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Interesting pair of wagons that the bodywork is sitting on, wooden solebars, anybody any ideas ? (Maybe one to repost in one of the wagon threads ??)

I'd be interested to know how you cut through the rails Andy, please, I'm assuming slitting disc in a mini drill but that always makes me feel that the cut will be on an arc due to the body diameter of the drill being larger than the fragile slitting discs ?? (Or do you cut diagonally downwards so that one part of the cut sits above the other ?? .... Hmmmm ?) In the past I've used a piercing saw between the two boards but I've only been cutting say a couple of tracks worth unlike your project. Or am I just over-thinking this ? Regards, Ian.

Just looking through 'The North British Type 2' book by Anthony Sayer which has the first blue Class 21/29 as being D6109, first noted 13/01/67 (not on the WHL I might add) so your wariness of the date published in the MLI issue is again supported as being 1968 and not '66. (D6109 was apparently a Class 21 with several Class 29 fittings but couldn't be fitted with a Paxman engine due to it's bedplate so was refitted with a refurbished MAN engine and didn't last very long due to minor collision damage.)

You are not alone, Bob, I've got a room full of such purchases that I question myself about on a regular basis, agree that sometimes things just have to be bought when they are available .... but I now can't get into the room to do what I should have been doing originally and could probably have afforded to retire a couple of years sooner !! LoL. Regards, Ian.

It seems that Colour-rail.com may be the place to find some 1966 West Highland shots having just looked at MLI Plus No.251 which features an article entitled 'Troublesome NBL Type 2s' in it. On p.25 there is a colour photo dated 15 Aug 1966 showing blue D6119, a 12T van, Maroon SO, Blue Grey CK and a Maroon BSK approaching Morar heading to Mallaig . Hope that this answers one of your questions. Regards, Ian. (PS - PM sent.) As a result of the PM sent and a check on the Colour-rail website the 1966 date may well be a typo for 1968.

Came across this photo yesterday whilst looking for something else in Fred Castor's 'Bargain Bucket Finds' Flickr album (photographer unknown.) Thought I'd post it here if only to help me decide which version to order before it's too late, have spent too much lately and they don't really fit into any of my current projects but somebody mentioned earlier about 151xxs being at a certain Welsh docks which with a bit of a stretch of the imagination may have been lent to another Welsh dockyard ... just for testing you understand. (Hmmm ... 1 or 6 ??)

As usual ... late to the party ... despite carrying my BRM showguide around all Sat afternoon and supposedly 'reading' the contents on Sun I failed to pick up on this very welcome news until this morning ! 965006 a definite for me and one other yet to be decided as I've loved these little locos for years and have enjoyed watching the clips that people have posted. Not used at the place I am basing a little shunting puzzle project on but as my version will be under a different name I can easily make room for the fireless locos as they were used in the same industry elsewhere. Looking forward to these arriving. Well done Rapido. Regards, Ian.

I've got one !! (Well nearly) The photo is by an unknown photographer but posted on Flickr courtesy of Fred Castor in his 'Bargain Bucket' album. This is the only definite 1966 image that I've found so far with a connection to the West Highland and whilst not actually taken on the WHL it does at least tell you what livery this particular loco was in that year (being taken in Nov.) There are two other WHL photos in this album which 'could' have been taken by the same photographer on the same trip but both are undated, one showing a Class 20 in FW shed, the other being of a Green Class 27 being passed at Corrour by the photographer's train in which it seems he is travelling in a blue/grey coach .... but I'm afraid with no date given it's just supposition on my part. For some reason there don't seem to have been many photographers out and about on the WHL in 1966, either chasing the last of steam down south .... or watching the World Cup ! I'll keep looking, Regards, Ian.

Jet car ??

BTW ... I was in 2ktechnologies model shop today, Hipperholme .... there's another 7 of the orange 'Hoveringham' lorries in there just waiting for redeployment to Hargreaves !! LoL.

Thanks Simon, you just beat me to it whilst I found it again, I misinformed earlier saying that it was in Mallaig Jct yard but at least it had to travel through it LoL ! I believe a few Dance Halls were modified by the Southern region in 1953 to create mess/tool vans by planking over one of the verandahs. It's the only photo I know of this one on the WHL that I've found so far. No date with the photo but the PBA (PAB ?) covhop on the left were only used on the alumina traffic during the mid 80s. Regards, Ian.

Thanks for the reply @McC , I certainly won't be cancelling and now that I've opened an Accurascale account I can get on and pre-order some Pannier tanks for another project when I work out which ones I'd like. Regards, Ian.

I managed to dig my way into my supposed 'modelling room' this afternoon and found my copy of 'Ethel and Angela Jane,' suffice to say that your Mk.2 version is looking pretty good, Dave (not that I expected anything else !) Probably a bit late in the build to offer any help to you but it's amazing the difference in displacement between an unladen boat and a fully loaded one. Not sure whether you have this little publication or not but there is a photo of 'Prodesse' being loaded at the Calder Grove, British Oak loading staith which clearly shows a full chute with possibly 2 'gates' in it to control the flow of coal down into the boat as there is no wagon present on the unloading level. I also wondered about how the boats were loaded and am now thinking that maybe the boat reversed until the cabin was just past the chute bottom and then a base layer was filled towards the bow in say 3 drops as the boat continued to reverse, the 4th drop then being put on top of the 3rd finishing with the 6th on top of the 1st as the boat moves forward. These load drops would just about match the amount of coal between the aforementioned gates in the chute, though different sized boats could maybe take 4 or 8 drops per load as suggested in some of the photos. This is pure speculation on my part and may be wide of the mark as looking again at the photo of 'Prodesse' it would by my reckoning be on drop 5 but is still sitting quite high in the water all be it higher at the stern than the bow, so maybe only 3 drops being needed to fill the boat fully from bow to stern .... I'll PM you the photo shortly so you can see what I'm waffling on about. There's also a useful boat 'key' naming all of the different parts which I'll send. Sorry for the ramble. Regards, Ian.

Likewise, I've also had confirmation emails that my pre-order is now in my Accurascale account. One final question though .... do I need to reply to the email to confirm to Accurascale that I still wish to proceed with the order ? I seem to remember something being mentioned about this otherwise the order will be deleted after 2 weeks. Regards, Ian

Hello Stephen, The HEA in railfreight Red/Grey livery was/is already on the Backmann Farish website (p.1 wagons) as a still to be re-released model .... I've had some on order for a couple of years or so now, just checked this morning and it has now moved from "awaiting" status to May/June. Agree that it's not the sharpest of models by today's standards , I will probably replace the ladders with etched ones to improve things slightly. Hope this is of use. Regards, Ian.

Dance Hall brake was one that I've been hoping for ... one (modified) Engineer's version made it as far as Mallaig Jct yard in the 80s. Also pleased to see the Mk1 FOs to complete a West Highlander tour train as the white roofed BCK that I bought a few years ago looks a bit lonely !

Many thanks @sleepyrider, now pre-ordered without issue once I had created an account and even allowed me to use my newly given reward points ! Regards, Ian.

Morning Rob, I'm afraid that I've no experience of the deep water product but £80+ does sound a bit expensive (to this Yorkshireman's ears) to produce a relatively small Loch, would varnish over a subtley painted flat piece of board not work ? You could at least try this off layout on an offcut to see the effect, likewise a piece of painted (on the underside) Perspex might work ? Layouts that spring to mind featuring this type of method would be Bassenthwaite Lake and a layout that I very much like and saw at the weekend, Sandy Bay, which has a thread on here but does represent the sea rather than a Loch but the harbour area will be of interest to you. Both are N gauge but the techniques would apply here and Sandy Bay is very much the inspiration behind my (hopefully) forthcoming Mallaig Line inspired layout. (Ground work p.2, painting and varnishing p.3) Regarding the photos in your last post, I think the foreground water in the 2nd photo suits your space very much. The other area to look for inspiration would be Rannoch Moor maybe even looking at non-railway images as when I use the A82 I certainly pass by many small Lochs up on the section between Bridge of Orchy and up and over to the beginning of Glen Coe. A note on the 2nd photo by Allan Mitchell is that it shows the Blue Grey coaches that were used in the first season of the steam hauled services in 1984 before they were painted into the Green and Cream livery, note the terrier mid coach, so this may be a photo of an example of a diesel replacement ? Regards, Ian.

Hello @Dunalastair , just to let you know that I'm out here reading your posts (and re-reading the rest of the thread to see what's gone before) but as I've been on nights all week I haven't had chance to look for info to try and help you yet. Now back in the 'land of the living' I'll see what I can find but being born in '68 and not reaching the West Highlands until '86 (I think) I'm afraid that I don't have any personal memories to fall back on but I do have most of the books and magazine articles that feature the WHL throughout it's years of service but these are maybe only the same sources that you have available ... we'll see. Anyway I like nothing better than an excuse to look at 'things West Highland' and will have some time available over the next week hopefully ... maybe a few more comments and posts will draw in some others ? Regards, Ian.

Great to see the layout again on Sat afternoon, Kes and thankyou for taking the time to explain the uncoupling system to me (probably for the 2nd time !) As you say all was working well ... and still looks great. Regards, Ian.

I'm not sure that the wheel wear issue ever went away as 37175 was fitted for a few years in the mid 80s whilst on the WHL with experimental bogies which I think were described as 'self steering' (might be wromg about that ?) The other area that may have been developed in that time after 1968 would possibly have been lubricants and systems to apply them. As ever, we could do with an ex-driver or Eastfield employee to join our ranks. Regards, Ian.

There is a good colour photo of this trial loco (D6936) at Fort William shed in 1968 in the current (Feb '24) Backtrack magazine. (Outside the scope of this thread ... but now you've mentioned it.)

I've only just come across this project and thread but having just bought 3 IOW Terriers in the last week with a couple more in the pipeline I'm on the lookout for something prototypical for them to haul and shunt .... I'll be looking forward to the order book opening if it hasn't already. Regards, Ian.

Has anyone else experienced problems trying to pre-order one of these ? I've tried twice now to checkout using the guest option, all is Ok except for the address section which will only allow me to enter a (max) 10 characters and seems to be asking / allowing only for a postcode of which mine comes only to 8 characters ... this then becomes a problem when trying to move to the next checkout page saying that the address section is not valid. This is the first time that I've tried to use the Hornby site to buy anything so it may be something that I'm not understanding ... but what have others found, please ? Regards, Ian.

Well, I saw the back of the t-shirt and a static Sheep Lane this afternoon .... not your fault I hasten to say, all my own doing as firstly I managed to get myself caught up in the Elland Road football traffic, was still in the exhibition before 2.30, spent a reasonable time looking at one of my favourite N gauge layouts, Sandy Bay, before heading down to the 'main' hall where I spent far too long talking to people than looking at the layouts ... it had got to nearly closing time when I realised what the time was and rushed over to take a peak .... at 5 to 5 I finally got to you as you were discussing and setting up for the morning's restart with a fellow operator so I contented myself to having a quick peak over your shoulder, all looked very interesting although the layout looked a tad smaller than I was expecting, which is not a bad thing. There's an outside chance that I may come back tomorrow but otherwise I may just have to wait until a later date to satisfy my 'sheepish' curiosity regarding operation. There were 2 or 3 other layouts that also caught my eye within the vicinity of yours which I wished that I'd seen so maybe I'll just have to bite the financial bullet and drive back over, though I managed also to mess up my return journey home in trying to avoid getting caught back up in the now exiting footie traffic .... I hate to think how many unnecessary miles and petrol I used up by mistaking a turn off on the A1/M link road, so missed it and then making further errors trying to get back on course by a different route ! Anyway I hope that you had a good day, the layout looked good along with the sheep mascots, I hope that it and them behaved themselves. Best wishes, Ian.