Dalmunach (ex Cromdale Goods)

[luke the train spotter]

The paints have been out and both 24s are now weathered. I've gone for the standard approach of washes left to dry then removed with a cotton bud followed by dry brushing and powders. I didn't want to create an overly mucky look but capture a well used loco. Here are the 24s pausing by Dalmunach's signal box before continuing with their duties.

 

 

The 24 on the left is the older Bachmann tooling, the one on the right is the newer post 2020 tooling. Without annoying the Sulzer purists I think the older one still holds up well compared to the newer variants, especially once the buffer beam detailing pack has been fitted.

 

Before I left Dalmunach D5149 was captured running push pull with the managers inspection saloon, a rare working on the line, especially on a bank holiday, I suppose that explains the empty goods yard too.

 

[Salop Lad]

Fantastic Luke,really enjoying this project.
 

I took your advice and bought the David Dunn book and can’t put it down.It’s given me additional impetus to make a start on my own GNSR layout and I’ve started to buy some stock as well.Just hoping the manufacturers will bring out some more tablet fitted locomotives soon,apart from the class 20.

[luke the train spotter]

On 06/05/2024 at 21:42, Salop Lad said:

Fantastic Luke,really enjoying this project.
 

I took your advice and bought the David Dunn book and can’t put it down.It’s given me additional impetus to make a start on my own GNSR layout and I’ve started to buy some stock as well.Just hoping the manufacturers will bring out some more tablet fitted locomotives soon,apart from the class 20.

Hopefully we'll be able to follow your progress on Rmweb? Always keeping an eye on ebay/Bachmann spares website for bodies with tablet catchers is worth a shout. I've just bought a tablet catcher body shell for a spare class 20 chassis, much cheaper than having to buy a whole new loco.

[Salop Lad]

Hi Luke.Yes that’s what I did.I bought a Whiskies Galore set as a basis for the layout and got the D8028 body shell from the spares website to make the loco a little more plausible.I’m slowly building up some second hand stock then I will sell my N gauge stock/layout and  make a start.

 

Just one thing……don’t expect a exhibition standard result!

[luke the train spotter]

As I mentioned a bit a short running session on Dalmunach. Just a short video showing a couple of movements and arrivals on the layout.

 

 

[Salop Lad]

Wonderful sounds.Are you considering installing sound into your railbus?

[luke the train spotter]

41 minutes ago, Salop Lad said:

Wonderful sounds.Are you considering installing sound into your railbus?

Thank you, I think in future I might try and edit in a bit of ambient sound to try and give a bit more realism. Sound in the railbus isn't a massive priority, I'd much rather have a new loco than a sound chip. I wish someone made generic steam/diesel/dmu sound decoders at a bit more of a budget market because I'd certainly fit one in that case. 

[Salop Lad]

Oh don’t worry,it’s very realistic Luke and certainly wasn’t a criticism.I only asked as I’ve just bought a second hand rail car and wondered which is the best sound decoder.

[Ian Blenk]

Excellent in all respects, what weathering did you do on the coaches?

[luke the train spotter]

2 hours ago, Ian Blenk said:

Excellent in all respects, what weathering did you do on the coaches?

Thanks Ian. The coach bodies/roofs have had a liberal coat of pre-mixed vallejo black wash which was removed with a cotton bud. The frames have the same treatment but with a bit of brown wash mixed in then some dark earth humbrol powders lightly applied once dry. I use the same method on most of my goods wagons too. 

[Ian Blenk]

17 hours ago, luke the train spotter said:

Thanks Ian. The coach bodies/roofs have had a liberal coat of pre-mixed vallejo black wash which was removed with a cotton bud. The frames have the same treatment but with a bit of brown wash mixed in then some dark earth humbrol powders lightly applied once dry. I use the same method on most of my goods wagons too. 

Thanks for that, in the past I have used thinned Nato black and then removed it with a bud. I will give your method a go. I have two coaches to weather down on CB

[luke the train spotter]

Not much modelling has been happening but that doesn't mean that the trains haven't been out. Here's a couple of before and after photos as close as I can get them to the originals. Most photos are on this thread elsewhere from December - January if you want to look back for them. 

 

 

 

Even though most of the stock/buildings/track has been weathered down the layout certainly seems a lot brighter now. 

 

[27105]

Fantastic modelling and always good too see another Scottish compact layout.

How did you make your totem signs?

 

Cheers

Mark

[luke the train spotter]

37 minutes ago, 27105 said:

Fantastic modelling and always good too see another Scottish compact layout.

How did you make your totem signs?

 

Cheers

Mark

Thank you, the totem signs are a download purchase from Scalescenes which is an editable PDF. These were printed on a standard inkjet printer, given a thin coat of varnish and carefully cut out with a small pair of scissors. 

[27105]

Many thanks Luke for your reply and keep up the good work.

[Kevin Johnson]

Love the video Luke and your Scottish micro layout is looking fantastic 👌 

[luke the train spotter]

A bit of a mini project, perhaps I need a workbench thread to showcase individual projects. Some of the main photos that inspired Dalmumach feature class 20s, specifically D8032 so it makes sense to have a go at modelling it. D8032 managed to avoid having a yellow warning panel painted on it so was still sporting plain BR green in the late 60s. I plan on modelling it in 1966 condition, thankfully there are plenty of Speyside reference photos. One of the most iconic is this one, with a southbound goods accelerating round the bend out of Craigellachie, the River Spey to its left. 

 

 

Bachmann does make this exact model in the correct livery but at nearly £200 that is far beyond my budget, instead I'm going to re-body my older Bachmann (2008 release) model. The body was sources in the correct livery with tablet catcher from the Bachmann spares department. Given this model is heavily based off the 2004 Bachmann tooling, making it 20 years old, I think the loco still holds up well with detail and accuracy.

 

 

The first job was to renumber the loco and add the blue multiple working stars to the buffer beam. I removed the numbers with t cut and cotton buds then finished it off with a fiberglass pencil. The new transfers are from railtec and were applied, left to dry then brush painted with some matt varnish. With the body off the chassis it was a good opportunity to fit a driver figure, a cut down Bachmann figure. 

 

Next job was to fit a 3 piece snow plough seen in the photo above. Even though that was taken in June it appears that most of the locos that frequently worked the Speyside line retained their snow ploughs all year round. The 3 piece snow plough I used was a spare Heljan one I had in the bits box. I attached it in a similar method to the class 24 in a previous post, cutting it into individual pieces and attaching to the bogie with strips of plasticard and super glue. 

 

I had planned on fitting indicator discs however getting Bachmann spares of these seem impossible to get hold of for a reasonable price. Even second hand detailing bags seem to go for £13+ which is a bit more than I'm prepared to pay. Instead I've sourced some etched alternatives from A1 models (2 locos worth for £3 - very reasonable) which means the holes in the body for the Bachmann ones to plug in were filled with some Vallejo acrylic putty. These will need lightly painting over with some BR green paint and will hopefully blend in once I've weathered everything.

 

 

Next up buffer beam detailing, indicator discs an a weathering job.

[luke the train spotter]

As mentioned previously in the thread, I would like to expand Dalmunach at some point and include a small distillery. Today I decided to have a go at mocking up what that could look like. A track plan of this can be found earlier on but it would be a simple extension and addition of one point in the current fiddle yard to create a second scenic area. This would bolt on to the main Dalmunach board like this, extending the total scenic section by 40cm. 

 

 

The foamboard is lent in a little to balance it but the plan is to keep the same presentation style. A quick mock up of the trackwork was completed. In this configuration 2 tracks will exit to the fiddle yard, the one on the left as a distillery siding, the one on the right as the single track branchline.

 

 

However, if I want to include the distillery siding it makes sense to include a distillery building (temporarily mocked up with a skytrex building) but this would significantly restrict the viewing opportunities in an already narrow module.

 

 

I could put the point in on the opposite track but this would run very close to the back scene but that may also make operations more complex as the distillery access would be via the run around loop. I'm very open to others thoughts/ideas/alternative solutions to this. 

 

I think either way I'll more likely be trying to model a distillery complex reminiscent of that at Aberfeldy with its direct rail link seen below. 

 

 

I'll just have to shelve my ambitions of a Dailuaine style complex, below, for another layout, perhaps one with fewer space constraints. 

 

[Dunalastair]

Scope to fit a representation of a pagoda, hopefully, even if low relief / backscene.

 

Probably a more positive representation of the Aberfeldy branch than this, given recent rainfall excesses ...

 

https://breadalbane-heritage.org.uk/aberfeldy-weem-heritage-walk/20-aberfeldy-branch-line/

 

[luke the train spotter]

1 hour ago, Dunalastair said:

Scope to fit a representation of a pagoda, hopefully, even if low relief / backscene.

 

Probably a more positive representation of the Aberfeldy branch than this, given recent rainfall excesses ...

 

https://breadalbane-heritage.org.uk/aberfeldy-weem-heritage-walk/20-aberfeldy-branch-line/

 

 

That's quite a derailment! I agree, a pagoda is essential for any distillery model, ideally I'd like a small bonded warehouse too but that might be a bit too ambitious.

[Salop Lad]

Hi Luke I would be interested to see how your  Class 20 looks when you’ve finished your weathering etc and what techniques you use.