Caley Jim

All the details you need to model any WCJS vehicle are in the 'Register of West Coast Joint Stock' book published by the HMRS many years ago. That photo is a scan from it. Jim

Hi Brian, John's artwork was all drawn by hand on paper at 10mm-1 ft and then photo reduced. The 2mm etches were ones he was kind enough to have done for me. I never saw any etches with station furniture on them. I have no idea what happened to his drawings when he passed away. Are you a member of the CRA? If so, you could ask on the forum. If you're not a member I could ask on there for you. Jim

@Wheatley has in his signature “Everywhere in Scotland is spelt 'Ecclefechan' and pronounced 'Kirkcudbright'.”. We've just come home from our weekly sequence dance club which meets in Revenstruther Hall, locally called 'Renstrie'. Jim

They are all held in the National Archive at Kew. https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C13213 Jim

Don't know that I can justify a Cardean. I'm only justifying the Dunallastair and the G & E Direct set on the basis that there has been an 'incident' somewhere on the Shotts line, so services are diverted. I suppose I could say something had happened around Law Junction, so WCML services were similarly diverted. Then I would need to build a rake of WCJS coaches. To be honest, I always fancied doing a WCJS sleeping composite, just to see what punters reactions would be! Has the definite look of a 'cut & shut' job! Jim

Simon spent an afternoon here yesterday (he was up this way on business) discussing, among other things, AJ couplings. Inter alia he placed one of the Groves' wagons, straight out of the storage box, on the same piece of track as one of my newest wagons and the two coupled perfectly! 🙂 What does that say about common standards? Jim

Does that latter one have a maiden over there in it? 😁 Jim

You had me a bit confused there (shut up that voice who said 'not for the first time'!) as I couldn't equate the track plan with the Berwick I know. I now know there is another Berwick - in Sussex! Jim

Slowly progressing. With the boiler, smokebox front and cab roof fitted it's starting to take shape. I've learnt that it's best to leave the handrail knobs and cab-side lamp brackets until late in the build, otherwise they tend to suffer damage through handling. I've still to try it under power as we didn't manage to diagnose the problem with the stay alive. Suspect a problem with the caps. Washout plugs and smoke box door next, then, with the fitting of the boiler making the footplate rigid, the buffer beam and valences can go on. Jim

Ah! So that's where it has gone. Your very welcome to it! 😁 Jim

None of the predicted snow here yet.🤞 I should have had a meeting in Hamilton this morning which has been postponed on the basis of the forecast. Jim

My memory of high school maths tells me that all imaginary numbers (square roots of negative values) began with 'i'. They were what scuppered my maths as I just couldn't imagine what they were! 😉 Jim

How did you pay? You should get an email requesting payment if you've opted to pay by PayPal. Jim

Just been looking through the maps of the area on the NLS website and it's not until that 1956 survey you posted that these sidings appear on the Church Pit branch. I can't see them being needed for a shot works, so that makes me think they must be exchange sidings for East Holywell. What the two buildings were for I've no idea. Yes, do your own thing! It's for enjoyment and relaxation after all! Jim

Hi Richard. My reading of the map is that the red rectangle was the exchange sidings as they lead off the (dashed) line to East Holywell. The ones in the blue rectangle come of the (solid black) line marked as 'Mineral railway'. Also, there are not enough of the latter to be practicable as exchange sidings. Loaded wagons have to be brought from the pit by the colliery loco and parked to be collected by the main line loco. at the same time empties have to be left and collected. This needs a number of sidings which were usually parallel. Either that or all exchange took place at East Holywell. No harm in a bit of compression. My exchange sidings are designed around 575mm long trains (roughly 13 wagons and a van) which, along with 125mm for the loco, are the longest my cassettes can take. Jim

I haven't tried playing with these setting. must give it a go. Agree about the Sprog+JMRI. The CR Jumbo I built recently has a considerable amount of exponential acceleration programmed into it. If you set the controller to around half speed nothing appears to happen at first, then it very slowly starts to pull away. Jim

Bob, I'm doing all my programming with Decoder Pro in my PC via a Sprog, guided by @Nigelcliffe's article on the 2MM SA website, so I'm not aware of the values in each CV. I usually contain the speed by changing the reference voltage as Nigel advises, but with this one I found that setting that to anything other than 0 stopped it working altogether! I therefore resorted to the speed table, set the top speed to half and then 'matched ends'. Screenshot below. Not entirely sure what 'forward trim' and 'reverse trim' do, but will be able to consult with the guru on Saturday at or AG meeting. And BTW, @Clive Mortimore, much of this is way over my head too! I just follow advice and instructions from said guru! Jim

Thanks, Laurie. Much easier to follow on the videos! I hadn't quite appreciated the expanse of your empire! I take it that Syphon is a 'cripple'! Also notice several of your locos sport WSLR livery!😁 Jim

I'm getting an 'oops something went wrong' message on both these YouTube links.😕 Jim

I've recently fitted two of my locos with 470uf flat/wide caps. The first was my recent 2-4-0 which I found was somewhat lacking in traction. I therefore moved the decoder + stay-alive circuit to sit alongside the motor and replaced the 4 x 220uf caps which had been there with two 470uf's, one on top of the other, at the front of the tender. The theory was that caps are heavier than the decoder, so would move the weight to the front of the tender where it could be passed on to the rear of the loco. This has worked fairly well, though traction is still a bit limited. The second was my little Drummond 0-4-4T which suddenly threw a short. On checking I couldn't find where that was, but discovered the CT decoder was blown. I suspect the Branchlines minimotor had drawn too much current. It now has a Tramfabriek 0615 motor with a Zimo MX615 decoder along one side and the stay-alive circuit and a 470uf cap on the other. It took a little bit of tuning in Decoder Pro to 'tame' the motor, but it is now running well. Jim

It is indeed. Earlier maps show just an embankment there, but you can still see the landing alongside the road, either from the road itself or a train. There was a gate in the back wall of the market through which livestock could be driven. This was the inspiration for part of my Kirkallanmuir layout. The market will be on the backscene behind the wall. Yes, these were pens just off Portland Place. As far as I can tell there were no pens on the landing itself, but there were probably hurdles which could be used to guide the beasts. All this was gone by the time I came to the area. Jim

At Lanark there was a dedicated livestock loop siding running on the opposite side of a back street from the market giving almost direct access to the market. https://maps.nls.uk/view/82893816 The market has now moved to a modern building, with the lairage fully indoor, on the outskirts of the town. Jim

Progress has been slow over the past couple of weeks, what with the festivities etc. A fellow member of our group kindly gave me some more components for stay alive circuitry which let me finish of re-motoring my Drummond 171 class 0-4-4T which now has a Tramfabreik 0615 motor with a Zemo MX615 decoder along one side and a flat wide 470uf capacitor and the circuit along the other. It took a bit of tuning in Decoder Pro to tame the motor a bit, but it's now reasonably under control. I also assembled the stay alive for this loco, but, for some reason which my consulting electronic engineers are unable to determine, both the circuit and the decoder get very hot very quickly as soon as it is put on the track. Hopefully they will be able to solve the issue at our next group meeting. Meanwhile some work has been done on the loco body, attaching the cab/splasher sides and tops and crankpin splashers to the footplate along with the cab front. Handrails etc were fitted to the sides before assembly as was the beading around the spectacles (brass wire). The two strips of 40x40thou styrene either side of the gearbox are temporarily there to centralise the body at the rear. That job will be done by the firebox sides when the boiler is fitted. The front boiler support is not at nearly as much of an angle as it appears here and the two lugs on the cab front are to locate the rear end of the boiler. As far as the boiler is concerned, the 10mm diameter brass tube being OoS at Squires, @CFMRC has kindly sent me a 'manufactured' length and work has started preparing that to be fitted. There will be a slight lull in progress again, however, as I have promised to give a talk on the Quintinshill Disaster to my local PROBUS club next month, so preparation for that will need to take priority for the next few days. Jim

Well, you know the teacher's motto - Nil illigitimus minimus carborundumI!* Jim *(Very) loosely translated as 'Don't let the little b******s grind you down'!

Now, that livery is going to be a challenge! Jim