luke the train spotter

I'm thinking that I might be able to build it in half relief. The actual prototype scaled down would allow me to model the stone style building in that way. I've had a look at Pop Up Designs and have been very tempted by their kits, if they made a stone style station then I'd be sold! Unfortunately extending the depth of the layout isn't really an option but this angle from a couple weeks ago shows the amount of space I'm working with which is about 2.5cm.

Work continues on Dalmunach. Firstly a bit of impulsive backscene painting. This was done with thinned Vallejo acrylics, the same method as used on all my other layouts. I debated whether to use a printed backscene but quite like the painted look of some low mountains. These will be mostly covered by low relief trees so I kept the backscene pretty basic. The next thing I did was begin work on the station building. From the GNSR Association I obtained scale drawings of Blacksboat which I scaled to 1:76 then printed and mounted on foamboard. However, I'm not sure if the full scale version dominates the station platform too much so have mocked up a full size and slightly cut down version. The full size one: The cut down version: The cutdown one looks slightly more in proportion with the rest of the layout but looks pretty small next to the railbus so I'm not sure which one to build. Plenty of thinking time as it's not really a high priority job but thought I'd post it on here to show the thought process.

I think using a finer grade ballast helps give the track a more finescale look even though it's off the shelf code 75.

Full steam ahead on the workbench today. The bridge has been painted using a few different washes and acrylics. No special techniques but starting with a light primer gives plenty of scope when building up layers of colour. Quickly afterwards I got on with some ballasting, a bit sooner than I had been expecting, but with such a small layout this doesn't take much time. The ballast was distributed using a tea spoon and tamped by tapping the rail with a paintbrush. It was thoroughly misted with water then watered down wood glue was applied with a pipette. The ballast in question is this n gauge blend of Legacy Ballast from DCC concepts. Whilst slightly skeptical about a ballast which seemed to have premium marketing vibes, it was very strongly recommended to me by a friend because of its accurate colour palette for steam era ash ballast. On this slightly crude close up of the platform track I'd have to agree. Don't worry I was still tamping at this stage so the ballast level was lowered around the point rodding! Comparing it to this photo of Carron it looks like a pretty good choice though I suppose it could always be a finer size.

Work continues on Dalmunach today with a few more jobs ticked off. Firstly I did some thinking about the overbridge at the fiddle yard entrance and decided that the stonework/brickwork scratch build didn't fully appeal to me so opted for a simpler plasticard construction, loosely based off the road bridge at Blacksboat. I need to add some fences either side of the girder on and get it painted. I think in situ it has the right proportions even though they were mostly guess-timated. The coach acting as a gauging train to check the clearances. You might just be able to see the Cheerios packet as the only free space to ever really set Dalmunach up is the kitchen! As all the bridge glues were setting off I began some basic ground work. For this I've mixed a couple Vallejo earth texture paints before applying to the baseboard. I know you could probably make your own out of PVA, paint and sand but these tubs last a long time so they're not too bad. This sets me up to do some ballasting in the next couple of days and start some proper scenery.

That looks like a good option, I might have to give that a go on the next phase. The peco polarity switches are a bit pricey for what they are but hopefully are robust enough. Whilst I have some thinking time on how best to build the bridge and get the curves sort of right, I've made a start on the GNSR style goods shed. Scale drawings of Blacksboat were obtained through the GNSRA (well worth a join for any Scottish modellers) and scaled up then compressed a little to fit the space available. This is what I've got so far, plasticard shell clad with Wills 4mm clapboarding and a card roof. And Blacksboat goods shed (still standing as a listed building) for reference.

The joys of cosmetic point rodding has continued tonight, seeing the other point connected up to the signal box base and 2 additional rods being run off towards the fiddle yard to control the unbuilt point and locking mechanism of the phase 2 plan. In my mind the distillery siding is a separate locked ground frame so isn't connected to the main signal box as it wouldn't be normally used and would be treated as a private siding. Looking down the layout the point rodding definitely adds a different dimension to the scene, as D5301 waits for the ground signal to clear its next shunting duty. Another bit of progress is a quick foamboard mock up of the bridge which acts as a scenic break. The foamboard cut out is a but rough in areas and needs a bit of fine tuning. The plan is to clad it in plasticard like the platform construction. I'm roughly basing the bridge off the one at Cromdale station, which still stands today thankfully, so there's plenty of good quality coloured photos to work from. As always, plenty to be getting on with, hopefully I'll be able to find a couple hours over the weekend to work on a few more bits.

Thank you! Tonight I've added the rest of the rodding which completes that point as its now connected to the base plate of the signal box. Not quite sure if I should add the deflection ramp which comes in the Wills kit, not many examples of it being used in the Speyside stations but I'm not sure why that might be. I found finding the right stonework pretty challenging, but I ended up using Slaters 0420 7mm Stone Courses. I think this does a fairly good job at representing the large squared off stone blocks. Pretty widely available, I bought mine on ebay (link below). Hope that's useful! https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/404081988166

I'm hoping to have most of the base scenery down and structures finished by summer. I've been starting to add some trackside details of shunt signals (inspired by @TechnicArrow 's use of ratio kits except mine are static) and Wills point rodding kit. Very fiddly jobs but will be worth it in the end.

I thought that I'd share the long term vision for Dalmunach now that progress has started to pick up. Currently space, time and modelling budget are all a bit tight but in the future I plan to rebuild the current fiddle yard into an additional scenic board which forms Phase 2 of the project. Phase 1 is how Dalmunach is currently being built, with the distillery a part of my imagination when operating the layout. This is a pretty long term goal and would sit Dalmunach on the edge of the micro layout category but no need to worry about that now. Whilst the Distillery complex is very small and would never need its own shunter I plan on running the ruston which would be cleared to shunt the goods sidings within the station limits. Hopefully this is useful when placing the snapshot of the layout in its wider planned construction.

With a productive modelling Saturday afternoon the platform has taken shape quite quickly. The whole structure was painted in a light brown halfords spray paint before being heavily covered in different washes and dry brushing to bring out subtle toned. This was left to dry overnight before a white line was painted on. I'm really pleased with how the sandpaper surface has turned out with a little bit of drybrushing, much easier and quicker than having to glue down a load of fine sand/gravel! Comparing my efforts to the platforms at Craigellachie below, I think it looks the part and colours are fairly close to the area. Once I was happy with the colours and textures a class 26 and suburban brake ran a gauging train to check clearances before I could stick the platform down. Currently it's being weighed down to prevent any warping (other tinned goods are available).

The planning effect on that wagon is excellent! The sense of scale you get from the staithes is pretty immense too.

A couple more hours of work and ta da a slight GNSR-ified highland signal box. The name boards are from a fantastic pack from ScaleScenes and really lift it. A slate roof and chimney has been added. I used this angle of the box at Ballindalloch as reference for the height and style. All in all a very enjoyable little project.

As mentioned above the signal box has been through a bit of a repaint. I started by sanding all the blue paint down and touching it up with the same white paint used on the rest of the building. I found that Vallejo flat earth was a good match for the GNSR brown so after some careful masking was used. I tried to mimick the painting on the box at Carron and I think it's definitely on the way. The paintwork needs a bit more touching up, a chimney adding, basic interior and a slate rough but I think I've overcome the mental block. Another job done is painting the fascia. This was just a light grey furniture paint but it gives a much tidier finish.

I didn't realise that the boiler and tanks were so much smaller on the 12" barclay! Makes a lot of sense really but I had assumed that they had much more similar proportions. You must have read my mind as the signal box is currently being repainted. I'll post a proper progress report tomorrow when I've got some pictures of it all.

The composition of this layout is fantastic. Enjoying watching the build on Facebook too.

There has been some limited progress though. I managed to get the track all weathered up, just using an old brown rattle (Humbrol) can then wiping the rails clean. I'll come in and weather the track properly with washes and powders once the ballast is down. The other jump in progress is I've started to paint the backscene. This is the same method as all my other layouts and starts with a white household emulsion that has been ever so slightly tinted with a blue acrylic to give a light blue hue. These pictures show it whilst the paint is still wet so it'll loose its glossy look once its dried. Another unexciting and rather dull job not worth its own photo was filling in all the counter sunk screws so I can paint the outside fascia. Once the fascia is painted I can get the name board attached and hopefully make a good start on the actual scenic elements of the layout. So far the job list stands at: 1. Platform needs finishing 2. Need to work out what to do with the signal box 3. Cosmetic point rodding 4. Bridge structure 5. Goods shed 6. Ballasting and track weathering

Definitely something to consider. I'm torn between something like Towiemoor or a small platform mounted box. Since I'm struggling to find time to work on the layout I suppose I've got lots of thinking time.

Good progress has been made on Dalmunach's platform. After looking at some more pictures of Speyside platforms it appears that most of them are much lower than the height I've built mine too, not wanting to start again I managed to use a kitchen mandoline (aka finger killers) to slide about 3 to 4mm off the total platform height. I think with the extra surfacing on top this actually looks much closer. To get the large stoney blocks I've used a sheet of 7mm slaters plasticard. The coping stones on the edge of the platform are pieces of 1mm plasticard. Letting all the glues set off for a couple of days before I come in with a sandy plastery mix to do thr platform surface. I'm also beginning to have second thoughts on the signal box. Whilst I initially liked how it looked and it's bold colour scheme it definitely doesn't fit in with the Speyside theme. I'll have a think about it and see if it could be bashed about.

Thank you! Very useful food for thought. If I had continued with the Cromdale layout I was planning on getting one of Hattons second runs of Barclays and converting it up to be the Balmenach puggy with some transfers I've drawn up but given the current state of affairs I think I'll be bashing my pre-existing barclay about. Hopefully someone takes on the tooling and gives us another run at some point.

Very interesting, did you keep the chassis or build a new one for it? I'll have to look into the coach wheel idea, I wonder if they would fit into pancake motor block or if that would have to get replaced by a new mechanism.

Thank you that would be very generous! I'll have to have a think about how best to re-wheel one so it clears the code 75 track. :)

Had a productive afternoon starting the station platform. Quite quick construction using foam board and a hot glue gun. Looking at photos of the platform at Carron it's possible to work out that construction was mostly large rough blocks of stone that were quickly weathered by all the muck around the rails. The mortar looks fairly thick but is difficult to distinguish from the stone because of the soot and muck. I'd say that this is pretty typical of all the Speyside stations except the halts and part of Craigellachie which had a wooden planked section. For those interested in this layout you may also be interested in First Generation Scottish Diesels. I picked it up second hand and it's already provided a huge amount of inspiration. A few photos I hadn't seen of the Speyside region including distillery shunt manoeuvres as well as plenty of branchline traffic to work out formations from. Only problem is it's got me thinking about adding a class 29 to the fleet... must resist!

All the track in the fiddle yard has been wired up so I can finally get trains running. Really enjoyed simple station operations and shunting a few wagons about the yard. Once I get some scenery down I'll post a video but in the meantime a few quick photos.

After a couple bits of on and off work on the layout there is some progress to report. Firstly the layout now has a name, Dalmunach, after the new distillery built on the old site of the Imperial Distillery at Carron. I liked the idea of a new take on a classical Speyside so pinched the name. Most of the progress made has been laying and wiring the track. Since the layout is dcc electrofrog this has taken me a bit of time but I think it's pretty much there. I've tried to keep the point control simple too, based off the wire in tube method but with a couple of tweaks. Firstly I'm using the PECO point polarity switches instead of the much cheaper SDPT switches I normally use which the wire passes through underneath the baseboard. This gives a much cleaner finish than the surface mounted approach I normally take. The wire is then guided with some pieces of cheap electrical terminal blocks hot glue gunned to the underneath of the baseboard. This wire then passes through the fascia and is formed is bent upwards for ease of use. I should add that the wire used is in fact 1mm steel rod from Scale Model Scenery. In the long term I will probably come up with a slightly more ergonomic attachment for the wire but this will do in the meantime. I don't have any plans of exhibiting this layout at the moment but if it does make an appearance on the circuit at least my hands won't be constantly in the scenery looking for little switches. Where the baseboard enters the fiddle yard I've opted to give the "ProTrack RailAligner" a go from ModelTech. These interlocking pieces of precut copper clad PCB board are a fantastic innovation and made the daunting task much easier. The baseboard with the fiddle yard on has the corresponding joiner and they slot together and the boards are held tight in place with a couple of bolts with winged nuts. Simples. And so with all that this is the current state of progress on the layout. You may notice that the Highland Signal Box is coming along though the roof is still loose so I can fit an interior and the paintwork needs touching up in quite a few places. But I'm having a lot of fun with this project and look forward to getting some trains running soon! :)