Portchullin Tatty

Hi Andy, I am surprised you did the black first and then edged in the straw; I always found it easier to do it in reverse to you and then lay the black on top? Also, Fox transfers are the only sensible way to go for boiler bands (for me anyway); lining on a cylinder is just too much! Must get on with my Struan banker.............your making me fell guilty! Mark

Suspect not; Rumney Models have done a recent one: http://website.rumneymodels.co.uk/steam-locomotive-chassis

Whilst there is a link to these earlier in the thread, given the discussions about the Buckingham system, I thought it is worth providing the links to a series of blog posts I have done following visits to Tony: Buckingham Central Buckingham Plan Return Ticket to Buckingham - 1: A Running Day Return Ticket to Buckingham - 2: Peter Denny's Modelling Return Ticket to Buckingham - 3: Automatic Crispen There are a lot of photographs in these and a number of stories of the layout from Tony!

Thanks all and Buhar, you need to get out more The choice of names was not accidental. Some years ago, the HR Society produced a number of smokebox number plates. These names mostly match these with a few others that I fancied! The numbers for the numberplates were in turn selected to represent a good cross spectrum of locos and variants within the class but with an eye for the more long lived members - thus most people's choices ought to be covered in the core names. Steve at Railtec has been in contact and has said he will try to use the CAD files I have given him but is not sure they will. I can see a redrafting in a different programme coming! Mark

I am aware that this is sometimes true; it is a bit of how many of them can you do!! Point taken and I will take a look at this. At the very least i'll ditch the unused letters for a few Cs and Hs! Lets here back from Railtec first. Mark

I have just popped an enquiry over to Railtex with the artwork as below. I will post again if they are willing and able to do it. This is for the LMS period 1 style; with a serif font. The period 2 style is not quite the same but 247 Developments used to produce some transfers for this; I don't know if these are still available. Mark

Thanks for the several comments; I will look into this and reach out to Railtec. I will update when I have some news. Mark

I have looked at getting names done and have even prepared some artwork (which is I think correct), which you can see here. The issue I have is that this has been drawn in CAD and this does not compute into something that the printers can use, so it needs to be redrafted in Coreldraw or similar. That is were it is stuck at present but it needs moving ahead. Mark

Enjoyed reading through this thread (sorry for being late to the party!) If you need any larger NER brackets or more robust M&H finials drop me a line and/or follow this link. Mark

The advantage of a railway company using standard building designs is that you can get to use them more than once. Thus Portchullin’s goods shed will be getting to have a new lease of life on Glenmutchkin. I think my goods shed is the oldest model that I still have and over the years it is fair to say has suffered. Some of this is simply the thirty six shows that it has done with Portchullin (hell………thirty six shows…….!) and almost as many years, as I was about 17 when I made it. However the main issue was the manner in which I built it, with minimal bracing over the top of the entrances. This has lead to it breaking its back and despite several attempts at repair, these have never been long lasting. So it is time to do it properly to allow its reincarnation on Glenmutchkin. The key to the repair was to introduce a metal skeleton frame inside the model to strengthen it – particularly across the rail doors. This is something I now tend to do at the outset with any largish building I build to contain warping. The frame is invisible from the exterior – the view above shows the frame that I made with the first side attached. The frame was made with some 3mm square and oblong section brass, with gusset plates – there was a fair amount of metal so it got close to blacksmithing at one stage. Once the frame was inserted, the model was given an overhaul to repair the other dinks and marks that it has acquired over the years. There were a fair few, as can be seen. I also to the opportunity to install gutters and downpipes; something I had been meaning to do since I was 17………a bit of a shameful shortfall, given I am a chartered building surveyor! I am pleased with the results and the model is now much more robust so it should do at least another 36 shows! Whether its owner can will be kept under review! My goods shed is based on the Orbach drawings of the shed at Garve (the August 1952 edition of the Model Railway News). The prototype was swept away in the 1970s and whilst there are a pair of the smaller sheds still remaining (notably at Brora), there are no longer any of the standard Highland Goods sheds left. The last to go was in Golspie about two years ago and I did manage to both photograph and measure it before it went. Here are some views of it before it was demolished (with thanks to Ian Ford):

Sorry to disappoint you but John conceived this as a line in Cumberland running parallel to the Maryport & Carlisle close to Sillouth. I (and indeed the layout's owners) would agree that the stonework and style of architecture is really rather more NE than NW and we did discuss whether the opportunity would be taken to relocate it but it was considered that it should remain true to its builder's intent. Given that the line was imaginary we do have discretion to decide that there was an important town "down the line" that somehow got forgotten by Britian's cartographers before is was inundated by the sea and lost for ever. Thus, we can run some relatively main line stock that would not in reality have made it to Carlisle! Mark

If you want to model this feature, making the scallop section is really difficult but I hit on a wonderful trick. Cat collar bells! They are made of tinplate (or similar) so are easy to solder and have a small radius dish suitable for this. They actually come in different sizes, so this does work for different scales. So ask Tiddles to donate his collar to the cause! Mark

No! Not sure why (beyond a general statement that Lochgorm enjoyed being a long long way from officialdom!) but the large numerals was a feature of the 1920's highland section. Mark

…………...Benfieldside will be ExpoEM Autumn in Wakefield in a week's time. I have posted a number of blog posts on either it or stock/signals for it which you can find here. As Tony said, built by John Wright who is very much still with us and now in the custody of some friends of mine and is slowly being restored. Here is a view of what you get to see...………. Mark

Gary My father's book, noted above, contains the works general arrangement for the Loch, not a 4mm version. The 4mm version was drawn and is in the (I think) Model Railway Constructor - probably the late 1980s. It will also be available from the Highland Railway Society's archive service, although this is for members. The best kit is the etched brass kit from Lochgorm Kits. This range is under new ownership and I know the owner is struggling to get it all up and running but is getting there. A note to him via the website will elicit an ETA for its reintroduction. A white metal kit was available from DJH - presently out of production but they turn up on ebay a couple of times a year normally. A very attractive loco especially in lined red as your picture; so I would encourage you!! I have a mostly built one which I must get my digit out on soon and finish.

Hi Doug, I am arguably struggling with the same myself; and indeed the texture of ash ballast. So let me explain how I am laying the ballast/colouring track and what is still to be confronted. Colour of sleepers I use ply sleepers following the Brook Smith technique. I pre-dye these first with Jacobean Oak wood dye. I also give my track a good scrub with a toothbrush prior to laying, this takes a bit of the dye away, lightens the colour and emphasises the grain. The problem with this is that they have changed this from a spirit based formula to a water based one and the effect it now has is terrible; it does not seep into the wood in the way that the spirit based type does and has a tendency to clump in globules. I am lucky that I had enough spirit based dye to just about see me through this layout; leaving this as a problem for the next one! Ballast Laying I have been using Attwood Aggregate's ballast in their extra fine grade in dark grey. I did try and use what they call road dust but found that this was so fine and lightweight that it moved about a bit when even using a low surface tension fixative. It thus created rather unconvincing ridges etc and had to be removed. The extra fine grade has slightly more mass to it and largely overcame this (but it still needs a lot of care and time not to give an uneven surface. Attwood do produce a cinders colour, but I am not sold on this and will probably used crushed coal when I get to the MPD. I use Pledge Klear Multisurface wax as a fixative (the modern version of Johnsons Klear) applied with a dropper. It is actually a form of acrylic varnish (I think) and has almost no surface tension. I do this in two or even three applications. The first is dribbled in very carefully so as not to disturb the ballast and give the undesired ridges. This is sufficient to secure the ballast but it is pretty weak.. This has the advantage that if there is a bit you don't like it can be easily scraped away without causing any damage. A day later, once this has dried I flood it again (and then repeat this again a day later). This gives a much more solid finish. Colouring the Ballast This is still to be done, but I do have the experience from Portchullin. I will be doing this with an overall wash of a slightly gunky dark grey and it will be applied over everything, ballast, sleepers and even rails to pull the colouring together a bit. By using a wash, I am aiming to leave the underlying colour still grinning through, so there will still be some colour delination between both the sleeper and ballast. Actually, I found on Portchullin that it was the texture difference between the sleeper and the ballast that makes them distinghable. I would also observe that ash, when dry, is a very light colour but when wet goes pretty much black, so there is a pretty wide difference of colours that might actually be right! Colouring the Rails I have presently painted the rail in 60% Railmatch track colour and 40% brake dust. I think it remains too dark but I have in mind doing an air-brash mist at the completion of everything else. This will be a light coat and will deliberately wander onto the ballast to give the impression of the rust flecks that do spill onto the ballast in real life. And the final thing, which I have only seen on a handful of layouts, will be to use a dirty black on all the grease points around turnout switches, fishplates etc. Very characteristic of the bullhead rail era - so why is it so rarely depicted? Mark

I suspect I am not alone in finding that sometimes nuts come away from their mount - sometimes buried somewhere nigh on impossible to reach due to follow on work enclosing them. They can be under a dollop of stress as the bolt is inserted, even after being tapped. To overcome this, I now often put a ring of wire around the outside of the nut just before I solder it in place. This increases the area of contact for the solder and strengthens the joint.

With the need to load the layout in the back of a van to get it to Scaleforum looming, I have been pressing ahead with the creation of travelling boxes for the boards. Despite being pretty simple, they do take a long time to make but those for the main visible boards are at least all now complete – and here they are on parade! A bit more on the detail on their features and how I built them can be found here.

Potentially your best yet, Tom

Well, it is twitching quite a lot anyway…………….. A significant day in the life of Glenmutchkin over this weekend, as I have got a significant proportion of the trackwork which has been laid operational. Admittedly I have an electrical issue in the branch bay (something is wired backwards!), the fiddle yard has not yet been linked to the layout and the single slip still has not be corrected but it works………….. This is my Lochgorm Bogie (Clyde Bogie series) built by John James. The body is not quite sitting right on it, which is why there is a bit of bouncing; which is a bit worse when it runs faster as below. will be sorting this shortly.

Actually Wick more than Thurso Pete. Although I concluded that the station build true to scale is a tad big so will be shortening it slightly. Yes, I have been warned about this. Something that I have not yet sorted though! You to Nick!

With nine weeks to go (a couple of which will be lost with a summer holiday) to Glenmutchkin's first outing at Scaleforum, the state of its progress is at the forefront my mind! It is probably rather more at the forefront of the exhibition manager's mind! So help to calm the exhibition manager's nerves, here is a progress report and update photographs to prove that even if I have not been providing many posts, progress is being made on a number of fronts: Most of the track is laid and wired; much of it is also ballasted, although it still needs colouring. Most of the signals are finished but not yet linked up (which explains some of the droopy angles of the arms!). There will be more posts on this topic soon. The principal bridge has been finished for a while, but it is looking a bit more "at home". .....especially with a fine loco to set it off (thanks to John James for this!). So why not come and see it at Scaleforum on the 28/29 September Mark

Apologies for the slow reply and even slower production of the instructions! These are nearly there and should be loaded up in a couple of days. There will be a couple of pictures to load in afterwards (because I need to make another one to get them) but they will be more than sufficient to build these from (they are 14 pages already!). I will send you a copy directly (Paul, I don't have your email address, can you pop it via a private mail?). Mark

Here's hoping!

Picking up that no one else seems to have mentioned this (although it is in the July Railway Modeller), Peco have announced a rather nice kit for a Highland Railway signal cabin (the Highland never called them boxes). This is based on the one at Helmsdale and looks the part to me. I even hear that for those going to Perth show this forthcoming weekend can get their hands on advanced issues of this before the wider release in July. It is made of laser cut ply. A picture with thanks from Paul Marshall Potter and there are others on my blog or Peco's blog.