Sandpiper

Does the PDF linked on page one of this thread still exist? The link doesn't seem to work anymore. (Tried on Firefox and Edge in case it was the browser but neither worked). Thank you.

"Diesels in Scotland" (W J Verden Anderson) has the following - 26012 working an up Fort William service between Rannoch and Bridge of Orchy, Summer 1975. D5313 working the down sleeper at Rannoch, May 1967. 26025 working an up Oban service through the pass of Brander, Spring 1979.

I remember spending ages looking at Chee Tor at an exhibition many years ago. Whilst I was there a man and small boy came and stood beside me. After watching two trains go past the man turned to the boy and said, "They're not going very fast are they?" With that they walked away. I guess not everyone appreciates such outstanding scenic modelling!

On the route I was referring to, the shape of the token and the design of the pouch meant the token had to be removed from the pouch to check the inscription if it had been put in the wrong way round. Having taken it out, putting in back in the wrong way round again would be a bit of an odd thing to do. I would suggest that putting it back in the correct way round would be good practice on the part of the driver. Putting it back in the wrong way round again would be just as sloppy as the signaller putting it in the wrong way round in the first place, unless as I suggested, it might simply have been the signaller setting a little test for the driver.

On one of the token sections I used to work, one of the signallers often put the token in the pouch back to front so the inscription could not be read. I often wondered if it was a little test for drivers and whether he checked with his colleague at the next box to see if the driver had taken the token out of the pouch. I always took it out so I could check the inscription and then put it back in the correct way round.

Thanks for the responses. Some interesting ideas there. If I actually get started on this proposed layout I can give them a try knowing that the plan will make it fairly straightforward to convert it to something else if they don't work out.

Would expansion and contraction of double ended "through" cassettes in a fiddle yard be a problem due to temperature changes? They would only be about four feet six inches long. I don't envisage any problems moving them. They wouldn't need to be turned around and would only need a couple of buffers adding to stop things rolling off the end and then lifting a short distance onto a wall rack. The room doesn't have much in the way of significant temperature changes and doesn't get any direct sunlight. Would expansion and contraction due to temperature changes result in problems slotting them into place without a hammer ( ! ) or leave excessively large gaps at the joins? I have an alternative plan which would work but in the space I have available double ended "through" cassettes would be more convenient. Thanks for any thoughts.

A bit late to this party but here's a few more class 25 pics at Mallaig from the blue era. This first one is also from the Derby Sulzers site. Scroll down the page to 1973 for a pic of 25002. https://www.derbysulzers.com/25002.html These two are both of 25232 arriving with the 1003 from Glasgow. https://www.flickr.com/photos/149805346@N06/35255346313/in/photostream/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/149805346@N06/35224331344/in/photostream/

A couple of 195s visited the depot a few weeks back. Unfortunately I can't remember the date but when I went past one unit was going through the washer (presumably to test it) and the other was berthed in one of the sidings.

Looking forward to watching this develop. I didn't realise that freights had to reverse down to the station. I don't think I have ever come across any photos of freights in the station.

Nice to see a working trap point rather than a dummy one. And that's a very elegant locomotive.

Whilst continuing my rainy day project of trawling the web looking for interesting photos of the West Highland, Kyle and Far North Lines, I came across this photo of 25229 at Invergordon. It's the only photo I have found so far of a 25 on the Far North Line. The second photo shows what is presumably the tail end of the train hauled by the 25. https://www.flickr.com/photos/tunnel_one/10204776324/in/album-72157632785235307/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/tunnel_one/19240100123/in/album-72157632785235307/ edit Just found another pic of the same train. https://www.flickr.com/photos/tunnel_one/10223708226 Anybody know of any others?

According to the article the 4F remained at the Fort over the winter of 62/63 and was still present in June 63 despite having been withdrawn by then. However it sounds as though it was pretty much life expired and did not actually do any work over the 62/63 winter. A Black 5 was brought in from Perth for snow plough work. The 4F was later seen at Connell's scrapyard, Coatbridge in December 63. Going back a couple of years, the article has a photo of the 4F at Mallaig with the 0510 from Glasgow in July 1960. The train was double headed with the pilot engine being the Standard 4MT 76001 although the 4MT doesn't feature in the photo having been removed presumably for some operational reason.

If anyone is interested the March edition of "Steam Days" has a decent length article about Fort William shed and the locomotives of the West Highland Line. I haven't read the article yet but there are lots of interesting photos most of which I haven't seen before.

Can't help you with the train formation but during the period I was familiar with it the return working ran via Hastings and Ashford. It was always worked by a class 33 as anything else was too heavy for the bridge over the River Rother at Rye. The loco had to work pretty hard up the bank out of Hastings. I don't know which way it was routed after Ashford.

The West Highland and Kyle lines could come up with interesting rakes at times. There was a photo on Flickr, which unfortunately I cant find now, of a three coach class 26 hauled rake at Kyle consisting of what appeared to be a Mk1 Restaurant Miniature Buffet, a Mk1 Gangwayed Brake, and another Mk1 brake of some sort. It was common on Kyle line trains to put a Mk1 Gangwayed Brake in the middle of the train to make loading and unloading more convenient at Kyle. "Diesels in Scotland" (W J Verden Anderson/Brian Stephenson) has a nice photo of a class 37 hauled train on the West Highland Mallaig Extension formed of three brake vehicles, an air-conditioned Mk 2 BSO, a Mk1 BSO micro buffet, and a (non aircon) Mk 2 BSO.

In 1953 Ivatt 4mt 2-6-0s were briefly trialed on the West Highland Line. The trial wasn't a success and they were soon transferred elsewhere. Perhaps not surprisingly there don't seem to be many photographs of them on the WHL. However, whilst trawling around the web looking for interesting WHL photos I did come across these two. The first only shows the rear end of one of the locos standing on Fort William shed in front of a Glen class loco. The second shows 43137 shunting at Mallaig in June 1953. Has anyone else managed to come up with any other photos of these locos on the WHL? (Unfortunately I can't remember where I pinched these photos from so cannot credit them and will remove them if requested).

Well, I managed to get one of the K1s running much more smoothly. One of the bearings for the centre drivers wasn't seated correctly. I hadn't noticed it last time I took the chassis apart. Also, just to make the day more "interesting" I decided to jump into the DCC waters as well. Unfortunately the DCC manual turned out to be written in some strange incomprehensible language which didn't help to make my day overly relaxing. Eventually I worked out how to tweak motor settings and got the other K1 running smoother as well, although not quite as good as the one that had the incorrectly seated bearing. Then I discovered another problem. Both K1s caused a short on the curved route through my Peco bullhead points. It turned out the pony truck wheels back to back was out so was simple to fix, but interesting that it hadn't been a problem with the DC feedback controller. Lots of useful stuff learnt anyway. Thanks again.

Thanks for the further replies. Both K1s have been very well run in and appropriately lubricated. Maybe it is just coincidence that I have two poor runners dogged by the same issue, whatever it may be. It just seems a bit odd that they will both run smoothly at walking pace with a feedback controller, or smoothly at faster speeds with a non feedback controller, but not both. They are the only two locos I have a problem with. I have a variety of different locos bought for various aborted projects, from a Hornby Black 5 to a Dapol Western, and they all run beautifully smoothly on the feedback controller at any speed.

Thanks for the replies. Nothing I do makes any difference to these two locos. They both misbehave using the feedback controller in exactly the same way as each other. All my other locos are fine with this controller. They are capable of running smoothly at any speed, just not using the same controller, so it is not a case of them simply being poor runners. Feedback is fine at walking pace but jerky at faster speeds; non feedback is fine at faster speeds but they won't really run at all at walking pace. I was considering trying DCC as I would like consistently smooth running at all speeds using one controller. Maybe it is time to take the DCC plunge.

Not sure where to put this so I'll try in here. I can't find a definitive answer to this question online. A search shows up a few results suggesting that it might but nothing definitive. The reason I ask is that I have two Hornby K1s and they really do not like my Gaugemaster HH feedback controller. They run very smoothly at ultra slow speed, ie walking pace, but are very jerky at anything faster. However they do run smoothly at faster speeds using a Gaugemaster Combi non feedback controller. Clearly they are capable of running smoothly at all speeds but it seems I can have smooth slow speed or smooth faster speed (15-20 mph +) but not both using one controller. Do they dislike the HH because it is a feedback controller and they have coreless motors? Is it possible to tell just by looking at the motor? They are fully sealed motors and the innards cannot be seen. None of my other locos have a problem with the feedback controller.

The running line nearest the camera is the Up Goods. Then Down Goods, Up and Down Fast, Up and Down Slow.

Deleted, double post.

I think that top picture in post 382 is the first one I've seen of the layout in its entirety. The whole thing is very convincing and just a quick glance leaves no doubt about what the model represents. Very nice indeed.

Many years ago in the later days of BR there was a strong push to get us to refer to passengers as customers. Some managers were really quite aggressive in insisting on it. On a customer care course I went on I found myself wondering out loud that if freight was carried by freight trains, and parcels by parcels trains, shouldn't customers be carried by customer trains? The two instructors just laughed. Oddly, in my now fairly long railway career I have never heard anyone refer to passenger trains as customer trains!