Waverley West

Thanks guys and thanks especially to Mark too. Glad you like the speed shots. I like taking them too! Not too much to talk about on the modelling front recently. The HST coaches are progressing well and are ready for their transfers now. One smaller project I've been working on recently is an attempt at improving my 60009 Union of South Africa which takes charge of most of my railtours. I've spent some time on it to put it into "preservation mode" with red nameplates and the crest on the cabside. I have also painted the chassis of both loco and tender and given the bodywork a rub down with T-cut followed by a polish. As much as I liked the model I always felt that it looked a bit toy-like. I'm quite pleased with the results and will post some more pics soon, but in the meantime here's another speed shot or two to give you an idea of what she looks like now... Peter - you're right about timetables needing a lot of stock. I basically don't have room on the layout for all the stock that's needed (even if I had it). I do need to think about a split level fiddle yard really. It's another project on the list and one that will require a bit more thought and time I think as space is tight as you probably realise. To be able to run anything like the stock needed for a real timetable would be brilliant though. So much variety. That was one of the reasons I plumped for Waverley in the first place, quiet apart from my memories of the place in the good old days. Right now I'm hoping the Bachmann blue 105 will be out soon. I have a white/blue stripe 108 ready to (mis)match with it, just to give a flavour of that hotchpotch of DMUs on the ScR in the 80s. In the meantime, back to the HST coaches. Cheers for now, Dave

Speaking of railtours, here's The Forth Centennial at speed back in 1990... Or if you prefer your locos in colour... Cheers, Dave Waverley West

Brilliant, thanks Carl. Fascinating stuff. Hi folks, Just thought I'd post a few quick pics seeing as "I'm here".... Better go! Cheers, Dave

Hi Richard, Just been looking through this thread for the first time in a while. Your progress is very impressive. I love the subtle colouring and the general "real" feel about the layout. Nothing is overdone, which is great. I was wondering what static grass mixes you have used? I've looked through the thread but I couldn't find any mention of the actual types/makes you use anywhere, apologies if I have missed it. I'm looking to use static grass on my layout and I like the look and colouring of yours. Cheers, Dave

This is what the hobby should all be about in my view, bringing back happy memories of yesterday or yesteryear. Lovely stuff! Cheers, Dave

Hi folks, Here's one from Waverley West. 150 285 prepares to leave Waverley on a service to Dundee... Cheers, Dave Waverley West

Hi Dave Is it just a roof or is there something on top with people inside? Perhaps thats the difference? Cheers Jim Hi Jim I think the roof is probably quite a bit higher than BNS. There isn't anything on top of the roof, although there are buildings on Waverley Bridge itself. Hi Mark, Thanks for those shots. Always nice to see photos of the station in any era. Hi folks, I've finally managed to do a bit more modelling recently. The 1986 timetable is now pretty much finished - all 37 pages of it! At a rough guess I'd say it contains around 500 arrivals/departures per day. Should be enough to keep me occupied. It's based on a Friday in August 1986. The interiors of my HST Mk 3s are now finished and the bodies have entered the paintshop. More on this as they progress. The dummy point motors in the station/Princes St. Gardens section are now ready for glueing down. These are the Peco ones and replace the old Knightwing ones which weren't as accurate. The Peco ones look the part I think and compare well with ones I've seen at Waverley, not to mention everywhere else. Here are some pics seeing as I haven't posted any for a while... A rather grubby 37693 at speed on the 6B66 13.30 Speedlink service from Perth to Millerhill. 150 285 on a service to Dundee... Cheers for now, Dave

Hi Jim, Yes, it is. In fact I think steam tours are relatively frequent occurrences there. Not quite sure why Waverley should be treated differently as it is very similar to BNS as you say. Cheers, Dave

Hi Stewart, Thanks for your kind words. Sorry for the delay in getting back to you. Spare time has been a bit limited recently to say the least, hence the lack of postings recently. Anyway, I look forward to your layout thread! As regards a kettle. yes, there is a kettle on Waverley West, in fact several make appearances from time to time. 60009 is the overwhelming favourite. Back in the early 80s, I was lucky enough to visit her when she was at Markinch and she's been a favourite of mine ever since. My version of her is actually in the works at the moment undergoing some slight improvements (fitting of red nameplates, the transfer on the cabside plus a little T-cutting perhaps to give her a more realistic finish. She will be back soon though. I'll post some pics if anyone is interested. She is used on railtours. My other steamies are 6233 Duchess of Sutherland, another favourite, and 4936 Kinlet Hall. I am currently trying to resist a new Hornby castle. I could easily be tempted by the forthcoming Tintagle Castle. Cheers for now, Dave

She looks absolutely stunning, Mike. Can't wait to see her in the flesh. I can't believe I just wrote that on a railway modelling forum. Cheers, Dave

I certainly will Jim. Just had a quick look on e-bay - Bristol TM and Paddington only at the moment. Grrrr. Will keep looking. Cheers, Dave

Thanks for that, Jim. Will do. They sound useful. Cheers, Dave

Nice shot that Mike. Nice to know 20226 will be gainfully occupied. Cheers, Dave

Hi folks, It's been a bit quiet on the modelling front recently for various reasons. A major reason is my 1986 timetable, which is very much still a "work in progress". 23 pages and 400 arrivals/departures down, "just" 76 pages of the working timetable to go now. Hmmm. This situation probably isn't going to change much in the near future, so in the meantime, seeing as I haven't posted any "speed pics" recently, I thought I'd do a few... Cheers for now, Dave

Eastfield's 20226 has now been allocated to the Caolisport trial and will be on its way as soon as soon as a suitable path/working can be found. Its partner, Haymarket-allocated 20085, may be a bit lonely though, as it's hardly ever been parted from 226 before. Ahhh, bless them! Should give me a good chance to run it either on its own or with a 37 or something like that for a change though. Like Peter says, the ferry's not turned out too bad really. Better than I thought it would anyway. Can't wait for its first docking. Cheers, Dave

Hi Stu, Yes, some improved Mk 3s would be nice. An InterCity version with the right shade of InterCity pale grey would be a nice start though. My main wish as regards coaching stock though is for new air-con Mk 2s (and a Mk 1 sleeper). I find it hard to believe we're seeing all these early relatively obscure diesel locos being produced without anyone doing any decent coaching stock from the past 50 years, Bachmann Mk 1 excepted. Re. the 107 - Remove the three screws underneath the chassis. After that, it's really just a question of carefully prising the body off the chassis. At each end of the coach, the glazing panels have clips which clip over lugs on the chassis. If you prise open the side of the body on one side (starting at the corridor connection end say), you should be able to release this clip and open the body slightly on one side. Repeat this on the other side and one end of the body should now come away from the chassis. Now do the same at the other end. That should do it. I learned from bitter experience on my first blue/grey one (I broke the clip), but fortunately I don't think it's too noticeable as the body still sits OK. Hope that helps. Cheers, Dave

Hi folks, I put this post on a separate Wheeltapper's thread, but I thought I'd put it here too to maximise exposure: I'm doing the Great North Run (half-marathon) on September 19th for Children with Leukaemia, and am looking to raise as much money as possible for this worthy cause. I have a minimum target of £350 to raise, so please sponsor me as much as you can! Any donation you can give would be very gratefully received, not just by me of course but also by the charity itself and all the children they do so much to help. You can donate via the following webpage: http://uk.virginmone....com/DavidSegar Virgin Money Giving is a non-profit making site. Alternatively, you could send me your donation direct to me - please PM me for details. As you can imagine, the training is seriously starting to make inroads on my modelling time, but the cause and the challenge make it all worthwhile. I have done a few half-marathons before so I know what's involved but this will be the first one I have done for a couple of years. With thanks in advance for whatever donation you can give. Cheers, Dave Waverley West PS This post has been cleared with Andy Y.

Bruce, Thanks a million for those. Absolutely priceless. Cheers, Dave PS I'm not too bothered about the quality if you have any more. The info I can get from the photos is all that matters. You could always post them on my layout thread if you'd prefer.

Hi Stu, I'll do a video of the signals in action. Nice photos! Re. the Mk 3s, I'm actually respraying some "old" (i.e. old, but new style) Hornby Mk 3s that I already have in blue/grey. The Lima ones look OK but I've never been keen on the glazing compared with the new Hornby version. It would be nice to see Hornby improve their version further too really (especially tinted glazing and NEM coupling sockets) but that's probably asking too much. Carl, that's brilliant. Exactly the sort of thing I was looking for. Cheers!

You certainly know how to destroy a man, Carl. Here am I, sat in my windowless padded cell, no hope of release and having had my crayons taken off me, so I can no longer scrawl my plans for my new Oban layout on the wall, and then you go and say that. I hope you feel some sense of responsibility for what you've done to me.

Hi folks, Am now back from a wettish couple of weeks in North Wales, so modelling can now resume. Plenty of narrow gauge railways were visited though of course, along with the very scenic Cambrian Coast line, so I managed to avoid any withdrawal symptoms. I did manage to get some modelling done while I was away. I almost completed a certain LBSCR E2 0-6-0 tank in a larger scale than I'm used to working with... In the driver's seat is the youngest member of the family who is showing worrying symptoms of also having contracted Rail Enthusiasts' Disease. I also (and this is the sad bit) worked on my 1986 timetable. I have the all-line timetable for 1986 plus the main working timetable for Edinburgh/Scotland covering the same period. I already have one for 1981-2 (without the working timetable bit at present), but I wanted one for 1986 too. I have still to finish transferring the working times to the timetable, but it is well on the way now (and so it should be at 19 pages and counting!). Here is the first page to give you an idea of what it looks like... Arrivals/departures in the same colour are through trains. Having the working timetable has enabled me to add non-passenger workings as well as reporting codes, timing loads, etc. which adds realism to operations I think. Eventually I want to do one for 1989 too, but that will have to wait as I first need to forget how tedious, not to mention time-consuming, doing it can be at times. The big problem is that it means I will somehow have to fit a lot more stock onto the layout at any one time in order to operate the timetable accurately. Queue much racking of brain as to how I can fit in some storage sidings. They will have to be on a level below the layout itself, so some sort of spiral arrangement may be necessary. The decision to go for 1986 has meant that I need a new HST in the original InterCity Executive livery. This has now entered the works, although progress so far has been limited to the interiors of the coaches. I'm respraying some spare blue/grey coaches I already had, so I'm currently wondering how best to do the silver window frames of the InterCity livery neatly. Any suggestions would be welcomed! Better go and do some work I suppose. More updates to follow. Cheers for now, Dave

Hi Stu, The signals are fully operational with working theatres and call-on signals. They were made by Roger Murray. I don't actually have a signal panel, as all the signals are controlled through the route setting function on my ZTC511. When I select a route, all the points and signals for that route are set automatically. In the future I'd like to install block detection and possibly computer control, possibly using a new control system but that's a project for the future for now. PS The 107 is superb, highly recommended! The passengers are from the bulk Preiser packs (48 seated passengers in each I think). I get them from Gaugemaster. Being fully painted they're still not cheap (but they are a lot cheaper than the smaller packs proportionally), but they do save a lot of time! They do make a difference though I think and all my stock will eventually be fitted with them.

Hi Peter, Have just got back from holiday (in North Wales actually!) and been catching up on your thread. Glad to hear you're feeling better, even if it does mean going back to work! The extension's looking nice. Nice sweeping curves. They always make trains look good I think. I especially like the cable tubes. Wish I'd thought of those before I laid the track on Waverley West. I like the TPO too. Have got a few myself, so I'm looking forward to putting those on. Good to see your timetable too. I've always had one for WW but I spent quite a bit of time in the evenings while on holiday working on mine (yes, a bit sad I know). I now have the all-line timetable and the main working timetable for Waverley for 1986, so I've been working on putting together a comprehensive table including non-passenger trains too this time. Will post my efforts on my layout thread when I get chance. Having a timetable always makes trains seem that bit more real to me I think. "The 10.45 Llanbourne to Llandudno" sounds so much better than "a 45 with Mk II coaches going somewhere". Looking forward to more updates. Cheers, Dave