young37215

It was the 10th anniversary of the installation of my 3.5KW array earlier this year. So far I have generated 36MW with 2020 peaking at 3.8MW. 

Spreasheet further updated following SC55015's observations and re-attached. There are still a number of blanks but given that this all relates to 40 years ago, I suspect that we will never get to 100%. 

Moving on I managed to get some work done whilst watching the rain yesterday. Although a filthy day we were fortunate having seen some of the flooding and upheavel elsewhere, in getting off lightly. I glued about 2M of insulation board down and added plaster cloth to create the landscape to the immediate west of Arrochar which dried quickly allowing me to splash some 30 year old brown poster paint over it. Initial reaction is the end result looks OK although I still need to get my head around how this area will also tie into the upper level. I think what I have done is a step forward and even managed to remember to cover the track before laying the plaster cloth which meant that the track bed did not get contaminated. 

The first metre of landscape begins to take shape

Looking north, the height will get raised in time 

The landscape to the southern end of the platform gets a coat of paint

Looking south the profile of the mountainside begins to take shape.

Updated spreadsheet attached, @thegreenhowards is correct in that I had mixed up 9015 and 9016. I have made a a few small amendments and added a column for window beading although I am not certain as to what precisely should be recorded. It should also be noted that I have created 2 rows for 9000 and 9001 both of which appeared to undergo some form of update during their short lives. Doing this allows the reader to determine which layout is most suitable for their chosen model/era. The only additional information that I would like to have added but can find very little about is the window on the opposite of the blanked off one where variations on the Buffet/Micro Buffet can be found. 

8 hours ago, SC55015 said:

I found another negative with a BSOT - a withdrawn unidentified Commonwealth bogie example at Thornton Junction on 8 December 1990. Not the best quality, this visit was late in the afternoon and the light was not wonderful. Of note though is that someone has taken off the white buffet window cover from behind the counter and stick it in the middle full size window. And its not flat, so this could just be the white layer taken off the timber.

 

 

The window covers that I have seen look a simple internal affair made of laminate and screwed into the existing window frame. The 2023 picture below is of the arrangement on 9003 which I reckon is original judging by its condition and similarity to the surrounding laminate. I would guess that the cover was something that could easily be removed, the GWSR have done just that on 9000 effectively reinstating the original window arrangement.  

Visually the coach looks in reasonable order suggesting it is not long withdrawn and I am purely guessing but I fancy 9007 is a likely candidate following its withdrawl in late 1990. 

The table is a great starting point although based upon discussion in this thread and what is required to create a BSOT, I think it could do with a few additional columns. I started to list them and then thought why not just use billywhizz's as a start and extend that. Here is what I created, most of the information comes from Longworth. 

I am not intending on maintaining this, if someone cleverer than me can put it somewhere it can be updated then that works for me.

Edit see later in thread for updated spreadsheet

I did something similar using servos and Megapoints a while back which is close to being perfect but not quite. The system works but the plasticard top is not long enough which means that you have to be very precise in where the train stops. With the benefit of 12 months experience, I will be swapping the plasticard top (the piece that sits on top of the the track) for the top piece of a Peco uncoupler. I have a number of these sat spare and hope that the increase in length will make it easier stop a train on top of the uncoupler. The servo element works very well, I have no plans to change this element of the uncoupler.

On 31/10/2023 at 09:25, GordonC said:

The photos always look really impressive! how big is the room the layout is in?

The space is about 14m x 3m but never feels enough.

I now have 3 BSOT's in operation, numbers 9000, 9001 and 9015 with 2 more BSO's acquired waiting to undergo conversion. Two are in Oban rakes with one now added into a Mallaig rake which is the first time that I have used the BSO/BSOT in one of the Mallaig rakes and it meant removing a BSK to keep the load at 4. The Oban rakes have 2 brake coaches but I did not want 2 brakes in the Mallaig rakes and longer trains will not fit at Mallaig that easily which means as usual, a compromise is required. 9015 was the first BSOT to reach Mallaig seen arriving with behind 37175 and the 0837 from Glasgow which then formed the 1610 return. Both this and 9001 have yet to be completed either internally or externally but the lure of running meant they entered service partially complete. 

There are a number of bauxite and railfreight red/grey images of OAA's on Flickr from the late 70's until the mid 80's if you look hard which leads me to the view that either livery option would be representative of the period. In terms of the balance between OAA and OBA/OCA, it should be borne in mind that the number of OAA's at 100 compares with the 1000 plus OBA/OCA hence it seems reasonable for the OBA/OCA to appear more frequently. In addition to those posted by 03060 above, bauxite examples below

June 1981 

June 1982

October 1983

February 1985

8 hours ago, SC55015 said:

The Peco one is noticeable smaller (particularly in height) than the other two, it may be more suiting to TT scale.

Interesting perspective in the last picture, makes me think I need to review my use of Peco's bench on my west highland layout which I have not previously considered to look out of place. 

23 hours ago, coronach said:

I really like the station building. Is it a kit or have you scratch built it?  It looks just right. 

The station buildings and signal boxes are all scratch built mainly from card by a gentleman in Northern Ireland by the name of Ed Hall.  

The Sculptamold finally dried sufficiently to enable me to work with it which allowed me to add a little more to infill gaps and tidy the area up to a level I was happy with. I then decided that plaster cloth was unnecessary and simply painted the damp Sculptamold using a cheap acrylic burnt umber paint which will get dressed with scenic material once the remaining station area landscape is completed. All in all I am quite pleased with the outcome although the driveway at the southern end of the station looks wrong and needs more work. Now I can attack the mountainside rising to the west of the station (the area to the right in the first picture) at an approximate 50 degree angle. I am still uncertain about how high to raise the landscape so I will start by creating it in such a way that I can increase the height at a later stage should I feel the need. 

By way of comparison, this was the station entrance mid 1980's.

The evolution of the landscape at Arrochar station in pictures. First, earlier this year with polystyrene placed loosely on the embankment. 

Next step was to glue the polystyrene in place using PVA glue. Once this had dried I mixed up some Sculptamold which was used to create a rough skimmed embankment. I'll need to add some more to smooth out and complete the edges but as a first step, this was sufficient for my purpose. Once I am happy with the outline I'll add plaster cloth over everything. 

23 hours ago, thegreenhowards said:

I’d be interested to see pictures of your work in progress on the embankment.

I'll post something when I am a little further forward but it is the same method that I have used elsewhere on the layout. As is often the case in my experience, the Sculptamold was too damp to work with yesterday meaning I had play trains instead of working on Arrochar. It's a tough life I know but better to let the embankment dry out rather than let my impatience end up making a mess of it.

In an effort to create some variety to the ususal angles for pictures, I set up the tripod to the side of Crianlarich to see if I could create the impression of being up above the station. 37033 was captured departing north with 7B02.

19 hours ago, Vecchio said:

I think the reason for not seeing scale high trees is the price.... 😁

Hear Hear. There is no getting away from the expense of trying to to create life like lineside greenery. I am currently planning how the southern approach to Arrochar should be modelled where the number of trees and bushes required is frightening and, no doubt, the cost of modeling it eye watering. The number of trees that I used at Ardlui was far greater than I had anticipated and even now I question if I have added sufficient. As afternoon draws on 37108 is pictured departing Ardlui and winding its way south along the banks of Loch Lomond as it heads to Blyth with 6E46 comprised of empty hoppers returning for refill. It is not just Ardlui, all of the landscape could be more densely populated and just needs the weeks Euromillions numbers to match my selection so I can afford to do so!

I am still working through the wagon fleet checking the back to back gauges and was surprised to find the Lima hoppers in these pictures which have been rewheeled with Bachmann wheels, were particularly tight. My surprise was based on my experience of running where they are probably the least likely wagons to derail and that on a layout where derailments are surprisingly few is saying something.

The Primo Spruce have been planted but not fixed in place as yet, the uniformity needs breaking up.  The trees are certainly imposing being about twice the height of the previous trees.  

20 hours ago, thegreenhowards said:

How easy would it be to add the cantrail strengthening or double rivet lines?

I have not seen anyone attempt to add rivets but I have seen several attempts to fit the cantrail dividing bars using slithers of plastic cut to size and painted. None have been very good in my opinion, whether it would be any easier in 0 gauge I have no idea. 

The wet weather meant that I had a day largely indoors yesterday resulting in a little running. 37178 had charge of 8D09 and is seen arriving at Garelochead. The loco was outshopped from Doncaster in early 1983 having received a full overhaul and repaint making it one of those on my list of those requiring a light weathering and a few cosmetic tweaks.

On 19/10/2023 at 08:50, thegreenhowards said:

One thing I’m never sure about though, is the roof differences which you talk about between different batches. Could you show a picture of the different layouts?

 

For many years I was blissfully ignorant of class 37 roof and cantrail differences, then I learnt about them and started trying to replicate them. The following is a 'cut and paste' explanantion from an article I read and copied a while ago: 'D6700 - D6798 as built had riveted roofs, all vertical strips that run from one side of the roof to the other. These are double riveted on the first 42 locos, the next 56 had single riveted strips and the remaining split headcode and all centre headcode locos had welded (smooth) roofs'.

The standard Bachmann riveted roof shown in the first picture looks single riveted. This loco was originally 37049 and which I renumbered to 37108, should be welded hence why I plan to file down the 3 central rows of rivets. The rivets at each end will have to stay which I am relaxed about which is just as well because I cannot see a practical way of changing these to the welded profile.

Bachmann welded roof

Cantrail grilles with extra dividing/strengthening bars were fitted to all RSH built 37's (D6769-D6795 D6879-D6898) and Vulcan built D6700 - D6705 but with a groove round as they were removable. Bachmann have not done many RSH locos, I used the limited edition 37003 for my 2 RSH split box locos 37081 and 37085. I don't have any centre headcode ones yet, I looked at the new styled dividing bar on 37194 and thought that it was a very poor attempt. Hopefully Accurascale get around to some of these in the near future as I am sure they will do a better job.  

Vulcan build cantrail grills

RSH build cantrail grills have a central dividing/strenthening bar 

It is mid October and Rapido's website still shows the OAA's as due this month. I cannot find any other information (and have no interest in newsetters), does anybody have an uodate on when we might expect these to be available? 

12 hours ago, Vecchio said:

The Primo stuff is very nice, if you have a few outstanding trees Primo (or one of the other top tree manufacturers) it is. In case you need more or a kind of woodland I normally use the nice (and expensive ones) in the front and cheaper stuff (like bottle brush trees from Faller)  in the back. The bottle brush types need to be treated a bit (take out some twigs) as they are too regular in normal appearance.  

Fortunately I only require 3 trees to represent those that were evident at Crianlarich during my time period. Even so at £14 per tree they are not cheap. 

Elsewhere I have been captivated by the SDEG's steam heat 37 book which, amongst many things, highlights the various unique features of individual locos. One of which is 37264 where I already knew my version was incorrect for the early 1980's, just prior to its late 1983 visit to Crewe works from which it emerged as the first official class 37 in large logo. I bought my loco 10 years or so ago as 37251 which I renumbered and added terrier logos prior to it being weathered by TMC. Back then I was blissfully ignorant of Flickr with its range of reference pictures and so missed several of the more subtle detail points. The SDEG book prompted me to make a start on the updates required to make 264 more prototypical. I started to remove some of the weathering in an effort to create a cleaner, weather beaten loco using enamel thinners and numerous cotton buds. The old Western Region headboard clips were removed with the intention of using them on 37175 but 1 of the 4 managed to make a succesful bid for freedom and now hides somewhere on the carpet!. From a Heljan detailing pack I added the nameboard bracket above the headcode, I still want  to remove more of the weathering but the revised loco is nearing completion and a return to service.