BennyBobRM

Time for an update (been nearly a year since I last posted). The layout has been progressing slowly throughout the year. Firstly, the natural scenery leading up to the signal box area is about 90% complete now with only some minor additional details needing added: finishing off the seawater, adding some more rapidly flowing water to the stream and particularly the waterfall, as well as soil and longer grass in a couple little areas. All the track in this section is now ballasted and will be weathered very soon (hopefully). Beekeeper tending to his bees, no doubt very busy around May and making good use of the fields of bluebells around them. Water has been added to the streambed and some more rapid flows will be added at some point. An additional tree will be added to the left at some point. Flocks of sheep and the remains of a cottage/bothy of some kind has been added (with plenty of moss, though I might add some more overygrowth still. Moving further down the layout, I have been adding fencing around the area where the lighthouse was going to go. I have decided to replace this with a little scottish peel tower, as for the region I'm potraying (Kyle of Lochalsh vicinity), I think this would've been a more likely structure to have see. I will probably compensate for the lighthouse with a miniature one on the harbour proper. This shot also shows the seawater quite well, made using the toilet paper method (demonstrated here by MarklinofSweden: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TwpB7sVMn8&t=613s). I have also been figuring out the placement of outbuildings (a coal store and stable/forge - which will probably get repainted slightly to better match the rest of the buildings) for which I have stripped back the grass using nail polish remover and will add soil/dirt/gravel to create paths/worn ground. In the background here, I have started installing point rodding and finalising the scenery around the signal box area. I also have a little observatory to go in the garden of the white cottage on the left (roughly in it's final position). Above this area, I have added a low flying Royal Navy Sea Hawk - for the aviation enthusiasts among you: this is one of HMS Fulmar's (today RAF Lossiemouth) Sea Hawks from 806 NAS. A very sweet looking little jet. Moving now to the station/village area: This is where the most progress has been made. The landscape has been built up, the road and pavements added, painted, and then the buildings and some lamp posts added. Some figures are next needed to start really bringing the scene to life. I've also started adding the rough ground (sand mainly) of the goods yard in preparation for adding a goods shed hopefully soon. I've added the coal merchant's office (in need of some weathering). The low relief buildings near the station have been constructed and added also and I'm working on the last ones to go down here. I have also been mulling where to put some oil tanks and I think I'll put them down towards the wall end near the post box, since this will be the siding that is furthest from the station building and other railway infrastructure (minus the goods shed, which it will be quite close to. I think this is accurate for raillway practice, there was certainly a need to keep oil and flammable/explosive liquids/materials well away from railway infrastructure. By far the greatest slowdown to the project has been making the station building which I had the wonderful (utterly idiotic) idea of making the board and batten for... by hand... I honestly have no clue why I did it this way, but alas, I have ended up with a reasonably nice end product so the complaining will cease here. This has also been a project where I have taken full advantage of my University's free 3D printing service to make the chimneys and the arches (finalising that bit) for the building, and once these are made, the building can be completed and installed. I will also use 3D printing to make some interior decorations for the building.

Delightful little loco, just a shame there isn't a kit available (firsthand anyways)

Christmas Special Progress update! A lot of the natural scenery is now in place, some filling in of the rocky areas was required as it will look unrealistic when I do the sea water. Also in place is the bridge, and the stream bed is progressing very well. Also progressing very well is the town scene behind the platform and the station building. I leave you with various shots, particularly the natural scenery. Happy Christmas all! Black 5 44793 crosses the bridge with the morning local passenger service from Kyle of Lochalsh. Ex CR 812 class 57594 crossing the bridge with the pick up goods later in the morning. 57594 simmering at Corryvreckan station before running round and shunting some wagons into the goods yard. Not much coal, though plenty of covered goods and vans to drop off! 57594 passing the signal box running round the train. Finally (and appropriately!), a picture of the layout's namesake with the signal box!

@BMacdermott I apologise, I perhaps did not make myself clear there; I wasn't plainly blanket voting, If any of the choices I voted for were produced, these are items I would realistically buy - that rule was not lost on me. Unless I have misunderstood the rules?

Voting for pretty much everything LMS pre-grouping Scottish hoping one might appear on the market soon. A Gresley K4 or NBR J37 or Glen would also be really nice. The poll generally just highlights that there is major under-representation of Scottish pre-grouping rolling stock in the model railway market. In fact, there are some major gaps in the model railway rolling stock market full stop that you think the manufacturers would view as serious opportunities to make some money!

Major Progress Update: Firstly - buildings and infrastructure - Notably, I have more or less completed the signal box bar some final minute details (notably a sign, some finials and gutters and downpipes). I am very happy with the final product considering I have built it entirely by hand from photographs and map information (not very accurate). It does have it's flaws, notably the levers wouldn't actually move if they could work because there's not enough space! I have started work on the station building also, but I've not yet taken any pictures of it, I will hopefully get some up fairly soon! What I have plenty of pictures of however is the scenery: I have started building up the station area from 5mm thick polystyrene and some celotex cut to the same thickness. And I must say, after this layout, I am going over to polystyrene in it's entirety! Celotex is very very messy and not good for my skin! However celotex is great for forming rocks and that is mainly what I have been doing with it. I have formed a lot more, although I am waiting on forming the final section as I am waiting for one of the Wills occupation bridge kits to arrive to fit into the gap, through which I will have a little stream running through. But my favourite piece of scenery is the bit just behind the headshunt as it will become the bluebell woods, something I've always wanted to model, but never gotten round to doing till now! I have gotten the grass, bluebells and mosses down, I just need to make some beech trees and get some bigger bushes down.

Also, some motive power, notably the Bachmann 812 (rails exclusive one) which I have taken the liberty of renumbering to 57594 of Inverness circa 1960: I then weathered her and added some footplate crew.

Time for a long overdue update: Firstly, the trackwork and scenery, a good chunk of the trackwork has been laid, in fact all I can currently lay till I add the final (mostly scenic) boards! Some of the buffer stops at the end of the station have been added, though I will probably add a couple more in the goods yard. In terms of scenery, I have been making mostly sea rocks by carving out of celotex, gluing to the board, painting and then adding barnacles. The barnacles in this case is sand which is painted that classic off-white creamy colour (though I do need to maybe add a slight green wash to represent any algae/plankton or seaweed). I'm really rather happy with the effect! I have then added modroc (painted around the edges) and then grassmat over the top. Then the buildings and infrastructure: Some of the buildings I have made from Wills kits that I used in a previous layout have been repainted and generally spruced up to fit the scene, as well as another set of houses being built and bar some last details, are more or less ready for installation. I still need to work out the final shaping of the scenery around the station scene (which will be inaccessible when I add the next two boards, hence it needs to be done first). One of the dominating features will be the lighthouse, based off Mull of Galloway lighthouse. This is still under construction being made of cardboard overlaid with DAS clay, which has then had features carved into it. The main difficulty will be the light room which as you can imagine will be a very tricky structure to make! The low relief buildings need some detailing and sprucing up as well before they are fully ready. Finally, in terms of buildings I am currently working on, we have the signal box. This is based off Aberfeldy box (Aviemore Speyside has proven an invaluable reference for making the interior!) This is progressing really well, I intend to do full interior detail and maybe lighting it in the future. In the time since the last post have also procured Neil Sinclair's excellent new book, HIghland Railway Buildings. Initially I was considering modelling the station building off Thurso, though after getting this book and finding a full diagram of Plockton station building, which was a design used at 8 other locations also, I felt this building would be the perfect fit for the layout. So Plockton it will be!

So this was a layout I never initially planned on building. It all started with an idea to recreate Broomhill on the Strathspey Railway as it was in the 1950s and 60s, however my ambition (or indecisiveness!) got the better of me and I really wanted to go for something in OO finescale (or as close to finescale if you're an EM, P4 or S4 modeller!). The resulting idea was a Caley branch in the South-West of Scotland (Dumfries and Galloway) called Port Wallace. The idea was to take a truncated copy of the track plan from Ballachulish and stuff it in the South West. So all was fine, I have built most of the trackwork and baseboards for this layout, which is working very nicely for the most part. But then I recently went on a visit back to the Strathspey Railway which left me feeling very inspired by the Highland Railway again. Having been looking at lots of archive photos of the Highland and having picked up a copy of Robert Robotham's fantastic little photo album "On Highland Lines" from the shop at Boat of Garten station (a fantastic little shop by the way!), I again felt the desire to model something Highland! So here I am, now modelling something Highland! My inspiration is largely drawn from two places - the Aberfeldy branch and the Far North lines. The end result should be a hybrid between the Far North line and Aberfeldy branch, built on top of a truncated track plan of Ballachulish station in order to fit in my railway room! The power of indecisiveness! The naming was a hard one, but I have had some help from a recent new foray of mine - Scotch Whisky - which is going to be a major source of inspiration for a lot of this layout! Port Wallace was a nice name, but I wanted something more Highland sounding, and then I thought of Corryvreckan, which is a whisky by Ardbeg of Islay: Corryvreckan itself being the gulf between the isles of Jura and Scarpa. Hopefully will add some photos soon, but I have already started work on the scenery and infrastructure, so this one really is a go!

So, I have had some changes of heart over the past 9 months, notably that I want to build something finescale. I have decided to change the Broomhill project to be a diorama rather than a full layout, the full layout in my railway room has been completely rebuilt into a new layout, sticking with the Highland Railway theme, the link to which is here:

Of course, a Strathspey Layout can't be without a Strathspey engine, and what better engine to have than this little beauty??? The Bachmann/Rails Caledonian Railway 812s are here of course! Overall, just a delightful little engine: not without criticism, but still worth the wait (and the money!) My main critcisms would be that it is slightly weak, mainly on gradients and my layout does have a very sharp gradient (unprototypically sharp). That said, it can handle four Mk1s on the gradient, which is enough for me and as I'm building a new station (not Broomhill) on the gradient, it could make for some very nice starting sequences with some wheelslip! On the level, it handles 7 mk1s, which does seem to be the max these engines were photographed pulling - it does struggle to start at 7 but once it gets the momentum, it's more than happy pulling them. Regarding the running, it also isn't the best at slow speeds and I can think of two 0-6-0s (Hornby J15 and J36) that do run better. What the engine lacks in running however, it more than makes up for in detail: as the photo hopefully shows (and many others have hopefully highlighted), it is just stunning in the St Rollox blue, there's no beating that livery! The glowing firebox is completely new for me and I love it; the lining is beautiful and crisp, the valve gear detail is brilliant to peer into, both stationary and running. There is detail everywhere you look. The criticism I have on the detail would be that the Smokebox dial is slightly overscale, which others have highlighted, but I don't think this detracts much at all from the overall look of the engine. In conclusion, having seen the real beastie, the model captures the appearance of the engine perfectly, I really cannot fault it, and watching her running is just another treat in it's own right: a fantastic model!

@Ben Alder Yes, I was aware of the kit! I did consider it but ultimately, as I wanted to do a full interior with lighting etc. I felt scratchbuilding was the best choice for the task in hand! I also felt the detail wasn't quite what I wanted from it. Though funnily enough, I am strongly considering getting their highland railway bridge kit for the south end of the layout as that more or less appears to be perfect for the job (after a coat of paint, of course!)

So for the past few years I have been building a layout (based loosely on the Caley's Symington-Peebles Branch) in my loft room consisting of a branch line terminus station with a goods siding and run-round loop, the line runs through a forest cutting at one end of the room before coming to a goods yard and village scene on the other side of the room. The line then runs onto a fiddle yard. The track is mostly set-track from Peco and Hornby and looks rather toy-ish in the current setup. For a while now I have been aching to build a fully (or as close to) prototypical model. It had to be somewhere rural and Scottish; I've been brought up in the Scottish countryside so I like my railways that way! It also had to have operational interest (aka pick-up/drop-off goods services with shunting operations) etc. Most importantly however, it has to fit within a relatively narrow baseboard, 74cm narrow to be precise! Anyways, looking around: Broomhill on the Strathspey Railway seems to fit the bill perfectly, especially being somewhere I've actually been to! It will be tricky incorporating the curve into the station with the space I have, so it won't be perfect by any sense of the word, but then again, what model is??? I have decided since my current model follows a BR 1950s/60s setting, I will model Broomhill as it was in the 1950s up to closure (so, no run-round loop). Just to show how the layout currently looks (apologies if the photo quality's a bit crap, the lighting isn't the best in this room!): My intention is to strip everything up to the little bridge in the cutting back to bare baseboard and lay 'new' track and scenery for Broomhill. As mentioned earlier, it will be a considerably straightened approach from the South into the station due to baseboard constraints. At this point you may have noticed the very autumnal season of the existing layout which is something else I'm debating with myself. I want to either keep it autumnal or even transition to a snowy winter/early spring scene at Broomhill itself. The final model will also be a complete loop round the room which running-wise is something I definitely prefer having done the terminus setup! As for Broomhill itself, I have already spent the past couple of weeks working on a model of the station building which has a full interior (not sure if entirely accurate compared to the original but at this point photos are very limited. The construction is mostly 1mm plasticard as the structural walls while the interior walls have 0.5mm plasticard scored with planking effect by hand, then painted. The outer planking (whatever it's called) has just been finished, it is somewhat overscale (sorry rivet-counters!), however I think it would have been considerably harder to make it much more scale doing it by hand at my current skill level, so I think I am capturing the overall appearance of the building very well. My intention is for the building to be fully lit up and kitted out with figures and furniture once it is in place on the layout. As for the other side of the railway room, that is also currently undergoing a makeover, though it will be staying as it is in terms of track layout, as that isn't actually too bad. It will probably be the subject of another post at a later date. It will keep it's current theme of the Caley Peebles Branch in the 50s/60s but with changes to the buildings and scenery, including the addition of a small, disused through station modelled on Broughton.

Major Update Time: Firstly, the goods platform is now complete (bar weathering) and the areas of flat land in the goods yard have been covered now with a mix of Earth and Burnt Grass Scatter and Ballast (both fine and coarse grades). The Balerno Brake Third is complete bar a couple of final details, no further progress on the regular Third. Trees have been made and added, as have a couple of wild animals. Finally, the coal merchant's hut was repainted to a Satin black and a sign placed onto the front side of the hut. Still need to wire in the third lamp. Next steps will be adding grass to some of the flat areas of goods yard as well as some coal, sacks and scales for the merchant and some weathering of the platforms and buildings. Overall, shaping up very nicely, starting to look like a more full scene now!

@Dave John Are you using glued construction on the coach bodies? Just noticing you painted and lined them before putting the bodies together.