Portchullin Tatty

A couple of thoughts Tim.

Mix in some black drawing ink into the wet filler in the pot. It will go a light grey unless you use a lot. That way, if you do scratch or chip it in use you will not get a glaring white patch.

And, when you sand down the section between the and adjacent the railheads, make sure you take it clear below the line of the railhead. That way, in future track cleaning you will not end up also abrading the filler/cobbles and destroying your own handiwork.

Do like the Harrop paving sets, so well worth copying that!

Good to see you making progress; the mojo does come and go doesn't it?

There are a couple of West Countries on St Merryn that have been converted in much the same way. Jeremy Good did them so if you want me to ask any questions I can do so.

The quartering has shifted a long way I am afraid.

There are those that pin the wheels to the axles; I have nver done this and reckong I would screw things up but with a piller drill it can be done.

I have to say, that Gresley full brake looks the part!

No it can't Dave; no pull rods to operate the brakes!!!

You have rather transformed that Morgan!

I take it you have not admitted this little dalliance on the wrong side of the country to Robin?

I am enjoying seeing you several posts materialise, you have the makings of a fine layout I would think.

It is particularly pleasing to see the inspiration wall - as you say it will keep you from at least some of the silly errors and help keep you inspired.

so keep up the good work!

I like the model of the model; it shows a plan that has sought to consider the environment around the railway and sought to make it realistic.

You also get wonderfully flowing curves when you use templot. I certainly did not get to grips with it all that easily!

Is the hole on the end of the board not a bit large, to the point that the weakening the board?

Robin,

Hint has been received and we are looking into the practicalities of things. Sale no 1 is me, do I assume you are sale no 2?

I still think you ought to isolate the buffing plate from the stanchions? Won't there be a risk of a loco crossing onto the isolated piece of track and creating the short circuit. As the base of the stancions are quite long, the will be the best part of a wagon length of track that forms the base for the buffer stop?

Aghh, you have the Studilithe rail bending tool. Can I put in a request to borrow this at some point?

A quick suggestion, if I may. Mount the faceplates on the very thin (about 0.4mm) copper clad sheet that Eileen's Emporium now sell. This will enable you to keep this electrically isolated from the rails. If you do not, if you run a loco/item of stock upto the buffers (and you are bound to on an MPD layout) you will get an electrical short circuit. If you do not know what has caused it, then you will have a melt down on the layout!

aghh, beginning to look like a railway and it has a nice feel of space!

Looking grand Robin.

John, I don't think you are supposed to dip the wheels in the sea?????

Wonderfully charismatic Andrew!

Hi Knuckles, I have just given a couple of my tips on the Scalefour forum.

I did mine in green, I reckon it was the right answer. Mind you, that only means we ahve both got it right or wrong!

The turfs were laid over and an around the barrels, but were likely to be then obscured by a tarp. I rather hanker to do do one without a tarp, so that people can tell me I have done soemthing silly for carrying grass around..........

.................. because I thought everything was to be super exact.

Life is too short for this, big time!

As Captain K has said, it is a fallacy to beleive that the prototype was super exact. Maybe on much of it on a high speed line (for its day) but elsewhere things were more liberally interpreted. If you think about it, this stands to reason as getting everything in close tolerance takes time, effort and money. The railways were a commercial venture and thus they only did this where it is necessary.

All railway modelling is about comprimise; for starters we (in the 4mm world, adjust to suit for other scales) only build our stuff at 1/76th of the size and we shove an electric engine in rather than stoke up a fire. The whole point with modelling in P4 is that the person doing it has decided that two comprimises - the gauge between the rails & the wheel profile - is not acceptable to them and they are therefore going to do somethign about it.

Whilst this does create a number of elements flowing from it, largely about how the track is built and how the wheel interfaces with the rail, from then on the decisions as to what to model and to what standard are for the individual. If you have a hunt through the Scalefour website, you will find that there is P4 "connie" thread (ie the Triang childs starter loco from the 1960's) and I have seen both a P4 Thomas and Duck. They are no less P4 because they happen to be from the Reverand Awdry series!

Once have a feel for how P4 works and, particularly, where the important dimensions are, it is about find the level of standard of modelling you want to model at and what bits you think are important. Some do like to get things really spot on, others take a more impressionist stance to what it is they are seeking to achieve. Whilst it may be true that the decision not to accept the comprimise of 16.5mm gauge means that most P4 modellers wish to push their general standard of modelling on a bit, it is not a prerequisit.

So, the classic line of modellers - "its your trainset, do with it what you will" applies!

Getting a curve really consistant can be a slight problem, as it is not tht easy to do it by eye. If you are worried, once you have built a bit of track, place a sheet of paper over it and rub a soft pencil along the rail edge (a bit like a brass rubbing - remember them as kids?).

Use this to create a template by cutting along the lines. Then move this through the curve and you will pick up where the curve is too much or too little.

One of the great advantages of handbuilt track is that it flows, as did the prototype. Thus, you do not need to be particularly precious about the exact curves on things. You are more worried about making sure you do not accidently have tight spots that are tighter than the radius your stock will go around.

Similarly the prototype was not that consistant with sleeper spacings. The manuals and text books may have given standards but things were a bit more liberally interpreted on the ground and these things moved, either from tamping machines or the efforts of the maintenance gangs.

The advice about Rice's book is valid too - it is well worth a read even if it mostly deals with ply & rivet trackwork when it comes to the model track. What it says about the prototype is valid for whatever system you use.

Looking good Tim and you can see the quality of the model being lifted palpably!

There is a rather fine video in the British Transport Film Unit series on the electricfying of the north of Crewe section of the WCML. A good chunk of this is on the building of the class 87's and you get to see them as a pile of bits and then the slowly emerging locos.

Interesting in its own right, but you may find some of the detail that you can see worthwhile. PM me if you want to borrow.........

Beautiful looking loco. Really must finish mine off!

and me!

I am feeling guilty just reading this.................

Hi Jon and others,

I can't post pictures on someone else's blog, but if you look at the final photograph of post no 42 of http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/17602-a-highland-miscellany/page__st__25, you will see my version of this TOU. The concept is that the rail that you have used Jon is a little longer, so it sticks out beyond the stockrail (the main running line). It is also snugly tight to this and, therefore, the switch rail is kept at the appropriate height relative to the stockrail at all times.

On an exactoscale turnout, this is probably not a problem anyway, but it can be where the switch assembly is made up from scratch. Apologies Jon if this is what you have done, it is not that easy to photograph or read photogrpahs of these as they are by definition hidden!

I think you may be right that the switch throw is a little tight - you will probably want to open this a little.

Jon,

One look out on the Bachy 47's.

I understand that on some of the bogies the centre axle is a smidgeon lower than the two outer axles so it is a little inclined to rock. I have seen a number of converted 47's, so this clearly can not apply to all but there have been complaints.

Check very carefully with a straight edge and if you are not certain, bag some replacement bogies?

David,

It looks like we were doing some similar things over the Christmas break but adopted some different approaches. I will put a posting up on my workbench thread later (its called a Highland Miscellany and is repeated on the Scalefour Society forum).

Not saying my approach is better but it is more "me"!!!

And I seem to have b******red my Servoset, so have to buy a lead and try my hand at the PC method!

Whilst I don't think we are certain, there is a strong suspicion that fish was loaded in these fish trucks under turf for insulation. I think as such it is enivitable that they were then covered with a tarpulian sheet as otherwise the turf would get washed away on the average Highland afternoon!!

I have a book on the fishing trade at Wick and this very definately went in barrels; that is what I am loading in my fish trucks. When I get them a bit further, look out for them in my "Highland Miscellany" thread here.

This does look good and I think the servo control will be very effective.

As someone who is presently waiting for a delivery from the far east on the servo front, thanks for the tip about Giantcod!