young37215

Easier said than done I suspect! To minimise the costs and complexity of installing lighting I have in mind fitting out a single coach, most likely the brake coach which has more storage space, with pick ups, stay alive and conductive wheels to power an ESU lighting bar. In turn this would then feed the other coaches in the fixed rake where in theory these would only need LED strip fitting and connecting wires to the previous vehicle. It does not sound difficult but having spent an hour reaming out a single wheel axle on a PRA wagon (don't ask why), I shudder to think about wiring a rake of coaches. For now it is a nice thought and something that I will get around to at some stage. Whilst dreaming of coach lighting I took a few pictures of various locations where I have already installed lighting. In the case of Ardlui it is incomplete, I have LEDs on order to do the platform lamps and signal box. The difference between the daylight and night time perspectives are most pronouced.

The Inverness fitted headlight was moved to the bonnet around the time of 114 being repainted in large logo. An original headlight fitted in 1982 was placed in the more usual position on the nose. Hopefully the forthcoming SDEG book on Scottish class 37's will shed more light on the change of headlight. 1982 view of original headlight Back on the WHL I am pondering and experimenting as to how to make the best use of the various lights that have been installed. 37081 is seen in early evening twilight heading north with the Eastfield breakdown coach. A rake of Mk1's fitted with internal lighting is high on my list of 'wants'.

Interesting that others have found much shorter timescales were required to remove factory applied paint. My bottle of IPA is several years old and I can only guess that it has degraded over time making it is less effective. The obvious solution is to buy a new bottle should I have the need to strip another bodyshell. Thanks again for peoples input.

99% IPA worked after a couple of attempts although I had to give the paint a good working over with an old toothbrush to get it to come off. Others report a much faster response from IPA, mine is several years old and I wonder if it has degraded over time. If I am successful with my respray efforts and decide to do more, I will invest in some new IPA. Early afternoon in 1983 saw freight departures from Mossend at 12.50, 13.50 and 14.15 heading up the WHL, the first 2 to Corpach, the last to Oban. Heading south at around the same time were the 12.30 from Corpach and 14.55 from Oban both to Mossend. This all meant that a couple of hours in the right location south of Crianlarich would allow the photographer to capture 5 different 37's. I spent my afternoon between Arrochar and Ardlui where amongst the locos seen and photographed was 37114 heading to Oban.

Progress on the paint stripping front yesterday with 37104 'naked' by the end of the day. Now I am waiting on a delivery of Railmatch primer to start the respraying process. Out and about 20045 continued to be required for passenger traffic and did a second round trip between Fort William and Mallaig on the tea time train which is pictured departing Fort William. The outward trip included 2 BRA's loaded with steel girder required for 03060's much loved A830 extension. I also cut to size the various bits of viaduct wing wall extension and as the first step in their fitting, glued in place the grey painted extensions x 4 to the walkway.

My body shell is a Bachmann one and is definitely black in colour. A further hour or so in the ipa bath and it cleans up nicely this time. thanks for people’s input, it has helped no end

Thanks folks, the bodyshell is back in the IPA for another soak. Does diluting the IPA have much effect? I ask because having disposed of some contaminated with paint, I only have sufficient to cover half of the body at a time. It is not a big deal to keep moving the bodyshell around so that all of it gets time in the IPA. I am thinking that if I add water so that the whole bodyshell is covered it may be more efficient? Yes, I know I need to buy some more IPA!

37104 was 'toothbrushed' clean this morning having spent around 24 hours in IPA. After this I washed it clean with soap and water. The outcome confuses me, I had hoped/anticipated that there would be a single uniform colour of the base plastic with all paint removed. This is not the case, it appears that the base plastic is black and that not all of the paint has been removed. To the touch all areas of the bodyshell feel smooth and I wonder whether I need concern myself about the residual paint? Do I go down the road of a further IPA soaking or can I simply spray a primer on top to form the base for my re-spray? Any counsel greatfully received.

Judging by the colour of the IPA which overnight turned from a nice clean, clear colour to something that looks like it should be poured down a drain, 37104 is sheding paint. The loco will only be in the IPA for just over 24 hours which others have suggested and fingers crossed, is unlikely to cause damage to the plastic. Tomorrow I will get the toothbrush on the bodyshell and find out how much paint has been removed. I have ordered Accurascale's 37027 which will be interesting to contrast against my Bachmann fleet. That said I am quite comfortable with Bachmann's old 37 offering despite its shortcomings and hope that the new models do not end up making me think about upgrading. 37039 is seen again heading north with 7B13, the first of 3 northbound freights in the space of 90 minutes. The viaduct ends need some more attention to finish them off, the 3rd picture shows this visually and I want to complete the ends before the section of scenery from the viaduct up to Ardlui that I keep threatening to work on. There is logic to this, the southern end of the viaduct is not yet finished and really requires the ends completing before I add the Sculptamold that is required. Sounds simple; note to self. 'Pull finger out!'

Hi Ian. Hope all is now well at your end. Slowly I am moving forward, I need to get focused and sort out my priorities for 2023 if I am to get WHL4 where I want this year. Thanks for the offer on boiler ports but I have not previously found the need to fit anything. A simple 5mm hole drilled through the plated port on the roof creates the opening and a small piece of plasticard glued to the underside of the bodyshell closes it off. I have done this with a number of Bachmann 37's previously, once painted it all blends in quite nicely as can be seen below, loco to the right is factory fitted boiler port, on the left is one I created. I know valves could also be added but it is such a small detail I have never got around to bothering. I managed to get most of the remaining glazing out of 37104 and it is now in a bath of IPA. I am intrigued to see how this turns out. I managed to clear a few detailing tasks that have been outstanding for too long. Several walls have needed coping stones adding for some time, on the viaduct I used the 5mm wide ones from Scale Model Scenery but I felt these were too wide for the tasks I had in mind. Whilst looking in my Auhagen box of bits I came across several strips of 3mm wide coping stones from the viaduct kit which fitted what I wanted perfectly. It only took a few minutes to fit them at Crianlarich and Mallaig where their impact is very noticeable. They will get a wash of weathering once the glue holding them in place has hardened off.

37104 spent another night in the freezer in the hope that the remaining windows can be persuaded to come loose. The EE windscreen wipers look like a solution to that particular headache, I'll be investigating what these look like as a priority. It was a foul end to the year yesterday with heavy rain for most of the day meaning I spent time in the loft operating trains. 37114 with its Inverness styled headlight perched on top of its nose inevitably got an early run and is seen arriving at Garelochead with 8B05, 1415 Mossend to Oban.

I have long wanted to create the evocative view of steam heat shrouding a train but have always felt that steam and electrics are not compatable! I agree, 039 was one of my better Ebay purchases. The previous owner did a nice job with the headlight and weathering, I have hardly touched the loco since acquiring it several years ago. My latest Ebay purchase arrived yesterday from France, Module00 having decided it was surplus to his requirements. 114 spent time during 1981/82 based at Eastfield when first transferred to the SCR appearing in a number of pictures during this period on Flickr at locations along the WHL prior to transfer to Inverness in 1982 and repainting into large logo in 1984. I shall work on the basis that Eastfield have temporarily 'borrowed' the loco for a return to WHL operations. I have several Dingo brackets installed at Mallaig which perform perfectly well but I prefer the Alurailtech style. Progress with 37104 is slow but I am moving forward. After several extended spells in the freezer the nose ends are off undamaged and half of the windows have been prised free. The most challenging bit so far has been the windscreen wipers where 3 refuse to budge and are so delicate that I dare not put pressure on them for fear of breaking them. I am already missing a wiper from another loco and have been unable to source replacements which makes me ultra cautious. Loco is back in the freezer in the hope the glue continues to weaken so that the remaining bits can be winkled out undamaged. A happy new year to one and all.

I yearn for the Alurailtech aluminium brackets which although they fail ISW's cheap test (I paid around £2.50 a bracket) are fantastic. I have not had any issues with servos or microswitches where these have been used, they were well worth the expense as far as I am concerned. The picture below is an old one, I now put the actuating wire through the second from bottom hole on the lower arm of the servo. On the basis my baseboard is 12mm, total length of the actuating wire from hole to servo is around 50mm which I find works nicely with the servo movement well within its 90 degree range. A loco that I have had on restricted movements of late is 37039 because I found that the hoop coupling that replaced the tension lock to be too tight and prone to causing derailments. My plan is to replace the hoop with a wider version and, on the assumption the wider version works, I will role out something similar for the rest of the fleet freeing up space for bufferbeam detail and snowploughs. On this occassion 039 was well behaved and performed in an exemplary fashion on 7B13, 1250 Mossend to Corpach seen departing Garelochead

If you refer to the Hornby OTA then you will find a non standard arrangement under the chassis, the link below shows this in pictures. It appears that this frequently gives rise to poor running when the wagons are run in a rake of 3 or more, so far no one I am aware of has come up with a solution to improve.

Thanks for sharing your experience, my bodyshell has overnighted in the freezer and I will have another attempt at removing the glazing and other bits later this morning. Worst case is I will use Maskol to cover the galzing and re-spray with it in situ. The glue appears particularly well applied, the nose ends usually come away far more easily in my experience, too much so in one or two cases! The offsetting working to yesterdays pictures, the first Oban to Glasgow of the day headed by 37022 is seen arriving at Crianlarich. The two trains are booked to pass at Arrochar.

Everard's video that I watched used IPA to good effect in removing Hornby paint. I will give this a go as I have some and hope that it is as effective on Bachmann's paint. Before I do anything I need to find a way to get the glazing, nose ends and other detail bits off of the loco but I am currently too busy playing trains. The first Glasgow to Oban train of the day is seen on the southern approach to Garelochead headed by 37012

The wooden brackets I have are not Megapoints supplied but I suspect that all wooden brackets share the similar features in that they are not as robust as metal (or aluminium in my case) which makes them more vulnerable to flexing/moving over time. In my case the glue that fixes an 'arm' holding the microswitch to the rest of the bracket had come loose. Re-gluing has solved the problem for now. My re-spray project has ground to a halt over the last few days. I want to remove the glazing as a first step and despite an extended stay in the freezer, this is refusing to budge. I also intend giving IPA a try as a first step in paint removal because I have a large bottle available. I am sure I'll return to this in the coming days and will update when I have moved forward. A new day begins with 37112 heading the down sleeper seen at Crianlarich. For variety I am using the Mk3 sleeper and ETHEL although space constraints limit the sleeper to a single vehicle.

Quickly following along behind the sleeper before the signal boxes shut for the evening, 27105 departs the sidings at Ardlui and heads south with empty Mermaid wagons. Prior to being able to run this I had to make adjustments to 2 of the servos that control the points in the yard. These were no longer activating the polarity microswitches where both servo brackets are wooden ones which I have always been suspicious of. A few minutes with some superglue and after reprogramming the servos, normal service was resumed.

Wishing everyone a merry christmas, a prosperous new year and lots of succesful modelling. No work over the last few days, just running trains. Today's pictures show 37081 with the up sleeper at Ardlui. Whilst looking for something else I found the answer to the question 'where does a tail lamp sit on an alumina hopper'! I'll adjust my two lamps to match this. One thing led to another and I found another picture showing a tail lamp on an OBA which, I am pleased to report, matches where I have glued a lamp on one of my OBA's.

Glue has set on the track and all works well under test. Now to crack on with the scenic stuff in the hope that I can finish this section by the year end. Only 2 class 20's had the through boiler pipes fitted for use with the sleepers which are the ones I want to model. This limits my options and is why I will stick with 20045; fortunately I have a spare 20045 transfer because Railtec supply 3 in a custom order which means I only have to recover 1 of the 2 existing ones. Worst case is I have to buy more transfers although I have numerous surplus/spare BR signs, warning flashes etc to copy the 1983 picture I managed to find of the front of 20045. Of course this shows a completely different configuration of the discs and probably confirms that any configuration would not have been out of place. I'll see how easily the discs might be moved before deciding on a course of action. 20045 was stored in 1981/2 and only reinstated when chosen for the through steam pipe and I believe dual braking although I am not sure where this was carried out. From the pictures I have seen I do'nt think that any repainting was undertaken at this time hence the non standard numbers etc. remaining until a Crewe works visit in 1985. The lamp is offset and not quite as central as the picture suggests although I suspect that the lamp was hung off off of one of the stanchions in reality and as I was able to do on my Lima grain wagon rake which has a much chunkier stanchion. On a Bachmann grain wagon the stanchions are too thin to fix a lamp onto. I pondered where best to fit the lamp, what you see is the best I option that could find. Put another way, it is probably incorrectly located! As built in the late 50's this is correct but, as BOD points out above, this changed along the way and the lights/discs were rendered obsolete. How they appeared on a loco in the 1980's was very haphazard with many discs being removed. From a 1980's modelling perspective any variation can be used although personally I prefer to copy the layout from a specific picture such as the one above.

Not much done yesterday and little potential for operating because I glued the track from the viaduct to Arrochar which necessitated a line block. I struggled to find a cab end picture of 20045 showing the correct configuration of lights and discs for the early 1980's. I would like to get this as near accurate as I can because 045 and 085 were through steam pipe fitted at the time for use with a class 37 on the sleeper. What at is clear is that the non standard number and BR symbol were evident from 1980 until, in all probability, a Crewe works visit in late 1985 which resulted in a repaint. I don't know why I missed this but I did and am now pondering how best to change my version without destroying the numbers which I hope to reuse. Of course it is the best weathering of my renumbered locos which makes it doubly irritating to change things around. In amongst the teeth gnashing I fitted my remaining tail lamps to various freight wagons.

Even more annoying, my Flickr search shows that the number and BR sign on the cab side were non standard during my time window!

Guilty as charged, the picture I used as a reference shows I put the discs in the wrong way up. I wonder if they will come out easily.....

An early summer evening at Fort William with 37033 shunting the mixed stock from the 18.40 ex Mallaig. 20045 sits on the steam stock, a failed 37 means that this is likely to be required for passenger duty tomorrow. How many neds will be able to get to Fort William in time for the 'line in the book'?

Little visual progress yesterday although I spent a couple of hours fettling the track bed and making the rail ready to be glued on the 1 in 60 incline from the viaduct up to Arrochar. I also spent some time operating which involved finishing a day of the WTT and then preparing to start another days running. The last up train of the day is the sleeper where 37081 had charge seen at Crianlarich.