Port Na Cailliche

Moving home

2010-09-21T19:04:00.002+01:00

Not me, the blog.

As mentioned before, I'm moving the blog to a new site. I'm going to use Wordpress from now on as it enables me to have a more traditional type site with pages in a style i prefer to blogger.

I won't be transferring over the information from this blog as I'd like to make a clean break from the remnants of Port na Cailliche, fun though it was. The new site will focus on Isle Ornsay and it's development.

For those of you who link to this site, please direct your links to the new address:

http://hlrco.wordpress.com/

Over and out.

Post Kew doodling

2010-09-06T23:06:00.002+01:00

The trackplan above shows how the plan for Armadale has been adapted to fit in to the coastline around Isle Ornsay. I think it's adapted nicely and the area seems to suit it just as well as Armadale did!

The quay should extend to the edge of the baseboard joint to help mask the joint a little, or to just before and the fishing boat to mask it.

For a plan with annotations showing what elements are click here.

I'll be doing a full size plan when I'm back from an exhibition in Holland this coming weekend.

Post Kew excitement!

2010-09-04T23:45:00.004+01:00

Well, today's trip to Kew was extremely successful!

All images below are reproduced with permission.

I wasn't anticipating finding much, but when collecting the first lot of records this is what I was presented with:

When unfurled this revealed a wealth of plans and long sections of the line including details of bridges, viaducts, and tunnels.

You'll have to excuse the weights on the end of the sheets in some shots, it was a constant battle to stop the sheets curling back up again! It all looked like it had'nt seen the light of day for some considerable time.

Here's an overview map of the whole system drawn onto an OS map sheet. Railway 1 runs from Isle Ornsay to Uig (52 miles in total), whilst Railway 2 branches off Railway 1 approximately 3 miles North of Portree and runs a further 24 miles to Dunvegan.

The trackplan I drew up for Armadale a while ago conveniently fits nicely into the area where Isle Ornsay station was proposed.

The sheet that shows the section of line I'm going to model is shown below:

More specifically the area immediately around Isle Ornsay station and pier:

As can be seen from the long section, the line was planned to pass through a headland in an 80 yard long tunnel - an ideal break for a fiddle yard! :)

Below is a general description of Railway 1 for it's entire length.

Notice to build the line under an order from the 1896 Light Railways Act in the form of an advert placed in the Northern Weekly on Thursday the 21st April 1898.

The line was proposed by a group of people from the London area. The directors are listed as being a Mr. Andrew M. Barr of Eltham, Harold E. Lewin also of Eltham, Charles Kemble (unreadable location), A. Hambury Tracey of Queensgate, W.M. Godward of Enfield, J.W. Hume Williams of Gloster Place, and T. Beaumont Hesseltine of Bond Street.

Some of the above were part of a well known railway manufacturer who's head office address matches that of the Hebridean Light Railway Co.

Dick Kerr feature on a lot of the paperwork and are listed as the promoter and official contractor for the line.

I've found several references to this proposal in different books, some mentioned the involvement of the North British Railway, the records don't show this. In one document it is stated that the line wasn't built due to lack of funds and the plan was abandoned. The company correspondence does make reference to them not wanting to immediately dissolve the company as they were keen to try and restart it in the future.

To make the model I have made one assumption:

When the costs for the line came in at more than expected (£598,977 9s 9d) the HLR approached the NBR to see if they would be interested in a joint project. The NBR agreed and part funded the line as well as agreeing to provide stock, and operate it. The provision of a government grant which the NBR aided the line in obtaining, was a great help towards some of the construction fees.

This would have meant that the line was more likely to get built, and to a reasonable standard with some interesting potential for stock.

The Highland Railway were approached to build a line on Skye and refused to do so on two occasions, so the NBR was the logical choice for this, especially as they were working on the Mallaig extension to the West Highland Line at the time this scheme was being proposed. Ferries could then have been run form Isle Ornsay to Mallaig to provide a connecting service.

The layout will be approximately a 9'x9' L shape, i'll be firming up the trackplan soon after i've made alterations to it to reflect the change in location. Things that will change are mainly the location, type and orientation of buildings as well as a minor re-site of the turntable and the addition of a tunnel mouth as the exit to the fiddle yard.

I wil be using some of the details from the National Archives (plus a little imagination) to write a history to accompany the layout.

The plans also showed lines proposed across the conjoined islands of Lewis and Harris, namely Railways 3 and 4. I will post some more details of this at some point if people are interested.

I've not modelled a real life location before, but the opportunity to do so is something that i'm looking forward to, although the proposed line will allow me to model the area immediately around the station as it could have developed had the line been built.

Quick catch up

2010-09-03T17:59:00.003+01:00

Just a quick post to say that I'm off to Kew to go and examine the plans for the proposed line on Skye tomorrow.

I've also found some more details on the proposals and have used these to compile a history for the new layout. This is currently running at 12 a4 pages long! It's been helpful to establish some ground rules though, before starting on the new layout.

Last week I drew out the two straight boards (half of the goods yard and the station) on lining paper and the plan fits in nicely. If I make the boards 50mm shorter then I can get them to fit widthways across the boot of my VW Golf. This is quite surprising, but also an added bonus, if i can fit it in the car then transport costs to shows are going to be considerably lower so it's likely to get more invites. I'll now design it with this in mind. I just assumed that it was going to be in van hire territory so hadn't given the car any thought until now.

Dunbracken has an invite to the Smalspoormuseum at Valkenburg in the Netherlands on the 1th and 12th September, i'm really looking forward to this show as it's my first trip to Holland for 13 years, my first show abroad, and I get to see Ted Polet's Dunalastair which doesn't normally make it over to the UK due to it's more cumbersome nature than Rae Bridge... Exciting!

Next week i'll post an update on what I uncovered at Kew.

Building Momentum

2010-08-22T23:20:00.004+01:00

In my last post I mentioned that I was finding my enthusiasm for modelling rather lacking at the moment, and that this time of year my mind is normally on other hobbies.

Well, I attended a nice little 'do' at the weekend which was privately organised and only open to friends of friends who had received an invite. There were some really nice layouts there and I think most seemed to have a good day, me especially. It was nice to see some layouts that I've heard about or seen photographs of but never seen in real life, and a good opportunity to catch up with some friends.

I received two invites for Dunbracken for 2011, one to Arundel, and a potential one to Crawley.

I've also finally managed to sort out a date to go and look at the Hebridean Light Railway Proposal drawings in Kew in early september. I will report back on this in due course.

Recently I've been working on setting up the new website/blog that I referred to in a recent blog post, and I've been looking at the trackplan for Armadale and trying to work out where/how to fit in a turntable and avoid reverse curves.

A recent pleasant surprise was that I was awared a B&Q voucher for £75 at work recently for my performance, so that's the initial plywood budget for Armadale sorted out!

All of the above has resulted in a considerable raise in levels of enthusiasm, and I'm now getting really excited about the project again. We've recently had a big sort out at home and organised a lot of our possessions, we did this in a relatively short time so i'm hoping to continue these efforts in finishing the loft clearance off very soon.

Slow summer

2010-07-06T19:59:00.005+01:00

My modelling is normally quite slow in the summer, I tend to amuse myself with the usual modelling forum trawling, reading, doodling and my other hobbies. So progress is generally slow in the summer, especially when it's near 30 degrees fairly regularly! Too nice to be sat at the modelling bench.

I've now got a date sorted to go and look at the drawings at Kew, there are some other items there associated with the line on Skye, company papers and such. How useful any of it will be is beyond me until I get there, hopefully it's going to be clear enough to be of interest though.

I'm slowly working on a new blog, i rather feel that this one has run it's course, covering the planning of the layout and a bit of history of the line. I'm going to make a fresh start for the construction phase, so keep an eye out for a new link if you link to this one at the mo. I'll do a specific post linking to the new one when it's ready.

In 'other' news, I recently accepted an invite to an exhibition at Valkenburg in Holland with Dunbracken, it should be fun going abroad with the layout, especially as I get to see Ted Polet's Dunalastair!

Portree Shed, AKA "What can I fit in a boxfile....?"

2010-05-10T18:01:00.003+01:00

For a while now I've been thinking about doing a small photographic diorama to pose my stock on for photographic purposes, and for a bit of fun whilst I'm avoiding finishing off clearing the loft to start 'the big layout'.

A thread on NGRM really spurred me on with the idea, before then I was thinking of constructing something like a long section of totally rural track on a foamboard base. However, after reading the thread and discussing ideas for other people's boxfiles it go me on to thinking about doing an engine shed for myself.

As Portree is the end of the branches to Uig and Dunvegan I thought that would be a good place for a stabling shed. There was a 1:24 layout based on the same idea.

The trackplan is simpler than simple, but then it's not intended to be operational, just a photographic diorama. I think any more and it may begin to look crowded.

Here's an annotated version which shows what all the various elements are.

In these shots the Backwoods Fowler and NBR tank are on the shed lines, and the WD Hunslet is on the running line.

I'm hoping to cram a small workshop down one side of the shed, a bit like Pilton. There's going to be a workbench with tools on, a lathe and maybe a drill press.

I might add some grass to the front flap of the boxfile, not sure yet. I'm also hoping to add lighting to the buildings and hide a battery and switch in the low relief carriage shed opposite the engine shed.

This might prove useful for helping establish the 'identity' of the Isle of Skye Railway too and seeing how building and stock styles work together. At the least it should help me 'keep my eye in' until Armadale is at the scenic stage.

The lines of Skye

2010-04-29T21:09:00.003+01:00

I've been using Google maps for a while now to work on a map of all the lines on Skye, the following map is the result.

View Isle of Skye Railway in a larger map

The blue lines represent both of the planned lines by the North British and Highland Railways, and the Skye Marble Railway (as this followed the same route as the HR proposal to Torrin). This also is the 'network' that I will be using as the basis for my 'history' that I will create for the IoSR when the layout is complete.

The turquoise line is the Ord quartzite quarry tramway, a line of only a few tens of metres long from the quarry to the main road.

The purple line shows the Talisker distillery tramway from the distillery, to the pier at Carbostbeg.

The yellow line is a funiclar railway for the Storr Lochs hydroelectic power schemes which was built to help transport materials during the construction of the HEP scheme.

The red line is the longest of the 'independent' railways on Skye, the Lealt Valley Diatomite Railway, running from the coast at Invertote, to Loch Cuithir.

Over time I hope to visit all of these sites and photograph whatever remains. For now though, the map will have to do.

I'll be posting some shots from Streetview soon which show some of the lines, along with some of the history of each.

Skye Marble Railway

2010-04-19T22:26:00.007+01:00

Time for a little more history...

The Skye Marble Company set up a quarry in the Kilchrist area of Skye near the foot of Ben Suardal, however they had problems transporting their produce to the then new pier at Broadford. In the latter half of the 1890's the grandiose schemes for lines across the majority of Skye were taking place, however none of these ever got off the ground. This consequently left the marble company still unable to transport their wares further afield to somewhere like the pier. In 1904 a 3'6" gauge line was opened from Kilchrist to Broadford Pier at a cost of £30,000 including the construction of a bridge to span the Broadford River so that it could connect to the pier.

The line was initially operated by horse power, however this clearly wasn't sufficient as Skye Marble Ltd. purchased two locos. The first is conspicuously absent from all sources of information on the line, however there is substantially more information about the second.

It was a Hunslet 0-4-0ST named 'Skylark' (works number 564 of 1892). This loco was initially delivered to T.S. Dixon with the name of 'Bruckless' in May 1892 for use in the construction of the Donegal to Kilbegys section of the County Donegal Railway in Ireland. It was sold in 1894 following completion of the line and was subsequently purchased by the Preston Corporation Waterworks Department for use in the construction of their 'Spade Mill no. 1 Reservoir'. It was here that it gained the name 'Skylark'. In the period between July 1897 and March 1905 the loco was under the ownership of the Newcastle & Gateshead Waterworks. It was from this owner that it was transferred to the ownership of Skye Marble in 1907.

There are some images of the loco and some of the quarry operation reproduced in 'Last Ferry to Skye' by Christopher J Uncles.

The company quarried material from their site at Kilchrist using a partly Belgian migrant workforce. The company seemed prosperous throughout the early years of the 20th century, however by 1913/14 the company had gone into liquidation. Like many schemes of this era it didn't prove as lucrative as first thought, however if it had lasted a while longer I don't think that it could survived the loss of large numbers of islanders to the front during World War 1. By 1914 the company had dismantled it's works at Kilbride and demolished the workers cottages. The managers house, the shop and quarries were all vacant and the railway was derelict.

'Skylark' was sold in May 1914 to John Mackay of Dublin Waterworks, and it ended it's days back in Ireland where it had been initially delivered.

In the 1980s there was a skip wagon from the line that was still visible in the forecourt of a garage at Breakish near Broadford. These wagons arrived at the garage from a short line at Ord quarry on the West of Sleat, having previously operated on the Skye Marble network. Traces of the line on the pier were beginning to disappear during the 1980s when it was coated with new layers of tarmac, subsequently burying the rails.

I hope to walk the entire course of the line the next time I go to Skye, and will post some images of the route on here when I do.

There were several other minor industrial lines on Skye, I will cover each of these in turn in future blog posts.

Rebranding

2010-04-17T09:16:00.004+01:00

Regular visitors should be able to note the change of header on this blog to now say 'Isle of Skye Railway', this is to reflect the change from modelling a completely fictitious setting, to an actual proposed line on the Isle of Skye.

In time I expect I will create a dedicated website, but for now I'll keep the blog going and add a link to the new site when it's done.

All my modelling bits and bobs are up in the loft now and things are beginning to take shape. Half of the space required is cleared, but there is still some more work to do. I'd like to get this sorted during the summer so that I can enjoy the sun cutting up baseboard materials in the sunshine in the garden.

I must try and get to the National Archives at Kew to see the actual plan and survey results of the Hebridean Light Railway Proposal soon too.

New Toy!

2010-04-14T18:58:00.004+01:00

Well, Narrow Gauge South went better than I was expecting it to after the recent tribulations!

Dunbracken began the day being a little tempremental after the alterations to the fiddle yard. The end of the cassette mount had risen up somehow and was causing stock to derail. This was fixed with some abuse with a needle file to flatten off the track to the required level. Apologies if you witnessed the ensuing mock earthquake whilst I was doing this!

The 009 Society Sales stand is always worth a visit, and on this occasion I got to buy something that I've been looking for for a while. The last time I saw one it was on the sales stand but I decided not to go for it and have regretted it ever since. However I was fortunate enough to get it this time.

The item I am talking about is an N gauge MicroAce 0-6-6-0 mallet. Most mallets that I've seen before are tank locos, so the tender version is going to be huge!

This runs really well and watching two sets of valve gear go round is great. After some discussion on NGRM online I have pretty much decided to build a mini Burma Railways Mallet body on it.

I'm tempted to get this working fairly soon, it will be rather large to use on Dunbracken but it'll be good fun to build the body for it as it's like nothing I've tried before.

We're not at home to Mr. Cock up!

2010-04-06T20:46:00.003+01:00

Or so goes the quote from Blackadder....

Whilst I may not be permenantly at home to Mr. Cock up, he does seem to take up temporary residence at our house prior to exhbitions! This evening the layout was being turned around so that I could work on the fiddle yard. Whilst turning it round one end gave way and the layout collapsed, ripping off the lighting pelmet!

So, I've now got to refix the pelmet before Narrow Gauge South this weekend, as well as finishing off some stock. Fortunately, I have a 'cunning plan' to fix it and improve things slightly from before.

If anyone comes along to Narrow Gauge South that reads this make sure to come and say hello!

Tanking along

2010-03-27T16:07:00.004Z

I have been working on some rolling stock recently in preparation for taking Dunbracken to Narrow Gauge South in early April. The main focus at the moment has been on some Innisfail tramway coaches.

I have also been refining the North British tank loco design to the point where I've now resolved all the issues that would present a problem with the design in real life and I'm ready to get it etched (well, once all the changes are accounted for on my etch sheet drawing I am).

I'm really pleased with the result and am looking forward to getting it done. This will be one of my main projects after Narrow Gauge South. I also have Easter weekend pencilled in for loft clearance with the assistance of my fiancée which means it might get done this time!

Armadale Trackplan

2010-03-21T10:59:00.004Z

Here's the definitive plan for Armadle, I've taken the old plan for Port na Cailliche and flipped it over with some other minor alterations. This has interpolated quite well to the landscape of Armadale and could easily represent how the village might have developed had the railway arrived.

There's a link to a larger image at the end of this post. Any larger and it doesn't all appear on my blog without cutting off the right hand end!

There are only two times where I've had to apply modeller's license:

1 - The Plockton-esque frontage remains as this would locate the centre of the town near the station, this would mean a slight movement of the road towards the sea.

2 - The headland at the right hand end of the plan, this does exist in real life near this location, but in real life would be slightly further to the left. This area has been foreshortened to create a visual barrier to mask stock exiting to/entering from the fiddle yard.

Here is a link to the original image on Flickr which has notes on it. These indicate what is what on the plan and show the inspiration behind the buildings/objects on the layout.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/16967289@N02/4449679845/

Very Proud

2010-03-17T18:02:00.005Z

Whilst exhibiting Dunbracken at Expo Narrow Gauge (ExpoNG) late last year I was asked to write an article for the French modelling magazine Voie Libre. When I spoke to them they promised me a couple of free copies of the magazine. I received them this week and was very pleased with the article.

What was the really nice surprise was that Dunbracken made the feature photo on the front cover!! The photos that François took of the layout at the show are superb and certainly reproduce well in the magazine.

François also produced a very nice trackplan of the layout, much nicer than the crewd one I drew in Microsoft paint!!

Large version here: 4438073631_db2b3183a2_b.jpg

Remote Research

2010-03-14T11:38:00.002Z

Being (very) remote from my chosen modelling subject has the disadvantage that if I want to go and have a look at something I can't just jump in the car and go and have a look. Well, I could but it takes a little more organising than that to sort out the time for the 11 hour drive!

On Narrow Gauge Railway Modelling online recently a discussion thread was started about various NG trains spotted on Google Streetview. After looking at some of the preserved lines in the UK I wondered how useful it would be for looking at the Isle of Skye for research purposes for Armadale to help me refine the track plan and surrounding topography. I wasn't expecting great coverage on Skye yet, but it turns out that the marjority of the route of the proposed line has been covered already!

Here is the bay at Armadale:

View Larger Map

They quay on the right hand of this shot is going to be a mineral and general goods quay, whilst the passenger platform will be off the right hand foreground of this shot where the modern day ferry terminal is.

This is the location of the goods yard and the sidings down to the quay.

View Larger Map

This is the last section of the station looking towards the fiddle yard. The line here is intended to run between the road and the sea. I am going to try and include some of the curves in the road which are off in the distance, but that depends on how it all pans out when I produce a full size plan. If this works then I will create a headland on the seaward side of the road to act as a view block to allow the train to exit to the fiddle yard in a little less conspicuous manner.

View Larger Map

I'm busy getting Dunbracken ready for Narrow Gauge South at the moment, building stock and making some alterations to the fiddle yard. When this is finished I WILL move on to loft clearance and then the full sized plan for Armadale. It does feel like a big upheaval from what was the rather finalised track plan of Port na Cailliche, but I think portraying a real location will be fun!

Change of plan continued...

2010-02-11T19:31:00.004Z

Here's an aerial view with the layout I will be working to, it ties in nicely between the original trackplan and the coastline of Armadale.

Change of plan

2010-02-08T22:18:00.005Z

Having thought I'd finalised the track plan, I came across records of the Hebridean Light Railway proposal at the National Archive which include plans of the line. This got me thinking, and I'd like to model a station that was part of the proposed route from Armadale through to Broadford, then off towards Kyleakin, or Portree and then eventually branches to Dunvegan and Uig.

Whilst looking around Skye and looking at the trackplan Armadale began looking rather like Port na Cailliche in reverse, so I quickly doodled the trackplan crewdly on top of google

maps...

As if by magic the reverse layout seems to fit in perfectly! I'm now going to look at this in more detail, but I can see more fun to be had with a real location and planning how it would have developed with the railway arriving there.

Essentially it will be a flipped version of PnC, but I think I may have to loose the tidal inlet as it just doesn't seem to tie in with the coastline north of Armadale.

This might inspire me to pull my finger out and clear the loft... I did say might though!

Nearly there!

2010-01-04T18:12:00.003Z

Happy New Year to anyone who reads this blog!

I am now in the rather slow process of clearing the loft to make way for the layout, it will be a fairly slow process as there is so much c**p up there! However, once clear I hope to have a nice modelling room which will allow for the layout to be up all the time and create some storage underneath.

Over the holidays I came up with a sketch of a loco design based on a combination of North British Railway tank locos, this is likely to be based on a Graham Farish 08 chassis using Backwoods Miniatures valve gear.

I'm hoping to make a start on this to coincide with the testing of the track on the new layout so that it can be the first loco to properly turn a wheel on it.

Finally, I've decided on the form of the baseboards, I will be using the same principal as Pempoul (so it can't be bad!), that is a ply outer frame to provide some rigidity and an extruded (pink) foam insulation centre for the running surface and scenic foundation. This should prove strong and lightweight, the latter being important as it will take two people to man handle (or should that now be person handle) the boards down from my loft!

Paint, what paint??

2009-09-24T18:54:00.003+01:00

Developing on the latter part of my last post... The plan to build the layout with some friends building other layouts that will make it a modular affair (albeit rather large) eventually is good fun. Ideas are bounced about, and one such recent idea was to move the period the layout is set in to pre-grouping.

This would mean moving the period from the 1930s to somewhere in the region of 1913. Ultimately this means that the line could have been operated by the North British Railway. There seems to be surprisingly little information recorded about the NBR in a country that has managed to preserve plenty of history about the other lines of the era.

Paint is a real issue, there were several different liveries carried by the NBR, but periods that these were used over seem rather vague, and there were some locos that overlapped from one period to another anyway. Phoneix paints produce some NBR colours, however I find them difficult to achieve a good finish with compared to other brands of paint.

Instead, from looking at photos of a preserved NBR loco (Glen Douglas), I found Citadel Colour 'Gretchin Green' foundation paint.

The colour is a close enough match for me to be happy. Now to try and sort out how to do the lining!!

A little more history

2009-08-22T11:37:00.002+01:00

I've been doing some research recently into proposals for Scottish narrow gauge lines in some of my books. In 1896 the Light Railway Act was passed, and two years later there were 35 proposals in one year for light railways in Scotland, some brand new schemes, and some revivals of old ideas. There are some quite interesting proposals, one of which particularly captivated me.

The Hebridean Light Railway Proposal was to build lines on the Isle of Skye and The Isle of Lewis that would total a running distance of 97 miles. The main route on Skye was the one that interested me, this could potentially make the ideal setting for Port na Cailliche. The route proposed ran from North to South along the island with branches to Dunvegan and Uig. Other stations on the route mentioned are Sligachan, Broadford and Isleornsay. The intention was to take all traffic from Isleornsay to Mallaig where it could meet up with the North British Railway's West Highland Line. Therfore the line would likely have been operated by the NBR.

For whatever reason this proposal did not materialise. In 1898 the Highland Railway were invited to build a line on Skye from Portree to Dunvegan with a branch to Uig, again this did not materialise.

In 1980 'railways for the islands' were considered by a government comission, but again did not prove fruitful. There was strong opposition to any building of a line from the Highland Railway, this was likely to be because it would have been an NBR funded/operated scheme.

One line did materialise on Skye in 1904, a 3' gauge line from a marble quarry in Torrin to Broadford pier. It employed a Kerr Stuart Skylark (from 1910 onwards) and operated until closure in 1939.

From reading this it occurred to me that Port na Cailliche could be located on the Isle of Skye, and could have been a new port (like Mallaig) built to improve access to fisheries and ferry navigation routes. A likely location would be on the South Western corner of the island due to the shorter route to Mallaig by sea. Likely traffic could have been passengers to and from the Islands to meet ferries, local passengers, rock, fish, inter-island goods etc.

I decided to keep the location fairly imaginative and just leave it as 'somewhere in the Lochaber region', thus enabling me a bit more freedom with my plans, and with the history.

One thing that the reading did make me realise though, was that it would be different to set the line pre World War 1 in a period when it was operating at it's heyday rather than in the 1930s. Many narrow gauge lines would have been in decline by the 30s, so a more interesting range of operations could probably be modelled if set pre-WW1. Anothe thing that occured, was the possible ownership/endorsement by the NBR, so I will be experimenting with NBR livery on a loco kit and some stock that I am working on at present to see how it turns out.

Dunbracken is to be exhibited at ExpoNG in October, realistically before this I don't think i'll have time to get anything done on PnC, but after that it will be full steam ahead for the winter to make a start on the baseboards!

Trackplan!

2009-06-14T16:02:00.001+01:00

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

2009-06-14T15:58:00.002+01:00

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

2009-05-26T21:54:00.001+01:00

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...

2009-04-25T22:03:00.004+01:00

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?

2009-04-05T14:28:00.004+01:00

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.

2009-04-03T16:42:00.002+01:00

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?

2009-03-30T20:08:00.003+01:00

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...

Something curious

2009-03-21T23:14:00.002Z

Ted Polet has been a huge influence on my modelling, and his layout the Craigcorrie & Dunalastair Railway is one of the reasons that I model in 009 set in Scotland now.

I often dip into the Dutch group of the 009 society's website, but on a recent visit i noticed on this page adjacent to the 7th picture down on the left hand side of the second block of photos an interesting name that i'd not noticed before... 'Loch na Cailliche'. Now I have read LOTS about Ted's layout in the past, and can only remember this area being referred to as Inverlochan Moor, but looking back through a CD I once bought on Ted's layout it has always had this name...

Happy coincidence. Hopefully I can make my layout worthy of carrying the same name as part of Ted's very inspirational line.

On the planning front, due to the rush to get Dunbracken finished for Tonbridge i'm enjoying some time off modelling, and will be extremely busy with work for a part time degree that i'm studying on day release from work. This will be over in May so hopefully I can crack on with the baseboard construction after then. For now I will just stick to the odd bit of stock construction.

Full size planning session!

2009-02-25T17:54:00.003Z

Here are the results of last night's full size planning session. I had to make some minor alterations to the trackplan to make it fit on the boards, but i'm very pleased with the end result.

The decision was made to reduce the size of the boards to 900x700 mm, this doesn't seem to have impacted on the feeling of space, or the length of trains that can be run on the layout so the added transportability is an added bonus.

The only compromise was the inclusion of a small 300x700 mm board at the end of the station to ensure that the station building across the end of the platform doesn't hover in mid air off the end of the board! The minimum radius on any of the curves is 18" and that is only a short section... the rest are all >24".

The first board off the fiddle yard (left). The building at the rear is Glencloy Lodge, this sits at the end of a tidal inlet which is based on an area of Plockton that looks like this...

The goods yard board. The small building at the end of the two mineral sidings is just a yard office. The good shed is sat at the back of the yard with a small shed next to it which will house a small inspection railcar. To the right of the goods shed is the platform with cattle docks. The track with dotted lines along it at the rear is supposed to represent a dirt track that will lead off into the backscene supposedly to a croft. The area either side of this will be sparsely covered with crofts and rusty corrugated sheds.

This is the 'Plockton' board. The curve at the rear will represent the main road in Plockton which looks like this.... I may retain the palm tree, might be something different to have on the layout... The buildings will be more like the ones in the link, more tightly packed. The signal box is on the left of the shot, and the boat builder's is sat on the tombolo/spit.

The station board and the 300x700 mm scenic board. The station building will be removable and sit over the join of the two boards. At the front of the station will be a stone retaining wall leading down to water level. From this there is a wooden jetty leading out to the steamer. Behind the station the building is a white washed church. On the end of the platform sit the water tower (weird torpedo shape - i do have a prototype :wink: ) and the coal stage.

View across the 'bay' towards the Plockton scene.

View over the tombolo with the boat builders at the front of the layout, the area between this and the seawall will be submerged at high tide, so will give me a good chance to experiment with more types of seaweed and grime than on Dunbracken... It's all based on the same sort of scene at Plockton (again) a mini version of this...

View along the entire length of the layout. The edges of the boards will be tidied up to make them more flowing curves...

Final Developments?

2009-02-21T21:48:00.002Z

I've just returned home from Narrow Gauge South West, I used to go every year when I lived in the Westcountry, but have missed it for the last few years so it was nice to return.

While there I met up with two friends who are planning to build layouts that will join onto PnC. We had a planning session and have come up with a scheme that should prove quite interesting to watch and operate.

The junction has disappeared from the trackplan on PnC, but the rest of it will remain the same (just have to finalise how much of a curve it will sit on). This was done to allow more free space on the layout, having that extra line was just that bit 'too far'. So, the intention now is for PnC to act as the end of the layout, coupled to this will be an 8' wide, 6' deep glen scene which the line will travel up one side of and down the other. On this module (if you can call it a module being that big!) will be a passing loop and stabling siding for a banking loco. The banker will be needed to assist locos climbing the 3" from one side of the glen to the other, a challenge if we run long trains! Finally the last module before the fiddle yard looks like it will be a contractors yard and staging point for a major construction scheme. This is heavily inspired by Fersit from the Lochaber Railway. The intention of this site is to represent something major being constructed (like a pipeline) and spoil being removed from this site, taken to the dock at PnC and tipped into the puffer.

So, these additions to the layout should make it very interesting to operate, and allow someone at an exhibition to follow a train along around 20-30' of layout!

I don't anticipate any changes to the trackplan from now on, so now i've just got to decide construction methods for the baseboard and plan that... then I can begin! It's looking likely to be either a ply frame with blue foam centre, or a ply frame with chicken wire over formers... both will be light, but i'll have to work out shapes etc. to check which is best suited to the trackplan.

Super Power

2009-02-01T17:50:00.004Z

The release of the Graham Farish 08 chassis has made me think about uses for it, and then seeing how John de Frayssinet has used them in his mallet River Brue and to remotor his Backwoods Miniatures Manning Wardle really got me thinking.

I came up with a design for a tank loco to be based on a Roco 0-6-0 tender loco chassis. This ran really well initially, but developed a slight case of the wobbles as the chassis block wore slightly. There is a solution to this, to add some bushes to eliminate play on the rear axle. However the advent of the Graham Farish 08 diesel chassis should provide another solution to outside framed chassis...

Source: Kernow Model Centre

The plan I came up with was very much inspired by the compound locos that ran on the Ballycastle Railway in Ireland. The wheel arrangement would be changed from 2-4-2T to 2-6-2T, and the whole loco would have a longer and slightly lower appearance. I'd like at least two of these, and will make a start on them after the rush of getting Dunbracken ready for exhibition is over. Frames will be plasticard i think, and valve gear is likely to be either Backwoods Miniatures or Roco transplanted onto the chassis. The chassis seems easier than other Farish models to fit DCC decoders to and one feature that i'm pleased i've managed to incorporate into the design is a bunker which will be large enough to house a Soundtraxx speaker, and form a small box to amplify the sound as much as possible.

I'll upload a copy of the plan once i've managed to revise it to fit on the 08 chassis.

If this one goes well then I expect i'll construct a couple more on the same design, and possibly venture into the area of larger stock if all goes well.

Swanley!

2009-01-28T18:31:00.002Z

Normally getting home from work and opening white envelopes means someone is telling either A) how much money I owe them, or B) how much money i've not got... Fortuntately today I got a rather nice surprise in a white letter...

I've been asked to exhibit Dunbracken at this years ExpoNG at Swanley (31st Oct). This was one of my modelling goals when building an exhibition layout. I guess i'll have to think of a new one for PnC...!

Dunbracken is going to be replaced by PnC, and unfortunately I don't have room for both of them at home, so at Swanley it is going to be up for sale.

I'll be making a start on PnC later this year (probably cutting up baseboard bits in summer time) so hopefully the blog should become more construction orientated than planning soon(ish).

RTR 009

2009-01-10T21:00:00.004Z

To be honest i'm suprised someone else out of my fellow bloggers hasn't posted on this yet...

This week Roco announced that they are to release a ready to run 009 Ffestiniog Railway Fairlie as shown below in an excerpt from their 2009 catalogue that was found online.

This is great for 009, but many people are discussing on internet forums that it is likely to be pretty pricey, especially given the current exchange rate between the Euro and the Pound. However you look at it though it's a great thing for 009, yes we've had ready to run with Eggerbahn before, and maybe the hobby wouldn't be where it is now without that but this is great step forward.

I can't help feel that there would have been a more universally appealing loco than the Fairlie, but it's a pretty safe bet that it'll still be popular regardless (price issues forgotten about until they actually confirm a price!).

Will one be appearing on PnC? Maybe... we'll have to see.

Update - I've emailed Roco and had a response saying that they can't give a set release date or price as yet. I also questioned if they would consider any other UK prototypes after this one, and again they weren't able to comment but have logged the suggestion, so fingers crossed!

E. R. Calthrop

2009-01-09T19:14:00.007Z

Whilst down in the Westcountry over Christmas and New Year I went to visit the Launceston Railway and had a ride on one of their 'Bah Humbug Specials', however this was only half the reason for going. They have quite a good shop, and i can normally guarantee that when i go there i'll come back with a new narrow gauge orientated book!

This time i found this...

Not quite how to build your own light railway, but an interesting paper written by E.R. Calthrop (of Leek and Manifold and Barsi railway fame) in 1897. In the paper he goes into the cost effectiveness of using narrow gauge, and how 2'6" is the ideal gauge for a combination of reduced build costs and maximum carrying capacity. He also goes on to talk about standardisation of parts between all items of rolling stock etc. and basically reducing costs... dare i say it, something that a Scottish line would be interested in?

It's ideas like this that i find interesting (maybe from being an engineer by trade, i don't know...) and as such i've decided to incorporate him into the history of the Aradig Bay Joint Railway Co.

As i've alluded to in a previous blog entry of mine i'm going to come up with a history of the line for an added bit of fun. The basic concept is that two lines operated independently, then merged and paid for a line to be constructed through the hilly area that separated them.

My thought was to have the joint company appoint E.R. Calthrop as the chief engineer for the design and construction of the line that would pass through the mountains. This would give me three sets of stock that i could run...

1 - From the first original line - one distinct style. Possibly smallish locos as it would have run on a comparatively flat route.

2 - From the second original line - same as above, although one these original sets would very rarely venture over the hills...

3 - That bought for the new joint line which was powerful enough to operate through the hills - more likely to be of a slightly more modern appearance.

This would basically justify me having all sorts of items of stock running on PnC from small(ish) tank locos to large locos for the more strenuous route. Also a variety of carriage and wagon stock could be built up. E.R. Calthrop advocates the use of stock with the same axle loading as the locos (5 tons for the Barsi rly. mentioned in the book), so a variety of older and more modern stock also.

Plus i've always liked the Leek and Manifold locos, and he seems to have adopted that style as a standard design, simply experimenting with the wheel arrangement as can be seen with this shot of a Leek and Manifold loco at the top and a Barsi loco below it...

The Barsi one seems a little over the top, but a variation on the L&M one might well appear in some form.

When the layout proper gets underway i'd like to set up a website and use this blog for build updates, so all that is being developed for the history will transfer over to the website to form the story of the line...

I always enjoyed reading Narrow Gauge Adventure by P.D. Hancock, i'm sure mine won't be as influential as that, but hopefully someone will enjoy reading it.

Trackplan again!

2009-01-05T17:22:00.005Z

Between Christmas and New Year there are always moments of quiet thought for me, and during one of these i looked at the track plan for PnC. The first track plan i ever came up with was for a T shaped junction, and being T shaped had a junction in the track plan with the station being at the base of the T on a pier. This plan was pretty impractical, i can't see many exhibition managers liking a T shaped layout, so with this in mind i redesigned it, but still wanted it to be different.

Then i came up with the curved plan that I have now. This smaller (ish) plan meant that the junction was lost, and that was the main aspect i had associated with the station in the little bit of the Scottish Highlands i have floating around in my head! So, i got to thinking about things, firstly what the coastline would have looked like before any railway was built there...

This is based on the coastline of Plockton (albeit juggled about a little). The dotted line indicates where the two lines are supposed to be located. The area where they join is to the right of the goods yard. This plan shows two areas where the line would need building up, the first is the area after the tidal inlet on the left of the plan (crossed by a steel bridge), this section is where the 'old quay' falls. This is intended to be a stone quay used for minerals etc. to goods ships.

The area in the bottom right area of the plan is where the station is located. This is also the site of the 'new quay', this is to be stone with a wood pier to enable steamers to moor closer to the land. This is area didn't quite seem to fit it when it was based on Portree, so i've decided to make the whole layout more like Plockton and have it more barren as the plan and cross section below show. The large building behind the station is a church.

I prefer the arrangement of this end now, and will stick with this as i think it will give a better overall impression of being in a barren area. Plus the church would have been an obstacle for the railway to be built around so the idea of a line being squeezed along the coast still applies.

With regards to the junction i've decided to run the second line along the side of the road out of Port na Cailliche like the roadside section on the Glyn Valley Tramway (a scene i've always wanted to model). I think this incorporates the second line in a way that keeps operatingfun by having to run back from the station to the goods yard still, and not overcrowded the layout. The area behind the line where the crofts are will have to be rethought, i'm going to draw the layout out full size before any work starts. It may be that the line in red below doesn't run the length of the layout, and disappears between a couple of crofts long before reaching the area of the tidal inlet.

Dunbracken is progressing well, and has to be complete for its first exhibition as an operating layout at Tonbridge on February 14th. After this i shall start far more serious work on PnC with baseboard construciton beginning sometime shortly after the exhibition.

I'm looking to sell Dunbracken, so if anyone fancies rehoming it for a modest fee then please let me know. You can keep up to date with its completion on RMweb here.

Inspirational Lines, fieldwork, and an early Christmas message

2008-12-05T16:58:00.004Z

A thread on Narrow Gauge Railway Modelling Online has got me thinking. I regularly Read Colin Lea's Rhydd Ddu blog about his 009 layout (link on the right), and he has been through a series of posts commenting on lines he's visited. One area which many people seem surprised about are the number of narrow gauge lines that ran in Scotland, and there were many more proposed!

I intend (after new year) to start going through these lines one by one and listing any info i can find on them. For many there is very little info, but the major ones have a little bit here and there that could be amalgamated into a blog post some time.

On the layout front i'm likely to be heading up to Plockton in February/March for a weekend away around my birthday. While i'm there i intend to take plenty of pictures of the town (buildings, vegetation, coastline etc) for more fieldwork research for the layout. I'm getting more tempted to leave the inspiration for the trackplan that has come from Portree and focus on Plockton to get a more believable scene as an end result. Because of this fieldwork will be very useful, fortunately i can fit well over 1,000 photos on the memory card of my digital camera!!

Finally, as this is likely to be my last post on here before Christmas... Happy Christmas to all those who have been reading!

Sounds like a plan!!

2008-10-28T18:14:00.003Z

I went to ExpoNG last weekend and had a great time there. I spent most of my time drooling over County Gate and Pempoul, though i did end up helping out on the KB Scale stand for a while too.

I made two major purchases there, the first was a copy of Steam Locomotives in India - the Narrow Gauge, i've been looking for one of these for a while. It's got some fantastic locos in, and i'll definitely be employing some of the larger tank engines within it's pages on PnC.

The other purchase was a Soundtraxx Micro Tsunami medium steam sound decoder... WOW! DCC sound has me hooked now, i'm going to try and incorporate it into a tank loco design which i've got on my drawing board at the mo. I'll design the loco so that the speaker forms the face of the bunker which points into the cab - this then makes the entire bunker a 'bass box' in effect, and will hopefully improve the quality of noises such as chuff where bass is key.

I'll post some pictures on the various modelling forums that i'm a member of, and document the construction of the loco there.

Delusions of grandeur?

2008-10-13T09:03:00.002+01:00

Something i'm very concious of is the fact that i have a rather ambitious and imaginative brain... This isn't a combination that goes together well when coming up with a layout design. Now i'm not going to announce a complete change of the track plan, just one thing which has made me think.

S scale has been 'on the brain' again of late, i scaled up a drawing of a 009 loco and realised it had the potential to fit a portescap sized motor/gearbox combo, and a sound decoder inside it. Now i'd like to try S scale, but when looking at the track plan for PnC i'm not sure if i would be happy with it in S scale. I'd have to shrink everything slightly and lose some areas of the scenery to allow for the slight increase in scale. Sound decoders and improved running are the main things which have been driving me down the S scale path.

There are two ways round this, one is to reduce the track plan to accomodate S scale on the board sizes i've got available. This is something i would consider doing to see how it looks, but i think i'll have to greatly simplify the goods yard, and shorten the station meaning i can't run trains of a length that i'd like.

The other option is to stick with 009 and make sure i can get it to run as well as possible. This will be greatly aided by DCC, and investigations into building my own chassis a bit like Jeff Bissonette has done. The only thing left to overcome is the size of loco bodies for accomodating speakers for DCC sound then. One thing i've thought of is to make PNC into a through station, this would allow trains passing through the scene to have a speaker located in the first coach or wagon and for the sound to come from that. This wouldn't allow any shunting of that loco/wagon combination, but perhaps i could build a loco suitable to have a speaker located inside to act as a shunter...

For this plan i think it best to stick to 009 as i said before. Whether i go for a through station i don't know, i would however like to portray the junction that PnC is supposed to be located near to if possible so i may see if it's possible to squeeze this in somewhere.

For sound i think the decoders are simply slightly too big to fit in your average 009 tank loco, however i might be able to design a freelance one where they would fit. This is something i'd like to have a go at with one loco to see if it's worth it, if not then it'll make my life a whole lot easier!

I think it's going to be important for me to realise what my initial objectives for this layout were:

1 - portray scotland with typical scenes merged into one believable town
2 - operate as realistically as possible
3 - give an impression of space, not being a layout with scenery stuck in around the track

Then i think i'll have to remind myself of these when i get delusions of grandeur again! At some point i'll have to cure the S scale bug and make a layout in it, it'll have to be small as PnC will take up a LOT of room in our loft so i doubt i'll get permission for anything sizeable!

Thinking inside the box...

2008-10-06T18:49:00.002+01:00

One layout i've always had a soft spot for is Dulas which was a layout based on the Corris Railway in Wales. It was totally different to any layout i'd seen before as it was presented as a series of modules, each of which portrayed a distinctly different section of the line and were linked together by small black box sections with backscenes dividing the module scenes from one another.

This is an approach to layout design that i've always considered trying, and as my initial thoughts of a layout are as a series of small scenes, is something that i think would suit my style of modelling. Recently i've mentioned building an 009 modular layout with some friends, one of the ideas is to set it on a scottish island. If this goes ahead then PnC may become divided into several small modules, but form part of a much larger layout.

The scenes i'd particularly like to model are the tidal inlet with the bridge and the curved frontage like that of Plockton. If this modular idea doesn't go ahead then i expect i'll just carry on with the PnC idea as i, i think it will lend itself to both modules or one whole layout...

If the modules go ahead the they're likely to be in a box format containing each scene, perhaps i could make my boxes removable to allow PnC to be 'built' from the contents of each box...

Everything has to be weathered!

2008-10-02T19:20:00.002+01:00

Well, the title of this blog post is a bit of a give away as to the content...

I recently posted on the Narrow Gauge Modelling Online Forum about the use of MIG

weathering powders and washes. I tried them out on a selection of Welshpool & Llanfair wagons i've got. This photo shows the results compared against an unweathered wagon.

This was my first attempt at weathering anything properly. I'm very pleased with the results, and was happy with how easy it was to achieve the results you can see in the pictures.

It's not just wagons that will need weathering though, i plan on weathering absolutely everything on PnC to make it look life like. I doubt that weathering powders will be applicable for some things, but i expect that someone somewhere on the internet has written about weathering anything i come across a problem related to. Model Trains Weathered has been very useful and contains some superb examples of weathering and some detailed descriptions on how to achieve similar results.

Just a short one this time, i'll expand on other weathering subjects as i come across them on Dunbracken... i can see the puffer being fun making that look really 'well used' and grimey!!

Researching for a layout

2008-09-06T11:43:00.002+01:00

When thinking of a new layout i often sit and look through various sources of information for a long while before even beginning to produce a trackplan. This is one aspect of the hobby which really appeals to me, and one that can take up a lot of time.

In a way this has been going on for Port na Cailliche for around 7 years. That may seem like a long time, but i've been modelling the same line with layouts based on the stations at Invercloy and Dunbracken as well as this one when it's built. Consequently i had to do some research for the two previous layouts and there were plenty of ideas which couldn't be incoroporated into these for various reasons. These ideas which couldn't be used have been floating in my head, and remain in the scrapbook i draw all my ideas in - incidentally this is a VERY good idea, whenever i have a thought for a layout i jot it down no matter how small it is. You'll never remember everything and this is an easy way to look back through your ideas.

The main source of information for research is books, for this layout i've been using various sorts of books from landscape photography of the Highlands and Islands to a historic photo book of the Isle of Arran.

Books on Scottish railways have obviously been very useful, particularly those on the Campbletown & Macrihanish Railway, and the Lochaber Railway being the main narrow gauge systems in Scotland. However books on the West Highland line (and indeed riding on it) have been useful, as well as Highland Railway books, and even books on class 37s- often used in the Highlands!

Because this line is more similar to the Irish 3' gauge lines than the Welsh narrow gauge i've got several books on Irish lines, one particularly useful one is 'Irish Narrow Gauge in Colour' by Norman Johnson. Also books on specific subjects like the Clyde Puffer are particularly useful.

Mention of the Clyde Puffer brings me onto another source of information; Videos of the BBC tv series 'Para Handy', this is a comedy series based on the wiriting of Neil Munro about a rather mischevious puffer crew. These videos contain some brilliant detail shots of puffers, quays, bits of coastline and scenery. All very useful for a layout where 95% of the front of the layout is water!!

Photos and memories from family holidays are of course also incoroporated into the layout plan, both places or buildings that mean something to me, and places that simply struck me as a particularly nice scene to replicate. Of course seeing things first hand is the best way to look into an area for a layout, and part of the reason i've chosen Scotland is because of many fond memories of family holidays when i was younger.

Finally there are a few websites i'll mention which have been useful. I linked to some specific photos on various websites which will be incorportated into the layout in one of my first posts, but there are some websites which cover large areas that are a very useful resource.

Firstly geograph - this is a site which allows you to select a specific geographical area on a map of the UK and then view pictures which have been uploaded to the site of that area.

Another site in the same manner as this is flickr, though photos on here tend to be more artistic it is worth having a look at the map section and doing as you would with geograph, or searching for more specific subjects.

Ports and harbours of the UK has been a good source of information on all sorts of small jetties and fishing ports in the Highlands of Scotland. Again based around a map of the UK it makes it very easy to find pictures of the area you're looking for.

Finally, if there's still areas of the trackplan that i've not managed to fill after all that then i just try and make up plausible scenery and scenes from what i've seen in all the other material - after all it is a freelance layout!

Further scale thoughts

2008-09-02T18:08:00.002+01:00

I've pretty much made up my mind as to which scale to use. It's been decided by one fact - N gauge chassis when scaled up to 1:64 are nearly all too short to be of use. I don't feel i'm in a position at the moment to scratchbuild chassis so i'm going to stick to 009.

In addition to this i've already got 3 Backwoods Miniatures kits in 009 which will be a loss if i swithed to S. Another issue is that i've also already got several buildings from the old layout so these would be useless on a S scale layout (unless having some forced perspective), as would the etches for the trestle bridge that i've bought.

I do have an idea for another layout i'd like to do long in the future, i have a feeling i know what scale that one could be...

One aspect that appealed of S scale was the increased level of detail, but i'm going to work as hard as i can to try and fit as much fine detail onto PnC. I'm not intending this to be a 2/3 year project - it's a long term one, the layout i've always wanted to build so why rush? So i'll have plenty of time to fit the detail in.

So there you have it... 009 it is for now.

Contemplating a different scale...

2008-09-01T21:24:00.007+01:00

As PnC is a way off being constructed at the moment this blog is mainly documenting my thoughts before building the layout during the planning stage, therefore all sorts of things are going round my head at the moment.

One thought which has recently appeared is that of scale. I've always been a 009 man because of space restrictions and the fact that my 009 was part of an already existing 00 layout to begin with. However i've always liked larger scales, and in particular 0-16.5 and the other 7mm scales. Now, PnC would be absolutely huge in 7mm scale, but there is a compromise.

I first saw S scale when watching the Paul Scoles scenery DVDs i mentioned in an earlier blog. S Scale is 1:64 which equates to 4.8 mm to the foot as opposed to the 4mm to the foot 0f 009. Whilst this is not a substantial difference it does seem to improve things visually. 009 stock can often seem small to me (admittedly my stock is generally larger tank engines so this might not apply), and Sn3 stock seems rather nice and chunky looking.

A good compromise would be to use S scale for the layout, and to have 9mm gauge track which would represent a shade under 1' 11" gauge track - almost spot on for most UK based narrow gauge systems. This would still allow me to use 9mm gauge chassis for the locos (albeit adapted with new cylinders etc) to make my life easier. I was planning on scratchbuilding a lot of the layout to make sure that it was easilt recogniseable as a Parkside Dundas suchandsuch so the lack of any kits doesn't particularly bother me.

It's certainly something to consider, the major downside i can see is that the overall size difference between 4mm and S is around 19%, this will have quite an impact on the size of the trackplan i've developed for PnC. If i want to keep this then it will have to grow somewhat - potentially a problem if we move in the future.

S scale does look attractive, and will certainly be considered for future layouts, but i can see it's limitations for this layout. Having said that it would be different, and would certainly prove a challenge!! There seem to be absolutely no S scale narrow gauge layouts set in the UK, so this could be an interesting niche to explore at some point.

I'm planning on knocking up an S scale diorama to test out the theory some time to see how it compares to 009. I expect 009 will remain the scale of choice for PnC because of the size of the layout, and the proportion of the baseboards i can leave purely to scenery without any track, not to mention the availability of lineside details. These would reduce with S scale (something i want to avoid). A nice thought, but perhaps something for the future.

The Origin of the Layout

2008-08-27T12:55:00.009+01:00

The idea for Port na Cailliche came from my original layout Invercloy which was supposed to be a terminus at one end of a ficticious West Highland narrow gauge line. I enjoy reading about people's layout's when they've made a ficticious history to accompany them and use this to justify and describe certain aspects of the layout. The one that particularly springs to mind is the Craig & Mertonford Railway by P.D. Hancock where he created a ficticious history of the line for pertty much every aspect of it. Another that has also interested me to read about is Ted Polet's Craigcorrie & Dunalastair Railway, this has been a huge inspiration to me and has been very interesting to see develop over the time that i have been a member of the 009 Society.

These two layouts got me thinking about the origin for the railway that would operate through Invercloy. I can up with some ficticious names for Scottish towns and villages to have stations based in, and these were then used to form the company name (the Ardaig Bay Joint Railway Company). Two stations on this line have been modelled so far, Invercloy which was never finished, and still remains in that state, and Dunbracken which is currently under construction. Dunbracken is based on an ironing board and is a very basic layout.

Dunbracken was built as a learning exercise for Port na Cailliche, i always wanted to build a bigger layout, but at the time didn't think my modelling skill would be good enough to undertake such a task. Hence the building of a small layout as a learning exercise, and being the first layout that i've built entirely on my own i'm very pleased with it. There are several aspects which i had not tried or used before that i wanted to have experienced before i decided to use them on PnC, these included Rock castings, making water, DCC, building a ship and generally improving my ability with creating decent scenery. Not a small list, so i thought that a new layout was worthwhile, especially if it was small.

Back to the basis of the layout... The ABJR was formed from two separate companies, the Glencloy Light Railway Company, and the Ardaig Bay Railway Company. The GLR ran from Invercloy to Ramasaig, with a small branch to Dunbracken, while the ABR ran from Port na Cailliche to Ardaig where it connected with the Highland Railway. The ABR claimed the majority of the title of the new Joint Companie's monicker due to their higher level of fiscal solvency than the GLR. The locals often commented that if the two hadn't merged then they thought the GLR would have closed long before it did.

Both lines were separated by a small range of mountains in the centre of the headland which they both ran along either side of.

At some point in their history the two companies decided to merge and constructed a line through the glen of the mountain range to connect to each other. At one end of these glens sat Port na Cailliche, so this is actually a junction station, but the line up the glen joins some distance out of the station (so this may feature on a future extension).

Due to the two initial lines running along the coast they were blessed with fairly easy gradients, and therefore could afford the use of smaller sized locomotives, however with the construction of the line linking the two along the glens so more potent motive power was required. This was provided in the form of large tank engines and a small group of tender locos, and even a garratt for heavy mineral trains.

This operation effectively created two eras for these lines, one of independence, and one of operation as the joint line. During the time of the jont company stock still mainly operated over the lines it was originally used on, but occassionally it would be required to venture further afield on the rest of the system. The larger stock bought by the joint company could be operated over the whole system, though it seldom saw use on the Dunbracken branch due to the size of the terminus at Dunbracken.

Of course this is all fiction, but it gives reason for the ficticious town of Port na Cailliche to have a station like the one i'm proposing to build for this layout. I find knowing the sort of line you are portraying helps to decide things like the stock, how well maintained it should be (also dependent on the era you've modelled), how to operate it and many other things. I've found it quite enjoyable coming up with this little history for the line and will expand on it bit by bit, if you're interested in writing a history for your line then Ted Polet wrote an interesting article on doing so which appears in the Modeller Book of Narrow Gauge, and is well worth a read.

Port na Cailliche was chosen as the site for the larger layout as i thought it would be an ideal place to indulge my love of scenery, sited on the coast with a glen approaching the sea, rocky outcrops, a town and plenty of water. Plus being at one end of the joint line it would have seen all sorts of the stock operating so would allow me to build up a varied collection of locos and rolling stock.

Hopefully one day i'll have enough room to add the extension with the junction on it, but i've got enough work now finishing Dunbracken and with the plans for the 4 boards of this!

A rainy holiday miles away from Scotland proves fruitful!

2008-08-18T17:31:00.014+01:00

Might sound like a strange title for a blog post, but... i've just returned from visiting my mum (who lives on the edge of Dartmoor) for a week and a bit's holiday. Unfortunately it rained a lot so we couldn't go and do as much as we'd planned for the time we were there, but it had it's bonusses, my girlfriend read a book she's been wanting to for ages, and i finalised the trackplan for the layout, and looked through lots of my old railway books!!

Whilst I had intended originally to have the layout on a much sharper curve, from talking to other narrow gauge modellers about my ideas i've decided to smooth it out and have a much gentler curve for the trackwork. To accomodate this i've had to ease the shape of the layout away from an L shape to what might be likened to a banana shape. The idea is that the fiddle yard end of the layout sits some distance away from the barrier at an exhibition (while being close enough to see all the details!), and it then curves and comes to a stop at the station end much closer to the barrier.

I also went to Plymouth model railway exhibition, whilst there wasn't anything particularly inspiring there from a narrow gauge point of view, i bought a few bits and pieces which will be useful. As i said before i'm planning on building a new body on the Roco loco that i bought recently, this will be freelance, but a 2-6-2T which is very much inspired by the Ballymena & Larne compund locos built by Beyer Peacock (albeit with smaller wheels and outside frames). More details will follow on this in subsequent blog posts.

Finally, i visited a friend who has leant me two superb DVDs, those on Scenery techniques produced by Paul Scoles. They are superb and cover all sorts of scenic techniques in an easy to follow and well explained manner.

Source: www.paulscoles.com

Paul uses dirt for covering his scenic hard shell, and applies this dry to the slopes of the hard shell, lets it settle whilst gravity does it's work and then wets it and glues it in place. This provides as natural an 'earth' as possible in my mind, where the material has settled to the angle which it would in real life (ok, so grain sizes are slightly different which will have an impact, but it's sieved beforehand so it's nice and fine). Examples of Paul's scenery techniques are visible on the galleries of his Pelcian Bay Railway & Navigation Company.

This is something i might consider for PnC, but i'm not entirely sure as yet, it could potentially add a LOT of weight to the boards, but it does look very good...

Another layout that's got me thinking!

2008-07-28T20:39:00.004+01:00

Whilst on a visit to a local model shop at the weekend I picked up a copy of the April 2008 Continental Modeller which i obviously missed first time around. In it there's an article on a French layout named Pempoul (metre gauge in 1:50 scale) built by Gordon and Maggie Gravett. The scenery on Pempoul is fantastic, i had seen pictures before, and when i saw the article that explained some of the Gravett's methods i had to buy it!

Some pics of Pempoul on these sites:
Crawley MRS
World Rail Fans
RMweb

I've just noticed it's going to be at ExpoNG (Swanley) later this year so will be able to take it all in then!

Two things in particular stand out for me, firstly the grass. This is done using a Noch Grasmaster which electrostatically charges the flock powder so that it stands on end when dropped into some adhesive on the layout, the difference between this and the old puffer bottle for flock is quite noticable. This looks particularly good for representing fine grass, but i think for the more moorland areas i'll stick to longer carpet underlay to achieve the more rough look.

The only thing putting me off getting a Grasmaster for PnC is the £100+ price tag... some experimenting with a balloon and something to rub it on before i go down the Noch path i think!

The other thing that struck me about Pempoul was the colouring and the fact that it's so subdued. Layouts with bright colours on stick out like a sore thumb, both vegetation, buildings and other scenic items need to appear more subtly coloured. After all they are being viewed at well over several hundred scale feet away most of the time so they should appear in model form as they do in real life over this sort of distance, not how they do when viewed up close.

Upon realising this i looked back through my modelling books and found a useful introduction to colour in Dave Frary's How to Build Realistic Model Railroad Scenery. However i feel that this is an area that military modellers generally achieve much better results than railway modellers, so i will be looking at this source for more information.

Pempoul has also made me think about baseboard construction, it's boards are 4 and 9mm ply around an extruded polystyrene core. Extruded polystyrene is not the white polysytrene used typically for packaging in the UK, but the coloure foam you can get for housing insulation (amongst other thigs). An example of it in use on a layout is this shot of the latest section of County Gate under construction by John de Fraysinnet.

Whether this approach will be lighter than the initial thought of ply and foamboard formers i'm not sure, but i believe it will be infinitely stronger due to it's more solid construction. The only area i can see being an issue is mounting the point motors, this could be done by having cross braces etc. where these are needed and mounting them on these. American modellers use this material much more than us in the UK, i'll try and find some info on mounting point motors from some US sites.

Hopefully i can find out more about the construction of Pempoul's boards at Swanley.

And a brief update on the Roco... it's been run in for about 5 hours now, and it will run soooo smoothly and will crawl round my circular test track even when controlled by my old H&M clipper, so it will be 10 times better when hooked up to DCC!

Improved running

2008-07-22T12:17:00.010+01:00

One 009 myth that i'm keen to dispell in the operating of this layout is that the running is poor. With the quality of mechanisms nowadays it is possible to obtain very small gauge locos which will run smoothly. Unfortunately at present 009 isn't that well served for ready to run prototypical chassis, with the 009 modeller having to rely on converted N gauge chassis (often inside framed), etched brass kits or using HOe mechanisms.

Roco 0-6-0 tender loco source: http://www.roco.com/

I have just bought one of the latter, a Roco 0-6-0 tender loco (shown above) which has outside frames, brass flywheel and complex valve gear, therefore something prototypical and suitably large for a railway in the Scottish Higlands can hopefully be built on it.

I'm not 100% sure what will be built on this, but it is likely to be either an entirely freelance loco, or a standard design from either Hunslet, Hudswell Clarke or Manning Wardle reproduced from the reproduction Catalgues i've got from Plateway Press. At present the thinking is to produce a large tank loco (2-6-2T or similar) and use the tender for another project at a later date.

John de Frayssinet has sucessfully used these chassis under his Manning Wardle and "Russell" Backwoods Miniatures kit based locomotives on County Gate, so if all goes well with this one then i might buy some more and make a small loco stud of 3 or 4 locos out of them.

The running is extremely smooth, and will give a much more prototypical feel than the stock which earned 009 it's undeserved reputation amongst other modellers all those years ago. Hopefully the running can even be improved upon slightly by the addition of a Zimo DCC decoder which will allow me to limit the top speed and give more fine control of the speed of the loco. More on this once the loco has arrived.

For other wheel arrangements i shall be looking into using several sources of loco chassis, the first being converted Japanese N gauge locos (Tomix, Kato, Micro Ace etc) with dummy outside frames, all these run superbly, much smoother than European N gauge stock.

Converting a Hollywood Foundry Bullant to outside framed is another option, as done by Steve Fulljames in his Fairlight Works blog. Due to the size of the motor unit it will have to be housed in a saddle tank of some description, but i've found quite an attractive one that used to run in Borneo which was produced by Manning Wardle.

And finally by producing my own etched chassis and having a go at using these as a base for more complex locos if nothing else is suitable, of course with this method running properties are down to the construction which is an area that i feel i need to develop a little at present.

Update - i've just received the loco, i' m VERY impressed with it. Straight out of the box it runs smoothly and steadily. It will get down to some impressively low speeds out of the box too! Now just to finish running it in and to fit my decoder to it.

Minor revisions to the track plan

2008-07-15T15:33:00.002+01:00

Following discussions on Narrow Gauge Railway Modelling Online i've decided to alter the trackplan for PnC slightly to reduce the bend in it and move away from the "L" shape towards something more gentle, perhaps a 45-60 degree bend rather than a 90 degree one.

It was pointed out to me that it would open up the area where the layout could be viewed from, and i think that this might help create a more realistic layout too, with better viewing potential for exhibition visitors.

Also discussed was the construction of the baseboards, i think due to the size of the layout (and my car's boot!) i'm going to limit the boards to 4'6" x 2'6" and have 4 boards, two for the goods yard and tidal inlet and two for the station and plockton scene. Due to the size the weight might be an issue, so i started to think of ways to save weight, one way would be to make "hybrid" baseboards and use ply or similar for the fascia boards and then use foamboard or blue foam for the contours and runnning surface. Hopefully that should keep the weight down whilst not compromising strength.

Will revise the trackplan soon.

Trackplan!

2008-07-06T19:39:00.006+01:00

I've finally had time to sit down and sketch out a rough track plan. At present it's not been drawn to exact scale, but just to give an idea of what i'm thinking of.

Here are the explanations corresponding to the numbered items on the plan:

1 - Hotel/Lodge - this building i already have, it was built for me by a friend, and will make an attractive addition to the moorland area of the layout.

2 - Tidal Inlet with steel trestle bridge spanning end. This is supposed to be reminiscent of this inlet at Plockton. The structure i will be using is based on a lower version of this Austrian bridge and is produced by a company called N Brass Locos.

3 - The Vital Spark sitting at the "old quay". I love the Para Handy stories and had to include a Clyde Puffer (The Vital Spark) on the layout. I plan to have an operating mineral chute on the layout which will allow trains to discharge their load into the hold of the Vital Spark. The Puffer is based on the Dean's Marine kit, and is currently being built for use on Dunbracken but will be removed when PnC is started.

4 - Goods shed. This will be based on a combination of Irish prototypes with a curved corrugated roof similar to the Ratio carriage shed.

5 - Signal box and cattle dock - these will sit at the end of the platform for the goods shed.

6 - Castle. This will be a ruin of a small castle based on Castle Moil from the Isle of Skye.

7 - Beach with culverted stream from hills at rear of layout. This area is based on Plockton.

8 - Boat yard workshops, this is another building built for me by a friend, it was used on a previous layout and will be reused on PnC.

9 - Water tower - for this i have a very quirky prototype from an Irish line to use which was a cylinder lying on it's side with two domed ends and then sitting on a stone base.

10 - Steamer - this represents a small ferry vessel which would probably be sailing to the Hebrides, Ireland or to another Highlands port. At present i'm not 100% settled on a prototype, but it will be propeller driven.

11 - Station building - to sit opposite the ends of the lines running into the platform, from this building a short glass canopy will protrude out to the ferry steps and part way down the platform. This building will also contain an office for the ferry terminal.

12 - Church - probably based on the White Washed church seen in many photos of the West Highland line.

I realise that this trackplan is quite complex, but i think it will allow for some interesting operation. I wanted to give the feeling of the line once having operated to the yard and the "old" quay, and then having been extended to the "new quay", however with limited space here the run round facilities at the yard were still used. It's taken me a long time to get this plan to the state where i'm 100% happy with it, and i think there will only be small revisions to it now.

Making Tracks

2008-07-01T11:36:00.007+01:00

I don't want this blog to start by solely being about what i'm going to do on PnC and moaning about how i think some commonly used products don't help realism of modelling, reading back through this is how it comes across to me. I don't want it to be of this opinion, what i'm trying to get across is that i'm by no means a fantastically talented modeller, but i want to try and create as realistic a layout as i am capable of, to do this i'm planning on using some different materials that suit my method of working better, and hope to share these with you as i go through both the planning and then construction stages of the layout. The thing i really want to create is the atmosphere of the line, and this may mean lots more scratchbuilding than i've done before to avoid using things like a GWR/LMS/Wills Freelance signal box for example, but this is something that i'm looking forward to.

One of the first products i found when investigating for PnC was Fast Tracks - this is an American company who produce... err... track making bits and pieces.

Their products i'm interested in using are:

Micro Engineering Spikes - actual spikes to spike the rail to the track rather than use chairs. This seems to have been common on many Irish lines, and therefore has been adopted for my PnC due to their similar nature (rolling stock, operation etc).

Micro Engineering Spikes source: www.handlaidtrack.com

The Tillig track i've used on Dunbracken gives a good effect of trackwork as can be seen below, but i would still like to try using more finescale appearing trackwork on PnC.

Parkside Dundas Vale of Rheidol guard's van sitting on Tillig HOe track on Dunbracken.

Wood Ties - actual wooden sleepers which will give a more realistic colour than pcb or rtr plastic sleepers. Some pcb sleepers will have to be used in the production of points, but this article is very useful for combining the wood and pcb and getting an even result from both mediums.

Wooden Ties (sleepers) source: www.handlaidtrack.com

PnC is very much inspired by Irish narrow gauge as well as Welsh and Scottish, and there is a photo of the Tralee and Dingle Railway which shows some very nicely wooden coloured sleepers with some light rust and grime staining. I think that to achieve this it will be much easier to start with wooden sleepers in the first place. At present Fast Tracks are the only i company i have managed to find that produce sleepers precut to close to 009 standards. They also produce some very useful looking point building tools which may come in handy when trackwork construction starts.

Not quintessentially welsh

2008-06-21T12:54:00.003+01:00

One thing i'm going to try and avoid is the use of easily recognisable stock on this layout. Don't get me wrong, i've had great enjoyment out of building people's kits whilst modelling in 009, but for this layout i want it to be more prototypical than anything i've built before. I've looked into trackwork, buildings, signalling etc. But the one thing i'd not though about until recently was the stock.

Many 009 layouts have ficticious histories or companies behind them, yet they operate stock that is easily recognised as being from the Ffestiniog for example. Now, i do have some favourite locos (Russell being one) so they will make an appearance on PnC but on the whole i want to try and come up with my own designs for stock which won't be easily recognised as having operated on such and such a line in real life.

I've bought the Manning Wardle, Hudswell Clarke and Hunslet reproduction catalogues and intend to have a go at building some of their standard designs to operate on the layout, along with some freelance ones using various aspects of specific manufacturers designs to make them look believable as being produced by Hunslet or Fowler for example.

The same applies for carriage and goods stock, i've got loads of plastic kits which i've built up in the past that i could use for the time being, but eventually i'd like to replace these with scratchbuilt items, or kits of freelance stock. I think this might help give the layout (or rather the ficiticious company that operates on it) it's own identity, such as the Lynton & Barnstaple Manning Wardle's being easy to spot as originating from that line, that's what i'm aiming for - albeit in model form.

Oh - and i've finalised the track plan, but i've yet to draw it up good enough to post here, and i'm off on a weeks holiday soon so will post it once i'm back!

Inspirational Book

2008-06-18T13:32:00.003+01:00

One thing that's made me think about how to improve the standard of my narrow gauge modelling is reading Peter Kazer's book Narrow Gauge Railway Modelling which is published by Wild Swan. This book contains some great tips on how to improve realism of a narrow gauge layout, ans has some examples of Peter's layouts. It's well worth buying and reading for anyone trying to create a more realistic narrow gauge layout.

Two things in particular have struck me from reading this... handmade trackwork, and using cast plater to make buildings - the textures and finish achieved on Peter's model of Corris station is fantastic! This is something i really want to try out for PnC and i shall be having a go at this for a building on Dunbracken to act as the test bed. As for track, i've found loads of stuff on that, so that's enough for an entirely separate blog post!

New blog!

2008-06-17T18:17:00.004+01:00

This new blog is a place where i can share my thoughts on 009 modelling and to show the initial thoughts that are going into my new 009 layout Port na Cailliche (pronounced Port na-Kaleesh - although i'm open to correction on that!).

The layout is to be set in Scotland on the coast of the West Highlands, rather loosely located somewhere between Oban and Ullapool, and is inspired by many holidays to this area. Other inspriation has been drawn from various locations, including the Lochaber Railway which was one of the largest narrow gauge systems that actually operated in Scotland.

I have been working on my current layout Dunbracken for some time, and this was just a test to see what methods work well, what pleases me and what areas i'd like to improve. Dunbracken was always intended to be a short term project, and hopefully Port na Cailliche will be started some time next year.

I feel that my modelling has reached the level where i can try enough new things to warrant building a new layout. On Dunbracken i've experimented with DCC, and this will hopefully be up and running soon. The scenery is more advanced than that of previous layouts i've worked on, and finally it was the first time i'd attempted water. One new area i'd like to try for PnC (Port na Cailliche is far too long to keep typing!) is to make my own track.

At present i'm finalising the trackplan and will hopefully work on a scale model of the layout to check that everything fits and looks good over this winter. The plan is an L shape with curved edged boards inspired by David Bickerton's layout Pudley Lane, this gives a nice flowing feel to the presentation of the layout and gets rid of any harsh edges that right angled boards give.

This layout will contain elements of various places which i've visited in Scotland or have found appealing in photographs. As such it's been in my mind in some form for a number of years. Now i've moved out of home i have enough space to build it in my loft, but would like to finish Dunbracken first to continue learning lessons from that.

Real life locations and buildings i intend to include a representation of are:

Plockton - this will form the backing to the curve in the L shape.
Portree - the station will sit on a wooden quay built out into where the harbour is in this photo.
Castle Moil - a remnant of the areas past which the railway has had to be built around.

The aspect of modelling that i most enjoy is the scenery, and i always like to try and get this as real as possible, but as this layout is basically the one i've always wanted to build it's a long term project so i will be going to town on most things. I've found some very useful and interesting products which i hope to use, as well as thinking up new items that i may well look into producing for myself. I hope to share these in future blog posts. This approach has partly come from frustration that certain items are not available from current manufacturers, or are not suitable for what i would like to achieve, and partly from seeing what John de Frayssinet has achieved on his 009 masterpiece County Gate.

I think that's enough rambling for now, especially as i don't have any pictures or a trackplan to share at present. Future blog posts will include areas which i feel will help improve my level of modelling and various methods i'll be trying out to improve the overall quality of the layout and it's stock before starting on the main layout.