Glen Ogle

[gtmspyder]

Oh I can do devious Ted. ;D

That's a good idea for a reference to the alteration work, deviation it is, thank you.

Regards,

BrianT.

[invercloy]

I love the photos with the working part, Brian, very atmospheric. The of the track and being on the side of the hill makes it all very appealing :)

[gtmspyder]

A re-visit to the deviation, with the new footbridge crossing the river ogle.



A little closer look.







It looks as though the sun has come out over the deviation work.



The long view up the layout.



Well that's about it for now.

Regards,

BrianT.

[gtmspyder]

It's been a little while since I posted anything, and having seen some of the magnificent layouts at Kegworth this last weekend, I don't knw whether I dare, but I have been busy.

You may remember the train turntable/ sector plate from earlier posts, well this has been varnished to stop it getting grubby with use and four felt pads to act as rubbing plates.


Well it now has a swing out support bracket, and timber support for the alignment dowels.



The whole assembly is secured to the layout with two of these over-centre toggle clips.



The layout now has a back-scene.  This is constructed from 20mm plastic conduit, conduit fittings and at each corner wooden supports holding the 20mm spacer clips.  The whole lot can be disassembled for transporting.



This supports a length of plastic sheeting for strength, which can be rolled up for transport, this sheeting is supported by hooks screwed through the plastic conduit, supporting eye holes punched  and riveted through the plastic.  



I have also given first coat coverings to the models at the deviation site, and the Grey back-scene does improve the photographic possibilities.



the long view with the new background.



The other end of the lay has now sprouted a country garage, there is/was a garage at the village of Lockearnhead, there's still a lot to do at this site.






The new back-scene, temporarily stood in front of the plastic, certainly brings the scene to life.



The temporary lighting certainly adds a moodiness to this scene with the shadow it has produced.



Regards,

BrianT

[gtmspyder]

Killin Times

We have received news of a setback to the construction of the new narrow gauge railway being constructed along the old railway track bed running along the hillside of Glen Ogle.

Our local reporter has received news that the construction has been brought to a standstill, because the main contractor is having to go into Hospital for some major surgery, and has shut the site down because he can find no one to take over supervision of the rest of the new work taking place at the deviation, brought about by the collapse of the old tunnel at the head of the Glen.

The construction staff have been laid off, until such times that a new site supervisor can be found to take over the onerous job of constructing the remaining work, required to carry the track to it's ultimate destination, which I understand will be some sort of turntable and stabling facility.

The company directors, headed by the Laird of Breadalbane, said that this was an unfortunate and unforeseen occurrence, but they were confident that work would resume as soon as possible, and the villagers of Killin were not to get too downhearted, this was only a temporary delay.  There ancestors had suffered a similar fate with the original line from the village, when the Caledonian railway had refused to build a branch line from a junction with the old Callendar and Oban railway, up on the Glenside, down to the village of Killin, but by there own finances, the villagers, along with a generous donation from the Laird, had financed the construction of there own railway branch, down to the village, which had remained in the villagers ownership right up to the grouping, where it became part of the London, Midland and Scottish railway.

Your local paper will continue to pursue this story as it reaches it's conclusion, at some time in what we hope will be the near future.          (Jenny Jones reporting)  

[clayliner]

Really sorry to hear this news - just hope the contractor makes a full and speedy recovery!

Wish him all the very best and hope the works get underway again before too long.

David.

[gtmspyder]

Thank you David, that's very kind.

Regards,

BrianT.

[gtmspyder]

Killin Times

Secret major breakthrough in train control

Work has also been halted on the exciting new development that has secretly been undertaken behind the scenes, by the technical boffins associated with the under construction railway.  This is some electronic wizardry that allows control of the loco's by one of the signalling staff, remotely by radio, and does not require a driver to be on board, thus saving on staffing costs.   

The company employee who revealed this startling news, and does not want to be identified, stated that the company were confident that this major breakthrough, would not endanger passengers in any way, provided the signalman did not have a sneezing fit at a crucial moment our undercover reporter Mick Macphwatch can reveal.

  .

[clayliner]

Does this mean that trains can be controlled from a hospital bed  :o ?

David.

[gtmspyder]

With a larger battery and a bigger Arial, probably. ::) ;D


Imagine the fun taking your own controller, concealed about your person, to a model railway exhibition, and locking on to some one's radio controlled layout loco on an adjacent layout, and taking control of a parked up loco in a siding????? ;D ;D ;D

I suppose some clever clogs is going to spoil my fun by saying this is not possible. :( :( :(

Regards,

BrianT.

[gtmspyder]

One of my now EX friends has suggested, that Mrs ValerieT, has a word with my surgeon, to slip a receiver into the wound before he stitches me up, so that she can use the controller to get me to do the jobs around the house, that are piling up as I concentrate on Glen Ogle. :o

Luckily for me, he knows even less about the workings of said controller and receiver than I do, and that it would require connecting neurologically to my nervous system, even so, it's a sneaky thing to suggest don't you think ??? ::) ::) ::).

Never the less, I have hidden the receiver, just in case the Surgeons has had some neurological training in the past, or worse still, he's a member of the 009 group and went to Kegworth too. :-\

The thoughts of me doing a John Clease funny walk, as my wife got to grips with the buttons and knobs, brings me out in a cold sweat. ;D ;D ;D

Regards,

BrianT.

[Krizzy]

Brian

Wallace is not your middle name is it? You had better make sure you don't put on the 'wrong trousers' when you get home from hospital, just in case she has been up to something.

Roger

[Tigger]

Beware the penguin!!

[tedp]

It won't be the receiver implant that will bother you. It's the size of the battery needed to move a full size human being!  ::)

Honestly, Brian, I hope you'll be well soon after this uncomfortable episode.

[gtmspyder]

Hello again all.

I'm definitely on the mend, and progressively getting back into the swing of things, I'm still not supposed to work in the garage on the layout, but I am allowed to fiddle with what I can reasonably do on the dining table with suitable protection, that's to the table of course, not me. ;D

I purchased a Chris Ward Kattie tram loco at the 40th bash to experiment with radio control.  Having proved that this does work, I have stripped out all the electronic gubbins I fitted to the loco, I've ordered some bits and pieces from Markits, and while I await there arrival, I have been smoothing the striations from the 3D printing of the loco, to try and make a model worth showing in this exalted company on here.

My tools for this job are shown here:-



The loco as supplied by Chris had an overall spray of grey primer which shows the striations of the printing process up very well, so the first job is to remove these by whatever means possible.
I have seen on the forum, references to rubbing with cocktail sticks etc.  I can only assume that this is in the hope of friction melting the material into a smooth finish.  I can see no merit in this at all, so I used abrasive papers and needle files to achieve the results I was looking for.



I made some abrasive boards by cutting some narrow strips of hardboard, and gluing them down, side by side, onto some fine wet and dry paper, then when dry, cutting around the strips with a Stanley knife to produce the abrasive strips shown in the first photo.  With these, I started on the easiest parts first which was the tank sides and the cab.



The worst part of the loco for showing the striations, was the coal bunker back, and the chimney, these were very pronounced, I suppose because they both have a slope outwards from bottom to top, so the head of the printer will have to move out fractionally between each pass of the print head.   This is only a guess, because I know nothing about the technicalities of 3D printing.



As you will have seen, I have drilled the marked positions for hand rail knobs on the boiler and cab sides, and holes for making up coal rails on the bunker top, I hope I am upto this soldering exercise. ::)  I also managed to knock off the cast safety valves on the boiler top, so I will have to remake these.



That's about it for now.

Regards,

BrianT.