Vecchio

Sitting in an armchair with a dram of single malt some time ago the idea was born to try my luck on a Scottish layout. Of course, West Highland Railway line. I will not start immediately in creating baseboards as I usually do. I will start with just one module which I will call the bridge. As the reader may guess - I will try to make a model of the Banavie swing bridge. The material is no question for me, it will be brass Came out too difficult, so polystyrene it is. But before to start I need a few essential things. One of them is a drawing. I have been in Banavie 5 years ago and made many photos, as I was fascinated about this bridge also then. But if you want to build it you need more. Photos taken at 90 degrees to the structure and photos of all details as for instance the service ponton and the stonewalls on both sides of the canal. With this I was lucky as my wife has planned a holiday near Oban. This holiday took place last week, and we were lucky with the weather. I spent the whole Monday on my own in the area taking photos. Unfortunately, I couldn't see the bridge move, probably because of the Queens funeral there were no boats around. I planned to go there another day, but this didn't happen as from Wednesday onwards I was grounded by some movement of a kidney stone which caused a nice kidney infection. Anyway, I have my photos, the infection is cured for the moment, so I can start with a drawing. But: how big do I want the bridge to be? The original is about 35 meters long, this would lead to 460mm in 00 scale. Quite large I would say. To keep the track more or less in the middle of a standard 4x2 module the thing shouldn't be much more than 300mm. But how should I scale the bridge down without losing the right look? I can take 2 fields out of the truss bridge, but this shortens it just 4 meters, so we are still at 408mm in 00. I don't want to shrink it lengthwise as the distance between the vertical I beams would considerably change and if I scale down the whole thing the train on it would look oversized. I need to find the right compromise. any ideas welcome. To give those who do not know this bridge an idea - find here a (hopefully) 90 degree shot of the bridge, taken from the nearby road bridge. DSC_0194 And as I was there long enough - the morning Jacobite train from Fort William to Mallaig. DSC_0157

Class 156499 on its way to Mallaig -crossing a well known viaduct. Photos taken on 19.9.2022, unfortunately with a light drizzle which doesn't help with the photo quality. For some reason I cannot change the sequence of the photos.

Great trip, great photos! The colourful RhB trains are really photo stars! I am quite jealous about your trip!.... Anyway, I go to Scotland tomorrow, I need to make a few photos of the bridge in Banavie....

Well I do not want to join in the lighting or not discussion, the event was very well organised, and as I have to drive almost 2 hours to get there, I was not too interested in a beer tent. Some of the traders had good prices, and I am not happy with myself to grab one or the other bargain. Well, I bought some stuff, but kept it moderate. I also enjoyed the live steam presentation outside the GWR hall, several full size and one model size traction engines under steam, as well as a stationary steam pump. Lots of layouts, lots of presentations. Had a nice day out there.

Alston - Went on this line in June, was absolutely worth it. Also, the guys running the show were really relaxed and easy to talk to. An absolute enjoyable day for the whole family including the dog....

I have followed steps 1 to 4 month ago and was quite happy not seeing any flashing videos any more - but today it looks like before. A video on the right hand side, other advertisements on the top and bottom of the page. as can be seen below.

Absolutely lovely pictures of the Fourth bridge! Been there by car, but you get definitely the better views from the cycle path!

Thanks for the quick answer! As it looks you guys do think about customer service!

Interesting to hear a German discussion in the background. Do we know which chip they will use? regards Vecchio

Well, I use perspex fronts (and partially also sides) and I do not think they are disturbing. If somebody wants to take a photo for a magazine or so I am happy to take the screwdriver out and to remove them. Looking at all the fingerprints on the perspex after a show I can say they are not only small (means childrens) ones. For me it is mainly the overhead line system (and the signals) I want to protect. 20200214_202839

Thanks for the information, I wonder why some companies cannot stick to a standard and always try to produce something which is may be a bit better, but not compatible to the well established standards. And as a long time zimo user I think to remember that this is not the first time. My private opinion is that this is something which didn't happen by coincidence but has been cooked in some marketing department. Vecchio, believing in standardisation. In my non model railway related life I am a member to 24 BSI standardisation committees and several European and International ones.

Well for the non German stock collector they look pretty much the same...

If I am not wrong I think it was the prototype for the first model Roco made for the German market. Must have been in the 70th...

Absolutely great layout! And I do love the details in your rolling stock! Congratulations!

Problem is you don't know how long the decoder sat in the drawer of your model shop.... Double headers are always a problem, even if you speed match them. The acceleration and breaking behaviour of the locos is different, I really prefer locomotives without traction tires as they are more forgiving at being pulled or pushed slightly. And before anybody starts - yes, I use the traction tables for my locos, all are filled in by the use of a stop watch in increments of 16 speed steps..

All the best with your move. Will be a heavy lifting thing. I suppose your lathe is about 450kg and the mill will not be much less... Was easier for me when I moved my workshop a year ago, my hobby lathe only has 130kg.

And the next one on my list is the hand of god.... even people say magnetic uncouplers are not realistic they are much more realistic than an oversized shovel shaped stick coming down from the sky...

Yes, I do know. there is a particular section on the right hand of the station where I already had to put in a bracket in as the wires didn't follow the track. I did know that and avoided the middle track for that reason - but I didn't instruct my operators properly. My Rivarossi 1040 (which was busy doing a double header with a Roco 1042) has a rather small pan head, which is probably prototypical, but not very practical with the radii used on a model railway layout. So the pantograph slipped off and caught itself between the contact wire and the suspension wire. I didn't look at it in detail, probably a repair is possible, but I also have 2 spare pantographs of similar design from an old Klein-Modellbahn loco (which died like most of them from Mazak rot). They were good quality, probably coming from Sommerfeldt.

The show went well, the cost was easily covered. As usual I had some overhead line trouble at the end of the show and I had to change one locomotive (as the panto was ripped off...) This is the risk when driving with panto up, but I think its worth taking that risk as it looks more realistic. What I also noticed (and I did know that before) is that the number of trains is limited by the size of my fiddle yard. Also the curve on module 1 (behind the scenery) is to sharp and doesn't allow certain locomotives to go on the layout. As there will be a little break in going on shows (there should be two in 2023, we will see if it works) I decided to upgrade my fiddle yard. I will remove the board extension I made in 2016 and make full size fiddle yard boards (120 x 60 cm) this should allow 6 or 7 tracks instead of 3 and also the problem of the radius in the curve will be solved. So: out with the old router jig, and some finger joints produced... Simple finger joint jig. I take no responsibility for people copying this and cutting into their own finger... IMG20220804151655 Some material has been prepared. IMG20220804151724 I will use the same technique as described in the first pages of this thread, so I will not go into to much detail here. Track is ordered, but first the woodwork has to be done.

For this size you need a shed and a half...

I do like this station kits - probably I have a look at Rannoch station. I have a laser cut station on my current Austrian layout, which was a mixture of card and wood. The overall effect is great The station on my current layout: Strobl (renamed for my layout to Donnersbachkogel) IMGP5418 IMGP5411

I have just to build a new fiddle yard for my Austrian layout, but after that I will give it a go... I love the ideas Paul was putting into the plan.

Would actually fit into my shed (00 of course...) The road bridge parallel to the swing bridge - is it that one? Line from Fort William to Mallaig crossing the Caledonian canal DSC_0206 And as it is so nice the locking mechanism... DSC_0212 And of course such a bridge needs to turn.... You have probably planted a seed into the old Austrian to make a 00 layout.... I am on holiday in Scotland this September - I think I need a few more photos... (Made only 560 in 2017 - and unfortunately not only from this line... Think I need to convince my wife to go up there once more... We will be close to Oban - makes 45 miles or 1hour and 15 minutes to Fort William....

I am sure this is going to be interesting, and with Paul's usual speed we will see a layout in no time...

well - for the tired airport user (jetlag) it was difficult to spot the difference. Thanks that I am allowed to learn something.