Popular Post will5210 Posted April 3, 2019 Popular Post Share Posted April 3, 2019 (edited) I’m hoping starting a layout thread will help get my backside into gear, end years of prevarication and hopefully speed up the whole layout building process! After 20 odd years as a modeller I’ve never had anything like a complete model railway and I’d quite like that to change. The Fort William station I’m modelling is the original one which existed from 1894 to 1974 when it was flattened and the site is now a dual carriageway through the town. There’s more info and loads of pictures here: http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/f/fort_william/ The station layout (basically 2 points & 3 platforms) was cramped and operationally difficult, with trains (often double headed) usually arriving into the longest seaside platform and a fresh engine(s) being attached (after much shuffling of stock, either by pilot or the loco taking over the train) before the train continued to Mallaig or Glasgow. Add to this all freight trains had to reverse from the goods yard back to the station for the section Token before they could proceed up the line & this should hopefully make for interesting operation. My chosen period to model is immediately pre-war with apple green & teak loveliness together with some pre-grouping North British stock in there too. Lots of double headed trains, fish traffic from Mallaig and a J36 shuffling about on pilot duty. Here are a few (awful) pictures. Track is Peco bullhead points with SMP flexi. I’ve omitted the crossover between the platforms as it was rarely used anyway. Concrete Platforms are 3x layers of 2mm foamex for the top, with strips of 10mm foamex for the bottom section. The top was painted with white and grey primer, with a darker part for the asphalt section and lighter grey squares for the concrete panels under the (eventual) canopies. The bottom platform section is covered in scalescenes concrete texture I’ve made a start on ballasting with fine brown woodland scenic ballast and copydex. This is tedious but I’m quite happy with the colour. The track was sprayed with Railmatch sleeper grime and the rails brush painted with Revell ‘rust’ colour. The barrow crossing is from Costa’s finest stirrers painted matte brown. These were a packed up to rail height with plasticard. Building up stock is a slow process and most of it is on my workbench thread (link in my signature). Above is my latest project: A K2/2 (G.King resin kit) along with my first K4 (of 3) and my only D34 ‘Glen Loy’. I’m particularly lacking in coaching stock and may buy a load of the old Hornby generic teak coaches as a pragmatic stop gap for now, but we’ll see. Hopefully there’ll be more to come soon! Thanks for looking in Edited April 3, 2019 by will5210 22 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pacific231G Posted April 3, 2019 Share Posted April 3, 2019 (edited) Hi Will I shall watch this project with great interest. Even though I don't even model UK railways, the old Fort William station has fascinated me ever since spending hours watching activity there during family holidays in the Western Highlands in the mid 1960s. Despite this being after the end of steam and me being no fan of diesels, the movements were fascinating. I didn't twig just how simple the track layout was but there was nothing simple, about the station's operation. The crossover between the two bay platforms seems to have been dismantled in about 1955 but, as you say, it had seen almost no use for many years before that and I wonder if it was really a hangover from when Ft. Wiliam was a pure terminus before the Mallaig extension was built. The answer is probably "of course I have" but do you have John A McGregor's "All stations to Mallaig"? If not I think you'd find it very rewarding. Though it covers the post nationalisation period when he was growing up in Ft. William and closely observing its trains, there are plenty of references to what went before. It was from McGregor that I finally learnt what the sidings on the old quay beyond the MacBrayne's pier had been used for before becoming ad hoc carriage sidings (I'd guessed fish but aparently it was mostly grain being brought in by ship for the various distilleries) He also wrote a shorter account of the station's daily operations in West Higland News in 1990 which I have. How easy or otherwise was it to use Peco BH points with SMP plain track? Edited April 3, 2019 by Pacific231G 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DCB Posted April 4, 2019 Share Posted April 4, 2019 Looks great! 1939 was the year of the K4, with all 6 i service and hauling most if not all of the Glasgow Ft William passenger and goods trains so maybe a bit less interesting than earlier or later when double heading was more prevalent. K4s could not be double headed due to weight restrictions but could handle 9 coach trains unlike the various 4-6-0s which were limited to 8. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
will5210 Posted April 4, 2019 Author Share Posted April 4, 2019 6 hours ago, Pacific231G said: The answer is probably "of course I have" but do you have John A McGregor's "All stations to Mallaig"? How easy or otherwise was it to use Peco BH points with SMP plain track? Hi, yes I got a copy of “All stations to Mallaig” on your recommendation in another thread. A very useful resource it is too! Particularly useful with details of the shunting arrangements. What I wouldn’t give for a day watching it in person though. The SMP track works ok with the Peco points using the new Peco fishplates. There is a height difference as the SMP has thinner sleepers, so I packed it up with thin card around the pointwork. I used SMP as I had 10 lengths lying around. If I was starting now I’d probably use Peco flexi 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
will5210 Posted April 4, 2019 Author Share Posted April 4, 2019 5 hours ago, DavidCBroad said: Looks great! 1939 was the year of the K4, with all 6 i service and hauling most if not all of the Glasgow Ft William passenger and goods trains so maybe a bit less interesting than earlier or later when double heading was more prevalent. K4s could not be double headed due to weight restrictions but could handle 9 coach trains unlike the various 4-6-0s which were limited to 8. Hi, well I’m not hard & fast on 1939 so I’ll squeeze in a K2/Glen or K2/K2 combo here and there. Of course all the Mallaig trains would be K2 hauled so there’s variety there too. I cant see me having room for 8 coach trains in the fiddle yard to be honest. In my head i thought 6 would be enough to give the right impression, though the 8 coach day section of the ‘Northern Belle’ with double headed ‘Glens’ is tempting! 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
will5210 Posted April 4, 2019 Author Share Posted April 4, 2019 The Fort William station building is unique & quite a complicated shape. https://flic.kr/p/XJEgue Getting this correct will be tricky but I've been encouraged by this nice version of FW in N gauge: So, using the station building plans in Ian Futers' Scottish Layout Plans book I've started effectively drawing up my own card kit using scalescenes textures. I can print this on matte paper on the large format printer I have at work & mount it on 5mm foamex with pritt stick. The windows will be cut out by hand and replaced with thin clear plastic. The window frames will be microstrip. The 'tower' will be a separate structure. Thanks for looking in 6 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max Legroom Posted April 4, 2019 Share Posted April 4, 2019 Can't wait to see this layout progress! 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pacific231G Posted April 4, 2019 Share Posted April 4, 2019 (edited) 6 hours ago, will5210 said: The Fort William station building is unique & quite a complicated shape. https://flic.kr/p/XJEgue Getting this correct will be tricky but I've been encouraged by this nice version of FW in N gauge: So, using the station building plans in Ian Futers' Scottish Layout Plans book I've started effectively drawing up my own card kit using scalescenes textures. I can print this on matte paper on the large format printer I have at work & mount it on 5mm foamex with pritt stick. The windows will be cut out by hand and replaced with thin clear plastic. The window frames will be microstrip. The 'tower' will be a separate structure. Thanks for looking in Hi Will, this looks very interesting. I've not tackled anything quite this ambitious but, being a poor draughtsman, I've found generating my own "card kits" on the computer to be extremely useful. It both enables me to generate them from architects elevations (mostly for railway buildings) and also to have buildings that are unique to me (there are techniques for developing elevations from oblique images such as old postcards). Edited April 4, 2019 by Pacific231G 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
will5210 Posted April 4, 2019 Author Share Posted April 4, 2019 Hi David. It has certainly helped to get my head around the construction. I can also print out multiple copies for when I cock it all up! Will Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJCT Posted April 4, 2019 Share Posted April 4, 2019 While looking for something else (as you do) I came across this - http://www.poppyswoodtech.co.uk/ - look under "4mm scale" and scroll down to "Valances". I've pointed out to them that Mallaig is on the "West Highland" not the "Highland", but some searching through published pics suggests that with a little adaptation this type of valance might be suitable for other locations on the NBR system, eg Fort William. HTH. Alasdair 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
will5210 Posted April 4, 2019 Author Share Posted April 4, 2019 Oh that’s very useful indeed! Thanks for posting that. I was thinking of ordering one of their chassis jigs too. Heres the real thing along with a useful interior shot: Does anyone know where I can get etched or plastic girders in that style or similar? Cheers 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
calvin Streeting Posted April 4, 2019 Share Posted April 4, 2019 Nice photo that.. if it was me I would 3d print them as look simple enough and very modular. or plasticard built. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
will5210 Posted April 5, 2019 Author Share Posted April 5, 2019 Hmm, I hadn’t considered 3D printing. I’ll need a lot of it so it could get expensive. All the valence is mounted on the same type of girder, but that’s hidden away so a simple X shaped plastic section would suffice there. The Girders between the canopies could be more detailed using 3D prints, etched brass or scratch build brass construction. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
calvin Streeting Posted April 5, 2019 Share Posted April 5, 2019 correct 3d printing can be costly, but thats mostly the time it takes to print, as a CAD tech i bought a simple FDM printer as my fingers started to hurt cutting out windows, and needed a lot of point roding, both of these kind of ment it paid for its self in the end and now i print soooo much an example canopy i drew and printed, but note i do not print it complete, but rather make my own arfix kit see https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2856669/apps/print/#apps the only thing i have to think about is the layering and min size of walls etc (0.5mm) , as its like layers of icing on a cake and bridging (suspened in mid air) is problematic due to nature of printer, but thats why i kit it and think about each component.. for example.. that took 20min to draw so not long but crude gues at dims (for OO) and would only take 5min to print at a cost of peneys . but you can see that the front diagonals make there way all the way back 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
will5210 Posted April 5, 2019 Author Share Posted April 5, 2019 Clever stuff indeed & food for thought. What model of printer did you buy if you don't mind me asking? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
calvin Streeting Posted April 5, 2019 Share Posted April 5, 2019 i bought a cheep... very cheep in fact to cheep... chines knock off based on a "i3 prusa" from ebay came in kit form, and as too cheep had to tweek a lot, but its a printer so you print the parts needed it cost around £200 and after a few mods probably about £300 in total.. but after doing 6+ 3m runs of point rodding that cost is gone.. to start with it was ok (ish) on low level parts upto about 10mm high which was fine to start with, but used to woble to much to print higher, but as i like to tinker this suited me fine and i could just work on slowly making it better. and learn whats going on but still print windows, doors etc. so it depends on skill/effot levels, but £100 = basic will do ish but amendments will have to be done, and will be kit based (budget version) £200 = basic but might need tweeking £300 = should work out of box, but can be improved £400 and up = if it dont work complain... thats the UK, not sure what part of this ball you are in/at.. 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
will5210 Posted April 5, 2019 Author Share Posted April 5, 2019 More detail here courtesy of Irishswissernie: https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishswissernie/33664200428 https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishswissernie/32598444777 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
calvin Streeting Posted April 5, 2019 Share Posted April 5, 2019 (edited) hi.. just while browsing saw this.. this canopy seams the same framework as those photos and those look so doabble on a printer... Edited April 5, 2019 by calvin Streeting Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
danstercivicman Posted April 5, 2019 Share Posted April 5, 2019 Nice layout plans and progress 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
will5210 Posted April 5, 2019 Author Share Posted April 5, 2019 23 minutes ago, calvin Streeting said: hi.. just while browsing saw this.. this canopy seams the same framework as those photos and those look so doabble on a printer... Cheers I'll take a look Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
calvin Streeting Posted April 5, 2019 Share Posted April 5, 2019 THAT IS A LOVELY STATION... i googled it.... can you tell i am board at work 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevebr Posted April 5, 2019 Share Posted April 5, 2019 This looks like a great layout developing. I’m also busy preparing a model of FW circa 1960-64 with slight additions. To date baseboards are nearing completion with trackwork starting in the next month. I suppose I should start a thread rather than just read others. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Sandpiper Posted April 5, 2019 RMweb Gold Share Posted April 5, 2019 Looking forward to watching this develop. I didn't realise that freights had to reverse down to the station. I don't think I have ever come across any photos of freights in the station. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pacific231G Posted April 5, 2019 Share Posted April 5, 2019 (edited) On 05/04/2019 at 17:23, Sandpiper said: Looking forward to watching this develop. I didn't realise that freights had to reverse down to the station. I don't think I have ever come across any photos of freights in the station. AFAIK, they didn't actually enter the station and wouldn't normally have gone beyond the the "trident" of stop signals that protected the three platform roads. That was 62 yards down from the box and the home signal protecting the level crossing was 119 yards up from the box. I don't know if any goods trains on the line were longer than 180 yards but if they were they'd presumably have had to either be cleared into the lochside platform no 1 or foul the crossing while the token was being picked up from the box. Though it doesn't include any actual token handovers, my slightly vague memory of observing activity there in the 1960s was that the line between the station thoat and the points giving access to it was effectively used as a head shunt for the smaller goods yard on the town side of the line and that the level crossing, which AFAIK only gave access to the main goods yard and MPD, was closed for quite long periods while shunting, then normally in the hands of an 0-6-0 diesel shunter, took place. Edited April 7, 2019 by Pacific231G typos 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
will5210 Posted April 5, 2019 Author Share Posted April 5, 2019 (edited) 1 hour ago, Sandpiper said: Looking forward to watching this develop. I didn't realise that freights had to reverse down to the station. I don't think I have ever come across any photos of freights in the station. Yes there’ll be a bit of fudging fact and fiction here but my signal box will be closer to the station due to selective compression, so I should’ve said freight trains will reverse close to the station i.e into the scenic section cheers Edited April 5, 2019 by will5210 Clarification 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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