young37215

Spent much of yesterday tidying up the loft and positioning locos and rolling stock around the layout ready for a new day of operations. I have cleaned all of the lower loop track and much of the fiddle yard using contact cleaner so hopefully the build up of rubbish will now subside. I also spent some time searching for suitable model posters from the early 1980's so that I can further detail Crianlarich where there were a number of posters scattered around the station, particularly on the station building. Apart from 1 seller on Ebay, choices seemed rather thin; does anyone have any suggestions? 37017 again arriving at Crianlarich with its loaded Grampus.

The motors in both track maintenance vehicles have always been noisy and slow speed control a little eratic. After a further several hours of attention I managed to get both vehicles working and running much better than I recall they ever have before. The noise of the motors reduced and slow speed control was much improved. To achieve this I cleaned all wheels and contacts with WD40 contact cleaner, oiled the wheel axles and lightly lubricated all gears that I could see. I then let both run around the lower loop for 20 minutes to run themselves in and by the end of this they were working nicely. Having completed the servicing both vehicles returned to their Crianlarich base.

Absolutely not, I shudder to think at the thought of the tines digging up the glued down ballast which took me hours to lay. The tamper is the standard Bachmann, HO gauge model with an ESU Lokpilot DCC chip. My issue with the chip is that I did not secure it in place leaving it free to move and sods law which says it will move into a place where it causes a problem. I hope it is an easy fix with some black tack securing the chip out of harms way. I would like to fit directional lighting to my 2 track maintenance vehicles having seen a Youtube video of the tamper fitted out this way. In theory it looks simple enough but I have never done anything like this and I am not sure I fancy drilling holes in my rolling stock! Normally I would sub contract the work to someone with experience but it seems that all of the competent people are awash with work at present with lockdowned modellers wanting work done.

There are a few pictures around of obscure units on the WHL but I have not seen one of the tribometer train. That said I recently found one at Edinburgh in 1984 heading west, perhaps it made it over the the WHL?. There are a number of oddballs that made appearances on the WHL. The Derby Lightweight Ultrasconic test train sneaked up and down the WHL on occassion and was captured on film by Spannerman in 1984. His Flickr pictures are a first class asset as a source of reference for modellers of the 1980's WHL. I fancy doing TDB977177 seen below at Ardlui using the Dapol class 122. To be accurate the unit needs customising to reflect changes made to the unit when running as a parcels unit prior to departmental service. There is thread on RMWeb somewhere that identifies these but I suspect I could live with just renumbering and adding a headlight. Yesterday I felt sufficiently well and motivated to spend several hours modelling where I attempted to service and repair a DCC fitted Bachmann tamper that has been out of use for a year or more. I managed to disconnect a wire when fitting crew to the cab and have not previously got around to fixing the problem largely because the tamper was a poor runner. Determined to sort this out I set about cleaning wheels and power connections and lubricating the gears and axles. I dont have anything tangible to show as yet although I did get power restored and the motor running freely. Annoyingly on reassembly I managed to foul the motor with the DCC chip and need to strip the chassis down once again to correct this. Hopefully today I can get the tamper running and restored to the layout.

An excellent reference book for modellers of the WHL containing material on timber and china clay traffic is https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/163056-modelling-british-railways-wagonload-formations/&tab=comments#comment-4359836 I managed a few more engineers movements yesterday and gave the Research Centre Tribometer train an outing. I am not aware that the trib ever traversed the WHL although given the excessive wear rates of both rail and wheels caused by the introduction of the class 37's , it seems plausible to run the train even of it is just on a Rule 1 basis. Either way I like the colour of the RTC livery.

The Mickleover limited edition of 37026 fits your bill perfectly although I would imagine that there is some form of agreement restricting Bachmann's re-use of the moulds for a period of time to allow Mickleover time to sell their version. I suspect that the moulds will be re-used by Bachmann at some stage to produce a proprietary model. One or more in BR blue and better still with a Scottish flavour would be nice. Although I felt better yesterday I was on restricted workings and spent no more than 30 minutes on the layout before having to retire to the settee and more tedious day time TV where, much to my annoyance, ITV4 have stopped showing The Professionals. I managed a few more engineers workings following the weekends possession where 37017 is seen heading south into Crianlarich with a fully loaded train of Grampus filled with spoil.

There are several occassions that I have looked at buying versions of 37112 in its unique LL livery but have'nt because the models have had the incorrect Bachmann bodyshell roof for the later numbered split box locos. Several years ago prior to learning about the roof issue I renumbered 37049 with the early numbered roof to 37108. Now that I am aware of the roof issue I intend renumbering 37108 to a lower number when I get around to it. Whilst I have enough 37's to run the full WTT, there is always the possibility of further additions to the fleet should something catch my attention. No pictures today, I was lucky enough to get my Covid vacination on Monday and spent a quiet day yesterday as the side effects left me feeling poorly. I have no complaints about the flu like side effects, I am just grateful for having been vacinated and a day or two of feeling under the weather is a price well worth paying as far as I am concerned. Hopefully I will feel more like some railway time today.

It would be fair to say that Ed's online presence is negligible. I have a contact number and will ask him if he is OK with me making this available. There are brand new PRA's on WHL4 but as for the rest of your suggestions I am afraid that BR blue is what I grew up with and what I model. The white stripes on a couple of the 37's are as much of a deviation from corporate standard as I will allow although should Accurascale produce 37188 Jimmy Shand or 37111 Loch Eil Outward Bound in LL I will be tempted. I dont particularly dislike the later era although it was a time when my interest in railways had waned and I dont relate to it like I do the early 1980's scene. Continuing the recent engineering theme, 27032 departs Crianlarich with Grampus empties for activity taking place somewhere to the north.

Panic not Ian. According to my Platform 5 books, dual braked and slow speed control fitted 20184 was Eastfield based in the early 80's before moving to Toton in the mid 80's. I am sure I have a picture of it on the WHL somewhere, I just can't put my finger on it at the moment. When researching the Scottish 20's most suitable I was surprised at the rate of turnover between Scottish and English depots, there were few that spent the 5 years of my 1980 to 1985 modelling window in Scotland for the entire period. Both 20045 and 20085 were stored out of service vacum braked locos before being resurrected and having the through steam pipe fitted in 1983. In 1984 following the Mk 3 sleepr introduction on the WHL they both moved south of the border. Having deposited the TTA's in the oil siding, 20184 readies 2B18, 1855 to Fort William before departing

All of the station buildings and signal boxes on WHL4 are custom made out of cardboard by Ed Hall who is based in Northern Ireland and formerly one half of the Dawson Hall partnership. You may recall seeing their version of Glenfinnan station and signal box in ModelRail a few years back.

Sunday engineering sees 20045 at Garelochead with an empty S&T train. 20045 was recently renumbered from 20035 with the new numbers varnished and lightly weathered to blend in with the existing weathering.

For the first day in several months I did not do anything on WHL4 yesterday. A combination of the winter weather and the lockdown have meant that my loft has been something of a sanctuary of late but yesterday I had no interest or inclination to do anything. Maybe a day or two away will recharge the motivational batteries; only time will tell. A couple of pictures from the previous running session sees 20184 arriving at Mallaig with 2B12. Having arrived, 20184 runs around and shunts the TTA's to the oil storage terminal siding.

I like to have a driver in both cabs of my predominantly Bachmann diesel fleet based in the BR blue era of the late 70's/early 80's. Bachmann's standard offering is a single driver in one cab only meaning I have to add a second driver of my own. Choices seem limited, am I missing something, are there other options than those I am aware of? I consider the Springside diesel driver too large I have used the Smart Models resin which are good value at around £5 for 5 although they require painting Modelu look good but for a fleet of 20 locos, they become expensive Pete Goss 4 painted drivers for £12 look good and I am tempted to try these What other options do I have?

A combination of another day of lockdown and wet weather meant I spent time yesterday between cleaning track and attempting to sort out 3 class 37's where the directional lighting was not working. I was 66% successful with the lights, 2 of the 3 are now working but 37108 stubbornly refuses to play ball for reasons I do not yet understand. What was also evident and surprised me having removed the loco bodies from their chassis was the amount of rubbish that has built up on the chassis and bogies. With most of the loco fleet between 5 and 10 years of age I don't suppose this should have come as a surprise but it did and it has got me thinking about implementing a more robust cleaning and servicing regeme. Another task for the 'to do' list. In between the work I managed a few ad hoc train movements testing out the class 20 fleet. With several 37's out of service, 20184 got the job of the teatime mixed train, the 1630 Fort William to Mallaig. 20184 arrives at Fort William with the ECS and runs around before an on time departure.

37175 sorted! Bodyshell removed, copper contacts cleaned and straightened a suspicious looking tab. Reassembled and all lights working fine. 2 out of 3 light issues sorted, just one to go.

37108 bodyshell swapped onto 37049 chassis and lights all work as they should. Problem is not 37108 lights. 37049 bodyshell placed onto 37108 chassis and 37049 lights only work one end as with 37108. Problem narrowed down to somewhere on the chassis of 37108 or the chip. Not a solution but I have ruled out several possibile causes. Next step is to interrogate the chip with a Lokprogrammer to se if this reveals anything. Final loco with lights out at one end is 37175. This is now onto the workbench and about to get stripped down in an effort to find and sort the problem.

Fortunately no black dots found as yet and I am pleased to report that swapping the bodyshells has resulted in me having two locos with fully functioning lights once again. I have no idea why this is the case but if it gives me what I seek then who am I to complain. Of course nothing is ever straightforward, I have a similar issue with 37108 although in this case all light fail to illuminate at the number 2 end. I have removed the bodyshell and cleaned the tabs and contacts using contact cleaner but to no avail. I have another version of the same loco and will try the same bodyshell swap again in the hope that this provides the same outcome as before. There must be a more scientifc approach to solving this sort of problem than swapping bodyshells around, a question of ruling things out. Logically I should check that the lights are enabled at both ends on the decoder as a first step although I am sure that they worked previously. Presumably I should be able to check that there is a positive supply on the contacts?

37026 is one of the best of the Bachmann class 37 models I have seen, there are 3 on WHL4 with 2 renumbered as 37033 and 37043. That said with Accurascale's announcement soon after delivery of 37026, MMRG's timing was unfortunate. Copies of 37026 appear on Ebay from time to time and still seem to command a hefty price. The Dapol track cleaning coach got an outing yesterday, as others have said it is not the best track cleaner but the vacum is quite effective resulting in me having to empty the dirt chamber on several occassions. I cleaned the track with contact cleaner in two more stations and in the spirt of engineering work, ran a few engineers trains. One of which with 27032 and empty Grampus wagons is seens arriving at Crianlarich.

I have a similar issue to the one described above on one of my class 37's fitted with a Loksound V4 decoder. With the lights turned on the headcode illuminates at one end only whereas the rear lights work at both end. I have cleaned the contacts and checked as best I can that they are making contact with the tabs in the nose end. I have also checked that there are no glaringly obvious wires loose. It appears that I have a problem with one of the decoder, the wiring to the contacts or the headcode light. I have an indentical version of the same loco (it has been renumbered) and will try a swop of bodyshells to see if anything different happens. Does anyone have any other ideas?

Completed wheel clean

My wheel cleaning project was a success in that the wheels of most of my rolling stock are now far cleaner than they have been since new. However cleaning wheels is tedious, repetitive and down right boring although I did feel a sense of achievement and smugness when I finished. I started out using Dapol track cleaning fluid soaked on rags which were then placed on track (IPA replaced the track cleaner when it ran out). Rolling stock was pushed backwards and forwards over damp and dry areas of the rags with the dry, clean area acting as a towel to clean off anything left on the wheels. This was circa 70% effective, wheels were much cleaner after treatment but not spotless. The 30% of really dirty wheels largely comprising coaching stock were improved by this method but there was still a lot of rubbish left on the wheels. I think it was you who suggested using a rotary tool to grind away the dirt. Here I have the perfect tool, a low voltage and cheap mini grinder equipped with a cleaning/buffing tool. I went through several of the cleaning/buffing tools but these are cheap and readily available on Ebay. The mini grinder does a fantastic job of clearing dirt from wheels as I hope you can see from the pictures below. I would have thought you wise to clean the wheels of your older stock prior to use. If you consider that I had not previously cleaned any rolling stock wheels hence why they were so dirty and that much of it was 10 years old, I probably got off quite lightly. Going forward I aim to be more proactive in cleaning track and so long as the non polar contact cleaner reduces the dirt production rate, I hope that the need to clean wheels will be lower going forward which will be important if I am to achieve my ambition of fitting lights to the coaching stock. My next step in my new found cleaning regime will be to work out a way to better clean loco wheels and pick ups where I have picked up some tips which I want to test. Typical wheels before any attention Part cleaned wheel shows the difference cleaning makes

Red House Stables is a pleasant Caravan Club CL located just south of Darley Dale where the railway line runs through a cutting on the edge of the site. Trains are clearly viewable from a pitch and walks along the lineside are easy to access.

A proactive cleaning regime can only be a good thing but, like so many tasks, I am sure it just drops down peoples priority list. I can vouch for the fact that cleaning track is not exactly rewarding or stimulating, it is just something that needs doing. I shall be giving my Dapol track cleaning car an outing today in the hope that the vacum cleaner can pick up some the debris and muck that I have built up using the contact cleaner. 1T56 departs Garelochead

The track cleaning issue is one to keep tabs on and I will record my experiences over the coming weeks. I had a brief watch of the Ultimate Track Cleaning which seemed to take a long time to not say a great deal. The Inox solution appears similar to contact cleaner, presumably that makes it a non polar fluid which should work. All 4 of my class 20’s have been renumbered to ones I have seen pictures of working on the WHL. 20045 and 20085 were the 2 locos fitted with through steam pipes in 1983 to allow them to work with a class 37 where it had been found the 37's were struggling with adhesion on damp rails particularly on a Monday (there were no WHL Sunday trains then). The introduction of the ETH fitted Mk3 sleepers in October 1983 meant that the through piped 20's were no longer required. Interestingly I don’t think the length of the train changed, just the fact that the stock used became ETH rather than steam heated. Logically moving into Autumn would have resulted in an increase in adhesion problems but, as far as I am aware, there were no reported appearances of class 20’s after the Mk3 introduction. Perhhaps BR found that contact cleaner worked for them as well as modellers? All are sound chipped with Loksound V4 except 20184: 20045, vacuum braked, SWD sound 20085, vacuum braked, Howes sound 20184, dual braked, Howes sound on a V3.5 chip 20228, dual braked, Legoman sound 37085 and through steam piped 20085 are seen arriving at Garelochead

I am still working on the class 20 fleet with 20045 having reverted to its original speaker and sealed using blacktack as the double iPhone simply would not fit without distorting the body shell. Seen in the attached video, the sound is an improvment on the original video done a few weeks ago but is still not quite right.