Isle Ornsay

[invercloy]

I thought I'd put a thread about this on here before now, but obviously not...

I'm in the process of building a layout based on documents found in the National Archives for a proposed line on the Isle of Skye.  The line was to have covered in excess of 70 miles and gone through lots of nowhere via Broadford and Portree.

I was lucky enough to be able to reproduce all the documents with a digital camera and was given permission by the NA to use them online (please don't reproduce them elsewhere without permission).

Here are some of the documents I found at Kew:



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.



I've chosen to model Isle Ornsay station as it closely fits the plan for the freelance layout I drew up a while ago, conveniently ChrisM also found a perfect site for a layout for him to build too, but I'll let him tell that side of things when he's ready.

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 wealthy businessmen from London", namely the directors of Dick Kerr!  I've found lots of documents in local libraries, Parish Council records etc in Scotland, all of which are helping me piece together the history of the proposal - it's all been VERY interesting.

I've been describing the route of the proposed line with the aid of Google StreetView on my blog;
Part 1: Isle Ornsay to Broadford
Part 2: Broadford to Sligachan
Part 3: Slicaghan to Skeabost
Part 4: Skeabost to Uig

I have yet to do the description for the Dunvegan branch, but will add it in the new year.

Here are some photos of how the layout is turning out:


A dry run of the baseboard components.


All the track is Peco 'mainline' (bar an N gauge crossing and two 12" rad. points) glued to laminate floor underlay foam to aid with expansion and contraction issues as the layout is to be stored in my loft.  As it happens I think I could have pinned it, as the layout has been up there and experienced as much temperature variation as it will, and all seems to be ok.




An overview of the entire layout.


The goods yard.


The harbour office.


The headland beginning to appear.

I've got a lot of work to do still, it's first exhibition appearance is at Narrow Gauge South next April.  Even though it's booked to appear as a 'work in progress' I'd like it to be a little more complete.  I still need to build the fiddle yard board and legs for exhibition use - it rests on Ikea trestles at home to avoid disturbing the stuff we have stored underneath it.

I'm lucky that my wife likes papier mache, she's been helping me with some stages of building it, and is looking forward to when we can do the scenery on it...  ;D

There's much more detail in my layout thread on NGRM, or on my website.  It's also featured in the 009 News in April 2011, and Mark currently has another article waiting to be published.

[rhobat bryn]

I finally get what is being modelled here as previously I've only seen the Harbour Building end of the layout.  Fantastic pictures, Invercloy, and I'm really looking forward to seeing this at Sparsholt in April next year.

[Hobby]

Looks very good... Nice "workshop" you have there, Tom!  ;)

[invercloy]

I finally get what is being modelled here as previously I've only seen the Harbour Building end of the layout.  Fantastic pictures, Invercloy, and I'm really looking forward to seeing this at Sparsholt in April next year.

The joys of having a massive layout thread on NGRM, Rhobat... It's the southernmost terminus of the line.  I neglected to mention in the OP that part of the proposal was for the line to be built by the chaps from Dick Kerr (with financial assistance, of course), but the stock would have been supplied, and the line operated, by the North British Railway.  Therefore it's safe to assume that Isle Ornsay would have become the main point for steamers crossing from Mallaig to connect with the West Highland line to Fort William.

Between now and April I've got a LOT of work to do, hopefully it will be presentable...  :o

Looks very good... Nice "workshop" you have there, Tom!  ;)

Thanks Blair, I was lucky that my wife was rather tolerant of lots of "testing" in the lounge before it all went into the loft.   :D

Here's the layout in it's home - apologies for the slightly dodgy photo stitching in the images, I didn't have a wide enough lens so these were done with a phone app:





I've also got space for my first permanent work bench :)


So, the list of preparations for Sparsholt stands at:

Build fiddle yard
Build legs
Lay remaining piece of track to fiddle yard
Mock up turntable (will concentrate on that after the exhibition, along with the lighting)
Talk nicely to people to let me have some larger stock to run on it :)

For a bit of fun a while back myself, Ted Polet and Mick Thornton were having an email discussion about a 'Grand Tour' of Scottish NG lines.  I produced this as a bit of fun.

Apologies to Ted, though, I've just realised that I misspelt Dunalistair... :-[  Of course, there's also the Gairloch & Wester Ross to be added too!

[Hobby]

I've also got space for my first permanent work bench :)

Ah yes, the Computer Desk... I always thought they had a more useful purpose than dumping a computer on them... I put a set of drawers in the space on the left, Tom, store "projects" and plasticard, etc in them!

[invercloy]

That's exactly what is in the drawers to the right.  I was planning on using the space to the left for 'in progress' projects... as you can see there wasn't much going on at the time I took the photo!

[Hobby]

What you have to watch is the amount of rubbish you end up storing where your feet should go... I see the magazines have already started to invade...  ;D

[invercloy]

It's worse than that now  :D But at least there are bits of loco, stock and boat scattered across the top.

[Tigger]

It's looking good, Tom.  A basis in a good history is an excellent foundation.  Well done!

[Hugh Norwood]

It's looking good!
Speaking as one who has to booktime on the kitchen table, I'm envious of your loft space!

[invercloy]

It's looking good, Tom.  A basis in a good history is an excellent foundation.  Well done!

Thanks, since finding the documents at Kew I've uncovered others indicating how the proposal developed and faltered.  All very interesting.  I've developed a history for the line here: http://hlrco.wordpress.com/history/  Note, though, that this isn't the most up to date version, and i've made a few changes to it following some suggestions from a renowned Scottish history blogger to help make it difficult for non railway-ists to tell fact from fiction.

It's looking good!
Speaking as one who has to booktime on the kitchen table, I'm envious of your loft space!

Thanks Hugh, it's helped me greatly having a dedicated space to work on the layout.

[invercloy]

I've been working on some of the passenger stock tonight - all based on Ratio sides.  Here's the first one off the production line:





Still need to sand some areas where I got fingerprints in the glue ( >:( ) and add the acetylene generator for the lighting before assembling the roof.

Only another 8 to go after that!

[Hugh Norwood]

Very Nice!!
I'm drooling...

[invercloy]

Thanks Hugh :)

[Tigger]

A very nice observation car indeed; well done!  Please let us see the finished article.  Makes me wish one thing - that my own layout had something more useful than the paltry Talyllyn loading gauge it's got!  It does, however, inspire me to have a go at the observation car which I've promising for the line for the last 20 years or so!