taybridge

Red band now painted. Next up is the light blue..., followed by mid blue and finishing (not today!) with dark blue...

Happy days... white base coat completed on the SeaLink Mk1 this morning, just about to spray the red band around the windows

What you can't see in my photos of the layout is my cat, Felicity, has been sneaking about on the layout and caused havoc. My wife calls her the station bomber, as she leaves the passengers and station furniture scattered to the four winds... Last time I saw Felicity up there she was sleeping on the MPD!

"Discovered" a Bachmann Mk1 full brake in Royal Mail NEA livery I purchased some years ago before I'd made the decision to go for early 1980's. Now Royal Mail NEA is just too recent and not very Scottish, so it's gotta go. Have been wondering what to do with this coach: blue/grey (already have one and easy to get), all blue (got two and easy to get) or SeaLink (hmmmmmm). Then as fate would have it I popped into a model shop in Bendigo this afternoon, and there on display were three beautiful Tamiya blue paints. Now, before you're aghast, I know that there may not have been any Mk1 full brakes in SeaLink livery (there's precious little info about them online and not many photos), nonetheless I've decided to give it a go, as the livery looks so interesting and fits the period and region so well. So the coach is now all disassembled, masked up, and red, white and three blue paints purchased all set for a happy Sunday pottering. Who knows whether I can get transfers, but who cares! The large white SeaLink lettering can always be completed by Letraset. SeaLink coach behind class 45 Couple of SeaLink coaches behind class 45 SeaLink coach behind class 47 in Glasgow Central Sealink coach behind class 27 in Paisley Gilmour Street Have a happy Easter! BTW I also have a couple of RES Royal Mail Super BG's. No idea what to do with them as I don't think they pre-existed the RES livery. Am I wrong??? Maybe ebay beckons...

Great memory to share with us. Hmm yes, almost everything seems to have happened at one point or another. I saw a photo online of a 37 hauling an ETHEL followed by a DBSO at the head of a train. A railtour I think. Also a 47 hauling an ETHEL.

What's interesting about this photo? Look closely and you can see that I have made a start to weathering the rail sides... (a loooooong way to go, it's terrribly terrribly tedious )

View across a busy George Square station...

Current status of class 37 and the ETHEL.... still some paint touching up needed (I need to get a very fine brush), then decals, then weathering. The camera certainly shows up deficiencies!

Hi Peter Not sure about the 37 to be honest... still not really decided - I will need to think some more before choosing the number! No rush. In the meantime, I've found the ETHEL transfers available online. Run out of blue paint darn it! Will need to get some more to finish it. Busy evening in East Melbourne... footy at the MCG and there are people and cars everywhere. Doug.

Jamie - layout very small. L shaped with about 3.5 metres each side of the 'L'. This photo covers most of the track plan... 7 platforms in the main station 4 "main lines" lead into 7 hidden sidings 3 multiple unit / coach stock lines off platform 1 loco depot with about 8 or 9 lines in it.... that's it!

Seen photos of 37/4 with ETHEL, though not with SLEP yet. e.g 37/4 with ETHEL plus mk2 push pull on railtour, also class 47 with ETHEL etc etc. Sigh. So complicated. I think I will finish the decals on the ETHEL first - MUCH less complicated. Then worry about the 37 later. Peter - you set high standards - which is good. Doug.

Nearly finished re-painting my Railfreight 37 into Scotrail large logo (though I don't have decals yet). To go with the 37 and my Mk3 SLEPs, I have dug out my other orphan loco (a Bachy green class 25) and am in the process of repainting it into ETHEL #1

Eventually - still need lots of access though... too much to do...

Thanks Darrel -- the photos you suggested are a lot clearer regarding the jumper cables than the ones I've been working to. Will change the jumper! Doug.

Glasgow George Square wouldn't be complete without a DBSO, so here it is! Yesterday a Hornby First Great Western BSO, today a DBSO (albeit unbranded and un-numbered). I'm reasonably pleased with this, my first effort at repainting / modifying. B)

Yes, Bachmann: Hattons have them in stock.

25% Railfreight / 75% Highland Bachmann Class 37 en route to 100% Highland. Don't know why I purchased a Railfreight 37 in the first place! B) Ah well, at least I can make it a unique-ish model. Ex Hornby FGW Mk2 BSO (only bought it today) en route to becoming Scotrail Intercity DBSO. Tomorrow I'll be adding the yellow end (masking in place), driver windows and some accessories, but not the cow catcher, as that was added to the prototype later B) I must say I have seen a fair number of these on eBay and been less than impressed (except for the "professional" converts which are very good but very exxie). I think most people have a problem with marrying the kit end to the rest of the original carriage. So no kit for me, just a sharp scalpel, my trusty airbrush, some plasticard and some filler! I was impressed at how easily the FGW livery came off using the scalpel... Hornby Mk2 Intercity I'm using for reference, to get the lines "in-line" if that makes sense.

The paint shop (in the garden, beautiful day for it, lovely and sunny must have been 25 or 26 Celcius) has been busy today. Respraying my Bachy 37 from Railfreight to Highland large logo. The Railfreight livery just didn't fit the period, and I neeeeed a 37 for diagrams from Glasgow George Square to Inverness etc. Also purchased a Hornby Mk2 FGW second/brake and in the process of respraying/converting it to a blue/grey DBSO... without the kit!! B) Doing it myself, and frankly it's not that hard, even though it's the first coach I've ever resprayed completely (other than weathering). Both looking good so far... blue and grey coats on today, yellow ends tomorrow. I don't have any decals yet, but no doubt they are available on eBay etc.. Have a safe weekend!

It really is very, very authentic. I just love it.

Grrr George Square is mine - "taybridge" with no space, based here in Melbourne. "Tay Bridge" with the space is (confusingly) my brother who has his Glasburgh sheds in Fife! No update just yet... I have started to weather the track and it's a long, boring job... Doug!!!

Thanks Andy... I have all the photos, old and new, in the layouts gallery. Doug.

Thanks Stuart, it took me a while to find the layout topics... every now and then I seemed to stumble across them and then not quite know how I got there. Anyhow here I am and glad to be back. I have been following your gallery and enjoy your photos. Sometimes I wish I had been more true to Glasgow QS, but then I wouldn't have been able to have my depots, and that would be less interesting, so perhaps I have the best of both worlds..

You are so right, and with US HO it's difficult to get the local detail right. I lived in Boston for a while and even in little New England there were huge differences between the various states, cities and regions. It would be easy to get it soooo wrong, or so right yet appear so wrong to to others. In Waltham for example there was a German wurst stand right by the station, authentic DB! Lederhosen, oompah music, German flags, the works.

You are no doubt correct , but they are good enough for me at this point. It's 20 years since I lived in Scottieland, and from here in Australia today what looks fine might not stand up to scrutiny. Still... onward and upward. This is my "learning" layout and will be replaced with a new, much more accurate layout in the next couple of years!