Portchullin Tatty

Thank you Derek for inviting the layout; we had a good time and are pleased to say we were not compelled to take quite such a scenic route home as we did on the way to the show! For those who wish to see a slightly less reverent take on what it is like to go on tour to a show with the reprobates that assist with Portchullin you can take a look at OTCM's blog here.

My technique is to use relatively light paper - photocopier paper - and prior to starting I spray it with a variety of car aerosols and enamel paints. These are applied liberally so that they soak through the paper thickness and effectively bind it all together as one. By using a variety of colours there is a very very slightly inconsistency that when applied takes the uniformity off the slate colours. Then, I use a sharp scapel blade to cut the joints between the tiles for about two thirds of their length. I don't cut the final third as the objective is to create long strips of tiles that have the joints at their bottom but are united at their tops. Once this is done - and it is a laborious process - I cut them into strips and affix them with spraymount. I try and make the cuts as consistent a possible safe in the knowledge that I won't succeed and the slight variation adds realism. I then wash colour on top of the laid slates to add a little more variation to the colour and to show water runs/weathering. The combination of sealing the paper and using a sharp scapel means I do not have any problems with the fibres being apparent when the paper is cut.

Be careful you may get Sulzer-itus if you linger up there too long!!! PS: Enjoy the midges!!

Jamie, I like the inspection saloon - coaches are fun and make a train so much more interesting than simply sticking to what ever the rtr manufacturer's offer as they simply can't cover the variety that existed. Can I suggest that you put a bit of emery cloth or wet & dry on the end of the aluminium roof as the saw marks will show up somewhat even under the paint. I had not found your thread before; there is lots to look at and I will have a good old peruse.............

One of the most characteristic features of the Highland Railway’s locomotives for many years was the louvered chimney. This was fitted to almost all of David Jones’ locomotives and although some lost them over their lives, most retained them until withdrawal. Indeed this style of chimney can still be seen on the preserved Jones Goods which is presently in the Riverside Museum of Transport in Glasgow. There is debate as to the reason that these chimneys were fitted but it is generally considered that they sought to assist in the drafting of the fire on the downhill sections of the line. There were many long descents on the line and regulator would be closed for such descents and thus the fire was not drafted by the exhaust from the cylinders. The louvres would have allowed the passing air to pull on the fire to keep. Clearly for such a characteristic feature of the line, it is important to model it well on my locos but I am not totally happy with the renditions that are available. The whitemetal chimneys look too chunky and neither the cast brass (Lochgorm) or turned brass (Jidenco/Falcon Brass) have very distinct louvres. I feel that they can be improved and this is how I go about doing so; in this case starting with the Lochgorm Models cast brass chimney. Similarly, if you are turning your own chimney, the same situation arises. I started by some basic improvements to the chimney. I found that my casting was not parallel down the shaft of the chimney, being fatter at the top, and also not particularly smooth. I therefore turned it down a little on a drill with some needle files. The casting sprue was not particularly central so to be able to turn the chimney it was first necessary to file this to get it more central. Thereafter, I drilled out the chimney to 4.5mm diameter to its full depth on a pillar drill. I am doing this partly for appearance but really because I intend to put sound speakers in the smokebox and it is necessary to leave routes for the sound to escape – the most authentic being to chimney! Casting brass is very hard and this is no little task – it takes some time, lubricant and anyone in the house need to be able to tolerate a good amount of noise! The Lochgorm Models cast chimney has a series of depressions to represent the louvres and these are what I felt needed improving. I started this with a piercing saw with a fine (OOOO) slot at the top of the cast depressions. This is cut across the whole width of the depressions and a little further beyond, ignoring where the pillars between the slots are. These are then given a chamfer slope with a needle file that has a blank face (to make sure it does not cut above the slot). This also needs to be taken beyond either end of the intended louvres to avoid the impact of any taper. The top three have been formed in the picture below, with the lowest still just the piercing saw cut. Once all have been formed, the next task is to undo all of the work by filling them in again! All of the gaps are flooded with solder. I used 145 solder as it would survive the reasonable temperatures that would be incurred in soldering it to the boiler but also be soft enough to carve out again. The louvres were then marked out, starting with the two vertical rows either side of the central pillar that must match the highest point of the flare. Then with a knife, the solder infill between these is cut back out. The knife can cut through the solder to cut it out but does it will not affect the brass, so the louvre is reformed. I found that the technique was to initially cut it away and once a basic amount was removed the blade can be scraped side to side within the louvre to get a smooth surface. This brings up burrs of solder at either side of the louvre which are then cut out. This is what it looks like with the first two columns of louvres done – I found it best to do it like this as it was easier to get them vertical than by doing them in rows. You will find that you get through a fair few blades doing this as the most challenging part is getting the corners crisp (and the photography is very cruel in this regard!). It is also easy to be a bit enthusiastic and accidentally cut pillar – if this happens, it can be reformed with a dab of solder and the process repeated until there is a neat row of four slots in four columns. Once you are near to finished, a dusting of grey primer shows up any remaining inconsistencies and hopefully it looks something like this: This process creates not only the slope of the louvre opening but also the dark shadow of the cavity. In my view these features are necessary to capture the feel of the distinctive feature of the Highland Railway. It takes around 2-3 hours to make each chimney and in I reckon it is worth the time and effort.

Snap: https://highlandmiscellany.com/2016/11/24/oxford-rail-north-british-jubilee-wagon/ https://highlandmiscellany.com/2016/12/18/improving-the-oxford-rail-north-british-jubilee-wagon/ I found the buffers were a bit long too and I note that there are no works plates on the Newbattle version; both easily fixed.

This was certainly what I was told when I visited the box. In particular there is a fairly good record of replacement/amended signals being completed in one style and then a few years later the next one would be in the other company's style.

Thanks for the spelling correction! Noted re the possible larger box at Exeter. I have quoted Wikipedia here and at the moment I will leave it as it is for the moment!

I was recently able to go on a tour of the Princes Risborough North Box; the largest remaining GWR box in the country. Details of what I encountered and a fair few photographs can be found here.

Hi Stephen, Good to see my etches in use! Here is my relatively similar equivalent - although this is a bit earlier so the M&H lower quadrant arms are retained. And if anyone wishes to see the wider signalling stuff I have been doing, generally NER or HR signals then take this link - I have an update to do at some point as the last batch of signals are done!

I have now composed a rather more lengthy eulogy to Richard's railway modelling; which you can find on my blog here.

It is with great sadness that I advise that Richard Chown passed away last week. Richard was a prolific modeller, typically of the somewhat unusual prototype and always (I think) in 7mm/1ft. Not for him a debate between BR blood & custard or blue grey, instead he modelled unusual and quirky prototypes from Norway, Ireland or France. Nor was he much interested in frothing (if that is what it was called then) about what the latest manufacturer might produce, he made the lot from scratch. Although he did produce some smaller layouts, typically they were somewhat on the large scale, tending to the immense - right up to a full size french viaduct where unless you were a basketball player you needed to stand on a box to reach rail height (those that can see the rail height in the picture below are on boxes......). Perhaps his best known layout was Castle Rackrent which was famously constructed along the length of a disused post office footbridge on Waverley station (in the days when lunch breaks were breaks I guess!). I think the layout reached 70m in length before BR decided that perhaps they would like their footbridge back......undeterred, Richard had a house built with a conveniently large (a.k.a. giant) basement to fit it and subsequently extended it to some eight stations such that it was an entire system. All this (or nearly all in the final incarnation) was single line and worked with bells as no station could see the adjacent station and the trains had to be driven to the signals and then handed over. The last layout that he completed was of a Norwegian narrow gauge line, which really was right next to a famous waterfall. This had been exhibited on a number of occasions in both England and Scotland. For finescale modellers in the Lothian Region, and visitors from further afar like me, would gather on a monthly basis to operate Castle Rackrent and Richard was always welcoming and encouraging. He will be sorely missed by all and it is fair to say that I don't think we will see the like of he in the hobby again................after all, who would try to model the tallest viaduct in the world in 7mm (I think sense did prevail on this one as I don't think it got completed) For those that wish to find out a bit more about Richard's layouts (including some I don't mention here) can go to his own rather clunky website and in respect of some of my visits to Castle Rackrent my blog posts. Thanks to Jim Summers for many of the photos.

A good number of pictures of Castle Rackrent (and system) are here: https://highlandmiscellany.com/tag/castle-rackrent/ I am very sad to say that Richard passed away this week - i have written a proper obituary to him here and an even more lengthy one on my blog here.

Beware the multi-port connectors as they are not rated that high and I have managed to burn mine out. See link to my blog for proof! https://highlandmiscellany.com/2017/04/15/two-steps-forward-and-one-back/ You will be OK with lower currents no doubt, but I have ditched mine.

Mike, A caution I would offer is that I find that boilers that have been half etched can be very thin and prone to damage. Be very careful when you drill the boiler to accept boiler fittings/handrails etc as the pressure of the drill bit can deform it. I now either discard the half etched boiler and make a fresh one from brass tube or use the tube and wrap the half etch boiler around this.

When you come to but he buffing plate onto the buffer stop, electrically isolate it from the uprights. This will save on short-circuits when a vehical runs onto the rails that are part of the kit.

Well, that’s true of the top side, where nothing visible has happened of late but there is progress when you look underneath. I have spent more than a few hours soldering dropper wires on about half of the track that has so far been laid. All is neatly colour coded (hopefully). Another development in comparison to Portchullin is the painting of the entirity of the underside of the layout white. This is to make everything clearer and brighter. It will, hopefully, make it easier to deal with issues with the layout set up – although I am hopeing for less issues! Even more hours (weekends even!) have been spent making up jumper connections, so hopefully the wiring will speed up in the coming weekends! I have spent this time to work through the logic of the wiring across all boards and there is a full wiring schedule in place – none of the wonky logic on Portchullin this time!

Bridges cost a lot of money to build relative to most other aspects of a railway. The cost of a bridge rises exponentially (crudely speaking) with its length. So the real railway would typically go for the narrower unless it believed the line would be doubled in the future.

Not my work, so I can't claim the glory for this but here is a Peckett that has gone under the knife to make it rather more industrial. Replaced buffer beam, cut back smokebox wings, changed handrails, cut down chimney and new dome. Plus, a good dose of muck to truely make it feel as if it has worked hard for the last 40 years............. Work by a mate, you can see a bit more about what he has done in his blog here https://otcm.wordpress.com/2017/01/02/filthy-dirty-grubby-meet-the-model-of-2016-the-peckett-is-finished/

Hi Compound, Just had a read through your thread; good to see real modelling of interesting prototypes. One point that occurs to me in seeing your comments about the carrier film on the transfers being visible. Transfers go on much better to a gloss surface, so give your wagons a quick dust with an airbrush or can of spray glass varnish (careful of the cans, many do rather flood the paint out). Then apply the varnish and then give them a coat of matt varnish. You will find that all of the carrier film will then be invisible. Keep up the good work, I have done a fair selection of the models you have done, so am very familier with many of them!

I would be hesitent to use wallpaper size to secure the template to the boards. It is likely to be a water soluable glue and this prone to re-releasing if it gets wet? Perhaps go over with something like Resin W, as this soaks through the paper it will impregnate the cork below too?

Almost four years later, I spot your post............ Sorry for that, but to make up for it, here are a couple of pictures: You will find more where these came from here.

I have been back onto the layout of late, with a view to get the first wheel turning on it before too long. That means attacking the electrickery things, beginning with the control panel. I made a start on this by drawing up a diagrammatic representation in MS Paint and then using this to get one of the online firms (Vistaprint) to print me up a poster board to form the basis of the control panel. I am not sure I chose the right material as it turned up on a light weight foam board and I had to mount a sheet of aluminium behind for it to be stiff enough to be useable. But it did look pretty smart I thought…………. The control panel deals with all of the signals and turnouts that the cabin will have controlled, with local ground frames (which will be located on the boards locally) to be used to control the goods yard and the MPD. The latter will be arranged such that it can be located either to the front or the rear, to allow some flexibility in operation. I have got to the point where the full extent of switches have been wired in and I am just completing the jumper leads. I took a lot of care to plan the wiring prior to any construction – despite the locos being DCC controlled, there are an awful lot of wires. This is because I have stuck with traditional control for the turnouts and signals. There is further complication as a result of the desire to incorporate some bells and even a block instruments (well maybe, at the moment it is just the wires!). So in all, there are 90 odd wires doing something or another on the layout. Somewhat in contrast to Portchullin, I have sought to keep the wiring as tidy as possible; everything is neatly collour coded and even labelled (to be fair it was labelled on Portchullin, but in a non colourfast ink………..!). I am hoping that this will make the wiring easier to debug at the start of the matter and repair if it does get damaged. I am proposing to use a variety of connectors between boards and to the control panel, including this rather nifty varient of the D-sub range that is wired directly onot a cheeseblock wireless connector. Available to a variety of types from ebay including from this seller.

Whilst I tend to model a variety of things for myself and others, I am mostly interested in the former Highland Railway in about 1926 basically because I love the Highland's locos but in the much more interesting lined crimson lake than the dull all over green! However, I do also suffer from a decent dose of pre WW1 NER too due an involvement with someone else's layout I put all of this, and a dose more on my public blog which is here. The main elements that are pre-group are: Glenmutchkin (LMS/HR) - circa 1926 Benfieldside (NER) - circa 1910-14 Work bench thread is split into two categories stock and other things - both of these cover a lot of things, so it goes much wider than just the pre-group era. Much (but definitely not all) of this gets repeated on my RMWeb workbench and layout threads, both of which can be seen as part of my signature.

Pete, Contact me offline, I have measured up Thurso's train shed - it is not as small as you might imagine.................. Must get around to finishing that drawing to enable me to settle down and make it. If Richard has not already offered, he has a fair few photos of it in the 1970s