SLT - Scottish Lost Terminus (or Termini)...
Regular readers will recall my love of the 'single line terminus' as a muse for minimum space models. Today though, a play on words and re-use of the acronym - we have Scottish Lost Terminus...
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| Illustration: James Hilton 2024 |
I'm a sucker for a good photos and I've got a lovely book of photos by Derek Cross. If you go beyond the Far North and Kyle lines with their wonderful scenes you'll find all sorts of modellable railway in BR blue... but two in particular here - Peterhead and North Berwick - really caught my imagination.
Flicking around for photos of Peterhead I realised just how big a station it was - as is often the case where land is cheap. However, a convenient unloading shelter can help us frame a hi-fi micro, perhaps adopting 'Getting on my Wick's train shed interior, blended with 'Fancy another beer's split scene - I think this would allow some interesting architectural modelling in whatever scale you fancy. Limited operation would see an arriving train 'run around' its coaches before propelling them back into the shed.
North Berwick invited a different approach - how to model that feeling of standing on the opposite (now trackless) platform and look into the station. By adding a cut away to the front of the presentation, even if the lid and ends are full depth, you can invite the viewer to look along the train and platform into the enclosed and almost more intimate scene at the buffer stops.
I enjoy pondering a prototype and how best to adapt this to a space - more often these days the sorts of space I have available - but the process of casting something vs a shelf or whole room is good fun. If you'd like to work with me to develop your own scheme then get in touch, my layout design process starts from £180. In the meantime, these more recent schemes are being collected together for another book - hopefully out in 2025 as a follow up to the Small Layout Design Handbook. However, until next time more soon...
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More food for thought James. I like that cutaway North Berwick idea. Perhaps in N and 00 scale you might not be able to get a deep enough cutway to view down towards the buffer stop. Might be better suited to 0. A really interesting idea.
ReplyDeleteIt would definitely suit O you’re right Ian!
DeleteHi James
ReplyDeleteHaving just got back from a few days in Edinburgh I can say North Berwick is not really a Lost Terminus. It has an hourly service from Waverley and is well used. However it is now equipped with bus type shelters for waiting and is hemmed in by new housing. In fact I tried to find it once a year or so ago and failed
Best regards
Alan
Lost in this form… I presume it has been shortened and curtailed slightly?
DeleteYes James. Although it looks as if the platform has been extended, all the other "railway" atmosphere/intrastructure seems to have been lost and swept away. Maybe its the effect of being run by a bus company ( First Group) for a number years!!!
DeleteAlan
Fascinating - I was aware it was still open, just had never seen this original station before which is incredibly modellable!
DeleteI've often pondered East Kilbride in the 1980s as a concept, especially as the coal merchant there was still rail served until the early 1980s, so I envisage a Speedlink trip workiing with a 20, 26 or 37 running in between the SPE DMU service. Apparently there was a print works further along the line, so perhaps (albeit tenuously) a BG or GUV hauled by a 47 which has to come to run round?
DeleteI will have to look at East Kilbride!
DeleteThere are several non-Scottish locations that could suit this approach. Aldeburgh crossed my mind, as did Windermere in the last few years of the old station
ReplyDeleteI think it’s a neat way to get into the station as well as be a scenic model railway… but I’ve only sketched it, not tried it!
DeleteI did similar a wee while back with my H0 scale Dounreay micro. Using the Ikea Lack 110cm x 26cm shelf and taking elements of Wick/Thurso, plus the lovely Port Pennan micro by the late (and sadly missed) Ken Gibbons, Dounreay has the single platform, overall roof and I've included a freight siding for a little variety in traffic (coal, steel for the nuclear facility and the last knockings of fish traffic). Dounreay is set c1970 in the pre-TOP green/blue transition, which really needs to be modelled more often!
ReplyDeleteBy deliberately choosing H0, the 'modelling' element is high, plenty of scratchbuilding and modding of ancient Lima rtr. It's been huge fun! There a thread about the build on RMWeb: https://www.rmweb.co.uk/forums/topic/145593-dounreay-a-far-north-terminus-in-h0/?do=getNewComment
I enjoyed a browse of your RMweb post Alan, I love the modelling.
Delete