37Oban

Hi, the Highland Railway proposed branches to Ullapool and Lovhinver, but nothing came of them. A line to Poolewe would have been useful during WW2. Lochaline would be a bit of a non-starter, being a circuitous route from Fort William and offering no time advantage for ferries sailing from Oban, and, if it had existed, would probably been built by the North British Railway. A silica sand mine, the sand used for making high quality optical glass, was opened there in 1940, but it was always transported by ship. One reason Lochaline is noted isis that when St Kilda was evacuated in 1930 a lot of the people chose to settle in Lochaline, the rest headed to Oban before moving on to Portree, stromeferry and Inverness. Roja

I have several books on first generation dmu's and they are all dangerous! Luckily they are all packed away pending a house move! Roja

Hi, well, it's been awhile since I've posted on here! St Mungo's is still on the go, although packed away waiting for a house move. I thought I was being clever, having packed a lot of my stuff, but these things have a way of not working quite as expexted! Such is life! However, I just cannot do nothing! I've recently bought the Scalescenes canal wharf boxfile kit, which is being modified to connect to my Poppy Hill distillery boxfile. As I model in EM a bit of work is needed, so I've built and added a short 'Y' turnout to increase play, I mean, operational value! Although St Mungo's is dcc (sorry, Clive!) these are just dc as there will only be one engine in steam on them. To this end I bought a Hornby 'Pug' tank loco in Caledonian blue, used a wheel puller to alter the back to backs and, viola!, it runs like dream, down to a slow crawl. The loco is going to be repainted black, a more appropriate livery. I may even build a tender for it. We shall see! I've also been busy designing a roundy roundy layout for a future build. When my partner was a wee girl her family used to take her to Withernsea from Hull for holidays. The line closed 1964 but she still remembers it fondly. Cue some research, the result being a station based on Keyingham. Almost a perfect station for our needs. Small yard with coal drops, platforms on a curve, seperate road siding and an interesting signal box and level crossing. I've built a small diorama of the box and crossing to test it's viability, and it was a success, so, when we get chance, it's future project! So far it's designed to fit in an 8' x 8', 10' x 8', 12' x 8' and 14' x 8' spaces, anything longer or wide would be a benefit, but it works well as an 8' x 8'. So that's my excuse for, er, aquiring, more items of rolling stock and building kits! Latest buy is a Dapol N2 from Rails. A non-runner, I look fowards to sorting it out, keep me out of mischief for a while, and at £29 a bit of a bargain! Then there's the turnouts for Kayingham (my partner is called Kay and I've added a headshunt to the trackplan which the Keyingham didn't have, so the name change was obvious.) for which I've started building, then there's a couple of loco kits, some coaches, a few wagons... I think I need some more storage boxes! When I have a moment or two I'll post some photo's of what I'm up to. If I remember! Roja

Hi, I model in EM and I'm building a Scalescenes wharf boxfile model. It just dc and I built a short Y turnout, operated by w-i-t, using a dpdt switch which also changes the frog polarity. Can't get much simpler! Roja

Cracking layout! It's what my partner and I are aiming for with a future layout! We'd be happy if it turns out half as good! Roja

Every layout needs brambles! Roja

Hi, well, every day is a learning day! I hadn't known it had made it to Mallaig on it's tour! Cracking photo! Roja

Hi, I believe a 31 was trialled in Scotland in the late 50's, and on the Highland mainline. I seem to recall it didn't stay very long before returning south. After that they were very infrequent visitors to Scotland, the odd one venturing as far as Edinburgh, even in sectorisation days, and photos are as rare as hen's teeth! I've seen a b&w one of one on a train at Dunbar but for the life of I can't remember where I saw it! As for railtours, well, I suppose it's possible but I don't know of any. That's not say it's not possible, the Strathspew Railway has an operational one, D6869/31327, on it's books, so yu never know! Roja

Hi, the 303's suffered a series of transformer, er, mishaps, in 1960 which led them to be withdrawn for a few weeks and a steam service reinstalled until the problem was corrected! Roja

What happens to a bicycle if you try riding it when suffering from Rangoon roulette! Roja

Slippery is an understatement! Roja

Hi, I like tge way your thinking, however a branch along the blackwater to Kinlochleven would probably been a non-starter even if had been proposed. A nearer railhead to Kinlochleven was Ballachulish and a branch along Loch Leven would have been a cheaper, and easier, proposal. Until the branch from Connel to Ballachulish closed to freigh in 1965, and passengers a year later, regular trains of alumina were sent to Ballachulish for forwarding by road to the smelter at Kinlochleven. The Blackwater reservoir was completed in 1909 specfically to provide hydroelectric power for the smelter at Kinlochleven. The wee electric railway was the first in Scotland, using ecxess power from the hydrogenerating station, as did Kinlochleven town itself. It wasn't a particularly long line, and never carried passengers, but was used to carry alumina from a quay to the smelter and aluminium in the other direction. It closed in 1960. One wee interesting fact is that until 1920's Kinlochleven had no road access! All the materials for the reservoir dam, the smelter and the railway had to be brought in by ship the loaded into carts and manhandled where needed! German prisoners of war "helped" in construction of the road! Roja

Hi, that's a cracking interpretation of the Scalescenes kit! It's almost enough to get me into 7mm micro modelling! Roja

Hi, they make a great micro layout project, don't they, and are a good base to modify too. I bought one, converted it to EM and changed it to the rear dispatch area of a distillery. A simple sector plate is used as a fiddleyard. I've included a photo showing the main change, which is the silo has been placed on the loading platform and I omitted all the air vents. At the moment I'm rebuilding part of it to enable it to be connected to the canal wharf boxfile. When it's done I'll post some more photos. Roja

Hi, I love the way this is developing! I'm a big fan of dmu's an diesel traction! However, there is one thing I must say, and it's to sort that nasty wee kink out that you noticed. Better to sort it out before you go any further with weathering and detail work, earlier would have been better. Now you know it's there, and even though stock runs over it, you'll find it starts to annoy you more and more as time goes on and you'll wish you'd sorted it out earlier! Happened to me. I thought I could live with it but I found that, in the end I just couldn't live, so fixed it, and regreted not doing so before doing the ballasting etc! Roja

Hi, when I was in secondary school, many, many years ago, my art teacher always said paint what you see, not what you know to be there! I apply this to my modelling, especially my rolling stock. If you can't see it when it's on the track then I don't model it! Some years back I was at an exhibition at Barrowhill Roundhouse and I was sat in a chair looking at a wagon from approx 4ft away. It's amazing just how little of the under-details can be seen from so close and such a low height! I appreciate that a lot of modellers like all the bells and whistles on the underframe, but that's not for me. Now, if our models ran upside down on their roofs with the chassis upmost I'd probably model everything, although probably not! Roja

Mayhaps a narrow gauge feeder line? Roja

Hi, before committing to buying sheets of plywood you should watch What's Neat on Youtube by Ken Pattinson. He builds all his layouts, including one he uses for photographic projects, from rigid foam with thin ply edges. They are extremely light, even ones that are a couple of metres, or more long, are very strong, and are easily moved around. My own project, St Mungo's is built using underfloor insulation foam board and is very light, easily moved with one hand yet is extremely tough. To be honest, I can't understand the reluctance to use rigid insulation foam board when it has so many advantages such as lightness, strength and ease of use. Roja

Hi, that makes sense. Not many industrial grain whisky stills in the misty glens! Roja

The subject of transporting whisky, and barrels, by rail is a fascinating one. This is not be taken as gospel, but I believe that barrels of whisky were conveyed in open wagons, depending on the route to be taken to their final destination. This was simply that most whisky barrels were too large to manhandle into covered vans whereas they could be rolled or craned into opens. I'm pretty sure there are photographs around that show such full barrels in open wagons in mixed freight services, especially on the Speyside line and in BR days. No doubt an internet search can find these. Regarding specialised barrel wagons, such as used by the Caledonian Railway, I think it was soon found out that they were uneconomical to operate. At first they seem like a good idea but apart from empty barrels they were unsuited to other sorts of traffic and so spent half their lives running empty. Much easier, and cheaper, to load the barrels into opens that then could be used to convey full barrels in return, thus generating two lots of revenue instead of one! Ropja

Don't let Clive M know you've said that! Roja

I can't imagine sheepbloke having too much of a libation that he ends up flat on his back and needs someone to pull his arm to get him back on his feet! Then again, I have been known to be wrong!

I've loved the look of this wagon, and wondered if I could justify it on St Mungo's, once I get it up running! Maybe one day, after I manage to make a significant dent in my roundtuit pile! I think it would be a bit of a pain to cut by hand, so I just may have to save for a Sillouette cutter or similar. Then again, I can be a bit of a cheapskate!

I had a dangerous event this morning: I had a thought! I'm thinking that the auto update on my windows 10 desktop may be the cause of the issue seeing how my chromebook is unaffected. I may be barking up the wrong tree - nothing new there! - but as I have the chromebook I shall wait until the next windows update to see if that cures the issue before taking other measures, such as removing said update. Roja

Well, there maybe some sort of progress, although I don't know how or why! I use a desktop as my primary computer and it's on this that I have the issue. However, this evening I thought I'd try my chromebook, which I have as a backup, amongst other things, and no issue! I find this just a wee bit weird! Also, on my desktop, forum pages now only fill half way across the screen, with an information side bar, and to i have to click on a picture to make it a decent size, which is something I find annoying! However, on the chromebook, pages fill the entire screen, which I find much more preferable! How long this situation will last is a moot point, but I hope it remains as is on my chromebook, and that it can be changed on the desktop. I am an optimist! Roja