ScR steam in the 50's

I've been absent for several months now, so it is great to catch up with your layout, Richard.
I love the horse and cart. Not sure if Slaters make them any more but there are several cast metal ones available.  I would like to build up several for my layout if and when I ever get a new shed.
Ray

Been catching up with things the last couple of days, and have sorted through some images that got missed earlier, so will post them up  now and then. Firstly, here are a couple of the Helmsdale mess shed, seen from the opposite of normal viewing , with a bit of backscene added for the photographs…








And one of the shed at Helmsdale in natural light- no more light shots for a month or so,I guess, its gloom city in this part of the world ATM :roll:

Great photos.

Terry

Hello Richard,

As a newbie to these forums and as someone returning to modelling after a hiatus of near 40 years I am finding the layouts on here to be excellent, but your work in particular is most inspiring. Over the years I have amassed quite a collection of stuff which seems to consist mainly of continental trams. However, your layout and those of other modellers of Scottish railways make me want to return to my Scottish roots and attempt something closer to home. I may have to have a firesale of the continental stuff to fund some Scottish rolling stock!

Anyway, thanks for the great photos and have a Guid New Year.

Cheers, and best of if you decide to go for the ScR scene. Its a R-T-R desert, unfortunately, and even a lot of the ,often indifferent, white metal kits are now unobtainable, making any pregroup engines problematic- hence my bodge with the Bens. The HR 0-6-0's are still available, and I turned an M7 into a CR tank, but the Pickersgill 4-4-0 has to be hunted down on eBay, and I am hoping that the Hornby 700 will lend itself to conversion to a CR 812- depends on the height of the motor,as the boiler pitch is lower on the CR loco. I have gone over most of these on my blog on RMweb if you are interested.

Anyway, a couple more pics from recently, looking at Helmsdale again. Firstly a Black Five heads a short train into the station…





And a shed scene in low light…




I would like to say thank you for all the visits and kind words about the layout over the year, and to wish everyone a Happy and Productive New Year.


Here's to 2014…

:cheers:cheers

That Black Five shot looks like a picture postcard, Richard.  :thumbs
Happy New Year to you as well.  :cheers

My computer has been away most of this month for an upgrade, but modelling has continued… Here is an ex HR 0-4-4T that was the mainstay of the Dornoch branch for many years. Its a bit of a cop out, having started life as an EM model, and acquired on eBay. It is handbuilt, beautifully, but proved impossible to convert to a running OO model without damaging the brasswork, so, as I already have an unbuilt kit of the same engine waiting its turn on the bench, and rather than have it lying in a box, I made a plasticard chassis and left it unmotorised,so at least it can appear on shed…..






The two generations of motive power can be seen here- the older one is as it was after its final works visit.

That's a nice little engine Ben and someone has made a great job of her.

Cheers

Marty

Another view of the little tank, shunting the ex LNER restaurant car that ran here for a time.




While, some distance away, Ben Clebrig is sorting vans in Thurso goods yard.

Latest work has been on restoring a rather battered HR Castle 4-6-0 picked up on eBay. Here it is as purchased, looking rather sorry for itself…






After a good bit of work, it is more presentable, and has been repainted into BR lined black- a livery it didn't wear in real life, but things are different in the Far North, so now it made it into the Fifties…..It still needs a bit of chassis tweaking, but this can wait while I get on with the next project.





On a morning departure from Thurso, with the driver checking everything is OK.

Great job Ben and very realistic pictures, well worth the effort!

Phil

In those photo's you've posted here Ben, I can almost feel myself being there and watching the shunting and watching the old steam engines going about their work. Just as in bygone days, blimey it takes me back. Thanks Ben!

Great job!A friend of mine's nickname was Skiboo !

Certainly looks a lot better after a trip to the workshops Richard, but what happened to the tender quest:


Ed

Thanks guys- shooting in natural light does give that "natural" look :roll:, it also helps that I live in the same town as the model, so it should look right!  Skibo Castle belonged to Andrew Carnegie for some time, and is just along the coast from Dornoch. The tender was swapped for a six wheel one, as happened to some of these engines when they worked the Oban line just before the war- the model one was iffy, and I felt it looked a bit more balanced with the smaller tender.


"In those photo's you've posted here Ben, I can almost  feel myself being there and watching the shunting and watching the old  steam engines going about their work. "


Yes, just wish we could- modelling is the only way forward though…..

The Castle has taken a trip down the strath to Helmsdale, and is seen here heading onto the shed …







And a view of the shed, with three Highland inhabitants- a Small Ben, Dornoch  tank and the Castle… only here, I'm afraid, but we can dream….

More great pics Richard ! :thumbs Fantastic.

Cheers, Gary.

Ben, where did you get the point rodding from or is it scratched, it looks great.

Phil

It's the Wills new kit- highly reccommended, although a bit fiddly to put together. Rodding makes a big difference to the scene, I must say….

I see the kit on eBay £10 and an extension kit £7.50 I can't make out in the pictures but is it just the rollers etc that's supplied or is the rodding included, if it is it looks very short.

 

Another question, what  the furthest distance the rodding would be used from box to points?

 

Phil