Peter Bond’s Aultbea
I can’t claim any of the credit for this one, it is the work of one of my friends and stalwart operators of Portchullin, Peter Bond.
His latest layout (in EM) is based on the line that was proposed from Achnasheen to Gairloch and Aultbea. This was a real proposal in the late 19th century but the scheme came to nothing. Peter has imagined that not only was it built but it thrived; to a large degree due to the naval connection where the navy did use Gairloch as a significant port. He has also presumed that Aultbea became the port for the Hebrides and thus the Kyle line faded away (a point I don’t like!).
You can see in this view the rather nice model of the signal cabin for Aultbea, based on that at Kyle. The description of the building of this was in BRM in September and October 2012 and is worth a read.
The layout is pretty big; some 30 feet long and relatively deep at the station end. Peter envisaged that with the rise in traffic during the first war, the station had to be enlarged – much like Oban was when the Ballachulish line was built. Indeed, Peter is taking a lot of his inspiration from Oban, including portions of the trackplan, the overall roof and the engine shed being a little detached from the rest of the station. As you can see, it will be set in the late 1960’s so a little earlier than Portchullin.
Now Peter is an inveterate starter of layouts, so by posting these progress pictures, I am hoping to prod him along to finishing this one.
Over to you Pete!
Posted on September 20, 2014, in Uncategorized and tagged Aultbea, EM, Model Railway, Oban, Peter Bond. Bookmark the permalink. 4 Comments.
highland miscellany 
In a similar vein I’m trying to help a friend down here in Boot with his emerging plans for a west highland layout. I’ve offered to help with some modeling and I’ve found model rail 174 with Peters signal box article, but in my move back to the UK 173 went missing. Do you think it would be possible for me to source the missing part 1 from Peter or elsewhere? Any ideas would be really appreciated. Many thanks for the blog!
Hi Karl,
Strangely, I don’t have that issue either. I ought to get it.
It seems pretty easy to get on ebay: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Model-Rail-Magazine-October-2012-No-174-/261501581065?pt=UK_Trains_Railway_Models&hash=item3ce2b57709
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