Dave John

I had a look, they seem to just do bespoke signals. I think I'll have a go at the diy route, I have been hoarding materials scavenged from various places over the years. 

Challenge accepted Mikkel . 

I had a look at the scalefour frame. I  messed about with some bits of card , but I felt that it was just a bit too small and the levers too closely spaced for me to operate comfortably and easily. Personal view, but I want to be able to use this with my train watching specs on rather than my close work specs. 

The levers will be brass . I think i will try laminating the frame from styrene, it is surprisingly strong at 3 or 5 ply. 

Even if I decide to move up to brass the silhouette cut parts can be used as accurate templates. 

I'm not sure yet Compound. I have an idea about simple mechanical interlocking but I don't know whether it would be robust enough. If not then I know how to do it electrically. 

I have learned a lot from this. I knew of the atmospheric railway but little of the details. Really excellent research culminating in a model which if not unique is certainly very unusual. I now understand why it proved impractical and was abandoned so quickly.

Thanks too for the link to the  Indonesian system, I had no idea that existed. 

Very impressive Mike. 

That certainly illustrates how it worked. I didn't realise that the hangers were cranked like that. Must have involved a lot of work at the termini, lifting the whole piston frame and moving the whole coach ( via a point? ) to the return track. 

I remember the vacuum systems in shops, brass cans that twisted open and had a felt pad at the ends.

The coach body looks a good print. It will be interesting to see the running gear, I have often wondered how it worked in practice. 

Well, I chopped up some old sprue, and gave each bit a rub on some rough sandpaper. glued them to a bit of plasticard so the just sit in there . 

A shot of halfords grey primer. Then tamiya acrylics, black white and aluminium badly mixed, well thinned and splashed on. Finally I have some stuff in a pot labelled "rust it" which I bought from a squires stand way back . I think it is a mix of rust and acrylic paint. Splash some of that on . 

All very visceral but seems to work . 

I must take my camera and photograph the organ bellow weights at Cottiers . They would be late 1900s and locally sourced . Glasgow is full of Victorian cast iron if you know where to look . 

I think the brake gear was worth the effort with so much being visible around the wheels. 

Thanks Mikkel.

Still some detailing  to do and I'm not entirely happy with the goods shed. 

More stock needed too. 

Many years ago there was a kit by Anchoridge for the CR pug which could form a basis for this. I'd guess the chances of finding one are slim. 

I added a gallery with some detail pics which may be useful

This is a photo of the canal swing bridge at Port Dundas in Glasgow, which is still there. 

It is a slightly different design to yours, but I do have a lot of photos of the mechanism which could be useful when you get round to detailing yours. Such as : 

Happy to send them to anyone. 

I might have a think about a simple shunting plank. That would give me a chance to develop some track building methods ( and make mistakes ) without committing a lot of resources for now. 

I like the sand colour too Mikkel. I Think I will stay with that for now, maybe just a bit of light weathering to bring the rivet detail  out. 

Hi Tartaruga, I cut two sets of discs with the silhouette each one a bit smaller than the last with a 1 mm hole in the middle. They were glued together with a 1mm bit of rod as an "axle" then liberally covered in filler and sanded to shape. 

It is a possibility Compound, but would need really tiny leds and incredibly thin wiring. Two leds and 7 wires in smaller than a 2mm cube is beyond my skills, it is hard enough getting single chip led in a signal lamp of about the same size. Fibre optics might work but stopping light bleed and doing something neat with them inside the cab would be a challenge.

The manufacturers of led screens do produce things down at that size but I doubt Caley lamps would be a big enough market for them and as you say DCC would be needed to switch them. 

I did manage lamps which show red or white over in 1/50 scale, doubt I could go much smaller. 

Hi Mikkel, 

The caley lamps could show white or green to the front, always red to the rear.  The positions of the white and green denoted the train type. I tend to fit them for   "Ordinary passenger or mixed trains".

In theory I should swap them round when the engine goes back or for different trains, but I don't know how I'd do that in practice. Caley coaches do a brass casting for the lamps but they are far too small to do in a magnetic material. 

To be fair the Hornby pug is a great starting point  for the construction of many things with the possible exception of a genuine Caley pug. If it gets folk into model making then long may it continue. 

I tried chopping one up years ago. Failed really, but it is how we learn. 

I wonder why the Caley didn't build more of the 262 class, they were effective wee shunters and the crews liked the enclosed cab and sensible bunker. 

I did read woodenheads comment as "I really like that view up the hill where you only see the rain" 

Proper Welsh it looks too. 

Those are superb, what a collection. 

I look at some of the best rtr available, the printing is now extremely accurate. That is fine for modern stock where the lettering is a sticker or similar.  However, to my eye, it is always too accurate for period stock, it loses the feeling that a highly skilled man went out with a brush and painted it. 

Your fathers skill captures the skill of the original signwriter perfectly. There is a flow to it all that modern computer generated printing just doesn't get near. 

Wonderful to look at. 

A building is certainly on the ttd list Mikkel. Might be a wagon next though. 

A useful tip, many thanks Dava.

I'll keep an eye open for one. 

A cracking build magmouse. Well worth the extra effort on the brakes and compensation. 

I also use a transverse buffer spring, not quite as elegant as that, but I find its less prone to jamming than coil springs in the buffer casing for wagons. 

I think so Compound. The rules require that "special care should be taken" so providing a couple of wagons with handbrakes either side of the unbraked trolley is likely.