Waverley West

Order for two (25324 and an ETHEL) duly placed. It would be scarily easy to sign my life away on that website. A few more will follow I think once they move on to more Scottish examples. Interesting info re. 25301 being based at Eastfield though, sulzer 71!

Hello Alain, my now famous friend. I just wanted to echo Alcanman's message above. A very enjoyable video! Dave

Quite right too, Brian. The instructions on the bulkhead aren't even legible.

Ditto on both counts. Thanks for letting us know, Phil.

Such sad news. RIP Peter. We will miss you. My thoughts go out to his family. Dave

At last! Well, like quite a few other people it seems, I'm now reassessing my Class 25 plans too... My two SLW 24s are among my favourite locos, although the more mainstream nature of the 25 for my era (the 80s) is likely to see me buy a few more of these. Looking forward to further developments. Dave

Railfreight-liveried 26041 trundles through Edinburgh Waverley with a Speedlink service in the late 80s... Earlier in its journey, it was spotted passing through Princes St Gardens...

Hi folks, Well, I see it's been more than a month since my last confession. I've been working away on the Princes St Gardens section, along with a few workbench projects, whenever time permits. A few wet weekends have helped here and I'm pretty pleased with where I am now, just over two months since I started the revamp of this section of the layout. I have now reached the stage where the basics of the refresh are done - walls, ballasting, first batch of trees, lowered footbridges, weathering of track, etc., etc. I'm pleased to say trains are now running again. I've enjoyed doing both the station and the Princes St Gardens refreshes, but I do find it frustrating when I can't run any trains. I have also completed a couple of Railfreight-liveried 26s (Inverness-based 26038 and Eastfield-based 26041), along with one of my two new buffer-fitted HST power cars. I have also been testing my Mk 2 ScotRail-liveried push-pull rake. I've made some progress with this, but I have yet to get it running in both push and pull mode as smoothly as my Mk 3 rake. Anyway, here are some piccies of the current state of play... 26041 runs through Princes St Gardens with a Speedlink service... ...passing under the newly lowered footbridge... ...through the Mound Tunnels and out into Waverley... I've also weathered a couple of POA scrap wagons and fitted a scrap load... ...and weathered another Cargowaggon bogie van. I've modified the couplings on this van, by attaching them to the bogie instead of the body, as I just couldn't get it to run through reverse curves without derailing. It now runs just fine. Finally, Coal Sector 31130 has been finished and is now assigned to the nuclear flask train. Since the photo below was taken, I have blanked over the cab light, as this annoyingly illuminated every time the loco's lights were switched on. The loco has had one of its cab doors prised open permanently too. Next on the project list are detailing of the gardens section, including another batch of trees, plus various jobs to finish off the refresh. The Mound is also in need of a refresh now, as it's looking a bit tired after repeatedly being removed and put back in position during the station and gardens refreshes. I also have the second buffer-fitted power car to weather. I ordered a rear bogie for this which is fitted with a standard coupling and is otherwise very similar to the front bogie. The idea is to use the original bogie when the set is not being hauled and then swap to the coupling-fitted bogie when I want to haul the set as a failure. Testing the idea has been very successful. I've found it necessary to use a slightly longer coupling on the rescue loco, but otherwise everything worked really well. Push-fit connectors will enable the pickups on the bogie to continue to be used too when swapping bogies. So watch this space for some HST drags on WW! Varied motive power is guaranteed. I quite fancy double-headed Coal Sector 37s for starters... Hope to be back soon with another update and some more piccies of the new Princes St Gardens section. Stay safe, Dave

A quick question for Steve... Any chance of you doing the Grainflow wagon sheet in 4mm (currently only available in 7mm)? Dave PS Thanks for the great service over the past few years by the way.

I really enjoy running my layout in the dark, especially in winter when it is dark outside so much of the time. It's almost like another layout. Detailing and lighting coaches really adds to this I think. Here's a Bachmann Mk 2f fitted with passengers, corridor connections, coach letter labels, window destination labels and, in 1st class, curtains and antimacassars. I also add newspapers and other paraphernalia on the tables. When I fit lights myself, I use the ESU units fitted with a power pack, completely eliminating flicker altogether. As an added touch, I like to fit a window-hanging gricer at the window just behind the loco in some of my coaches... Add in some lit buildings and street lights and you have another world. It's very easy to concentrate on locos, but spending some time on coaches really pays dividend I think.

Hi folks, Just thought I'd post another whistlestop update on my recent progress. I'm now getting close to being happy with the colouring and tonal variation of the new walls in Princes St Gardens. They're much more like these walls were in the '80s now. A little more variation in colour mightn't go amiss perhaps, but I'm getting there now I think. Here are a few phone shots of the current state of progress with the ballast having been cleaned up ready for reballasting, the lowered footbridges in position and the new walls in place. Some track across the baseboard joints at the end of this section has also been replaced. 47708 Waverley (with newly dirtied roof) appropriately does the honours as it passes through the Gardens... With the trees removed, Princes Street can clearly be seen in the background at the moment. The next stage will be to repaint and prepare the bank on the left for new trees (yet to be made), reballasting and refitting of the fence. In other news, Coal Sector 31130 Calder Hall has been sound-fitted and weathered and now just needs reassembling. I also decided that 47555 looked too clean with its white-rimmed wheels, so that has been weathered to a workaday look. I have also sold the old sound chips from four of my HST power cars and ordered four new ones from legobiffoman. The old SWD ones were pretty good for their age, but I do love the drivelock feature of the v5 ESU chips, as it gives me complete control over engine speeds and loco speeds. I've gradually been standardising on legobiffoman sound chips over the past couple of years too. All in all, Lockdown 3 has been helping me make some decent progress recently. Hope to be back soon with another update. Stay safe, Dave

Rubbish, boring photos. Who wants to see photos of Edinburgh Waverley in the 80s? Eer, guv, got any more? Cheers David! Dave

Hi folks, Just thought I'd post a few pics which I took over the Christmas break. Firstly, some shots taken after I nipped down to the station one evening... 47593 and a push-pull set waiting for their respective departure times... 47550 arrived from the north with an evening sleeper service... An ScR inspection saloon then passed through... I then caught a DMU to Haymarket and made the trek to the depot... Cheers for now, Dave

Classic 1980s traction in view at Edinburgh Waverley...

Hi again folks, Here's my latest offering on youtube. Apologies for a few caption errors. I put it together in a rush. Doh. Alan Harrison's video of Waverley and Haymarket on youtube makes for an interesting comparison...

Thanks lms. I just keep looking at photos, videos, etc. and ponder how the layout differs from the real thing and how I can improve it. I think I'm gradually getting closer and closer. Digging up the ballast was definitely a deep breath moment and I nearly chickened out and just put the new ballast on top of the old stuff. Having done it, I think I might go back to the station area and dig up the ballast there now too. Cheers Dave

Hi folks, Firstly, a belated very Happy New Year to you all! Secondly, I thought I'd post a quick update on my recent exploits. I've been managing a fair amount of time up in the railway room since the start of the Christmas hols and Lockdown 2.0. Work has been under way on the Princes Street Gardens Refresh, to match the recent station throat refresh. The walls have now been clad in the new stonework, which was painted at the time of the station throat refresh (I managed to plan ahead for once). This is as yet unweathered, but it's the same colouring as the station throat. The challenge will be to get it to look similar after weathering. The capping stones on both sides of the line have also been added and now just need touching up and blending in. The two footbridges have also been lowered by around 25mm, to better match the prototypes in the gardens, which are (or at least were before electrification) surprisingly low. Yesterday, I took a very deep breath and began removing the old ballast in preparation for reballasting in a colour more typical of the 1980s. This was surprisingly successful and little damage was done to the wiring which was hidden by the ballast. I might even redo some parts of the station throat ballast, as the ballast in the station area sits a little high in places after simply being placed on top of the old ballast. Anyway, as a picture paints a thousand words, here are some piccies. WARNING: THIS POST CONTAINS GRAPHIC IMAGES WHICH SOME RMWEBBERS MAY FIND DISTURBING (I certainly do). IT SHOWS THE LAYOUT IN A STATE OF UNDRESS IT WAS NEVER MEANT TO BE SEEN IN. After lowering of the first footbridge and cladding of the walls... Work in progress to reconstruct the second footbridge after lowering... And now for the really upsetting scenes... To remove the ballast, I wetted it and left it for 10-20 minutes and then scraped it away using a teaspoon. It's currently being left to dry so that it can be hoovered up without blocking the hoover. The capping stones on the trackside walls have now been added. Lots still to do of course, but I'm pretty pleased with my progress so far, even if it does look a right mess. I wish I'd got it right first time, but I guess that's the joy of modelling - you're constantly learning and improving. Hopefully, it'll be a case of two steps back and three steps forward. Time will tell, I guess! The bank on the left-hand side will be cleared of grass and some low bushes/vegetation added. I will then make some replacement trees using the method I developed for the station throat, which I was very pleased with. In other news, 31130 has now been fitted with sound. Two Railfreight 26s have entered the works for sound-fitting too, as part of my plan to increase the number of 26s and 27s on the layout (which currently stands at six). In other sound upgrades, I have also sold the first two of my old HST sound-chips and ordered two replacements from legomanbiffo. The other two HSTs will follow suit soon. I've also pre-ordered the new InterCity Swallow buffer-fitted versions which are about to be released. If I can work out how to attach a working coupling to it, one of these will hopefully be used for HST drags. There were some interesting HST drags in Scotland in the late 80s/early 90s which I fancy recreating. Light-fitting of my coaching stock also continues, with the four-coach Mk 1 rake used on Fife services alongside the early Mk 2 rake now complete. Another three Mk 1s are now in the works being fitted with lights, to enable me to make up a 7-coach Mk 1 rake for excursions/specials/extra services with unusual traction. Well, I think that's all for now, folks. Hope to be back soon with another update. The big jobs ahead of me right now are the reballasting and weathering of the walls. Once those two jobs are done, the rest should follow without too much stress (he says hopefully). Stay safe, Dave

Happy Christmas to you and all the family, Mark. Hope to see you in the new year (eventually!). Dave

Hi folks, Well, things are a bit hectic here chez WW right now (as usual), but I just wanted to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. At least 2021 can't be any worse than 2020, can it?! A big thank you to everyone for dropping by this thread over the year. It's your input and feedback which makes it all worthwhile. I hope Santa brings you all the trains you've asked for and that you can make the most of whatever it is that we are, or aren't, allowed to do over the festive period. With the absence of a visit by the in-laws this year, I'm hoping for a bit of extra quality layout time this year over the next week or so. I'm hoping to make a start on the refresh of the Princes Street Gardens section. That's the big job ahead of me right now. Work on the fitting of lights to WW's coaching stock is also ongoing, and I have a Coal Sector 31 ready for sound-fitting on my workbench which will be allocated to the nuclear flask train. This will also free up a Coal Sector 26 for MGR services. Stay safe, Dave

More heavy freight passing Haymarket depot, this time an MGR service behind 56084...

A shot nicked from Modern Railways magazine in the late 1980s... Petroleum sector 47190 passing Haymarket depot with a rake of oil tankers.

Petroleum sector 47190 wheels a rake of oil tanks past Haymarket depot...

It's the Bachmann one for me. I originally had a fleet of Heljan 47s, which I liked a lot. They ran very smoothly too, but ultimately the width bothered me, once I bought my first Bachmann one anyway. So I sold all my Heljan ones and replaced them with the Bachmann version. I like the Bachmann one, although I find that the all-wheel drive makes them more prone to derailments than the Heljan version, which because of its floating centre axle on each bogie will happily negotiate most track imperfections, even mine. Filing back the plastic on the bogie where the centre axle clips in to give the axle more play helps a lot I find and derailments are no longer a problem on my layout now. I now have a fleet of Bachmann 47s which I'm very happy with. I will be watching Heljan's new version though when it's released. I'm not sure I will have the enthusiasm to go through with another wholesale fleet replacement though, especially as I like my Bachmann ones so much. I might make a few additions to my fleet from the new Heljan version, if it turns out as good as it should be.

Agreed, always a pleasure to catch up on your latest developments and videos, Alain. Dave

Hi folks, Just a quick couple of phone shots to show some of the details I've been adding to the station throat recently. Various relay boxes, a wheelbarrow, a couple of point clamp boxes (the blue boxes) and what I presume are power cables of some sort attached to the wall next to the tunnel entrance. A couple of PW workers deep in discussion as well to add a bit of life. The brick hut will be repainted at some point and there are plenty more details to add as and when I get round to it. The ScotRail Mk 2d push-pull rake is now nearing completion too, with just corridor connectors to fit, but that will need a bit of experimentation to determine the best way of doing it. More to follow soon I hope. Cheers Dave