Thurso Trackplan in OO

[Dr Gerbil-Fritters]

I've been mulling over a Scottish BLT for some time. It may or may not get built, but thought I'd share the track plan with you chaps. I was anticipating using Peco code 75 for the turnouts, and C&L ready to lay plain track, much as Ben Alder of this parish has used so well on his Far North lines.

 

For the longest time, I couldn't find decent track plans of any of the stations I fancied (Mallaig, Kyle, Thurso and Wick) until finding the National Library of Scotland's wonderful online OS map repository.

 

So here's my version of Thurso, designed to fit in a 14 foot by two foot six space. The only major alteration I've made is to extend the former locomotive siding with the intention of using it to load OTA timber wagons. The plan is otherwise as it was from the days of steam, probably til the the early 90s. My preferred ops period would be 1970s banger blue...

 

 

I'm still tempted by it, as everything is available off the shelf which makes a change from my usual modelling interests, so theoretically this could be up and running as fast as the ink dries in my cheque book...

 

Steam era version...

 

[Ben Alder]

Join the club! You are going to have more space available than I had, and will manage a more accurate representation than I have done.

If you want any photos etc. just give me a shout. There is another putative model of here bubbling away elsewhere, and it will be interesting to see them develop.

[Dr Gerbil-Fritters]

Thanks Ben!

 

I've tweaked the plan a little, as seen below.

 

This is the 'banger blue' era, without the loco shed or the cattle pen siding...

 

and this is the full monty. Can't decide if its worth sacrificing a little authenticity for two extra sidings in my era.

 

There's a slight difference in the geometry of the sidings - the top plan uses 3 Y turnouts off the loop to access the three long sidings. The lower plan uses three standard long turnouts. I've not seen any photos that clearly show the geometry of these turnouts on the prototype... straight or wye?

[Ben Alder]

My take on it has more or less 3' baseboard depth and it is struggling to cope with adequate space between sidings although I am working with the original set-up as a prototype. Thurso was a bit of a time warp for many years, with the goods yard sidings left intact until a few years ago, when the old oil siding and cobbled access was the first to be lifted- followed by the raised platform later. Even today, with a chain builders merchant on the site, the last siding is in-situ, although hardly navigable. I would sacrifice the front one or two sidings to keep a feeling of space elsewhere- freight was usually handled on the loop siding and the one opposite, against the raised loading bank, and was always sparse- the previous owners of the builders merchants being the main source of traffic.