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Simply....Superb Ed, thanks for posting. Regards, Ian.

Many thanks Ed for a very comprehensive weathering description and the photo in question, I did try looking again and pleasently viewed hundreds of photos on Flickr but still couldn't find it. I'll try and give the oil paint techniques a go on a suitable subject as you've definately achieved a 'look' that I recognise from the era. Regards, Ian.

The layout looks to be coming on nicely Ted (Ed ?). Can I drag you away briefly, please and just ask if you can remember the source of the background photo on your computer in the post of your excellently weathered class 25 that you posted on Duncan's Shirebrook thread ? (p.29 or 30 I think.) It looks like 25 008 with a class 27 behind and a Gunpowder van in the background which I commented on at the time. I now have a kit for the GP van and fancy having a go at replicating the well weathered state as seen but can't get a decent clear picture of it by enlarging on my screen and a search this morning hasn't come up with the original as of yet. I was very impressed with 25 which you state is hand weathered instead of airbrushed, whilst I have an airbrush available I'd be happy if I could achieve a similar finish by hand if you could offer any details as to how you arrived at this, please. Sorry for the distraction. Regards, Ian.

Thanks for the replies everybody, I've been looking through my box of WHL books recently and rewatching several videos of the line so I can't remember where I'd thought that I'd read or heard this ....I probably just misunderstood something (as usual), anyway all cleared up now. Having looked through the link to 'Irishswissernie's' photos (see Argos's post above) of Oban it makes me realise just how much potential for an interesting 'operational' terminus L shaped layout this offers, if modelled in an era up to the 80's. Food for thought. Kind regards, Ian.

Does anybody know if trains could exit this yard / shed area and procede towards Connel Ferry or did they have to reverse back down into Oban station to collect a token ? I seem to recall that I've read this somewhere recently but it may just be my imagination playing tricks. Regards, Ian.

"I refuse to have any passengers in 1st Class !" ......what, not even one of us (dis)honest 2nd Class citizens, trying to pull a fast one ....and being duly sent back to the masses by the guard ??

Not wanting to trivialise the issue as it's obviously concerning you but the inset on the real building looks quite minimal to me, ie only a few centimetres, which by the time it's scaled down to 4mm would end up only being a 'cat's c#ck hair' by my reckoning. Before you do anything too drastic could you not fit the roof support under the over hang and then maybe just draw a thin vertical pencil line down to represent the inset, place the building where you are going to site it and view it from your normal viewing distance.....it may just look acceptable to you visually, if it doesn't then you've lost nothing but a few minutes of your time. Good luck, whatever you decide, as your previous buildings have certainly set a very high standard for the rest of us to try and achieve. Regards, Ian.

A lovely looking plan / design @Harlequin, I have seen a compressed 3mm scale (14.2) version built and a chap in the Aire Valley MRC has built an N gauge version. It's an area I like to visit and walk regularly in kinder times, the dogs love playing in the river or chasing each other around the pathways .....bacon sandwich and a coffee on the platform on a Sunday morning .....and there's even steam trains and period DMUs to help take you back in time. Regards, Ian.

I suspect that the redness of the real ballast / gravel used on the WHL varies greatly with both age and current weather conditions, ie it will look fairly light pink after a bright sunny dry period yet one of those sudden highland showers that we've all been caught in will really bring that deeper red shade to the fore....and lets face it ....if it's sunny in Arrochar ....it can be lashing it down in Garelochhead ! At the end of the day if it looks right to you .....then it is right. (IMO.) PS - I've stopped worrying too much about the bridge trackbed as when I took your advice and rewatched one of my Cab Ride DVDs it became apparrent the majority of the bridges south of Rannoch have fully ballasted track running over them and if it wasn't for the side handrails you could almost miss them all together, Rannoch though is a bit different. Regards, Ian.

I would have liked to have seen how different the 3F at Butterley looked after it's initial painting in Prussian Blue and then again just before it was withdrawn for overhaul and dismantled.....which was the state I found it in when I finally got myself down there to see it. It would also have been interesting to see how it looked in different lighting conditions and from different distances. I'll have to check out a few photos on the net.

Ford Atlantic Blue has been my choice over the years (which I'm not saying is right or wrong.) Note the difference between the two 3mm scale 3Fs, both undercoated with Halford's grey, both sprayed with Halford's Ford Atlantic Blue, one sprayed with a matt varnish, the other with a satin varnish giving two very different final colours. I do have a tin of Halfords Peugeot Midnight Blue to try at some point....just for a bit more variation !

Bellcode's Railway Memories No.11 Halifax and the Calder Valley is a good book IMHO, as are all of the Bellcode books. The West Riding included some fairly major railway towns and cities with a myriad of routes so generalised books are not very comprehensive as there were many different companies with their individual styles running through the county. There are however a lot of good books based on the different areas within or on individual routes, it depends how deep you wish to delve. Regards, Ian.

Duncan on the excellent Shirebrook (N gauge) thread, p.23 and in particular p.24, did some experiments recently between several different mediums (proprietry ballasts, sands, etc) to best represent ballast in some Seacow hopper wagons to which we could vote on.....the 'best' most realistic turned out to be 'Bathing Sand'.....from Pets at Home, for Gerbil cages ! Whilst it's the wrong colour for the red / pink type you (we) require, it is nice fine stuff and at approx. £2 for a 1kg tub well worth a look at, I've bought some to experiment with for when the time comes. Regards, Ian.

Morning Rob, I was also going to comment on the bridge in the photo as this is currently taking up a lot of my time whilst I try and make this sort feature fit into my new layout. I've been studying photos to work out how practicable (in my case in N gauge) it is to construct this particular style of curved bridge. The stone pillars shouldn't be too much of a problem (most of the trussed bridges seem to have tiered stonework.) I'm looking at the Plastruct range (suitably modified) as a starting point for the straight, crossed truss sections underneath and also for the handrails but it is the curved trackbed deck that I am unsure of as I haven't yet worked out what it's made of....timber ? I'm sure that I took some photos of the underneath of the 'Horseshoe Curve' structures many years ago but they are somewhere in boxes and boxes of slides. I'd be very interested to know how (if you've got that far yet) you are thinking of making this type of structure and how you think the trackbed deck is constructed. Regards, Ian.

Any ideas as to the identity of the 40 ? I'm seeing 40 03x .....definately an ex-named example as you can see the nameplate fixings position.

I originally bought the 4% incline set in complete ignorance of how steep it actually was, recently I conducted a few trials with locos and stock, all be it in a straight line, most of the Farish diesel stuff could handle 6 coaches with relative ease, 2 out 3 of my Dapol 26/27s struggled (I realised that they were only driving on one bogie each ?) Of my steam locos Black 5s and B1s seemed Ok as did J39 whereas strangely my 4F struggled with just 2 coaches ! As the 4% incline wasn't visually what I was looking for anyway and being wary of the strain on the loco mechanisms I've finally managed to get hold of some 2% starter inclines which I am definately more pleased with (the 4% ones will now be used for roads only.) I was very interested in your findings regarding the random uncouplings on your test curves, this has given me further food for thought as I fiddle about with the design of my new WHL layout, as a result I will now use the largest radius' possible as most of my incline / decline sections feature curves. Enjoying the thread, which I found via the excellent Shirebrook thread, hope that you don't mind my brief intrusion but thought that it might be of interest to others also planning to use inclines. Regards, Ian

Just for quick reference - the difference between 2% and 4% inclines using the Woodland Scenics system (apologies for the poor photo.)

Afraid so, that was my 18th birthday.....I seem to remember that I had other things on my mind that day other than trains !

Morning Rob, Love the work on Garelochhead, do you know when the dock siding was removed, please, as I wasn't aware of it's presence until you started modelling it? I was only aware of the 2 sidings (and turntable) at the other side of the platform. Regards, Ian.

Got to start somewhere !!

The van behind the 25 would be an interesting project in weathering !

Evening Grahame, What do you make the scene base from, please, ie. what all of the individual buildings are sitting on ? Regards, Ian.

Morning Rob, Quick question, do you undercoat the Wills walls before applying the acryllics, if so what with please ? They look very effective. Regards, Ian.

Thanks for that, I really enjoyed it ....although I must confess that I thought as it started that it was a repeat of the 'minute by minute' programme that was shown at Christmas which had a lot of shots of the passengers sat at their seats, which I didn't particularly enjoy; I nearly turned it off after passing Tom-na-Faire depot but thought I would watch on past Loch Eil .....glad that I did as this was a very different version than I'd seen before with some great shots, particularly from the drone, enjoyed it enough to make me look out for it as a DVD which is my preferred viewing medium. Regsrds, Ian.