west highland Mallaig and the Road To The Isles

[mallaig1983]

This area is the most advanced scenically with a few scratch built buildings. I still have a few more to build for this area. This will include 2 more half relief semis, 2 pairs of semi detached bungalows, a detached bungalow and the school hall just over the line. There’s a hedge to go in also along side the railway between the cutting and the bridge. Lots more static and detailing also for this area. 
Yesterday I made a start on the dormatory building. Disused by this period and vital photos from all angles unavailable, well good clear ones anyway. So it’s an operation in Winging It somewhat. It’s an important building for the station area though. Currently just a mount board carcass. Most of the glazing was missing at this time showing straight into the building but I can’t seem to find anything that shows anything other than this fact. Can’t see what was inside the building. My current thinking is I will just paint the card black and clad in plasticard to get the relief at least. It will be clad again in my usual fine sandpaper to represent the pebbledash finish. Some way to go yet though.

[mallaig1983]

And one last point while I’m in whaffling mode and it’s something that has had a lot of thought since I started the layout is the almost vital building that is the West Highland Hotel. I don’t think it will be possible to incorporate it ☹️ But never say never. It’s to far back to be able to have a physical structure but maybe possibly perhaps a photographic version may appear. No idea how I could take a photo from the height though. Anyone got a hanglider I could borrow? 

[David Bell]

That is looking great Andy, you are making good progress.

Cheers

David

[DavidBird]

On 03/04/2022 at 11:27, mallaig1983 said:

... Anyone got a hanglider I could borrow? 

No, but I know someone who has a drone...

[mallaig1983]

Bit more work on the Heather Ann today. Ive put the bracing on the cradle and added the winch and old tyre fenders. Attention will next turn to the masts, rigging and deck gear. I will admit I’m really not looking forward to the rigging. It’s up there in the same ‘fiddly’ bracket as the point rodding which is also untouched.
 

 

[6990WitherslackHall]

That boat looks really good. I think you've done a good job on that.

[mallaig1983]

22 minutes ago, 6990WitherslackHall said:

That boat looks really good. I think you've done a good job on that.

Thanks Witherslack. I think I’ve got the work worn appearance I was aiming for. My original plan for her was a scene where she’d been on the slip for a repaint and was looking pristine ready for relaunching but decided she needed to look like she was having a hard life. I can imagine her leaving the harbour to head to the fishing grounds, her big Diesel engine growling belching black exhaust smoke out of her stack exhaust. Atmospheric 😀

[David Bell]

2 hours ago, mallaig1983 said:

Bit more work on the Heather Ann today. Ive put the bracing on the cradle and added the winch and old tyre fenders. Attention will next turn to the masts, rigging and deck gear. I will admit I’m really not looking forward to the rigging. It’s up there in the same ‘fiddly’ bracket as the point rodding which is also untouched.
 

 

A good piece of work that. Well done,

Cheers

David

[BoD]

I can smell the sea tang just looking at those pictures.  Wonderful.

[mallaig1983]

Looking at these photos and a pondering visit to the attic I realise that some of the tyres I’ve used as fenders are to large. I will replace these with more of the smaller ones which will look a bit more to scale

.

Spoiler alert!….. since I built McLennan’s slip I have made contact (via the modern wonders of Facebook) with the daughter of Donny McLennan. He was the nephew and employee of the owner of the yard, indeed the owner of a handful of boats that were the Mail and passenger boats to the ‘Small Isles’ of Muck, Eigg, Rhum and Canna. I’ve learned a bit more about these services and the yard and very kindly she has shared some wonderful family archive photos with me. The yard was a repair facility for the McLennan fleet and not a general boat yard. I’m using my first ‘Rule 1’ card here and assuming that Alexander McLennan

was doing a favour for a cousin or friend and pulling the Heather Ann from the water to enable a repair to a bent prop or something. In reality fishing vessels would not have used this slip but fishing vessels are synonymous with Mallaig so we’re gonna roll with it. 

 

The shed in front of the main building which I have modelled with a door ajar was in fact a woodworking shop and Miss McLennan told me that the smell of the shop will stay with her forever. I feel privileged to have been allowed to share the memories of someone who was there at the time.

 

My version of the yard now needs more boats, and meant in the politest way ‘clutter’.

Edited April 18, 2022 by mallaig1983

[mallaig1983]

Early days. Well 7 days into the Barracks scratch build but still early days.

 

 

[mallaig1983]

Some decent progress on day 8 of the build. At the point now where I can start thinking about the roof. In the past I have used SMS slate sheets which I think look good but are a bit of a faff to put onto a roof so I think I will cut the roof to size and test fit and then slate the individual roof sections on the work bench before final assembly. That way only the ridge slates will be a faff (I hope). 
The building is Humbrol Sea Grey with a black wash sponged over it before white weathering powder was dusted on by brush and sponge. More weathering to do but I’ll call it a day for today.

 

 

[David Bell]

1 hour ago, mallaig1983 said:

Some decent progress on day 8 of the build. At the point now where I can start thinking about the roof. In the past I have used SMS slate sheets which I think look good but are a bit of a faff to put onto a roof so I think I will cut the roof to size and test fit and then slate the individual roof sections on the work bench before final assembly. That way only the ridge slates will be a faff (I hope). 
The building is Humbrol Sea Grey with a black wash sponged over it before white weathering powder was dusted on by brush and sponge. More weathering to do but I’ll call it a day for today.

 

 

That is coming along nicely

[young37215]

Interesting work Andy, I am pretty certain but I presume you mean the building above and to the on the right of loco in the picture below to which you refer to as 'The Barracks'. I am ignorant about the buildings origins or purpose, can you expand on what it was and why it is 'The Barracks'?  

 

 

[mallaig1983]

2 hours ago, young37215 said:

Interesting work Andy, I am pretty certain but I presume you mean the building above and to the on the right of loco in the picture below to which you refer to as 'The Barracks'. I am ignorant about the buildings origins or purpose, can you expand on what it was and why it is 'The Barracks'?  

 

 

Yes Rob, that is indeed the building.
 Mallaig is/was famous for its Herring fishing industry. However this industry was not year round, certainly not at a peak. The Herring schoales would start from the Isle of Mann and work around the coast to the North Sea as the summer progressed. During the period when the herring were being landed at Mallaig in huge numbers many extra railway staff were required for a short term and the Barracks was built to house them. It looks a rather large building to house a few extra train crew but one has to consider that the pier was owned and operated by the railway too and the activities would have been staffed by the railway company. As the herring moved north and around the coast and into the North Sea the staff would move to the east coast ports. 

Im uncertain as to when the Barracks fell out of use but I was planned to turn the building into the Mallaig Heritage Centre, in fact I believe that the building had been donated for the purpose but it burned down sometime in the late 90s. A new building was built for the Mallaig Heritage Centre which now stands on the site.

Other itinerant workers related to the fishing , mainly the  ‘herring girls’ who came in to gut the fish were housed in huts on ‘the point ‘ around the Kippering yards.
 

[mallaig1983]

Sorry, barracks is an incorrect name for this building. Dormitory was the term used. I did use it earlier in the thread but then got the word confused with the barracks that quarrymen working in the Blaenau Ffestiniog area would use for on-site accommodation during the working week.

Apologies folks.

[meanach]

14 hours ago, mallaig1983 said:

Yes Rob, that is indeed the building.
 Mallaig is/was famous for its Herring fishing industry. However this industry was not year round, certainly not at a peak. The Herring schoales would start from the Isle of Mann and work around the coast to the North Sea as the summer progressed. During the period when the herring were being landed at Mallaig in huge numbers many extra railway staff were required for a short term and the Barracks was built to house them. It looks a rather large building to house a few extra train crew but one has to consider that the pier was owned and operated by the railway too and the activities would have been staffed by the railway company. As the herring moved north and around the coast and into the North Sea the staff would move to the east coast ports. 

Im uncertain as to when the Barracks fell out of use but I was planned to turn the building into the Mallaig Heritage Centre, in fact I believe that the building had been donated for the purpose but it burned down sometime in the late 90s. A new building was built for the Mallaig Heritage Centre which now stands on the site.

Other itinerant workers related to the fishing , mainly the  ‘herring girls’ who came in to gut the fish were housed in huts on ‘the point ‘ around the Kippering yards.
 

That’s really interesting. I often wondered what such a large buildings purpose was and why it was mostly a shell in the memory of my visits . 

[mallaig1983]

A visit to Oxford last weekend to see my parents and Mum has made my layout curtain. Makes quite a difference to the scene by hiding all the crap that’s stored in the units underneath. Obviously it will need to be removed again whenever scenic work is carried out.  On the subject of which, the Dormitory building nears completion and has been offered up to see how much of the insulation board hill needed to be removed to accommodate it. When I built this hill 18 odd months ago I hadn’t realised that there was a single story extension on the building so the saw had to come out to accommodate it. I can now also crack on with the continuation of this topography down towards the station and get that finished. The Dormitory building still needs chimneys, gutters and down pipes and more weathering and then it can be placed once the scenics behind it are finished.

 

 

[mallaig1983]

And no, I still haven’t sorted out the layout lighting 🤨

[David Bell]

That is looking brilliant. The wide shot really shows how you have come on and you have really captured the character of Mallaig. A great piece of work

Cheers

David

[mallaig1983]

A little bit of progress has been made when I’ve had the chance this weekend. During the week I cut out the insulation board topography and cut the missing section that leads the landform down towards the station building. This was all covered with plaster bandage. More plaster cast rocks were moulded and cut to shape and fitted to the front of the landform and carving plaster was used to fill the gaps and blend together. Then the top was coated in Sculptamould and smoothed. Probably my most successful experience with this product to date. 
Today I painted the Sculptamould brown, carved the plaster I’d put between the rock moulds to blend and added the pigments to colour the rocks. Most of this will be hidden by the Dormitory building but I’ll know it’s there. Hopefully get on with the greenery in the week.

 

 

[meanach]

It looks spot on . Well executed and the rock face painting looks superb . 

[mallaig1983]

Snug as a bug.

Just a test fit to see how it looks placed in position with the new rock face behind it. 
Sadly I haven’t got the space to model the ‘Steam Inn’ beer garden behind it. Would have been nice to have a model me enjoying a pint 🍺😀

[Alcanman]

Mallaig is really coming together nicely. The rocks look particularly good. Just as I remember it on my visit in 1984. 

[mallaig1983]

47 minutes ago, Alcanman said:

Mallaig is really coming together nicely. The rocks look particularly good. Just as I remember it on my visit in 1984. 

I’ve used this photo for reference on so many occasions since the build started. Thanks for originally sharing in 👍