young37215

Thanks for the link. Choices of brackets now up to 3, 1 each of aluminium, wood and plastic. In pure cost terms the MERG plastic are cheapest at £1.08 per bracket (plus additional £16 MERG membership cost) with the wood nearer £2 (auctioned on Ebay hence lack of definitive figure) and the aluminium £2.50. MERG also include fixings saving a few pence. In addition to gluing servos in the existing aluminium conduit, I intend testing the aluminium bracket because it looks the most robust which, for what I want, offsets the higher cost. I would happily test all 3 options for comparison and report back if someone will supply a spare MERG bracket. Drop me a PM if you will and I will advise my address. Rob

For my loft based layout the electrician recommended that I use Deltech Series 5000 flicker free LED strips. It was an inspired choice, these are brilliant and provide a consistent bright light around the whole room meaning that I am never standing in my own shadow when working. www.deltechuk.com

My original question arose because the Kitlocker section of the MERG website is not available to non members and in my ignorance I assumed (erroneously) that this is where the price information lived. The answer to the question and to quote from the MERG website Accessory 681 contains '6 sets of plastic frets, locking nuts and bolts and length of piano wire to build 6 basic point motors using 9g servos such as the SG90.' The cost of 6 units made of plastic is £6.50.

Thanks for the pictures of the bracket, unsurprisingly they appear similar to the bracket produced by http://www.alurailtech.co.uk/home.html The Alurailtech bracket is made of aluminium and costs £2.50. To enable a comparison of the two products, please will you advise what the MERG brackets are made of and how much they cost? Rob

I must confess that the simple, low cost solution of gluing/siliconing the servos in place had never occurred to me. I shall be trying this as my next step and will report back on the outcome; thanks to everyone for their counsel. Rob

Thanks for confirming MERG produce a servo bracket, unfortunately your link is of no use to non MERG member because access is restricted to members. If you could add a picture and an indication of its price, it would enable me (and others) to make a more informed decision on the route to follow. Thanks

Thanks, they look like a robust solution which will go a long way to mitigating the costs.

I have been using the Megapoints kit for a number of months now and generally I am very happy with what it does for me. The one area I have an issue is maintaining the servos position underneath my baseboards. I have used the aluminium conduit approach that Dave Fenton suggests but find that after a period of use, the servos are prone to small movements which ultimately results either in them losing alignment and failing to work or, on occasion, actually falling out of the conduit. A friend told me that MERG produce a bracket of some description which holds servos in place more securely; has anyone got any experience of using these or anything similar? Any guidance gratefully received Rob

The timing of my last post was prophetic, the following day the station building for Crianlarich arrived in the post. This is another bespoke card construction from Dawson Hall which is just as good as the others they have made for me. In situ it really looks the part, I need to get on and finish the platform now. In between running trains, I spent some time tidying up the Crianlarich section and took the decision to replace the code 75 flexi track to the south of the station with some old code 100 set track 3rd radius curves. Despite having used the 3rd radius curves to set a line for the flexi track to follow, I was not happy with the running where derailments were common. Operationally the set track is a big improvement with derailments eradicated so far and visually the higher profile rails are not that obvious. With ballasting I hope that it will all blend in seamlessly. Station viewed from the east Station buildings looking north Station from the A82 Replacement set track curves

At last I have a continuous loop over which I can run trains. The trackwork at Ardlui has been laid in full and connected to the power BUS. Trains have been run in both directions and, so far, so good it all seems to work smoothly. Now that I can break up development work with running trains, I intend reverting to the outstanding work at Crianlarich where a number of tasks are outstanding. Hopefully I can keep focused on finishing Crianlarich before starting any other development work. The first train to Ardlui on WHL4, 37026 arrives with a Glasgow bound rake of empty TTA's. 37026 departs Ardlui 37027 arrives at Arrochar with the sleeper service for Fort William Trains cross at Arrochar Trains now everywhere, 37191 rests in the sidings at Ardlui having brought in an engineers train

Interesting suggestion Andy which makes good sense and probably speeds up the whole process. I will try it next time I am spraying track. I have seen previous negative comment about abrasive track cleaners and whilst I can understand the rationale, in 30 plus years of using them, they have always delivered what I have asked of them.

In addition to my constant tweaking of station positions, in recent weeks I have added most of the connections to the power BUS for Garelochead and Arrochar, weathered the trackwork at Garelochead and made a start on the trackwork for Ardlui which will be the fourth and final station on the lower circuit. Later today I aim to complete the lower loop baseboard by installing a relatively short 1.2m board which will enable 'roundy roundy' trains to be run. The difference that weathering track makes is huge and is straightforward to achieve. Previously I have sprayed the track with Railmatch spray cans but is expensive and the nozzles are prone to blockages. Enter an Iwata Neo air brush loaded with thinned Railmatch sleeper grime and hey presto, weathered track at a lower cost. The paint is allowed to dry and the top of the track is cleaned up using a Peco track rubber and vacuumed to remove the debris. A before and after picture speaks volumes Garelochead track weathered and all connected to the power BUS. The sleepers of the unconnected piece of track will be glued in situ to mimic where the line to the old turntable and which was lifted in the early 1980's once sat. Ardlui station track takes shape There is a long run from Arrochar to Ardlui, I have not decided on whether to break this with a bridge/tunnel/cutting as yet and will wait to see how it blends into the upper section before deciding.

Good idea and a good programme but not what I am think of. I am talking about a programme specifically on the introduction of RETB and its impact on the railways.

The clip is not the programme, it was a 30 minute plus documentary. Thanks for the thought; I have scoured Youtube but without success.

Many years ago I recorded on video a programme broadcast in the 1980's about the introduction of RETB in Scotland. From memory it was an informative programme with useful references for modelling. My video is long gone as is my VCR and try as I might, I cannot find anything about the programme. I do'nt think it was the Distant Signals programme from Scottish TV. Can anyone shed any more light on this such as the name of the programme? Thanks Rob

The Bluebell Railway I presume, they have a big Deltic event this weekend.

I have had similar problems which have persisted despite following the best practices that others have outlined on here. My solution has been to buy additional nozzles which Howes sell for 50p. It is not ideal but when there is a nearly full can of paint at stake, it is the most economic solution.

Station buildings and signal boxes on my WHL layout are made of card by Dawson Hall. You can find them at https://www.dawson-hall.com/xcart/ If you look half way down on the first page of my WHL 4 layout thread http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/119560-west-highland-line-v4/page-1 you can see pictures of a WHL station building also designed and built by Dawson Hall. Given how fiddly scratch building is, I anticipated there being greater interest in these than I have experienced so far.

At the annual Warley show in 2016 I bought an airbrush and compressor which, until now, has sat in its box because I have been frightened to use it! Over the last few days I managed to bite the bullet and with the assistance of George Dent's 'Airbrushing for railway modellers' book, I connected everything up, mixed some paint and got spraying. Fortunately Armageddon did not happen and after a few lengths of spraying track with sleeper grime to get a feel, my confidence increased and I managed to get a layer of paint onto the RMB and sleeper. I think a second coat will be required and so I have not replaced the glazing yet or added any weathering; however I am very pleased with the results. The RMB The sleeper In situ in sidings at Crianlarich The Postman also delivered Crianlarich signal box, a laser cut card model from Dawson Hall. Next up from them is the station building which I hope to have by the end of October.

An example of this can be seen in the superb DVD Heavy Metal which shows one of the last southbound ingot trains traversing the WHL. The DVD is worth buying for the sound alone although the video is pretty special. All in all Heavy Metal is my favourite WHL DVD by a distance.

If I may, I would comment that the headcode and marker lights appear very bright. This is something I experienced with Loksound chips and their default settings. I managed to address the issue by seeking peoples guidance on this forum, if you are interested the attached link takes you to the discussion and provides dimming solutions for V3.5 and V4 chips. I have applied these to my fleet and in my opinion the changes make a big improvement. http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/117575-dimming-headcode-lighting-with-loksound-v4/

I like the sound of the books, I have most of the 70's Spotting Days collection. Less impressive is the £35 price tag! Limited edition or not, I for one will waiting and having a close look at them before spending £70 on the pair.

Thanks John The picture is very useful, I shall use the detail and blank out the windows when I get round to reassembling the RMB

I can think of worse places to have worked for 48 years

RMB looks good if a little pristine for something resting in the Crianlarich climate!. What basis did you decide upon the number of windows to blank out?. From the departmentals.com picture showing the opposite side, none of the windows are blanked off. Ernie Brack's picture of the same side as your picture shows only 2 windows admittedly both of which are blanked off.