Rannoch Moor

[bcnPete]

Pete - Glad to see you are still following - it might take some time before it is finished - if you ever get up to Scotland you must let me know and come and have a play! ( I mean serious running session of course!)

 

Hey Mark - With my location, it's more a case of if ever I am over in Scotland rather than up in Scotland!!

 

However, that said, many thanks for the kind offer...would love to run some trains...both on Rannoch Moor and Victory Road!!

 

Pete

[Grimleygrid]

Hi Mark, not sure how I missed it but just seen the photo of 60029 on the BP TEAs, superb! The Bachmann bogie tanks are lovely models and do look good in a rake behind a 60, I bet that looked good passing over your viaduct!

[sixteen 12by 10s]

Lewis - I have a few 37's for Rannoch including 37 401 in battered Royal Scotsman livery, 37 422, 37 406 both EWS, 37 411 in Green and WCRC 37676. 37 670 in DB will be joining my fleet at some point soon but sadly no 425 which is a shame as I quite like it in its current condition with yellow patch paint and horns moved to the bonnet top! Being able to run 37's was a factor in building the WHL espically on some interesting freight workings!

 

 

Go on, Jump in the time machine and go back to 1988. 37401 in Intercity, 423 in metals livery and 425 with the proper name(s) on it. Yes, Mary, Murray and Bob.

 

Only playing you up.

 

Just think you can now run GBRF 66's and a red parcels EMU.

 

Gary

[MRDBLUE17]

Hi,

 

Alex - I couldn't resist getting a rake of those BP tanks together and picked them up from a couple of retailers at Wigan show who had them at good prices - didn't want to hang about as the green ones sold so fast and I regret not buying them at the time. This year might be the year of wagons from Bachmann as those cement tanks look really good and the MBA's as well! I saw a 66 the other morning with some car carriers as well just as I was coming into Livingston and after seeing those on the Bachmann stand at Wigan will find a way to add a few of those as well!

 

Gary - that is very bad of you to try and tempt me further! LOL! I was captivated last year by Airthey Park at model rail Scotland and my research for Rannoch on line showed a lot of trains in that era on the WHL and it certainly would look very good but - I would get killed if I went down that route!

 

Thanks,

Mark

[MRDBLUE17]

Hi Everyone,

 

Now I am settling into my new job etc I am finding time to actually get on with Rannoch and have got some real motivation to get it to the standard I want. I have now finished the weathering and detailing of my rake of 6 BP tanks. I still need to photograph these but they look good behind a 37 running through Rannoch! I have also been cracking on with the layout centre piece - Rannoch station building. Whilst I am very happy with the building up to roof line I had somehow stopped all progress until I saw Garys thread and his Scottish station building. The simple idea I took from this was to make a base section for the roof and build up from here. That might sound obvious but just seeing it on there gave me the vision of how to build the roof on mine and whilst it may only be a large rectangle of plastic sheet it has meant the roof is taking shape! I will need to get another pack of Wills roofing slates at Model Rail Scotland on Friday - will anyone else be there then to say hello to?

 

Anyway hopefully below will be several photos of the roof building stages.

 

The first view shows the large rectangle of plastic card from I think a slaters A4 sized sheet. 2 sections were needed due to the length of Rannoch and the second photo shows the sections I cut out to join the two bits together - top and bottom and EMA plastic weld was used throughout.

 

 

 

Where the roof overhangs the building walls the underside of this is clad with boarding - this runs along the building at the sides and along the ends - this was cut from a thin plastic sheet again A4 sized with the board molded on as this was the nearest I could find to the scale of the building and won't really be seen very easily. The roof overhang is supported by beams which from photos the nearest way to recreate the various wooden beams was to use 1.5mm I beam evergreen strip cut to about 18mm and these were glued in place on top of the board sections as near as I could make out from the photos I have found. The ends also have 2 beams and they follow the main beams of the building which should make sense to make the real thing structural sound. The photos should help to make more sense of how this all takes shape

 

 

 

 

The next photo shows the beams and boarding added to one side and end the same process was repeated all round until all sections of the underside were complete. I had inset all the boarding sections so that a finishing section could be made all round the edge of the roof - 2mm evergreen strip was used and fixed with EMA all round.

 

 

 

The final 2 photos show this section of construction completed and are views that you will not be able to see once complete. The first shows all the underside of the roof detail complete and sitting upside down ontop of the building. The second shows it sitting in place. At the moment there is some flex in this but this will not matter as once the roof structure is fitted on top with edging boards and gutters this whole section will make a solid roof that can be lifted off if needed - I still need to glaze the building and after watching trains go by will need to fit some interiors as it is actually quite nice to see trains pass looking through the windows and I plan to fit LED lighting to the outside of the building as seen in night views of the station to create a different atmosphere in gloomy light.

 

 

 

I have already started on the awkward roof sections and after much cutting, guessing angles, filing and bleeding and after some cleaning up using EMA to try and create some seemless joints - more work will be needed here until I am happy but the good news is it is taking shape as planned and I will ad photos of this at some point in the next couple of weeks. Anyway hope you like this proper update at long last with some actual work and if you want to know more or have any questions or comments please feel free to add them as usual!

 

Hope your all well and thanks for looking

Mark

 

 

[Pete Harvey]

Its starting to take shape nicely Mark keep the pictures coming.

 

Pete

[emac]

Looking good Mark Have you looked at the appendix A of the 1944 or 1947 LNER "Story of the West Highland " has a good cross section of the roof I may be telling my grannie how to suck eggs here but if you have not got it I can scan it for you

Have my tickets for Model Rail Scotland just need to get pocket money early from the good lady ;>)

[MRDBLUE17]

Hi Pete & Emac,

 

Glad you like the progress, Emac the scan probably would have been helpful but the roof is already well under way and I will post pics of it at some point soon. I resorted to counting slates on pictures guessing on height and from my original drawings and basically just got on with it by cutting out a couple of sections of slaters roof slates. I got the angle roughly right from this and on the first upper section decided that it needed to be 2 rows deeper so cut a strip of tiles and using EMA got them back on neatly to avoid waste. I got back from Model Rail last night and after getting another pack of slates as I had run out stayed up til 3am to get the main shape finished. I have since got a base coat of rail freight grey as this gave a nice greeny tinge to the roof and filled the gaps with some milliput. Hope you enjoyed model-rail emac - great show and some very good layouts - shame it closed at 6pm as I always go on the Friday as I have plenty of time to see everything in enough detail with it normally being till 8pm and have time to buy all those detailing bits from the specialist suppliers.

 

Thanks,

Mark

[MRDBLUE17]

Hi Everyone,

 

Since my last post of the roof I have already made good progress and most of it is now finished but I have not downloaded all the photos yet to show the state its currently in. As so far I have shown the building taking shape in all stages of construction I thought I would share my more haphazard way of building the roof structure. I normally have quite good perception when looking at photos of the real thing and working out how to recreate this in my model but the angles involved in the roof were a bit tricky and after getting the first of the 2 end sections together I then worked out the size of the side parts before joing them all together using plastic weld. Wills Slates have been used throughout as I thought this would produce the desired effect and would also be rigid enough due to the thickness to give the roof some strength.

 

First I marked out the basic flat shape of the roof outline onto the flat base section already completed. This was done to get a footprint for the upper sloped section of the roof.

 

 

I counted slates from photos found on the internet of the building and then made the first section by cutting out the upper triangle of the roof. This gave me the width of the top of the flatter sloped part and I could then hold this against the flat roof section to mark out the lower edge overhang from the building. I worked this out to be about 3 slates in width as on the real building the rafters run down and support this overhang with edging boards and gutters attached to the edge of these which will eventually be added to the model.

 

 

I joined the two end sections together with a light run of EMA plastic weld so that I could still flex them to get the right angle. I was then able to start on the side sections. I got the lower section right first time having marked out the angle to cut to join the sloping edge but I cut the upper section 2 rows of slates short of the required depth which almost gave the side sections a flat run down as opposed to the reduced angle of slope on the lower section. To avoid waste I was able to salvage the cut outs from between the lower and upper section and cut 2 rows and weld them together again which actually went together well and it is hidden on the rear side of the roof anyway so won't really be seen. I used some white tack just to pose the structure so you could see how it was going to take shape and the final shot shows the several sections required to make the roof. I was short by a sheet so had to wait until Model Rail Scotland to get another pack to finish the job. My only reservation at this stage is the wills sheets are quite short on a large roof like this and there are several joins along each side. I still have work to do to blend these before I will be happy to say it is finished.

 

 

 

 

Hope you like the progress and can see how it is taking shape and questions or comments always welcome.

 

Thanks,

Mark

[magic_monkey09]

 

hows your 37406 going Mark?, Ive just finished off mine and im quite happy with the way it turned out

 

no doubt you'll be interested in the new REX heavyweights eh?

[bcnPete]

Hi Mark,

 

That roof is looking the business - I really can't wait to see the station finished. I am also interested to see how you tackle the joints in the material - tricky one that...

 

I read the other day that one of the Harry Potter movies was filmed on Rannoch Moor - I assume he won't be making a cameo appearance somewhere as the Howgarts Express tackles the viaduct

 

Pete

[MRDBLUE17]

Hi Everyone,

 

Just thought you might like an update on the progress with the roof - these shots were taken once the main structure was built and it still shows some of the cruel edges and areas that still need work on but thought you would like to see the imperfections during the build. I used plastic weld to join all the main sections together and then used milliput to fill in some of the larger gaps in various sections. I have used the wills sheets for the main structure for strength but I am not yet happy with the joints despite filing and trying to get as close a match as possible between sections. The lower edge of the sheets have been cut away at an angle and filed again as I think it looks so much better to get the lower edge of slates looking as thin as possible like the real things are. the corners and roof ridge will be capped with flashing so I am not too worried about the joints here and again once the chimneys go on these will have lead flash around them as well which will sort the roof line out. The flast roof section has also been fixed into the slated structure so the droop in the photos has now been rectified and this there will eventually be an outer battern of wood made from strip with the guttering attached around the lower edge of the slates so all of this will be easy to tidy up. The joints between sheets will need more work and I am going to file some of these smoother and then scribe on the slate joints to try to even all these out better and hopefully once painted and weathered most of these will dissappear. The attached photos show how the structure went together and then filled with the last two showing the main shape of things on the layout with 37 401 on my now finished tank train to Fort William.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Anyway hope you like the progress and I will hopefully get more done this week with being off work! The chimney stacks are built which took a fair amount of time due to the detailing layers on them but will hopefully look good once painted and pots added and I will get some photos done and added soon.

 

Thanks,

Mark

[Pete Harvey]

Mark

 

It's looking very good.

 

What are you going to use to build the rest of the platform?

 

Pete

[MRDBLUE17]

Hi Pete,

 

Thanks for your kind comments - your etching skills certainly have helped as it would not look as good without them! The main platform structure will be built from the thick art card I like to use as I got a lot from one of the cheap student art shops in Glasgow last year and once cut into strips will be glued down with PVA (evostick) which will be nice and solid. The top surface will be finished in the pink scottish granite in sections as the real thing and I can make the edge stones be scribing plasticard. I have also found a suitable sheet that will be cut and painted to represent the dimpled sensory slabs that are next to this and at the moment the main issue is finding suitable brick work like you find in pedestrianised town centres and driveways as this has been laid around the platforms and the building and as a walkway to the footbridge but I can't find anything to match at the moment. The edges from the photos I have seen are a right patched mix of stone, brick and timber what look like old sleepers held in place with sections of rail planted upright - I might have to come to some sort of compromise with this and use stone and some patched brick but not sure yet - depends if I take a trip up there this year and can take all the photos I want to get the detail right.

 

thanks,

Mark

[MRDBLUE17]

Hi everyone,

 

My week of hasn't given me as much time for modelling as I had hoped as had to do some painting around the house but with that done I have found some time to further improve the joints in the roof structure - they are not perfect by any means but have filed down the joints sanded and then scored on some new roof tiles with a knife blade it is looking as good as I can get it on this one and from most angles isn't too bad. I have given it another coat of paint this time with a Humbrol slate grey enamel - the shade looks a lot greener to me than the tin lid but this has actually worked in out for the better as the station building at Rannoch does have a more green hue to it that the entrance building and signal box which have a more grey, purple tint to them. I am letting this harden properly before weathering and adding a few more subtle shades to different slates for a bit more realism. Once this is done the lead flashing will be added at the angles and around the chimneys. These are now built using wills brick sheets - due to the shape of these I counted brick courses in photos and then decided the only way to build up the layers was to cut the wills sheet into thin sections row by row and at different thicknesses to get the right shape to each chimney stack. This was a slow pocess and has taken the odd hour or two each night for a 2 week period but I am happy with how they have turned out - the single centre stack I made first and when I showed the wife she thought it had come out of a packet and I was just adding some paint to it. She doesn't normally comment so they must look ok. The cement rendered tops are made from milliput and the pots are made from plastic rod and strip on the square one with the rims made from very thin plastic strip rod scaped with a knife to get a flat edge and then wrapped round with EMA plastic weld to fix them in place. Not the easiest method but I had the materials in and I fancied having a go at some fine detail parts. I have so far painted the pots and the brickwork and just finished adding the cement motar colours. They will get my final treatment next of using 3 shades of enamels to pick out brick details and then finally weathered down a bit. The third stack has the top section rebuilt with newer brick which also needs to be painted in a more orangy red shade as well. Thought you might like to see how they are progressing:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hope you like them and thanks for looking,

Mark

[MRDBLUE17]

Hi Everyone,

 

Pete - I have seen some pictures of the Hogwarts Express getting watered at Rannoch - If there was a decent model of the loco it would be considered and may yet get added at some point as the Hornby model can be picked up cheaply and then could add some sound and steam! If I were to exhibit it in the future I could create some Harry Potter type add on features such as Harry Potter on a Broomstick and the flying Anglia off the viaduct - the wife would probably take an interest as she is a Harry Potter fan.

 

I have had some fun last week on the landscaping - as you will have seen from past posts I like to use polystyrene blocks to form my landscape and then cut and break bits off to shape. I then use wall paper paste and torn up bits of paper bags, brown parcel paper and even some lining wall paper as the valley is quite large to cover to form a sort of sturdy paper mache ground cover. As I learnt from other people on here the cheap hanging basket liners seem to be very good at creating a textured ground cover base layer which I can then add everything else too when I get the chance such as gorse, heather, brachen etc. I left the paper to dry out for about a week and have so far added the grass base cover to the south end. Here are some progress pictures th first 3 show the south end and the grass bank will help to blend the base board joint more easily.

 

 

 

 

The viaduct end sees the nearest thing I have to represent a Scottish LL machine but Tinsleys Viking doesn't quite cut it with the BP tanks in tow, but gives an overview of the work at this end. Due to living in an old flat built around 1890 the floors are not level and the board at this end of the room is the hardest part to work on in situ as I had to cut the angle so it fits in behind the door. The other thing is the viaduct curve actually has quite a sharp gradient at the start of it which gives locos under DC control a bit more realism when starting out of Rannoch. DCC control will help to smooth this out.

 

 

 

Anyway hope you like the progress - I'm off to have a play thanks to Rail Express with my new loco - runs great unlike the real one sadly!

 

 

Thanks for looking,

Mark

[Grimleygrid]

Hi Mark, looking good. I just love your viaduct, it was made for a Scottish LL 37/4!

 

The DB Tractor looks a nice model, I didn’t order one of those due to funds being allocated to my new project but quite fancy one after seeing it on Rannoch Moor. It will look good passing over the viaduct on a charter!

[P.C.M]

Hi Mark,

You are making good progress on the layout, the station building looks superb.

What are your plans for 37057? it wouldn't take much work to turn it into a Scottish loco.

 

Cheers Peter,

[sixteen 12by 10s]

Arrrr at last, a Large Logo machine, looks good and I would assume its a Bachmann sound fitted model. I have heard it said that the sound is not so good because of the speaker positioning under the rad fan grill. The sound sample was taken from another real West Highland Machine 37190 (37314). 37314 will be entertaining the crowds at the GCR diesel gala on the 17-18/04/2010.

As for a suggestion for a more appropriate number, what about 37027 Loch Eil

 

Love the station building a those chimneys have taken some work but the effect is a classy bit of modelling.

 

 

Gary

[sixoh8sixoh]

Your model of Rannoch Station is superb! I've been planning a layout based on Fort Augustus (though sadly I don't have the room!). The Fort Augustus station building looks a little like the Rannoch one, I think...

[bcnPete]

Hi Mark,

 

I have said it before (and will probably keep saying it) but the simplicity of this layout is excellent - there can be no more than 4 points (?) on the scenic side and the combination of the viaduct and the station form a nice balance and will become quiet backdrops for the stars of the show, the detailed rolling stock!

 

A LL 37 winding its way through the station and across the viaduct on a long freight is something I really look forward to seeing - perhaps you can post a few simple vids if you decide not to exhibit it?

 

Keep up the great work - its very inspirational.

 

Pete

[1722]

Simply brilliant. Can't wait for further progress. Looks stunning.

[MRDBLUE17]

Hi Everyone,

 

Thanks for all the positive comments I am really glad you like the progress and the layout in general it makes it so worthwhile sharing it all with you on here plus I get to see your work and get so many more tips and ideas which I can put to use on my layout. As I was off today I stayed up late last night to finish off the chimneys, by picking out some bricks in highlight colours to add abit of depth to them and also the top brickwork on the rebuilt one. I then used some railmatch weathered black to dyrbrush them and give them a suitbale worn sooty appearance which has finished them off nicely. I also decided to give the roof a second coat of Humbrol enamel slate grey so finally went to bed at 3am. I have detailed the front end of 37670 as well and currenty working on my wiring plans for the layou at present there are lots of neat droppers in red and blue with the point motors in as well but I still need to do the rear storage board with all this and buy some point decoders - I am going to use a Bachmann module for the scenic board with 4 outlets and I have found the Lenz one has 6 outputs so think this will work out the best route to take but need to get hold of some hopefully quite soon. I am also working on a design for the main modern platform lights using LED's and some brass tube which is yet another job on the list of many things I want to get done. I will try and add some more photos soon. After you all liking the 37 I am not sure you will like my long term plan for this one - I really like modelling DRS engines and I am thinking that this would be a good base model for 37 087 with some nose end work and some even finer work on the cantrail grills to match the prototype but we shall see as the Bachmann release of 37415 will also be a suitable machine that I have seen cropping up whilst researching the line on the net.

 

Thanks,

Mark

[bcnPete]

Hey Mark,

 

Forgot to ask in my last post - how will you be treating/dealing with the scenic breaks to the fiddle yards at each end? Are they tunnel mouths or will you disguise with lots of trees etc?

 

Pete

[MRDBLUE17]

Hi Pete,

 

Funny thing really but last night whilst running 37670 I was just thinking about how to hide the fiddle yards a bit more - the North end off the viaduct is much simpler in some ways as I am building the small rusted metal footbridge and as this bank is steep will be looking to forest it with pines etc. The bridge face is made and although this section is very much a compromise to the real thing it takes elements such as the footbridge and the valley and viaduct are of the style found on the line so a bit of modellers licence can come into play. The south end is bascially a hole in the sky but looking at photos there are a few trees about so won't be too bad - the only really issue is when ou view from the front at each end of the layout as you are looking straight through them which you don't get on most layouts but I wanted to use the corner space to create that more open feel and also to get in some very key scenic features like the cottage and lane at the south end and the viaduct at the North so seeing through the fiddle yard entrances isn't to bad a compromise - time well tell how well these get blended!

 

Thanks,

Mark