young37215

By coincidence rather than design, what you see is the machined end of the bar. My cut is no where near as clean or precise to the extent that I am considering how best to get the remaining bars machine cut. I have no idea who or where would offer this sort of service though; any suggestions gratefully received. I spent a fair amount of time yesterday attempting to sort out my coaching stock. The 4 coach rakes are essentially fixed using the Bachmann fixed coupling bar and had been in their rakes for several years. As part of the recent wheel cleaning I decided to swap some of the rakes around but has proved a mistake to the extent that I have had more derailments in the last month than I have had in 3 years. One of the problems I identified was the bogies had become loose for reasons I have not been able to clarify. My normal approach is the bogie retaining screw is tightened down and then released by a quarter of a turn to allow some flexibility. I can only guess that the wheel cleaning using a multi tool has shaken the screws loose resulting in eratic running. One by one I am testing each rake and attempting to resolve the issues, in a couple of cases I changed the coaches around which seemed to improve things. From the day befores operations 37039 heads 7D19 , the last of the 3 daily southbound freights into Crianlarich

It is simply impractical to operate holding a controller in one hand and the sound producers crib sheet in the other. I rely on memory to determine which F keys to press which in practice means I only use a limited number of the common sound features and therefore fail to exploit the full potential of the sound. I find it strange that so few people seem concerned by this point. By the end of the day yesterday I completed a 1985 running day and then spent an hour shunting and relocating rolling stock to be able to start a 1981 day. The aluminum bar also arrived and I managed to cut 2 80mm lengths as tests for the slabs that were seen in open wagons. These weigh around 60 grams thus doubling the weight of an open wagon. First impressions are positive although the aluminum cutting using a hacksaw was hard work taking in excess of 10 minutes per bar.

Regular readers will be aware that I changed my controller a few weeks ago from Guagemaster Prodigy to ESU's Cab Control (CC). The Prodigy had served me well but with Guagemaster/MRC's lack of development and the current shortage of components, I felt it was time to move on. Having looked around for some time I decided that CC offered the best functionality for what I wanted, essentially 3 key points: wireless handheld controller with a rotary dial to drive locos on screen graphic display of chip functions a higher output of track power ESU's ECoS was an option but with a mobile controller this would have cost the best part of £1000. Additionally with its ability to control points and signals, the ECoS was over specified for what I wanted as I run a seperate Megapoints driven network for point and signal control. CC costs less than £400 although it is only marketed in the USA and Australia which seems strange but this did not put me off. I bought mine online from the friendly and helpful Iron Planet Hobbies in the USA and after an initial hiccup, it arrived within a few days of despatch. Set up following the instruction manual was straightforward and once I had resolved CC's refusal to apply track power because it was sensing a non existent short, I was off and running. After a week or two of using CC I felt sufficiently confident to sell my Prodigy. CC comprises 3 main parts, power supply, integrated control unit (ICU) and a wirelesss controller. Only the ICU which is the brains of the system and wifi centre is unique to CC. The power supply is the same as supplied with the ESU ECoS and the wireless controller is the Mobile Control 2 handheld unit available as a standalone item for use with both CC and ECoS. ESU upgraded the MC2 unit in 2020 and I made sure that my CC system came with the upgraded MC2. Simplistically MC2 is a hybrid of a mobile phone with a rotary dial grafted onto it. The display screen works like a smart phone with multi touch capability and, subject to the physical memory constrains, you can download additional software if you choose. Battery life of the MC2 has been reported as an issue and a more powerful battery was one of the 2020 upgrades. I have found that after a 2 or 3 hour session battery life drops to 50% or 60% which seems perfectly acceptable to me. Using an old mobile phone charger I leave the MC2 on charge when I am not running. Operationally the rotary control works much the same way as the Prodigy. Displaying chip functions requires the Railcom and Railcom Plus software contained in most ESU chips enabling where I have had one or two challenges which I am sure will be easier to resolve with a friends Lokprogrammer once we are able to meet up again. Overall I am pleased with the CC which has integrated itself into my layout very easily. My only gripe at this time is ESU's failure to grant me access to their forum so that I can access any software updates they may issue from time to time. The lack of response after over a month of chasing from their supposed hotline e-mail account is annoying. The box of tricks The MC2 handheld unit On screen functions are intuitive and activated by touch

A little more of 37043 and 1T28 as it departs Garelochead after being passed by 37011 with 7Y39, 1330 Mossend to Oban. 37043 should get a new speaker fitted in the next day or so, at present it only has the as supplied sugar cube which is pretty anemic. I have a Rail Express Boom Box to try as my preferred Zimo Double Dumbo is out of stock at present. The Boom Box looks similar to the Dumbo and friends tell me that it sounds as good, if not slightly better.

Moving through the days operations, newby 37043 is seen again with 1T28 arriving at Garelochead.

Having a timetable makes playing trains daily operations much easier and simpler. I follow a predetermined set of movements with trains of a designated length with no having to think about 'what do I move next' or 'what coaches/wagons shall I include in train x'. Additional services can be added in although they usually cause operational headaches. I find that there is little need for additionals because the sequence of all WTT movements of a single day takes around 5 hours to complete which is more than enough to keep me entertained. I have now run the 1985 WTT several times. I dont like it as much as the earlier years, it feels more clunky and more difficult, less smooth to operate. once I have finished the current day I will revert to one of the earlier years. 37081 with 1T34, 1415 to Glasgow, 37033 with 2Y53, 1405 to Mallaig and 37049 allocated to 2Y55, 1605 to Mallaig are all seen at Fort William. As with Mallaig, there is further work required to complete the Fort William section but as it is operationally functional as it currently stands, this can wait. Too many trains to run.....

My next piece of work is to further develop the Mallaig section but I am enjoying playing trains too much to start this at present. New arrival 37043 Loch Lomond returns from Oban with the 1300 to Glasgow where it passes 37017 at Crianlarich on the reverse 1220 Glasgow to Oban.

Any chance of a close up picture of the wire loop on one of the 27's please? My experience is the width of the loop is an important consideration, the wider the better so that the coupling that is attached can move whilst going around curves. On my class 37's I found the location of the factory moulded bufferbeam detail made it difficult to get the loop as wide as is desireable and I attribute this as the cause of the problems I have faced. The picture below has a much wider loop than I managed to achieve and I am keen to try out something similar to this. Propoelling is another matter, I find that buffer lock is a regular occurence if the buffers are allowed to do their designed job. I agree that extending the wire loop so that it is the point of contact is with the tension lock of whatever is being propelled is the best solution.

37085 heads 7Y37, 1223 Mossend to Corpach at Garelochead. The extended scenic area has been further tweaked and looks better as a result although more bushes are required on the embankment. The weathered track could do with another pass with the airbrush as there are a number of gaps in the paint caused by realigning the track after painting.

I have similar problems with a DCC fitted OWB where I think the motor is the source of the problem. The other day I ran the OWB around for a good 10 minutes to give it a run and after a few hesitant steps, it trundled around quite happily. I returned it to a siding and for the last few days it refuses to move! I am not sure how feasible it is to check the problem or to change the motor.

Or how about these

You think you have a memory problem. How do you think I feel with all these duplicates?

Nice work, the upgrades look first class. You are using wire loops to replace the tension locks which frees up space for snow ploughs as well as bufferbeam detailing. I have done similar in the past but found they increased derailments on WHL4. I reached the conclusion that the curvature of 2nd radius curves and a reverse curve in 3rd radius was too tight for loops. It is frustrating because I only used 2 second radius pieces of track, everything else is minimum 3rd radius or lower. Have you any experience of running using your loops?

It's a brake van? Unusual but I dont think anything to cause surprise. Its position in the consist shows that it is not being used as a brake van so, presumably, it is an empty stock movement. 37178 heads north through Crianlarich with 7Y31 comprised of vans and TTA's so no wagon loads to worry about!

I had'nt even noticed the unusal signal post, it just goes to show how we all notice different aspects within a picture. Fortunately I dont need to worry about this as there are no plans for Spean Bridge to appear on WHL4!

Wagon loads occupied my thinking yesterday. I want to construct removable loads of timber and aluminum to fit into OCA and OBA open wagons. The timber loads are fairly simple, logs glued onto a strip of plasticard. Representing aluminum rolled slab is more of a challenge. I have some roofing lead sheet and considered making one or two moulds into which I could poor molten lead. This seemed like a lot of effort and so my current thinking is buying a strip of flat bar aluminum from Ebay costing about £5 and cutting it into suitable lengths. After some research on Flickr the best picture I found indicated that there was no uniform size to the rolled slab, at a guess it is either smelted or subsequently cut into custom sizes reflecting customer requirements. Whatever the reasons for the various sizes, modeling them as wagon loads looks straightforward and as Ian highlighted, the additional weight of the loads can only help with reliable running. The real 37108 at Spean Bridge with various sizes of aluminum rolled slab in 1983.

Hi Ian Your neat cabling is giving me an inferiority complex! I only have clips with nails where hammering them into place does nothing for what is on the top of the baseboard. I particularly like the screw based securing clips you use and feel compelled to get some. Nothing obvious showed up on Ebay, please advise where I can get them. Thanks Rob

37085 passes through Crianlarich with 7D10, the first southbound freight of the day. Last weeks discussion on the nature of freight carried on the WHL led me to spend time looking through Flickr at WHL freight trains. I concluded that southbound trains contained open wagons loaded with more timber and aluminum ingots than I had appreciated. Creating additional timber loads is easy enough but I am not sure yet on what to use to represent aluminum ingots.

Should we assume that you used toilet paper for the covers rather than you used 'used' toilet paper?

I am not so sure that much spoil was actually removed, the only major piece of work that took place during my timescale was the Crianlarich remodelling in 1985/6. From the pictures and other media I have seen the main focus of WHL maintenance was occassional rail/sleeper replacement and infrequent ballast drops to top up levels that had diminished over time. A new arrival to WHL4 is 37043, Loch Lomond complete with the trademark Eastfield white stripe seen on its first outing with a Glasgow to Oban service at Garelochead.

Well done Andy, the renumbered coaches will add to the realism of your layout. If you are feeling really adventurous you can now start checking that the bogies match those which were on your renumbered coaches. Changing bogies around is very easy, the single screw in on the underside of the bogie is all that has to be removed.

27041 had charge of loaded ballast wagons seen arriving at Crianlarich. I am not 100% certain of the sources of ballast used on the WHL, I believe there is/was a quarry on the Oban line somewhere and another south of Glasgow near Lanark. If anyone can add any more detail to this I would be grateful.

37175 heads 7Y31 0510 Mossend to Mallaig Junction Yard on the approach to Garelochead. There is work still be done to finish off the new section but running trains is reward for the efforts of the last week or so.

Thanks Warren It would be an interesting exercise to compare the fuel tank mounted speaker with the sealed units that I have installed. I dont doubt the fuel tank will be superior but I wonder by how much. I have got to the stage where I make a cost/benefit judgement now when deciding on what speaker to fit. On my class 37 fleet I am currently using a Zimo one that cost £20, they are not as good as EM2's but at 20% of the price, I think they are a decent and cost effective solution.

Thank Ian. Garelochead is not a popular location for pictires or video it seems. The best DVD I have for this is Railway Recollections Cab Ride No 49 which is an unedited view from Glasgow through to Crianlarich and is most useful for research. Although filmed outside of my time window in 1994, other than a reduction in the lineside maintenance and control of vegetation, little had changed in the intervening years. Within the constraints of the available space I managed to get comfortable with the gradient both sides of the line and decided that it was time for scenic materials. As so often is the case, the addition of the scenic material hides a multitude of sins and it finished of the 1m or so of section rather nicely. I added some fine leaf foliage to give height and was pleased with the effect although more is required to get the density of undergrowth that I want. Thanks Warren, I may add one or two pieces of vertical rockface but the DVD shows that there is very little exposed rock on the approach to Garelochead. Given that the next section heading south will be a rock faced cutting, I will have plenty of rockface in the area. I wanted to get the feeling that the line had been carved from the landscape. Eastern embankment dressed with material Garelochead station approach Looking south