03060

The chap who has made the You Tube videos also has very kindly produced a list of his sources of information underneath. 

Old Maps (reproduced with permission from the National Library of Scotland.)

A.L Barnett & Railway & Canal Historical Society

Northern Mine Research Society

Outwood Community Video

Leeds Library & Information Services

Britain from Above

NRM York

Lost Railways Yorkshire.co.uk

Railway Ramblers Leeds

Woodlesford - The Story of a Station

Transports of Delight (Paul Johnson)

Friends of Rothwell Country Park

....and 11 individuals whom I will not name here with the exception of Mr. Derek Rayner of Woodlesford (see 'The Story of a Station') to whom a lot of the excellent photographs are accredited to.

Regards,

Ian.

Hello Jack,

Have just looked at the blog, which is great thankyou, but I think that the Bill Bedford kit BW1400 and the drawing is actually of the shorter Mail Van No.42 (and possibly No.41*)

*see Garner's record p.42/3 for photo comparison and p.42 notes.

The hatched diagonals on the drawing are for internal bracing. I ordered two of these vans in 3mm scale in the hope that they were of 20T Goods Brake vans but realised that they were not on receipt ....that's not to say that I was disappointed with what I received, they are definately on my 'to build soon' list as No's 41 & 42.

I've resigned myself to scratchbuilding the 20t Goods Brake Vans. (Jerry Clifford did some very nice 2mm multi media kits a while ago.)

Regards,

Ian.

Hello Duncan,

I've just flicked back to p.16 on the thread to compare the new grill with the 'old' new grill and whilst my own opinion is non-consequential I did notice that there is a plate across the top of the bogie steps in the centre (under the door) half covering a cylinder (which is on the model) which stands out as missing when comparing the model with the prototype photo of 239. Sorry to mention this but once noticed it makes the model's steps look to have a large 'gap' in them ...what do you think ?

Meant with the best of intentions,

Regards,

Ian.

On 24/01/2020 at 00:05, bradford_boy said:

 

 

 

 

On 24/01/2020 at 00:05, bradford_boy said:

Hi All,

 

If you have some interest in whats left of the E&WYUR. There is a fantastic YouTube series online now all about it. Exploring what's left and walking the route. Oh and lots of loco pictures.

 

 

 

Regards,

 

Darren

Well, I finally got chance to look up these You Tube videos this morning .....and I have to say Wow, I owe that man a pint !

I've only had chance to watch the Intro and Part 1 so far but the chap who has made them, to say that he's not a rail enthusiast, has certainly looked into the subject and done an excellent job in producing the films, I'd love to know where he's gathered some of his extra information from (other than the Franks book) and especially where he's found some of his photographs, I'll see if there's any way of contacting him when I watch the next installment.

I did manage to speak with John Farline (co-author of Railways Around Wakefield and Pontefract) yesterday at Pontefract show and may try and contact him again via Wakefield Club, I suspect that Peter Cookson (the other co-author) came up to us whilst we were talking, his conversation with John was of a more personal subject so I didn't like to intrude further, maybe I will get another chance go speak with both of them sometime.

Thanks again for the 'heads up' gratefully appreciated.

Regards,

Ian.

On 24/01/2020 at 00:05, bradford_boy said:

 

Steve, thankyou and your co-operator (who's name I didn't catch) for the conversation that we had regarding the layout's trackplan and it's suitability as a West Highland Line project today in Ponte Carlo, you've certainly given me food for thought.

The layout was definately as good as the pictures that I've seen, great to see it in the flesh so as to speak.

Kind regards,

Ian.

6 hours ago, bradford_boy said:

Hi All,

 

If you have some interest in whats left of the E&WYUR. There is a fantastic YouTube series online now all about it. Exploring what's left and walking the route. Oh and lots of loco pictures.

 

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-iLBhpCwmO8FoOPt4_noVqPf8bzTOPe0

 

Regards,

 

Darren

Thanks Darren,

I'll check these out over the w/end. I've changed job recently and now work on Jct 41 Ind Estate, Wakefield, so am just waiting for the lighter evenings to come back so that I can take in a few of the the routes on my way home. As the road and countryside network has changed massively in this area it can be quite hard to visualise the route but some of the maps posted earlier helped on a previous location sortie.

I'm also hoping to see if anyone on the Stanley layout at Pontefract show this W/end can shed any more light on some of the motive power used over the line. I've still not seen any evidence of J50's on the route.

Regards,

Ian.

Lymebrook Yard thread is worth a look at as an excellent example of what can fit into 4'×2' in N gauge. May not be what you are after ..... but still worth a look in my opinion, you never know.

Regards,

Ian.

2 hours ago, Duncan. said:

Hi Ian,

I washed the models. Cif and a toothbrush, rinsed and dried them (air from the air brush) and set aside. I mixed about 50/50 precision brake dust and precision light rust. I thinned the mix down with thinners around 40 paint to 60 thinners, but that would depend upon how 'thick' the paint was in the 1st place. Thinner than I would use normally if spraying a 'colour'. I sprayed on the colour at a reduced pressure of about 20psi with a Badger 150 airbrush fitted with a fine head and needle assembly. I would normally use a medium head. The paint needs to be thinned more for the fine head , but the downside is it is easier to get runs.

The 'darker covhops' have had dark rust, bauxite and a dark grey sprayed on over the pre fading, a sandy colour wash for the sand stains (applied by brush) and two colours including brake dust colour on the chassis..

If confused please ask for further detail.

Cheers

Duncan 

 

Thanks Duncan for a very comprehensive reply, they look very good.

One of the reasons that I asked is that I would like to create a 'faded' look on amongst other things blue Class 03 and 08 shunters but have as yet never had either the knowhow or bottle to try. I wasn't sure whether the effect could be created by just overspraying with a very thin whiteish colour to achieve my desired slightly faded finish (ie I'm not looking for the full on carriage wash plant effect !) having now also just read your reply to Steadfast maybe I should just wait and see how you go about tackling 08 255.

Thanks again for the info.

Regards,

Ian.

Hello Duncan,

With reference to fading the Covhops what method do you use please ? 

Regards,

Ian.

Always a good show....but definately looking forward to this years ! 

Regards,

Ian.

Best of luck with the recovery, Ken, all of our 'inboxes' will be a little lighter and definately poorer whilst you're out of action.

Best wishes,

Ian.

The 2nd plan is the same basic trackplan (without sidings) as is used in the Woodland Sceenics Sub Terrain System layout as seen in magazine adverts, whilst not sure of the size (or even the gauge) of the layout on show but it may give you a good visualisation of what it could look like in terms of gradients, etc and possibly a method of achieving them.

I'm currently considering this as a basic design starting point for a West Highland themed layout to fit into a space of 9'x 2'6" ....and I'm not convinced that I can adequately fit in a station with some sidings to satisfy the train lengths that I am looking to run.

It all keeps the mind active though, enjoying the thread and other peoples observations.

Best wishes,

Ian.

3 hours ago, dvdlcs said:

C5448. The HST seems to have an extra second class coach. I count 2 first, 1 catering, and 6 seconds.

 

I'm fairly certain there are only two first class coaches and 1 catering, and nothing looks like the executive saloon, which may not have existed at that time.

And it's in the 'slow lane' !

Tower Models have been in touch to say that mine is ready for posting. 

Excellent, thanks for this, I'm always happier to see a photograph as evidence rather than just having a supposition or a maybe (although, as mentioned by Regulariity earlier ....Rule 1 should never be discounted.

I'll look forward  to seeing a bubble car on WHL4.

Regards, Ian.

Thanks Nigel, great pictures, I wonder if this was the one used to preceed the sleeper train as mentioned on the Railscot site ?

That now makes 3 Bubble Cars on the West Highland as I've found the article that I mentioned above - Rail Express Mar 2018 - Two Zulu Two Zero - an account of a ride in class 121 960011 'Pandora' (Video Track Recording Unit) over the West Highland Line in in the 2000s, the livery could be interesting to try and replicate.

Thanks for the help,

Regards,

Ian.

Having posted yesterday I've now had a closer look into the wagon types used (there are some old threads on here) and need to correct myself, it's PABs that I was thinking of in the 1980's trains and not Covhops which seem to be more 60's and 70's. I  also hadn't particularly picked up that the ex-grain wagons were in fact grey and not still blue !

I can appreciate the need to re-invigorate yourself but please keep the WHL4 pictures flowing as it's great to see how you transform bare baseboards into something that I personally recognise as the West Highlands.

Regards,

Ian.

Well, no major breakthroughs having looked through my DMU books in the loft, found a nice picture of a refurbished 3-car 101 unit at Oban in 1975 though with it's new coat of nearly all over white looking very smart.

The best info that I've come up with is from the Rail-scot site which has 3 of the 8 Scottish based 122/131  units allocated to Eastfield in 1975, these being Sc55002, Sc55005 and Sc55007 so there's a good chance that it might be one of these.

The 'Sandite' unit wasn't converted until 1983 for use with the sleeper service and was class 131 Sc55015, renumbered TDB977177 and named 'Sandra' in blue / grey livery and managed to survive until 1988.

Two other 'potential' West Highland bubble cars were both class 121s used as Video Survey Units between 2001 and 2004 (in fact thinking about it I may have an article somewhere of one of these on the WHL.) Not sure whether single car Iris made it onto the WHL but I've found a picture of it at Kyle of Lochalsh. I'm also aware that the class 101 and 150 video units both visited the line.

Thanks for the comments so far.

Regards,

Ian.

Great picture Alasdair, that's possibly the unit that I was thinking of although I think that it was a different location, possibly even on a DVD ....good enough excuse to watch through my collection again ! 

Thanks for the help with the links RFS, I didn't get chance to try them before having to go out, apologies to Russ P.

Just going into the loft to see if I can find anything else out. Route learning was my other thought, also, although I like Coronach's suggestion.

Regards,

Ian.

https://rcts.zenfolio.com/buildings-and-infrastructure/stations-and-station-buildings-lner/ea0fab2fe

https://rcts.zenfolio.com/buildinds-and-infrastructure/stations-and-station-buildings-lner/ea0faae4d

I came across these two photos from 1974 the other day whilst looking for pictures of the original Fort William station which clearly show a single unit DMU waiting in the long siding / platform. 

So far I haven't come up with much information as to what it was doing there or where it might be going. It's got to be a class 122 or possibly 131 although the window pattern doesn't seem to match a quick reference check against a picture of the Dapol N Gauge model but this may just be down to the angle of viewing.

One possibility, that I have read, is that they were converted and used as a 'Sandite' working proceeding the sleeper train, although I got the impression that this was late 1970's. I've more books to look at in the loft for possible info but would be grateful if anybody can shed any light as to what it was doing there.

From my point of view this has now become a 'must have' model as with the exception of the 'Mexican Bean' class 104 and the six-loch cruise trains there don't seem to have been that many DMUs working there way up the West Highland, although I have a vague recollection of seeing a photo of a 1970's class 101/111 somewhere before.

Regards,

Ian.

PS - hope that the links work as I couldn't work out how to copy and paste on my tablet !

I'd be interested to know which grey you find as a match, please, I have a rake of Peco N Gauge grain wagons that I intend to use for the same purpose although I need to look further into the subject. I know from photos that Covhops were also still being used during the 1980's, just to mix it up a little but I'm not 100% certain of the previous design of hopper but think that it was an LNER design for a 1970's train.

Love the thread, by the way, you're really capturing the feel of the place. I'm afraid that I didn't 'discover' the West Highlands until around 1986 ....but I've been back virtually every year at least once since ! Need to go through and scan my slides. I have all the stock ready for a layout but really can't decide on which area to model ....I'm afraid that I want it ALL ...but haven't got the space to include all of the different varieties of scenery and styles, etc, found between say Loch Long and Mallaig, probably better to just do something rather than nothing. Your layout is a great source of inspiration though, thanks.

Regards,

Ian.

Tom Noble's 'The West Highland Extension' has a photo of a blue 25 on Glenfinnan viaduct heading for Mallaig, unfortunately the number is not stated and the front 3/4 view prevents identification. The date is stated as 5th Aug 1978 on a SRPS railtour named Lothian Coast Express.

Regards,

Ian.