Broomhill, Strathspey, BR Scottish Region 1950s/60s

[BennyBobRM]

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.

 

Edited December 3, 2021 by BennyBobRM
Photo in wrong place

[Ben Alder]

Looking good - will follow this with interest. Do you know of the wooden kit of this building? They also do a growing range of HR structures as well.

https://www.popupdesigns.co.uk/shop/railway-scale-models/rail-oo-gauge-broomhill-station/

 

 

[Michael Hodgson]

1 hour ago, Ben Alder said:

Do you know of the wooden kit of this building?

Don't wind the poor fellow up by telling him that when he's just spent the last few weeks scratchbuilding it!

 

Must admit I had already looked at that range of kits and I do fancy their model of Fort William station, but I haven't got a use for it.  When I saw the Broomhill kit, I thought nobody would model that as it is so minimal and in the middle of nowhere, but here's a gent who has chosen it  for that very reason.  

 

Last time I was there (which was before covid) there was a gang working a little further north to extend the line towards Grantown, so hopefully it won't always be a terminus.  I wonder whether they will keep the run-round loop at Broomhill once they've managed that.

[Ben Alder]

47 minutes ago, Michael Hodgson said:

Don't wind the poor fellow up by telling him that when he's just spent the last few weeks scratchbuilding it!

Isn't that always the way....who'd have thought one of the smallest obscure stations on the HR would get its own kit...being on the Strathspey helped, of course...

[BennyBobRM]

@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!)

[Ben Alder]

They are good basic kits that benefit from a bit of additions but all the groundwork is done for you. The newer ones have thinner ply windows which make a big difference to their appearance and the range should encourage a good bit more Highland modelling....

 

[BennyBobRM]

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!

[BennyBobRM]

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: 

 

Edited August 22, 2022 by BennyBobRM