luke the train spotter

Thank you. I'm not an expert at all when it comes to Western Region but looking at photos I'd suggest that the GNSR colour scheme used on the Speyside line is a slightly more muted and undersaturated. I think the warm white lighting on the layout makes my buildings look on the more yellow side of cream in photos when in reality they're slightly tinted off white. For all the buildings the brown is Vallejo flat earth and the white is Vallejo off white with a tiny amount of Vallejo light sand mixed in. I found this closely matched the contrasting look of the Speyside buildings especially at Ballindalloch, Carron and Knockando, see below. However, some of the buildings at Craigellachie have a much warmer hue much similar to the Western Region colours. I imagine that frequency of repainting and small tonal differences between paint tins means that as long as it is close enough it is probably accurate. I think the levels of light taken at the different stations probably don't help either but worth knowing that there was variety along the line.

The beck looks excellent! What resin did you use?

The workshop wall looks fantastic, love the colours and shades going on there.

A couple more of the 20 during yesterday's running session, I think the low angles work really well to make this small space more immersive.

The track weathering with the thinned enamels looks fantastic, might have to steal that technique.

Catcott Burtle is a very inspirational layout! The level crossing looks great there, lots of potential for some really nice photo angles.

After a pretty full on week back after Easter some modelling time was definitely required, so a Saturday running session was in order. I'm currently working on a small class 20 project, weathering and converting my current 20s to suit a more Speyside-ish condition. So far D8101 has only had a weathering treatment but may get renumbered at some point. My other 20 will be going into D8032 in 1966 condition as photographed by John Boyes, once a new body arrives from Bachmann spares. Anyways, here's D8101 shunting the yard at Dalmunach before heading down the branch with a very short pick up goods.

A great article, the photos have captured the layout really well.

A couple photos I took at York. There's quite a few videos of the exhibition on YouTube, maybe worth a search to see a few running shots?

With the bits I picked up from the York show last weekend I've made a start on the platform detailing. Looking at pictures and videos of the Speyside line of in the 60s it's clear that the platforms were very minimalistic. John Boyes even documents a class 20 running a service removing platform furniture so some later photos show essentially barren platforms. I wanted to try and mimic this sparseness which requires a lot of restraint. I've settled for a basic sign, couple of empty casks (Skytrex) and a couple benches (York Models). I've got a couple of Modelu figures to paint up but I think I'll place these at the goods shed end of the platform so they are only visible from a couple angles, after all it's a station with dwindling passengers. Whilst I was at my parents over Easter I picked up my 4mt standard tank, numbered as 80126 which regularly ran the Killin line, perhaps it transferred to the Speyside once the Killin line closed. Here it is on its first passenger service to Dalmunach. The 2 coach train just squeezes into the platform and runaround loop. Another unusual visitor to the Speyside line, a class 17, also makes an appearance as a recent purchase being run in and chipped to add a bit of variety to the freight traffic. Since these locos struggled on larger freight trains I imagine that it's fairly plausible that one was transferred to the Speyside area to work the much less demanding freight trains, especially since the trains to Dalmunach aren't longer than 6 wagons.

'Sputnik' aka the local railbus service pauses at Dalmunach before running back down the branch. I don't suppose anyone has replaced the destination blinds and made their own?

With paper backscenes you want to be really careful applying them, just like you would do a phone screen protector. I find using as little glue as possible (but using a strong glue like wood glue or a high quality pva) and using a credit card or ruler to smooth out the air bubbles as you go. Perhaps sanding back some of the gloss paint on the backscene boards would give the glue a bit more purchase too? Looks good as is currently though.

With some time off for Easter I can look forward to progressing with the layout. The most recent progress has been with the signal box, making a basic interior leaver frame from plasticard and bits of wire and painting up a Modelu figure having a tab on the balcony part of the box. I imagine that on a station which only has a few years left in it there's plenty of time for breaks. And then onto the layout with a couple drops of wood glue. I'm quite proud of how this signal box saga has turned out so it would be nice to repurpose it on a future layout. You can only just make out the levers but it's certainly better that they're than not. The roof is still loose so I may add some lighting at some point, if I can get over my fear of having interior lights on when the layout is clearly operated in the day. Today I made the trip to York Model Railway Show, which is nice to continue an Easter tradition after covid. A really nice show, not much in the way of anything Scottish but a great mix of layouts/trade/etc, I managed to pick up plenty of detailing bits for Dalmunach but the highlight was seeing Port Pennan again, although non operational as it was incredibly inspirational to me and you can probably spot a few similarities with it and Dalmunach! Sadly this was under morbid circumstances as Ken Gibbons ,the layout builder, has passed on but his creative influences live on. An original classic Scottish micro!

I agree! I'm planning on picking up some static grass tufts at York and getting some of the scatter out too.

Thanks! I bought the seafoam from Gaugemaster but my experience with other retailers is that it's all the same stuff really. A box certainly goes a long way, I used about 1/3 the box for all the trees on Dalmunach and plenty of smaller ones for shrubs. The WWS tree spray is fantastic and makes the process super smooth and fast even if it is a bit more expensive than a can of hairspray which some others use. I'd say just go for it and experiment, WWS do some good YouTube videos I've used for reference in the past.