ScR steam in the 50's

The first kit has some rodding and a selection of cranks and joiners, while the other one is rodding only. The rollers and rodding are a single moulding and are joined in the middle of a run, which is a bit fiddly, as I said, but it isn't impossible- I used a touch of poly and after a minute or so squeezed them with a flat nosed pliers to get a good join. Then a brush of liquid poly and let dry overnight- I made up a stock of lengths about a foot, and fitted them when fully dry.

I'll come back to you on the distances- there are a number of threads on RMweb about this, and I'll find one for you.

Thanks Ben.

Going back to when I was a kid and visiting the signal box at the bottom of my street, it looked quite an effort when the signal man pulled on the point levers and the points were not that far from the box, so it must have been even harder when they were of some distance.

Phil

Couple of threads links here- one on maximum distances- http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/76350-max-distance-of-signal-box-from-pointssignal/

and another on set up- The distance between point rodding stools - Modelling Questions, Help and Tips - RMweb

If you search the site there are several topics on it, but these two with internal links should help. Like a lot of railway modelling, it's when you start looking at "obscure" items , you discover there's a lot you didn't know about!  All part of the fun!.. and creating a better model….

Thanks,

that's interesting, I do think however that it would have been much easier to install it before all the ballast went down :???:

Fairly quiet on the modelling front recently- wife has been finding things to be done around the house, but I managed a few photos the other day. Firstly, a quiet moment at Helmsdale, as a couple of vans await emptying…




A freight train is seen leaving Helmsdale, hauled by an ex-CR 4-4-0…




While at Thurso the branch tank does a bit of shunting….

Very nice Ben. :thumbs

Terry

Thanks,- some more on the same theme. Firstly the Dornoch tank is shunting one of the vans seen previously…





While the departing freight has just about reached the station limits…

Nothing much to report- current lack of mojo has left  me doing nothing ATM- but I have been trying out a new camera to see what it can do, so here are some of the results.
 A view of the yard at Thurso- should have hoovered beforehand :oops:, and some joints need attending…



While some shunting is going on at the other end…



All being done by Ben Wyvis….

New camera works well - but what a subject! You have a wonderful looking layout. What attention to detail you have - I love the figures especially. I am going to take the time to read your layout's thread from start to finish over the next few days.

Ben, that camera works really well. I like the way you have blended everything in so well and that backscene really does the business. A pleasure to look at and admire. 

The point rodding has come up well Ben…easy to see in the sharp and clear photos.


What camera did you get?


Marty

Thanks all,- figures are something I intend to feature a bit more in future. I have  quite a few painted and pegged, ready to make an appearance every now and then, but this part of the world was always sparsely populated, and I don't want to crowd the scene, so will add and remove some as I go.

The latest camera is a Canon Powershot SX170, picked up new- unusual for me- at a real bargain price on eBay recently, and it seems to be a good balance between small size,- for getting onto the layout,- quality of images, and ease of operations. I am a bit of a gadget geek when it comes to cameras for layout shots, quite often hoovering one up after perhaps a favourable comment somewhere. You can nearly always find one cheaply if content to buy an obsolete model- seems the "must have the latest release" syndrome stretches beyond model railways as well :lol:, and there appears to be a lot of upgrading and disposal of older versions going on  all the time. I happened across this one by chance- it was only on sale for one day- and managed to win it. Here is another from it- Ben Alder at Helmsdale….

One aspect of the operations at Helmsdale in steam days was the starting and termination of some trains there to and from Inverness. One of these was the last passenger train north, which was stabled in sidings overnight, leaving the through roads clear for any nocturnal traffic. Here is a photo of this, although judging by the light it must be morning and no doubt it will soon be shunted into the platform to awit any passengers…

Hi Richard,
Nice to see your layout again.  I used to follow your layout thread on RM web before.  This one's fantastic.  Accurately captures the time and place.  Photography excellent.  The natural light in the pictures makes them seem like real life.  

The back scenes are really good too.  Where did you get them?

Brilliant work.

Regards

Neil

Hi Neil,
Good to hear from you again- how's the new layout coming on? I'm still on RMweb- look for Far North Line- where there is a layout building thread and a current one showing day to day stuff. I try to shoot under natural light where possible, as I like the results- it of course helps that the model and light both are in the same location, to all intents!
The backscenes are by ID Models, and are very effective, esp. at Helmsdale. He does one or two "Scottish/mountainous" choices, and are well worth checking out. These two stations are ones I've been planning doing for a long time now, and I'm glad they are now established. A real bonus for me has been the gradual  amassing of HR and CR engines that actually ran here, and this helps set the scene as well. I have deliberately taken a pinch of salt with regard to timelines though, as none of the HR locos ever received BR liveries, but I reasoned that as many of the CR and NB ones did, a bit of alternative history would solve that problem…….

I have just about finished another one recently-   a Loch class 4-4-0 that was a great favourite of the local drivers. This has been modelled with a CR boiler as rebuilt by the LMS, which altered its HR profile remarkedly. Here it is at Helmsdale- it needs a weathering to hide some rough patches.





Another recent arrival has been by a fortuitous eBay purchase- a brass kit built HR Clan. This has solved the problem of me having to tackle the unbuilt one sitting in the pile- a job I wasn't looking forward to. It has a Portescap motor, and runs well, which isn't always the case with ready made engines,but this was too good a chance to miss out on. It is in LMS red, which is too early for me, so some livery decision will be taken about it, but for the moment I'll leave it as it is.

Hi Richard,  nice to hear from you again.  Haven't been on RMweb for awhile but I'll pop over and have a look. See what you've been doing.

I've got a layout thread and blog on MRF and also  here.  Just modelling German at the moment but retaining all my UK stock as another Scottish layout will happen in the future at some point.

I'll look into those back scenes as my home made ones were too small.

The natural light makes so much difference.  Your photography is really good too.  Very life like.

I'll be keeping an eye on your work now I know where you are.

Regards

Neil

My backscenes are the 16" ones with about 4" of too verdant foreground removed. I would have liked them even higher, but I have to leave the space behind accessible as there are hidden tracks there. The guy at ID is very good at customising his sheets to suit needs of individual modellers as well.

[user=772]Ben Alder[/user] wrote:

My backscenes are the 16" ones with about 4" of too verdant foreground removed. I would have liked them even higher, but I have to leave the space behind accessible as there are hidden tracks there. The guy at ID is very good at customising his sheets to suit needs of individual modellers as well.

That's a good size.  I'm using Faller ones on my current layout which would be about the same 50cm.  The ones on my old Highland layout would have been 8 inches at most which was too small.
Cheers
Neil

A couple of recent shots- the Loch has been undergoing acceptance trials, and is running well. It has a little spot of binding, but this was common to all the T9 rebuilds, and involves careful observation to track it down and eliminate, and apart from that performs more than adequately. Here it is on a passenger turn.



And a couple of views at Helmsdale shed.

After some thought I decided to replace the LMS livery on the Clan, and it is now Mackinnon rather than Fraser, and in lined black, although the real engine was scrapped before this- but a small matter like that is no real hindrance to modellers…. It will now fit into my plans a lot better.