young37215

37108 draws to a halt at Crianlarich where it waits to cross 1B10 headed by 37085 during Thursday's running. I managed a few hours of work on Mallaig yesterday although it was hard to see much tangible progress; hopefully this will start to show in the next few days.

Interesting question Ian. Short answer is I have no idea and wonder if British Rail paid any attention to its sleeper passenger comfort post arrival. The picture below of a steam heating van at Fort William from 1981 suggests that the SCR did but I have never seen pictures with this attached to rolling stock. There is a thread entitled 'steam heating van 1980s' which is where I found the picture but it does not provide any greater detail. A quick Google search returns a piece by RCTS which indicates there were several SCR steam heating vans but it does not expand on their usage. When I have a few spare minutes I will delve further as I quite like the thought of one of these. .Elsewhere and with Doug's assistance I managed to lift Mallaig onto the work bench for an upgrade after we had a short running session. Whilst I can still run trains without Mallaig, I hope that with a few days focusing on Mallaig I will be able complete the upgrade and return it to the layout to get back to normal operations. No need to panic yet as I have a few remaining pictures to use up; 37108 is seen on arrival at Crianlarich with 8D10, the 0707 Mallaig Junction Yard to Mossend.

37012 has detatched the sleepers on arrival at Fort William and departed for Mallaig. After an extended stay in the platform to allow the passengers time to wake up and depart their Mark 1 luxury, 20085 retrieves the sleeping cars and takes them off to the depot for cleaning.

Thanks Warren. As ever the trade off between time and money is a complex one. I have a few Woodland Scenics armatures to make some of my own trees using similar trechniques and will see how these turn out. Clearly they take some time and effort to turn into decent representations of the real thing; I need to work on this.

Passengers refreshed and rembarked on their train, 37012 departs Crianlarich crossing the Glenbruar viaduct as it heads north

Super looking trees, please expand on the products used and their construction. I have used a number of Woodland Scenics off the shelf trees which work well but it is getting expensive and with a long stretch on the approach to Arrochar required I am exploring alternatives.

Deviation from the corporate standard blue in the early 1980's was frowned upon, the white stripes appeared and were removed from several locos just as was the case with the initial large logo repaints. Having grown up with corporate blue I am not a fan of large logo which means that the white stripe is as much a deviation as is allowed in WHL4! 37012 continues her journey north seen arriving Crianlarich at 0752. Probaly not many passengers departing here either although a few will have made the fast move for the buffet before rejoining the train.

37012 at Ardlui continuing its journey north; I cannot imagine that many people alighted here either at 07.29 in the morning.

The main source I use for reference with a number of pictures of signal boxes showing internal and external views is Llangollen Signalman's Flickr album, link below Llangollen Signalman WHL album Not complete panoramas of a entire box though

The sleeper slows to a stop at Garelochead, discharges but a few passengers and then departs for the north.

A happy new year to one and all. A step back in time today to 24th March 1983 when 37012 was the booked loco for the 0600 Glasgow to Mallaig seen approaching Garelochead. The Class 37 Loco Group website is an excellent reference source for historic class 37 workings although I have yet to find a day where all of the WHL diagrammed workings were recorded. Looking back it is something of a shame but steam heat loco workings were still commonplace and taken much for granted; how things change!

The end of 2021, lets hope for a better 2022. I have again delayed lifting the Mallaig section for work because I decided that it would be easier with 2 people. Having added rock moulds to the side of the section it will not simply be a case of dropping it onto the work bench hence a second pair of hands will make this easier and reduce the chances of damage. At least this leaves me free to start another days operations. One of my favourite pictures of Crianlarich from 1983 is a regular source of reference and something I am constantly trying to replicate on WHL4. Apart from sanding the newly cauked car park which is proving slow to dry out, I have finished with the recent tweaks. I may choose to tone down the weathering of the fence in time but otherwise this mini project is complete.

I am pleased to say that I fitted passengers to most of my coaches a year or two back when I was renumbering them. If you are seriously deliberating lighting then Everard Junction's Youtube video on installing coach lighting is worth a watch being both informative and interesting. In terms of block detection I would have thought that inadvertant tripping by the relatively low power draw of LED's as compared to that of a DCC chip in a locomotive under power should be capable of avoiding by adjusting the settings of the block detection. That said would you not want a coach to trigger the block?, is not the purpose of having detection is to show whether a section is occupied or not?

One of the challenges in running a timetable is that it is very easy to overlook additional services such as engineering trains and the like. I am considering how I might insert a couple of paths in the WTT to run such trains on an 'as required' basis. 27032 did get a recent outing with a rake of loaded Dogfish seen arriving at Ardlui.

Nice work on the BSOT's, your internal work is excellent. I keep pondering coach lighting but am put off by the effort and technical challenge of having 20 plus coaches to complete.

More tidying up at Crianlarich where at the front of the baseboard I finally got around to finishing the embankment on the roadway that connects the car park to the yard. This had never been completed and had a 15mm open gap that I filled with Sculptamould and dressed the area with scenic materials. I also did the same to a similar small gap at the edge of the car park and a layer of Decorators cauk was spread over a wooden joint in the car park which had several visible saw cut marks. Finally I added another coat of paint to the fascia boards at the front of the layout. Modest jobs in isolation but a big improvment visually. Roadway before works, gap is on the extreme left of the picture Sculptamoulded Area dressed with bushes and weeds added to the roadside Edge of car park filled Cauked area which needs sanding and painting once dry

Rather than start a new running day I decided to get on with a few of the small jobs that have been outstanding at Crianlarich for a while. The additional pine trees were planted and a light and water column were added at the south end of the platform. The water column is a simple affair with 4 x 2mm square pieces of Plastruct glued together with a small offcut of 2mm silicon pipe glued into it; from a distance it looks fine although as the picture shows on close inspection it's limitations are clear. A 5mm hole drilled in the baseboard and filed square creates a friction fit for the column which allows me time to decide on the best way to present it. The pipe should face the track but it fouls the line if I do. After trying several angles, I decided that the pipe facing the platform looked best. First up is the larger forest to the south, the water column lies on the ground waiting for work. Water column and light temporarily planted The light is left over from those I used at Mallaig and when repainted it is a decent copy of the real thing. It is not secured it in place yet but when it is it will be connected to the platform lights network so that it illuminates when required. Reality below, 37022 arrives Crianlarich in 1984 highlighting I need to paint the water column in a concrete colour

In 1983 1B15 crossed the up sleeper at Crianlarich which is seen arriving with 37026 in charge.

On the basis that I have hardly been out of the house for the last few months other than on essential errands, my spending has been lower than usual. Consequently Father Christmas was able to buy me some more pine trees to finish off the south end at Crianlarich. Before the addtional tree planting, 37011 continues its journey to Oban with 1B15.

Christmas eve has arrived once more and I wish everyone a merry christmas and a happy new year. Lets hope for a virus free 2022! 37011 approaches Garelochead with 1B15, 1823 Glasgow to Oban

I am currently running the 1983 WTT with a few tweaks for operational reasons which all seems to work well. 37081 is seen on departure from Garelochead passing through the new scenic area with 1245 Mallaig to Glasgow. ..

I have something along these lines in my mind, particularly some low exposed rock to break up the area. This requires more rock casting which meant I left the roof section alone yesterday and focused on dressing the remaining newly created area. Using Woodland Scenices coarse turf materials I covered the new areas between the cutting and exisiting scenery trying to match the colours to blend them together. As ever the transformation created by dressing an area is spectacular and largely completes the work I intend doing here for now. More trees and bushes will get added over time and a small area of additional rock is required at the end of the cutting to blend it into the landscape but otherwise I am done with this activity. Back to running some trains for the next few days before tackling Mallaig where I have set myself a year end deadline to get this activity done. Looking south from Garelochead Small area that requires an additional rock casting. Looking north

You will need to state the chips you use to get meaningful advice. If it's Loksounds then search online for the manuals which are all easily available Loksound's use CV 63 across the V4/V5 range with max of 192. My experience is you will need to adjust and tweak to suit the accoustics of your layout, in my large modelling area my locos are set at the upper end of the range.

Further progress with the area surrounding the cutting created with Sculptamold and painted. More Woodland Scenics rock moulds have been used in an effort to blend the rocky area into the background where I want to link up with the existing scenery with a seamless join. What will look best for the removable 'roof' over the hidden siding was not obvious to me. I do'nt want anymore height otherwise it will make accessing the cutting difficult. Hopefully a solution will become clearer today. The painted areas should be dry enough to dress with Woodland Scenics materials today which will break the back of the work and allow me to tick it off of the 'outstanding work' list. Sculptamold added to join the cutting to the existing scenery Sculptamold painted and the newly added rocks darkened Looking north through the cutting the new scenic area joins the existing scenery The 'roof' where I am undecided on how best to cover the area.

Cutting placed into its position and initial guaging undertaken. All seems to fit, one tight spot adjacent the left hand cab door in the first picture was easily trimmed back and painted over. In addition to cleaning up the cutting bases and painting them, I additionally hope to fill the gaps between the track bed and the base of the cuttings with a water effect to represent the drainage channels so often found in a cutting. This will have to wait until last, the rails need another coat of sleeper grime before I fix anything in place. The activity for today is extending and linking the existing scenery to complete the new area up to the removable sections.