young37215

You will be pleased to know that Hornby have added a re-run of their Mk3 sleeper to their 2021 products range. This should stop these coaches appearing on Ebay at inflated prices. Get saving!

Departures!, having swapped crews who no doubt had a natter first, 37081 and 37033 take their leave of Crianlarich

My advice is painting the rail is the single most action you can take to improve track realism. Whilst an air brush makes the task easier, it is not dfficult to use a combination of spray cans and brushed on paint. In your shoes I would: Spray paint as much of the track, both rails and sleepers, in situ before ballasting using enamel rattle cans of sleeper grime or equivalent colour of your choice. Dont worry about paint getting on the railhead, it will clean up easily once the paint is dry. Hand painting is back breaking and sole destroying so spray as much as possible. Enamel paint is smelly and potentially dangerous but superior in adhering to rail. Use a mask to protect yourself when spraying paint. Touch up areas where required using a brush For tonal shades you can touch up rails or sleepers using different colours as you see fit clean the railhead using a rubber or similar tool and vacum the debris away once the paint has all dried My experience is that it does not take that long and the transformation you will see makes the return on your time and expense well worth the investment. Good luck

37033 arrives at Crianlarich with 8B13, 1315 Sighthill to Corpach where it passes 7D12 and the crews change over. My dilemna of the day is Suttons or Heljan's ETHEL to replace my recently sold Hornby one? I am currently favouring Heljan weaknesses notwithstanding because I prefer the thought of a non powered loco but that could easily be swayed especially if more errors are identified on the Heljan offering.

A dated SAGA train, essentially a holiday maker special. If you check the workings in the other direction there will be a return working comprised of the same rolling stock either later that day or possibly the day after. Lots of modelling potential with this.

The Guagemaster Prodigy red button creates an immedate stop any loco currently under control with track power being maintained. Moving the MC2 slider back to zero only slows the loco at the set deceleration rate of the locos decoder, it is not an immedate (and usually panic) emergency stop option. My questions stems from having used the Guagemaster Prodigy for several years and having become used to the emergency stop button. There appears to be a lot more that CC is capable of than the Prodigy and I wondered if the red button equivalent could be recreated. I understand that cutting track power will achieve my emergency stop requirement but it also slows things down as locos then go through their re-start routine when power is restored. If there is capability to create a loco only stop I would like to exploit it. Of course the best solution is to drive better and avoid emergency stops but I like the idea of a fallback!

There are no steam locos on WHL4 hence the regular diesel substition on the green and cream rake.

Unfortunately social distancing rules meant that Paul Coia was unavailable at the time of production! I intend producing more video footage with sound once the lockdown restrictions are reduced and it is practical to have a friend or two in the loft with me to help out. 37081 is seen approaching Crianlarich with 7D12, 1324 Mallaig Junction Yard to Sighthill which includes OBA's loaded with the newly arrived rolled aluminum slabs. Fortunately derailments are infrequent on WHL4 and those that arise are mostly operator error such as driving over incorrectly set points. Nevertheless anything that reduces derailment risk is welcome and the aluminum effectively doubles the weight of the wagon which, based on my experience, reduces derailments. I have now completed my weighing of all freight wagons, added weight where I consider it helpful and created a record to monitor performance.

That is the current line of thinking, something along the lines of County March summit although nothing is set in stone yet. This is the one area that is not based on reality with trains on both the WHL and Mallaig extension crossing over it. A generic west highland setting is the best I can think of and, as suggested, it creates a section of running line without the interuption of a station. Mallaig is todays setting, 37022 arrives with the (not) steam hauled set before 37051 departs with 1T56, 1610 to Glasgow. I have been meaning to lift the Mallaig section back to the workbench for several weeks to complete the scenery but keep falling for the 'play trains' option instead!

Another month has passed and I am increasingly pleased with my Cab Control purchase which has been run for 30 plus hours of operating. ESU have even got around to giving me access to the CC/ECoS section on their forum. I have 2 questions where as yet I have not found an answer: The Mobile Control hand held unit VDU shows a list of locos where, I think, they appear in the order in which I set up each loco. I would like to see the numbers in ascending numerical order but I do'nt know if this is possible. The track power button works as an effective emergency stop. This cuts all power, my old Guagmaster Prodigy had a button that caused an immedeate/emergency stop to only the current loco under control which I would like to create. Does anyone know the answer to either of my questions?

On departing the main fiddle yard there is a junction where trains go right for Garelochead and left for the 1 in 50 climb to the upper level running behind the Garelochead section. The junction is visible at 20 seconds into the video and the start of the gradient at 35 seconds. 20045 was withdrawn from service yesterday with running issues caused, I think, by the poorly fitting double Iphone speaker which will be replaced in the next day or two. 37026 runs around 1T45 1245 Mallaig to Glasgow at Fort William on its journey south. 20085 and 37022 stand idle waiting their next turns.

I have about 75 Hobbyking HK15178 which I use to operate signals and points from under the baseboard on an OO gauge layout. All are controlled using a Megapoints network where in nearly 4 years of use, I have not yet had a servo failure. Brackets are key in my experience of using servos for points, dont skimp on cheap ones as they are inclined to cause problems. The only negative I have found is that stocks at Hobbyking can be a bit hit and miss with them taking time to replenish. I know this is part down to the pandemic but I faced a similar issue pre-pandemic. It all gets sorted in time, Hobbyking customer service is very good in my experience but the delays can be frustrating if you are in pressing need. Put another way, I recommend that you hold spare servos in stock rather than use a 'just in time' approach!

I considered both the Horseshoe curve and Glenfinnan viaduct but decided that the vastness of space required to represent these lankmark features was neither practical or available. I wanted to include Bridge of Orchy station but one more station simply does not fit in without making it feel cramped. The large area above Arrochar where the upper level line runs through to Fort William might change when I get around to the scenery but, again, the available space limits what is possible and I keep returning to the adage that 'less is more' when deliberating. 37043 has charge of 1B11, 1254 Glasgow to Oban seen arriving at Crianlarich.

As requested a map and walk around video tour of WHL4. I doubt the camera work will win any prizes but it gives a different perspective to still pictures. The map is annoyingingly refusing to change to a landscape profile on uploading despite happily doing so in the original scan. Somewhere in RMWebs architecture I hope there is a tool that will enable the changing of picture orientation; it just needs someone to tell me where and what it is!

Apologies for the upside down pictures, these are an indearing feature of posting directly from my Iphone and I can not work out how to change them. Enough faffing with speakers, decisions on what best to use can wait and its back to operations. Second train of the day, 7B02 0606 Sighthill to Mallaig Junction Yard hauled by 37081 follows along 30 minutes or so behind the sleeper and arrives at Garelochead.

I think you will find that you are incorrect, Ebay nor anyone else has the 'right' to take money from your bank account. There is a direct debit facility in the Ebay revised agreement which Ebay will no doubt attempt to use for refunds. However under banking rules you can require your bank to refund any DD that is taken incorrectly under the Direct Debit Guarantee scheme. It will be interesting to see how any dispute on a refund is handled by Ebay. They do not have a reputation for sensitivity in such matters and I can see there being an increase in indemnity claims made of the banks! I have used the new system for selling and had cash net of fees credited to my account a few days after the sale. It does not feel dramatically different to Paypal although it does give Ebay a couple of days of free cashflow

I have'nt looked closely at Kaydees but from what I have seen I dont feel that they would dramatically change things. My aim in removing the tension locks is to get away from a coupling that sits on the bogies. Not only does the movement accentuate curves, it potentially damages any bufferbeam detail that I might add. I have had success with loops previously and feel optimistic that wider loops will provide me what I want. The loops are also cheaper than Kaydees and I have far too much rolling stock to consider ! The double Iphone is a better sound than the old unsealed unit but I am not overwhelmed by it. When added to the tight fit, the jury is still out on the Iphone. If I can find something better I will try that. Once we are able to meet up again you will have to bring one of your 20's with the single dumbo for comparison. I took a couple of pictures yesterday of 20045, the best description I can think of is that it looks like it has been stung and swollen up.

37191 is one of the RSH built, ex South Wales boilered 37's that migrated to Scotland in the early 80's. I will get around to creating one of them when I find a way of creating the cantrail grill dividers that I am happy with. 191 was a regular WHL performer for several years and is tempting but my thinking for some time has been 37188. I have been wiorking on updating 2 of my class 20's. What was 20034 has been renumbered 20085 and 20045 has been tidied up with new numbers which have been sealed with a coat of matt varnish and will be further weathered to blend the numbers in with the rest of the weathering. I have fitted a double Iphone speaker into 20045 but am not happy with the tight fit of the speaker which is currently creating a visible 1mm gap gap between the bodyshell and chassis. I will have another look at the fitting before deciding how to address the issue. Both locos have had their MU pipes and headcode discs fitted, additional buffer beam detail will have to wait until I have resolved the wire loops that I intend using to replace the tension locks. 20034 in original condition renumbered, ED depot transfer applied and MU pipe fitted Headcode discs applied Updated 20045 and 20085 await a return to service

37022 brings ECS into the platform at Fort William to form the 0845 to Mallaig steam hauled service which will be hauled by 37049 today. There was no steam hauled service in 1981 so this and the second round trip later in the day are Rule 1 services. They work well in my opinion adding movement on the Mallaig extension and by moving the steam hauled stock around like this I avoid bottlenecks in the fiddle yard.

I have finally got to the bottom of a long standing irritation at Arrochar where occassionally southbound trains would derail when crossing the points on leaving the station. The cause was an irregular gradient profile on the approach to the north of the station which would cause a bogie to raise and put a wheel out. This only showed up as a derailment on departure hence my focus and suspicion has been on the southern pointwork. I spotted the issue as I closely followed the progress of a 4 coach rake that was proving troublesome all the way around the lower loop. Having identified the problem it was relatively straightforward to adjust the gradient and unballasted track since when the issue has disappeared. Fingers crossed ....... So back to 1981 where the first train of the day is the down sleeper seen passing Garelochead with 37026 in charge.

37178 has charge of 7D19, 1223 ex Corpach seen passing 37085 on 7Y37

Interesting that several people see it like that, it is the Howes sound file on a V4 sound chip which I consider the best of my 3 class 20's. I suspect it is my poor driving style, the chopping sound is the engine under power hence the class 20 Chopper nickname. The whistling is more evident with the engine at lower speed and I'll see if I can get another video of the loco demonstrating this. I did have a look on Youtube and found a good example of a pair of 20's sounding similar to my video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jf0tQ0LyQU8&t=139s In 1985 there was a 1223 Mossend to Corpach (7Y37) and a 1223 Corpach to Mossend (7D19) which passed and crew changed at Crianlarich. I keep mixing the 2 trains and moving them at the wrong time, the 1223 departure times obviously mess with my head so I wont be sorry to see them go. On my last day running the 1985 WTT, 37085 heads 7Y37 seen arriving at Crianlarich.

I should have mentioned that an EM2 installation costing a £100 includes a considerable amount of labour, I think the speaker retails for circa £25?, whereas the £7 Road and Rails option is purely the cost of the speaker which I can fit myself. Apart from videoing, most of yesterday was spent running test trains to ensure the coaching stock derailments were reduced. I made a number of adjustments to bogie retaining screws and swapped a couple of coaches between rakes. By the end of the day it appeared that derailments were reduced which I will test by starting a new running day next. One of the benefits of running trains around the lower loop is I got to run in several of the newer locos which had not previously had an extended continuous run. One further video with 20034 which is about to become 20085, seen approaching Garelochead from the south.

Having dismantled 37043 I found that I had already installed a Road and Rails small round base speaker, the same one as I have in my class 27's. Undeterred I attempted to fit the Boom Box but found that the extra 1mm of height and slightly different shape meant that more work was required to get it to fit. On the basis that the small base reflex sounds reasonable, I decided to leave things as they were. By way of comparison here is another one handed wobbly video with 37026 complete with EM2 speaker. Although louder and with more base, I think the small round speaker holds up quite well. When you contrast the price of £7 versus £100 it seems even better value.

37043 in a wobbly video shot using Iphone with one hand and the Mobile Control 2 unit in the other. Speaker is the sugar cube as supplied without any form of sealing or sound chamber. I am now off to install a Rail Exclusive Boom Box as a repalcement and hope to have a second video for comparison later.