03060

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.

37 minutes ago, Karl said:

All my preorders moved across now too. Seems to have been a smooth process for those of us with orders. So thanks Hattons and Accurascale!

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

20 hours ago, Steven B said:

 

The re-release of the HEA is a mixed blessing; I'm surprised that there's no rail-freight red/grey version.

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 !

On 30/01/2024 at 22:02, sleepyrider said:

I just preordered no. 10 successfully, though have been registered on the site for a while. Maybe register first then preorder?

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.

11 hours ago, Dunalastair said:

Having been prompted by this thread, I have been re-reading my copy of 'All Stations to Mallaig' written in the early eighties, when the type 2s still ruled the roost. It concludes with the arrival of the 37s, making the comment that an earlier trial ten years before had decided that the combination of lighter rail and sharp bends did not favour the twelve wheelers.

 

So what changed other than the increasing age of the 27s?

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.

On 24/01/2024 at 21:00, RichardLong said:

For anyone who’s interested, Hornby have now corrected the livery for their forthcoming IWCR no. 10 on their website: https://uk.Hornby.com/products/iowcr-class-a1-0-6-0t-no-10-terrier-era-2-web-exclusive-r30356

 

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.

I discovered last year in a petrol station near Wombwell that you could still get Stones's Bitter .... but now in cans and brewed in Burton-upon-Trent like everything else .... and it didn't give you a headache like it used to ("Great Guns !!!") .... unfortunately it seems that the taste buds of South Yorkshire folk must have changed in the last 35 years as this Wessie was the only one buying it .... they stopped getting any more in after about 6 months and I then found cans of Leffe in it's place .... I bought 4 cans to try but at £12 didn't bother again .... and neither did anybody else !!! 

Bring back the 80's .... when proper blokes didn't need their beer 'flavouring' with stuff that stops you from getting scurvy !!

Hope that you don't mind me posting this little 'heads up' here Andy but it potentially fits in more with your running periods than say WHL v.4, Meanach or Mallaig.

Anyway, this months (Feb '24) Backtrack mag contains a rare colour photo of D6936 (green FYE) at Fort William shed in 1968 on trial, this being a full 10 to 12 years before the 37s took over the West Highland Line services. I've only ever come across 1 or maybe 2 photos before of this event and neither in colour that I can recall. It's a good clear view of the loco along with a blue and a green Class 29s.

Regards,

Ian.

There's a rare colour photo in the Feb '24 edition of Backtrack showing D6936 (green FYE) at Fort William shed in 1968 where it was on trials a full 10 to 12 years before the 37s started to make the West Highland Line their own. I've only ever seen 1 or maybe 2 photos of this event before.

As a subscriber to Traction I'm reasonably comfortable with the 'interesting' development with BRM Magazine and that my subscription will be transferred now to the monthly BRM (effectively doubling it, I suppose ?) but does it also include Gold Membership of RM Web (I currently have Silver membership) or was that just a previous offer to new subscribers of BRM in a particular deal, please ?

Kind regards,

Ian.

Great attention to detail Rob, be thankful that you are not modelling in N gauge ... I don't think that I'll bother troubling Modellu for a potential size reduction of the token machines, reckon I'll get away with a blob of glue !! LoL

All very educational for me is this section on the signal boxes, I'd not even picked up on the change of roof covering at Ardlui until you pointed it out.

Regards,

Ian.

25 minutes ago, Ruston said:

 

We all have a limited space in which to build a layout but it's having the understanding of how it should be if space, time and cash were unlimited that helps to make an industrial layout. Knowing what to put in and just as importantly what you can leave out works wonders.

 

When I started to build Royd Hall I quickly realised that I would never have the space to model an entire deep mine, so I changed to a drift, compressed the sidings massively and only modelled part of the washery and screens. With Blacker Lane I'm not modelling a mine at all and apart from having to compress everything and have a simplified track plan, I can still get in what was at the location of the prototype site on which it is based.

 

Agree totally Dave, one resource relevant to this thread that I've just managed to acquire after several years of looking is an April 1991 copy of Scale Model Trains magazine which features a 5 page article by Paul Lunn ( @Dzine ) 'British coal open cast - basis for a good layout' and after a first glance can report that it contains some solid information, several good photos from around the Britiah Oak site and area, a site sketch / plan with all items identified via a numbered key and a couple of potential layout ideas / plans which manage to incorporate most of the features in a relatively small manageable area (the larger of the plans being only 8'x6'.)

All for 65p plus £4.80 postage from Railmags which came up in an a phone t'internet search whilst sat in the magazine room at Ingrow West VCT museum on Sunday afternoon having drawn a blank again .... ordered that evening, arrived Weds morning ... great service, great article.

Regards,

Ian.

1 hour ago, HExpressD said:

Thanks for confirming, as far as I went to checkout before seemed to suggest payment was needed upfront, which made me a bit nervous given what's happening with Hattons at the moment.

 

Also wonderful news, feigned innocence and the NCP fine has been cancelled!

I only ordered mine last weekend and as mentioned by @JohnRno money was taken (maybe 1p ??) it's just a 'valid' credit card check, there wasn't a Paypal option but I think that I queried this earlier in the thread and that is partly why I held off ordering another one until now. 
 

Hopefully somebody will take these on for us in the future but Hattons were offering the version that I couldn't resist this time around, that being a lined blue 16" which matches Chemicals / Harry which worked for a time at Crossley Evans scrap yard in nearby Shipley during the mid 70s.

11 hours ago, KeithMacdonald said:

The weeds grow fast in Torquay.

 

 

Or is it a line up of Pannier tanks and @2ManySpams new software has been at work ?? (See p.738 of The Sheep Chronicles !)

I've just placed my pre-order from this advertised batch which the website allowed without issue, so hopefully I will receive this as and when.

Sorry to see Hattons close and having been through many redundancy situations and 2 actual redundancies myself I feel for the staff involved, so good luck to all involved and thankyou for the great service that I've previously received from you.

Regards,

Ian.

1 hour ago, Ruston said:

The weekend's project was a lorry re-weather.

 

Way back on page 3 I showed the Oxford Diecast AEC 690 dump truck that I had bought for the waste tip. It was then pictured, weathered, on page 4 but, to be honest, it was lacking something. It didn't look filthy enough for a truck hauling pit waste. The shade of orange paint was the factory-applied Wimpey livery, which also didn't look right for my needs. I was looking at some photos on a Facebook group that showed big Scammell dump trucks hauling waste at North Gawber, which inspired me to give the AEC a makeover filthover.

 

This is how it looked after the first attempt.

 

And now.

 

 

 

 

T'old lad wi't Whippets looks impressed an'all !

Also by Irishswissernie is this one of the Northern end which I think confirms your suspitions of the trunking crossing under the line before disappearing into the ballast.

As the date of the photo is 23/3/89 I realise that this is a tad late for your period (and as @Module00 alludes, you've probably found them yourself.) I mention the late date as when I followed one of your photos (with 37020 on it)  back to Flickr the photo next to it was from year 2000 and showed some lovely trunking running South from the yard side of the platform .... but it didn't appear on Ernie's 1980s photo .... so caution must be taken.

Regards,

Ian.