class26

4 minutes ago, jools1959 said:

Could you not take the central section indoors and work on it when the weather gets too cold or will Leila have something to say about that  

Haven`t thought that far ahead yet. All depends on how time pans out. I think I need to do the central section "in situ" really though. 

1 minute ago, jools1959 said:

Are you planning to do anymore before the dark nights draw in 

The next job is to lay the track for the central section , make sure it is all electrically up to scratch etc which I think will take me up to the spring of 22. Once the temperature drops I tend to spend less time out in the shed, maybe a few running sessions but the scenic work needs lots of time. I might do some scratch building back in the house though.

A few more of the Flow Country. Still fairly basic, water to be added to the river etc

Time to report a change to the layout. I am not one who plans in huge detail a layout and then builds it. Rather I have an idea or two , (usually requiring more space than at my disposal) and then try to make it work. With the present layout whilst I always knew I was doing Forsinard I wasn`t sure how I was going to operate it and as previous posts will show decided to add Helmsdale as a second passing station. This turned out to be too much of a compromise scenically as it was being squashed into one corner of the layout in order to keep as much space as possible to depict the Flow Country. I realised that I wasn`t really going to use the sidings at Helmsdale and so a few weeks ago I decided it had to go. I tend to run the layout as a roundy roundy and the central section (yet to be built) will be a terminus / scenic storage area. 

In the place of Helmsdale  I decided to include one of the single track stations on the line, just for scenic interest really and as the backscenes (already in place) are of the magnificent Flow Country so Altnabreac was decided on.  Far from complete and the station building definitely not correct (is a Pop Up kit of Golspie station) but will have to suffice until the actual one gets scratch built.

The final photo attempts to depict the track leading from Altnabreac station. All the bare space will be given the static treatment , probably next year now.

Below are a few photos taken today of the progress so far -  

2 hours ago, David Bell said:

Nigel ,

You are making a cracking job with this.

I leafed back through to see what your snow fences are made of and see they are wooden so the powders should work a treat.

Cheers

David

Thanks David,

The snow fences are made from Scale Model Scenery sleepers intended for a barrow crossing and are real wood. I will be trying your method as soon as I get hold of the correct powders.

19 hours ago, David Bell said:

Hi Nigel,

Hopefully you end up with something like this. You can see all the surplus powder below the fence.

I have still to do the back of the fence yet

Hi David,

Thank you so much for all of this, it is incredibly helpful and very clear. As soon as I get the powders i`ll crack on with my snow fences

Thanks again

Nigel 

On 28/08/2021 at 16:08, David Bell said:

I have completed the last piece of coffee stirrer fence and the gate for the station yard

Hello David,

I know you said above you used various weathering powders on the fence but I would be grateful if you might go into a little more detail about the process as I need to weather the snow fences on my Forsinard layout and your results are very impressive and exactly what I would like to achieve

Thanks in advance

Nigel (Class 26)

A few images of Forsinard taken earlier this week by Jools1959. Static grass  more or less complete although I will add in places some longer grass once I can get it to stand up better. My War World Scenics applicator is ok up to 4 mm but any longer it seems to struggle which is disappointing.   Fortunately my eye sight is such that I don`t really notice the longer grass lying flat unless I look very closely and I suppose it could have been flattened in a storm ?  I hope to remedy the grass situation over the winter, perhaps with a more powerful applicator and would be grateful if anyone has any tips. I am new to static grass and a little befuddled by it all. Some say voltage doesn`t matter whilst others swear by a higher voltage so if anyone can shed light please do advise.

1 hour ago, melmerby said:

Even on a recent BBC update report on it started with:

"HS2, being built to cut the journey time from London to Birmingham to 49 minutes" or words to that effect.

I would be interested to see the services today that do Brum to London in 59 minutes ! 

14 hours ago, young37215 said:

 

According to my copy of 1H80, there were 11 departures from Euston in the evening which I am pretty certain included sleeping car accomodation and that excludes the ECML trains that started from Kings X! The subject of sleepers warrants a thread of its own, Euston passengers had a choice of destinations namely Inverness, Fort William, Perth, Glasgow, Stranraer, Barrow, Liverpool, Manchester and Holyhead and the list excludes intermediate stops. Rationalisation and the coming of the Mk3 sleepers transformed decimated the sleeper landscape during the mid 1980's long before Easyjet and Ryanair appeared on the scene. 

Happy to be corrected but wasn`t there also a sleeper service up the Durham coast ?

A few more photos from last weeks photo session. Again thanks goes to Jools1959 for taking the photos. 

15 hours ago, manna said:

G'Day Folks

 

Well the 'snow' has melted and the grass looks excellent, the 'join' behind the white house in pic 3 is perfect. Congrats.

 

manna

Thanks, it took some trial and error to match the grass colour to the backscene, the base grass colour eventually used is War World Scenics Winter grass 2mm (their autumn being way too green for a northern setting such as Forsinard)  and then a selection of their 4 mm winter, 6 mm dead grass plus 6 mm & 12 mm meadow but I find it difficult to get the 12 mm to stand up so have largely stayed with the 6 mm. The Forsinard part isn`t finished yet from the static grass aspect, i need to make lots of tufts before tackling the opposite side of the layout.

3 hours ago, lmsforever said:

Thats looking very nice the buildings are exceilient you have captured Forsinard so well the ground cover looks right as well. Have you had a look at Pop Up  buildings they have excellent kits of buildings on this and other lines I have built several now and am very pleased with them. 

Thanks

Yes, I have looked at Popup. The white cottage in Forsinard is a Popup kit and the goods shed in Helmsdale also is plus the station building at Helmsdale (actually Golspie but I couldnt bring myself to scratch build ! )

13 minutes ago, boxbrownie said:

You should try the 800s then, bloomin’ awful and the reason we stopped using the train to visit family up country , the HSTs were luxury in comparison.

since the 800`s came in on the east coast I have (regrettably) abandoned the train for my Jag. The 800 seats are so dreadful they are an insult to the paying passenger and I for one will not pay well over a £100 for a return ticket to London.   Of course Covid has blurred everything but I would be interested to know the loss of first class passengers. It might be cheaper in the long run to rip out those seats and offer some new ones with a little more comfort.

A further update. I decided to add  Helmsdale as can be seen in the photos below (well, I had to find a proper use for the Peco Signal Cabin!). It is a bit of a compromise and the station building is actually the Golspie building from Pop Up Designs as I didn`t fancy scratch building but I hope it will suffice, the roof needs finishing yet.  I have also rationalised the goods yard to fit the available space but I hope it is still recognisable as Helmsdale.  The backscene is the same as that for the Flow Country but I hope it will pass muster. It is far from finished and there are rough edges, especially the rear of the platform ! 

1 hour ago, Portchullin Tatty said:

Looks good.

 

Apologies if the answer is in the thread, but where did you source the pictures for the backscene/get it created?  Fairly obviously the north of Scotland!

 

Hello Mark,

I didn`t` say specifically up thread the source of the backscenes. I had hoped to make a journey up to the far north to take some photos (any excuse) but my patience gave up after a year of lock down so I purchased the two commercial images on line from Alamy. I just searched Google for "Flow Country images , high res" and then there are numerous photos to choose from. I did this in consultation with a printer in Lincoln (not so far from where I live) and he took the images, played around with them by stretching then reversing and then repeating in original form. It is obvious when you are in the train shed how it has been achieved but in photos the sleight of hand is hidden (I hope). 

The printer is "Lincoln and Copy Centre", Clifton St Lincoln. That`s a few shops from Digi Trains who are also on Clifton St

5 hours ago, GoingUnderground said:

Oh, I fully support HS2 and wish it every success. But I really do think that electric self-driving vehicles are a threat to HS2 and its longer term financial viability. I hope I'm wrong. 

But if people do abandon the railways for electric cars the roads will be totally congested, journey times  huge as I don`t see any government building many more roads. There`s only so much space on them

1 hour ago, fezza said:

 

We were told yield management would fill the empty seats on regional Eurostar. It didn't as you could only run it at a massive loss. The same thing will happen here - until the government runs out of patience underwriting the disaster and sells off half the stock to Turkey or Egypt at a rock bottom price, 

If memory serves me right regional Eurostar never started so how can you deduce this ?. it didn`t start because it clashed with the meteoric rise of low cost airlines (using yield management!) and the time factor between the regions to Brussels / Paris was just too great. (Remember the majority of HS1 wasn`t open at the start so the time factor was greater than it would be now.

Also factor this in. Cost on the existing system is high because of maintaining intensively used infrastructure 150 years old and having to do this in the small hours,

HS2 will avoid this and costs will be far lower, this is demonstratively so. Fares will not need to be as high as many suppose, The costs are spread over 60 years and even if it reached 100 billion , that`s only 1.6 billion a year, approx 4.5 million a day spread over (at full service) 17 / 18 trains an hour (each way) for let`s say 16 hours and let`s say 17 trains each way . That`s approx £8,200 per train to pay back the cost which , on a 1000 seat train would make each ticket £8.20 each ! A bargain I would say. I acknowledge that not all trains will be 400 mtrs long but even so, ticket prices need not be astronomical

Now clearly tickets will be higher than that to cover wages , fuel etc but not eye watering as you suggest and I hope I have demonstrated.

As I see it there is no evidence at all to justify your statements

14 minutes ago, fezza said:

 

In France and Italy HS fares are significantly higher - HS2 has always been aimed at a premium business market and the government have made it clear it must be to cover costs. 

HS2 fares will be determined by "yield management", the same system used by low cost airlines such as Ryan Air. That`s how Ryan Air fill their aircraft with flights to some seemingly obscure destinations. If fares are set too high trains will run with empty seats, the idea is to fill them so fares cannot be set too high. This is just a myth put around by some who think - big cost so high fares , rather too simplistic an argument

I wonder (with tongue firmly in cheek) if whilst the fleet is out of action might this be the perfect time to replace those dreadful seats ? 

6 minutes ago, Bas Knippels said:

@class26, thank you so much. I will have a nice read tomorrow evening. It looks like a really nice article. It made me remember I also have a book which is about all the stations in Scotland. But is not as detailed as your article.

 

Kind Regards,

 

Bas

Hope it is all helpful. Ian Futers did a whole series of articles in the Modeller in the previous decade all on West Highland stations. I have most of them if you ever want any more.

Look forward to seeing your layout develop. Good luck !

Apologies, i notice that I sent the first page twice ! Too early in the morning I guess . What you have so far  is pages 1, 3 & 4.

Here ought to be page 2. Please ignore the previous "Corrour 2"

1521925044_Corrour2.pdf