Abandoned project soon to be replaced by something similar

[Sandpiper]

I have always liked Ullapool and have been visiting the far north west of Scotland for over thirty years. It is my favourite part of the Scottish Highlands.

 

Various proposals for a railway to Ullapool were put forward following the construction of the line from Dingwall to Strome Ferry and the later extension to Kyle of Lochalsh. It seems to me to be one of the few lines in the remoter parts of the Highlands that actually stood a chance of being built although it never was of course. 

 

My proposed line runs from a junction at Garve on the Kyle line and follows the Black Water and Glascarnoch River on a long steady climb to its highest point at Dirrie More. There is a small halt at the remote Aultguish Inn and a passing loop. The descent down to sea level beside Loch Broom is rather steeper. One of the proposed routes took the line on a long detour up Gleann Mor to help ease the gradients. My route instead follows the eastern side of Strath More, steadily descending the slopes of what is now the Lael Forest.

 

There is another small halt high above the Corrieshalloch Gorge with a steep path leading down to the gorge for tourists. The line continues to descend to a station with a passing loop above Inverlael which serves as a railhead for the communities strung out along the west shore of Loch Broom.

 

A horseshoe curve and viaduct takes the line across Gleann na Sguaib before it continues its contouring descent, with several tunnels and viaducts, to finally arrive at sea level just a couple of miles before Ullapool. The average gradient from Dirrie More is about 1 in 95.

 

Approaching the village the line curves sharply round to terminate at the passenger station on a new pier built out into the sea in front of Shore Street, running parallel to the shore. Unfortunately for the residents of the eastern end of Shore Street, the land on which their houses stood was sold to the Ullapool and Garve Railway Company.

 

I think the only realistic place where the terminus could have been built was along the site of Shore Street. It certainly wouldn't have been a picturesque little station surrounded by Scots Pines and craggy mountains but would probably have been equally attractive with its lochshore site. 

 

New land would probably have been created in front of Shore Street to accommodate the railway. The seaward edge of the new land formed the fish pier. Later, the pier was found to be inadequate for the amount of traffic and was also too exposed to southerly winds funnelling down the loch. A new pier and breakwater was therefore built slightly further west and two lines from the station were extended onto the new pier. Some boats still tie up at the old pier beside the station but it mostly handles just local goods now rather than fish. Passenger and freight traffic all runs through to and from Inverness.

 

The period represented will initially be right at the end of steam north of Inverness. Black Fives are still working many of the services with new class 24 and 26 diesels beginning to appear. It is assumed that the Stornoway ferry traffic was moved to Ullapool in the 1950s, rather earlier than it was in reality so there is plenty of passenger and goods traffic to and from the Western Isles. The pier was extended again at this time to cater for the ferry traffic.

 

I originally intended to build a larger version of this plan based on the West Highland Line but I didn't get very far with it. I felt overwhelmed by the amount of work required so I spent some time doodling smaller versions until I came up with something that would fit on a scenic section six feet long. I felt this would be more manageable and I might stand a chance of finishing it. At the same time it moved a long way north.

 

I was also waiting for the new bullhead points from Peco to appear. The plan doesn't require any complex pointwork and I think the new points and track look pretty good. I really am one of those ham-fisted people who struggles to do anything practical so decided against trying to build my own track. I intend to introduce a very subtle bend into some of the points just to get away from everything looking too straight and regimented.

 

The station and piers look something like this (not to scale). I don't have anything like enough room to model the entire station and pier area so only a small part of it will be modelled as shown by the dotted lines. There will be cassettes for fiddling about at both ends. Various buildings will help to disguise the lines leading off stage.

 

 

 

The Black Five here has just arrived from Inverness. Only the first two coaches (or vans) of arriving trains will appear beyond the train shed. The locomotive will run round and remove the coaching stock to the (not modelled) bay platform freeing up the station for more important things. The class 26 is taking a breather between shunting movements.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Although I only have a very small space I intend to use various buildings to break the area up into a number of smaller scenes like this.....

 

 

 

.....which will hopefully make it seem larger than it actually is. The class 26 is trundling away light engine to the new pier off to the left to collect some vans.

 

Operationally it is just a shunting layout with most of the passenger operations taking place off stage. I think it would work quite well as a cameo layout although I am not sure if I would want to go for the full cameo treatment. Maybe just a tall plain backscene but without the proscenium arch. But I am getting ahead of myself. I have never managed to make a decent model building and this plan requires quite a few, nor have I ever actually managed to finish a layout so I have a lot of hard work ahead. If you have made it to the end of this rather long introductory post, thank you.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited February 18, 2019 by Sandpiper

[forest2807]

I like this very much, I’ll be following with interest.

[2750Papyrus]

I have always felt Ullapool should have been rail connected and look forward to future posts.

[stivesnick]

Hi Sandpiper

 

I really like the idea, the station looks far more realistic than many other Scottish terminal stations that you see. If I had the time and space I would be tempted to do something similar in N.

Look forward to seeing how this develops.

 

If you don't go down the full "arch" at the front, I would have a return section of the backscene along the front of the layout, to help disguise the end of the scenic section.

 

Nick

[Sandpiper]

Thanks for the "Likes" and replies. 

 

One thing I was considering was building the layout the opposite way round, so that the view was from the land out to sea, or in the case of Ullapool looking up the length of Loch Broom to the mountainous land beyond. Most models that feature a harbour are viewed from the sea looking onto the land whereas in reality we are usually on the land looking out to sea unless we own a yacht (or in my case a sea kayak). 

 

There are a number of things that attract me to building the model this way round. Having rearranged the mock-up buildings I think they fall nicely into two main groups. I like the idea of the land just dropping away out of sight at the edge of the quay. We know it is the edge of the quay because we can just see the tops of the cabins of some fishing boats and their masts. Beyond we can make out the misty outline of some mountains. I'm not so keen on photographic backscenes as I think they often contain too much detail which can detract from the foreground but I like the idea of some rather vague soft watercolour mountainous shapes in the distance just to confirm that we are in the Highlands of Scotland..

 

For some reason I also have this strong image in my head of walking towards a station building from the road side and seeing a big sign proclaiming "British Railways Ullapool". In front of the building would be some nice period vehicles, fully on display, instead of hidden at the back of the layout. 

 

The Black 5 has arrived from Inverness whilst the 26 seems to have been abandoned in the yard.

 

 

 

The Black 5 has now drawn forward before running round. The cluster of warehouses and stores here would hopefully suggest that the main pier is just out of sight beyond. To the left we can just see the top of a fishing boat poking above the quay (actually we can't because it is just a flat sketch on paper) and beyond are some misty mountain shapes (so misty in fact that we can't see those either!).

 

 

 

Some vans poking out from various hidey-holes suggest lots of busy-ness beyond.

 

 

 

Any thoughts on arranging things this way round instead of the more conventional arrangement would be appreciated. I realise that an unfinished baseboard and some very crude cardboard mock-up buildings are not much to look at.

Edited February 18, 2019 by Sandpiper

[Sandpiper]

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Edited June 11, 2018 by Sandpiper

[Sandpiper]

Deleted duplicate post.

 

Apologies if anyone is trying to decipher this mess. I started off with duplicate posts. After editing I then had duplicate posts with no photos. Now I have duplicate posts with duplicate photos. Normal service may or may not be resumed sometime in the future.

Edited June 11, 2018 by Sandpiper

[Sandpiper]

OK, it now looks better apart from the duplicated pic in post 5. That was all deeply unpleasant and stressful!

Edited June 11, 2018 by Sandpiper

[Joseph_Pestell]

This is spooky! Almost identical trackplan to that I drew up a couple of years ago - although I was thinking of it for 0.

 

But perhaps not spooky but an indication that you have a good understanding of typical HR track layout.

[Sandpiper]

I'm still working on my understanding of the Highland having recently switched allegiance from the North British on the West Highland.

 

Perhaps not so spooky though as I started off with the trackplan from the northern side of Kyle of Lochalsh. I reduced the number of sidings, then tried to work out how I could disguise the exit to the fiddly thing without using an overbridge. No amount of messing with the geography of Ullapool could conjure up an overbridge. The train shed will be a Thurso sort of thing, although a through shed rather than a dead end one. So sort of a cross between Thurso and the original train shed at Strome Ferry. I think there will need to be a local instruction saying, "Locomotives must coast through the train shed without stopping", or it could get a bit claggy in there.

Edited June 11, 2018 by Sandpiper

[Sandpiper]

Aargh, another post with multiple duplicated bits. Why is it when I edit the post to remove one photo I end up with all the photos including the deleted one and all the text duplicated?

Edited June 16, 2018 by Sandpiper

[Sandpiper]

I have decided to stick with the conventional view looking from the sea onto the land. One issue I had was what to do about a backscene as any view of Ullapool from the sea would be of buildings. i don't like the perspective issues that arise from having buildings in a backscene so I think I will just go with plain white. Various sheds, warehouses and road vehicles will help to add interest at the rear.

 

The Black 5 has been left unattended on the old pier with a couple of vans. Maybe the crew have gone for a cuppa with the skipper of the "Unifrog". Odd name for a fishing boat! Not many boats tie up at the old pier which was very quickly found to be inadequate for the traffic. The new pier will be represented by some short cassettes beyond the sheds allowing wagons to be propelled out of sight. The old pier will only be used for local goods traffic.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I think I have spent enough time butchering pieces of cardboard. I guess it is time to get started on trying to build something proper.

 

 

Edited February 18, 2019 by Sandpiper

[Flying Pig]

I have decided to stick with the conventional view looking from the sea onto the land.

A pity - I think having the sea at the back would have worked well (see for example Gordon Gravett's Arun Quay).

[Zomboid]

You should keep the boat's name in the final version...

 

It's looking very atmospheric, even with the mock up buildings. And it shows the benefit to the overall scene of cropping rather than compressing.

[jonny777]

I have spent holidays in Ullapool, and enjoyed the area a great deal. It should have had a railway, and if it followed the main road to Inverness via Loch Glascarnoch would have been a great sight for steam working hard against the gradients; and marvellous scenery. 

 

I think the harbour at the front is a very good idea. It saves having the railway stop at the baseboard edge with nothing. I think you have a great plan for a quality model, here.

 

(Mrs Jonny will always remember Ullapool for the nicest bottles of Merlot she has ever tasted, although I couldn't tell you which shop I bought them in). 

[LBRJ]

This looks like it has great prosepects, even at this stage

 

May I ask the overall size of the scene?

[Sandpiper]

The visible area is 6' x 2'.

 

There will be short cassettes at both ends. Only the leading two coaches or vans of trains arriving from Inverness will appear through the train shed. At the pier end there is enough room to propel a few wagons off stage with the locomotive also disappearing from view hopefully giving the impression of the movement continuing further along the pier. Most of the action will involve shuttling wagons about. 

 

No matter how much I tried I couldn't come up with a more conventional terminus to fiddle yard arrangement which looked satisfactory in the space I have. Passenger trains to Ullapool would probably have been at least four or five coaches, probably with a couple of parcel vans as well. With a more conventional arrangement the most I could fit in would be three coaches which wouldn't really cut it for me.  

 

 

[Sandpiper]

 Another duplicate post. I think my mouse may be to blame.

Edited June 17, 2018 by Sandpiper

[Joseph_Pestell]

 Another duplicate post. I think my mouse may be to blame.

Get a cat.

[Sandpiper]

No actual modelling progress to report as I have been away on my hols in north west Scotland. I stopped off for a morning of mooching around Ullapool and had a good look at the pier. Most of the buildings on or around the pier are very modern although this interesting little building seems to have been around for some time.

 

 

 

 

 

It is present in this 1930 photo.

 

http://www.historylinksarchive.org.uk/picture/number11785.asp

 

Just over the road is the building once known as the 'Great Store' which dates from around 1789. Old photographs show it as having bare stonework rather than whitewashing. The stonework is still bare round the back but it is very difficult to get a good view due to other buildings being in the way.

 

 

 

 

 

It's on the left here in this old photo.

 

http://www.ambaile.org.uk/detail/en/40466/1/EN40466-quay-street-and-pier-ullapool.htm

 

This is Shore Street seen from the pier. According to an article in the Highland Railway Journal, none of the buildings along Shore Street would need to have been demolished as the plans involved building new land out into Loch Broom to accommodate the station.

 

 

 

And the pier from Shore Street.

 

 

 

Calmac's "Loch Seaforth" does tend to dominate the pier when she is present, completely dwarfing the 28 metre "Beryl" in the foreground.

 

 

 

Across the other side of the pier were a couple of old timers, the "Azalea" and the "Kildonan", both of which appear to have seen rather better days. 

 

 

 

 

Edited February 18, 2019 by Sandpiper