young3721

Most of my recent development on West Highland 3 has been focused on the scenery and associated bits. The level of detail I am trying to achieve is new territory for me and the knowledge I am acquiring from my experiences is both significant and enlightening. I decided to weather the rails at Garelochead by hand painting it with Railmatch sleeper grime. Having done so I now have the utmost respect for those who have completed the task on a larger layout! What a soul destroying activity hand painting is; it makes ballasting seem like fun. However the mind numbing tedium has been worth the effort with completion of Garelochead making it 3 out of 5 scenic sections with weathered track. Only 2 sections left! Next up for weathering is Bridge of Orchy. I do not possess an airbrush and so will attempt to paint the already glued and ballasted trackwork using a Railmatch aerosol. Fortunately the scenic section that comprises Bridge of Orchy can be lifted and taken to the garage for the spraying. At the same time I can fine tune some of the other scenery such as the basket liner grass which will benefit from being glued down. I also want to move 2 Peco point motors from above board to below which will be much easier with the section lifted. Finally I need to add a power connection to the BUS. In the light of the on going Permanent Way activity there have been several engineers and similar train movements in addition to the daily WTT operations which have been captured on film as follows. 37003 collects ballast hoppers from Ardlui 37003 awaits southbound departure from Ardlui 37026 arrives at Ardlui with 0835 Glasgow to Mallaig 37003 arrives at Garelochead with ballast 37003 shunts ballast hoppers into Garelochead sidings freshly weathered track looks much better than nickel silver although backache is the price OWB pauses at Garelochead Ballast hoppers rest in Garelochead sidings 20128 arrives at Garelochead from the north with the tool van 37003 is having a busy day as it heads north on the Alcan hoppers 27041 at Ardlui with inspection train

Thanks Mike Good point on the dates, in pursuit of perfection I shall ensure future pictures are date free! The backscene is Cader Idris from ID Backscenes, embarrassing for a Scottish based layout that it is Welsh but it does a pretty effective job. Finding a suitable backscene for Fort William and the surrounding area is now my biggest challenge. I spoke with ID Backscenes about a custom one for the area but they have no suitable pictures and appeared uninterested in seeking a solution. I am 500 miles from Lochaber which makes it a long trip to take my own pictures! Inspiration will no doubt be found from somewhere. Watch this space.... regards Rob

Having slept on it, I really enjoyed yesterdays operations hence the addition of some more pictures showing: aerial shot of Ardlui with 37264 on 7B02 20192 stabled at Garelochead 37085 on 1T24 passing Mallaig Junction 1T24 awaiting departure at Fort William 2 pictures of 37191 descending into Bridge of Orchy with 8D10 37190 on 1B08 at Garelochead 37027 on 1B07 sleeper service at Bridge of Orchy last 2 pictures show 27041 on weedkilling train at Ardlui

Had an operating session today and took some pictures, I hope you like them. Cast your mind back 34 years, it seems like only yesterday! On the basis I have still not mastered how to add captions against each picture, the following list of the pictures is in order: 27041 arrives in early morning light at Ardlui with weedkilling train 37264 arrives at Garelochead with 7B02, 0520 Mossend to Mallaig Junction 7B02 again at Ardlui waiting time 37027 arrives at Bridge of Orchy with 1B07, the sleeper service from London 37085 at Mallaig Junction with 1T24, the first train of the day from Mallaig to Glasgow 37190 departs Garelochead with 1B08, the 0806 Glasgow to Oban 37191 approaches Bridge of Orchy with 8D10, the 0707 Mallaig Junction to Mossend 7B02 passes 8D10 at Bridge of Orchy where the crews change 37085 departs Fort William with 1T24 1T24 threads its way through the outskirts of Fort William and approaches Mallaig Junction

Pictures in sequential order show: 37 027 at Ardlui on the Fort William bound sleeper Mallaig Junction yard facing west towards Ben Nevis Garelochead station from the south of the station Garelochead from the north of the station Mallaig Junction yard looking east southbound view towards Bridge of Orchy Fort William station looking east Ardlui station, sleeper still in platform Bridge of Orchy station looking north ditto 9 Bridge of Orchy station looking south Ardlui station, sleeper still in station (must be late running!) Mallaig Junction yard looking east Fort William station looking west southbound view towards Bridge of Orchy Plasser rests in sidings at Garelochead

As the heading suggests, this is my 3rd attempt to build a model of the West Highland line. Built in a spare bedroom, the layout is set in the early 1980's where steam heat and corporate blue rule. Incorporating 4 stations built over 3 levels with each station in its own scenic environment, a train can travel up to 145 feet in total as it traverses the line. As I hope can be seen from the attached plan, there are: a main fiddle yard and 2 stations on the low level continuous loop, Garelochead and Ardlui a horseshoe intermediate section with 1 station, Bridge of Orchy, connecting to the upper level a second horseshoe in the reverse direction comprising Fort William station, Mallaig Junction yard and the upper level fiddle yard which serves as Corpach or Mallaig as required. It has taken 3 years to lay, fine tune and prove the trackwork and validate the concept of running the West Highland WTT. I can now run all summer trains from either of my copies of the 1979 or 1983 WTT as desired. Stations and scenery are largely complete although much detailing work remains to be completed. Trackwork is Peco streamline or set track with 33 of the 60 small radius points currently motorised. Control is DCC through a wireless Prodigy Advance system which controls a fleet of 10 class 37's, 3 class 27 and 2 class 20. All locos are sound chipped with Loksound chips carrying a variety of different sounds. Rolling stock is mostly weathered with 6 rakes of 3 coach mark 1 passenger stock and a multitude of freight and departmental stock typically as seen on the WHR in the early 80's. In addition I have a green 4 coach rake of mark 1's waiting for a suitably liveried Hornby K1 to enable the steam specials to commence their summer running. As ever there is still much work to be done and I hope that over the coming months I am able to record in this blog the completion of: Fort William station and surrounding area Locomotive detailing semaphore signalling backscenes including one for Fort William incorporating Ben Nevis fine tuning of the trackside and station scenery I hope that you find this and the attached photos interesting, apologies for the absence of captions but I cannot work out how to achieve this!. Once I have sorted the captions issue I will add further photographs showing the wide variety of trains that I run shortly. In the meantime all thoughts and comments on potential improvements gratefully received.

Hi Alain I have only recently joined RMWeb and this is my first effort at commenting so please bare with me. Once I have worked out what I am doing I hope to add details of my own West Highland line project. In answer to your question, the OBA has regularly worked the West Highland line since the early 1980's, they have been used to carry numerous cargos including: southbound paper from Corpach paper mill, northbound logs for delivery to the Corpach paper mill, southbound aluminium produced at the Alcan smelter in Fort William any other general freight usually covered by tarpaulins in either direction I am sure there are more uses for the OBA but I cannot think of them right now. My only observation about your OBA is that it is far too clean! Invariably the OBA like most wagons is filthy dirty so your weathering skills are required to make the wagon look more prototypical! One further word of advice, search the internet for pictures of West Highland freight trains. I think it is much easier to understand when you see a picture rather than by reading someone else's written words. I would attach a link but it appears that this capability has been disabled. If you search 'class 37 ardlui freight train' on Google you will get some good examples of freight traffic including OBA's. Keep up the good work regards Rob