Trackplan!

Here’s a copy of the revised trackplan as promised… it’s got the right angled bend in it to make it take up less space in the loft, whilst still retaining the feel of the curvy design.

Click here for a larger copy to look at

Now that this if finalised, just to plan the construction of the baseboards now… woodwork, not something that I get on with too well!

The other Lochaber Railway

Those of you who have been reading my blog for a while may have heard me refer to the Lochaber Railway which ran from the pier at Fort William up around the edges of Ben Nevis and Aonach Mor to Loch Treig.

I’ve recently returned from a holiday in the highlands, and have had a lot of inspiration for the layout. It has not made me change the trackplan for PnC in any way from the last revision, but has given me ideas of specific buildings to use of the layout. One thing that I did decide to do whilst there was to give the layout a sense of place, a location better than ‘somewhere in the Scottish Highlands’.

To do this I’ve decided to locate it on the edge of the Lochaber region, and give some subtle hints to this within the layout, and the history that will accompany it. In Fort William I purchased a very helpful book of historic photos of the Lochaber region:

Source: www.alibris.co.uk

From reading through this book I’ve decided to give hints to the region, such as having the local store named ‘Nether Lochaber Stores’ which had a branch in Onich run by John Mackinnon. It is highly possible that Mr. Mackinnon could have opened another branch of the Nether Lochaber stores at Port na Cailliche.

The Nether Lochaber Stores, Onich - Source: www.theoldstore.co.uk

Road signs and busses to Fort William (the largest town in the Lochaber Region) will also help to give the layout a better sense of place.

What was also interesting was to get a better understanding of the narrow gauge railways that existed in the Loch Leven area whilst staying there. The two that I looked at were the Kinlochleven Railway that ran through the village of Kinlochleven, and the quarry line at Ballachulish.

The Kinlochleven line was built to carry bauxite and other materials to the plant, and then aluminium to ships at the loch. It was operated by electric locos in it’s final years.

Route of the Kinlochleven Railway since closure - Source: http://canmore.rcahms.gov.uk

Kinlochleven Aluminium Works Pipe Line - Source: www.grough.co.uk

The Lochaber area accounted for about a third of the world’s aluminium production in the early 1900’s, so a third plant in close proximity is feasible. I’d like to have one of these plants located somewhere on the railway network attached to PnC, and given that PnC is supposed to be relatively close to Fort William it is feasible.

I’m going back to Scotland in September, so hopefully I can try and walk the route of the railway if time permits.

I know very little about the Ballachuilish line, other than there was a small narrow gauge line built to carry slate from the nearby quarry to the Caledonian branch from Oban. I will investigate this further in the future for personal interest.

Ballachulish Quarry - Source: www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk

I was suprised to see a structure that has mainly Welsh narrow gauge associations though: a quarry incline made of slate! I’d not noticed it before, but will go for more of a wander around it when I’m there in September if possible.

Ballachuilish incline – Source: www.flickr.com

I think given that both a quarry and an aluminium plant existed in the area anyway, to add more of the same onto my line wouldn’t seem out of place for the area. However, I don’t want to have slate trains, I think i’d rather have something more associated with Scotland than slate is… granite perhaps?

Finally, on the way home from Scotland we stopped in the Lake District. Whilst there we rode on the Ravenglass & Eskdale Railway. I’ve always had a soft spot for their logo, so i’m tempted to adapt it for my line. I’ve got an idea, but need to draw it out a bit more presentably before showing it online!

Ravenglass & Eskdale Railway emblem

Future proofing

When designing the layout I was thinking of it being a standalone layout that would operate independently of anything else.  One source of inspiration for this layout is Ted Polet’s Craigcorrie & Dunalastair Railway which operates on two levels. 

I’ve always thought this was a good idea as it has allowed Ted to model near enough a whole line.  This brings in levels of operation that you would expect to see on large American basement layouts, but not in something that occupies a space of about 10’x6’.

Consequently, I may well revert to the more right angled design of the layout plan that was posted originally, but adapt the layout of everything on the existing plan to fit into the ‘new’ (old?) shape.  This should make it a much more practical shape, whilst still allowing me to represent the curve for the Plockton board.  It will also hopefully future proof it a little by making it much more likely to fit into rooms if and when we move house.  I don’t want to loose the individuality of the design however, so part of the the curve will be retained rather than it simply becoming an L shape with right angled edges.

Hopefully this will make it the ideal base for me to some time begin my own double decked plan that I drew out years ago.

I’m aiming to begin ‘proper’' work on the layout during July rather than waffling here about the planning stage.  I’ve had a lot of time consuming things to deal with recently, and not enough spare time for me to get on with building a layout once more mundane things are done.  Hopefully that can be put right soon, and progress will be shown here over the coming months.

Cold spell...

Jeff Bissonnette and others have described themselves as having 'hot and cold' spells of modelling enthusiasm, where lots gets done during the 'hot' times, while during the 'cold' periods time is spent on other things.

I have to admit that this is very much how I am with modelling, I will go a long time without doing any, then have a prolonged spell of it and a flurry of things is produced.  At present I'm experiencing a cold period, and cannot seem to summon up the enthusiasm to do any modelling at the moment.  This often happens during the summer for me, my modelling is very much a winter hobby, but the odd bit does get done during the summer.

This summer I'd like to get the loft organised and the space made for Port na Cailliche to be assembled up there, then make a start on the baseboards.  Other than that I think I'll struggle to find the motivation to get much done.  Dunbracken is off to EXPOng at Swanley in October, and I'll be doing some preparation work for that.  Once that's out of the way I expect I'll be well under way with PnC.

Hopefully normal service will resume soon, and I'll post here when it does.  I do have some stock to construct, so I expect I'll post about this soon(ish).

What's in a name?

I've finally worked out a justifiable reason for the name of the layout, although i've been settled on a name for quite some time now i've not come up with a reason for the name to go into the history that will accompany the layout...

Cailliche (or Cailleach in Irish pronunciation) is associated with a mythical goddess who is rumoured to have traversed Ireland and Scotland and dropped rocks from her apron.  These rocks allegedly formed mountains such as Beinn na Caillieach on the Isle of Skye, or the rock that forms the end of the tombolo at Port na Cailliche which is now the site of boat builders yard.

Scenery finalised.

One of the main things I wanted to create with this layout was a feeling of space and open countryside around the line, whilst having good operational potential... somewhat contradicting requirements!

However, i think i've come up with some minor alterations to the scenic side whilst leaving the track plan pretty much alone.  The only areas that will really change are the tidal inlet board, where the road is likely to run around the inlet then next to the line at the front, and follow the back of the yard.  Behind this there will be a road junction with another road climbing away up to the backscene.

The backscene has also been a subject of thought recently, the intention was to replicate a town which had developed on a ledge between the sea and some mountains.  To try and achieve this I will plan to have the rear of the baseboards climbing slightly to give the impression of the ground climbing towards the base of the mountains.  At the extreme rear of the layout there will be a band of trees hiding the joint between the scenery and the backscene, then above it will emerge a scene like this (section above treeline) to give the impression of the mountains...

Source: www.ashaig.co.uk

That scene is the opposite side of the bay to Plockton, so fits in the area that the rest of the layout is based on.  That in conjunction with the alterations to the end of the layout should give a good feeling of space and help create the impression of the town being sat of a ledge at the edge of the land.

I'm going to spend a whole day in Plockton in June taking plenty of pictures so there should be plenty of opportunity to make a panorama for the backscene.

I'll doodle my revised plan soon now that i've got it all sorted out.

Change of plan?

It always happens... i settle on a plan, then i come up with an 'improved' version...

I've been thinking of making PnC feel more like it's on a ledge set between the coast and some mountains.  With this in mind I began thinking of scenes that could be incorporated into the layout.  The trackplan is likely to remain the same, but the scenery will alter around it.

Once i've managed to work out the plan properly rather than scribbles then i'll post it on here.  It's likely to involve making the inlet into an estuary and having the hotel sat at one side of it, then a short road side section, and then into a slightly shortened (only slightly) version of the fiddle yard.  Behind this there would be a road climbing away up a hillside behind the hotel off into the backscene giving the impression of a road cutting through the mountains.  That's all i've got so far, now i need to put pen to paper and work out how to do it...

I don't want to change the trackplan as i think it'll make great fun operationally but we'll have to see...