Corryvreckan - BR Scottish Region 1950s/60s

[BennyBobRM]

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!

[Ian Smeeton]

Banff is being modelled in Australia by @aardvark very well.

 

There are others on here, but there is always real life for inspiration!

 

Regards

 

Ian

[aardvark]

If the Far North line is of interest to you, then I'd most high recommend The Far North Line. Highly inspirational. Regrettably, it has lost many of its images in The Great Crash, but if you skip to the end you'll get a feeling of what is missing.

 

Best of luck: I'll be following to see where this goes.

 

 

[BennyBobRM]

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!

 

 

 

 

 

 

[BennyBobRM]

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.

 

 

[BennyBobRM]

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.

 

[BennyBobRM]

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!

[37Oban]

Ah, a proper Christmas and Hogmanay tipple!  Enjoy!

 

Roja

[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.

 

 

 

 

[BennyBobRM]

Time for another big update, centre of which are:

 

1. New goods shed

2. New loco - Ex CR 439 class tank 55217

3. Next board for the harbour scene installed and track placed.

4. Completing the buildings for the village scene.

 

The caley tank has a little trouble with pulling power which is either the motor, which could be underpowered, or the gearbox which I think is very slightly wonky which results in the loco running a little more rough in reverse than forwards. Nonetheless, it's now working well enough that it can be used on trains.