young37215

37049 renumbered as 37081 minus the cantrail dividers. Nameplate and white stripe to follow. I just hope I don’t spend time thinking about the cantrail!

One exception being the Cl37LG's L/E of 37003 but the now infamous gouge line below the cant rail grilles was also introduced with it. Thanks Ken. Until you pointed that out I was blissfully unaware of 37003. When I look at 37022 which was 37003 before I renumbered it, it has the cantrail dividing bars and gouge. Sods law that I renumbered 003 to a non RSH one (022) and that the ones I have renumbered as RSH builds (081, 085 and 192) all need dividing bars! I think I might leave matters as they are, the thought of messing around with 4 locos for such a relatively minor point is not worth the heartache. If the Class 37 Loco Group can live with the error, I guess I can learn to.

Nice. At a guess the picture was taken in July 1985 given the lack of white stripe, the ScotRail branding on the coach and the Class 37 Loco Group recording 017 as doing several Far North trains that month even though being Eastfield allocated at the time. I have assumed that the repeated swapping between ED and IS in the early 80's reflected 017's vacum only brakes status. Does anyone know different? Having done some research on 017 I received Videoscene's Class 37 Hauled, Volume 10 yesterday which duplicated my efforts entirely and nearly word for word! It was interesting to see pictures of 017/503 on the Wenslydale Railway awaiting restoration work and I hope that they will have the old girl working again soon. The DVD contains 40 minutes plus of class 37 WHL footage and whilst most of the 1980's material has been shown in previous videos, there is much to be liked.

I am attempting to re-number an unrefurbished Bachmann split headcode class 37/0 to one built by RSH (37081 as Loch Long). As far as I can see Bachmann have not produced an RSH version with the additional cantrail dividing bars; am I correct in this statement/understanding? Assumming that I am correct, I will need to make the modification myself. Has anyone experience of doing this? any guidance or suggestions gratefully received.

So from initial responses it seems that the mobile concept is good but the technology currently in use has flaws. Everything I am seeing points me towards this as my controller upgrade solution. A quick Ebay search shows a new unit from a Model Shop seller in the USA at $380, a 30% reduction in the RRP which translates to a UK delivered price of just over £300 although there maybe import duty payable in addition. At this sort of price it is tempting to buy now and accept the limitations of the current Mobile Control handset. I am sure that any upgraded handset that gets released will be compatible potentially leaving me with 2 handsets for those occaasions where you have guests.

I am aware that the product is not marketed in Europe but if it delivers what I want which, having watched a bunch of Youtube videos I believe it does, then I doubt it will be difficult to get. I will not buy the current Mobile Control2 handset given the negatives that have been identified but if ESU release an updated controller, I would like to be in a position to make a decision on the Cab Control system hence my request for peoples experiences.

I recently acquired a couple of new Scottish 37’s through Ebay which were sold by fellow RMWeber Eddie Refin. I commented on Eddie’s Scotrail Workbench thread back in December 2019 that he had ‘several class 37’s I positively lust after’ and I am delighted to match my words with actions. 37017 requires a sound chip which is on order but can run silent in the meantime. 37017 is an interesting loco which although fitted with steam heat boiler, was vacuum braked only until its 1985 main overhaul and conversion to 37503. Following transfer from the Eastern to Scottish Region at Eastfield in September 1981, the loco spent its time in Scotland flitting between Eastfield and Inverness depots. The first such transfer was to Inverness in May 1982 following which a headlight was fitted sometime during 1982. On return to Eastfield in January 1983, Eastfield applied their trademark white stripe. The loco returned to Inverness in October 1983 still with white stripe where it remained until returning back to Eastfield again in December 1984. The white stripe lasted until late 1984 and 017 finally left Scotland in August 1985 when it was transferred to Cardiff. 017’s lack of air brakes meant that whilst it was perfectly qualified for passenger work, it did not work much freight on the WHL because by the early 80’s this was predominantly air braked. Interestingly I have found a 1984 picture of it hauling 3 empty OBA’s just south of Ardlui. It seems that there was an unofficial ‘use on Oban trains only’ restriction applied by Eastfield. The Class 37 Loco Group’s recorded workings show that 017 was less regular than some of the more common 37’s seen on the WHL but she did cover the entire line on a number of occasions. The introduction of a vacuum braked only loco on WHL4 presents me with additional considerations when diagramming meaning that, in line with real life, I suspect that 017 will end up at Oban more frequently than Fort William.

Has anyone acquired the Cab Control System and will share their experiences? For me this looks like a lower costs solution than the full blown ECoS and it appears to deliver the two things that I most want namely more power (7amps) and a hand held, wireless controller with knob/wheel.

Spent yesterday at the Monmouth Show helping Doug run his excellent Marsh End layout. The dire weather dominated events reducing footfall and causing an early closure of the exhibition. The widespread flooding was the worst I have ever seen and the journey back to Bristol was completed with trepidation that the flood waters would end up closing the road. Fortunately this was not the case but I feel for those living in the area who have had their homes flooded. The Mexican Bean was first painted in 1985 which is right at the end of my early 80's time window. Combined with the fact that it mostly worked an Oban to Crianlarich shuttle meaning it would only arrive and depart Crianlarich on WHL 4, it is highly unlikely to appear. Neither are Sprinters which did not infest the WHL until 1989 which is well outside of my window and, more importantly, I do'nt like them!.

Brilliant summary. Just needs someone to do the same for The Professionals

The shed is an excellent representation of the real thing, you have managed to capture the colour and feel of the brickwork particularly well. I am a little envious, I do'nt have the space to fit the prototypical length of shed on WHL4

Thanks David, some interesting pictures which provide food for thought. I will try and find some pictures of the actual trains to get a feel for the SRPS adexs with a view to creating a rake of stock to run them. Elsewhere it has been a busy week behind the scenes with the extended Fort William station trackwork being tweaked and the 36 droppers required soldered in place. I am pretty much done with Fort William for now which should be able to run trains into the station once I connect up the line to the exisiting lower section.

An interesting list for sure but how many of these are currently available in model form? I ask becuase I am not familiar with rolling stock that pre dates the blue and grey diesel era which I grew up in.

Representing the additional services that were seen on the WHL during the early 80's has always appealed and I plan to add a path in my WTT to accomodate them. I already have a MK3 set from the Edinburgh Glasgow push pull workings to run the Edinburgh to Oban adexs and my Sealink rake runs similar, albeit mythical, trains from Ayrshire. I would love to run a Royal Scotsman service but the big obstacle that I face is the lack of ready to run rolling stock and I dread to think how much a custom painted Royal Scotsman rake would cost. The SRPS adexs are a possibility, I am guessing that I can find stock details on the 6 Bells web site which I will have look at. I did run a quick picture search on Flickr but was unable to filter out all of the later day excursions which tend to proliferate. Again this will provide me with some reserach opportunity when I have a spare few minutes.

Hi Bill Thanks you for your kind words, I have enjoyed reading about your Glenfinnan layout both on here and in the model press. I use Megapoints for point and signal control which I consider a first class product. Most of what the Megapoints system will do can be found in the videos that Dave Fenton produces and my experience is that most of the videos accurately reflect what happens when you use the product. In addition to my posts relating to my Megapoints experiences on page 3 of this thread, there is an old thread Megapoints Controllers which is worth a read if they are something of interest. I will post some video showing signals in operation at some stage. Rob

The WHL is a perfect choice for smaller layouts with single track operations, short formed trains and stations that are a fraction of the size of those generally found on a main line. On WHL4 for example, Garelochead station including the pointwork at both ends of the station is built in an area less than 2000mm x 450mm which is well within your 7' x 2' of available space. If you want to model a specific WHL station then it is well worth doing some research, there are lots of pictures on Flickr and plenty of articles have been written in the modelling press. I recommend that you seek out Railway Modeller's series of West Highland Wanderings from the early 2000's where you will find a review of virtually every WHL station.

My understanding is that 418 has a turbo problem which probably explains why it was providing ETH only this morning. If the 37's only have another 2 weeks of operation then it seems likely that the 025 powering and 418 ETH combination will continue.

Still no contact or information about the business although I have found a Facebook page. Last updates are from 2016 which does not improve my confidence that the business is still active. Is anyone aware of a producer of similar style aluminium servo brackets? There is one on Ebay which looks a pretty robust bracket but they do'nt have any provision for attaching microswitches.

No T&T, run rounds at both ends

I have been unsuccessfully trying to contact Ian Cooper of Alurailtech because I want to buy more of his excellent servo brackets. I am guessing from my lack of success in making contact that he has ceased trading; is anyone aware of or can shed more light on the current situation?

These look better than the oversized Springside offering. Even allowing for an Eastfield driver eating a few too many fish suppers, Springside are probably 20% larger than they should be. I managed to file the platform edge at Crianlarich. The amount removed to bring it within guage was surprising, as was the fact that it took a video to show such a significant problem. Still all sorted and 30 seconds with the vacum cleaner removed the shavings.

The Crianlarich station lights are Woodland Scenics twin lamps ref JP5676 from their plug and play system. It is an expensive choice but the lights were the closest by a distance to anything else that I have seen to represent those at Crianlarich.

A quiet few days with modelling efforts focused on several small projects. Fort William station has been extended by 300mm because the platform was not long enough to take the 6 coach sleeper and allow the loco to run around. Before extending, the 6 coach train has minimal headroom to allow a run around movement. A 300 mm piece of baseboard inserted between the two existing boards and additional track laid. The platform now needs extending by a similar length and reducing in height by around 3mm to reflect reality. Trains are still running in between development work. A busy scene at Ardlui, southbound 27032 passes 37085 heading north. 20184 sits idle in the yard. A quiet few moments at Crianlarich I have been intending to add drivers to my class 27's for some while but was uncertain how to access the cab. Having been shown how this can be done, I have added drivers to 27041. One is a Bachmann driver, a much smaller fellow than the Springside chap at the other end. All I have to do now is put the loco back together!

They sold out a good while ago. When I spoke with Mr MSE a year or two back, he told me that he would not be doing further runs because of the problems/damage encountered with shipping the completed semaphores which were made abroad (in India if memory serves). A great shame because I would have loved to see the completed signal range expanded. However having had several custom builds of essentially MSE kits made by Stephen Freeman, I am happy to endorse and recommend both his workmanship and helpful attitude.