Flood

Well hello to everyone who's been following the layout - like many other people this is the first time I've been able to log on since the weekend but I know that Andy will be doing his best to resolve the problems. The 2 foot section of the depot buildings has now been virtually fully clad and all I have to do is wake up early enough after working lates to pick up some 10 thou plasticard to tidy some areas up. Then it's onto the 4 foot section and then spraying and weathering. We're looking at ways of being able to fix the depot buildings to the layout securely but also giving us the option to remove them in case of derailments. This would be relatively straight forward if it wasn't for wanting to have lighting inside them as well. After six weeks of ripping up track to install uncouplers they are now all in place complete with ballast and the fuel points are being looked at. We're hoping to have a design subtlely different from the Knightwing ones just for some variation. The junction boxes and control boxes for the shore supply points were made and painted last weekend. Glenn has been experimenting with the best wire to use for the two different types of cables - photos to follow when installed. Along with these the first sub-station compound is also being done. Last weekend was a joy in the fact that detail was being added to the layout instead of sections being ripped up. We also realised that we have five months until the next exhibition - this was the time span we had to build an operating layout before the first exhibition so we appear to be well on track. Even so we would like the layout to be complete by the end of March, at the latest, to give us six weeks testing time. With some additional stock moves the schedule has had to be tweaked in a number of places and we need to confirm that it works. I hope to be able to post some photos in the next couple of weeks. To everyone who has been looking at the blog and commenting on this thread I'd like to thank you all for your interest and please add any comments you feel are necessary. We also look forward to, hopefully, seeing a number of you at Derby in May.

Glenn and I had this with two locos. Basically the rotating plastic shaft locates into a plastic collar on a metal shaft in the bogie tower. It was the plastic collar that was slipping on the metal shaft so we very carefully super glued it on. No problems at all since then.

I stayed in Scotland from 6 July 1985 to 12 July 1985 on a bashing trip and we travelled from Glasgow to Perth to Edinburgh regularly (mainly to find 27s on the Dundees). Looking at loco hauled travel there were 3 Aberdeen Mk 2 diagrams per day and we regularly saw 3 sets: 9703, 3245, 6601, 6604, 5662, 5653, 92088 + loco 9705, 17140, 6605, 5726, 5671, 92061 + loco 9702, 3265, 6603, 5673, 5663, 5711, 92091 + loco We didn't see either of the other 2 BGs (92086 or 92128) but there were enough spare Mk2 air cons to make a complete spare rake so one of them might have been attached to that semi permanently. I wouldn't want to say that they never ran in other rakes in Scotland but I've never seen a photo (Bob Reid will know!) They only lasted in Scotland until the summer of 1986 and were only in the Aberdeen rakes from May 1985 to May 1986 after which they were moved to Heaton, York and Crown Point and were quite quickly repainted InterCity.

I've just had a look at all the photos we've taken and I haven't one of the CET area! What follows is a very crude drawing! We have five of these (spaced at Mk3 intervals) and that easily covers the four Mk3 Sleepers which is the maximum we can accomodate. Basically a pipe in a concrete apron, each one approx 4 cms long.

Bob, you're a genius. That photo is perfect and a significant help, many thanks once again. You do realise that if this layout is good enough we might have to take a trip up to an exhibition in your neck of the woods - you might even like a play if the opportunity arises! BTW I seem to remember something about the shore supply units having changed at depots over the years. You wouldn't have any photos of the 1980s style ones as well would you? As far as I know there was one type needed for the loco hauled stock and another type for the HSTs, is that correct? Thanks for keeping an eye on the blog and the thread. It's the interest and knowledge from people such as yourself that help me in the dream that Glenn and I are not just doing this to have a static layout but one we can take to show people all over the country.

Seeing as I'm not going to be leaving the house for a few days (got a stinking cold which is typical for the first full Christmas holiday in five years) I'll drop a few words down on the thread to keep everyone abreast of developments. The first two electromagnets are installed with five more to do. This is the major job over the next month as the ballast has to be relaid where the magnets are situated. The lights for the road bridge are being done at the same time and a panel will be needed for all the electromagnet switches. After all these are done then the track can be fully weathered. Then will be the installation of the stand pipes, making of the lighting gantries, making of the battery boxes and shore supply units and the siting of two sub-stations (one for each end of the layout). Follow that with installation of the lighting for the depot building along with the lighting gantries (and the lighting towers when they arrive in February) and it'll just be down to some more relief along the front and some security fencing. Sounds easy doesn't it! Observant people will notice that I have neglected to mention the cladding of the depot building (along with its windows). I was going to do this task this week, I'll see how I feel when I wake up tomorrow. If I feel like I did today then there is no chance. Just under five months to Derby exhibition - the same time span it took to build the basic layout in the first place. We want to be ready in three months to iron out any possible problems. All I'm wanting this week is good health, luck is not going to come into it. Edit: The occasional sip of Macphail's single malt seems to alleviate the cough. It comes from Elgin yaknow (pretty close to the depot location!), highly recommended.

I ordered 5 packs direct from Gem. The lady there seemed very confused that I needed that many until I told her what they were for. Excellent service BTW, arrived in about two days.

It was repainted by Glenn (my colleague who is also making/running the layout). As the Bachmann roof comes off and the windows pop out it was a relatively straight forward exercise to air brush the executive light grey and then mask this to spray the dark grey. The white/blue stripe is from Fox (I ordered the "weathered" set, the blue is lighter and more accurate) as are the ScotRail and numbers. We use Tamiya masking tape. You need a few thin coats of the light grey to cover the blue, using an NSE coach might be better (but you may not get the silver window frames). Strictly speaking the stripe is too low by about 1 to 1.5 mm but as it is it matches the Heljan 47s. All in all a nice change to the norm. Glenn is thinking about doing another two but the layout has to be near perfect for May so that is taking priority.

Thanks for the comment and I feel that Bachmann are really missing out on a market not having done some other liveries. I think the problem lies where they didn't sell as many blue and grey Mk2s (of any type) as they'd hoped so didn't continue with any other variations in livery. All a bit of a shame really.

I've just added photos of all the locos we run on the layout to the blog along with some selected coaching stock. I've repeated a few photos here to try to get you interested, not all the photos were this good! They've all been taken this afternoon on Glenn's other layout Glen Carron. Full descriptions of the coaching stock on the blog. The duffs and 26s are Heljan, the 08s are Hornby and Bachmann and the 37s are Bachmann. 37033 was an EWS 37114. DC Kits POS Bachmann Mk2Z TSO DC Kits DBSO

Why on earth am I posting photos of the loco fleet for the layout when it's a coaching stock depot? Well I do appreciate the fact that most of the people on RMweb will be more interested in the locomotives used rather than the coaching stock. That said there is an interesting selection of trains that run on Kirkhill (well I think so) so I've also posted selected items of coaching stock as well. The locos don't really need much explanation but they are all based on photos from fotopic and other web sources taken between January and May 1988. Each coaching stock photo has a description for a brief explanation, the remainder of the items are as "off the shelf" so don't really warrant specific attention. Apologies for some of the loco photos, I'm trying to spend more time on the layout and less on playing. All the photos were taken on Glenn's other layout, Glen Carron. Now for the coaching stock: Two vehicles from the Royal mail rake. Made by me from DC Kits items the bodies have been beautifully painted and transferred by Alex Carpenter. The bogies are Replica. First a POS with VHF pod on the roof, the far end body section was cut and shut to change the far end window position. Next a BPOT, the Guard's door still needs the handrails adding. Next a Bachmann Mk2Z repainted into ScotRail livery and given air brake cylinders from an old Airfix Mk2D. The orange gutter stripe still needs to be added. This and all the remaining stock was resprayed by Glenn except the TSOT and DBSO. Mk3a CO complete with 1st and 2nd class seating. The rake of Mk3a coaches are all Jouef which have the correct roof vents (Lima and Hornby Mk3s have HST style ones). DC Kits DBSO made by Alex Carpenter, Glenn has also made one. A third is a converted Airfix BSO and this one may well be replaced next year for another DC Kits one. Mainline TSO lettered, numbered and slightly painted by me into a TSOT. 6607 never did receive full ScotRail livery. Mainline TSO repainted into ScotRail livery. We have one Mk3a push-pull rake and two pie-bald Mk2 rakes. These consist of a mixture of Mk2Zs, a Mk2A FK, Mk2Ds and a Mk2E FO.

I reckon those water taps are smack on the right thing but I'll show Glenn tomorrow and see what he thinks. Thanks again Steve, you really are coming up trumps at the mo.

The first Mk3 Sleepers were painted into Inter City Executive (raspberry ripple) livery in 1985, the INTER CITY was not introduced until July 1987. Therefore about 25 - 30 SLEP and 10 - 15 SLE carried InterCity Sleeper in black. Note that the hyphen wasn't used on this livery apart from on some very early repaints. The ones belonging to Inter City Charter Trains were changed very quickly (and given white roofs) when the Mk1 charter stock was also repainted in Autumn 1987 and the other vehicles were changed pretty quickly so that's why you never find any photos of them. Lima didn't use rail alphabet on their models so they need to have the writing changed anyway.

Looks like the OO version of the one in N and I'd say that it's perfect. Many thanks guys. BTW Steve I'll not be down this week, it'll have to be Tuesday next week even though that's AGM night.

Well Warley was very expensive for me and Glenn. I now have enough plastic sheet to clad the 2 foot section of the depot with more on order, extractor fans for the roof have been purchased from Unit Models. I also got round to ordering some lighting towers from Express Models last week. Six electro-magnet uncouplers are ready to be installed, more Mk3s have been bought, Replica bogies are replacing the DC Kits ones on the postal rake, four more Lenz chips, lighting for the fuel points and the gantries over the cleaning roads and a large amount spent at Ten Commandments on Propane cylinders, a fork lift, fencing, BRUTES and low relief buildings amongst other things. I'll tell you what we do need.... A transformer or two. Not the kind you power a layout with to make the trains run but the kind found in sub-stations. We've found ones in full sub-station packs made by Kibri or Faller but these seem a bit on the large size, we're probably looking at about 4 - 5 cms length, 2.5 - 3 cms high at the most. We saw one that looked about right on a layout at Warley but we only noticed it in passing and got no details. Hornby make some with a wall round but only in 'N'. Does any firm make a resin, plastic or whitemetal transformer in 'OO'? I will post some more pictures when we have time to take them and I'll update the blog when we've achieved the next notable landmark (whatever it may be). One day I'll even manage a fleet list complete with photos. Ahh, the days of old when I had time on my hands - sorry, must get on I've got modelling to do.

I agree with the points mentioned by both the previous posters. Personally I would have said slate/tile as before, it just seems to have that feel about it.

Great stuff. Is the white metal object to the bottom left of the second photo the tilted plate separator?

Ekkk!

You did have the lighting over the cleaning roads as well but point taken about other lights. Thanks for the fencing list as well, Glenn thought that was probably the case. The Express Models lights are 240mm which is 18.24m, they should be okay.

Some quality cars there Bob . Which was yours? Good over all view of the arrangement of compounds, very useful.

Now that's what I call a list, thanks Bob. A lot of the buildings are going to have to be "off layout" on the other side of the main shed as we haven't got the space to put them in but the separate ETH, Propane and Lube Oil compounds are a must. The car park was meant to be bigger but it didn't work out like that. We've got an offloading point for the diesel fuel: you can't see most of the pipework, the tankers are in the way! And yes, I know they are a bit clean! I like the sound of BRUTES lying around, we were going to re-paint old Merit brown sacks so they were black and use them as full bin liners. A tilted plate separator? Sounds essential, I'll have to look into that one. Bulk off-loading point for the Lube Oil, were the drums palletised and taken off with a fork-lift? Me bored with carriage depots, never.

Reading through old Rail Enthusiasts I've found out that there were three weed killing trains on B.R. in the 1980s, a Fisons' one , a Chipman's one and a B.R. Eastern Region owned one. Did they all work all over the country as required or were they used in specific areas? Thanks in advance.

Many thanks for the reply Paul, I was beginning to think I was the only person reading my own thread. As I said above things are a bit of a mess at the moment. They'll be no work on the layout this weekend and next weekend Glenn and I will be spending money at Warley. I've been looking through fotopic for images of coaching stock depots in the mid to late 1980s basically to see the ground textures/colours and what paraphernalia is needed to help bring the depot to life. Photos of Craigentinny help but the problem is most of them are taken after the ECML electrification so the amount of diesel movements, and subsequent filth, were reduced. The best photos I've found so far are here and here, if anyone has any more shots of carriage sheds in this era (and preferably Scotland but not essential) I would be very interested to see them. Obviously many thanks to Bob for the two photos he posted on the old RMweb (link). The list of items needed so far is large lighting towers, smaller yard lights, carriage cleaning lighting gantries, stand pipes, battery chargers (portable and non portable) and shore supply boxes. Any photos from depots of these items in the 1980s would be greatly appreciated. If you're reading this Bob (or anyone else) and there is anything major we have missed please say.

Last weekend was spent ripping up track. The two long roads at the front of the layout that contain the washing plant and the toilet discharge points have had a number of changes made to them. In the original set up there was one crossover at the far end of the layout as below: This has now been removed so that left hand points are used instead of right hand points. The set of right hand points are now near to the washing plant to ease stock movements and remove the need to always go into the fuel road. New arrangements as below: The other addition seen on the plans is a wheel lathe at this far end of the layout for even more interest. So this now means more revisions to the wiring and more ballasting. In addition we have succesfully trialled an electro magnet so more of these will be installed. It seems to make far more sense to chop up the layout before any more scenery is added so trackwork revisions will take priority and then the serious business of bring the layout to exhibition standard can commence. I'll post some pictures when I have them but that won't be until early next week.

Looking through Rail Enthusiasts (at ridiculous o'clock last night) I found a photo of the Clansman on the back cover of the February 1986 edition. Taken on 23 October 1985 it shows 47615 on Mk2 air-con stock (BFK, 5 TSOs, RBR, FK?, BG?). This would appear to confirm that the Mk3s only ran for one year.