The Far North Line

Thanks all - a quick look at Thurso's locos first. For the last years of steam the branch was served by a quartet of types, viz a Stanier 2-6-2T no 40150, CR 0-4-4T 52236, a CR 0-6-0 57585 and a variety of CR 4-4-0's. The first two types were seen in the last posting, and here are the other two. Firstly the 0-6-0. It is actually 57587, the Helmsdale engine as I am in the process of converting a SR 700 into 57585 at the moment. I did have a model of this engine, built from a DJH kit, but it was so full of errors that I scrapped it and rounded up a BEC kit as a replacement. 57587 is a conversion from the new Hornby 700 - Drummond engines look so much nicer without superheating,I must say.



Next is 544491, a CR 4-4-0. A Nucast kit on a Hornby T9 chassis with the traction tyres removed and replaced with a smooth set, it is a smooth runner and capable of handling the small loads required for my layout.



Helmsdale had a broadly similar collection of engines but with the added bonus of the Dornoch rota, which can make for some interesting variety.Up to 1956 it was the home for the last two HR tank engines and after their time a CR 0-4-4T and BR Standard 2-6-0 were used before two GW 16xx's turned up to work the branch till its closure. Here is the last HR 0-4-4T at Helmsdale.



It's a bit of a cheat really, as at present it is unmotorised. I bought it on eBay, and is either a Jidenco kit or a scratchbuilt copy of it - I have an unbuilt kit and there are subtle differences in some of the cab and window shapes. Anyway, made of brass and gauged to EM, crammed full of lead that has proved impossible to dislodge without damaging the body, and as a stopgap measure I built a dummy chassis so it could sit about the layout looking pretty rather than lie in a cupboard until I got round to motorising it, which could be a time as I am swithering whether to just do the other kit instead.

And its replacement - a 16xx. Again a Nucast kit bought ready made with the usual 1970's type of motor - it goes but nothing like to modern standards and is also waiting for a decision. SEF have just brought out a chassis kit for it, but I don't like doing these things - R-T-R manages it so much better, and a proprietary model of this type can't be too far away.





Some more locos coming up soon.....

 

One I omitted from the last lot - 54495, a long time Helmsdale loco, and the last one to be allocated to the shed. Latterly it was kept in shining condition, but mine has been dulled down somewhat.



We now start to stray from reality a bit -The last few years with its plethora of LSWR releases have been a bit of a windfall for CR and HR bodgers, as they are products mainly of the Drummonds, brothers who left their mark on various railway companies. Their style is distinctive and easily recognisable, and there was a lot of cross fertilisation between them. Peter was in charge of the HR and he had drawings prepared for three seperate 0-4-4T's of varying sizes. The smallest was actually built - the Dornoch tanks - but the other two never got approval. However, thanks to the model manufacturers, I have done an interpretation of them. The Kernow 02 worked out as a very close approximation of the middle sized loco, and needed little done except altering the cab shape and adding HR type boiler fittings. By the Fifties any engine around had passed through works several times and tended to acquire what ever was lying around and could be used, CR stovepipe chimneys being a good example of this. A most unlovely addition to a loco. here is the middle tank on shed at Helmsdale( it is now working the branch).



The other proposed loco was a straight copy of the M7 - a drawing was done and dated some years after it was introduced, and it is more or less an exact copy of the LSWR loco.Although never built, later on the CR equivalents gave good service throughout the Highlands and no doubt the HR one would have as well, if around. again, it was a case of adjustment and refittings, although the tank length is different from the M7. There is one at Thurso for working the Gills Bay branch.



I'll next take a look at some real survivors that lasted beyond recorded history.

 

One of the reasons that there are few ScR steam branch layouts around is the practice of using pre group engines up to the end of steam. Away from main lines, most traffic was in the hands of CR and NB locomotives, and model of these have always been problematic. Back in the seventies quite a few types were made as white metal kits, but these suffered from dreadful attempts at chassis - a pair of drilled bars was considered sophisticated design, and even back in the so called golden age of modellers who made things for themselves very few seem to actually have been assembled. Most of these kits have now vanished as commercial ranges, with some popping up on ebay, but sourcing secondary motive power is problematic nowadays, and is dependent on constructional skills even if obtained. Thee are one or two etched brass kits around, but these are aimed at a skill set beyond the traditional white metal approach, and personally I have little time or interest in tackling such items. Whether the 3D revolution will increase choice is still debateable - there are several locos about and the quality is increasing all the time, but I'm not going to hold my breath on this one....

Fortunately, I had gathered the usual modellers stash of appropriate kits over the years, and put off starting them long enough to benefit from the current generation of R-T-R, giving me both company locos and up to date running. This has sometime come with a compromise over wheel dimensions etc. but it has given me the fleet I had dreamt about and planned as a teenager, so the odd mm or two I can live with.

Part of the original scheme was setting the period to be modelled around the end of the war, when there still were a good selection of HR engines about, but to do this era successfully involves lots of pregrouping stock, both carriages and wagons, which are not made in abundance, and often white metal, a material I don't like for rolling stock. So, eventually, it dawned on me it would be a lot easier to change history a bit and declare that the HR engines survived that bit longer. There was no real reason they couldn't have beyond the LMS decision to concentrate on CR types as secondary power and scrap most of the others to save costs. They actually gave some HR engines a mid life overhaul and rebuild, fitting CR boilers which gave an extra twenty years or so life to them, so this was enough justification to have a more interesting choice of locos for me....

A look at one or two now, firstly the Barney 0-6-0 goods engine. Smaller than the CR types that replaced it, there are two around, DJH bodies on a Bachmann chassis.



Helmsdale lies on the coast, but there are steep climbs in both directions from it - to the County March north and the Lairg summit south, and a good deal of the sheds work was banking - usually by the CR 4-4-0 but I retained one 0-6-4T Hr banker that was used up Struan to Drumochter in HR days. here it is waiting a train at Helmsdale.


The other main "what if"involves a take on another HR 4-4-0, the Small Bens. A very successful engine several were recylindered and boilered by the LMS in the late twenties, and regarded as all but new by them. There was a kit about for them, but I took a Hornby T9 and turned it in to a representation of this class. The drivers are too large, and put side by side the differences are obvious, but in isolation they do for me. It was a project that grew as it went along - I had done a gathering of T9's from ebay about five years ago as I needed two for a kit to give me a set of untyred drivers. This was when prices were a lot lower, and I didn't pay more than £50 for any one of them. Of course, once I had built up enough donors, T9 drivers became available as spares and although I contemplated selling some on , ended up having a building spree with them. I did one Ben as Ben Alder, naturally, and made a second one with a stovepipe chimney. This was converted from a BR lined black body, which set me thinking about these HR survivors - Caley 4-4-0's were lined out so I did a third with this livery and transferred Ben Alder's name to it. Along the way I had done another with the intention of painting it in LMS lined red, but the complexity of that and the fact that the red paint I had sprayed on bubbled turned it into another BR black job. Finally, once all this was done I was clearing my bench of the various T9 pieces that had accumulated with a view to binning them. However, I realised there was enough in hand to put another together, not that I needed one more, but it seemed a shame to waste it all. They are finished in permutations of post war and early BR combinations of tender and loco lettering, none of which are strictly accurate, but each locos fittings are correct for their time - no two are exactly the same...
A couple of pics of some of them now. I've grown fond of my hybrids and they spend a lot of time at work on the layout.





There are one or two more to come, but that covers most of the locos used. I doubt if I'll ever see any come in a blue or red box though....

 

A bit of a trawl through the archives has found a couple of more Bens - seen here.




And some more of the lesser seen. A Loch, another well built loco and another DJH kit, with multiple faults. I have rebuilt it as an LMS reboilered version, using another DJH Caley boiler. It changed the appearance of the loco significantly, and is more than likely a one off, as the kit seems scarce and didn't appear in their catalogue for long.



I managed to find a late HR Clan on eBay - a Jidenco kit and not that well built, so it is treated as a sort of shed pet, with light duties. The chassis had a determined limp, which was semi cured by a twist- not engineering but sorted things out. It is currently in works to see if it can be improved - current pick up is problematic among other little quirks.



Another eBay buy was a HR Castle which I felt sorry for - badly built and had torn itself to pieces on meeting its first curve - the amount of work it has taken is beyond belief three motors and gearboxes to start with and it shorts on curves. That I can't blame on the loco as I didn't think I would have to deal with the very long wheelbase of this engine when I laid the tracks. I am trying out dead rail, which cured the problem, but current availability isn't to my satisfaction, although that I'm sure will improve. I also have got a set of fully insulated Markits drivers as an alternative, so something positive will emerge from this. Since the photo was taken it has been weathered.

 

Thanks. In the flurry of examining ancient engines I almost forgot the mainstay of the main line - the Black Five. Here is one at Helmsdale. There are four or five about, all veterans of my previous layout, Kylesku, and current Hornby models with a bit of titivation. It doesn't take much to make a good model into a far better one, and basically new bogie wheels, fill in frame extensions and the underside of the smokebox was cleared out. The tender had is lip at the top of the chassis removed and some extra details such as pipework added, most of which immediately disappears to the eye as far as everyday viewing is concerned, but gels together overall.



One of the pleasures of modelling a real location is the research into the background of the place and trying to get as much correct stock as possible assembled. Fortunately Helmsdale was reasonably well recorded and photographed in later steam days and I have managed to gather some reminisces as well that can provide operational detail hidden behind the bare bones of the working time table. One of the passenger duties was the exchange of restaurant cars there, and I have pictures of four different types in the post war period. After steam the service declined to a buffet car, but that's another story.

The earliest type was an MR clerestory diner, a magnificent vehicle, that was withdrawn in 1948/9, but looked so good an exception was made for it. A friend with a Silhouette cutter and a similar range of modelling interests very kindly did the bodywork , leaving me to get it running and painting. Fortunately, it finished its days in simple LMS livery, without the panelled lining that looks great but is not my idea of entertainment.....
A glimpse over the fence at it in a siding.



Another coach was the standard LMS six wheel bogie dining car - this is an original Dapol model with extra detail and must be coming on thirty years old now.



LNER vehicles, apart from the parcel vans, were rare beasts on the North lines although Inverness saw rakes of them on the Aberdeen services and I have seen photos of some on the main line south of Inverness, but about the only one to run up here was a restaurant car. This is an Ian Kirk kit, and while a bit basic, builds up in to an acceptable model.



The last of the current types is an ex Pullman car used till the early sixties, and probably the most luxurious of them all. I have some interior pics of this car and although railway owned its former glory was still evident. Unfortunately, no RTR model of this type is made, but I took advantage of a Hornby Pullman sale to get the nearest version and pass it off as the one from here. IIR, there is one window short , but it is more or less the same arrangement and will do me. I have reached the stage in life where one realises that if a personal magnum opus is going to be reached some compromises are necessary along the way.



Incidentally, the above coaches were photgraphed today in daylight - I far prefer this as it gives a natural look to things, with shadows where they should be rather than floods of photo lights flattening everything.

Here are a couple of pics of Thurso shed in daylight - the real thing was single road, but I had an already built two road shed and it gives an excuse for extra engine movements...

 

Thanks - I never really did a track plan, but here is a sketch I drew up some time ago. It shows the two stations and how they are joined. The dotted line is the backscene and behind it is a continuous run with loops at either end of the room where I can access the tracks for adding or removing stock.I didn't do a fiddle yard,as there wasnt room for it and a second station, and I'd rather have something scenic. What there is is enough for my bursts of operation, which tend to be sporadic, being seduced too easily by the workbench....

 

Looking at the sketch, I see I omitted the crossover at the terminus to allow engine releases, but I hope it explains things a bit.

Here are another two vehicles that help place the layout - an ex HR TPO that was used to sort mail and ran as far as here , where it was detached from its train and sent back South the next morning.



Helmsdale also was home to an ex CR breakdown van used foe derailments and other minor problems. Another Silhouette product, it should be in faded LMS livery, but as I was getting some bespoke transfers done and they were for BR days,I decided to give the van the luxury of a repaint. Seen here about to leave on a mission of mercy....



Another daylight shot from yesterday at Thurso. One of the Small Bens doing not very much.....



And a look at the shed layout. There are gaps at the base of the water tower, and elsewhere on the layout, as in order to get close up shots I have to shift things sometimes and if bedded in the outlines would show, so I left things like this.It isn't too obvious to the eye and I can live with it.

 

Lack of space is my problem as well - room is just under 12'x10' and a sloped roof so any vertical movement is impossible. I had a layout that incorporated this in another room once and it got a lot in a small area. Couple more of the layout now, as I was up taking photos for the workbench tonight. The two turntables - Thurso first. This is a London Road Models 50' kit and went together really well although you had to follow the instructions - a first for me!- and make sure everything was exact as the whole thing is dependant on components meshing and aligning. Nice model of a small UK pre group table though...



The Helmsdale one is a bit of a compromise - it's a Roco model -60' - and fully motorised and indexed. I had plans to replace it with a Metalsmith's kit but because of some bracing it would have been a nightmare to fit, so in the end added cosmetic side girders that made it British enough for me.

 

I succumbed to the charm of the Hornby Peckett, and it is now doing duty as a distillery Pug with limited main line running rights. This actually happened on the Speyside line, so a little modellers licence was applied here. A couple of shots of it picking up some wagons at Helmsdale.





It's a cracker of a model and its running qualities are astounding for such a little loco. I gave it a bit of toning down to get a workaday look to it - Footplate and cab roof with a browny grey mix and the bodywork was given a coat of Mig powder and the excess taken off with a brush and cotton buds. This took about five minutes in total but has given a pleasing finish, I think. It's the first time I've used powders so a bit more exploration of their potential is called for. Incidentally, these two shots were taken with a tablet - I have been very impressed with the results that can be obtained with both the tablet and a smartphone - it can get to places the digital camera is too big for and the tablet, with its lens at the top of the case can do low level shots very effectively - I downloaded a HD app for them that gives a lot more manual control than can be obtained with the factory settings on the supplied camera.However, this new found flexibility has shown up several hitherto unfinished pieces, that I thought would never be seen, so some tidying up is called for before any pics hit the screen....