Portchullin Tatty

A clumsy b*gger keeps dropping them off the baseboard?

Since Larry went all WR, we don't get to see a succession of lined red coaches and I for one miss them. So with apologies if anybody has seen them before and to remind Larry what he is missing over on the dark side, I thought I would periodically post some pictures of my LMS and constituent coaches. I model in the mid 1920's, so most but not all are in period 1 lined livery. Some are built/painted by myself but some are examples of other's works - there may even be some familiar hand writing to be seen in the future if you look hard. Starting with a couple of LNWR full brakes: To the left is a 42' full brake from London Road Models and to the right the 50' equivalent from an old Microrail kit This is my fathers' work - a scratchbuilt HR Travelling Post Office. I have mounted fresh bogies to this of my own concoction - they are etched and have primary and secondary springing (something that I have worked with Justin Newitt on). They also have have Branchlines wheels with an etched disk to turn them into Mansell wheels). Shamefully, I must admit that even as I post this they have not yet been painted! So, as a prompt to others, perhaps they could share pictures of things red?

Hi Mike, thanks for the reply!! I can offer some steers from my experience: with regard to the powering of the signals, there is only one sensible route and that is servos. The Towerpro SG90s are pretty small and it is possible to get even smaller servos. If you go to either my RMweb workbench thread or my external blog (www/highlandmiscellany.com and then go for the "signals" tag) you can see how I do this. I have found that the maximum number of balance levers/elbows that can be made to work on a single pivot is three - and even this is a push. That means you can get six on a post but not more. It is possible to cheat a bit by using stiff wire and actually bypassing the levers and even on occasions the elbows. This is visible if you look hard, but this maybe worth the sacrifice to get a complicated signal going. Eddie Ford has used fishing line on Blackgill, along with some miniature return springs (I think, I can't see that he does it just on the weight of the arm). Again, you can see this if you look, but I am will to bet few knew........... So I would be interested to see how you do!! I must confront mine - which is a 9 movement gantry with a rather nice fan route indicator. Mark

Mike, how to you transfer the movements down to the board (presuming these are operational?). With the number of arms, there are a lot of moving parts on top of each other and it gets beyond practical (to me anyway!).

Yes; the next one is ExpoEM in Bracknell in May next year. There are some other probables looming, so it will be out again!

A few pictures (one with thanks to David Brandreth) of Benfieldside for your delectation................. There are rather more on my blog (with more to follow); follow this link. A great show as always; even if I only saw the rest of the show very briefly!

I have painted the underside of my boards white, so that it does not absorb light. Helpful if you ever find you have to do something upside down at an exhibition - which seems to happen to me from time to time!

Most branches (and this would include the various highland lines, were most likely only shunted in the one direction; to suit the layout of the station. This would mean that the vehicles would complete their outward journey before returning some time later (or vice-versa). It was also necessary to take control of the whole of the block to do the shunt; so no other train could be in the affect section. All fine with only three trains a day each way!

I did like the video Arpster; the brass band did rather make it along with the Clayton zooming about with the brake tender and brake van as if it was searching for an errant train it had mislaid! I doubt I will be at Hartlepool; so I am sorry not to get to see it one more time!

In my last post recounted the difficulties that I was encountering correctly wiring up a slip and the technique I had arrived at to overcome this, This precipitated various bits of advice including an alternative approach provided by Richard. Richard’s solution is certainly a little easier than my approach to wire and does not need an additional point motor to run the extra switching required. It is, however, slightly less idiotproof in use than my version – this is because once the approach turnout is set for the branch in my version, the whole of the run was also set electrically. On Richard’s version, it is also necessary to decide whether the main line to yard is to be set for the yard. This is what it looks like as a wiring diagram and it is important to note that the approach turnout (A) is also operating one of the slip’s switches too. My get my soldering iron out now, so I can then start to play trains!

I have been continuing with the wiring of Glenmutchkin, but have hit a snag; one that I should have been ready for – the wiring of the slip, I had been aware that a diamond crossing was a challenge to wire and I was suckered into thinking that the switches on a slip could over come the challenge, Well I go that wrong…….!! The basic problem is that there are a choice of two routes through a diamond crossing and each route requires the polarity of the crossings to be different. The diagram below, which shows how a diamond crossing needs to be wired, should illustrate the problem. The only solution to this is to power the crossing polarity by way of an approach turnout – if you really don’t have one to set the polarity with, then you are going to have to resort to some switches – but at least it will give you a good excuse to interlock the diamond crossing with some signals to remind you on which direction it is set! Hopefully this is clear that the crossings on the diamond crossing are activated by detecting the direction of the switch on the approach turnout. If it is set for straight ahead, then a train can’t travel over the crossing and therefore the parallel line can so the polarity of the crossings are set accordingly. Conversely, when the approach turnout is set to the branch, the line across the diamond can be used and the polarity is set to suit. The principal with the diamond crossing needs to be heeded when the crossing is replaced with a single slip as I have, but it does get more complicated because the switch of the slip can also lead to a different route through the crossings. The crossing to the left of the slip is the more straight forward as it is only activated by the approach turnout. However the right hand crossing is more complicated as if the approach turnout is set for the branch then it always needs to be in the red polarity whereas if the approach turnout is set for the main, then it then needs to be controlled by the slips switch. Hopefully the diagram above shows how this works. The irritation I have, in addition to having wired it up wrong already (!) is that the approach turnout is on a different board to the slip. To reduce the number of wires crossing the boards, I have decided to simply use a duplicate point motor for the approach turnout located on the same board as the slip. It is expensive but rather more simple than the additional wires. I am pleased that I don't have a chain of slips on the layout; I reckon they would bust my head working out how to wire them!

Now that you have a railway room, things should leap along to completion (???)

Will do, I have just finished loading my boxes for things to stretch their legs on the TT2

Whilst lots of horrid things go on on construction sites, so I dare say that there will be examples where this is true and "just happens" the use of different slate sizes is normally by design. Slates, whether welsh slates or from elsewhere (many slates in Scotland are from Ballachulish) are cut as the leave the quarry not when they get to the work site. Cutting slates to size is a skilled job and the wastage (ie unintentionally broken) slates from letting even a roofer that can do it would be so high as to make uneconomical to do it on site. They would trim some slates to suit the circumstances, but as a rule the use graduated slate sizes is not accidental. There are a whole range of recognised sizes that the slates are formed to and you can buy a selection of sizes to suit the job that you have in mind. A bit more on this and also the history of where these names came from can be found here. As I said earlier, graduated slate sizes does occur, more so (but not exclusively) on large or prestigious buildings, but is not universal. So you takes your choice! Mark

A couple of suggestions to assist: - use spray mount to the underside of the slate strip. This remains tacky after it is applied and it will enable you to move them around until you get them in the right location and then to "press them home" to affix them. I found this overcame any tendency for the paper to peel up. - make sure the paint fully saturates the paper (and is a cellulose or enamel). This will seal the paper and stop the prospects of any furryness appearing - follow the prototype and use double lapped slates - they are easier to handle on the model and will get the feel of the slope right. A good diagram of double lapping can be found here or by googling - remember the possibility of using a bit of a wash at the end to bring the colours together - (the wash should be close to transparent, it is not really there to colour, just bring the colours together) But I do think your roof if beginning to look real (and I am a professional in this regard!). Do some research on how leadwork and other detailing works around abutments, hips, chimneys etc; this will also help. If you really want to get into this, find some old "Mitchells Building" book (volumes 1 & 2 are best and don't be scared of getting really old ones, we have not changed how we do it for a long time!). Sometimes these are expensive but sometimes you can pick them up for a £5 each as loads of surveyors, builders etc had them as they went through college. And one final thing, responding to an earlier point someone raised. Some buildings do have larger slates at the eaves which reduce in size as they go up to the ridge. This is not, however, universal and tended to be reserved for large or prestigious buildings. Thus, for most small railway buildings it would be unusual. Good luck! Mark

You can sleep well in your bed now!! The trackwork was very twisty turny across the site as you would expect and there were plenty of really tight curves - down to "radius 2" was the joke amongst us that were there. Although the track actually looked in fairly good condition (it needs to be, there are some pretty heavy weights being carried around), I doubt it is perfect. I guess that these are an insurance policy against the tight curves and less than 100% trackwork - probably like on Matford!!! There were lots of interesting things about the visit (which is well worth doing by the way). I will start a thread on the stock there at some point. I for one know precious little about what I was looking at though! Mark

I have never seen a tandem turnout formed in modern flat-bottom rail before, but here are a few photographs: I have also never seen checkrails immediately in front of the toe of the switch but there were lots of examples of this (one in the last picture) plus this one: All taken at Scunthorpe last week.

And this is what Chris's Fowler looks liek when it stretches its legs..............

I can help advise but also calm everybody down!! For some time Markits have produced P4 length axles, but they do not produce P4 wheels and when I last spoke to them nor do they intend to. I have a set because I have found it handy to have a set of Markit wheels to assist chassis building. I do not feel that Alan Gibson wheels survive being taken off and put back on again. Thus, I have a set of wheels and P4 axles to build the chassis with (as the wheels are self quarter, are much more tolerant to being taken off/reused and also stainless steel, they do make this easier). I then use the Gibson wheels at the end of the build only. So worth buying (so do visit 247 Developments!), but perhaps not a new range of P4 wheels I am afraid. Mark

Less than a week to go; I look forward to meeting old friends and new (it is very much that type of show) at Scaleforum. I also look forward to returning with a lot less money than I left with!!

Hi Paul Just to say I did enjoy seeing your layout at ExpoEM. It is great to see proper and well executed modelling of characterful prototypes; no shaking the box in sight! Mark

I enjoyed the MRJ article and this looks not only like an interesting layout but a really well executed one. I am puzzled why creating the ash ballast was difficult; could you simply break it down with a hammer perhaps underneath a piece of cloth so that the ash can be cotained. It is what I do with coal, although I don't need to break it down to such a degree. I am also puzzling over the colour that ash ballast was - it was definitely close to black if wet but rather more grey if dry is my present conclusion. Mark

Chris It was good to meet you over the weekend and to see both the locos and layout development. I did not get to read my MRJ until last night and I got another blast of the layout in that I note!! One suggestion I can give you relates to the shorting wires for the back of the wheels. You can do this with a fine piece of either brass or phosphor bronze wire that is soldered to the tyre on one side, is wrapped around the axle and then over to the tyre on the other side. By wrapping it around you can be confident that there is an electrical contact even if it is not amazingly tight. Works for me! Mark

There are a number of blog posts on Buckingham as I have been lucky enough to blag a couple of visits.......!! Here is the full selection (which are probably best read in the order listed): https://highlandmiscellany.com/2016/01/10/buckingham-central/ https://highlandmiscellany.com/2016/01/24/buckingham-central-plan/ https://highlandmiscellany.com/2016/12/28/a-return-ticket-to-buckingham-part-1-a-running-day/ https://highlandmiscellany.com/2017/01/02/a-return-ticket-to-buckingham-part-2-peter-dennys-modelling/ https://highlandmiscellany.com/2017/01/23/a-return-ticket-to-buckingham-part-3-the-automatic-crispin/ Also, if you are interested in the automatic crispen, look at the comments section as Peter's children talk about it. Enjoy and if anyone likes the blog and wishes to follow it, you can enter your email into the box on the left near the top and you will get automatic updates each time I post something - simples!! Mark

Busted!! Your quite right and worse than that, I don't think the ones fitted with nickel silver wheels made it to Scotland either!!! Its on the to do list!