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Fort Nevis
Fort Nevis was built to approximately 95% completion by Ian Whitehead until his untimely death in 1995. The layout was then placed in trust to myself to
complete and exhibit on his young sons behalf until he was of an age where he could take over the running himself.
Fort Nevis is based on the new station at Fort William in Scotland. The period is set at 1988 when locomotive hauled trains were still common and the
steam special services ran to Mallaig. This was a transition period from the usual blue/grey stock to new liveries such as InterCity and the new
railfreight sectors. Also a very prominent feature in 1988 was the green and cream mark I coaching stock used on the steam specials. The West Highland
line provided an interesting selection of freight services and in 1988 regular trips from Mossend yard served the Alcan aluminium smelter at Lochaber
and the WigginsTeape paper mill at Corpach. Apart from the paper and aluminium there is a notable amount of petroleum traffic to the West Highland oil
terminal at Fort William.
Track is built to 2mm finescale with all the stock re-wheeled to finer standards as expected by the 2mm scale Association. Point work and ‘V’ polarity
are operated by Lamaco point motors and the controllers are by AMR. Electric uncouplers are PK and the couplings are the DG type for 2mm.
One advantage of modelling the West Highland (even in 2mm) is the capability of running scale length trains. The InterCity sleeper service for example
is made up of two mark 3 sleepers, two mark 2 coaches, and two mark I coaches i.e. six coaches in total. The trains I have modelled include the Fort
William to Euston Sleeper service, the six coach steam special mark I set (West Highland set), InterCity raspberry ripple set (used for excursions and
also steam hauled), and various three or four coach sets made up of a mixture of mark l’s or mark 2’s for the Mallaig run. Locomotives on the line in
1988 are in the capable hands of one class - the 37’s. Steam is represented by an LMS Black 5 number 5305 ‘Alderman A.E. Draper’.
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