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Delayed Delivery – Part 2
Once the basic structure of the gantry is in place, the real task of making the signals signally commences. First up were the smoke deflectors and the brackets for the balance weights. Also fitted are the main portions of the fan route indicator, but that will be explained further once I get it going!
For the arm bearing point and lamps I am using some 3D prints produced by Steve Hewitt and available from Shapeways. They can be found here https://www.shapeways.com/product/JJRSB … arketplace. They are fairly expensive but they are neat and save a lot of manufacture. There is, however, a but – they are very delicate and I am very fearful of thier long term durability. I am highly likely to draw some of my own up and get them cast in lost wax. It will make them even more expensive but I have about a 50% casualty rate at the moment, so maybe in the long term it will be cheaper!
The arms are Masokits, these are definitely the best available arms for LMS/LNER/BR semaphores. This is especially true of the minature shunt arms as the MSE ones are simply too delicate to bother with (imagine how do I know that………….!). So this is where we are now at with the arms mounted temporarly on the bearings.
There are five movements in the down direction (three of which operate via the route indicator) and then a pair in the up direction – hence the back to front arms.
The plates at the top of the dolls are mounting points for ladders. It transpires they are wrong and have already gone!
So the intensity level has dialled up a notch with these portions (especially breaking the bearing/lamp fittings) but it really gets interesting when you try and make these things work.
I don’t know myself yet (although I know for the couple of arms I have finished, so I have an inkling), but i think it might be fun to have a little sweepstake on how many moving parts there will be in the finished gantry. Five arms, three fan route indicators and each is operated by way of angle cranks. Each arm, crank and intermediate wire counts as a moving part, as do the servos………………..guesses please?
Aultbea Update
From time to time, we have dropped in to see progress on a layout being built by Peter Bond, called Aultbea. As we dropped in to see him yesterday, I have some update photographs.
Most of the progress has been on the buildings including the centre piece which is the train shed and station building. As you can see, this is a pretty big structure as it consumes two full length coaches.
The view inside the trainshed is particularly impressive; I think you can smell the diesel fumes and sea air!
The builder in a characteristic pose, talking…………….
Although the layout is based on one of the proposed schemes to open up the north west of Scotland (of which there were a number) it is also firmly inspired by Oban as you can probably see, plus chunks of Kyle of Lochalsh including the goods shed and a bit Fort William with the train engine coming beyond the station and idling on the station approach.
Aultbea Revisit
A year ago, I posted a few photographs of one of my friend’s layouts, Aultbea.
Peter has been making progress with the layout and now has the bulk of the trackwork laid, so it is worth having another look at it:
As you can see, it is a bit of a beast because this is only the passenger station complex, the MPD and sidings for the military are not even on show here!
The full extent of the layout can be seen in the previous posting and you will see he that even the bay is conceived for a seven coach train. Looks like Peter will need to be building/converting and otherwise acquiring a fair amount of stock!
in the views you will see that a some of the buildings have been finished – the signal cabin and the water tower. I think station buildings are next and before too long, he will mention signals I suspect!
Peter Bond’s Aultbea
I can’t claim any of the credit for this one, it is the work of one of my friends and stalwart operators of Portchullin, Peter Bond.
His latest layout (in EM) is based on the line that was proposed from Achnasheen to Gairloch and Aultbea. This was a real proposal in the late 19th century but the scheme came to nothing. Peter has imagined that not only was it built but it thrived; to a large degree due to the naval connection where the navy did use Gairloch as a significant port. He has also presumed that Aultbea became the port for the Hebrides and thus the Kyle line faded away (a point I don’t like!).
You can see in this view the rather nice model of the signal cabin for Aultbea, based on that at Kyle. The description of the building of this was in BRM in September and October 2012 and is worth a read.
The layout is pretty big; some 30 feet long and relatively deep at the station end. Peter envisaged that with the rise in traffic during the first war, the station had to be enlarged – much like Oban was when the Ballachulish line was built. Indeed, Peter is taking a lot of his inspiration from Oban, including portions of the trackplan, the overall roof and the engine shed being a little detached from the rest of the station. As you can see, it will be set in the late 1960’s so a little earlier than Portchullin.
Now Peter is an inveterate starter of layouts, so by posting these progress pictures, I am hoping to prod him along to finishing this one.
Over to you Pete!
highland miscellany 