thegreenhowards

Thanks Jeremy, It’s becoming clearer now. So in photos, I should be looking for a small ground based stop disk on the headshunt near the point controlling access back to the mainline? How would moves onto the headshunt from the down platform have been signalled? As for your photo, a useful reference but it rather spoils the 5,4,3,2,1 elegance! I’m off to Railex now, so won’t post again until this evening. If anyone’s going, let me know. Andy

Jeremy, Many thanks for your comprehensive reply. I’m still trying to get my head around all of the points you make, not being a signalling expert myself. One question for now, if I may. What is a stop signal? I.e. how does it differ from a shunt signal or home signal? I’ve no idea what it would look like and don’t remember seeing it in any of the photos I’ve collected of Glenfinnan. Regards Andy

Thanks Rob, I don’t think I’ll match your scenic abilities but I’m pleased that it’s starting to look like the prototype from a suitable distance. I’ve struggled with the subtleties of replicating rhododendrons and gorse, As for the signalling, it looks 6,7&8 were spare for future expansion which never happened. I may use them for the fiddle yard. I had always wondered about the slightly perverse looking numbering, but having seen your lower photo, it all makes sense. That’s quite neat pulling 5,4,3,2,1 in one direction and 11,12,13,14,15 in the other. I assume 4 and 12 were facing point locks? I find it surprising that point 10 was controlled by the signal box, but the point by the dock was not - presumably a point lever locally situated. Any idea why that would be? Would 9 be a shunt signal back onto the down platform? If so would shunts into the dock be hand signalled? I’ll look up Robert Dey in due course, thanks for the tip. Andy

I’ve been concentrating on one board to try and get it finished scenically and I think I’m nearly there. Here is the bogies from the station end graced by a lovely Primo larch tree which is a distinctive feature of the prototype photos. At the other end, the Intentio lineside hut finishes it off nicely. In other news, I have resolved how I’m going to do point and signal control. I was serving on the bring and buy stand at the Gauge O Guild Kempton Park show last Saturday and this rather lovely lever frame arrived. So I snapped it up before it even went on offer to the public. The levers are all functioning signal frame levels - just like the real thing! On the business end there is a bank of DPDT switches which can control Dapol signals or Tortoise point motors. I’d like them to control my DCC Cobalts, but I may have to swap them out for Tortoises unless anyone can think of a way. My plan is to use the original signal diagram for Glenfinnan as below and use the correct numbered levers. What 6,7&8 did, I have no idea! I intend to bury the lever frame behind the hillside, roughly where the grey patch is on this photo. By the way this shows the hillside painted in Sandtex as recommended by Paul. I bought two testor pots in light brown and grey and they’ve done three boards with a tiny bit left over. Andy

We were graced by a visit by William Ascough of Ace Prodcts tonight and he brought a couple of his locos to run - a GNR K3 and a Southern K. Here is the K3 posed with my GNR liveried C12. And here is the K class. Rob has made a roof for his signal box and detailed the interior. Here is my attempt at an arty shot from inside. Andy

I have formed the hillsides on the Fort William end board today and applied mod roc to the next board as well. The route blasted through a rock cutting just east of Glenfinnan and I formed this from Woodland Scenics shaper sheet as shown below. Here are the two boards with the plaster drying Andy

Yes, I have a half built 52f kit with the same excuse!

Steve, I believe 69814 went to the cross to haul sleeper ECS which the N2s struggled with over the Ferme Park flyover. I don’t think the trial was a great success as it didn’t last long! Andy

Thanks for the suggestion Paul. I’m not sure I have the patience for a controlled experiment, but I’ve bought a couple of testor pots and will see how it works on as many boards as they will cover.

I’ll also be interested (😬) to see how the layout deals with being outside. The scenic boards will only be outside for short periods in dry weather and will be stored in the garage in between. The board I showed is the one with fibre glass hillsides. The others may need more protection but I was hoping waterproof PVA would seal them. Andy

Rob brought his 3D printed signal box along tonight. I think it really looks the biz and neatly covers up the gem levers which we use to control points and signals. It’s still missing a roof which will come when he’s fixed the right printer for it. The rest of us are petrified to touch it as those handrails look very delicate!

I’ve started populating the cuttings with shrubs, I think they were mainly gorse and Rhododendron. My attempt at gorse is in the foreground. The taller bushes behind will be Rhody when I get some magenta scatter for the flowers (I’m setting the layout in late spring) and further along are bare shrubs waiting for foliage to be added. The rubberised horse hair will need trimming. Comments welcome.

Paul, I’ve just finished reading through your thread having been put onto it when you commented on my Glenfinnan thread. I love the concept…and the execution to date. The list of timelines is very useful, I will be referring to that in future! I found myself wanting to reply on things and then remembering that the original post was a year ago and in fact most of the comments I would have made (e.g. side platforms at Ranochan) were addressed later in the thread. I see you’ve managed to justify quite a bit of goods traffic. I was trying to be good and limit myself to what I have pictures of - i.e. tail traffic on the tea time train of oil tankers, Interfrigos and steel carriers. I was going to go back to the ‘60s for more varied goods traffic. But I am itching to use my Heljan cargowaggons, so I may succumb to an imaginary naval base type excuse! I look forward to following your progress. Andy

Speaking of red lining (and A5s), have you considered Fox lining transfers. I used them on this O gauge A5 which is nearing completion. The red lining is fiddly but quite easy provided you do it in stages and seal the previous stage which decal fix in between. I tend to do mine in front of the News at 10 but got it finished during the Coronation -all those marching horses don’t need full concentration! You’d need a glossier surface than your c13. I use Halfords black gloss and will seal it with Matt lacquer once I’m happy with everything just before the weathering. Ideally I’d use the Fox transfers for the main straight bits and a lining pen for the fiddlier bits, but I seem to have mislaid my pen. This loco was a bargain eBay purchase bought non working and in a hideous paint job but rather nicely scratch built by a ‘C J Lawley’ in 1997 (anyone know him?). All I’ve done is get it working (which was a matter of soldering the gearbox mount back together so that the gears engage), strip it (hard work!) and repaint. Regards Andy

Yes, it is the metal one… and very nicely built. You also sold me a plastic Mailcoach Coronation on the same day - in fact that’s what I’d come to collect… the Silver Jubilee was just an ‘honest Tone’ extra! The Coronation was fine at speed but didn’t bear close scrutiny. I moved it on when I heard a rumour about the Hornby one fearing it might become worthless. Andy

Thanks both, looking through Yeadon I can find examples of buffer beams: 1. Lined with number and no obvious class (but may be hidden) - e.g. 5156 on p.15 or 5168 on p.21 2. Lined with no number or class 5156 again, p.19 3. Unlined with number (higher) and class. 1719 on p.28 (A5/1) 4. unlined with no number or class, 9810 (post war) p.25 The photo of my chosen engine doesn’t show the buffer beam. As I’m aiming at the late ‘20s, I think I’ll stick with what I’ve done unless evidence to the contrary appears. Regards Andy

I’ve been making good progress with the A5. I think I’ve just about finished the painting and lining. The lining was all done with Fox transfers as I seem to have midland my bow pen and it took a long time but I broke the back of it while watching the coronation out of one eye! I have a couple of queries that I was hoping the experts on here could help me with. Firstly, I have put the number on the front buffer beam but not the back. this is consistent with the Sonic models OO version, but the photos I’ve found seem to vary as to whether it’s on the front buffer beam and I’ve not found any pictures which clearly show the back buffer beam. Can anyone give a definitive answer as to whether it should be on the back buffer beam and when it was omitted from the front? I haven’t lined the wheels. Is this correct? I can’t see any evidence of wheel lining on photos, but Sonic have lined theirs. Finally, I have chipped off black paint on some raised surfaces while doing the lining. This is despite using etched primer, so a bit annoying. I intend to use blackening solution on these bits rather than try to paint them again. Am I likely to have any problems with the Matt varnish (which I will use to seal the transfers) reacting with the blackening solution? Thanks Andy

Was that this one Tony? I think you sold it to me with ‘Silver Link’, but it tends to run with this newer Hornby ‘Quicksilver’ these days. If so, it still gets an occasional guest run on Gresley Jn. Andy

Andy, Firstly, thanks for your kind words on my efforts. As I said above, I won’t be using the fibreglass again, but I think you’re plan to use it over aluminium mesh might work better than my using the chicken wire and a layer of fibreglass as the base. I’m finding the mod roc works well. It’s still messy but can be cleaned up easily and doesn’t smell or leave splinters in my fingers! I have found that three layers of it is pretty strong but I’m also trying spraying foam in underneath - I only did this yesterday and it seems to work but hasn’t fully hardened yet -I will report back next week. I do have some rock face to do next which will form the scenic break at the Fort William end as it conveniently crops up on both sides of the line just near the end of the headshunt - see below for one side, it is reflected to a lessor extent on the other side. I think I will try a woodland scenics shaper sheet for this. But any other ideas are welcome. Andy

No sooner had I written this than I opened my Gauge O Guild Gazette and see that my article on Smithfield has made it into this issue (May 2023). So if you’re a member of the Gauge O Guild, you can read more about the layout…and if not why not take out the free one month trial membership?! Andy

Personally I’m very happy with my three Heljan O2s. They look good to me, are reliable, pull well (50 minerals wagons no problem). Yes, I’ve broken a couple of handrail knobs, but it sounds like they’re ‘learning’ on that point at least. I paid under £100 each for mine. One from Tony after he’d fixed it from a customer return (there was a big pile of returned O2s chez sir at one stage) and two more that I didn’t really need when the price dropped to silly levels. I’d like an O2/2 but I’m not desperate, so will wait for the price to drop. Thanks for the link to the Bachman spares list. That looks pretty comprehensive and £20 for a C1 tender body/ £16 for the chassis looks good value to me. Andy

I’ve been working on the landscaping for Glenfinnan. I wanted something lightweight and water resistant in case it rains while it’s out in the garden. A friend from my club suggested a fibreglass car body repair kit with resin spread over chicken wire. So I thought I’d give that a go even though it’s quite expensive. The result is a very tough a lightweight structure, but what you can see here cost me £23 and it was horrible to work with. The resin smells disgusting and made me cough and I’ve still got bits of fibre glass in my fingers despite wearing gloves. I’ve got about 4 -5 times this much to do and I won’t be buying any more. So I needed a plan B. I’ve tried mod roc plaster bandage over the chicken wire. This is easier, cheaper and faster, but less strong, a bit heavier and will need waterproofing. This photo shows the chicken wire being attached (with a staple gun). and this shows the chicken wire covered with mod roc (one overlapping layer). I then ran out and ordered some more as I think I’ll need two or three layers. I’ve also tried polystyrene blocks cut with a hot wire cutter and then covered with mod roc. This seems to work well where I have a solid base underneath (I.e. above the platform, but less so on the open frame bits. Here is the polystyrene part covered. I think I’ll paint the mod roc with a paint/PVA mix to seal it and I may put expanded foam underneath for added strength. More progress soon. Andy

That would be a brilliant shot with a little more light on the front of the engine.

Long time no post on here! Progress slowed last year while our club OO ‘Oakbourne’ took priority because of a couple of exhibition bookings. But we’ve been cracking on this year. The station throat is now all ballasted and we have painted the bare wood in between the tracks. We are close to having all the retaining walls cast, so will be getting them onto the layout soon and the milk dock is taking shape. More progress to report soon I hope.

051 was my favourite 37, so great choice for your conversion. For yellow warning panels I use precision P134 , signal yellow. This matches the Heljan O gauge yellow very well. I can’t speak for Bachmann though.