Waverley47708

I have been meaning to start a new discussion topic for a while on 1980s MGR traffic in Fife, Scotland. The issue has come up a few times in other topics but I thought I’d start a topic dedicated to it. Wasn't sure if it should be under Railways of Scotland or UK Protype Discussions not Questions I was brought up in Dunfermline and pairs of Class 20s heading to and from Longannet Power Station with rakes of HAA were a significant part of my early interest in railways. The bonus of living in Dunfermline was that you got to see them twice as they arrived from the South ran past Charlestown Junction just South of Dunfermline Lower (now Dunfermline Town) to Halbeath. The locos would run round the train, it would then return down the track to Charlestown Junction and then head of the branch line towards Longannet. They repeated to run up to Halbeath on their return journey. Another benefit of living in Dunfermline was that the climb up Touch Bank meant that pairs of 20s had to work hard and were therefore very noisy as they climbed towards Halbeath especially when loaded. Both my Primary and Secondary Schools had views of them going up the bank. I can also remember on certain nights hearing them over a mile from my house climbing up the bank. Other memories are of them passing within inches of you at Culross as you walked along the path next to the railway and the ground shook. As a youngster I had always assumed that they all went from the mine the South of Kirkcaldy and headed to Dunfermline via Thornton, it was not until I got back into the hobby I found out that some/all/most (?) went via Inverkeithing and ran round at Halbeath as described above. There were other workings, I've seen photos of them at Cardenden and Cowdenbeath therefore some did use that part of the Fife Circle as it became known. There were some from Westfield. I am pretty sure some came from South of the Forth. Rightly or wrongly I tended to associate these with the HAAs with the extra covers on top. I’ve seen a magazine article (possibly Traction) on them which included a photo of a 26 at Liggers bridge on an MGR just beyond Charlestown Junction. This is the thing with such articles, they always include the different, the unusual which I understand, but up until the late 80s, my memory of 12 years of schooling overlooking the line was of pairs of Class 20s. I’ve seen photos but never remember seeing them myself of a pair of 20s on one end with or without a brake van and a single 20 at the other, I think this practice had gone by the mid 80s. I do remember the 37s taking over the services in the then new Coal Subsector and I remember getting a bit of a shock to see Class 56s on them, up to that point I’d never expected to see them north of the border. By that time my interest in railways was waning and my favourite time was definitely the period when these trains were exclusively in the hands of pairs of Class 20s with a rake of HAAs. Lots of memories but no photos of my own unfortunately. If you have information, memories or photos of these or other East Scotland MGR workings especially from the 70s and 80s would be great to read and see them.

And it was about that time I stopped visiting Waverley on a Saturday! How I missed the sound of a Sulzer ticking over in the middle road between 16 andc17 waiting to rake over the next Dundee service.

Waverley photos, always delighted to see then from the mid 80s. The 107 in Strathclyde livery is using Plt 18 which tended to be for services to Fife, esp Cowdenbeath pre Fife Circle or outer circle as the Edinburgh Cowdenbeath Kirkcaldy Edinburgh trains became known. My recollection is portion trains via Carstairs including Manchester Victoria tended to use the through platforms Plt 10 and 11 on Saturdays but I've seen photos of then using the middle terminus platforms 17 or 16 like this one before. 12, 13 and 18 being shorter than 14 to 17 and 14 being used almost exclusively for ScotRail Express with 47/7 and DBSOs. Always thought it interesting that the colour light at the departure end of 14 used mostly by 47/7s when I went there1985 to 87 has the reference E477! Finally I always thought the 101s suited the black window surrounds. I first remember then on the then new Bathgate Link. I will make no comment on the middle photo.

Sorry to hear the news. II shared his passion for the same period and was a follower of both threads. I always used to enjoy the being notified of a new posting.

Sadly sadly our 2021 has had to be postponed due to Covid 19. Looking forward to Perth 2022.

Cancelled due to Covid.

As one of the few true blue 1980s modellers in the Perth club, I am really looking forward to welcoming you and your layout to our exhibition in Perth next year.

So the good news, the book has been reduced from £12 to £4. The bad news dispatch has been delayed due to Covid. I've ordered a copy and am looking forward to it arriving when it comes so highly recommended.

Just had a look, and I'd agree some great looking figures available. Would be good to be able to see some pictures of the painted versions on the eBay page. If you Google PMMSTUDIO make sure you include eBay in the search or you end up in a Polish beauty salon!

The video was interesting as I wasnt aware you could modify the sides of the oo version. Will need to have a look at my current wagons. Seems the OO version may be more flexible than the O for this feature. Re earlier comments about derailing I had some issues on a couple of specific spots on the layout where nothing else derailed. I relaid the track and they run without any issues. Do think the Kernow yellow is better but went for these ones, just building up courage to tone the yellow down with a spot of weathering.

I had read that Scultamold was out of stock but this seems a bit excessive at over £60. Good news someone is selling it in France for "only" £25 but the p and p is over £40. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Plaster-Sculptamold-Modeling-Compound-3lb-White-New/264686912556?hash=item3da091c42c:g:QLsAAOSwpc1ehXRw

You are right, just too excited for the VEAs! I did think it odd that the VEAs which had not been on any of the earlier lists had suddenly jumped to August. Ok then a quick rewrite of my earlier post. Disappointed to not see the VEAs and ScotRail................. Should I assume the earliest they will appear is beyond the last date in the latest list?

Thanks for posting the update. Good to see the Railfreight livery VEA now have a date. Disappointed to not see the ScotRail Mk2s listed especially since the BG annpunced at the same time appeared so quickly. When I search individual items on their website the ScotRail Mk2 are showing Awaiting, mind you so are the VEAs eben though they have an August release date.

I've used the Lima ones on Lima Grainflow wagons, when I put some spare Bachmann tension locks in the distance between them was too much. I currently have close Hunt Couplings but may try Ultra Close.

Here is a link. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/OO-Dapol-Hornby-NEM-converters-1x-Sample-4-pockets/202961845211?hash=item2f4177fbdb:g:KNcAAOSwxfhekMTd Photo shows them being used for wagons, not sure if they work for Hornby MK2D but I think I saw on their Facebook page that is something they are working on. If they did a bit of thought would be needed to work out the best size of Hunt couplings to use with them.

Although this relates to the originals, two of the three Elites so far are the same length and I think it's safe to assume that an Ultra Elite will be produced at some stage. As such it may still be of interest to others regardless of whether you go for Originals or Ultra versions. My motivation is for the visual improvement of bringing stock closer together. The Bachmann fixed connections does that, it is good for my rakes that stay on the layout but no good for my rakes which are not kept on the layout. Hunt Coupling are ideal for quickly making up a rake from my stock boxes. I keep tension locks on the outer couplings Brian Kirkby style. I had just last week (unfortunately as it turns out with Fridays announcement) bought more original standard close and ultra close packs of the originals to find the best solution for me. Close to close were too close for my one short radius point hidden in a tunnel. I looked at relaying the track and found it would alter the curvature of one direction which would have knock on consequences. Close to close were 19mm. Standard to Standard are 25. To me Standard to Standard were as far apart as Tension Lock so did not improve the look. Standerd to Close worked well visually and as far as running goes at 22.3mm. To use up all of the connectors half the coaches have Standerd A and a Close B. The other half had a Standerd B and Close A. If you pardon the pun the different lengths coupled with the limitation of different polarity further reduces flexibility of swapping coaches within a rake. Nevertheless with careful planning including one coach with two Close magnets both halves can be combined and it works for me. The Elite range intermediate to Intermediate is reportdely coming in at 23.4mm. (thanks Jaggzuk for the useful table). This may seem close to my original version Standard to Close at 22.3mm. However 1.1mm when it comes to a gap may be too much for me visually. I may try the Close to Close Elite 19mm on the basis that they do a specific Bachmann MK1 which are stepped. It may be the issue the stepped version was designed to overcome and not the distance that is the problem on the one problem point on the layout. If it doesn't there would be little to gain from using Standard and Close Elites over what I have now in terms of flexibility using two different lengths would have the same limitations as the different polarity. I could test a Close to Close on my Mk2s to see how they get on at 19mm without the stepped issue. TPOs, I noticed when using the fixed Bachmann connection they were further apart than normal MK1 or MK2. Even Close to Close Hunt Couplings was too far apart visually for me. Ultra to Ultra too close for running on my one point. I've gone for Close to Ultra for them. It works well. If you are not having issues with Close to Close on Mk1s I would think Ultra to Ultra would work for you on TPOs Just be aware fitting and removing them to find the best solution resulted in a number of the legs breaking. I had got magnets fitted to everything I'd wanted them for, if I buy Elites I'll cascade the originals to other stock Im not usually an early adopter, thankfully it was only 6 or 7 packs and not a couple of grand for some fancy new tech I had early adopted on! It is good to see the range progressing and one of the issues people had raised about polarity being addressed. There is on Ebay someone making NEM conversions for some Lima wagons (the type used on Lima grain and cement wagons) and Dapol stock. This may open up possibilities to use Hunt couplings to convert older stock including the ex Airfix Hornby Mk2 Ds as I think they use the Dapol system for couplings. To date I've just modified them with tension locks to draw them closer. Finally a word of warning, I've noticed a few reviewers on You Tube being left lost for words rendered speechless, getting very very excited when reviewing them. Perhaps these new magnets are so powerful they are interfering with brain function in some way, may be best to wear some kind of hat when using them just in case!!!

That's right I remember you couldn't make it last year. Hope to see you in 2021.

Andrew Gebbie's Perth 2019 Trilogy

Thanks Phatbob, not sure I'll ask the exhibition manager who is no doubt already busy working on the plan.

Perth Model Railway Exhibition Scotland's Summer Show With no model railway exhibition today due to the Coronavirus, we hope you can enjoy the highlights from our 2019 show with Dean Park Station's video of the 2019 show and Andrew Gebbie's 3 part "trilogy" from last year. Feel free to add a videos of layouts especially of any that had been booked for 2020. Stay safe and we look forward to seeing you next year for our 2021 Exhibition on 26 and 27 June 2021. So first up Dean Park

Normally we are very busy on the Friday before our show welcoming traders and exhibitors to the Dewar Centre as they set up for Perth Model Railway Exhibition. Sadly none of us will be there this weekend as we like many other events had to cancel. We hope to upload videos of past shows over the weekend. Stay safe and remember there are only 365 sleeps until our 2021 show on 26th and 27th June 2021! Many of our regular traders are online and we are sure would be happy to have a virtual visit from you this weekend. First up a video from set up in 2019

Although there will be no Perth Show this weekend we are pleased to confirm we've booked the Dewars Centre for 26 and 27th June 2021 for next years show. In the meantime we will repost some videos from previous shows this coming weekend.

Another video from the clubs Andrew Gebbie.

Absolutely Ebay is a game or a dance if you like! In this instance I lost out. Pity I hadn't seen the counter offer from just after midnight as I would have paid it.

Ok this is weird. My initial offer of £70 was immediately rejected as mentioned above. My offer of £75 around 2300 resulted in a counter offer of £79 just after midnight. I only realised I had got a counter offer this morning when I checked to see if my £75 offer had been accepted. However rather annoyingly I got another message this morning saying This item is no longer available. Your offer expired. On another page on My Ebay it says it sold for £75, how does that work. Confused and a little disappointed.