Clagmeister

Having lost more hours than I care to remember at Seaton, Heysham, Torness and Hunterston working these jobs this takes me back. Honestly, you have captured the feel perfectly. Even with good traction these jobs were long and the locations such as yours were very unhospitable and very unwelcoming places to be. The austere structures, poor facilities and over bearing security arrangements made for quite and unpleasant day out on the railway. Great model. One thing though. The track work within the compounds in my experience was always top notch and more often than not weed free. PS 37409 was a superb locomotive, never once failed with me.

Couple of questions for any learned fellows out there might who might know the answers. From all the pics and video clips i have seen of the Glasgow-Dundee services during the early 60's more often than not they are worked by Standard Class 5's. Did St Rollox provide them for all the diagrams? Dundee didn't have an allocation and it appears they kicked out there V2's and occasionally A2's for some jobs. But were they actually booked for a St Rollox loco. I wondered also whether the B1's allocated at Tay Bridge were ever involved? The Dundee trains never got the interest that the Aberdeen trains managed and details are a bit sketchy. Thanks Claggy

Yes, 3 arches is the one that i know and use for Gleneagles stop! Tis a bit late though from linespeed! I have just named these after the farm and cottages next to them. I hadn't heard Bardrill or Mill Hill on the ops side, just get them as numbers. I will use the correct names going forward. I judge from your name that you know being local. As a Carlisle man exact knowledge of every bridge 135 miles from home is hard to get. Thanks for the info i appreciate it.

I suppose this is the start of the project. Base up so to speak. The old tatty shed is down and i'm busy levelling and preparing the ground for the sub base and ultimately the shed base. My half will be 10x8 for Gleneagles-Blackford to go in. Meanwhile i have to content myself with assembling stock and looking at it on the table. Kingfisher on the closest i can get to a 3hr formation cheerio Claggy

Did anything come of the Britannia with the BR1D high sided tender mentioned in 2015 on this thread? What chances of another production run of these generally? Thanks Mike

Kingmoor found quite a few diagrams for its allocation. As far I can tell Liverpool portions were common as were the daytime (ish) Perth turns and the Paddy. I guess, although I've never looked into it in any detail, that they were replaced with 47's and line closures.

Was cascading not a thing then? The newish Clans and others surely could have displaced older more work hungry designs elsewhere. I am always surprised they didn't move en masse to Kingmoor, where they knew them and had work for them.

Excellent stuff. I have it on very good authority from an ex Canal and Kingmoor friend of mine that the Clans were superb machines when given the correct load of a class 6. Strangely the doubters and commentators never say this, often finding themselves disappointed when the clan not surprisingly can't do the work of a class 7 or 8. A little note to the info above, City of Liverpool wasn't withdrawn until June 63.

60532 coming along. Setting up of the new middle cylinder going on at the moment. Huge job. Will have to make do with 46233 and hopefully 60007 next year. But yes rushing through Strathearn with BP is a long held ambition.

I like a bit of real timetable running. Do you throw in uncertainty of any sort? On Caolisport many moons ago i'd roll a 20 sided dice every 4 hours with an array of operational issues and problems to give it a real operational feel. Is it in real time?

Yes basically bridge 49 just before Gleneagles through bridge 48 at MP135 at the end of the cutting and as you say Muiralehouse bridge at the bottom. Peterhead farm bridge will be in the middle. Yes would be very interested in appropriate stock. :-) Thanks Claggy

Hi, Yes I'm back with Blackford-Gleneagles layout, planning stage at moment, few pics on ideas. No, i'm not with DRS anymore left in 2015 and followed the work to carry on driving 37/4s with Northern from Workington. Since left in 2018 to be a steam driver amongst other things with LSL Toc based at Carlisle. Sorry thread drift. Excellent Dallam layout.

Just had a good look right through this thread. Excellent stuff Sir. Loads of inspiring stuff for my plans. Also as both a Sellafield and then Kingmoor Driver in the early 2000's i'd forgotten about some of the lash ups we had going back and forward on 7C53 and 7K73. Thanks Claggy

Bit late to the party on this subject. Is there anymore information on the work the St Rollox pair of A4s mainly did. I presume the early Aberdeen 3hr and tea time return for one loco. If the pair were available there has been mention elsewhere of a Dundee and return. On a side note does anyone have records of Kingmoor allocated Duchess's at Ferryhill?? Thanks Claggy

This was my first Scottish layout. Long since deceased. This is the new project, very early days but very excited about the potetial. Cheers claggy

Whilst the shed isn't here yet, have tried some setting out to try and get the curve to look right. This is the view from Bridge 48 at MP 135 as it will look on the layout. How does the curve compare to the real one in foto 3 in the first post?

I'm currently trying to find timings for what seemed like a great deal of Carlisle-Perth parcels traffic in the early 60s. The wtt timings don't appear on my Perth (South) Freight timetable. Any help on this gratefully received.

With construction still a liitle way off. Time on these wet days for weathering and getting the fleet ready. Dapol A4 Woodcock halfway through its weathering and transformation into Ferryhill celebrity A4 Kingfisher. A2s Sun Chariot and Blue Peter before and after. Pencil weathering, i think it looks ok fir trains passing in the countryside.

Thanks, I hope i do it justice, sort of has to be N gauge. The reasons why I like the line so much are many. The line side hasn't changed much and it is one of the last high speed semaphore signalled lines in the UK. Its 90 around that curve. I drive it regularly with LSL and its always a pleasure. Also in the 60's it was probably the only place you could see A4's and Duchess's passing on the mainline. The six coach 3 and 4hr expresses with A4s and A2s are just to appealing for me, so here we are.

Hi, This really has been a long time in the planning and there is much to plan yet. Some of the thoughts revolved around it being very different to Caolisport and hopefully offering a different experience. I have decided to model a short plain mainline section of my favourite railway which will ultimately just be a long sweeping curve. The long curve in the shadow of the Ochils between Blackford and Gleneagles fitted all of the requirements perfectly. The only gauge that this could feasibly be achieved with and maintain as much realism in curve and train formation would be N Gauge. The period will roughly be 1960-1966. The last 6 months has been spent making a start on assembling the stock and thinking about how to fit it into a 10x8 insulated shed in the garden. I think its just possible. The scenic curve should just be able to take the longest train which will be a 5A big lizzie and 14 bogies! So yesterday I spent 3 hours on site getting as much of whats required recorded in photographs. I have since then had a panorama back scene template produced by John at Art-Printers sent to me. Should be ok I think, and will be the first thing to go in. The scenic section will run from the bridge just South of Gleneagles station on the map to the bridge at Muiralehouse bottom left. Looking South from Gleneagles Bridge 148 at MP 135 Caledonian main line from Carlisle Looking North towards Gleneagles and South towards Peterhead farm bridge and Blackford Looking North from Peterhead farm bridge towards bridge 148 which will be the centre piece of the layout And finally Muiralehouse bridge looking South towards Blackford Anyway I just thought i'd share where the idea and planning has got to so far. Will keep you posted, cheers Claggy

Still looking as fantastic as ever. First time I've checked in for a long time, thought there may have been an embryonic Oban to go with WW by now?

This is a rather interesting piece on the subject. https://www.bloodandcustard.net/bluespot.html

Where do you start? Are there any beginners guides out there?

You make that sound easy Jim. Etching is something i know nothing about.