Wellpark
Scottish Diesel and Electric Group Scale 4mm/ ‘OO’ Gauge
With the donation of two baseboards to the group, we set about deciding upon a concept for a new layout. From these discussions a plan was formulated to build a layout that could be easily and instantly recognisable as Glasgow and an area to the East End of the city was agreed upon to base the layout’s location on. There are two separate lines that service the East End of Glasgow; the North Clyde Line and the Argyle Line. The North Clyde line was built piecemeal from a patchwork of routes from various Victorian-era railway companies. Today the electrified line has become the fourth rail link between Glasgow and Edinburgh. The Argyle Line, the former Caledonian Railway, incorporated Bridgeton Cross Station on the ‘low level’ line to Glasgow Central Station. Due to the donated layout board already featuring an island platform, Bellgrove Station was selected to base the new layout on, whilst also incorporating features from Bridgeton Cross. Not being a prototypical layout, we initially had the problem of giving it a name. This was settled rather quickly when it was agreed to have sidings feature on the layout. With the Tennent’s Caledonian Brewery being prominent in the Bellgrove area of Glasgow, we decided to have grain traffic servicing a brewery. Wellpark is a Tennent’s brewery located on Duke Street. Its association with brewing on the site can be traced as far back as 1556. So, it is pretty safe to say that with Wellpark being synonymous with the East End of Glasgow, it made the perfect name for our new project. Also synonymous with Glasgow are its football clubs. It was a popular decision to have the layout’s era set within the late 1970’s to the early 1980’s and specifically on an ‘Old Firm’ Saturday. Celtic Park is situated in Glasgow’s East End, so the railway was and still is predominantly utilised to transport Celtic’s fans on match days. However, with Rangers’ football club being situated across the city in Ibrox, on Glasgow’s southside, rather than using the trains, their supporters normally used buses to travel to the match. Bridgeton, an area close to Celtic Park, has a very strong connection with Rangers’ football club, hence our decision to incorporate Bridgeton Cross into the layout.
