BennyBobRM

So I am in the process of gathering the pieces for my next major railway modelling project - Tweedsmuir. Tweedsmuir is a little village in the former county of Peebleshire, not far from my childhood home and about 8 miles from the town of Biggar, the birthplace of the famous Albion motors automotive company. At the end of the 19th century, the Edinburgh and District Water Trust set out on the construction of the Talla Reservoir to meet the city's increasing water demand; this necessitated the construction of a service railway branching off the Caledonian's Symington to Peebles branch about a mile from Broughton at Rachan. The railway was opened on the 29th of September 1897 and ran to a platform at Victoria Lodge at the head of the dam (or where it was to be built). The reservoir was completed and inaugurated in 1905 with great fanfare (see photos attached) and the track was lifted in 1912. In addition to freight trains bringing in puddle clay for the construction of the dam, there was also a passenger service from Broughton for the workers and the locals known affectionately as the "Tweedsmuir Express". The line was mostly worked by the construction company's 0-6-0ST Peckett B1 Works No.897, named 'Talla'  In 1909, a proposal was made by local minister the Reverend W.S. Crockett that the Caledonian should take over operation of the line for the convenience of the local population: however this was rejected. But what if this weren't the case?

The layout is based on the premise that the Rev. Crockett's proposal had in fact been accepted and the Caledonian Railway Tweedsmuir branch became a thing. I have made the assumption that the Water Trust retained control of the (still existing) platform at Victoria Lodge and the Caledonian was forced to build a new station to the layout plan below, a very simple, but functional station consisting of a run-round loop and a single siding goods yard - all that would have been necessary for a little village like Tweedsmuir. The overall scenic area will be 125x28cm, very small indeed but necessary as I need it to fit on a shelf in my student flat! I may (in fact, probably will) add scenic extensions in the distant future. The rolling stock (for Caledonian operation, I will cover later periods in future posts) will consist of a CR 439 0-4-4T - the mostly likely engine to have ran the trains on such a branch - and a CR 812 class 0-6-0 (I would have gone for a Jumbo, but I'm not sure how good the DJH kit is and I have two of the Bachmann 812s ordered), probably for special trains. The station building, which I have already scratchbuilt from plastikard is a replica of that at Dunsyre (photos of the model and prototype included below). I have ordered a Wills kit of a goods yard store which I will paint up in Caledonian colours. I would have scratchbuilt such a structure, however I cannot find any suitable prototypes to follow (any help would be greatly appreciated!) and I feel the Wills kits, with a little modification and painting, can produce really individual looking structures - just google "Wills Goods Yard Store" and hopefully you'll see what I mean. I intend to put some very basic signalling controlled by a ground frame, this will be mostly for operational interest as the real thing would most likely have used "one engine in steam" operation. That is all for the time being and I look forward to the next update on this little foray into modelling a pre-grouping Scottish branch line!

Photos of the Talla Railway and Dunsyre station courtesy of Biggar Museum Trust.

Firstly, the historic photos of the Talla line:

Next, the Station at Dunsyre on the CR Dolpinton branch, the main building I have replicated being on the far-left of the photo:

And my model, the roof needs re-doing as it is too low proportionally (and of course needs a lum!) but otherwise, I'm pretty happy with it:

and the interior:

And finally the plan of Tweedsmuir: