get up to Scotland for what would be the final summers of loco haulage north of the border over the next few years. Fantastic it was to walk on to the concourse at Inverness and see a pair of Type 3s at the head of 1S25 Sleeper from Euston. The stock would be in for the 10:15 Edinburgh service and the 10:40 Kyle Service also. Not to mention what was on the depot and other trains that were booked haulage at the time. Anyhow my initial thought was how about Inverness in model form and set about on Anyrail trying to figure it out. I got some plans done given that I have approx 12ft X 3ft to work with. However the triangle layout is a bit awkward and requires some compromising.....

 

With time to ponder alternatives I thought no more stations, depots, fuel points wagon works etc. How about a scenic layout thats got some railway in it as opposed to a railway with some scenery dotted around it.  The more I thought the more its appeal grew on me. A bit of fast railway that goes double track to single and sweeps over a viaduct at one end. The other end which is double line can have a trailing crossover and a junction off to some distillery sidings and a tired old freight only branch serving a distillery further on.

 

Given the space I hope that the scenery will dominate and the railway will be just a part of it. I hope to incline the track towards the viaduct and put plenty of Cant on the curves to give it a mainline feel. Also use finescale track which will mean handbuilt points but these will look better for the effort I hope (will be my first go at this...)

 

I cant wait for this one I am slowly getting stock together and trying to figure out what I need to learn and plan properly next to get there with it...

 

J

Edited April 21, 2022 by JBM37404
Extra info

[PjKing1]

Looking forward to your progress John 

[Drew-1986]

Any updates on this?

[JBM37404]

Finally some progress, I have been waiting on a garden building to be constructed which was done just a couple of months ago. The baseboards arrived from MRS and were duly constructed. Behind the scenes finescale flexi track was constructed and now the final tweaks to the plan a going on. I have decided in keeping with the area that the line will feed in and out as a single track. That will mean trains passing. Also as I will be on my own operating it most of the time it's a bit easier. I am bugging a friend over some possible occupancy detection stuff  before the signalling is finished and hope to start laying track soon....

 

J

[PjKing1]

Looking good mate, I love the fact that with 2mm you can fit full length trains into a decent space with room to spare.

 

Paul

[JBM37404]

4 minutes ago, PjKing1 said:

Looking good mate, I love the fact that with 2mm you can fit full length trains into a decent space with room to spare.

 

Paul

Cheers, that's my motivation, also the scenery can dominate hopefully as I am limiting to track to a handful of sidings. The N stuff has come along way now and once dome weathering and detailing is done holds its own. Just got to stop dropping small detailing parts on the floor!

[PjKing1]

4 hours ago, JBM37404 said:

Cheers, that's my motivation, also the scenery can dominate hopefully as I am limiting to track to a handful of sidings. The N stuff has come along way now and once dome weathering and detailing is done holds its own. Just got to stop dropping small detailing parts on the floor!

I got some of the fine scale code 40 flexi last year for a small project I’ve never got around to starting and it’s very good.

 

Paul

[JBM37404]

26037 after some weathering and headlight added. Still some work to do with the airbrush but couldn't resist a shot in the sunshine.

[JBM37404]

Installed first point motor last night, gone for cobalt digital for all points so got a large box of them. In a change to the plan I have scrapped the gradient and short branch and the track will remain on the level. I was not happy with the track laying and the look after using woodlands risers. I am also not using Cork underlay now after giving it a go and will lay track straight on the board.

 

My new plan is to have a walthers grain terminal and 3 sidings with a headshunt and still have the mainline and passing loop also. 

 

After many choice words the point motor worked last night which I was pleased with as I have never put one in before despite 30 odd years of modelling.

[JBM37404]

Put some super elevation on the end curve round to the fiddle. Looks alright I think but am going to test it a lot before ballasting etc. Cheers John

[JBM37404]

So on a few rest days I got some more track down. Laying code 40 has to be done with a bit more care than peco I have found. If your working with tools near it and slip then it can easily cause irreparable damage to the rails meaning that's got to be relaid. I also started putting in the first fiddle yard line and a point with the cobalt motor mounted on the baseboard as opposed to underneath. This was due to the underframe leg support being in the way underneath but I wanted the point in that location.

 

I have also been working out what traffic to use the Yard for. I wanted to keep the Whisky theme going to shunt my NGS polybulks. So that is for one siding. The next siding will be for export whisky. This traffic will go out in ferrywagons and I have a roco one already which will need re wheeling. 3rd siding will be Timber traffic as I have some OTAs already done. 

 

As my layout will stick to 1993 by this time I think grain traffic had more or less finished. The last trains used to go to Roseisle near Elgin IIRC but I'm inventing a grain terminal here. This is well located for Bells in Pitlochry and Dewars in Abefeldy plus it could easily be roaded to Speyside or any other Distilleries from my terminal as its pretty much centre of Scotland. 

 

Speedlink finishing saw a lot of this type of traffic end so my story is that a Block train comes up from Whitemoor for the Polybulks. The ferrywagons will take Whisky to Dover and the train ferry into Europe. Timber can be detached off the Dee Marsh to Elgin train,loaded up and tripped back to Mossend.

 

A lot of rule 1 going on here as I remember the Highland Mainline was pretty much just a passing point for all freight by the 1990s with far more action going on around Aberdeen and on the line from there to Inverness.

 

It's all a what if but that's what some of us do and I am enjoying the build so far even if some learning curves are a challenge!

 

John

 

[JBM37404]

Tested the Sleeper set vid here:

https://youtu.be/o7NL694qY7I

 

Had some major issues with Chivers OTA wagons. They won't take the 2nd radious curves at the ends of the layout can't think of a solution tried every coupler going in my spares box. Anyone else used these wagons with success on curves?

 

Cheers 

 

John

[87023Velocity]

2 hours ago, JBM37404 said:

Tested the Sleeper set vid here:

https://youtu.be/o7NL694qY7I

 

Had some major issues with Chivers OTA wagons. They won't take the 2nd radious curves at the ends of the layout can't think of a solution tried every coupler going in my spares box. Anyone else used these wagons with success on curves?

 

Cheers 

 

John

Hi John,

 

I had similar issues regards the couplings then had an idea to use the Farish sprung coupler pocket from some redundant bogies (the generic type for the Farish 100t tanker and Freightliner flat). These were mounted on the OTAs and seem to work alot better and will negotiate the tightest curve in my fiddleyard at 9inch radius and also reverse crossovers in the fiddleyard. 

The other issue is trying to get sufficient weight in them.

Cheers

 

Simon

[JBM37404]

23 hours ago, 87023Velocity said:

Hi John,

 

I had similar issues regards the couplings then had an idea to use the Farish sprung coupler pocket from some redundant bogies (the generic type for the Farish 100t tanker and Freightliner flat). These were mounted on the OTAs and seem to work alot better and will negotiate the tightest curve in my fiddleyard at 9inch radius and also reverse crossovers in the fiddleyard. 

The other issue is trying to get sufficient weight in them.

Cheers

 

Simon

Thanks Simon, I will try some similar couplings.

 

 

Cheers

 

John

[JBM37404]

Grain elevator done from the Walthers kit, needs painting and weathering but I wanted it done for perspective planning as I need to figure out backscene height etc. Also can be seen an OTA in the back ground that came off one of the curves due to the previously mentioned coupling issues.

 

Cheers

 

John

[JBM37404]

37156 waits on the weathering work. Nose catches added, shawplan fan names and numbers plus finer Ariels. 

[JBM37404]

Latest acquisitions, a 37428 fresh from the new releases and have managed to cobble 4 green and cream coaches together for a Kyle set which although not common on the Highland Mainline did use to put in appearances from time to time such as going South to get on the Wheel lathes in Edinburgh Craigentinny. Once again needs to get in the queue for weathering. Now need to get some serious scenery and trackwork done despite having some leave lately our hols meant I was away and the airline on the way back caused so much fatigue I have been in a tired state all week.

[JBM37404]

Started building the box from a severnside kit. Well impressed and doing the inside also. This is the most important building on the layout from my point of view!!

[JBM37404]

Must confess to some motivation slip lately, I am not getting the time (work and house improvements combo) to get some serious progress made. I tested a Dapol HST round the track which had the dummy car run very badly. The front bogie appears to have the rear wheels lift off the track when pushed  which needs investigating and two coaches in the set have couplings which uncouple on curves as something is up with the pivoting action they should have.

 

I'm half tempted to rip up and cut the curves out at least at one end and just have an in/out but I think I am being too hasty....

 

In the meantime I built a scale model scenery light tower. Really nice looking model but very delicate as you would expect. Picture below.

 

 

John

[JBM37404]

Managed to test a full length HST round the track. Getting to the point now we're most track is down and just making sure most of my stock goes round smoothly. Also nipped to the DEMU showcase and bagged a pair of Revolution Holdall Cargowaggons. These are absolutely amazing models and set the bar even higher than recent farish and Dapol releases. Also had a nose at the 158 which was a EP in the Bachmann/Farish cabinet. Most folks were looking at the 4mm 37 which is a cracking model but not tempted to purchase one myself.

 

Also arrived in the post was  my Absolute Aspects signals one of which I placed on blu tack on the boards. Looks great. Just got to figure how I'm going to control them.

 

Cheers

 

 

John

 

Edited August 1, 2022 by JBM37404

[DavidMcKenzie]

Just stumbled upon this thread. It's really taking shape already. The Walthers grain elevator kit building makes a nice focal point for the layout and the trackwork looks very nice in code 40 👍. 

 

All the best,

Dave 

Edited August 7, 2022 by DavidMcKenzie

[JBM37404]

13 hours ago, DavidMcKenzie said:

Just stumbled upon this thread. It's really taking shape already. The Walthers grain elevator kit building makes a nice vocal point for the layout and the trackwork looks very nice in code 40 👍. 

 

All the best,

Dave 

Thanks Dave,

 

Code 40 is nice, been soldering droppers for a few months now so was pleased to do the last one yesterday!

 

John

[JBM37404]

37428 waits on as 37156 and 37133 restart the southbound sleepers. Lots of behind the scenes work gone on. I have tried foam board for the basic backscenes as I'm going for a trees and rock back ground. Problem is that the back scene foam boards warped after emulsion was used. Should have googled etc. Going to leave them a few days and see if they straighten out.

 

Cheers

 

John

[jonhinds]

Impressive stuff so far!

[JBM37404]

Done a bit of Rock face which is the back scene or relief if you like. Insulation board hacked about then undercoated with grey emulsion and some woodland scenics earth colours dabbed about.

 

Cheers

 

John