westhighlandline

Excellent work, David! Can't wait to see the Pannier on the diorama. 😍 Meanwhile, I'm digging deeper into the DLR, focusing on Cambusavie Halt as a potential subject to be modelled. It took me some considerable time to figure out the exact location from all the pictures available, mainly due to many being labelled incorrectly: the first crossing following the line from The Mound down the line across the damn would be "Cambusmore", often falsely referred to as Cambusavie. Anyway, I find Cambusavie an attractive location nearby the Loch, with only one structure, a few trees, a crossing, a single wooden platform, a single platform lamp, a stone wall and of course the waterline to be included in a reduced, small space. It'd be helpful to know if the nearby station house was to a standard type, like the ones to be found at Cambusmore and Embo? Cheers, Kosta

Having just recently acquired Model Rail's excellent 0-6-0 OPT #1649, I've developed an interest in the Dornoch Line. This thread proves to be very useful, though I can't see any of the earlier pictures, supposedly of your train, David. Is there any chance they could be reinstated? Is there any late progress? :) Cheers, Kosta

Hey Andrew! Nice to see that little layout come together. Happy to follow your steady and quick progress. I expect more to come from you soon, now that the modelling season has finally arrived. ☺ Cheers from Switzerland Kosta

Got my copy of Model Rail yesterday, and fell in love with Sandy Bay instantly! Not only for the level of detail and the simple, yet superbly integrated track layout, but for the clever scenery that draws the attention to the harbour area away from the railway. Adds more than a bit of realism to the scene. And the bridge is a fantastic little piece of art! Wish I could be able to attend TINGS. You've got a new fan now.

Hi Graham Are you using the supplied Dapol ploughs, removing the center part, or are these etches of some kind? Cheers, Kosta

Thanks for sharing! I've tried magnets on the side of the rails. They work fairly well with Kadee couplings on US rolling stock and short couplings on Continental stock, yet with Dapol couplings on UK wagons, they tend to pull over the whole wagon, depending on its weight and wheelbase. I guess the attaching point of the coupler is essential in this case. US cars have theirs mounted to the bogie, which in itself rests firmly on the track and can withstand a pull to the side. Continental stock usually bears kinematic couplers, that can swing to the side, away from the wagon's body, and allow for more clearance. Most UK stock has the coupler mounted directly to the body, so the tendency to tip over is natural given. But maybe I've just chosen the wrong magnets and wrong location.

For those of you not following any of the many Facebook groups: I've built a small micro-layout (or nano-layout) as a tribute to Neil Rushby's Shell Island. It's N gauge and inspired by the surroundings of the little coastal village of Ellenabeich on the isle of Seil. Basically, this is not a Lockdown project ... rather something that took my mind off never ending work within the last few months. Hope you enjoy!

May I ask how you fitted the snowploughs to the 26s without obstructing the coupler bearing? Did you remove the ... splitter (?) in the middle to gain access?

Hi all Seems like the modelling season has started again - I see a lot of development going on lately, and my micro is no exception. The structures are all finished and set up, details like fences and sheep have been added, and I've given the scenery a more autumnish look. Not too long ago, I've read somewhere, that credible layouts set in autumn are hard to find. So I figured I'd give it a try, as most coloured pictures of the Killin Railway from the 60ies seem to have been taken in September anyway. And I must say, I am a bit proud of the outcome, though there's still room for further improvement. I.e. I find the scatter material to be a bit to coarse in places, especially when you look up close. The pictures reveal such details much better, than the artistic eye that has put them there. Anyway, things are going well with the micro. For me, the Killin Railway is the perfect prototype for modellers, so I've spent a lot of time on research lately. And as I have mentioned before, I'm thinking of extending the micro and integrating it in a bigger layout covering the whole length of the Killin Railway. Including Lix, Dochart viaduct, Killin station, Lochay bridge, Finnlarig Castle and - of course - Loch Tay. My interpretation of Loch Tay will be christened "Loch Kay", until I have the time and the resources to re-create the original buildings, that will replace the superb, but out of place looking scalescenes structures. Sadly, I can't find any detailed pictures of Loch Tay shed. It seems evident, that all photographs have been taken from the station platform only. I can't find any showing the sides of the shed... . @andyram: I went through the topics list, can't find your thread though. I am really interested to see your progress.

Hi Dave Thank you! I am planning on staying as close to the original as possible. Which means that any train will comprise a Standard 4MT tank, plus a Thompson non-gangwayed coach and a 12 ton box van. Maybe two Thompsons and a brake van, as the Killin school train consist was made up of them sometimes . Currently, there's no Thompsons available in N gauge, so I'll replace them with MK1 BCK for the time being. The layout will be extended eventually. I do have some baseboards left from another project, on which I used to practise some basic techniques in building layouts. I am envisioning building the whole length of the Killin Railway from Lix to Loch Tay station. Maybe including Killin Junction and perhaps Glenogle viaduct to add some operational interest. We'll see. Cheers, Kosta

Starting to add details!

Dava, Thanks for the compliment! The late GraFar 4MT is on my shopping list. It will be the perfect fit for Loch Tay (or whatever I am going to call it). The 26 is only a temporary guest on the layout. Kosta

Well, since I am already at it - it's time to present the outcome of a very intense Sunday working on the railway. I kept myself busy "building" the forest background. This is it in its most current state - not done yet: I took the layout outside to check for its appearance in broad daylight, and it is not only now that I've (repeatedly) noted, that Dapol's Class 26 and 27 have a real blatant touch of petroleum colour to them. In my eyes, they should be of a dark BR blue ... am I wrong? Cheers, Kosta

Hey Tony, I wasn't sure if I could mention Model Rail in here, since this is a BRM-related forum. *ha ha*. Yes, it is a MR issue and you can find the article on page 76/77 here: https://issuu.com/mimimi995/docs/model_rail_issue_232_march_2017 Cheers, Kosta

Bad weather outdoors means lots to do indoors. So I've done a bit of ballasting and levelling up the trackbed where the shed will be. I had totally forgotten to raise the ground in that area. Now it's wait, wait, wait for everything to dry ...

Yeah, I've seen that one and meant to comment on the thread. But it seems it hasn't been paid attention to in a while. I am not exactly sure if I want to go too much into prototype detail with this micro I think I'll just stick to scalescenes buildings for a start.

And here are some pics: Researching the prototype and gathering inspiration ... Laying out the trackplan ... Building up hills ... Shaping the landscape ... Installing tracks ... Test running ... Constructing level crossing ... And finally, the layout in its current state (Easter 2017). Cheers, Kosta

Cool! Good to know! I shall keep an eye on that one then. Plans for a line through the Great Glen were stalled when the North British and the Highland Railway agreed not to attack each others' territories, back when the WHL was built in the 1890ies. The NB had plans to extend the WHL through the Glen and to reach the port of Kyle of Lochalsh, in order to gain easy access to the Isle of Skye. The new route would've cut travel times by a few hours, had it been built, and would've been an attractive alternate route to reach Kyle of Lochalsh. But the HR had a majority of the parliament backing their case, as the parliament had been promoting the opening a new port on the Western shores of the Highlands. That was the solemn reason why the construction of the WHL had been granted by parliament in the first place: to reach a new port in Roshven or later Mallaig, but not to open up a quicker connection to Inverness or Skye and torpedoe the territory of a railway already in existence. The two railways eventually came to what is now known as the Great Glen Agreement or "Ten Year Truce". An agreement not to interfere with the other one's business and to keep out of the Great Glen area. After the treaty had ended, declining profits on either side ended all plans to link Inverness with Fort William. The only noticeable movement of rails through the Great Glen was the privately built and operated (and shortlived) Invergarry & Fort Augustus Railway. But that's another story... .

Hi all For quite some time now, I've been following the progress of some outstanding layouts featured here on rmweb. Especially the ones connected to Scottish prototypes, plus a lot of interesting microlayouts, too. Given that I used to have a huge hobby room for myself, I haven't accomplished more than building two modules of each 2m x 0.5m in size within the last two or three years. Nothing to show off really. They were meant to be my training ground for building my first ever layout and have served that purpose well, until I only recently had to give that hobby room away to a new tenant in our house. So currently, my model railway is homeless and waiting desperately to be set up in the near future. Our cellar will host it, but will need to be fully furbished first. So, being anxious to get my hands on building something in the meantime, I only recently opted for a microlayout that I could build and set up anywhere and eventually incorporate into my planned future West Highland layout. This thread will show the progress, honouring a request from @justin1985 . First of all, let me introduce you to my plans for the "bigger" layout: I live in Switzerland and have developed a huge interest in the West Highland Lines (following a first visit to Fort William and Mallaig in 2011 - with many to follow thereafter). My initial plans to model the most important landmarks on the WHL Proper and the Mallaig Extension have given way to a broader approach on modelling scenic highlights from various Highland locations. Plans are now to model an array of locations like Loch Tay station, parts of the Killin Branch Railway, Glenogle viaduct, Monessie Gorge and eventually a fictitious station at Drumnadrochit in the Great Glen. All is subject to change of course, depending on the actual space that will be available. And maybe subject to shifts in personal preferences and interests, as they change ever so often. *ha ha* The microlayout in question is Loch Tay station. I have done some extensive research in the last few weeks, after picking up a few ideas from an article on prototypical "short trains" in a model rail magazine (whose name I probably shouldn't mention here). The article reminded me of an earlier interesting article that appeared in the same magazine last year, about short lines worth modelling, including the Killin Branch Railway. So I dug into my archives, found the other article, grabbed some of my books on the Callander & Oban and went searching for pictures here, on Google and Flickr. I must admit that the pictures I found added a lot to my decision to give it a go and model Loch Tay - and in fact, some of the Killin branchline and parts of the C&O. I like the idea of running a prototypical Killin consist of loco + coach + wagon into Loch Tay station and running the loco round its train - on one hand for its operational interest (uncoupling in N gauge) and on the other for its space-saving capabilities. Plus, I can finally fulfill a wish of mine and buy GraFar's magnificent 4MT tank loco without having to worry were to run it, as I am mostly running BR blue stock (gives me an argument to convince the minister of finance of the necessity of such an acquisition). With a bit of modellers' license, Loch Tay will see Class 26s or 27s, too, once there's a connection to Drumnadrochit station. So by now, after only three weeks, the baseboard is set up, the track is in place and functional, and the landscape is shaped and pre-coloured. The layout measures 1m x 0.25m and is therefore well within the limits of being called "micro". That's it for the moment being. Pics will follow later, as I have no access to them on my computer at work. Comments and likes are welcome, as the story continues soon! Cheers from Switzerland - Kosta

Hey boys. I think it's about time to open a new layout thread soon. But until then, I can't possibly keep this to myself:

Stunning job so far, David! I really like your weathering skills on the locos and coaches. I am curious about your ScotRail-liveried MK2s. They can't be the latest GraFar run of RTR models, as they haven't been released yet. So I guess you've put on some decals yourself. I've been thinking about doing the same to some of my coaches, yet couldn't find any proof online of Class 26s leading ScotRail stock (neither MK1 nor MK2), following the branding in 1983. Has anyone more information on this matter? Cheers, Kosta

... been playing around a bit ... with my cam ... sitting in a boat ...

Relocation to a new hobby room meant no work on the layout in the recent months, as there's no room to set up any of the modules. So I kept myself busy building this little gem:

Very nice pics indeed. Even without the scenery added, I can ¨feel¨ the Highlands emerging. 27029 is headed for Inverness? Through the Great Glen? I think I´ll incorporate that very same train into my Drumnadrochit project to make a connection with Invernevis *smile*. I am always curious about it: how did you manage to add the snowplough AND keep the coupler in place on the 27?

I've - for a long time now - been looking at the picture of (what I've only for an hour now known as) Shell Island on the cover of Paul Lunn's book and been trying to find more info on it. And only by sheer coincidence did I stumble across your blog today. I am totally in love with SI, and I wonder if recreating and working it in N gauge could be done in a minimum space. I guess I'll have to find out myself, now that I've seen pics of the trackplan, too. Thanks so much for inspiring me with this minimalist masterpiece!