A look back at Kylesku and The Mound

[Ben Alder]

I have been gathering images that remain of my previous layout, now dismantled, that was the precursor to the current Far North Line one, composed of The Mound junction for the Dornoch line and a terminus, based roughly on Kyle but a melange of various HR buildings and features. It started life almost thirty years ago and is a reflection of its time but it served its purpose well for me. It has featured before over there but the thread is of little interest now without images, so I thought a condensed version might be an idea here. I'll go into its background later, but here are some random images to be going on with.

 

[Daddyman]

Very interesting. Thanks for posting these. The rock faces and the re-planked wagon are very well done - I think the best I've seen.

 

[Osgood]

I love the way corrugated iron influenced architecture, such as the archway over the track echoing the curvature of the roof
Where was that building originally located?

 

[Joe's Garage]

Definitely characteristic of the old Highland Ben, please show and tell us more
Thanks for posting
Season greetings
Julian

 

[Ben Alder]

I love the way corrugated iron influenced architecture, such as the archway over the track echoing the curvature of the roof
Where was that building originally located?

It's the Ratio kit, obviously, but a model of a prototype of several scattered over Scotland. This one was from Nairn.

 

[Ben Alder]

A couple more, showing the general set up of the place.


The Station building, based loosely on Brora and done from Townstreet Castings. and the station in general.


More to come...

 

[D6356]

Lovely photos of the layout am I right in thinking the track is SMP?
Robert

 

[Ben Alder]

Thanks, C&L 00. I tried SMP and decided that C&L looked better. Peco Code 75 points- again I had an abortive go at point making but realised Peco did it better than I could and reliable running is top of the list for me. Different days now of course; I'm going to do a Finetrax kit as a trial and see where that takes me....I also didn't have the room to indulge in wide radius curves.

 

[Ben Alder]

Another peek at the past, this time at the goods side of the yard. The layout started thirty years ago and flitted in 2001 and these images date from its last decade, most of which were taken with a very basic camera so excuse the shortcomings. I also used natural light a lot, as can be seen, which is sometimes a bit "overscale", but I kept very few images and those posted have vanished in the two great extinctions that affected over there so I am left with what survived. Actually, they still live on a collection of SIM cards but the time involved to look at thousands of basic images from years ago makes it a no no.

The above shot was the last work done on the layout before deciding to scrap it - some freelance quayside buildings that never got beyond a basic finish.

 

[Ben Alder]

And some from another file. There will be two or three more glimpses of the place to come.

 

[John57sharp]

Great to see open doors on vans,

John

 

[Ben Alder]

Great to see open doors on vans,

John

Yes, one of the memories of wandering round the yard as a youth....

 

[Ben Alder]

The fish traffic, an important part of the West coast termini...

 

[D6356]

Good to see more, a first for me anyway are pictures of the roads over the bridge at the station, light traffic says a lot for the age - imagine what it would be now?
Festive greetings
Robert

 

[Ben Alder]

And what brought the fish in - the floaty stuff - a Langley Puffer for coal and the like to the islands and several Scottish fishing vessels now sadly unobtainable.

 

[Ben Alder]

And from another shoot.

 

[Ben Alder]

A look at the shed to more or less finish - based on Kyle with the addition of a Stranraer coaler as seen at Oban and Wick as well, and which would probably been added here if not for the fact that the whole shed area was carved out of rock. The layout never received a "proper" allocation of native engines beyond the Black Fives until its last year of existence, and none had been weathered at that stage.

 

[Ben Alder]

The last offerings - some random shots. It has been interesting revisiting this layout, which I have hardly thought about for ten years and gathering the remaining scattered images from various files. It was done as asort of trial for a more focused approach to the hobby, having been firmly of the butterfly mindset beforehand, and was becoming dissatisfied with this, along with a string of half finished layouts of nowhere in particular, and to that end it did its job, convincing me that concentrating on the HR was the way forward for me.

 

[D6356]

Merry Christmas to you and thanks for the little bit of time travel. With the reduced trackage of the current day scene you can see why a diesel/ sprinter version has much to offer in making a cheaper layout but the variety of the end of steam / 1950s of your time period is fun as well. Enjoy many more years keeping the era alive and running in Scotland!

Robert

 

[Ben Alder]

And so to The Mound, other half of the layout, and junction for the Dornoch branch, the station being named after the lump of rock towering over it. It was an unusual station in HR terms, being a single main platform with a loop that was used for freight only and the station building being brick The SB and platforms are still intact and in good condition, looking as if ready to return to life.... Here are a couple of shots I took in 1990 of the place; nothing much has changed over the decades since.



And some overall views of the layout.