young37215

Agree, now we know how a crane feels! Fortunately the arm extension and reach required for my upper levels is modest hence I have not yet had any problems in moving boards.

Short answer is yes, the 2.7m long, 300mm wide section is removable as are the other two sections on the upper level of Mallaig and Mallaig Junction fiddle yard which are of similar lengths. This is of necessity so that I can access both sides of the baseboards to work of them. I dont envisage any of them being moved on a regular basis but I know that I can access them in need should a problem arise. The boards are 12mm chipboard with 30mm deep, 12mm wide batton screwed along each side so as to provide stability. The upper level is elevated above the main baseboard by the use of 100mm high pieces of wood placed at a 90 degree angle onto which the baseboards sit. When I lifted Fort William it was not overly heavy, more awkward and by lifting at the mid points it was farly easy to make the short transfer and 180 degree turn to the work bench. I dont think that the scenic work will have added so much as to dramatically increase the weight. Worst case is I shall have to enlist a friend to help me return the baseboard to its position on the layout. Hopefully I shall get to the stage of finding the answer later next week.

Fort William continues to be the focus of my attention. It’s taking longer than I had hoped but that’s nothing new. Yesterday I got to the stage where I was happy to secure the main platform in place. The gaps in the ballast were filled in and my usual dilute PVA water mix was dribbled on. This morning all seems well so I continued with the backscene and now have one of two panels completed. The platform lights all worked prior to the platform being glued in place. The lights have'nt been secured in place yet hence they are not straight. The services platform has been painted and ballasted The main platform ballasted in position The platform canopies were placed for testing, they will be secured later. An end board has been added and part painted to mimic the station building. This will get finished off once the paint is dry. The staff car park that adjoins the platform is under construction.

In the early 1980’s Cornish china clay was delivered to the Wiggins Teape paper mill at Corpach by rail. From 1984 this was delivered in PRA wagons, prior to this ancient 5 plank, wooden bodied 10’ OWV wagons were used. For WHL4 I have 4 of the excellent Kernow PRA’s which I intend keeping in pristine, as new condition. I am currently attempting to create a rake of 4 OWV’s which will be at the other end of the spectrum being heavily dilapidated and filthy dirty. Following comment on I bought a triple pack of Hornby 5 plank wagons and changed the spoked wheels for 3 hole disc ones. The wagons have been weathered using Railmatch frame dirt and weathered black colours as a base and an off white aerosol china clay top coat. All that remains is for me to decide on construction the tarpaulins used to cover the china clay. Pristine PRA's are a contrast

I think you will find the last of the blue and grey Mk 1 sleepers were the 2 used on the Scottish internal service which were replaced by Mk3's at the end of summer 1984. If you are interested in obscure liveries and want a challenge, how about the Mk1's that were used in the original version of the Royal Scotsman seen at Achasheen in 1988. Alternatively I believe that the current Scotsman has Mk1 sleepers in its consist if the 2018 picture below is anything to go by.

Interesting thoughts from Ian, I may well return to the suggestions if I don’t get on with the tape I have bought. My main task at present is getting Fort William to a condition where I can reinstate the station on to the layout. Following the mess created previously and in the hope of avoiding a repeat, I washed the remaining ballast and was amazed by the amount of dirt I removed. It took about 10 rinses to get to a stage where the ballast looked clean enough to use. The track has received a second coat of sleeper grime and looks much improved for it. The base for the service platform has been attached and ballasted in place. I have added a plywood screen to the rear of the station on to which I will paint a backscene. By this evening I had managed to fit the platform lights and wire them up so that they all worked when switched on. Tomorrow I aim to glue the platform in place and ballast the residual areas with nice clean ballast. In theory all that should then remain to finish the task is a little blending of sleeper grime on the new ballast and the station can go back on to the layout.

A new batch of servos finally arrived from Hobbyking today which will enable me to finish point and semaphore automation. I ordered the servos in late January but they were delayed due to the coronavirus outbreak. Now all I have to do is fit them…. I could not resist giving the air conditioned sleeper consist an outing to check everything is working as it should. It was photographed passing through Garelochead with 37175 in charge.

I use a Megapoints network to operate servos for point and semaphore control. I like the look of Megapoints custom control panels but what I need for 6 stations and 2 fiddle yards exceeds the capacity of my bank account. I constructed a trial panel out of 3mm plywood that I had lying around and was pleasantly surprised with it to the extent that I made a second panel in exactly the same way for the upper level section. What was a trial has lasted over 3 years and has become part of the layout functioning very effectively due largely to the simplicity of the Megapoints system. When everything is finally connected I will have around 75 servos in operation. I have never been happy with the pencil lines that I drew on the plywood detailing the track layout of the stations because they are too thin and not as visible as I would like. I am trialing some 3mm black tape which is much more visible but a pain in the rear to fit. I am in two minds at present, I think the tape is the way to go but I am struggling to get the necessary motivation to do all 6 stations and 2 fiddle yards Fort William station marked using a pencil Mallaig station with the pencil partially covered using tape

A quiet week with the pleasant weather resulting in more time spent outside. I want to finish off the renumbering programmes of coaches and locos so that I can run trains again should I choose. All of the coaches are now finished and back on the layout after a couple of hours with the airbrush and some hand painting. I have 2 locos left to clean and renumber but there is no urgency as they are both currently available for service. I managed to acquire a second Mk 3 sleeper which has entered service following a light weathering. Renumbered BFK has had its chassis and roof lightly weathered Renumbered Hornby BSO received a similar treatment The second Mk 3 sleeper after weathering Hopefully the answer before the questions start, the reason why none of the previous coaches have their wheels. I hand painted the wheels with Railmatch sleeper grime. A completed rake at Mallaig awaiting departure with the first southbound train of the day.

Snowploughs are a recurring challenge on most models because manufacturers insist on hanging them off of a bogie rather than the buffer beam as is the case with the real thing. The choice is then either a plough or a tension lock which causes me a great deal of frustration because my locos need a coupling at each end to operate in both directions. The result is I have a dozen or more pairs of Bachman ploughs sat in a box! PH Designs produce a thin brass plough to hang off the buffer beam but I have not around to trying them. I have tried hanging the Bachmann offering from the buffer beam without success, the authors efforts are interesting, I’d like to see more pictures of the solution used.

Today’s efforts were to finish the renumbering of 37175. Formerly 37192, loco has been cleaned, had a new nose end fitted, replacement Hornby class 50 oval buffers added as well as new number and data panel transfers. MU cables have been added but as with other locos, bufferbeam detailing will only be added once non tension lock coupling solution is in place. A little strategic weathering is still required to blend it all together together with a Matt varnish sealing of the new transfers. These can wait for the next air brush outing, the loco is back in traffic bringing the fleet up to full numbers.

My mothers parents lived in Bath. From their top floor I could see the main line to the east and I spent a lot of time watching the last of the western region hydraulics and the class 50,s that replaced them through binoculars. Yesterday saw the airbrush get an outing. I varnished all bar 2 of the cleaned and renumbered coaches which were returned to the layout once dry. The 6 fixed formation rakes of coaches are just about completed so I could start running trains again. New 37085 was finished off and returned to the layout for operations.

A fair and valid point. To maximise the longevity of the transfers I want to seal them, maybe I will settle for a splash of matt varnish rather than try and blend the weathering.

No golf today due to the rain. I renumbered 37085 to 37022 and painted over the yellow axle box covers instead. Not exactly productive but it whiled away an hour or two by the time I had fitted the MU cables and screwed the body shell back together. By masking off the body so that I only disturbed the weathering on top of the old number, the area to re-weather is modest. A little dirty wash on top of the new number and I hope to be done.

Nothing further seems to have been announced regarding the potential MC upgrade. Obviously the global pandemic will not be helping to speed anything up but I wonder if anyone has heard anything more about the possible new version of MC2?

Glue & Glaze is on my radar for this although I am not sure how clear it drys. I have not given up on using one of the other headcode plates that I have either. Watch this space.... The platform height of Fort William station has been reduced by a good 3mm to achieve a more prototypical height. To ensure that I retained all 10 of my fingers and thumbs, I managed to do the work with a razor saw rather than a craft knife. The platform has been extended in length and the Peco concrete facing weathered which will get ballasted into place once I have re-painted the rails and fitted the platform lights. I have not yet decided how best to represent the lower level platform to the side of platform 1 (the one next to the road). I have always assumed this to be for servicing of rolling stock although have never seen it in use. I need something about 8mm high to do this, I am currently thinking some dowling with a plasticard platform surface. Finally the old 37085 will become 37022 and what is currently 37108 will become 37037 after it is cleaned up. 37108 is ex 37049 again and therefore has a rivetted roof. I have the number transfers for both of these so it should not take to long to complete the renumbering programme. I still fancy a version of 37111 but this will have to wait until I find a suitable body shell. Original platform height revised platform height P1 and gap for services platform

I dont have the precise heights for Mallaig but am working on a building a platform that will be 17 mm high. The May 1983 view of the platform shows how low it is, using code 75 track the lowest point of the buffers on a class 37 measures about 16 mm high from the baseboard.

Dam, you are correct. I had missed the roof point. My old 37085 was originally 37049 and has the rivetted roof. Choices of renumber now down to 37022 or 37037 where I have transfers to do either.

There are 2, possibly 3 different groups of pictures showing light engine manourves at Glenfinnan with class 37's being swapped around. Picture 114 shows 039 alongside another unidentified split box loco, possibly 037 which appears at Glenfinnan in picture 95. Picture 120 shows what is probably 039 and an unidentofied centre headcode one. I do'nt know what they were doing for sure and can only speculate as before in this thread. Frankly who cares, they are just a cracking set of pictures from an era that many of us look back on with great affection.

Looking good, I am watching your platform efforts with interest.

Renumbering completed on 2 class 37's, what was 37022 has been cleaned and become 37085 in original condition complete with the RSH cantrail grill dividers. Detailing still required and a blast of matt varnish to finish. The current 37085 is looking for a new identity, probably as 37111 for no better reason than because I have 37111 transfers. I do'nt intend cleaning this loco, it was professionally weathered by Grimy Times. My intention is to remove as little weathering as possible to renumber and blend in the new number and data panel as best I can. 37192 has become 37175, replacement buffers, data panel transfers which I am waiting for from Railtec and detailing are still outstanding. 37017 requires repairs on the headcode panel and the headlight replacing. I attempted to clean the lamp optic of the headcode because the light was barely visible even on the maximum setting but despite using a cotton bud and best efforts to be careful, I managed to destroy the glazed element. I have several potential replacement panels but none fit as well as the existing panel! I am wondering if I can find a suitable glue or similar fluid that will dry opaque yet still allow light through to repair rather than replace the headlight. Any advice gratefully received

I think you mean why the light engine movements? If so then it looks to me that the locos were swapped over with 039 returning to Fort William and, presumably, the unidentified centre head code 37 going back to Mallaig. At a guess 039 had a problem or was low on fuel.

It is looking good although much better with proper trains!

Today I managed to apply Railtect transfers to the cleaned up coaches. The coach fleet is now all numbered once more with just a handful requiring matt varnishing to seal the new numbers. That will be the end of this mini programme of work which has proved to be more of a success than I had hoped for. The cleaned up coaches are not spotless, rather they retain pockets of dirt in areas that cleaning can not easily acesss just as is the case with carriage washers on the real railway. I am delighted with the results, a big thank you to Mr Everard Junction for his discovering how to clean up the coaches. I am now planning a major offensive on the painting front with varnishing, wagon and coach frames, coach roof's and Fort William station rail all scheduled for work. By doing this much work in one go I feel less aggrieved about the time it takes to clean the air brush once finished. Dirt surrounds the window frames and coach ends on BCK 21269 Renumbered SK 24436 waits for a coat of varnish to seal the transfers. Again the dirt around and on the windows and doors looks believable.

I agree but the fact remains the screws are poor quality and prone to damage, therefore finding a what should be a few pence replacement seems a sensible course of action. I just dont know how to best achieve this