Waverley West

There will inevitably be two camps here - those who think the errors are too great to make it worthwhile spending their hard-earned cash and those who can live with them, but for those who already have Bachmann 45s and 47s (which I think will form a big part of the market for Heljan's new versions) the big issue with both the 45 and the 47 is that they have to be better than the previous versions by a margin which justifies spending hundreds of pounds on them. I have 3 Bachmann Peaks and I'm very happy with them. Only one is run regularly at the moment and the other two are awaiting the fitting of lights and sound. I have many more Bachmann 47s than I'd like to admit and all are sound-fitted and in regular service. I like them a lot too. So, the question for me and many other modellers is: do I think the Heljan versions are so much better that they are worth spending a lot of my hard-earned cash on? When I first saw the pre-production model in the photos above, I must admit I did think it didn't look quite right. Not being an expert on Peaks, I couldn't put my finger on it, but YesTor points out the errors very clearly. Bachmann's 45 and 47 may have errors themselves, but they did represent a substantial improvement over the previous versions (IMHO anyway) and the bar for Heljan is now set that much higher. I realise 3D scanning of locos and coaches must be expensive, but it does seem to me to be a surefire way of eliminating all these shape-related niggles that risk putting people off buying a model. If it is at all affordable, I really do wish it was used far more often than it seems to be. At the moment, the Heljan Peak is very much in the wait and see camp for me and I'll be hanging on to my Bachmann 47s for the time-being too. I was really hoping the arrival of Ben Jones at Heljan would see an end to the company's errors, but it seems the jury is still out on that one. What worries me is that major changes would presumably be necessary to correct the errors that YesTor points out. The rivets would presumably be fairly straightforward, but my guess is that the cab window shape and bodyside curvature errors will be a step too far for Heljan to correct. I really hope I'm wrong. At the moment, the shape errors on the Peak look like they might just be saving me a significant amount of money. Like others, it's so easy to be a keyboard warrior, but I have to justify spending big bucks on models and right now the Peak does not look like it's going to be a sufficient improvement over my Bachmann versions for me to do that. I was looking forward to both the Heljan 45 and the 47. I'm still hoping not to be disappointed...

I was thinking of replicating that photo, but unfortunately I don't have a domino headcode 47 at the moment. One for the future though maybe!

Drool. Thanks smallwonder! Dave

Yep, thanks St Enodoc. Fantastic and just what I'm always on the lookout for!

Yes, absolutely fantastic reference photos for me, especially the Princes St Gardens ones, as I'm about to refresh the gardens section on the layout, so these will be invaluable reference photos. I recently searched this thread for all the other photos of relevance to WW (again) too and came up with some more brilliant ones. The whole thread is fantastic and fascinating, so a huge thanks once again to DaveF for posting them and keeping it going. Oh and just one more thing... more please! Dave

Many thanks, David. The Princes St and Princes St Gardens sections of the backscene are basically a montage of photographs which I took myself pasted onto a photo backscene of blue sky. That's good old-fashioned cut and pasting using scissors and glue, not on a computer! I managed to take most of the photos I needed from suitable vantage points along the flanks of Castle Hill below the castle itself. One day, I'd like to treat myself to a professionally done backscene, although probably using many of the same photos as I am generally happy with those. Some sections of the backscene are looking a little tired now, after nearly 20 years of use. Dave

Thanks Phil. I always spray the chassis of my locos with my trusty mix of Railmatch Frame Dirt/Sleeper Grime/Roof Dirt/Weathered Black. I normally just use the aerosol cans, as I think they produce a coarser and more realistic finish for grubby loco chassis. I then apply a mix of dirty brown/grey/black weathering powders over the chassis, making sure there is some realistic variation. I then just use a small brush to apply the "grease" to the buffer heads in the form of matt black or weathered black. Dave

Hi Rob, The method for tracklaying and weathering I use is as follows: 1. First, lay the track and test run your trains to make sure everything is working OK and derailment-free. 2. Using Railmatch aerosols, I then spray the track in-situ with a mixture of Railmatch Frame Dirt/Sleeper Grime/Roof Dirt/Weathered Black according to the finish I want to achieve. 3. I then ballast the track. I mainly use Greenscene ballast, although I also use Woodland Scenics too. Always use the finest grade of ballast. (i.e. basically N gauge ballast. The supposed 00 gauge ballast types generally look far too coarse for me). 4. Finally, I spray the track using the same mixture with loose sheets of paper (newspaper or kitchen roll) placed on either side of the track covering areas which I don't want to be sprayed. I only place the sheets loosely by the track and often a few mm's or more above the track level. This produces a slightly feathered effect to the edge of the track weathering, which I think is much more realistic. Studying photos of track suggests that the edge of the sleepers is normally as far as most track grime extends laterally, although there are plenty of exceptions of course. 5. If desired, finish with a slight dusting of the whole track and adjacent ballasted areas to tone everything down and blend it all together. That's basically it. I'm not yet entirely happy with the look of the reballasted station throat, so a bit more titivation is required I think before I can consider the refreshed trackwork finished. Hope that helps! Dave

Hi folks, Here as requested is a description of the method I used to make the trees for my recent station refresh... I used the following: 1. Gaugemaster seafoam (GM 195) for the basic trees 2. PVA glue 3. Woodland Scenics spray bottle 4. Halfords car primer. I used grey, but red would do too. 5. I initially used Railmatch Frame Dirt aerosol, but moved on to a mix of frame dirt plus white using my airbrush. I was actually pretty happy with the original aerosol finish, but I think the mix applied by airbrush offers more flexibility as regards colour. 6. A variety of Woodland Scenics fine turf scatter, including green grass and blended turf. I'm still experimenting with different colours of foliage, as I haven't found a suitable spring green as yet. The method I used was as follows: 1. I drilled a number of well-spaced holes along a length of wood and placed the seafoam in the holes. 2. The trees were first sprayed with a 1:4 mix of PVA glue and water and left to dry. This improves their strength a little. 3. Once dry, they were sprayed with Halfords grey car primer. 4. They were then sprayed with Railmatch Frame Dirt. After studying lots of trees around the village, I later started using a mix of frame dirt and white to produce a lighter shade. I thought the basic frame dirt aerosol finish looked pretty good too though. 5. The parts of the trees where I wanted the foliage to be were then sprayed with a 1:2 mix of PVA plus water using the spray bottle. The foliage was then sprinkled over the tree with an ice cream tub placed below to catch all the excess foliage for reuse. While the glue is still wet, use a small modelling brush to wipe off the foliage which sticks to the tree trunks and branches, rather than the ends of the branches were most of the foliage on trees tends to occur. If you look at trees though, many have their trunks covered in ivy and other vegetation anyway, so this last bit is optional. Leave to dry overnight. 6. You should end up with trees that look something like this... It's a pretty quick and easy method. I managed to produce over 20 trees in a weekend a couple of weekends ago. Using a plank of wood to hold the trees speeds up the process and makes drying them easier. They're a big improvement on the previous trees in this part of the layout, I think. It's on to Princes St Gardens next to refresh that with new walls and vegetation. Hope that helps! Stay safe, Dave

Nice, Alain, even though it isn't a Scottish locomotive, as you say! Is that Heljan's factory weathering on the 33? Hope all is well with you and your family, Dave

Another one of 47642 which got left out...

Thanks, James. High praise indeed! I'll have to get back to you on this, as there's quite a lot to sift through, but I'd be more than happy to help in any way I can. In the meantime, greetings from me and my walking partner, who turned 8 yesterday. I can't believe it. It seems only yesterday she looked like this... Ahhhh!

Thanks guys for your positive feedback. I will get round to describing my methods for tree-making and ballasting, I promise! In the meantime, here are some more piccies to amuse you...

27052 arrives from Dundee... 47716 back from GQS again... Another HST arriving from Aberdeen... The reballasted station throat. Plenty of work still to do, but it's getting there...

Hi folks, Just thought I'd post a few pics from a very enjoyable running session up in the railway room this afternoon... 47716 arrives from GQS... 47107 wheels a Freightliner service through the station... While 47593 looks as though it's about to be started up... The scene over at Haymarket MPD... Meanwhile RES 47745 arrives at Waverley with a rake of parcels vans... 47716 heads back to GQS...

Some close-ups of the trees. And finally a shot showing two model trees on either side with a couple of trees on the photo backscene in the middle. So I don't think I was too far away from getting it right... These close-ups are pushing the limits of my phone camera, so I'll hopefully be back with some better shots when I get chance. Dave

Thanks, Peter. I'll gladly put together a quick tutorial. I'm very happy with the trees. I'll be back! Dave

Hi folks, Another quick update as Project Station Refresh takes another step forward. Trees are now returning to Waverley West in significant numbers. After studying lots of trees on my walks around the village, I'm now using a lighter colour for the bark on the trees, which I think improves them further. Some 15 or so trees are now temporarily in place at the moment, with a production line set up to produce many more. The hedge has also been installed temporarily while I come up with a final arrangement for everything. I think having gaps in the hedge actually works pretty well and doesn't look a bit silly, like I thought it might. I guess that's because I've been looking at so many photos of that hedge which show the gaps. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to track down one single photo that shows the whole hedge and its gaps, so a bit of guesswork will be needed. I don't think that will be a problem though. Here are some quick phone piccies of the current state of the layout. More trees to follow soon, as they're actually quite quick to make. I think I will be planting some in the countryside section of the layout too, as I am very pleased with them and think they look the part. And there's Princes Street Gardens to follow too of course. That brick hut needs painting and refurbishment too at some point soon. And then there's the cable trunking to do as well. More relay cabinets and other similar gubbins (technical term that) will follow too. I think it's all coming together now... And a final one in B&W... Hope to be back soon with another update as Waverley West "goes green". Stay safe one and all, Dave

Mrs WW saw off a couple of crows last night which were attacking a red squirrel on a tree in our garden. It was lucky she was saw it happen. It ran off with its nut though and later came back for more, so I think it was OK.

Thanks Peter. I find it's a bit of a problem with Bachmann Co-Co bogies generally (including my 37s). They don't seem to attach very securely and often look a bit on the low side to me, even when apparently securely fitted. Will check 47715! Cheers Dave

This post is no. 4,000 in this thread, stretching back some 17 years or so. Who'd have thought it! When I started building the layout (2003'ish), the 1980s seemed to be in the not too distant past. Now, it's 30-40 years ago. Crikey, where did the time go? Thanks for all your feedback and input, guys. I really do appreciate it. I hope you're still enjoying the thread, as there is no end in sight to the projects I have planned and am planning. Stay safe, Dave

Plus a couple more...

Hi folks, I had a very enjoyable and productive session in the railway room last night. Six trees were finished off, ready for planting on the layout later today hopefully. I also managed to solve an annoying derailment problem with a couple of Bachmann 47s, which was tracked down to the frames sitting too low on one of the bogies. I then fixed a signal which had stopped responding to the controller. It was just a simple resetting of the signal's addresses, but I always find it satisfying to fix problems so quickly (well, after reading the instruction manual anyway - yes, it was that bad). Whenever I look under the layout now, I come out in a cold sweat, as the wiring under there is so complicated and tracing wiring faults does involve a lot of tracing wires here, there and everywhere. Fortunately, no problem has defeated me yet and electrical problems are pretty rare. I really shouldn't have said that. Anyway, the troubleshooting session was followed by a quick running session involving one of the push-pull sets, 47546 and 47642 pootling around the station. These shots show off the new colouring of the tunnel portals and the wall, which is now a decent match for the National Gallery on The Mound. 47642 arriving from Haymarket... Followed shortly after by 47546... And finally 47715 arriving from GQS. 47716 had been on this service until recently, but had been removed due to the derailing problem, now fortunately resolved.

Hi Peter Hope all is well. That orange top is actually based on my Peter Storm cagoule which I wore when out spotting throughout much of the 80s! Dave

27052 draws into Platform 17 at Edinburgh Waverley closely watched by a gricer in the front coach...