David Bell

Managed to get a copy of the Scottish Region Timetable for 1959/60. There is much of interest. Notably all the trains that are diesel hauled are identified in the timetable. I wonder how many times in this period passengers were met with steam because of diesel failures especially in the Class 21 era. Also it is interesting to note that during this period Sunday services which normally went from Buchanan Street to places like Inverness and Aberdeen ran from Queen Street. I can see from the timetable that there is an occasional weekday train which does this too

My memories of Queen Street are from the mid to late seventies. The station was full of Class 27's and Class 101 Metrocam DMU's. I am too young to remember the time period I am modelling. I have not found a single book dedicated to Queen Street. However there are 3 books, all relatively cheap and available second-hand on eBay or Amazon that together will give you a flavour, photos of each attached, Details as follows, Glasgow Stations, by Colin Johnston and John Hume, 1979, published by David & Charles, ISBN 0 7153 7569 5. This has a chapter on GQS. It concentrates on the early years and the 1960's remodel. Glasgow Railway Memories by WAC Smith and Paul Anderson, 2001,published by Irwell Press, ISBN 1-903266-09-2 and An Illustrated History of Glasgow Railways by the same authors and publisher,1993, ISBN 1-87-1608-33-3. Both these have some interesting pictures and a lot of detail of trains using the station in 1947,1950 and 1960 Over the weekend I managed to source a copy of the Scottish Region Timetable for 1959-60. That will be an interesting read when it arrives.

My version of Glasgow Queen Street is being erected in the loft right now, but that is a temporary home for it. The plan is to make a shed , of sorts, for it in the garden. I did think to post this in the 7mm+ section of the forum, rather tongue in cheek, since the shed will be a 1:1 replica of the body of a LNER 4wheel passenger brake. Mostly it is an exercise in carpentry, albeit on a big scale. 9 feet high, 9 feet wide and 32 feet long. Attached is a 10mm:1ft drawing derived from cutting sections from the David Jenkinson/ Nick Campling book from a full length brake, and a photo of the surviving example in Norfolk

I have been playing around with bits of track and points and I think I am getting close to the final version

I have decided on a slight change to the original plan and I have not laid a centimetre of track yet! I am going to add 20cm to the George Square end so I can model the full width of the road in front of the North British hotel to include the tramline. I had so many bits left over from the baseboard kits I thought could be put to good use

Dave, Absolutely amazing layout, and takes me right back to many happy days in Waverley. I must have spent hours there in the seventies and early eighties. You have really captured the character of the place in a relatively small space. For my part I am going to do the other end of the line, Glasgow Queen Street. I am going to set it in the 50's/60's.(though I will occasionally run the odd cl27 push/pull set when no one is looking!) Keep up the great work. Regards David

I remember that the Maude's first attempt to reach Mallaig was featured in a DVD. She struggled with the load so there was much slipping and a trail of lineside fires which required the attention of the fire brigade.

Your project continues to impress. You are progressing well. It is often difficult to maintain a consistent high standard with a big project but you don't seem to be having any difficulty in that regard. Thinking more about your time period and unusual trains which ran on the WHL I am pretty sure Maude hauled a four coach special all the way to Mallaig in 1984. The train was 4 mk1's, three blue/grey and one Brake in chocolate/cream. Maude would then have been in fully lined NBR livery as depicted by the current Hornby model. Food for thought perhaps. David

This is really starting to look the part. I lived in the Lincolnshire wolds in the eighties and remember the building very well. Even then a lot of Lincolshire railway infrastructure remained. I lived 400 yds from the station at Donington-on Bain, another lovely building, and of course Louth was very ornate. Well done David

The quality of modelling here is top notch, well done David

All 8 boards are completed now and all joined together. I put the drawing of the station throat pointwork in roughly the right position. I will have to adjust to take account of the baseboard joints , but it is looking promising. Hope everyone is staying well.

Making some progress now. The first five boards are complete and joined together. Board No. 7 is complete and I am working on No 6. Won't be too long until I have something to model on!

I am sure we must have met. I was regularly at Falkirk from 1975 until 1979 and also for a number of summers thereafter at Falkirk then Boness. I also remember collecting the Boness May Queen and taking her to attend the the driving of the first spike at Boness.

Looks great. You are making good progress. David

How are you getting on with your GQS plans? I am modelling the same location but earlier than your plan. (1950's- 60's) so the track plan is a little different to yours. David

This is the first tangible progress on the layout itself. These are photos of baseboard 1 in my schematic. This is the George Square end of the layout with the station access ramp. It is probably the most difficult to make because of the change in level. I used parts from a White Rose kit and adapted to suit. Baseboards 2,3,4 & 5 are rectangular (900 x 600) and flat and are already made, not by me but by the good folks at White Rose who are much better at cutting straight lines than I am. Baseboard 8 is similarly a regular shape (1200 x 600). I will make baseboards 6 and 7 by bashing bits from 2 more White Rose baseboard kits.

Many thanks for that Keefer. That is the first picture I have seen of the business end of the slip coupling.

I have drawn up a plan of the baseboard size and configuration. I have extended it far enough to include the access ramp from George Square and the adjacent buildings. The split down the middle is at a platform face so won't be readily noticeable.

As you will have seen in the thread I am going for 1950's/60's. That said I will not be able to resist running a class 27 push pull set every now and again. I grew up with those trains and the advent of dcc sound really brings them to life? A big noise at one end followed by six mk ii's swishing through and another big noise at the other. Great memories!

I would go with cork every time. It will deaden some running sound so you'll get the best from your dcc sound. I will watch this thread with interest having spent many a day in Mallaig in the seventies working on SRPS railtours trains. I dont suppose my aspiration to build Glasgow Queen Street counts as West Highland (arguably it is one end of it!) David

The release mechanism did not always work, resulting in much frantic whistling from the banker to get the train engine to stop so the banker could uncouple.

Three more locos for GQS. I had to opt for a different A2. When I retrieved the model from the loft I realised it had a double chimney. Sayajirao was single chimneyed.

Could not agree more on the Sprinters!

Rob, I almost hesitate to ask, have you been tempted to model the Mexican Bean? Perhaps you already have David

The V1 together with the previously mentioned J72