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Benfieldside’s Signals – An Update
We have not had an update on the signals for Benfieldside for a bit. The first four of these, including the three that were restorations (although in respect of the twin doll signal, very little was reused indeed) are complete. This is what they look like (with thanks to Phil Hall & the Scalefour Society for the pictures):
The three doll is a restoration from John H Wrights work, so too is the other in theory but the only components reused were the slated deck for the landing and the curved metal that formed the brackets!
Gallows bracket to the right, restored from the John H Wright original. The simple post signal is all mine!
The gubbins for operating these is not shown in the views and I will write up a bit more on this at some point but an article I wrote for Rail Express on the signals I did for Elcot Road can be found here. A few of you may have played with these on the MERG stand at Scaleforum too, as I understnad it they kept people amused. There is more Benfieldside signal updates to follow, when I can get my camera out in the light to take some piccies.
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!
highland miscellany 