scottystitch

Thanks Jason, that’s what I thought but I wanted to check. Best Scott.

Hello david, thanks for popping in. My inclination would be to view from the outside of the curve (i.e. from the South). My thinking is that no matter where the viewer is, due to the curvature of the layout everyone would be abble to see what was coming/going without being blocked by another viewer. Some photographs would be very welcome. In particular I'd be interested in seeing the countour North and South of the trackbed formation, particularly around the bridge and up to the point where Traquair Park East veers South West, for starters. I'd also be interested in seeing if there was any evidence left of the footbridge at the station throat... Best Scott.

Can someone more knowledgeable confirm that this means there is no longer a Scottish Region example being produced, please? Best Scott

I don't model 4mm (in any great depth) nor 7mm, but from a general point of view, I'd say I'd prefer to have at least something to look at, at the time of announcement. At the very least a CAD, but preferably a 3d print as well or an EP. Best Scott.

I suppose so, yes.

Alex, In no way was I being pedantic, but yes I'd suggest a filling in turn would be more likely than a running in turn in this example. And yes it is a great image. Best Scott.

looking at that image again, that B1 maybe looks a bit grubby to be on a running in duty?... Best Scott.

You are quite correct, Alex. It was somewhat erroneous of me to describe Balgreen Halt as the "Junction" station. It was of course nothing of the sort, merely the first station on the branch and it happened to be situated just after the branch left the alignment of the main line. There were certainly no platforms on the E&G lines, and therefore no transfer of trains for passengers. Best Scott.

The soldering with regards the Finetrax turnouts isn’t too involved. The first part is to do with strengthening the switch rails before filing down and so doesn’t need to be too elegant (although youre soldering will get prettier with practice). The challenge with the switch rails is ensuring you have a nice smooth point without filing too far through the rail. the other soldering part is securing the inner part of the switch blade to the plate which then attaches to the slide bar. Again, the finishing filing is more critical. After I did one it all became clear. I’d say patience whilst filing is the absolute key. The other thing I do with the turnout kits is dab a bit of paint on each sleeper of the baseplate which corresponds with the colour of the appropriate chairs in the instructions, if that makes sense. I.e. the sleepers that require a red chair are dabbed with a red spot of paint. It means you don’t need to keep referring to the instructions when attaching the chairs. EDIT: image attached. You can’t see the yellow dabs very well but they are there... best Scott.

There is also this fantastic image of a B1 at Pinkhill: Best Scott.

Interestingly, when looking at Pinkhill on Railscot, we find this: https://www.railscot.co.uk/img/25/493/ Best Scott.

Slam in the lamb...

Mike, I'm sure your mother felt otherwise, but what a wonderful story! Thankfully no clip round the ear? Thanks for looking in. Best Scott.

Thanks for looking in. I have read of an A3 on a special, but wasn't aware of East Coast machines being used on a regular basis. Interesting. Best Scott

Hello, this looks very interesting. Can you confirm the scope of the layout, am I right in assuming you been between the two bridges here ringed in red? Also let me know if you need any rolling stock for the layout. My Perth project has had to be cancelled and so there will be a few coaches, wagons and potentially some locomotives from the 1960-1964 period for sale sometime soon. Best Scott.

I spoke to Yolanda yesterday afternoon about something else and she advised they had had over received 800 emails in connection with orders (and presumably that total is being added to all the time). Based on the leaness of their operation, I'd expect it will take time to get through them all. Best Scott.

I'll try, John. Pace won't be anything quicker than glacial, particularly as I will need to take a field trip when the situation allows. I have some 9mm thick, 400mm deep ply left over from the benchwork of my garage layout, so first steps will be to form that into the frames of board 1 and 2 and then see where we get to from there. Construction of the boards, with the possible exception of 6 and 7, will be open frame. So many projects, so little time. Best Scott.

Visually the Finetrax turnouts are the real clincher. No hinge, no cut out in the sleeper base to accommodate the swinging switch rails. They look like real turnouts. Best Scott

The Corstorphine Branch (Cor-STOR-fin/Cur-STOR-fin) was a short North British Railway branch-line serving the reasonably well-to-do suburb of the same name to the west of Edinburgh, and was furnished with three stations. Balgreen Halt was the junction station, where the branch left the NBR Edinburgh and Glasgow (E&G) main line, just west of the present Murrayfield Stadium. For travellers on the line today, the still extant Jenners Repository marks the site of the junction. Pinkhill was an intermediate station on the roughly 1.2 mile line, which served the Zoo Park on the nearby Corstorphine Road, as well as the local residential area. Not far from Pinkhill was Corstorphine Station itself, a two platform terminus with a modest goods yard. The line was opened by the NBR in 1902 and closed by 1968. Trains ran between Corstorphine and North Berwick, serving Haymarket and Waverley on the way allowing commuters direct access to the City of Edinburgh in around 11 minutes. The route of the line is now a paved footpath/cycleway. Corstorphine Station area has now been built on with residential properties, and so nothing remains. Pinkhill Station building survives, probably helped by the fact that it sat on an overbridge above the platforms, and now appears to be the home of a motor vehicle repair business. The platforms remain also. Balgreen Halt now has a tram stop roughly on its site, alowing access to the walkway from Edinburgh City Trams as they ply their route between the City and the airport. Some nice images of the route can be found on teh Railscot site: https://www.railscot.co.uk/companies/C/Corstorphine_Branch_North_British_Railway/ The attached track plan has been built to scale, without any compression, in N gauge (1:148) and covers the route between Pinkhill and the terminus at Corstorphine. The road overbridge which accomadates Pinkhill Station building forms a convenient scenic break. The layout has been designed in AnyRail and utilises British Finescale's Finetrax code 40 track system. Scale mapping has come from the NLS' excellent website, and the maps used are at a scale of 1:1,250 and re-sized in AnyRail to give the correct scale for 1/148. The layout will fit in a length of 6.3 metres, without fiddle yard, which I envisage as a turntable-traverser. The scope is deliberately set to cover only the area within the railway boundary except for the Pinkhill end where the ramp accomodating Traquair East Park roadway helps with the transition to the scenic Break. There is one anomaly in the trackplan. There was a scissors crossover in the platform area. I have replaced this with a single crossover since Finetrax does not have a scissors in the range, and the geomotry of the diamonds and turnouts that do exist do not allow for construction of a scissors. The alternative would be to handbuild and I do not want to do that. This is the first pass of the plan and there is still a little work to be done, particularly with boards 5 and 6, to ensure turnouts do not straddle board joins, marked in red. Construction would start with boards 1 and 2, chiefly because they are reasonably simple and because they would serve as excellent photographic planks. The layout has been designed for for future exhibition in mind and I envisage it could be comfortably operated with three individuals. One servicing the fiddle yard, one accepting and despatching passenger trains and one dealing with goods trains and shunting the yard. Operator 4 would allow relief for the others on a rotational basis. There is not a lot of information about the line out there, unfortunately, but for the period I am interested in (late 50s/early 60s) passenger trains appear to have been in the hands of D49 tender engines, V1/V2 tank engines and class 100 DMUs. Lightweight Met Cam DMUs were also trialled on the route during the 1950s, and it is not beyond the realms for Met Cam 101s to have served the line in later years - certainly the last train was a class 101. AtsoCad offers a 3d print of a V1/V3 which utilises a Farish N Class chassis. The 100 does not exist except in the form of "scratch aid" etches offered by Worsley Works. I haven't investigated fully the possibility of a D49. I've still to ascertain what goods trains would be, both in make-up and haulage. If anyone has any information regarding the trains it would be greatly appreciated if they'd be happy to share. Best Scott.

This is excellent. Lovely to see you've resisted the temptation to make it a roundy roundy, and it is all the better for that. Some really nice modelling. Believable and inspirational. Thanks for sharing! Best Scott.

I sent my form back yesterday, followed by card details spread over 3 separate emails ( a method I have used with Dapol club offers before). I received a reply about 24 hours later saying the order had been passed to the warehouse for despatch. I have heard of others receiving emails advising to call Dapol to pay by phone. Best Scott.

Excellent work!

I've been thinking about trains which will run into St Catherines's Bay, with consideration being given to their length and the number of each type required to operate the day's services. I've pretty much nailed on the passenger services, I think. Most trains will spend life as permanent sets, and most will have a dedicated cassette for storage, when not in-play. Express 1 - Mk1 - BSK, SK, SK, RMB, FK, BSK, SK Express 2 - Mk1 - BSK, SK, SK, SO, RU, FK, BSK Express 3 - Mk1 - BSK, SK, SK, SO, RU, FK, BSK Express 4 - Thompson - BSK, CK, FK, *RMB (GRESLEY), SK, SK , BSK Express 5 - Mk1 - BSK, SK, SK, SK, RU, FK, BSK With the exception of the Thompson rake these are based on the rakes used for the Glasgow Buchanan Street/Aberdeen 1964 train sets. Motive power will be drawn from: Double Headed (DH) 27s, DH 26s, DH 22s, DH 25s, DH 24s, 44, 52, 42, 40, 47, 7p Royal Scot, 6P5F Jubilee, 5MT Stanier and B1 classes. Semi-fast 1 - Stanier - BFK, SO, SO, BSK, BG Semi-fast 2 - Gresley - BCK, FK, SK, SK, BG Semi-fast 3 - Hawksworth - BSK, SK, SK, CK, BG Semi-fast 4 - Mk1 - BSK, SK, SK, BCK, GUV Motive power will be drawn from: 22, 24, 25, 26 and 27 classes. Pullman 1 - PFP, PFK, PFP, PFK, PSK, PSP, BOGIE B Pullman 2 - Midland (Blue) Pullman Motive Power will be drawn from: 47, 52, 55 and Princess Coronation classes. Sleeper/Motorail 1 - SLF, SLF, SLSTP, SLSTP, CCT, CCT, CCT, CCT, BY Sleeper/Motorail 2 - SLF, SLF, SLF, SLSTP, BSK, CCT, CCT, CCT Motive power will be drawn from: 40, 45, 47 and 52 classes.

My little station has a name. I think I have settled on Monclarence. My SO had a cat, a blue British Shorthair whom she wished to call Clarence, after the angel in "it's a Wonderful Life", her favourite movie. The name Clarence was vetoed by her then husband as not being a name for a cat, and so he became Bubba, which to be fair my SO also chose and liked. Since his passing a couple of years ago, I have always wanted to honour the fiesty-yet-affectionate little fellow somehow, without being tacky or twee. And so he has a sleepy branchline Terminus named after him. I felt "Clarence" was a) less than subtle and b) a little "American", striking images of a midwest gold mining settlement, with its associated lawlesness... and so with the idea that the area is elevated (from sea level) I have settled on Monclarence, a local corruption of Mount Clarence. I wanted to supply Monclarence Station with some additional traffic and a further reason for Monclarence village's existence, beside agriculture, and so off scene there is now a small quarry which produces crushed stone for railway ballasting purposes. Empties will arrive at the station platform where the locomotive will run 'round and take them to be loaded at the quarry. The process is mirrored for loaded departures. The station building for Monclarence will be a copy of that at St Cyrus on the real-life Inverbervie Branch. The goods shed and signal box will resemble thosee from the same line. Passenger trains for the Monclarence branch will be selected from: A 3-carriage Maunsell set BSK - CK - BSK with a Type 2 A 3-carriage Bulleid setBSK - CK - BSK with a Type 2 3-car 101 DMU 3-car 108 DMU 2-car+2-car 101 DMU