Waverley West

Now for some shots taken in Princes St Gardens...

An HST arrives from Aberdeen, bound for Kings X

The view through The Mound Tunnels to a busy Waverley

27034 returns from Kirkcaldy

Meanwhile over at Haymarket MPD, the work to maintain the fleet continues

Once the latest projects are up and running on the layout, I have a few Accurascale Deltics that need weathering. I have sold all my Bachmann Deltics, except for white cab 55007 Pinza (a personal favourite), so the Accurascale ones are next on the list for weathering. New Bachmann GW150 Green 47484 Isambard Kingdom Brunel is also high up the list. This may replace GW150 47500, which may or may not be sold on. I haven't plucked up the courage to decide its fate as yet, mainly because I like the loco a lot.

I also have a fair few locos to sell on in order to raise funds for some more sound chips, as part of a "sell or get ready for the layout" policy to clear out locos that have been sat in their boxes for far too long (as in "years"). One thing I have learned recently though is that just because a loco or unit has been sat in its box for a long time doesn't necessarily mean I'll never get round to it. The recent 3-car 101s are a good example of this, as I'd been planning to do these for some time. It just took a bit of courage to get the hacksaw out and start cutting up perfectly good models!

It's really a question of being realistic as to whether a loco will ever actually run on the layout. Every few months, I like to go through what can be sold on in order to offset the cost of new purchases. I've yet to reach a situation where sales have covered the cost of new purchases over any length of time, but it does at least to help keep the cost at something like a manageable level.

That's all for now, folks. Hope to be back soon with another update.

Happy Modelling!

Cheers

Dave

Thanks for the New Year wishes, guys, much appreciated.

Just thought I'd post a quick update and a few photos from recent operating sessions.

I've been working away on a few projects recently which are now nearing completion. The next 3-car 101 is now almost complete. This is another blue-grey unit but this time with black window surrounds, numbered as Haymarket's 101306 and complete with Castle logo on the centre car. This just needs a few final touches and testing and then it can enter service. That will leave one more 3-car 101 to do, in the form of a Strathclyde-liveried unit. 

Another recent project has been Large Logo 47711, which is the new Bachmann version. This is also complete and just needs its CV1 address setting and then it is ready for final testing. This has been finished in workaday condition, with a grubby roof. 

The final project is banger blue 47012, another Bachmann loco. This has been finished in pretty grubby condition.

Hope to post some photos of the above projects as they make it onto the layout.

Now for some more piccies...

First up are some overall shots of the station in its night mode

27034 arrives on a service from Fife, closely watched by a gricer in the leading coach...

47636 waits to depart for Inverness

An HST departs Platform 19 bound for Aberdeen

Hi folks,

Just a quick fly-by post to wish everyone a very Happy New Year and post a couple of pics from a running session this week. The sessions have mostly been in night mode this week, with 47550 on the the sleeper service seeing a lot of action in particular. 

Hope to be back with an update soon.

Cheers for now

Dave

Hi folks,

Just thought I'd drop by and wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! 

Life and work are crazily busy right now, so I'm having to electronically recycle a Christmas card from a couple of years ago this year. There's no time for any more modelling updates just at the moment either, I'm afraid, except to say that another 3-car 101 is currently passing through the works, along with new Bachmann Haymarket-based Banger blue 47012. Hopefully, I'll manage to find time for some modelling and another update next week.

In the meantime, I hope Santa brings you all the trains you've asked for! 

Seasons greetings,

Dave

Here as promised are some more pics...

Hi folks,

Just thought I'd post some pics of the new 3-car class 101s. It's only taken me nearly 20 years to get round to doing them. I kept hoping and thinking that Bachmann were bound to produce a 3-car version of their 101 at some point, but when they moved on to other classes and altered the coupling/technology, it became increasingly clear that they weren't interested. Any self-respecting model of Waverley in the 80s has to have at least a couple of course, so...

... cue some head-scratching on how to produce a decent 3-car unit. I already had several 2-car units, so I started looking at a possible cut-and-shut project. I eventually decided that it was possible. The end results may not satisfy the purists, but they certainly meet my needs for 3-car 101s.

It's not a particularly cheap option, as each centre car sacrifices two power cars and the blue/grey versions are still pretty popular on ebay, so finding reasonably priced ones can take a little patience.

I have now completed two units, 101339 - an Eastfield-based unit with a Westie depot sticker on the centre car, and 101324 - a Haymarket-based example with a castle sticker in place of the Westie. I have also just started work on a third, which will probably be resprayed into Strathclyde PTE livery. 101s in this livery were not unusual on Fife and other services out of Waverley during the second half of the 80s. It was definitely a fascinating period of "anything goes" and that's what I've tried to recreate with my evolving collection of DMUs.

Anyway, here are some pics...

This is what the fuss is all about - the new centre car...

This is the modified previously "unpowered" driving trailer, now fitted with "engines" and associated exhaust pipes...

I spent some time thinking about what to do about the interior lighting, as these lights were far too bright as produced by Bachmmann. On my 150s, I rewired the chip so that they were on an auxiliary function on the chip. That involved running wires from car to car though, and I wasn't so keen to do it with a 3-car unit. In the end, I reduced the brightness of the lighting by changing the relevant CVs on the chip (262 and 270 if I remember rightly). I reduced the brightness from 31 right down to 3, and was pretty pleased with the end result, as the lights are barely visible in daylight but clearly visible in the dark. This also reduced the brightness of the marker lights, which were also too bright.

Watch this space for more pics... (in other words, looks like I've reached the 10Mb limit!).

Cheers for now,

Dave

Here are a few more shots, starting with 37012 Loch Lomond...

and 37114 Dunrobin Castle...

and yet another "new" 37 on WW in the shape of 37401 Mary Queen of Scots on a humble ballast train. This has replaced a previous incarnation of 37401 on the layout, which I was never entirely happy with for various reasons and seemed to spend all its time sitting in the sidings in the East Yard at Haymarket.  

Breaking the tractor monopoly is 47209 Herbert Austin parked by the north wall...

... and later on a rake of PCA cement tanks...

...and shortly after wheeling the rake through Waverley...

DMU and HST side-by-side on Platforms 18 and 19 respectively...

In other news, the cut-and-shut 3-car class 101 is nearing completion. It would have been virtually finished over the weekend if it hadn't been for the varnish aerosols jamming on me. Some replacements have been ordered, so hopefully it won't be long before it enters service now. Apart from final varnishing, all that's left to do now is to fit the engine components, exhaust pipes and some buffer beam detailing to the DMSL, as 3-car units had two engines rather than the one in the 2-car version (apart from power twin units, of course). 

The plan is to move straight onto another one, this time probably with black cab window surrounds. I am also contemplating a third one, this time in Strathclyde orange/black livery, having just picked up another 2-car unit very cheaply on ebay. It has proved to be a relatively simple project, at least once I had decided where to make the cuts on the bodies and chassis, not to mention where the wires needed to go inside the centre car.

Hope to be back soon.

Cheers for now,

Dave

Hi folks,

Just a few more piccies to show I don't intend to leave it another 11 months before posting again. I guess I could also post some of the photos that were lost in the Great Crash if people are interested.

First up, here is Coal subsector 26004 passing through Waverley on a cement train...

Followed not long after by Railfreight-liveried 26041 on a Speedlink service...

..and to complete a McRat trio, Inverness-based 27029 on PW train...

Cheers for now,

Dave

Thanks for the feedback, guys. Very much appreciated. It's made me wonder why I stayed away for so long! 

A few people have asked about the faded 20, Eastfield-based 20048. 20s always seemed to be particularly prone to fading, I guess because they weren't repainted very often, being a freight engine. I have long wanted to do a really faded one, so as I was replacing my trusty old Bachmann 20s with the new version, I thought now would be a good time to try. 

It is basically hand-painted, using a varying mixture of Railmatch BR Blue and white. The yellow is Railmatch faded warning panel yellow further diluted with white. The body sides seemed to be particularly prone to fading and thus paler than the rest of the loco. I made sure I kept the brush strokes vertical, to mimic rain streaking. After the general painting of the body, I went over it again with paler colours, gradually adding highlights and even more faded areas.

I must admit for most of this project, once I had started, I wondered what on earth I was doing. I seemed to be ruining a perfectly good brand new (and expensive!) Bachmann loco. Fortunately, the very last stage, weathering, proved to be a real eureka moment, when I suddenly saw what I had been trying to recreate come to life. The weathering involved the usual painting with Railmatch roof dirt, frame dirt/sleeper grime and weathered black, and then wiping it off again. The tops of the sole bars and the roof were treated to a covering with roof dirt using a Railmatch aerosol can, with weathered black around the exhaust outlets. A final dirty wash with roof dirt was then applied to tone everything done further.

I'm very pleased with how it turned out in the end. I think it looks good either on its own, with a Railfreight example or even with another unfaded BR blue loco. It is now a favourite loco on the layout, despite (or perhaps because of!) being the tattiest!

Hope that helps!

Cheers 

Dave

Some more shots of recent projects...

First up, some quick shots of another new addition... 37423 Sir Murray Morrison. This is a renumbering from a Bachmann Rf Distribution 37/4, fitted with Legomanbiffo sound and an iphone speaker, Fox Transfers nameplates and transfers and lightly to moderately weathered. The usual buffer beam detailing at one end, with the snowplough fixed to the chassis at one end, rather than the bogie (this makes a big difference to the appearance of the loco as it runs round the layout). Outer ploughs are fixed to the bogie at the other end to enable the tension lock coupling to be used.  The original driver was retained and repainted. A final coat of matt varnish was applied.

37012 sits basking in the sunshine, as driver Ben Doon wanders over to his next duty, taking over from Douglas Fir...

Finally for now, a smart-looking 37507 heads up the steel train with 37502...

It's wall-to-wall tractors at the moment!

Cheers for now,

Dave

As promised, here are a few more piccies...

As evening falls, platforms 12-15 are full of services waiting to depart to destinations across Scotland.

Weather-beaten and faded 20048 waits for its next duty...

Earlier in the day, it was 37012's turn to wait for its next duty...

37/4s have recently been infringing on what had previously been traditional class 47 territory.

Here is 37417 waiting to depart for Inverness....

Meanwhile, Railfreight 20132 and faded BR Blue 20048 wheel a Speedlink service through Princes St Gardens...

Followed shortly after by Inverness-based 27029 on a rake of ballast wagons...

Hi guys,

Thanks for your interest and your kind words. I see my last post was on Jan 17. Crikey! I guess I was knocked sideways by the Great RMWeb Crash, with the loss of all my pictures on this thread and have been lacking enthusiasm to pick up where I left off these past months. I actually still have copies of all the photos that were posted on this thread, so nothing has been lost, but the time to post them all again is a different matter.

I wasn't sure how much enthusiasm there was for me to resurrect this thread, but your kind enquiries have spurred me on to start posting again, so thank you! I've actually been pretty busy since January.

Completed projects have really centred around traction on the layout (as if I didn't have enough locos already!) and have included a complete refresh of my Bachmann 37 fleet, ready for the arrival of some Accurascale ones when they're released. I have yet to spend any cash on the new Bachmann version, mainly because of coincidental clashes with the same loco numbers in my recent refresh. I could renumber them of course, but I'm pretty happy with my recently refreshed/new 37s and looking forward to the new Accurascale ones. And then there's the price of new Bachmann locos of course, which is not to be sniffed at, as good as they are.

Several class 20s have also arrived, with my old Bachmann ones being sold off to make space (not to mention raise some cash to go some way towards justifying new purchases!). More on these later.

Other projects include the arrival of some 3D printed figures from ModelU, which really are excellent. I am now looking to gradually replace many of the figures on the layout with 3D printed versions over time as I track down suitable figures from the 80s.

There have also been one or two other new arrivals in the form of a new InterCity Swallow 47, now renumbered as 47840 North Star.

Also, don't mention this to anyone of a nervous, purist disposition, but there have also been some appearances by two 86s, one an old Heljan 86 which has been through the Waverley West Works to create 86204 City of Carlisle in InterCity Swallow livery, and a new Heljan 86/4 renumbered as 86416 Wigan Pier. These are just for a bit of fun and I have actually really enjoyed running them round the layout, even without any wires. 😮😮😮 And no, there are no plans to put up any catenary at Waverley West. It is set to remain firmly in the 80s.

As regards rolling stock, I've finally completed my rake of weathered Hornby cement PCAs, suitably gunged up with cement over the top of the barrel. I've also bought a few Accurascale PCAs to mix in the rake for a bit of variety, but these will probably not get done for a while, as I have too many other projects on the go.

My current project is two cut-and-shut jobs to create two centre cars for my class 101 met-cam units. These units ran almost exclusively as 3-car units from Waverley and are absolutely essential for any model of Waverley in the 80s, but Bachmann frustratingly seem to be content with only producing 2-car units. I could have gone for a Hornby version, but I managed to pick up a couple of 2-car Bachmann units reasonably cheaply (in modern terms anyway) and thought it would be fun to try and make a centre car out of each. The first car is progressing well now and starting to near completion. More on this later.

Anyway, that's enough waffle for now. I have quite a few piccies to post, but for now here are a few recent ones...

The nights are fair drawing in now, as 47470 University of Edinburgh waits to take out a service to Inverness, alongside a push-pull rake which will shortly be heading for Glasgow Queen St.

I have recently remapped the functions on my Mk2f DBSO's so that the driver's cab light is on a different function, meaning they can now run with the driver's cab light out. My push-pull stock is mainly fitted with ESU light bars, where the default "on" function is the same as Bachmann's function for the driver's cab on the DBSOs. This issue has now been rectified.

If anyone is interested in this kind of project (function remapping in particular, i.e. moving functions around), I can thoroughly recommend investing in a LokProgrammer.

As well as the DBSO cab light function remapping, I have for example recently used it to have the interior lighting in my class 150 units as a separate function from the running lights, as the interior lights are too bright for daytime running. I have also removed the annoying "switch" sounds that Bachmann insists on adding to the light functions on its new 47. That's in addition to the usual programming of loco numbers, etc. DC-Kits also offer an online reprogramming service which enables me to reprogram decoders with new sounds.

Below, a driver makes his way to another new arrival on the layout, 37403 Isle of Mull. I chose 37403, as it brings back happy memories of holidays spent on the island.

Below, another new arrival, 47004 from Eastfield depot, threads its way through Princes St Gardens with a rake of cement PCAs. It was only after taking these photos that I noticed how high the PCAs are compared with the Bachmann 47. It's nowhere near as obvious with the Bachmann 37 for some reason. I think rewheeling the PCAs with some smaller wheels might help.

Another new rake is a rake of Cavelex's excellent new BBAs, normally hauled by a new pairing on the layout, red stripe railfreight 37502 and near- ex works metals subsector 37507. They make a fine sight and sound plying their way round the layout.

Yet another new 37 is 37114 Dunrobin Castle, complete with bonnet-fitted car headlight, seen here parked up at Waverley waiting for its next duty...

Another new 37 is metals subsector 37423 Sir Murray Morrison. This is a renumbered exampled from a Railfreight Distribution example, not the new Bachmann one about to be released. Here it is, hauling a rake of ballast wagons through Princes St Gardens.

Well, it looks like I've reached my upload limit for this post, so I'll sign off for now. There are plenty more where these came from though, so I will be back soon.

Cheers for now and happy modelling!

Dave

That cab door looks open to me. Can't see anyone around either. Definite cabbing opportunity!