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pitbull1845

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I thought I was onto a winner with this one.. beaten to it.

 

Sorry - that wasn't meant to rain on your parade! "North Ballachulish" is quite a bit further south than what you're proposing. I was just asking about your back-story. As you'll know, both the Highland and the North British (or 'front' companies for them) had proposals for lines through the Great Glen, and both companies worked the Fort Augustus line at different times. I was wondering which of them built the Fort Augustus-Inverness section in your scenario - or was it an independent, or did the Caledonian build north from Ballachulish and take over the Invergarry and Fort Augustus.

 

I look forward to seeing how it develops. 

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I remember being on holiday at a caravan site at/near to Fort Augustus as a five- or six-year-old in the early '70s & being utterly shocked to find a station platform (I think) hidden in the undergrowth - it was like discovering King Tut's tomb to my youthful imagination!

Best of luck with the project, I must say I've considered something similar in the past myself on more than one occasion :)

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This looks of great interest!

 

As pH said, there are a few possible alternative histories for the completion of the line, but I'm sure the Invergarry & Fort Augustus company had Inverness in mind when they started out, (regardless of what they said at the time) so I'd say the Highland Railway removed their objection provided they had some running powers over the line. I had thought of doing something similar in grouping days with LNER & LMS stock.

 

Good luck!

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Evening,
Sorry for the delay, got a lot going on this end at the moment. Mrs Pitbull is overdue and contractions have started this evening...

Got to be honest I haven't looked to in depth into the background, I was just looking at maps last night whilst trying to find a location for my new layout and couldn't decide on the West Highland or Highland Railway and then I thought what if....  I then did a quick bit of research on Wikipedia and that's about as far as I got.   It just all seemed to slot in nicely.  I have to say that this wont be an exact re-creation of the area, just a fictional story to support my idea of a Highland style layout.

 

I did think of suggesting that the link was a relatively new addition, but I'm liking will5210's idea. 

 

The period modelled is going to be 1988 ish so plenty of large logo action. I will also probably have a late 90's period too so I can have a change of stock.

 

If I get time I'll try and develop a bit more of a background behind the line but until then see above.   :mail:

 

Hope the hospital has wifi...

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Pitbull, get your priorities right! Check the hospital for Wifi before Mrs P goes into labour.

You don't want to be dragging the poor woman about from one maternity ward to another looking for a better Wifi signal.

 

Best of luck

 

 

Jim

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Hi Scott

I hope all is going well in the next generation of modellers department.

 

During family holidays in the highlands in the 1960s I could never understand why there wasn't a line from Ft. William to Inverness. If they could build a canal between the two places a railway didn't seem like much of a chore. It seemed such an obvious link that, until I learnt better, had rather assumed must have existed but had been closed by Dr. B. I think it's a great theme for a layout though working another line into the notoriously cramped Fort William terminus would be interesting. Reversing termini do seem to give a lot of operating bang for the buck especially if what comes in is different from what goes out. I shall look forward to this layout whenever you're able to build it. 

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Evening,

Thanks for the interest and comments Gents...  I haven't actually been out to the garage since Wednesday night. Baby Pitbull arrived Thursday morning and I just haven't had time to get out.

I have however been ordering a few things, like a 26 and 3 OTA's.

 

Pacific, the Great Glen line will join the West Highland at Spean Bridge (a bit like the original but in reverse) this will enable the line to lead onto Fort William using the existing line. That's the plan anyway, ideally a triangle would be good, that way trains could go up and down but think that's a bit too over engineered for the area.

 

No doubt more to come when my parcel arrives..

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Evening,

Thanks for the interest and comments Gents...  I haven't actually been out to the garage since Wednesday night. Baby Pitbull arrived Thursday morning and I just haven't had time to get out.

I have however been ordering a few things, like a 26 and 3 OTA's.

 

Congratulations to you both- and of course to Baby Pitbull for arriving safely. 

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Well, once again Hattons have come up trumps again with their delivery. Ordered Saturday and delivered this morning. Wonderful service.

That means that the 26 is here to add to the Scottish flavour. Need to crack on with the layout now..

 

No photos yet as its all in the early stages but will do my best in the not so distant future. Oh and I've got another loco en route too!

 

Time for more sales of current stock. Anyone fancy Prince William and a load of sub sector 37's? ;)

 

 

 

 

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Ok, time to put your imagination to work....

I've attached a few pictures of the layout, the idea is that the line on the incline is from Inverness and the other goes off to Spean Bridge/ Fort William. 

 

At the moment the exit for the FW line is through a tunnel into the mountainside, but may just leave it disappearing round a curve into a mountainous cutting.   

 

The Inverness line will disappear behind trees.

post-6849-0-61010200-1380557948.jpg

 

Where the two lines approach the station you'll see that they both can run independently into their associated platforms without having to wait for one to arrive and then the other. I'm sure this is probably over engineered trackwork for such a station but I just thought it would increase operating potential. My reasoning is that it used to be two independent companies running into the station, and when it all amalgamated the additional points were added.

 

The two sidings on the right are just general, with the furthest right having loading/unloading access.

The siding this end as you look at the picture was going to be the timber sidings, but other options are a fuel terminal for heating oil etc and also a small engineers siding.  I don't want to have a really crowded layout full of track but I do want shunting opportunities.

 

post-6849-0-45205600-1380558321.jpg

 

And one more general shot.

post-6849-0-48333300-1380558475.jpg

 

So that's where I am at the moment. This is a first for me with no knowledge of Scotlands railways so its an interesting learning curve and I'm open to advice and suggestions. 

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Ok, time to put your imagination to work....

I've attached a few pictures of the layout, the idea is that the line on the incline is from Inverness and the other goes off to Spean Bridge/ Fort William. 

 

So that's where I am at the moment. This is a first for me with no knowledge of Scotlands railways so its an interesting learning curve and I'm open to advice and suggestions. 

This is looking very interesting and I look forward to seeing this layout in future future developments. I like the two lines coming in from different levels and think maybe disappearing into a cutting would be better than a tunnel. That close to the station I think a tunnel might be a bit Alpine. 

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Hi David,

I think you're right about the tunnel. I'll remove it and work on the cutting. Need to find the best way of modelling a rock face. I did do it once before when I was modelling a quarry but cant for the life of me remember how!

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