Fort William Shed

[David Bell]

As an aside to continued construction on Glasgow Queen Street I have decided to start another layout. This is to be in O scale, based on the old locomotive depot at Fort William. The time period is its last days,roofless, surrounded by blue and green diesels and from all the pictures I have seen littered with oildrums. It will be slowburn whilst the main effort remains on GQS. Also until I floor more of the loft there is nowhere to put it yet! So I will start with the shed itself constructed in such a way that it can be dropped into the baseboard later. I have made a start on the base and running roads. Pictures to follow shortly. I knew you WHL boys would attract me to the dark side eventually!

[David Bell]

This is where I have got to so far with the shed base

[Ian Smeeton]

Looks great.

 

Far too neat for the Fort, though.

 

Regards

 

Ian

[David Bell]

Yes it is going to need to be scrubbed up a bit! 

[Robert Shrives]

I am so glad that Dapol did the 08, as part of the "anyman" range allowing small but well detailed models to flourish , small in O is of course relative!  I look forward to seeing how this develops  If you want a good loco shed base check out pop- up designs in the small suppliers forum , HR shed has many uses ! 

Robert   

[mallaig1983]

It was only a matter of time before you were seduced David. Another interesting thread to follow. Welcome to the West Highlands.

[David Bell]

I like to get a good feel how the track layout is going to go together for any layout before i start so i know what size it is and how it might look in 3D. I am a bit old school and like to use Peco point templates and bits of flexible track to lay it all out. No computer plotting programmes here! So I had a go for Fort William Shed, like a kid on the floor! The attached shows the result. The layout extends a metre or so beyond the shed at the bottom of the plan picture and includes the turntable at bottom right. Also there will be two more sidings curving across the top right,one ending at a loading bank. It turns out the whole thing is 1200mm wide at its widest and just over 4 metres long( almost exactly the same size and shape as GQS!)

[Robert Shrives]

I Like the baseboard,  shed might be a trip hazard  to or from the stairs!  A good size for O  , N would fit under your arm.. 

Robert     

[David Bell]

I have drawn out the elevation of the shed. I think I have it pretty close.

[David Bell]

Fort William might seem like it was a new thing for me but to be honest it has been on my wishlist for years. So much so that over many years I have aquired models with a view to this project, pictures attached. I am thinking to repaint the 20 in green which is ironic because when it left the Heljan factory it was green. I repainted it blue many years ago. The 26 will become a 27. The 25 needs some work on the cabs, it all looks a bit too flat.

[David Bell]

I am also going to have to find a way to turn this pristine wagon into the rather forlorn example below. I have not done much weathering of stock before so it will be a learning exercise!

[David Bell]

Another thread on this Forum alerted me to the visit of a bubblecar DMU to Fort William old station in the seventies. This prompted me to dig out this old relic from the loft. It started life as a Skytrex mk1 suburban coach which I bodged into this. (all done about 10 years ago). The underframe detail comes from a spares sprue from a Heljan 128 dmu obtained from Howes two or three years ago. Perhaps now I have some motivation to finish it.