Dave John

My thinking too regularity, but I'd have to think of a way of fixing it so it could be removed. Another magnet project probably.

Agreed Mikkel, that gable end does seem too angular. I also stretched the photo to fit so that the abutments between the gables are too long, the valley gutters would sit too low as a result. Definitely needs some rework. The Kelvin valley was used as power for many mills long before the railways and the development of the West end. Most vanished but remnants remain. Indeed, it was very rural until the second half of the nineteenth century. http://www.woodsideonline.org.uk/heritage/industry-factories-and-shops/flint-mill/ Something neutral, but in period and tapering down in height towards the boundary wall of the old estate.

Thanks Ian, that is the sort of thing. I will take a camera next time I am over that way, see if there is an uncluttered bit.

I have been sorting out the western end of the layout so the boards have been wheeled out for access. Getting a bit chilly this time of year so pvas do take a while to dry for the scenic stuff. Anyway, a few pics of that corner. I’m not entirely happy with the brick gable end of the factory. I keep an eye open for something more suitable but as ever its the problem of getting a good square on photo of it. At least the trains are running again.

Well, enjoy another build. I saw "Argyle Street" and thought someone was building the station three to the east from mine, but the CR version would be a bit limited.

Caledonian Railway, Grampian Corridor Stock. As paul suggests these were heavy weight coaches for a prestige service. Kits are available from Caley Coaches.

Hi Richard, The brick arches are cut on the silhouette from 20 thou to match the embossed plasticard walls. Technically the walls should be scottish bond , 3+1 but nobody makes it. I have tried scribing it on the silhouette but it doesn't work well. more experiments needed.

A late night train of thought, I wonder how long I will remain a subject Hroth. I am now for income tax ( whatever the genes might suggest ) a Scottish taxpayer, though still a UK taxpayer for VAT. For Baccy duty I appear to be Belgian, but perhaps we should keep that to ourselves. Perhaps my Kelvinbank project will get moved to the continental section of RMweb. Ok , trains. There is a delightful short article by Ronnie Cockburn in the TTL this month. I summarise. Describes a train of wagons of wagon components for Bengal sent from Pickerings of Wishaw via Queens dock. A route not advertised on the scenic posters of the Caledonian. The train consisted of 32 wagons ( the wagon numbers are in the article) from the CR, NB, GNR, GWR, GER, LNWR, NER and of all things the LBSCR. That has cheered me up no end, sod politics, I can build wagons to my hearts content.

Time and weight for laminating styrene. I use revell contacta which is not instant then put the laminated parts between 2 flat surfaces , add a lot of weight and leave it for at least a day, preferably two. For very fine glazing bars I just scribe with a silhouette, and use the whole thing as the base layer for a wall. The walls on this box are effectively 5 laminations thick at the brick, embossed, 20 thou and 3 10 thou. Oh and just for a bit of fun my youthful attempt at a co bo hasn't warped either Clive, made in styrene in the 1970s. Looks ok from about 6 foot away....

Years ago I had the same dilemma. I had decided that I wanted to have a go at modelling pre-grouping Caledonian. Did someone say masochist ? Anyway, I knew a wee bit about the CR, specifically how they laid the track. 8' 11 1/2 " sleepers , the correct spacings for running and at joints every 30 foot. I also knew a bit about interleaved sleepers for pointwork, I had drawings and a few pics in a book. What I didn't have was modelling confidence. I had built layouts in N and made some pointwork but there was of course the appeal of OO to get things up and running . So I bought some rail and track parts. And I bought some OO track and a point. I bought some wagon kits from what was then model wagon company and built a couple with OO wheels and a couple with proper EM wheels, Keen Maygib. Name from the past. I stuck my first go at EM built to the dimensions specified by the CR and the very bad first go at a interleaved sleeper point to a plank. I stuck the bit of OO with a point next to it. I trundled my wagons along. Then I picked up some books with photos of the CR. I propped the books next to my test plank and squinted at it all. Compare and contrast. Which one actually looked like the track in the books from the same angles ? I gave the whole thing a very hard looking at. Its your choice in the end and depends entirely on what you want to build. But don't compare one bit of track against another, compare them both to the prototype.

No apologies needed, we all get bogged down with RL. I stopped using cyanos anywhere near glazing a while back having made a mess of it all. I now use glue and glaze which does not frost stuff and can be wiped off with a wet cotton bud.

Very nice Ruston. It has been an interesting build to follow, quite an difficult prototype but that has come out well.

Safety of a sort Mikkel. These boxes had a small timber built toilet at the back. I don't have a good photo of the real one, but this is based on the drawing and some photos of other boxes. That determined the position of the internal door. The roof is paper slates cut by silhouette with flashings from the type of self adhesive lead foil that anglers use for weighting flies.

Thanks all. Well, I did consult the signalling book Compound since I didn't want to have them just randomly set. Hopefully it is set for through running, though I'm out of my depth a bit with signalling. At least I didn't paint any levers yellow. I cheated for the floor down the sdjr. A search of the net yields hundreds of pictures of wooden floors, mainly from firms wishing to sell them. I chose one, put it into affinity and scaled it to give me 4" scale planks, adjusted the colour a bit then printed it out on matte photo paper. A spot of photo sealer then its just stuck down with glue and glaze which I find sticks paper well to plasticard if you give the latter a rub over with sandpaper first.

There we are , a completed signal box. I am happy with the way it turned out, a fair amount of modelling involved. So some shots of the box in general. I have tried to make the inside reasonably detailed. All those windows make it very visible and I think it was worth the effort. I may have got some of the details wrong, but given the information I have it looks the part. I also found a photo of a locking frame and put it a yard or so in from the front in the locking room, probably not all that accurate but it gives the impression of something being there . The lighting module connects to contacts in the locking room. Oh, and one at night. It is a bit of a reach to install it and I think I might want to have the board out a bit so I don't slip while drilling holes.

Very often npcs were at the head of the train Mikkel. Certainly no vehicles which were not fitted with automatic brakes would be after the guards brake at the end of the train. There is a chapter on the subject in "Operating the Caledonian" by Jim Summers. It becomes complicated in that trains would be marshalled so that vehicles which needed to be detached during the journey could be accessed easily.

Interesting thoughts about the affluent travelling with their entourage , so I had a go at running a special on that basis. Let's imagine a train booked from the south to someones highland estates. A carriage, accommodation for horses and grooms and travelling space for the family. All dual braked for LNWR/CR running. The coach would ideally be a D57 family saloon rather than a compartment first. A bit of fun but maybe I'll build one and get it right one day.

Yep, it is a lot of coal. Let's say an average of 10 tons per wagon, 7100 loads. 312 working days a year, 23 wagons a day, so 46 wagons in rotation assuming they all got unloaded the same day, probably unlikely. 2 days of demurrage and the figures really do add up. Quite a few of mine are the old MWC kits , they have been rare for years. Looks like I will have to start some scratchbuilding.

Many thanks Perthshireman. It was Kelvinbridge station that got me interested in the CR way back in the 80s, I live a couple of streets away. Over the years I have thought about modelling it, but messing about with maps and drawings showed that it would be difficult to fit in the space available. The room is about 16 'x 11', but the fictional east end of the station is through the wall in what would have been historically the bed recess. Although based on Partick Central I opted to call it Kelvinbank since I have had to condense and swap things about to make it fit. I like the story about the Royal train, I have walked through the old tunnels but there is very little to see now.

A very useful article K14. I have been looking through pictures of Caley engines. I see tyre bolts on wheels prior to about 1890, smooth inners surfaces after that. I conclude that the CR went over to the rivet method or a shrunk on tyre with a type of Gibson ring from about that time. Something of a relief given that adding the bolt heads to a model wheel would be a bit fiddly. Then again , I have started reading "Caledonian Railway Locomotives, The formative years " by David Hamilton. Bolts all over the place, though some early engines had long lives. Potentially some interesting scratchbuilds in there .

Thats what I did Artisan. If you cut strips 40 mm wide and stuck them upright at about 50 mm intervals it would come to 45mm when the top surface goes on. I stuck it all together with pound shop superglue but needs to be used in a well vented room if there is a lot being splashed about.

Well, anything relatively stiff and light. Really depends on what you have available. By polystyrene sheet material I assume you mean a plasticard rather than expanded polystyrene, that can turn into a sticky mess with the wrong adhesive. Thin ply or similar if you have it. I used 3mm foamboard since I had loads of it. That may give you some ideas . Many other methods available but that one worked ok for me.

Going back to the goods yard picture. Since there was a paper mill nearby could it be bales of esparto grass? Regularly carried by the CR for paper making in Scotland.

For me it is still about making things Headstock. I would far rather spend a few months hacking bits of brass about and come up with a reasonable model that represents some effort from me than spend a lot of money on rtr . Anyway, being one of those odd folk with EM its never going to be rtr , more ready to bash. However that is just my personal feeling. But just thinking, the big suppliers were always there and so were the kitbuilders and scratchbuilders ( and all the variations in between ). There were always people who were happy with dublo and those who wanted to go a bit further. I think that what happened is that instead of communicating in more specialised clubs or groups we all end up on forums such as this so that the perception of the hobby as a whole being pushed in one direction or another becomes amplified out of all proportion. I am not convinced it is a bad thing, someone who fancies a go at railway modelling can read a site such as this and see examples of people enjoying modelling ranging from the very basic trainset to the finest scratchbuilding. Gives them an idea of the broadness of the church, a way to get started and something to aim for long term. The "small" suppliers are still about. There is bound to be a turnover, time is never on anyones side. The positive thing is that it is now so much simpler to find out about them and purchase specialised things. I find that a spur to making more models, I can assemble a kit of parts from a variety of sources much more readily than in the past. Not only that we now have new technologies for small suppliers to develop. Years ago loco kits were whitemetal or stamped brass. Then along came etched brass and kits took a quantum leap forward. Now resins, 3d printing, laser cutting and so on are giving small suppliers the ability to produce items in exciting new ways. So I am hopeful for the hobby as a whole. It will change, but not I think for the worse.

Glad its all fixed, we all have moments like that. It must be said it isn't the first time a highlander has taken a nose dive to the floor in Glasgow.........