Dunalastair

After some painting, but rather untidily put together.

One thing I forgot to mention is that the tubs (often known as hutches in Scotland) under the loader would probably have been moved not by the loco but by a creeper. These were chain drives between the rails more often used either underground to load tubs into cages at the pit bottom for winding or at the colliery screens, as below. https://co-curate.ncl.ac.uk/seaham-colliery/ The photograph at Manor Powis does not show the creeper as the tubs / hutches obscure the view. If I fully load the model loading road with tubs / hutches then I can save myself the issue of modelling a creeper (even if static) in 5mm gauge.

I have been guilty of drifting other people's threads with mentions of my ideas for a diorama of the little known 2' 6" gauge surface railway connecting the drift mine with the main pit at Manor Powis colliery near Stirling in Central Scotland, near where I grew up. So it is about time that the topic was given a thread of its own. The NG line was used to haul power station coal for Longannet to the screens at the deep mine and onwards by the SG railway. There were also NG manriding trains as the mine was in a remote location by the banks of the Forth. The prototype looked like this, but there are very few other photographs I have found, though there is an image taken by Norman Cadge of the manriding train in the IRS Handbook, together with details of the Ruston locos used on the system. https://canmore.org.uk/site/132571/manor-powis-colliery The geometry of the site was strange, with the NG lines apparently running diagonally under the loading hopper. The signal-box-like building was apparently a control room - I did have some advice from an ex-NCB engineer who knew / knew of the site. The few old OS maps available at NLS seem to show a very different earlier arrangement, possibly before production started. To try to have some confidence that I could fit a diorama at 1:148 onto my usual A4 footprint, I worked up a 3D design for the whole site, before breaking it up for individual prints. After several days of printing on my filament machine, I had a lot of grey plastic waiting for the paint brush. The yellow manrider was the only print to have seen paint at this stage. Since the photograph was taken, the drift entrance has been sunk into the surface and the contents of some of those acrylic paint pots applied to prints. 5mm gauge track (2mmx2.5') also now leads out from the drift incline. This has been a slow-burn project, due to the paucity of information on this railway. I understand that Eric Tonks book on Rustons may have another photograph of RH 476133 and RH 398118 by Norman Cadge, but I have not seen that. I bought a copy of Guthrie Hutton's "Mining from Kirkintilloch to Clackmannan and Stirling to Slamannan", which has a photograph from an elevated perspective of the terminus facilities at the pit end of the NG line. Although now possibly too late for the model, I would welcome any further information on this little-known narrow gauge railway system.

Brake van parked 'off stage' during shunting?

Ouch - that does seem pricey - but the 'frosted glass' patterned windows look well. Overall, it seems to have more 'presence' than card kits, which I guess it what you were after. I wonder why Bachmann chose to use an 'Inn Business' branding rather than a more traditional brewery? I guess it makes it less geographically specific, but does seem to set the establishment in a specific time frame, perhaps a little later than your layout. Were there alternative signs provided?

At the risk of being pedantic, 'lochan' has a better ring to my ear than 'small loch', and even your larger hollow is more lochan than loch. Clear resin makes sense for the 'babbling brook' type of water feature, but between peaty water and wind-rippled surfaces, you cannot see far into a typical lochan even vertically, and the viewing angle on your layout looks more oblique. I also wonder about the visual impact of the location, above the steep drop to the lower level. Breaking up the edges with reeds, rocks and islets (which you probably have planned) and some birches might help to persuade the eye that these are two separate scenes, rather than two railways in one valley (as at Tyndrum or the CR's rejected scheme to parallel the WHR down Glenfalloch to Loch Lomond). https://www.jasonfriendprints.com/scotland/scotland-scottish-highlands-rannoch-moor-3997617.html

Back in the seventies would probably not look very different, bar the station nameboard, but there would presumably have bene signals then. A starter would be conveniently 'off stage' but have you thought about how Lochdubh would have bene signalled through the years? Presumably RETB in later years?

Interesting conjunction, thankyou - presumably an early test. Was there a date on the photograph? Searching on that loco, there were a couple of sightings in 1968 mentioned on this short thread. Possibly the same image. 1968 is just after my period of interest, but very close!

Thankyou - I look forward to anything you have. I was born a decade before you, just a few years too late to go to school on the C&OR (bus to Callander instead), but I can just about remember steam and green diesels turning blue were part of my childhood.

It is hard to abandon committed work, but that looks like the right decision. When I have been designing water craft for 3D printing, the stance was indeed important (along with the vertical curve often apparent in bulwarks) to make the result convincing. There is apparently quite an art in marine modelling ... For powered empty vessels which 'sit down' at the stern, it seems likely that the weight of the engine is a likely contribution.

Bumping this renewed query with an image of what happened to the Corpach paper mill rather after my period of interest. https://www.building.co.uk/news/former-paper-mill-crumples-after-textbook-demolition/3112709.article I also noticed today that my 'period of interest' is when John Thomas was writing his book on the WHR, which later kindled my interest in the line when it came out as a low cost paperback. Thomas closes his book as the diesels took over in the Glens.

Happy birthday Ollie. Friends have a similar dog which comes running with us. Approaching two now but he still has infinite amounts of energy.

NIce looking dog, even if he does pinch tools. What is his name?

I should have asked @Geoff Endacott how his layout came together all those years ago - the one linked photo seems to be broken.

Can I revive this interesting thread after six years? I have been enjoying the various WHR threads set in the 37 era, but my own interest (and N gauge layout) is set in the age of green type 2s in the old station at the Fort. I have been trying to refresh my chronology of what happened when, even allowing for some flexibility in model operation. I have set my very simplified model in 1966, so no steam, green 26 and 27 diesels, maroon coaches, Gresley as well as Mk1 catering vehicles, timber and paper traffic to / from Corpach as green 20 hauled trip freights, alumina in covered hoppers, observation cars still running to Mallaig and Glasgow, mixed trains to Mallaig (though I stretch a point with an out-of-period fish train, and also distillery traffic), 20s occasionally double heading on Glasgow trains, ballast in bogie hoppers, and an exceptionally late NG train on the BA pier line. Much earlier and I would lose the paper mill traffic. Much later and I would lose the obs cars shunting. A summary from part of my chronology (post NBR, post LNER, pre 37, pre sprinter, pre Hogwarts) is as follows, with 1966 as my base line. After last regular use of pier railway (c1966)(NG steam locos sold 1969/70) After last regular traffic to distilleries After steam ended on WHR After Black fives recalled in 1963 snow After fish trains stopped (1962?) After Mallaig goods trains ended (early 60s) Mixed trains thereafter - especially oil tanks After blood and custard gone (1964?) Just as corporate blue/grey coaches introduced (1965) - but did any get up WHR before 66? So most if not all coaches maroon After LNER general coaching stock withdrawn (catering vehicles apart) (1965) After Corpach mill built (1965) and just as it cecame operational (1966) DMUs used for excursions to meet steamers Alumina in covhops Station crossover removed about time of end of steam 21s rare on WHR, but 29s common after rebuild 1965-67 29s and 27s generally green, but with yellow panel 08 shunting maroon sleeper 1966 Ballachulish closed 1966, Kinlochleven traffic came to the Fort First blue 27 not gtill 1967 Thomson porthole brake in bay 1967 Green 29 plus blue 20 on Glasgow train in 1967 Before first blue/grey sleepers in late sixties Before first photos of blue/grey coaches in 1968 Before observation cars withdrawn in 1968 Before Thomson fullbrake on Mallaig trains in 1968 Gresley catering vehicles still in late sixties Most coaches blue/grey and locos blue by 1970 Pier railway lifted 1971 Station replaced 1977 Headcodes abolished 1977 So my question is, can the forum revise / fine tune any of this? When were the last blood & custards? The first blue/greys at the Fort? Were those apparently out-of-time 'LNER' coaches actually BR builds to LNER designs? When did the Mallaig motorail service end? When did the first blue diesel appear at the Fort? When did long wheelbase wagons take over for the papermill traffic? I'm not fussy about stock (I'm still using Minitrix 27s and coaches I bought in the seventies as well as Dapols rather than spend money I don't have) but I'd like to get the right look, at least from a distance.

Looking for an emoji for 'appalled' but that is not in the standard set for this forum ,,,

Petrol is a solvent, so rather than stains, would the petrol not leave cleaner streaks if it spilled - though spilled petrol sounds like bad news in a war zone.

Very nice. I like the trolleybus and the pickup rails - any more electric stock?

Back in 1973 Sydney Lelux wrote an article for the IRS on the NG railways at various waterworks serving Bradford. In at least two of these, locos were used to tow loaded skips up ramps out of the filter beds using a rope. https://www.irsociety.co.uk/Archives/50/Bradford.htm Ruston & Hornsby 198287 at Chellow Heights Filter bed at Thornton Moor showing L2 (Ruston & Hornsby) in the background about to haul a loaded skip out of the bed Having been interested in how (indeed whether) this might work in model form, I built a quick and very simple diorama on an A4 base using expanded polystyrene packing material, 9mm gauge OO9 track, a Kato mech, Peco skip wagons and 3D printed components. The 'sand filter bed' uses Hobbycraft crafting sand which I had to hand - hence the virulent colour. The part low-relief building is intended to represent the 'municipal' architectural school of the early 20th century. This was my 3D concept sketch Here is the printed loco shell on the Kato chassis. Having just re-read the article, it should really be Air Ministry grey-blue. This is how the diorama turned out (mirrored compared to the sketch): The 'proof of the pudding' was to see if I could tow the wagon up the ramp using the Ruston-bodied Kato mech. The video link below (it does not want to embed) shows the result. The low view angle makes clear the over-long wheelbase on the Kato tram mech - this is less apparent from a higher viewing angle. https://imgur.com/2xpNdfP Various possible improvements are apparent, not least the need to weight the very light Peco skip, but I think that I have established the principle. Since it moves, does this make it a microlayout rather than a diorama? Albeit one with especially limited operating potential.

You will not want to rework the model but the freeboard might be lower for a full barge. However, the reach of the chute looks more of an issue - if the load was not more central you might be concerned that the barge could capsize during loading.

Having been prompted by this thread, I have been re-reading my copy of 'All Stations to Mallaig' written in the early eighties, when the type 2s still ruled the roost. It concludes with the arrival of the 37s, making the comment that an earlier trial ten years before had decided that the combination of lighter rail and sharp bends did not favour the twelve wheelers. So what changed other than the increasing age of the 27s?

Did you ever finish reading the document, or did the gardening win out? I'm tempted by the idea of a L&BR rope diorama, whether Minories or Blackwall.

Looks good - but would Fat Alan get through the cab door of that loco? Either strong perspective or too many pies ...

I was admiring the dragline in your previous post. Big draglines also featured in the ironstone quarries in Northants where I used to live. It was a sad day when the last one was cut up. Some day I must visit 'Oddball' at Swillington, if it is still there. https://www.28dayslater.co.uk/threads/oddball-dragline-swillington-yorkshire-october-2019.120343/ My walk on Sunday at Broseley near Telford was diverted due to the remains of opencast workings, now partly landscaped. It seems odd to think of the 18th and 19th century miners toiling for generations underground to remove perhaps 50% of the coal, only for opencast machines like this to untop the shallow seams and remove the remainder in a matter of months. A friend at university went on to do a coal-related geology PhD at Durham, and he described seeing tunnels from 200 year old mines (often with rails) being sectioned as the opencast pit face advanced.

Lucky you ... Though I have been known to comment that I am barely old enough to recall steam on the ScR. Just snorting black things at the bottom of the street in Edinburgh. Though I like to think that I remember pacifics on the Waverley Route at Hawick station it might well be a 'recovered memory'.