young37215

Cheers Ian. I'll keep this as an option, I want something that creates more than the flat effect of simply adding paint which you clearly have achieved with your Turbots. I can trump your 8 year old powder, I have some 30+ year old weathering powders which I will try mixed with paint before investing in something like the Deluxe product.

Interesting pictures which show several changes from the original condition of 112 when first outshopped in psuedo large logo in 1981. Buffer beam cowls have gone, the access doors on the bonnet have been painted black and shed stickers have been applied. There might be more but I have not found them! I have decided that I will model the 'first edition' simply because it involves the least amount of work. Hopefully I can make a little more progress with this today. Elsewhere I have started the weathering of the new wagons, it is still work in progress particularly with the creation of rust and distressing the 'out of the box' condition to something more dilapidated. So far I have stippled sleeper grime onto the body sides, run a black wash around the framework and airbrushed frame dirt onto the frames. These should now be dry enough for a further layer of paint as I try and build up the density of paint to create the run down, rusty effect I seek, something along the lines that Meanach has managed with his rather nice work on Turbots.

The rust effects are first class, I'll be pleased to get close to these with my ZGV's and other metal bodied wagons. Had a quick look at the Deluxe materials product on line and it looks a bit of a faff to use, is that a fair summary?

Having allowed the paint to dry on 37112 I tried to sand down the patches of removed paint and the joins where the paint had built up against the edge of the masking tape. I re-loaded the airbrush and added another layer of blue all over the body. I removed the remaining masking tape as gently as I could, even so a few small patches of yellow will need touching up as will the black around the windows. My first impression is that it would not pass muster for a professional piece of work but I think I can get comfortable with it. I shall leave 112 for another 24 hours to dry before further work where I intend some weathering on the roof and to add the numbers and other detail. If all goes well I will add a layer of matt varnish and hope that it all blends together. Masking tape removed re-united with nose ends Drying paint I could not resist mounting the bodyshell onto its chassis just to get a feel for what I have

I think it is a 45T Cowans Sheldon crane of which there are no kits that I am aware. Hopefully soemone will come along and prove me wrong as I would also like one!

Hi Ian Delighted to hear that you have found a new job, it is always a stressful time when looking for work and the uncertainty does nothing for ones well being. Your post is interesting, the coach in front of the tunnel inspection vehicle is not coupled up and is, I am pretty certain, the steam heating van that lived at Fort William during the late 70's. If you look closely there is an exhaust port on the roof for the boiler; as you mentioned, there was a picture of this somewhere in this thread although I am not sure when I posted it or if it survived the recent meltdown. Given that inspections would only have been infrequent, I can't see the WHL having its own tunnel or viaduct inspection equipment and I guess that general SCR kit was used. I can't identify the wagon but based on the material in Key's bookazine, it clearly is for tunnel inspection. Progress today with 37112 where the Maskol arrived yesterday and was duly applied to the driver door windows. Paint was poured and air brushed onto the roof and the surrounds of the cab. First impressions are positive, the colour is not a perfect match to that used on the body sides but it is close enough and the coverage seems good. Colour differences will not matter because on removing the body side masking tape several areas of blue paint came away on the tape much to my annoyance. I will allow the roof to dry and then intend spraying all of the blue areas again which should give me a uniform colour as well as covering the patches created by the tape removal. What will happen to the yellow paint when the masking tape that protects this is removed I shudder to think. First coat of paint applied Masking tape removal also pulled away some of the existing blue paint, several patches will need repair

I did but thank you nevertheless for the advice. I view pulley posts in much the same way I do fence posts; you can rarely see them in WHL pictures and you need to look very hard in most cases where they are visible. My conclusion is that they are nice to have rather than essential. Contrast these with point rodding which in the instances I have modelled it is much more visible. Not all point rodding is modelled on WHL4, just the most prominent. As with most of what we do there are compromises to be made and for me, something that my eyes struggle to notice fall into to the 'don't bother, too much effort' category. I am awaiting delivery of some Humbrol Maskol to mask some of the glazing on 37112 before painting. I am keen to find out how my approach to painting will turn out, so much so that paint is mixed and ready to spray. Whilst twiddling my fingers and checking the masking tape I picked up on the rather crude, molded cab hand rails which contrast poorly compared against the more modern Bachmann 37's. I can do better than that I thought and before I had time to think twice I had cut the molded parts off and filed down the door surface. My hope is that with a coat of paint the butchery will not be visible and once the paint has hardened off I will use some 0.35 piano wire to craft new hand rails. Surely it cannot be that difficult...... masked up loco awaits painting the molded cab door handrails are unsightly and unrealistic handrails no more Bachmann later style cab handrails

It appears that the lockdowns have created the time for people to scan and post their old photos on Flickr which is great news for modellers. I spent far too much time looking at what was new material for me yesterday evening. Back in the day the early morning haulage move was the down sleeper to Tyndrum Upper for the walk to Lower via the Little Chef and breakfast for the first train from Oban back south. I did'nt do it that often but from the number of pictures on Flickr similar to 37112 below, it is evident that it was a common move for haulage bashers and their cameras Another new picture from Flickr of Ardlui is of a really useful angle for me in planning how to extend the backscene. the same photographer with another great angle to assist in developing Ardlui

Interesting suggestions on weathering, traditionally I have settled for a mix of Railmatch acyrilics heavily thinned and mixed together to create shades. Of course my colour blindness means I dont really have a clue as to what colours I end up with. Still no one has fallen about laughing when they have seen my handiwork so far. Creating a coarser finish is challenging, I have had reasonable success in using some aincent weathering powders on previous weathering jobs which seals nicely with varnish, it is the rust that I am less sure about. As a first step I will try the remains of a Railmatch enamel dark rust pot duly thinned into a wash with some weathering powder and see what I can make of that. The great thing about weathering is you can usually paint over your mistakes. I have masked up 37112 for painting and mixed some Railmatch enamel rail blue with thinners. I am out all day today but with a little luck I will get a coat of paint on to 112 in the next few days. In the meantime I managed to get the double dumbo into 37085 by milling out an unnecessary ridged piece of the chassis using a multi tool. Removing the ridge which is just to the left of the masking tape in the first picture below, created 2mm of additional headroom and a little fettling of the speaker chamber meant that I could seat the speaker neatly in to the rebated area of the chassis. The bodyshell then fitted without any resistance; job done. 37085 then had a little run just to test that all was well, the improvment in both sound quality and the volume from the double dumbo over the standard sugar cube is considerable.

Not me Guv, I bought 039 in this condition with working headlight on Ebay several years ago. As the greenhowards says, it is a nice weathering job with the faded blue done really well. My weathering skills are not as well developed as I would like but I have the chance to refine them on some newly acquired rolling stock intended for use in engineers trains. I had hoped that the new Key Publications Departmental Coaches and Track Machines would provide further reference material for engineering trains north of the border but despite being an excellent piece of work, it is light on Scottish departmental stock. I will be attempting to distress and weather the new stock in the coming weeks except for the Turbot which will retain its ex-works condition reflecting its introduction mid way through my early 80's time window in 1982. The Dutch liveried Turbot is the first piece of 'modern' liveried rolling stock to make an appearance on WHL4, whether it survives is still under consideration. All looking far too clean for engineering trains, 1 x Bachmann's new VEA and 3 x Bachmann ZGV await attention.

I am struggling to get the glazing out of 37112, it looks like it was re-glued when resprayed and only 1 of the panels has come out despite much prodding and a spell in the freezer. Looks like I will have to use liquid masking instead, a pain but not insurmountable, just a further delay whilst I buy some and wait for it to arrive. With no progress on 37112 I finally got around to a few outstanding tasks. First up was to add a second driver to 37043 whilst fitting a Zimo double dumbo speaker. Second up was an attempt to add another Dumbo to 37085 but here the fit was difficult being an older style chassis. The speaker is a big improvment but unless I can find a way to make it fit, it wont being staying. Finally I changed the headcode panels on 37039 where the old style domino ones were replaced by plated panels creating the version of 039 that ran in 1983/4. A little weathering of the new panels is required to blend them in although what I noticed on Flickr is that there are a lot more pictures of 039 with the black painted plated panel than there were of 37085. Maybe I will swap the plated panels between the 2 locos when I have few spare minutes.

A little progress with converting 37027 to 37112 yesterday. I changed 112's nose ends to a set of 'as built' ones with the bufferbeam cowls and round buffers together with the chassis both from 37085 to create the version of 112 that I want. This meant that 085 had a quick works visit and emerged minus bufferbeam cowls with plated headcodes and oval buffers using the chassis from 37027 and a spare set of nose ends. At the same time a second driver was fitted to the empty cab and a Loksound V5 with Coastal sounds was added. A service and wheel clean was completed enabling 085 to return to service although she still needs a new speaker fitting; fortunately I was able to get a couple of double dumbos from Coastal so that should not take long to complete. The body shell of 112 was cleaned with IPA and left to dry; depending on how it looks I am hoping that I can simply remove the glazing, mask up the yellow ends and re-spray the body in blue. I am hoping that any colour differences will be unnoticeable once lightly weathered which is how 112 appeared throughout 1982. Fingers crossed!! 37085 before her works visit Ex works 37085 on test With transfers and old weathering removed and revised nose ends in place, 37112 dries out

Researching the various colour schemes worn by 37112 during the early 1980's is quite a lengthy activity. It seems there were several variants of large logo applied with the loco flipping between standard corporate BR blue, large logo and BR blue with numbers left in the non standard position when in large logo. Throw in a white stripe for a few months in 1984, removal of buffer beam cowls some time in 1983 and it becomes clear that 112 ran in virtually every guise that was seen in the time window except for the chimney fitting. The template I will be using for 112, Fort William in early 1982 June 1981 view shortly after painting of the extended yellow paint. It appears that the blue was not done at the same time. Summer 1981 in its first iteration of large logo

An interesting few days without RMWeb, hopefully everyone is now back in circulation and covid free. Thanks to BoD for his words of support, the loss of 12 months of pictures is irritating but not the end of the world. I'll just have to take some more to fill up the new servers! I recently bought a second hand Bachmann class 37 that had been repainted as 37027 in the psuedo large logo livery seen in the early 1980's. It's not a bad paint job but with the loco originally 37114, it is the wrong bodyshell for 027 which had a welded roof. Not a problem as I want 37112 in it's 1981 large logo and have Accurascale's 37027 on order. 1 speedy custom order from Railtec and I am in a position to renumber 027 as 37112 once the paintwork has been revised (the roof and cab doors were blue) and the nose ends swapped for ones with the as built fairings. I have not resprayed a loco before so this will be interesting; worst case is I make a mess and have to pay a professional painter to do the work. Plated roof as found on 37's from around 37098 onwards Welded roof as would have been found on 37027

Hand of god is the usual method, there are too many places to couple/uncouple to make ramps viable and I have not found a reliable way to auto uncouple on code 75 track. I have a few Peco uncouplers which function pretty well in the fiddle yard but that is code 100 track. I am looking at engineering trains at present which caused me to revert to the Crianlarich thread where there are several pictures of dilapidated open wagons which are copied here. As ever I am looking for wagons that I can replicate on WHL4 but I am not good at identifying wagons. Can anyone tell me what these are and, more importantly, if there are versions manufactured in 00.

I have done something similar with my DCC controlled layout where the track power BUS is divided into 3 seperate sub power districts. I have a seperate power BUS for point and signal control. On page 41 of my thread there is a diagram showing what I did which I think is similar to what you plan to do. Although provision has been made, in practice I have not inserted any on/off switches and have not had any problems. In the event that I need to fault find, it would not be difficult to manually disconnect any of the individual districts.

With ballast hoppers uncoupled, 37033 exits the down sidings and returns to the up sidings to collect the empty coal MCV's which are shunted to the down platform. 37033 returns to air braked 7D09 and shunts this so that the vacum braked MCV's can be attached to the rear of the train. 7D09 is now ready to continue is journey south to Mossend.

Having uncoupled from 7D09, 37033 starts it's shunting activity. First a ballast train is moved from the headshunt on the down side to siding on the up side which is necessary in order that the sidings on the down side can be accessed.

For my 1980's time period there was a single daily freight in each direction between Glasgow and Oban. For 1983 the trains were booked to pass at Crianlarich at 17.50 where the crews changed over. Both trains were slackly timed and had significant dwell times at various station along the line to accomodate shunting of wagons being collected or dropped off. Re-enacting the shunting movements makes a change from simply running trains helping to maintain operational interest and ensuring that wagons dont simply sit in a siding for months at a time. 37033 with 7D09, 14.55 Oban to Mossend is seen arriving at Crianlarich early at around 17.00 which leaves 50 minutes for shunting and the collection of empty coal wagons for return to Glasgow.

Moving on from buffers, I am currently testing the revised 1983 WTT. In addition to some tweaks to smooth out pressure points in the fiddle yards, I have added north and south paths for an additional train which can be engineers, specials etc as required. It all seems to work, at 1620 2 class 37 hauled freights pass at their booked crossing at Ardlui.

It’s a Peco SL40. I have tried fitting to both code 75 and code 100 and get the same effect on both. The 3 vertical sections all foul the chairs making it impossible to get the base level with the rail. On balance I think I’ll live with the anomaly, I can’t be doing with messing around with removing more chairs. Sleeper grime to the rescue! code 75 code100

The power of a picture shows defects not readily visible to the naked eye! ISW is right, the buffer stop is fitted as best I can but it is not right. There are 3 vertical sections which do not fit neatly to my code 75 track with the middle section acting like a pivot meaning that it is difficult to get the buffer to sit as it should. At a guess the buffer is designed for code 100 track and whilst I suspect I could adjust the way it fits with a file, a little sleeper grime painted where the buffer sits on the railhead should hide this from all but the sharpest of eyes. The fleet on WHL4 has been stable for a while now, the latest arrival was 20228 which I bought a year or so ago. The loco has been detailed and has standard Bachmann snow ploughs fitted. I want to retain the ploughs but as fitted they fouled the rail so my file has been put to use and the plough height reduced. All I need to do now is add a wire loop as a coupling; until then it is light engine movements only!

Not a lot of action at present but with grateful thanks to Mallaig1983, the railings at the northern end of Mallaig station have been fitted. These are from Scale Model Scenery that Andy didn’t use and was kind enough to give to me. Sprayed with grey acrylic primer, they do the job very nicely.

In a perfect world I would go down the photographic backscene route and in the long run, this might be something to introduce at a later date. As Meanach points out the effect on Forsinard does a terrific job of making the railway line fit into the surrounding landscape and makes the layout feel much larger than it actually is. I would love to achieve something similar but consider the work involved too much effort at this time. I have used the emulsion paint technique at Crianlarich and partially at Ardlui where I consider the results an improvment on a plain white wall and will try this at Garelochead as a first step. I'll accept that the red blinds stand out and have to live with them although in hindsight I realise I should have had green blinds fitted. Fortunately being colour blind I dont find that the blinds stand out at all. 37017 arrives Crianlarich with 1B15, 1815 Glasgow to Oban which shows the simple painted backscene.

Terrific pictures but with the peak appearing to have a pre tops number, I question the 1978 timeline and guess it is an early to mid 70's date?.