Ben Nevis Distillery siding/branch

[Marc Dobson]

I'm looking at building a model of the distillery in S7 circ 1900-1914, but apart from the map and a few 1970's photos I have drawn a blank. Does any one have or know where i can get hold of any info?



Marc

 

[daifly]

‘Iron Rails and Whisky Trails’ by Ian Peaty pub. Irwell Press was the obvious but, sadly, fruitless place to look. The book doesn’t even mention this particular distillery but there are plenty of plans and photos of others which may inspire you!
Dave

 

[Marc Dobson]

Thanks Dave,
Well on the positive side that saves buying the book. I was looking at it in a well known site starting price £30+.
I might email the distillery themselves and see if they could help. This is part of a larger project that I can't say to much about just yet.

Marc

 

[Bill Campbell]

I'm looking at building a model of the distillery in S7 circ 1900-1914, but apart from the map and a few 1970's photos I have drawn a blank. Does any one have or know where i can get hold of any info?

Marc

Hi Marc

If you have not already done so have a look at the NLS website here:

Explore georeferenced maps - Map images - National Library of Scotland

If you use the transparency slider at the bottom left of the window you will be able to see that the building layout has not changed much since the turn of the 20th century. Google will provide many pictures of the buildings as they are.

Regards.

 

[Marc Dobson]

Had a good look at what's available online. The 25inch OS map shows the track plan as a loop with a wagon turntable with two sidings radiating out from it. It also shows a building obscuring the right hand end of the loop and the exit to the NBR main line. This has been subsequently knocked down to make the car park. I have yet to see what this building looked like.
Also there is no sign of any loco facilities so im presuming that the NBR/LNER/BR worked the branch from Fort William yard.
Marc

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

The old photo does turn up:

Here you need to go to the photo gallery Distillery Tours

On this one you can see remnants of the inset track Photo of Fort William, Ben Nevis Distillery 1961

 

[Rob R]

Marc,
Somewhere I have a few photos of the trackwork and buildings I took when we visited the distillery a few years ago.
I will dig them out and post as soon as I have recovered from this weekends night shifts.....
Rob

 

[Marc Dobson]

Much appreciated.

Marc

 

[Rob R]

A few bits dug from the vault and a few found browsing.
First off the 25 inch OS maps.
The NLS have maps from 1899 and 1963. Both reproduced here under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC-BY-NC-SA) licence as per the NLS terms and conditions.



The squares are 100m to make it easier to scale off.

A few changes in the intervening 60 years, the removal of the loop points probably the most obvious.

Britain from above has just one useful photo (from 1949) and you have to zoom right in on it (Sorry, the small print only allows for a link).
https://www.britainfromabove.org.uk/en/image/SAW026574
It is obvious from this view that the site has been "developed" sometime between 1949 and 1961 (the date of the Francis Frith photo Dave linked to).
I much prefer the earlier version.
My photos now, from 2012.





The second line curved off to the left here. The thing that looks like a w.c. is a small hopper for inbound grain, road now not rail .
















I did take a few inside but much better shots can be found online.

R

 

[Rob R]

I should have said that you can only zoom in on the Britain from Above photos if you sign in.

It's well worth it (and free!)

R

Edit to correct spieling misterks

 

[Rob R]

Marc,

You have a PM.

R

 

[Marc Dobson]

Hi Rob,
They are fantastic. the fact that at some point the track plan was rationalised could make things easier. I now need to find the date.

Marc

 

[Rob R]

Marc,
Given that your proposed 1900 to 1914 setting is only a few years from when the West Highland line reached Fort William I would go with the earlier map with the loop.
Ok, it doubles the number of points but.....
The loading bank isn't there on the 1949 photo so I would guess at the modified track layout dating from when the site was developed post WW2.

Rob