Sandpiper

Wot, no "Western Lady"?

From "The West Highland Railway" by John Thomas. "In 1893 Charles Foreman considered building a railway up Ben Nevis. When the West Highland was opened, a London company took up the challenge and planned to construct a line starting near the West Highland station and, following the pony track for the first 2000 ft, reach the summit by striking east round the shoulder of the mountain. The line was to be 4 3/4 miles long and have a maximum gradient of 1 in 2.62 for 600 yards......The scheme was revived several times between 1894 and 1913, but nothing came of it". Given what a dull trudge the pony track up The Ben is, a railway wouldn't be such a bad idea. There are lots of really interesting ways of getting to the top but the pony path isn't one of them. (edited for typos)

Very, very nice indeed.

The intention of this thread was to draw these two photos to the attention of anyone who might be interested in them from a modelling point of view. I used the words mixed trains in the title, not as a technical term, but because I thought that would make it easier to find through searching. They may or may not technically be mixed trains but that wasn't the point of the thread. The point of the thread is that they are interesting short trains formed of a mixture of passenger and freight stock that may be of interest to people modelling the railways of the Scottish Highlands.

The wagons used were Interfrigo refrigerated vans like these. http://www.railalbum.co.uk/railway-wagons/ferry/italy-interfrigo-van-1.htm They weren't dedicated fish vans designed to be run in passenger trains (though I am happy to be corrected if they were in fact designed to be run in passenger trains).

Not sure where best to put this so I'll put it here in the hope that anyone searching might find it. The topic of mixed trains on the Mallaig line in the diesel era comes up from time to time. The oil tanks are fairly well known but whilst searching for photos of the line recently I came across these two gems. In the spring and summer of 1987 fish traffic from Mallaig was briefly revived with the fish being carried in Interfrigo vans. I was under the impression that these always ran as a separate train but these two photos show the vans attached to the rear of passenger trains. Since they are both down trains maybe it was just a couple of empty vans being returned to Mallaig, but an interesting mixed train nonetheless. https://www.flickr.com/photos/curly42/6404221831/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/curly42/9733150406/

This interesting aerial view of Mallaig in 1964 shows the relationship of the pier to the station. The loading platform can be seen running along the centre of the pier with wagons on both sides. Also interesting is the shanty town of sheds, warehouses and fish processing businesses on the rocky headland to the left. The harbour is much bigger now than it was in 1964. https://canmore.org.uk/collection/1123613

At Mallaig three sidings continued beyond the station onto the pier. There was a loading platform between two of the sidings which was used for fish as well as other goods. Rail mounted steam cranes were used to move loads onto the platform ready to be loaded into wagons. Transport of fish by rail ended in the 1960s and the rail connection to the pier was severed in 1968. There was a very brief revival of fish traffic in the spring and early summer of 1987 using Interfrigo refrigerated wagons which were presumably loaded in the station. https://www.flickr.com/photos/24041160@N02/14002076942/in/faves-87410449@N05/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishswissernie/35747118874/in/faves-87410449@N05/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishswissernie/36141617880/in/album-72157687544793485/ https://www.railscot.co.uk/img/23/11/ Scroll about two thirds of the way down this page and there is another photo and brief description. http://www.road-to-the-isles.org.uk/westword/oct2016.html

The units for Windermere services currently interwork with the Barrow services. As far as I know the intention is still to use 195s on all the Cumbria services once they become available. At the moment the 769 Flex project has run into technical problems. I do not know what exactly. I believe it is related to the changeover from electric to diesel traction, or vice versa, or both. Class 769 driver training for the Cumbria services has been scrapped as there is no unit available to work with and there doesn't seem to be any information as to when they might be ready. Instead, driver training on class 158 units has commenced ready for the May timetable change. I do not know if this means class 158s for both the Barrow and Windermere services or not but I would expect so if there are enough available. The units are apparently coming from Scotrail. Nor do I know what the long term situation is regarding the 769s.

I've been trying to work out why I find your modelling so attractive. Apart from the fact that it is a beautiful piece of art, I think perhaps it is because it looks as though the slice of landscape you have created came first, and everything else including the railway came later having been built through the existing landscape. Which of course is what happened in reality. I think it is very impressive to have achieved that in such a small space.

Did you actually speak to the passenger personally to find out if they were annoyed? On one of the routes I work there is someone who often sits on the platform on their mobility scooter just watching the trains. Maybe they are just an enthusiast. All the traincrews know that they never want to get on. Having said that, if the person described in your incident wasn't known to the train crew, it would be very disappointing to think that nobody thought to go and speak to them. It may well have been the case that their scooter could not be conveyed, but to simply ignore them is not acceptable.

The Rule Book requires that drivers look out when starting if safe and possible. Unfortunately with most modern traction units it is not possible as the drivers seat is positioned too far away from the side window. I like sprinter units as I can pop my head out and look back for as long as I like as long as there are no overbridges or overhanging vegetation.

The point will certainly flex both ways. However I haven't pushed it too far as my planned layout will only have a very gentle bend over its eight foot length and I merely want the points to blend smoothly in with the plain track. They are very flexible but if I wanted to do something more drastic than I am planning I think I would have just bought one and then tried pinning it down on a piece of board whilst flexed into different angles and radii, then running lots of different stock over it. It may be that bending it too much will upset the geometry and clearances and increase the potential for derailments and shorts. They are also quite delicate so there is probably some potential for breaking bits off or putting kinks in the rails.

Here's a pic showing how easy it is to put a gentle bend in the straight (left) route through the points and also how easy it would be to accidentally twist them vertically! Without something to hold them down though they immediately spring back into shape when you let go. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Has anybody had any problems with shorting anywhere yet? I have tried several locos (Bachmann / Heljan / Hornby) and all have been fine and will crawl smoothly through the points at very slow speed. However the leading drivers on my Hornby K1 look to come very close to causing a short. I was pushing the wheels over with my finger as far as they would go in this pic however and in practice I couldn't get them to actually short.

The Peco sleepers are definitely brown not black. Hopefully it shows better in this pic with a black loco for comparison. I've somewhat crudely removed the ends of the tie bars digitally.

Cutting the ends of the tie bar off should make a big difference but if you could close that gap as well it would look very nice indeed. If only it were as easy as doing it with photo editing software. You go first. I look forward to seeing the results!

A few cruel close ups. Bear in mind these are straight out of the packet posed on a piece of paper on the carpet but hopefully give an indication of what they might look like in use (edited to add missing pic I'd originally intended to include).

. On second thoughts, post removed. This isn't a discussion I want to get involved in.

A nice shot here of a 27/20 combination at Fort William waiting to leave with the Kings Cross sleeper in 1965. https://www.flickr.com/photos/24041160@N02/13966473743/ There are quite a lot of photos about of single class 20s on passenger trains on the Mallaig extension in the 1980s. https://www.flickr.com/photos/149805346@N06/35612241105/in/photolist-VVUcFL-WBPE7L-uPFJzv-6R6Wx2-WfW3yZ-VFStiW-r1hcGB-nrD9ob-u7pt3-iuKmqn-RJ7ieM-9aiQCc-QP9KPp-eCQ3QA-YzjAZN-W2NouS-XPD9Ha-XyLcoo-Y5sWnY-T6jzcx-8P5XS-RuwTZG-Vg6Mui-dhxFfb-hHYuj3-W3q4bS-8GSfr7-c3HSvd-dyAj4-Kef7r-RF1DsH-ir8hbv-wtqZ9J-dxwkAS-TJq95K-ipFWAB-g9CW7U-b5xaev-9dkBZ2-itkKpz-kUUjM6-dybKEM-q7jBFy-8HhJAg-7udhU7-ib8vf-pyyhgt-8EBToE-bjDg4W-V1Yv3Q https://www.flickr.com/photos/149805346@N06/35463632802/in/photolist-VVUcFL-WBPE7L-uPFJzv-6R6Wx2-WfW3yZ-VFStiW-r1hcGB-nrD9ob-u7pt3-iuKmqn-RJ7ieM-QP9KPp-W2NouS-9aiQCc-eCQ3QA-Y5sWnY-YzjAZN-T6jzcx-XPD9Ha-XyLcoo-8P5XS-RuwTZG-Vg6Mui-dhxFfb-hHYuj3-W3q4bS-8GSfr7-c3HSvd-dyAj4-Kef7r-RF1DsH-ir8hbv-wtqZ9J-dxwkAS-TJq95K-ipFWAB-g9CW7U-b5xaev-9dkBZ2-itkKpz-kUUjM6-dybKEM-q7jBFy-8HhJAg-7udhU7-ib8vf-pyyhgt-8EBToE-bjDg4W-V1Yv3Q/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/actonwellsjunction/9067129977/in/pool-1037552@N20 https://www.flickr.com/photos/47118s-pixs/5344204494/in/gallery-67828476@N02-72157638453378064/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/tunnel_one/7166464850/in/gallery-67828476@N02-72157633457736956/ "The West Highland Mallaig Extension in BR Days" by Tom Noble and "Diesels in the Highlands" by Andrew Vines both have pictures taken on different occasions in the 1980s. "Diesels in Scotland" by W J Verden Anderson has a really fine picture taken in Glen Falloch of D8117 when brand new working a summer Saturday Glasgow Queen Street - Crianlarich train formed of non corridor LMS & LNER coaching stock. (sorry, getting a bit off topic there as the first and last are obviously not TOPS era)

Three coach trains on the Kyle line with a BG in the middle seemed to be quite common at one time. "The Dingwall and Skye Railway" by Peter Tatlow has a picture of one on the back cover. Trains on the West Highland Mallaig Extension could be very variable. "Diesels in Scotland" by W. J. Verden Anderson has a nice shot of a train formed of three brakes, aircon MkII(d?) BSO, Mk1 BSO micro buffet, non aircon MkII(a?) BSO. The micro buffets were quite common on the Mallaig services. A thorough search of Flickr will throw up lots of useful pictures. Here's a few interesting ones. https://www.flickr.com/photos/149805346@N06/35612241105/in/photolist-VVUcFL-WBPE7L-uPFJzv-6R6Wx2-VFStiW-WfW3yZ-r1hcGB-nrD9ob-u7pt3-eCQ3QA-iuKmqn-XPD9Ha-XyLcoo-RJ7ieM-YzjAZN-9aiQCc-QP9KPp-W2NouS-8P5XS-Y5sWnY-T6jzcx-RuwTZG-Vg6Mui-dhxFfb-hHYuj3-W3q4bS-8GSfr7-c3HSvd-dyAj4-Kef7r-RF1DsH-ir8hbv-wtqZ9J-dxwkAS-TJq95K-ipFWAB-g9CW7U-b5xaev-9dkBZ2-itkKpz-kUUjM6-dybKEM-q7jBFy-8HhJAg-nPjbXB-7udhU7-ib8vf-pyyhgt-8EBToE-bjDg4W https://www.flickr.com/photos/25691226@N07/6290763341 https://www.flickr.com/photos/8708923@N03/13681068694/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/8708923@N03/13654720685/ Here's a particularly odd combination on the Kyle line - last photo on the page in the link http://cmdg.org.uk/html/26043_photos.html "Diesels in the Highlands" by Andrew Vines and "The West Highland Mallaig Extension in BR Days" by Tom Noble also have plenty of interesting photos from which you should be able to work out what the coaching stock is. (edited to add extra info)

Here's another - looks like the stripe in the recess is starting to get very dirty along its top edge. https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishswissernie/36413932312