Kinlochewe 4mm OO
THIS LAYOUT depicts Kinlochewe had the Skye and Dingwall Railway proposed branch line ever reached the town. The period depicted is late 1970s / 1980s and it is modelled in ‘OO’ gauge.
The inspiration for the layout comes from my youth and the three Scottish Weekly Rover Tickets that I managed during the period depicted. Traction is mostly classes 24/1 , 26 and 37 and some licence is used depicting Speedlink Traffic.
The terminus station depicts similar ‘run round’ procedures as employed at Kyle of Lochalsh with the arriving locomotive propelling its train to a point where, after uncoupling, it is able to run round it. On occasions a parcel van is detached before being propelled into the bay platform with the Royal Mail staff eagerly awaiting it.
The line has the same operating procedures as the Far North line at Georgemas Junction where an out-stationed locomotive attaches to a portion of the train. Kinlochewe fictionally assumes that this would have taken place at Achnasheen.
Freight occasionally calls at Kinlochewe the train calling being an Inverness to Kyle of Lochalsh working carrying general merchandise, oil tanks carrying fuel for the ferries, and cement for the oil rig construction facility at Stromeferry.
The town street is quite detailed, and yes, palm trees do grow on the West Coast of Scotland due to the influence of the Gulf Stream. The former goods shed is now used as a garage.
The station features a private platform accessed through ornamental gates. Its construction was a condition of sale of the land for the station site, the wealthy landowner requiring his own private platform.
