NOV 20 Lomond Street

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In the early 1980s, I was fortunate to indulge in three weekly Freedom of Scotland weekly tickets. Careful planning allowed the use of overnight sleeper trains, within Scotland for accommodation, even if after only a brief period in bed you were turned out of the stock at an unearthly hour, sometimes at remote locations with a long and cold wait for the next early morning train.

The final trip was the most impressive and enjoyable, the new Mark 3 sleepers had been introduced and offered at a bargain price of £1 per night, yes £1. This, coupled with the fact that the Scottish Class 37 had no electric train heat, meant the sleeper was accompanied by one of the ETHEL converted Class 25 Train Heating Units.

I will always remember sticking my head out of the window of the Fort William ‘beds’ into the damp early morning Scottish air just above Garelochhead, and hearing the Eastfield allocated class 37/0 being thrashed within an inch of its life, and slipping repeatedly on the damp rails, the slipping being controlled masterfully with a combination of power handle, sanders and brake. 

From these memories and many others, was born my Scottish Diesel depot, the fictitious 'Lomond Street'.

The name was chosen after consulting a street map of the area surrounding Eastfield Depot, Glasgow, Lomond Street was in close proximity, and the name had the desired Scottish flavour. 

I did consider a model of Eastfield, and have seen a well-rendered diorama of the depot, photographs, however, showed the buildings to be a drab cladded monolith with little character, so I went fictional, imagining that a fire at the depot had rendered it temporarily un -  operational, the Management having decided to reopen an imaginary ex-North British Railway steam shed.

Not only were the West Highland locomotives to be temporarily ‘shedded’ at Lomond Street, but there was also the 75-ton breakdown crane, Divisional Managers saloon and ETHEL to be accommodated. 

Being a member of Scarborough and District Railway Modellers, I also owed the Club a layout for the support I had received in building my previous layout, 'Rumbling Bridge'. Within the Club were baseboards constructed for a failed project of mine, (yes, we all have them), 'Kyle of Lochalsh', I decided to utilise two of the boards making a layout 8ft by 2’6”.

I also wanted to demonstrate to some new club members that Layouts can be constructed quickly provided there is adequate planning and commitment, the Committee assisted me greatly in this by approving the plan I submitted and providing the finance.

The layout was to be DCC controlled using the robust and reliable, although perhaps not as technologically advanced as its competitors, Lenz system. This system was used on my previous layout, and there were obvious advantages in relation to using a single system interchanged simply between two layouts. 

I have a preference toward the scenic side of the hobby. To enable me to indulge in this, I recruited Club Members Ian Harper and Roland Wood to assist with matters electric. Ian and I do the installation, and shout ‘Roland’ when it all goes wrong!

Construction started in September 2014, just 10 months later we had a Layout, which had already appeared on the show circuit.

Of course, having the baseboards, constructed by White Rose Model Works gave the project a huge leg up, but a trackplan was drawn on lining paper and the points on it placed to ensure that the headhunts were long enough and the necessary run round ‘shunts’ could be performed. With one or two ‘tweaks’ the trackplan was finalised, giving what I hope is capable of maintaining audience and operator interest.

Having previously used finescale track, I again used the code 75 SMP flexible supplied by Marcway along with their pre-formed paintwork. Turnouts available ‘off the shelf’ were used without resorting to kit building. The point work was switched using Tortoise motors, which have the ability to be barred over manually in the event of a failure during an exhibition, although this is not recommended by the manufacturer (a failure has also not occurred)!

When wiring ‘droppers’ from each individual section of track were soldered and attached to the buss bar, this negates the use of track joiners and a source of electrical conductivity problems, particularly as the layout gets long in the tooth. No signalling was required on the layout.

Rolling Stock includes the previously-mentioned Divisional Managers saloon sourced from Bachmann. This needs 'Scottish-ising' as soon as I have the time. The Breakdown crane is a kit-built by Ian Harper but rigged by the ever-patient Club Member Patrick Kane, who finally succumbed to considerable pestering. The accompanying Mess and Tool coach is an Ian Kirk Gresley full brake kit. It is almost sacrilege to paint it black!

And so, to the locomotives, most are West Highland with the odd Inverness interloper and a Glasgow - Edinburgh ‘shove duff’. 37114 Dunrobin Castle was chosen as I had haulage between Inverness and the Kyle of Lochalsh behind it, and 37027 as this is the loco that performed the previously-described heroics at Garelochhead. There is a motel collection of 26s and 27s, which seem to hang around the depot area ticking over, and turning the air blue, as well as a pair of class 20s. Shunting is carried out by the resident class 08. 

The layout is rather dated by the presence of 37191 “International Youth Year 1985’ as this locomotive only carried the name for less than 12 months, you will have to excuse my indulgence, but I have fond memories of seeing the loco ex-works on a summer dated Scarborough - Glasgow train in that year.

It will come as no surprise that the locomotives are sound fitted, again trying to recreate the West Highland experience. The sound is supplied by Legomanbiffo via DC Kits, the class 37 being particularly impressive, full thrash being achieved almost from rest replicating the way only the Scottish crews drove them, and equally impressive is the return to idle in a similar distance.

Whilst some of the locomotives either never, or perhaps rarely, graced the West Highland metals, being a Glasgow Depot, it is not unreasonable for say Inverness based locomotives to visit. 

Much of the locomotive sound and headlamp fitting was carried out by Lee Edmondson of leeslocos.com.

Scenery is rather minimalist compared with my previous layouts. The Shed is bounded on one side by a high wall, a ‘step’ in the wall enables locomotives to enter a ‘tunnel’ into the one road fiddleyard and cassette system. Slaters embossed stonework was used, first painted black using acrylics and then the brown/pink shade of Scottish stone. Individual stones were highlighted and the whole wall weathered using powders.

The cassette system in the fiddleyard utilises cassettes made from aluminium angle on a plywood base. The electrical connection to the cassettes is made by energised wheel brushes making an interference fit. 

Contours are formed of polystyrene, covered in plaster bandage, and painted. A tip is to use PVA glue instead of water when preparing the bandage as this provides a very robust surface. I have attempted to replicate an area of standing water and used clear varnish painted over a dark background. Grass is of the static variety supplied by Greenscene.

I have attempted to bring the layout to life using Dart Castings figures painted by another Club Member Geoff Britton. There are train - spotters sat on the wall, a crowd around the burger van in the street, and a dog disgracing itself. The Shed Foreman is taking a few moments out of his busy day to walk his dog, what else but a West Highland terrier!

Backscene buildings are scratch-built from card and plastic, as are the depot fuel tanks, although the fuelling point is a Knightwing kit.

The Shed itself is built from plywood covered in embossed plastic. The roof has Plastikard slates, individually applied. The elegant bow top windows are from York Modelmaking. The front shed wall has fictionally suffered subsidence, a timber buttress is provided 
(my home town shed at Scarborough had this feature provided when it went into self-demolition mode).

The yard lamps are by Express Models and were found in the clubroom without instructions, discarded from another project. Thanks are due to Express Models for their patience after our first wiring attempt ended in no light and whips of smoke accompanied by a burning smell. The manufacturer repaired the damage promptly at nominal cost.

The trader service award on this layout must, however, go to Sankey Scenics, who provided the customised depot signs. A friday morning inquiry resulted in proofs later the same day and delivery the following Monday!

Nick Skelton

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