young37215

The only oddity I could see in the video is the buffet runs slightly higher than the rest of the coaches. Other than that I would have to work hard to identify the differing brands that make up the consist as they blend together quite happily. The one thing I did notice was a lack of passengers; unless you are figuring on running ECS movements only it should not be to much of a challenge to add passengers. Ebay sells plenty of Chinese produced figures for a modest cost, 200 should cost less than £20. The figures are a bit cheap and cheerful but hidden away in a coach it is hard work to notice, e.g. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/224365029862?hash=item343d32a9e6:g:CX8AAOSw4XRgN5yo&var=523151905837

Interesting, upon looking further it seems as if prior to the dedicated alumina service starting in 1984, alumina traffic was mixed in with other consists as evidenced by the 1983 pictures below which show a mix of alumina and other wagons.

Resurrecting this ancient thread, I am attempting to create a reference source for the former grain wagons used in the mid 1980's to transport bulk alumina from Blyth to Fort William. My interest is limited to the former grain and lime wagons which were replaced in 1987 by purpose built PCA's. The first year that the former grain hoppers ran on the WHL as a separate train in their own right was 1984; how did the alumina get to Fort William before this? In all of the 1980's pictures I have seen pre-dating 1984 there are no hoppers in the Glasgow to Fort William/Corpach freights. I am in the process of updating my 30 year old resprayed and re-wheeled Lima grain wagons which I believe are PAB's to Bachmann's 33-133 grain wagon which is, I believe, a PAV. Other differences between the 2 wagons are modest, the main visual difference being the Lima PAB's have 5 bodyside ribs and the Bachmann PAV have 8 ribs. My research indicates that there were 4 lots of PA wagons built where it appears the last lot had their ribs reduced to 5. I am also interested by the make up of the consist seen below in 1984. The first 6 wagons look like PAV's but the next 3 are clearly not. What are these? does anyone make a model of one?

Nice work Ian, as you have said Lima coaches can be perfectly acceptable with a little bit of time and effort. The price that the Bachmann coaches seem to fetch now makes it even more attractive to upgrade the Limas.

I have a class 27 with the wonderful brass wheels and refuse to pay the £45 Heljan are asking for replacement wheel sets. The Hornby option looks like a possibility, I would appreciate a little more detail about peoples experiences. It all seems very straightforward, remove the Heljan wheels from the axle and replace with Hornby ones. Check the back to back and glue the wheels in place. Is it really that straightforward?

Mostly loco servicing yesterday, I am working my way through the fleet cleaning wheels and lubricating the older locos. This does seem to improve the running although apart from 27032, nothing was so bad as to make the difference clear cut. That said judging by the amount of dirt that comes off of the wheels the servicing can only be doing good. The Ayrshire adex continues it' s return journey south seen arriving at Garelochead.

Nothing much tangible to show for yesterdays efforts although I managed to get a few outstanding issues sorted with Doug coming over with his Lokprogrammer. Locos in the WHL4 fleet have their top speed, acceleration and deceleration rates adjusted to something more prototypical thus creating a standard setting. Several of the new locos needed these adjustments and the handful of Loksound V5 chipped locos required further tweaks to get to an acceptably realistic performance. By the end of the day these were all complete and the locos allocated and positioned for a new day of operations based on the 1981 WTT. We finally resolved the longstanding light out at one end on 37108 where the common return wire had come loose. Visually the wire was still in the correct position but under closer inspection it was clear that it was not attached to the contact. It took more time for the soldering iron to warm up than it did to correct the defect. Another result, now all locos have their headcode and tail lights working as they should. We did'nt make much progress on understanding Railcom and Railcom Plus which I had been hoping would automatically upload sound chip function data to the controller. This happens automatically on some chips and not on others which we believe is determined by the individual sound project. Ideally I want this automatic upload on all chips so that when running a loco there is a visual display on the controller showing what each function does. A manual upload is possible but with upwards of 20 functions on a chip, this is a time consuming and laborious activity. Not much running took place, 27105 and 27041 are seen returning to the Ayrshire coast with their rake of Sealink coaches adex.

Some positive news today, the 1mm wire solved the Ardlui issue and the point is now motorised. Apart from a problem with one of the siding points at Arrochar and excluding the possible fiddle yard motorisation, this finishes the point automation on WHL4. I can now paint the track at Ardlui as the next step in its development. 27032 continued to potter around on engineering duties. Its wheels needed a quick turn on the Trix wheel cleaner as they had for want of a better description, oxidised overnight and were again causing challeges for 27032 to pick up power. Once done the loco performed faultlessly and is seen arriving at Crianlarich from the Oban line.

The word outrageous springs to mind, the only need for replacment wheels is due to poor quality of the originals and the price has gone up 4 fold compared to just a few years ago now representing about 35% of the cost of a new loco. Olivia's are selling complete chassis on Ebay for £45 which would represent far better value although I am not sure what wheels these come with. Fortunately for me, only 1 of my 3 27's has these wheels. I will not be ripped off and will keep my eye on 27032's wheels to check how often they need a clean. Heljan do seem to have developed an ability to hack people off. The thicker piano wire arrived yesterday so its fingers crossed and off to try to get the adapter to actuate the remaining point at Ardlui. A further cab ride of a train arriving at Crianlarich from Oban.

Guagemaster do have the replacement wheels in stock but at £22.50 per bogie, it will cost the thick end of £50 to re-wheel a single locomotive. The price seems excessive but I guess its all supply and demand. Perhaps the fact that the wheels are in stock tells us something about the demand at that price! https://www.gaugemasterretail.com/magento/Heljan-hn19853583.html

Since the start of 2021 I have been paying attention to the amounts of dirt that build up on the track and whether the use of non polar cleaners makes any difference. Yesterday I found that 27032 was struggling for power and looked at the wheels which were cleaned just a few months ago. They were dreadful, coated in dirt which was fairly obviously why there were power issues. I was surprised, I have read that Heljan wheels can be prone to collecting dirt but this was staggering for wheels that were cleaned in early 2021 and it took 6 cotton wool buds soaked in contact cleaner to get them clean again. 27032 restored to power The camera wagon used for videoing had a rest yesterday. The camera sits on a Peco track rubber which I found creates the height that I wanted to shoot video.

Good spot, I had missed the spring on the adapter. I duly removed it and there was noticeably less bending of the 0.6mm wire when the servo moved but the point would still not change. It just about manages a change in one direction but not the other which is progress. Hopefully the thicker 1mm wire will be the key to unlocking this.... I have only watched the video on my laptop where the picture quality is better than many I have seen by 1980's standards. I have not adjusted any settings to watch, I simply placed the DVD in the laptops DVD player and pressed start. My laptop runs Power Media Player which came with the laptop. The ETHEL is only shown on arrival at Fort William but I am pretty certain that you can hear it throughout the journey, particularly when the train is stationary. Another cab ride, this time a southbound train at Garelochead. It appears that Railway Modeller has an article on small cameras this month, I shall buy a copy to see what they have to say.

The approach to Crianlarich is a combination of 2nd and 3rd radius settrack curves which perform well, derailments are no more frequent here than anywhere else. I would have liked a wider radius but it was a question of making things fit which involved compromises. Although rolling stock overhangs the rails on these curves which is unrealistic, I can live with the trade off. There are now 50 servo controlled points on WHL 4 of which 48 perform well. Over the last week I have been attempting to install the last few servos in the sidings at Ardlui, annoyingly the point off of the mainline into the yard is on top of a baseboard trestle meaning that I cannot install the servo directly under the point as I have elsewhere. I thought I could use a Peco adapter base and install the servo under this which would not be visible sitting underneath the platform. So far the servo has proven reluctant to actuate/move the adapter base as the 0.6mm piano wire simply bends rather than actuate the point. It is not easy doing this from under the baseboard so I mocked up a test board on the workbench and got exactly the same result. My last hope for the adapter base is a thicker piece of piano wire so I have ordered a piece 1mm thick in the hope this will prove sufficiently robust to actuate the adapter base. Of course if somebody cleverer than me can offer a better solution I would be grateful I think I will revert to videoing today, it's much less frustrating than installing point motors! test baseboard repeats the problem platform hide the adapter base

Mine is a cube and sits neatly in a wagon but without sound; we need a hybrid of the two! My uploads to Youtube are showing as 480 p, quality is OK but nothing special. Given I model the 1980's, the quality actually contributes to the feel I am trying to create.

Does it have sound? I ask because I bought a cheaper one which produces acceptable video but is silent. To be fair for the £15 it cost I think I have a bargain, it outputs via wifi to my Iphone on an app that was easy to download. The video below purports to be HD although I would question the accuracy of the statement. Overall I am pleased with it https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/402712734214

My copy of British Rail Motive Power 7 arrived yesterday and I watched the WHL clip with particular interest. The most notable thing for me was the noise that the ETHEL was making, the class 25 engine could clearly be heard chuntering away at what must have been around 50% power. That provides some food for thought when it comes to my operations where I had been thinking I would leave the ETHEL silent. Todays video is the reverse movement of the first one with a northbond train passing through Crianlarich.

A mix of Geoscenics weathered N gauge and Peco Ash & Cinders fine grade. Whatever you use, make sure that it is N gauge or finer because the 00 gauge stuff is far to large. I managed some more cab rides yesterday, not quite sure I have the lighting right but here is a northbound train arriving at Garelochead.

I finally managed to confirm with ESU USA that Cab Control's short circuit protection is solely the adjustable current limit found in the Settings. In recent weeks I have upgraded and increased the number of droppers in my power BUS creating the capability of 3 sub power districts. On the basis that I have increased the adjustable current limit to the maximum and still get trips on start up, I need to install switches to each sub district.

Interesting news, thanks. I spent an hour watching my 2 Class 37 Tribute dvd's by TVP yesterday which both have some excellent WHL reference material. The video player on my new laptop will now let me fast forward to the points where I can view just the WHL material whereas my old laptop software would not. I have added a 4th coach to my Rule 1, Ayrshire coast to the WHL adex rake of Sealink coaches which first appeared in 1983. A pair of 27's arrive at Crianlarich with a train bound for Oban.

I finally bought a cheap sugar cube camera which I hoped would provide the means to produce a cab ride experience. I paid £15 for the camera which seems to produce reasonable quality output video although it does not appear to do sound. First efforts at a cab ride see 37085 and 7D19 passing through Crianlarich.

I could not face the 2 outstanding Ardlui servos yesterday and just ran a few trains instead. 37178 is seen at Crianlarich where it passes 37012 with 1B10.

An irritating and frustrating day yesterday meant I went backwards rather than forwards. 3 of the Ardlui servos are fitted using the last of my Alurailtech brackets which have a self contained microswitch fixing. These all got fitted and secured quickly because I find them well designed and easy to use. The remaining 2 servos are in awkward places being obstructed by the trestles that support the baseboard where even if I had Alurailtech brackets they would not fit. The 2 servos are secured using a different bracket which requires a seperate microswitch fitting and in 1 case the point is actuated through a Peco adapter base. Neither of the 2 would play ball and after several hours of trying I gave up for the day. Hopefully a nights rest will see things fit together more easily today, it will be good to find a solution because these are the last 2 points to motorise on the whole layout. 37178 has charge of 7V86, 0606 Mallaig Junction Yard to Sighthill seen arriving at Crianlarich.

Page 73 of this thread details how they come apart

I managed to get 4 of the 5 points at Ardlui working correctly by the end of yesterday. My experience is that alignment is key to a successful installation and I struggled to get this right on 2 of the servos. It is not difficult, just time consuming and tedious whilst performing contortions under a baseboard. 37043 departs Garelochead for Glasgow. Although diagrammed to return with 1B11, 1254 Glasgow to Oban, 37043 is due an A exam and will be swapped with another 37.

Yesterday I finished the wiring at Ardlui, now I need to complete the point motorisation. Ardlui has 5 points, 2 of which are already motorised and simply need the connection to the microswitch fitting. 1 of the other 3 is located on top of a baseboard trestle meaning I cannot use the usual underbaseboard servo mounting and have to be a little more creative. Fortunately it is the point that leads from the main line into the sidings making it adjacent to the platform under which I can hide a motor to switch the point. The weather forecast to day is shocking meaning I am likely to have time on my hands so hopefully I can finish this off and return to operations. It's been a bit of a 37043 fest the last few days and this continues today with Loch Lomond seen arriving at Garelochead where it passes 1B10, 0837 Glasgow to Mallaig headed by fellow namer, 37012 Loch Rannoch.