A significant milestone is passed.

Completing the ‘Down’ line of the Top Deck layout, my EM gauge scenic test track, saw the running of the first through trains;  not simply shuttling from staging yard to staging yard. The honour of the first train was handed to 47 761 ‘Isle of Iona and the South East TPO set. Whilst the run was uneventful (nothing fell off the rails), it became clear that some fettling of the scenic side track would be needed. more trains had to be run and those track defects in need of fine tuning carefully noted.

Heading off, down grade in the Dover direction. The curve at the end will be hidden in a tunnel through a chalk cliff.

Although this ballast train is running ‘wrong line’, I consider testing of track in both directions with a variety of stock formations, not necessarily prototypical, to be important. I am looking for rough rail joins, unevenness that can only be accurately detected during a running test and power supply problems.

Crossing over from the ‘Down’ to ‘Up’ lines slowly, observing how wheels react to the track formation. I was already unhappy with the turnout to the left and in front of the Class 47 in this picture and it was soon lifted for modifications.

Checking clearance as the ballast train leaves the on stage part of the layout. There will be a curved back scene at this location separating the scenic side from the staging yard side seen in the back ground. Much tidying up remains to be done before my first running session with friends this week.

As much running as possible was done with as many locomotives as possible. Weaknesses in some of the fleet soon become apparent and those poor performers were soon identified for fine tuning of their own. This process of testing and refinement can take weeks and was completed before work on laying the ‘Up’ line commenced. Wet and dry paper is used to smooth burrs from tail joins, gauge tightening on curves is sought and corrected and tightness through turnouts eased and checked.  With running tests in both directions on the ‘Down’ line complete, placing the ‘Up’ line followed before letting my friends loose on it. Should be fun!

Onwards and upwards with track.

Sometimes, I wish I only modelled OO gauge instead of EM gauge. Hey-ho, now I have to build and lay a great deal more track. Work has started on the Kent Coast mainline in the scenic area of the Top Deck layout and that means I cannot just slap any old thing down. The picture above shows the placing of the Down line close to the position of the back scene. The curve and curved turnouts are a compromise – the real cross over is straight. In this design, to have brought this facing cross over to the front of the layout would have to reduce the length of train stabling and turn back roads to 8 coaches instead of 10. Not an acceptable compromise in that direction. So, curved turnouts it is! This illustrates one of the points about modelling a linear structure such as a railway in oblong shaped rooms – eventually, the design has to incorporate a un-prototypical  right angle curve to avoid it hitting the wall!

Sleepers placed in the Down direction. A hefty piece of wood provides a good straight edge for this stretch of line. Remember, this layout theme is supposed to be a scenic test track for my British outline models but is fact becoming a fully scenic model! A turnout is placed where there will be a trailing cross-over.

The same turnout looking in the Up direction.

Sleepers are individually placed on the Plastozote foam track bed before the rail and fixings are added. This type of concrete sleeper is by C&L Finescale and passes muster. It’s a long winded process but the end result looks good.

In goes the first running rail composed of Code 82 flat bottom rail: heavy enough for a mainline. Fixings are trimmed Pandrol clip and base plate mouldings by Peco.

Roller gauges set the correct gauge as the second running rail is fixed into place. Wiring and testing is not far away. I am considering a different approach for the sleepers on the Up line to speed the track laying process up and to introduce a different type of concrete sleeper. After that comes the conductor rail!

Track building for the Top Deck layout.

Remember the Top Deck of my fixed home layout? Well, things have been quiet on the blog front because I have made little progress worthy of reporting  – waiting for some track building tools to arrive – from Canada. I was far from keen on the hand filing of Code 83 flat bottom rail for turnout building without help. Furthermore, I as not hugely enthusiastic about copper clad sleeper turnouts on the scenic part of the layout (shown above) either, so decided to try C&L Finescale Timber Tracks turnout bases for the main line trackage; each one is laser cut from very high quality plywood.

I very much like the Fast Tracks turnout building tools, made in and supplied from Canada. I was first introduced to them when I bought an N scale turnout kit for five curved turnouts for the Montana Rail Link layout. I immediately saw the value of the point form tools for building the track on the top deck layout and for future use. The filing jig for HO/OO gauge switch blades and crossing vees is shown above: One for a No.5 angle and one for a No.6 angle turnout. They will accommodate rail sizes from code 70 to 100. You can buy jigs for smaller rail sizes too to enable construction of turnouts in N and Z gauge – see below for an N gauge one:

This curved turnout (above) is to 9mm gauge or N scale using Code 55 flat bottom rail. Built for my US-outline Montana Rail Link layout, it took an hour to build using the various point form tools and jigs supplied by Fast Tracks as a kit of parts.

Insert the rail, clamp up and file away until the correct profile for switch blades or crossing vee rails is achieved.

A lovely jig for soldering up the crossing vees accurately!

A combination of Fast Tracks point form tools,  C&L Finescale Timber Tracks turnout bases for UK practice and Peco Individualy track components has resulted in some pretty convincing flat bottom rail turnouts for the Kent Coast main line part of the top deck layout. Whilst such tools and turnout bases may seen expensive, the tools will last almost for all of my remaining modelling career and the laser cut point bases are brilliant to use. Furthermore, the resulting turnouts look far better and with better looking detail than those I may have built from copper PCB sleepers. And…no burnt fingers!

A new addition to the fleet…

I could not resist the limited edition Class 57, 57 601 offered by Model Rail magazine! This special issue Bachmann OO gauge loco has since been equipped to work on my EM gauge ‘Top Deck’ layout, allocated to charter traffic.

A very fine looking machine it is too. 57 601 is one of my favourite locos and it has spent time up here in the Highlands working the Royal Scotsman. It has been to Kyle of Lochalsh during its recent career, a far cry from its beginnings on the Great Western.

Here’s the finished article, ready for traffic – a simple piece of work, really. Internally, a 21-pin decoder is fitted for use on the Top Deck layout which currently runs on Lenz equipment. However, with the imminent arrival of Duplex radio from Digitrax, that may change (my N scale layout on the lower and middle decks already works with Digitrax equipment, so another power district could be established very easily). Hornby air pipes decorate the bufferbeam and a Kadee is fitted at the opposite end. EM gauge wheels and a coat of light weathering to the underframes and exhaust ports on the roof completes the picture. This model replaces the FGW Class 57 which I once used on ‘Platform 4a & 4b’. A worthy successor!

Colourful Class 156s from the Midlands…

Dapol is keeping up its end very nicely keeping N gauge modellers well supplied with models and livery variations. The latest pair of Class 156s I have had the chance to look at are the East Midlands Trains version pictured above and the CT version shown below: very contemporary and colourful too.

One of my favourite liveries is Central Trains colours, now obsolete. It is a bright colour scheme and suited these units very well. Dapol has made a good job of it, not too garish an interpretation, which was always a risk with this one in model form.

Working couplings at the outer ends enable manual coupling of units, one of the many features of this remarkable model. The outer and inner end couplings are designed for close coupling with a choice of gangways for use on sharp or shallow radii curves.

That’s close…yet the vehicles coupled like this will go round my 16 inch minimum radius curvature on my US outline layout without the gangways catching.

Each coupling is fitted with a cam mechanism enabling the coupling gap between the gangways to open on curves as seen above…

Each model has one driven car with all-wheel drive and the mechanism hidden below the window line enabling much of the interior to be modelled. Flush glazed too!

Working light and 6-pin DCC socket in both powered and unpowered vehicles (accessible through a removable roof) and no light leakage into the cab from the LEDs all adds up to an impressive package. Oh yes, don’t forget the lighting bar connection inside for interior lighting. It’s model with much going for it and I like the fact it has ‘presence’ too, something that Dapol seems to be good at capturing. My thanks to David Jones of Dapol for allowing me to photograph and feature these models. They should be in model shops soon!

DRS fights back…with Class 37s on the Highland line.

DRS has started operating a new intermodal service to and from Inverness, probably in response to the loss of the Tesco traffic to rail freight operator, DB Schenker. Currently being run as a trial for Russells, the service made its first run yesterday. It was photographed at Moy with 37 038 in charge shortly after its 09.22 departure from Inverness.

Following a short recess in the loop at Moy, the train was caught on camera at Tomatin. Weather: changeable, but some brightness allowed for some reasonable photography.

I also took the opportunity to take update my library with shots of the north bound sleeper (Culloden Moor)) and the London bound Highland Chieftain (Feabuie):

Whilst we all hope that DB Schenker will reverse the fortunes of EWS by becoming more aggressive in winning freight contracts, we also hope that they would target road bound flows to increase rail freight’s market share, not work to take traffic from other operators, especially those that did work to secure business from road haulage. Sadly, in the case of the Tesco train from Grangemouth to Inverness, that is not the case. This scene of blue DRS Class 66s on the Tesco train on the Highland line will soon cease to be from November. As enthusiasts, we must never take anything forgranted on this railway of today! Things change so quickly, so photograph it as and when you can.

Top deck progress on the layout.

Building effort on the layout project has focussed on the top deck and the British Outline EM gauge theme. Two fiddle or staging yards are now in place with a cross-over between the Up and Down lines linking the two. Wired up and running, the yards are being tested with a variety of different stock. Track laying on the scenic area of the layout remains to be started. Working on a defined layout theme definitely brings two realisations:

1. It concentrates the mind on specific stock suitable for that theme. Suddenly, I seem to have a lot of stuff not appropriate to the layout theme! Will those models ever get to see a running session? Or does Ebay beckon?
2. You soon find the weaknesses in your models, particularly with respect to couplings, wheels and traction. I will have some serious work bench time to put in, with upgrading to do, not to mention repairs. I really wonder how stuff stored in stock boxes actually manages to become damaged?

I have a weakness for mail trains. Here’s one set of stock being tested on the layout – the vehicles will be used to make up my South East Travelling Post Office set when operations start in earnest on the top deck layout. In the meantime, the stock runs along the off stage area of the layout in testing mode. It has had to have couplings adjusted and A1 Models close coupling gangways fitted – starting with the Super BG coaches at either end of the set. I do such work one vehicle at a time before checking performance and moving on to the next.

So I admit that my lack of posts recently has been due to this layout building activity and some heavy writing deadlines too. Whilst it’s great to have stuff out of the boxes and on a layout, I can only notice how much remedial work is needed: from fixing the odd piece of glazing back in place, to checking wheel back-to-back measurements. It’s all good fun, though!

Wrexham and Shropshire – in N gauge from Dapol.

The Wrexham and Shropshire book set is soon to be available from Dapol. Here’s a sneaky  preview of a lovely looking set which incorporates three of  Dapol’s widely acclaimed N gauge models: Mk.3 coaches (two of them), a Class 67 and a DVT.

You know, that Class 67 looks great and is probably my favourite British outline N gauge model – rides beautifully on Atlas code 55 track. I wonder if I could not convince Dapol to produce a 1:160 scale SD70ACe in MRL livery? Only kidding!

An unsubtle hint to Kato USA…

Hi Guys!

Just a little something about your new N scale SD70ACes in various UP flag and heritage schemes currently advertised on the inside back page of Model Railroader. Have you forgotten something important??

Here’s a hint…blue, white and black…and lives in the mountains of Montana. UP are not the only ones to operate SD70ACes.

Still none the wiser?

Okay, let’s try this…

Please? Pretty please times three by the power of something pretty huge? In N scale…1:160 scale…with the correct MRL light arrangement…

Top deck stuff.

The time to start working out exact train lengths on the top deck baseboards has arrived. My (modern) 4mm scale (OO and EM gauge) Blue Pullman set has made an appearance to help with this work. No matter how good track planning software is, I still prefer to lay trains and turnout templates on the actual boards. After all, track planning software cannot make the space you have any bigger – that’s a fixed ‘given’ and cannot be easily changed. Visual planning work like this is often far more reliable.

This train is 10 units long: 9 plus 1 which is the maximum length I can manage in the three planned train roads. This will permit charters to be top and tailed with 8 in the middle, so my Blue Pullman set may have to be reduced by one coach if operated in and out of the train roads with both Class 47s. In case you are wondering about my ‘layout design element’ for this scenic test track; lets say that it has 3 train roads and three berthing sidings, the boards for which has the Class 47 and train sitting on them. There is a branch off to the right of the picture, heading towards the camera. The double track main line is behind the train roads and drops on a slight incline to a tunnel – you can probably see the grade in the distance. The location is in the south, near the sea side and has a lovely signal box opposite the leads into the train roads. As final clue: there are two short (staggered) staff halt platforms at this location too.

Sea urchin:
S-Kits has done a very nice resin and metal Sea Urchin kit in 4mm scale. The basic kit allows for variations in this type of wagon including the differences in brake levers.

That’s it for today – lots of modelling to do – the Sea Urchin is in the paint shop.