Jump to content
 

sixteen 12by 10s

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    1,066

  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    2

 Content Type 

Blog Entries posted by sixteen 12by 10s

  1. sixteen 12by 10s
    So where did it all start, one Saturday night in January 1989, standing on the end of Glasgow queen street station, looking at 37408, that was not in the best of health at the time, having been thrashed to pieces on the West highland line. The following conversation with my mate, and several cans of beer, and the “moves book” became a layout design book. From the sketches Lochaline was produced, a West Highland terminus set in the late 1980’s. We did a few local shows, but the invites stopped, and the layout packed away.
    Years later, I was sat outside a cottage on Skye, it was a hot and clear day, and you could see over to the mainland, to an area known as Moidart, it was then I sketched out a plan that was to become Glenuig.
    The construction of the layout is documented on these pages, and it was this thread that led to an article in Model Rail, with photos by Chris Nevard, and following this article came my first exhibition invite, to my local show at Stoubridge. Again I thought I would attend one or two local shows so when I has an invite to Railex North East and Wigan, it came as a bit of a surprise. From then on the show invites flooded in and I had to start to limit the number I was signing up for and I had to turn a few down for the early part of this year.
    Just before Christmas last year, an RMweb member suggested I contacted the exhibition manager of Model Rail Scotland, I did, and within a few hours I received an invite to exhibit at Model Rail Scotland 2013. As I have said I was rather busy at this time, but how could I refuse to take Glenuig back to where it had all began. I booked a few days holiday and the other half decided she wanted to join in the fun, and come along too. We decided to spend another couple of days north of the boarder, how could I resist the opportunity.

    We set out for the show on the 300 mile journey north on the Thursday morning, and had a stop off at Martin Mere, Wild fowl and wetlands trust, for a spot of birding, before carrying on up the M6 and M74.
    The three days of the show did not go without problems, and Glenuig suffered from expansion problems, but we managed to cope, and even Jan’s operating improved throughout the three days.
    The layout was very well received, and I have ended up with invites into 2016. The best part of the event was meeting fellow Rmwebbers, who I have been having chats over the interweb for years.

    17.00 on Sunday night came quickly and the layout packed up and our QES was deployed (quick escape system!) or a layout on wheels, meant that we left the site at 17.45. At 18.30, another first as Glenuig, now in the car, passed under the real West Highland for the first time, at Arracar, on the way to Inveraray.
    The next day, we woke up to a clear day and not to cold, so without any hesitation, we headed out to Glen Coe via Rannoch Moor, and during the tour Glenuig, still in the car, visited the real Bridge of Orchy. This was a bit poignant as bridge of Orchy is my new project.
    This next day it was back down to earth, with the what seemed to be the never-ending drive down the M74, and M6.
    Thanks go to all who have helped along the way, Stewart, Ian, and at some point I would love to do it all again!

  2. sixteen 12by 10s
    First, thanks all for your helpful comments.
     
    Well this all started last year when I found this photo in my collection, it appears to be “Concrete Bob†37425, just about to top County March summit, hard to think that this was an ordinary service train.
     

     
    it looks like I am going to jump in at the deep end, and make a start on Bridge of Orchy
    A few things,
     
    The doughnut design, I have had a ply around with a conventional layout, but to fit on say a 3' by 8' board, I would start to get tight bends, and that is one of the things I was trying to avoid.
    Number of boards in the doughnut, I had a play around with 7, but, I would then only be able to have 3 scenic boards, because of matching them with the fiddle yard boards, to form a box, and still get the whole thing to fit in the car. So it looks like I am stuck with 6, which will make up into 3 box's.
     
    Track and wheel standard, I think I am going to go for the compromise, I have read Toms blog and Eldavo's thread, and for me it looks the way to go. The main reason for this is, I am going to need about 8 trains, of 6 to 7 coach lengths, and it would be a lot to convert. I will order the bits and have a go.
     
    Track construction, Easitrac , for the plain track, and some points built using Easitrac components. A lot of the mainline, is, was flat bottom rail and pandrol clip design, so where the turnouts are built using this method, I will use FB rail and PCB sleepers.
     
    Control, DCC again, and if I can afford it! With sound, it is yet to be seen, or rather heard, weather a sound fitted class 37 can make enough noise to represent one slogging up County March!.
     
    I have had a bit of a dabble, and produced a 2mm association mineral wagon kit, and had a go at making some D&G couplers.
     
    Thanks
     
    Gary
     
     

  3. sixteen 12by 10s
    Glenuig has been on the exhibition circuit, for over a year now, and I have bookings for 2014 and beyond. I an now looking at a follow up project, and have found myself with a big dilemma.
    First I have made my mind up on a few points in my plan.
    Some kind of 2mm standard
    Set on the West Highland, in the 1980's
    Well the latter sound familiar, but the 2mm?. This scale has impressed me in the way you can produce a model of a railway in its scenic setting, and it is the creative and scenic side of the hobby that interest my the most. So what track standard, I don't like the look of standard N gauge track, it just looks too chunky, so 2mm finescale looks like the one to go for. The job of making the track has become easier of late, with the introduction by the 2mm associations “Easytrackâ€, when this is carefully laid and ballasted, it looks the business.
     
    Now to the location
    I have a sketch of an imaginary halt, shack, which would by the next stop up the line from Glenuig. If I went ahead with this option, it would be small and a good tester in this new scale to me.
     

     
    But
    The one I really want to do, is Bridge of Orchy, this layout would be built on a 8' “doughnut†with the station loop taking up just under half of the viewing area. I would use DCC and sound on this one, the station is in a dip with steep banks out in ether direction. I would set the date at about 1985, so retaining the semaphore signalling, and will just allow me to use 374's, 370's, 27's 20's and the odd 26 and 25.
     

     
    So the big decision, do I just “go for it†and make a start on Bridge of Orchy, or start with the smaller, and see how I get on.
     
    Gary
  4. sixteen 12by 10s
    I though this might interest some modellers, and I know some of you are involved in railway preservation.
    I have been involved, with the Class Forty Appeal, for some 23 years, and have held the post of technical officer and engineer, for my sins. A few years ago we visited the GCR with our 37190 and our class 50, no other than Sir Edward Elgar, number 7. During their time there, both locos suffered damage to their heat exchangers. These units cool the engine oil by exchanging the heat to the water cooling system, and out via the radiators. Having both these locos out of service for all of last year, the group is now looking for a moral booster. The 37 is in the middle of a body overhaul and repaint, so the other loco we could get going was 50007. The heavy heat exchanger had been removed last year and a spare tested, now all we needed to do was to get the spare into the loco and installed.
    Saturday was the first day of “operation Hercules†Dan, Derek and Mike joined me for a fun packed day. There wasn’t anything technical about the operation of getting the heat exchanger back in, just a lot of mauling and shoving. The unit weighed about ½ to ¾ of a ton, and with no ease access, a bit of brains and a lot of muscle was needed. The main problem was getting the thing through the radiator room, and clean air compartment, it is 15†diameter and the corridor is 16†wide.
    After a lot of “cusin†the four fixing bolts were in place, allong with the four letter words, and I only dropped the spanner in the oily bed plate 4 times!.
    Next job is to replace the oil and water pipe, and then battery’s permitted, we should be ready for a start.
    If anyone is interested in joining in the fun, the CFA are based at the Midland Railway Centre, please drop me a PM.
     
    No health and safety representatives were harmed in this operation!
     

     

     

     

  5. sixteen 12by 10s
    Hi all
     
    Well were did this all start? As well as Glenuig, I have a little 0-16.5 slate quarry layout, while I have been exhibiting Glenuig, a few exhibition managers have asked me if I have anything else I could exhibit. So the slate quarry has a few invites to shows. The layout has little operating potential so I will leave a train circuiting for long time periods and only having two locos I could see a problem using this method, one boredom, and two, wearing the little things out. What I needed was a few more locos.
    The obvious choice would be to build another Hunslet, but I wanted something different.
     
    While looking through “the Slate Quarry Album” I came across a photo of a James Spooner designed 0-4-0 loco, that would fit the tight loading gauge required. As far as I know there is not a kit available or much information, about the prototype.
     
    First problem,
    No drawings, I scaled it assuming the driver in the photo was about 5'6”, so as you can gather I am not to bothered about exact dimensions.
     
    Wheels and chassis
    these started out as Bachmann metal wagon wheels. I made some brass centres and glued them in. The axles were then made from 1/8 silver steel turned down to fit the wheels. 12BA screws were used for the crank pins. The chassis is 20 thou nickel silver, I decided the I would compensate the front axle, mainly for electrical pick up properties. The cross heads where filed from a piece of brass, and the cylinders turned. The unit is fitted with a Mashima motor and a Markits gearbox.
    It all runs very well albeit, with a slight wobble.
     
    Body
    carved out of 12thou NS sheet. With turned brass fittings. The boiler is a solid lump of brass board out and then slotted to clear the motor.
    So now I have three runnable locos, its just a shame to paint it.
     
    Gary
     



×
×
  • Create New...