KInlochleven Electric Railway diorama

[Dunalastair]

Today's diorama in my 'diorama-a-day' series is a little nominal, but provided a photoplank for models of an interesting narrow gauge railway in what was then a remote corner of the Scottish Highlands. When an aluminium smelter was built to exploit hydroelectric power at the head of Loch Leven, a three foot gauge railway was built from a pier to the factory site, with construction railways up the hill to the dam. The factory line was retained in electrified form to bring in materials and take out finished material. There has previously been discussion of the pickup arrangement on RMWEB and Ted Pollet has modelled a version of one of the locos in 009.

 

Here is one of the metal-bodied locos with the distinctive tippers. This must have been an early shot, as it has the original style of pantograph and does not have cowcatchers.

 

https://topstastic.blogspot.com/2020/10/kinlochleven-works-electric-locomotives.html

 

By contrast, one of the wooden-bodied machines, sitting on the quay, has the later pantograph and cowcatchers.

 

https://www.facebook.com/ambaile/posts/the-kinlochleven-railway-the-first-electric-railway-in-scotland-early-20th-centu/304220711248552/

 

This was the track arrangement when the smelter was operating - there are not many larger scale OS maps of this area. Screen capture from NLS.

 

 

My chipboard photoplank / diorama used the good old fashioned approach of using tree bark to represent a rock face - the line was cut into the side of the mountain. Rolling stock was printed, as were the distinctive overhead line standards combining power and telephone lines. Track is Tri-ang and grass is static. In this image, cryolite sacks are being taken from pier to factory.

 

 

This time the load is cut timber, bound for construction works.

 

 

Before the wires went up, but a trial load of aluminium ingots is outward bound.

 

 

This time one of the wooden bodied locos, before even the masts were erected, with a tower wagon. Note the diagonal planking and the lack of cowcatcher.

 

 

There is a prototype image of this train, captioned as 'commutator segments', presumably for the generators.

 

 

And finally, a couple of those distinctive tipper wagons, on an earlier diorama.

 

 

This was an interesting project, and unusually for me, the locos are powered, using Hornby 16.5mm gauge power bogies, envisaging an operating microlayout. The proprietary pantographs do work, and I had hoped to make the overhead part of the pickup circuit. Sadly, I never managed to make space for the planned larger layout. Perhaps one day ...

Edited July 3, 2023 by Dunalastair

[marc smith]

Another interesting & obscure railway @Dunalastair
And another good job on the diorama. I don't know how / where you find the time.
Great work again sir - perhaps, as these locos are powered..... maybe you'll build that working micro? :) 

I've really enjoyed these posts good sir

[Dunalastair]

Thankyou for the kind words. Yes, it is fair to say that the more obscure the better in my book, generally.

 

One nice feature of Kinlochleven is that at least in the early days, the ships serving the pier tended to be small - the 'narrows' on the loch apparently restricted access. Early images show paddlers, screw steamers came later. From a modelling perspective, that makes modelling something different from the usual puffer a possibility.

 

https://www.ambaile.org.uk/asset/37342/

 

https://www.nsdivers.co.uk/wreck-histories/s-s-riverside/

 

The aluminium company used shipping extensively, with bauxite mines in Northern Ireland, an alumina plant in Burntisland and smelters at Foyers (on Loch Ness, served by the Caledonian Canal), Kinlochleven and Lochaber. All this in addition to trains running on the C&OR (for Ballachulish down the loch from Kinlochleven) and the WHR.