young37215

I use piano wire as that is what is recommended by Dave Fenton of Megapoints for use with his kit and servos. Xuron 2193 max cut is 1.01mm and 2193F is 1.63mm. The piano wire I use is 0.8mm so either should cope, both seem to sell for £17+ on Ebay. However both are shear style which is what the OP wants to get away from (and so do I if there is an alternative) Can anyone recommend non-shear style cutters?

Whilst my pins which link servo to point are removable, to do so is a major faff when it comes to re-fitting them. Like the OP, I would like to find a tool that will enable me to get a close cut on the pin at the pint it protrudes through the tie bar of my points.

In between the time I spend modelling, I volunteer on the Gloucestershire and Warwickshire Railway. Amongst the various coaches awaiting refurbishment at Winchcombe is an old Scottish region CK, a model of which I have on WHL4. I am not sure when the coach will get into the workshop for what will be an extensive re-build but I look forward to the day when it is restored to its former glory

Absolutely yes, I just recently replaced the bogies on a dozen Bachmann Mk1 coaches which had commonwealths but I wanted B1's. I bought new B1 bogies, removed the coupling by unscrewing the 1 screw and simply swapped the bogies over (again just 1 screw to release/secure the bogie). Job done, existing coupling cams completely unaffected by the bogie change. I have several pairs of the commonwealths up for sale on Ebay if you are interested. Alternatively I would swap them for B1 or B4's.

According to Platform 5's 1982 Coaching Stock book, the oldest Scottish region TSO still in service was 3881. 1954 built at York and apparently still running as originally out shopped being vacuum braked and steam heated. The coach must have been withdrawn during the year as it disappears from the 1983 book. As part of my re-numbering activities I decided to model this in a dilapidated state as part of the rake used on the daily, round trip teatime service between Fort William and Mallaig. Apart from running a black wash into the door seams, I am finished with the work. The teatime rake, BSK, TSO and SK 3881

I also removed the bogies before releasing the body shell using a pen knife. They come away easily and clip back to the frame when required. My BSO is now largely complete, seen below with roof, frame and bogies all weathered and coach renumbered. This will now go into service on my west highland line layout.

All done easily with your guidance Tables painted and passengers added. A little weathering of the frame and roof required to finish off. Thanks to all for your guidance

Pictures of BSO and underframe. The clips that might release the body are immediately above the wheel in the first picture

Apologies to all, I thought BSO was clear. The coach is a Mark 1 Brake Second Open, Hornby number R4777. I will add pictures shortly.

Perhaps I should have been clearer, when I say 'stripping down' I mean how does the coach come apart. I want to detach the chassis from the main body and, assuming they are separate parts, the roof from the bodysides. All counsel gratefully received

The attached link will take you to a thread which includes a list of the Railway Modeller West Highland Wandering articles from the early 2000's which review most of the main stations on the WHL. I think you will find them a useful reference guide, albeit they are very much focused on the line as it was when the articles were written. http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/130989-west-highland-wandering-articles-in-railway-modeller/ I know several people on RM Web have pdf copies of these and I guess that they will let you have any article you particularly want. On the subject of Crianlarich signal box, although built in the same style it differs from the standard found on the line in that it has 4 windows facing the track rather than the usual 3. In the March 2012 issue Railway Modeller also ran an article on the typical box with an outline plan as below. I probably have a copy of the original article somewhere; I will have a look and scan the full article if I can find it.

I recently acquired a BSO which I now want to weather and add passengers. I cannot work out how the coach comes apart; it looks like there are clips holding the body to the underframe which I am reluctant to interfere with in complete ignorance. Can anyone please explain the process for stripping down a Hornby coach?

I re-wheeled 10 Lima grain wagons with metal wheels. They are solid and have a diameter of 12.5mm which makes them either Bachmann's 36-033 or Hornby's R8096. The only additional work I undertook was to clean out the axles with a MicroMark track tuner which I found made a significant improvement to the free running of the wheel which run well on my code 75 track. http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/119560-west-highland-line-v4/page-3

Rule 1 works every time for me. Enjoy your trawling, I spend many an hour doing just that.

Hi John The RE letter states that the consist was used on the Highland mainline in conjunction with the re-doubling of the line that took place in the late 70's. I am not sure that it would have been required on the WHL although I stand to be corrected. I will be delighted to be proved wrong as it is a an interesting looking consist and perfect for modelling. Rob

In an effort to keep up my motivation and avoid stalling when I hit obstacles, I usually have several projects on the go at once. One of these at present is the weathering of 3 Flangeway Mermaids I bought a few months back where aside from a final layer of matt varnish to seal everything down, I am largely finished. In my searching for reference material I have found several pictures of Mermaids on the WHL typically in sidings at places like Ardlui and Arrochar. I have never been that clear as to why Mermaids were used on the WHL given that the single line working meant that they could not discharge directly on to the rail whereas Dogfish or similar wagons could. If someone can educate me on this point I would be grateful. Ex works mermaids at Crianlarich Frames airbrushed with frame dirt Wagon bodies with several layers of grimy washes Wagon with additional dirt and dust/ballast residue added Completed rake of weathered Mermaids sit at Arrochar

Reducing platform heights by around 3mm has been occupying my attention because it needs sorting before I go further with point motorisation and ballasting. I have two potential solutions, firstly cutting down the platform walls by 3mm and secondly raising the track height by 3mm with cork. The platform at Ardlui has been lowered. It has been a major challenge to find a way of doing this; fortunately a good friend let me borrow his oscillating saw which generates less heat when cutting meaning that the plastic melts less. Melting still occurs and the plastic needs cleaning up with abrasives once cutting is finished. Cutting accurately by hand is an imprecise science and I would not win any prizes for achieving a straight line of cut. Nevertheless I have managed to hack off sufficient to recreate the more typical height of a WHL platform whilst only having to replace one panel of platform walling through over cutting. The rough melted edges look crude but should mostly disappear when I get around to ballasting. Original platform height, 37026 pauses at Ardlui Lower platform height, 37039 at Ardlui At Arrochar I raised the track level which will work better than cutting the platform walls because raising the track helps create the correct gradient profile of the station. Initially I have just pushed the cork under the track; now that I can see that it works I will trim the cork to fit and glue it in place. Original height, 37192 pauses with an Oban bound service Lower height, 37026 plus ETHEL 1 with the northbound sleeper service Crianlarich is next up on the workbench for cutting down.

You can get a lot in an 11 x 11 room, as others have said the key is deciding on what you want and doing the planning in advance. My old 00 west highland line layout was in a 13 x 11 room and had a lot crammed in. Constructed over 2 levels, the end to end running length of the line was in excess of 150' with 4 stations, 1 yard and a large hidden fiddle yard. This kept me occupied and interested for the 5 years that it existed. http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/blog/1892-west-highland-line-v3/ .

Given the usual mess that the PRA's were found/seen in, a weathered version will be essential if you want realism. I have a set of Kernow's 5 plank china clay wagons that were, in my opinion, very well factory weathered. If something similar is done for the PRA then it would be welcome. However I am not prepared to wait or take the risk that Kernow do not do a weathered version and have pre-purchased the pristine early liveried set. All I need to do now is learn how to use my airbrush properly!

My experience with DCC and streamline insulfrog points was that I had no problems with electrical continuity on a fleet of sound fitted diesels with BoBo and CoCo wheel configurations. I did have a power BUS and regular feeds to the track but stay alives were not required at any time. Where power problems arose I found that an additional link from the offending track area to the power BUS was the solution. Clearly if you have short wheel base locos then it is potentially more of an issue although my 4 wheeled Bachmann OWB ran without problems. My suggestion would be that unless you have chips with stay alives built in, you try your locos out before you incur the time and cost of adding stay alive. So long as you have reasonably laid track with regular power connection to your controller/power BUS, I doubt that you will need stay alives.

Christmas comes early this year! Kernow have announced a PRA with delivery anticipated later in 2018 http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/135838-kernow-mrc-announce-pra-china-clay-wagons-expected-to-arrive-before-the-end-of-the-year/

Ian You have no need for guilt, I feel pretty sure that the commonwealths would have worn me down over time. All that this has done is accelerate the timing of changing them which was financed by the savings against my expectations of the cost of airbrush repairs. I also feel confident that I will recover a sizeable proportion of the outlay by selling the commonwealths on Ebay where they seem to command a decent price. With a bit of luck selling commonwealths will finance the remaining B1's that will be required to finalise the fleet with historically correct bogies. An additional unplanned benefit is that the new bogies have new wheel sets whereas the commonwealth wheels were in need of a good clean so I should avoid that fun task! Unlike your experience, Bachmann bogie's are very much 'plug and play' where the job is a simple undoing of a single screw to release the bogie and then re-screwing the new one in place. Now I need my airbrush back so that I can start weathering the B1's.

Evidently I could not live with incorrect bogies as I have purchased 6 B1 sets from Hattons to replace most of the Commonwealths. Hopefully I can recover some of the B1 costs by selling the Commonwealths on Ebay where they seem to command a decent price. Whilst replacing the bogies I have taken the opportunity to add a few passengers and paint the table tops in the SO and TSO's. The passengers are only the cheap Chinese HO ones from Ebay but at about £10 for a 100, they are excellent value and their being undersized is not noticeable once they are hidden away inside the coaches. Fortunately pre-Sprinter WHL trains in the 1980's were rarely full and standing meaning that I can get away with just a few people in each carriage. In addition a little more work has ben completed with sealing the new transfers using Railmatch acyrillic matt varnish on the re-numbered coaches. This is not yet perfect on all coaches but with the numbers secured, any visible imperfections should be sorted by a further layer of weathering.

There is no question in my mind that I need to reduce the platform heights on WHL4 by about 3mm. How I go about this given that the 4 station platforms built to date are all heavily glued I am not clear. Nevertheless I have to find a way; whilst I can live with some licence on coach numbers, this is a step too far. One more issue added to the seemingly never ending list of 'to do's'.

David I completely agree with your point and recognise that ideally I need a solution to the platform height issue. I don't want to use cork as a track underlay but it appears to be the easiest way to eliminate the platform height issue. However it causes me additional work that with everything else going on I do not feel inclined to undertake. The perfect solution is to find a way to trim 3mm off of the Peco edging but I cannot see an easy way of doing this so, at this time, I have the issue unresolved.