Glenfinnan Station in O Gauge

[lmsforever]

The green colour could have been a scheme that was used for a time I think the blue and white is the current one ,the green does look good along with 37,s . Like your layout looks very close to  real place like the photos.    

[mallaig1983]

On 27/10/2022 at 14:34, thegreenhowards said:

Do you think it would be better if I put two strips of the 3x2.5 above the triangular section so making a 5mm flat section at the top and pushing the triangle down by 2.5mm?

Yes I think that would work well. I am assuming you’ll be viewing the layout from an angle from above and if the chamfer is to high up it could be obscured to the eye by the capping so putting it lower down it won’t be hidden. Should look nice.

 

Worth bearing in mind regarding signal box colour and it did confuse me for a while is why was Mallaig box in Blue and white til the end when others got the green treatment? Simple really, Mallaig box closed in 1982 (merely a covered ground frame thereafter) so wouldn’t have enjoyed a tickle with the paint brush when the new scheme was introduced. Either that or they’d run out of paint by Arisaig 🤣

[thegreenhowards]

I’ve tried the double layer of strip above the triangular section and I think it works better. 
 

On the left is the original attempt with one 3x2.5 strip.

 

 

…and on the right, the double strip.

 

 

Comments welcome.

 

Andy

 

 

[thegreenhowards]

In other developments, my Interfrigo Vans are more or less finished. I think they’ve come out pretty well.

 

The decals are bespoke transfers commissioned from Steadfast Models. I think they’re pretty good and really bring the vans to life. The 3D printed kit went together pretty well but I’m worried about some fragile bits of details which I think will need strengthening somehow - particular the end rail above the platform. 

 

 

 

 

 

[mallaig1983]

4 hours ago, thegreenhowards said:

I’ve tried the double layer of strip above the triangular section and I think it works better. 
 

On the left is the original attempt with one 3x2.5 strip.

 

 

…and on the right, the double strip.

 

 

Comments welcome.

 

Andy

 

 

Nailed it Andy 👍 That looks the job.

[thegreenhowards]

I’ve been finishing off and painting the last of the baseboards recently. Trying to get it finished before the weather turns. As pictures of paint drying aren’t that exciting I haven’t posted anything.

 

However, on Wednesday I took my Interfrigo vans down to SEGOG and gave them a run on the test track in the final formation as in the prototype photo on the previous page. I’m please to report that they behaved themselves.

The 37/4 is fitted with a legimanbiffo sound chip, but the ambient noise was so loud that you can hardly hear it!
 

Andy

 

 

[thegreenhowards]

No real progress in December as the weather was too cold for working outside and my wife didn’t want anything inside before Christmas. But now Christmas is over, I am using the space vacated by the Christmas tree to work on the baseboards one or two at a time.

 

Yesterday, I laid the track on one of the station boards. I’ve decided to glue the track down rather than pin it hoping for quieter running and because the Hornby track pins which I normally use seem to rust outdoors. 
 

I’d airbrushed over the track with ‘sleeper grime’ before the cold snap, so it was ready to lay although I had a bit of a jigsaw puzzle working out which bit went where! Here it is laid and loosely held down with pins before glue.

 

 

I then applied a thin layer of water resistant PVA all over and put the track back down checking again for clearances with two coaches.

I drilled the holes for the dropper wires and put them through before any ballasting, then removed the pins and applied ballast. After an initial application with a commercial ballast spreader, I filled in to the edge of the platform and between the tracks and then evened it off where necessary. As it seemed loose on top in places I then applied some dilute PVA on top and let it dry overnight. It all seems to have stuck and looks quite even. The track is securely held.

 

 

I used woodland scenics brown ballast to give it a West Highland feel. I dithered for a while between coarse and medium, but decided on coarse in the end and I think it looks about the right size compared with photos, but I’d welcome views on this - too late for this board, but I could change for the others.

 

Andy

 

 

 

[RedgateModels]

ah, lovely Cloburn stone, the best ballast there is as long as Network Rail can afford it 😉

[thegreenhowards]

A bit more progress over the last few days. I’ve now got the next board mostly laid using the same method. I’m leaving the last foot to check the alignment leading onto the third board.

 

 

I’ve also started having a go at the platforms. I’m trying to recreate the brown/red stone clippings look as shown in this photo.

 

 

On my version, the one on the right uses fine sand found for £1 at a Bluebell toy Fabre. The one on the left is loose laid with legacy ballast (4mm). I’d be grateful on views as to which is better and any other ideas.

 

Regards

 

Andy

[RedgateModels]

The right hand version looks best to me

[thegreenhowards]

I went with ‘Redgate Models’ suggestion of the right hand version which suited me as it was much cheaper and I had no other use for it! I’ve given each platform two layers and I think it looks OK. I may tone it down a little with a dirt wash when the weather’s warm enough to fire up my airbrush. Here you can see the result with my new toy from Heljan setting the scene off.

 

 

The kink on the left is for the waiting shelter which I haven’t yet built.

 

As for the 27, I think she looks lovely. Heljan have omitted the sandboxes, but they are promised as a separate delivery once the factory reopens from Chinese New Year. Other than that, I think it’s a very good model. 
 

Does anyone know what the light coloured panel on the roof represents. Looking at prototype photos, it’s sometime evident but not nearly so bright. I imagine it only lasted a couple of days looking like this. 
 

Andy
 

 

 

 

 

 

[St Enodoc]

2 minutes ago, thegreenhowards said:

I went with ‘Redgate Models’ suggestion of the right hand version which suited me as it was much cheaper and I had no other use for it! I’ve given each platform two layers and I think it looks OK. I may tone it down a little with a dirt wash when the weather’s warm enough to fire up my airbrush. Here you can see the result with my new toy from Heljan setting the scene off.

 

 

The kink on the left is for the waiting shelter which I haven’t yet built.

 

As for the 27, I think she looks lovely. Heljan have omitted the sandboxes, but they are promised as a separate delivery once the factory reopens from Chinese New Year. Other than that, I think it’s a very good model. 
 

Does anyone know what the light coloured panel on the roof represents. Looking at prototype photos, it’s sometime evident but not nearly so bright. I imagine it only lasted a couple of days looking like this. 
 

Andy
 

 

 

 

 

 

Andy, if I remember correctly (it's nearly 45 years since I worked at Eastfield) it's a fibreglass roof section that you lift off to get the power unit out. It's supposed to be translucent but didn't stay that way for long.

[thegreenhowards]

I went to Model Rail Scotland today.  Interesting to see some WHL buildings on the Peco stand as below.

These were in 00 but I asked about the possibility of then being produced in 0 and the Peco chap said that a few people had asked that and sounded encouraging, so fingers crossed. I have the station and signal box already but the waiting shelter would be great and they should make layout extensions easier!

 

There were some great layouts at the show, although more than a fair share of operating hiccups. Alloa was best in show for me. I spent an hour and a half watching it - superb.

 

Andy

Edited February 24, 2023 by thegreenhowards

[mallaig1983]

49 minutes ago, thegreenhowards said:

I went to Model Rail Scotland today.  Interesting to see some WHL buildings on the Peco stand as below.

These were in 00 but I asked about the possibility of then being produced in 0 and the Peco chap said that a few people had asked that and sounded encouraging, so fingers crossed. I have the station and signal box already but the waiting shelter would be great and they should make layout extensions easier!

 

There were some great layouts at the show, although more than a fair share of operating hiccups. Alloa was best in show for me. I spent an hour and a half watching it - superb.

 

Andy

Im really excited about these kits. Meanach posted a photo on Facebook. They will make a nice change from all the scratch building. 
 

Glad you enjoyed the show. I’m looking forward to the videos on YouTube. 
Next year….

 

Andy

[thegreenhowards]

I’m plodding on with track laying. I now have four Boards fully laid and I’m starting on the wiring. I can only set up thee at once while I’m working inside, so here are the three which form the Fort William end of the layout, firstly looking East

 

 

…and then West.

 

 

I picked up a point kit at Kettering GOG show yesterday to form the turnout at the Mallaig end of the station. So can start laying that board soon - just got to build the point first which I’ve never tried before!

 

Andy

[thegreenhowards]

I also picked up a couple of MTH LMS opens at the Kettering show. 
 

 

What do you want them for you may well ask! Well, @David Bell shared some photos of the SRPS Railtour set from the 1970s which rather inspired me. Particular one at Loch Treig in Anderson’s ‘Diesels in Scotland’ which I can’t show here for copyright reasons but if you’ve got the book look it up. Here is a link to another photo of the train(scroll down).

 

https://www.derbysulzers.com/25035a.html

 

It contained a delightful mix of big four and pre grouping coaches with a few BR mk1 or 2s thrown in as required. So I’ve set myself the challenge of recreating some of it. While these are in BR livery, I think I just need to renumber and add the ‘LMS’, or am I missing something in my ignorance of the LMS?

 

Andy

 

 

[thegreenhowards]

I had a full day on the layout today and got the wiring done on two boards. The first one was the most difficult as it contains 4 of the 5 points on the scenic section. The rest should be straightforward. I’m using Cobalt iPdigital for the mainline points and wire in tube with GM autofrogs for the goods yard.

 

This allowed me to try my first loco under its own power. Not a great vid, but it records a big milestone.

 

 

 

[BoD]

It’s a great feeling when the first loco runs.

The trackwork is looking vey neat.

[thegreenhowards]

As you will have seen above, I’m trying to model the SRPS Railtour train of the 1970s which included an eclectic mix of big four and pre grouping coaches including a pair of Caledonian coaches, a BCK to diagram 111A and a TK to diagram 124 as illustrated on the SRPS museum website.

As far as I am aware no 7mm kit exists for these coaches. But I have spoken to the proprietor of Caley Coaches (https://caley.com/index.php) who produces 4mm kits for these coaches and 7mm kits for some Caledonian coaches. He would be prepared to produce etched brass kits for these coaches if there was enough demand to warrant the cost of c.£200 per coach in preparing the artwork etc.

The cost of the kit itself once the design is done would be c.£100 per coach. So, I feel that if I could find four interested people prepared to pay £50 per coach each to underwrite the cost of the design, we would have a workable proposition with kits at c.£150 per coach. So far, I have one other interested person.

If anyone is interested, please respond to this thread or PM me. If we get to four people, I’ll go back to Caley Coaches and thrash out exactly how this would work. I imagine a deposit upfront with full payment when the kits are ready.

Andy

[thegreenhowards]

I’ve been working on the other buildings for Glenfinnan. I think these will need to be scratch built as I can’t find anything suitable off the shelf. I’ve rarely scratchbuilt buildings before, so this will be a learning curve for me. First up is the lamp hut as shown here.

 

Here’s my attempt at it.

The window frames rather beat me and the close up is cruel, but I think it will look fine on the layout.

 

Next up, I want to have a go at the platelayers (or similar) hut on the western approach as shown here.

 

 

Does anyone have any better pictures of it, or a similar WHL extension version? I’m not even sure whether it’s made of timber or concrete - any thoughts welcome.

 

Andy

 

 

[thegreenhowards]

I did have a busy weekend planned but I’ve got Covid so I’m consigned to ‘barracks’ instead. I’m not feeling too bad, so got on with track laying on the West of the station yesterday and this morning. This has extended from the end of the platforms to two more boards which contain the gentle reverse curve as the track heads West from Glenfinnan as shown here and in the post above.

 

My take on it looks like this.

 

At that point I’d just applied the glue. It’s now under a lot of weight as shown below. Hopefully it will dry over night in the garage and I can do some wiring tomorrow.

 

I’ve now finished the scenic track laying and I’ve just got to think about fiddle yards. Initially it will fit into my garden circuit, but I want to take it to exhibitions as well so will need some portable fiddle yards.

 

Andy

[thegreenhowards]

Those who have been paying attention will have noticed that the last (westernmost) board shown yesterday isn't on the original plan I produced. I've extended the layout to six boards with a small 4'x1'1.5" extension to give the reverse curve. This is the pink board shown in the new plan below.

 

 

I thought this was important as this curve gives some character to the station area and houses the home signal which is necessary from an ops point of view. It also gives me space to provide a scenic break which I will do by bringing one of the concrete road overbridges a few hundred metres closer to the station.

[thegreenhowards]

A momentous day today as I managed to set up all six boards and link them into my modular garden railway test track boards so that I could run the first train through Glenfinnan. This is the view from the loft showing the boards in position.

 

 

They are supported on mini legs made from some 4x2 which I rescued from a loft clearance a couple of weeks ago.

 

 

There are short linking pieces on each end to join to the standard modular structure of the garden railway. 
 

 

I intend to complete the circuit but I wanted to play trains first! I have more garden railway boards to link it up but will almost certainly have to cut one or build a new one to link it all up.

 

Anyway, here are a couple of videos of the inaugural up and down trains. 37408 (my fave) had the honour of the first train (full sound for those who like such things).

 

And 27038 worked the first down train - this is a bit ‘contre-jour’, but is there for the record  (and I remembered to put the signal box in place for this one!).

 

 

Andy

Edited April 3, 2023 by thegreenhowards

[Jeremy Cumberland]

On 13/03/2023 at 09:39, thegreenhowards said:

Does anyone have any better pictures of it, or a similar WHL extension version? I’m not even sure whether it’s made of timber or concrete - any thoughts welcome.

It looks like a standard LNER type D concrete hut/bothy. I expect the left side has a single window in the middle and the far end has a central door with a narrow concrete panel on either side.

 

Intentio and Ten Commandments do kits.

[thegreenhowards]

1 hour ago, Jeremy C said:

It looks like a standard LNER type D concrete hut/bothy. I expect the left side has a single window in the middle and the far end has a central door with a narrow concrete panel on either side.

 

Intentio and Ten Commandments do kits.

Thanks Jeremy,

 

I’d come to the same conclusion and have invested in the Intentio kit. Not sure when I’ll get round to building it as I intend to be outside while the weather’s good.

 

Regards

 

Andy