Model Railway Forum

Superb modelling and fabulous locomotives. The layout and stock look most realistic. Good photographs as well. Thanks for sharing.

Regards Peter M

Thanks all - glad you like them.The photographic side of things is something I enjoy doing. Pics are taken with a Canon 650 Powershot dating from 2007, but which gives results I'm happy enough with. They are taken either with natural light - layout is in a small attic with a Velux window that gives a sufficient amount of light; in fact the best results are on an overcast day that is gloomy to the eye but is an optimum level for model photography, or by the layout lighting, which are a series of 6500k natural daylight tubes which give a good colour render. I usually shoot a bit underexposed and adjust light levels on an editor, although the original shot often comes out OK as it is. Apart from cropping and levelling and sometimes a tweak of the colour temperature that is all the interference they get. If an image needs more than that I scrub it and try again - not fond of overprocessing these things, and really do not like the type of images that the monthlies use, with the subject flooded with added lighting, destroying any illusion of miniature reality, no matter how well made the layout is.

Anyway, here are some more, looking at the engine shed. This is very much the proverbial labourers shovel, dating back at least thirty five years and has been on at least five layouts. It started off as two modified Airfix kits, with Slaters plasticard walling and the kit windows and roof, and still retains the smoke vents on the roof but has had three rebuilds over the years , the latest, and hopefully last, using Wills stone sheet and etched HR windows and gained some extra side buildings as well. It is a sort of amalgam of Wick and Kyle sheds and larger than the Thurso single roaded one but I wanted to use it on this layout so the station got an upgrade....













And lastly, two HR tanks on shed. These are never weres - Peter Drummond, the CME, drew up several proposed engines that never made it to reality, and fortunately for the modeller, engineering and outline drawings still exist for them. Among them were three 0-4-4T, a large, small and medium type, of which the small one was approved and gained a sort of fame by providing motive power for the Dornoch branch in later years. Peter's brother was Dugald, who went on to greater things at the LSWR after his Scottish start, and the two brothers collaborated closely, which had benefits for the Highland modeller, as several of the LSWR locos can be adapted to suit their Scottish designs. This was true with these two locos, as the M7 and 02 very closely match the HR planned ones, and I adapted these by altering cab outlines and adding HR or CR boiler fittings - there was a lot of interchange of these during refits in LMS and BR days - and provide a relatively easy way of producing what could have been Highland engines.

Great stuff.

Cheers. A general look at the goods yard now - I can shuttle wagons around for hours, something I find far more interesting than watching trains racing through stations. For ease of uncoupling I use the 3mm Sprat and Winkle with delayed action latch which enables a wagon to be decoupled and than shunted to its position with the loco backing off without recoupling. This is activated by buried magnets at the start of each siding and as all stock faces the same way, I omitted the coupling at one end of wagons, just adding a wire bar just behind buffer head level which allows buffer to buffer contact while shunting.

And a few more...

This looks delightfully impressive.

Thanks, I'll stick some more up from time to time.

Some superb photographs of a collection of excellent models, more please.

Regards Peter M

Enjoyed looking through those pics Thurso.

Thanks. Here are some from earlier years now.