Strathmuirby Simon Fenton & Chris HewittEarly morning mist is rising as the sun breaks through the clouds. The undergrowth rustles as rabbits scurry away. Mr Jock McMinn, the local gardener, is watching the bulbs he has just planted at the Kirk as he exchanges a friendly greeting with Mrs Morag Durant, arriving with a bunch of flowers to lay on her husband's grave.
On the other side of the railway Farmer Murdock Munro tends to a broken fence post,while his fathful dog Jess rests at the side of his Land Rover, one ear cocked whilst watching over his flock of sheep. In the village PC McBeth is sorting out the details of a fishing trip with one of the lads from the timber yard, who is making the most of the fine weather with a ride over the hills on his bike.
From a distance their comes the muffled sound of a growling diesel engine which grows louder until finally a Class 47 bursts from the tunnel mouth to shatter the peace and tranquility as it draws slowly to a stop. Doors slam and a few passengers alight as a shrill whistle signals the departure.
Brakes are released and the 47 makes light work of lifting the service away, its exhaust mixing with the resin smell of freshly cut pine from the adjacent timber yard.
The idea for a Scottish based OO layout was thought up by group members from the now defunct Wigan & District MRS and came into being when an uncompleted OO terminus layout was about to be scrapped.
The existing layout was rescued and altered to a through station with the addition of an extra baseboard at each end and remodelling of the track plan. SMP track was laid while all turnouts were hand built uing SMP rail and copper clad sleepers (made by the late Norman Heaton) and operated by Seep point motors. The layout is controlled by the use of reliable hand held controllers from Modelex.
Strathmuir is not based on a specific location but rather it attempts to capture the esscence of a busy yet remote station, such as Leuchars or Carstairs, set in rolling Scottish countryside. Forestry now forms a large part of the Scottish countryside and so Green Scene 'Forest In A Box' was purchased which considerably speeded up the forestation programe! The forestry theme was continued when Strathmuir was given a handling facility for onward shipment of timber by rail.
Being predominately a rural scene, buildings are kept to a minimum. No Scottish landscape would be complete without a Kirk and on Strathmuir a cut down Hornby church set on the hillside obliges. The station building is a modified Wills kit while the Station Hotel and the local Post Office were scratch built by Chris Hewitt. Detailing was then added to represent a Scotrail operated establishment.
The operating date was set to June 1988, the last full year of mainly loco hauled services before Sprinters began to gradually take over such workings. Hence Class 20s, 26s, 37s and 47s in a variety of sector liveries can be seen working alongside HSTs and first generation DMUs. A small C.C.E depot ads further scope for freight stock.
The layout has now been purchased by Chris Hewitt & Simon Fenton and the OO layout of the new Wigan Finescale Railway Modellers. Strathmuir has attended exhibitions around the country and it is intended that this will continue, however before this a number of changes are planned:
- Another baseboard allowing the platform to accommodate a full eight car HST set.
- The bay platform is to be fitted with 25kvAC overhead wires for the use of EMUs.
- Conversion of the layout from cab control to a D.C.C system.
Longer term planning will hopefully see the layout change from its current end to end cassette based system to a continuous run using a fiddle yard.
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Last Updated: 09:37:28 03/05/2010 |
