West Highland Line V4, a 1980's West Highland Line layout

[thegreenhowards]

11 minutes ago, billywhizz said:

Hi Rob. 
thanks for the tip. I have tried using T Cut and cocktail stick and found it is very easy to damage the blue underneath the number. With the Hornby shade of blue being a tad dark, it is very difficult to get a good match when touching up afterwards. I currently have 2 BSO’s waiting conversion to BSO(T) 

Cheers, 

Bill. 

I’ve found that even if the paint is slightly damaged underneath, the new transfer effectively hides that damage, so it’s not really evident. This relies on keeping the damage to the area which will be covered by the new transfer, so go carefully.

[micklner]

Much easier with a new Swan Morton No10a Blade . Gently stroke the blade over the number until removed. T Cut happily changes the paint shade as well.

[ISW]

1 hour ago, billywhizz said:

Hi Rob. 
thanks for the tip. I have tried using T Cut and cocktail stick and found it is very easy to damage the blue underneath the number.

Bill,

 

I have successfully used a dark blue Sharpie pen to remove coach numbers, although I can't be sure I've done it on a Hornby coach as most of my stock is old Lima or secondhand Bachmann. The ink in the Sharpie acts like IPA, but more gentle, and the abrasiveness of the Sharpie tip removes the number. As others have rightly said, go gently as even this method will go through the blue paint if you are too aggressive. It will leave the surface with a 'gloss' look, so don't go too far outside the boundaries of the number.

 

Ian

[ISW]

2 hours ago, young37215 said:

With changes, the control panel has been moved and an extra loop installed using the 3 way point and a double slip.

Rob,

 

That's a very tidy modification to add another track. However, me thinks that most of the 'work' was carried out on the underside of the baseboard, fitting additional servos / microswitches and, possibly, more MegaPoints electronics? Looks like you had good access though.

 

Ian

[young37215]

6 hours ago, ISW said:

Rob,

 

That's a very tidy modification to add another track. However, me thinks that most of the 'work' was carried out on the underside of the baseboard, fitting additional servos / microswitches and, possibly, more MegaPoints electronics? Looks like you had good access though.

 

Ian

 

No work at all underneath the baseboards as yet because the fiddle yard is all code 100 track and insulfrog pointwork relying on fishplates for power. Once the new bits are tested and proven to work I will add some more droppers to the power BUS but the points will remain hand operated. The lack of motorisation is partly me being too mean to buy the necessary servos etc. but also of practicality because the control panel is adjacent to the fiddle yard meaning there is little difference in reaching for a switch or to the point I want to change.  

 

The fiddle yards have an important role on WHL4 because as well as providing storage space they also facilitate the operation of the WTT.  The 14 road main fiddle yard is split into 3 distinct sections, from the right in the pictures below roads 1 to 5 are dual purpose being the freight area at Glasgow and main line to the north of Crianlarich, roads 6 to 9 are Glasgow Queen Street and Cowlairs carriage sidings and roads 10 to 14 are Oban.   

 

Roads 1 to 5

 

 

Roads 6 to 9

 

 

Roads 10 to 14

 

[young37215]

Buckling track in hot weather is not the sole preserve of the big railway! I knew that the loop was tight, absent building a large ballast shoulder, I clearly need to shorten the rails on both lines to avoid a repeat.

 

[BoD]

Ouch.

Thankfully it wasn’t in the scenic area.

[ISW]

2 hours ago, young37215 said:

Buckling track in hot weather is not the sole preserve of the big railway! I knew that the loop was tight, absent building a large ballast shoulder, I clearly need to shorten the rails on both lines to avoid a repeat.

Rob,

 

One of the advantages of gluing the track down is that it's more resistant to such buckling (or it "should" be). Mind you, it could well introduce excessive compression in the rails, like real life CWR!

 

I have my layout in a top floor bedroom (actually, it's part in the roof as the house is 2½ floors high) and it did get 'warm' earlier this week in the heatwave, but not excessively so. No issues with the track; that I've noticed ...

 

Ian

[young37215]

I am off to the GWSR annual diesel gala for the next few days where the star of the show is 55019. It seems appropriate to show a Deltic video taken a few days ago when St Paddy paid WHL4 a visit.

 

 

[young37215]

A good day on and around the GWSR today, some of which had links to the 1980's WHL. I sat in BSOT 9000 on several occassions and managed to photograph former Eastfield beastie 20228 which was looking rather splendid on static display at Toddington. In that respect my version of 20228 is doing much the same on WHL4 as I have still not found an acceptable way to keep the snow ploughs and to use tension lock couplings at the same time. 37215 was active.

 

 

 

 

 

[billywhizz]

Hi Rob. Just a thought re your 20228. Have you looked at fitting a wire loop in place of a tension lock on the loco and use the tension lock on the stock you are coupling up to? That way you can keep the bufferbeam detail / snowploughs but not have to modify any rolling stock. Have a look at James Meakin’s work bench thread as it is a method he has demonstrated. 
Cheers,

Bill. 

[young37215]

On 29/07/2022 at 21:43, billywhizz said:

Hi Rob. Just a thought re your 20228. Have you looked at fitting a wire loop in place of a tension lock on the loco and use the tension lock on the stock you are coupling up to? That way you can keep the bufferbeam detail / snowploughs but not have to modify any rolling stock. Have a look at James Meakin’s work bench thread as it is a method he has demonstrated. 
Cheers,

Bill. 

wire loops are my long term plan for all locos so that I can fit bufferbeam detailing and snow ploughs. The issue with 20228 is that it already has a detailed bufferbeam and limited space to fit a hoop. 
 

l have 2 new SO’s that are in the process of detailing and weathering. Whilst at Broadway I took a few pictures from the newly finished footbridge of coach roof’s. There were some interesting differences in appearance which gives me food for thought about how I weather the new SO’s.

 

 

 

[SHerr]

On 29/07/2022 at 21:12, young37215 said:

A good day on and around the GWSR today, some of which had links to the 1980's WHL. I sat in BSOT 9000 on several occassions and managed to photograph former Eastfield beastie 20228 which was looking rather splendid on static display at Toddington. In that respect my version of 20228 is doing much the same on WHL4 as I have still not found an acceptable way to keep the snow ploughs and to use tension lock couplings at the same time. 37215 was active.

 

 

 

 

 

One idea for the snowploughs- the Bachmann spares website has (or certainly did until recently) have the old style plug in individual class 37 ploughs.

 

I bought a boat load as have fitted them to all my class 37’s as they allow the tension locks to stay so give a fair representation. However they are also useful with some minor trimming to glue to the bogie frames of other locos. 
 

I’ve also chopped up Heljan spare ploughs in the past in a similar way.

[young37215]

A little ongoing pottering in the loft with the 2 new SO's being made ready to enter service. It is nearly 18 months since I did a video summary of WHL4 so I thought an update might be of interest. When I contrasted the original video against this I was pleasantly surprised at the progress. In my mind I had not done as much as the video shows which was reassuring, at least I am moving forward. 

 

 

[franciswilliamwebb]

Great video, thanks for that.  Just watched it on YouTube but couldn't leave a comment there!

[mallaig1983]

9 hours ago, young37215 said:

A little ongoing pottering in the loft with the 2 new SO's being made ready to enter service. It is nearly 18 months since I did a video summary of WHL4 so I thought an update might be of interest. When I contrasted the original video against this I was pleasantly surprised at the progress. In my mind I had not done as much as the video shows which was reassuring, at least I am moving forward. 

 

 

A really enjoyable video Rob and the voice over adds another dimension. Perhaps you’d consider a talk through video as you finish each project? It would be good to follow what you’re doing here on RMweb and then a video summary when completed?  A great layout and it’s always nice to see it on YouTube. A days running session of the timetable one day would be an impressive watch if you ever feel inclined.

[billywhizz]

Hi Rob. Agree, great update video and the voice over really helps to get a better understanding. The layout is looking fantastic and love the concept of the project. As mentioned above, be good to see some videos of timetabled running. 
Looking forward to seeing more progress in the coming months. 
Cheers, 

Bill. 

[PaulRhB]

Thanks that gave a great idea of the operational potential too 👍

[6990WitherslackHall]

On 31/07/2022 at 07:40, young37215 said:

l have 2 new SO’s that are in the process of detailing and weathering. Whilst at Broadway I took a few pictures from the newly finished footbridge of coach roof’s. There were some interesting differences in appearance which gives me food for thought about how I weather the new SO’s.

 

I recently brought a BR maroon Mark 1 open SO for my BR Midland Region OO gauge layout. It's a Bachmann model and it has been factory weathered.

 

I think it looks more realistic than a pristine one and will fit in nicely with the rest of my rolling stock.

 

 

 

[young37215]

The Bachmann factory weathering is quite good although like most factory weathering it is a little monotone. My only issue with it is something Mr Everard Junction identified in one of his tutorials. Basically it boils down to how rolling stock is maintained, coaches get a regular visit to the carriage wash which cleans the visible area namely the coach sides but leaves the underframe and roof largely untouched. On the basis of this I have focused on replicating the effect on WHL4 to the extent that a couple of years back (which is recorded on pages 18-20 of the thread) coaches that I previously weathered had their sides cleaned in a bath of LA Totally Awesome. The results were excellent and I have followed the Everard approach to weathering passenger rolling stock ever since. 

 

The 2 new SO's have been renumbered as Scottish based ones SC4103 and SC4909 using Railtec transfers sealed with a quick blast of acrylic matt varnish. They are nearing completion with passengers added, coach tables painted and end steps removed. Weathering of the roof and underframe will finish them off, I need to mix up some paint for an airbrushing session to complete the task. The SO's will go into immediate service with one in an Glasgow/Oban rake and 1 into a Glasgow/Mallaig rake which will bring the WHL4 mix of compartment to open coaching stock formations closer to that diagrammed.  

 

Wheels get a coat of frame dirt

 

 

Coach roof on the right has an initial coat of roof dirt applied by hand, it will get a second coat from an airbrush

 

 

renumbered SO SC4909 is the odd one out in the WHL4 fleet because it is Inverness allocated, all the rest are Cowlairs based. This is because the coach comes with Commonwealth bogies and 4909 was the only Railtec transfer that fitted. I am working on the basis Cowlairs have temporarily 'borrowed' the vehicle.

 

 

Cowlairs based SC4103 is a classic WHL vacum braked, steam heated and BR Mark 1 bogies coach.

 

 

With weathering only partially complete, SC4103 waits for the underframe and roof to be weathered and for couplings to be reinstated

 

[young37215]

Having mixed up matt varnish and thinners to seal the coach numbers, I used the surplus to add some rust powders to the ZGV's. The results look good to me although I may add a little more in my effort to create a really dilapidated wagon.

 

 

 

 

 

[young37215]

Having 'rusted' the ZGV it was reinstated into an engineers consist  at Crianlarich along with another recent purchase, the new Bachmann ZDV. Whilst the wagons in the consist have all had an initial weathering, I aim to increase their level of dliapidation at a later stage. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mallaig1983]

This is a lovely rake of wagons Rob. What would it’s duty have been? 

[Vecchio]

Absolutely great layout! And I do love the details in your rolling stock! Congratulations! 

[young37215]

7 hours ago, mallaig1983 said:

This is a lovely rake of wagons Rob. What would it’s duty have been? 

 

Engineers wagons in this sort of rake would typically contain all of the tools and consumables required by the Permanent Way and S&T to maintain the infrastructure. The Key publications on engineers wagons provide a lot of quality research material albeit with little about Scotland. The thing with engineering trains is that there is such a wide variety of consists and particularly short trains that can be run prototypically. On WHL4 I now have several engineering train options, Salmon for rail, Dogfish and Mermaid for ballast and Grampus for spoil/waste in addition to the vans and open wagons. My intention is to use the paths I have created in my WTT to move engineering trains around utilising the sidings at the various stations for storage. In doing so I will create a more diverse range of trains over and above the normal passenger and freight working which I hope will keep my interest. 

 

There are a limited number of pictures on Flickr but some really good ones highlight the variety. For example 37012 departing Garelochead for Oban passes a BRA and Sealion whilst on the ground can be seen used sleepers and rail which will have been or will be moved by rail. 

 

 

What I think is 37178 with Dogfish, Sealion and what I believe is a Lowmac and tractor.

 

 

 37112 1984 at Rannoch with Turbot

 

 

Mid 80's 37022 approaches Glenfinnan with a Salmon fitted with crane

 

 

37026 departing Ardlui with empty Dogfish in 1984

 

 

More ballast wagons at Ardlui with 37033

 

 

There are examples of most engineering wagons on the WHL, for example Mermaids at Ardlui from the mid 1980's

 

 

Final example is outside of my early 1980's time window but with the tunnel inspection wagon, Lowmac with crane and a Salmon, it's worth including