A Railway Remembered

It’s August 1974. The Three Degrees are at No. 1 with When Will I See You Again, Carlisle United are sitting atop the entire Football League, and in Scotland, the Kyle Line is enjoying a long-awaited reprieve. After two decades of closure threats, the railway to Kyle of Lochalsh has been saved, securing the future of this remote and spectacularly scenic route.

For a young railway enthusiast holidaying on the west coast of Scotland, this was a defining moment. Instead of witnessing the final days of a doomed railway, it was the start of a new chapter—one that would inspire the creation of Portchullin, a meticulously researched model railway built to Scalefour (P4) standards. It captures the rugged beauty, remote character, and operational intricacies of the real-life Highland Railway, as it was in the early 1970s.

The Fiction Behind the Reality

Portchullin is a real place on the shores of Loch Carron, but today, it consists of only a few houses. Historically, there was a larger community, and it isn’t hard to imagine that the Highland Railway might have provided a station there, as they did in other sparsely populated locations. The concept for the model was based on moving Stromeferry—a real station only a mile away—far enough to justify a station at Portchullin, serving inland villages.

The station and infrastructure are designed to be instantly recognisable as part of the Highland Railway’s legacy, featuring:

  • A single-track passing loop, essential for operations on the long single-line sections.
  • Classic Highland Railway-style station buildings, including wooden cabins and a baronial-style main station structure.
  • A fully signalled layout, with both an east and west cabin, reflecting the extended loops often found on Highland stations.

This careful blend of history and imagination creates a railway that feels real, even if it never quite existed in this form.

The Challenge of Modelling in P4

Portchullin is built to P4 standards (1:76.2, 18.83mm gauge), ensuring that track gauge, wheel profiles, and proportions are as accurate as possible. This brings an extra layer of realism but also additional challenges in track construction and rolling stock conversions. The trackwork follows a hybrid approach, using:

  • The Brook-Smith method for turnouts, featuring interlaced sleepers—a practice once common on the Highland Railway.
  • A combination of soldered and glued chairs, striking a balance between durability and realism.
  • Hand-built signals, mostly using MSE and Masokits parts, ensuring a prototypical look.

The baseboards are another key feature. Instead of a traditional flat board, the layout uses an open-top construction with a raised trackbed on a vertical spine, allowing the surrounding terrain to rise and fall naturally—an essential approach for capturing the undulating landscape of the western Highlands.

The trackplan is designed entirely in Templot, ensuring graceful curves that match the real line’s sinuous nature. The entire scenic section follows an 8ft radius curve, enhancing the illusion of depth and movement. This choice, however, comes at a cost—transporting and storing the curved baseboards is notoriously difficult!

A Railway in Motion

While visually stunning, Portchullin is not just a diorama; it is a working railway, designed to operate just like its real-life counterpart. The early 1970s were a fascinating period for Highland operations, retaining many traditional practices despite modernisation. On Portchullin, this means:

  • Short loco-hauled passenger trains, typically using BR Mk1 coaches in corporate blue, hauled by Sulzer Type 2 (Class 24 and 26) locomotives.
  • Freight services, a vital part of Highland railways due to poor roads, including mixed-goods formations.
  • Overtaking moves, where one train must draw forward, reverse onto the opposing loop, and wait for a faster service to pass—a procedure frequently recreated at exhibitions.

Sound-equipped DCC locomotives add another layer of immersion. The characteristic tone of a Sulzer engine climbing through the cuttings or idling in the station yard evokes the atmosphere of the Kyle Line.

The locomotives themselves are modified ready-to-run models, fitted with P4 wheels and appropriate Highland Railway details, such as:

  • Class 24/1 modifications – headcode boxes, grilles, and a tablet apparatus recess.
  • Class 26 enhancements – cab door infills, repositioned bogie springs, and distinctive Highland-style headlamps (borrowed from road vehicles!).

Despite the complexity of P4, many of the wagons and coaches are converted ready-to-run stock, weathered for realism and tweaked for reliability.

A Highland Landscape in Miniature

Perhaps the most striking element of Portchullin is its scenery, carefully crafted to replicate the windswept, rocky terrain of the western Highlands. The real Kyle Line was one of the most expensive per mile ever built, threading through headlands, inlets, embankments, and cuttings, and the model reflects this with:

  • Cork bark rock faces, shaped and treated with car body filler to remove unrealistic fissures.
  • A loch surface, achieved using black card, crumpled cellophane, and glass, creating a reflective water effect.
  • Scottish moorland vegetation, formed using a mix of scenic mats, static grass, MiniNatur tufts, and crushed stone, replicating boggy peatland and rough scrub.

Every detail is grounded in reality—structures, bridges, and stonework are based on real examples from stations like Plockton, Erbisaig, and Blair Atholl. Even the embankments are created using real crushed stone, applied in a way that mimics the way it would have been dumped during railway construction.

The buildings reinforce the Highland atmosphere, with wooden cabins featuring battened construction to protect against Scotland’s harsh climate. The station’s baronial-style architecture hints at the influence of local landowners—after all, the Highland Railway was sometimes called The Lairds’ Line!

Lessons Learned & Future Plans

Despite being the creator’s first fully operational layout in over twenty years, Portchullin has been a success. However, the project has also been a learning experience, revealing key lessons for future builds:

  • Baseboard design is crucial – The curved boards add visual interest but are difficult to transport and store.
  • Testing is everything – Early exhibitions revealed baseboard joints with subtle humps, requiring later adjustments.
  • The right rolling stock makes a difference – Ready-to-run diesels work well, but longer-wheelbase wagons needed springing to improve performance.

Exhibiting Portchullin has also reinforced the value of presentation. Taking inspiration from Iain Rice, the layout is displayed as a piece of theatre, with:

  • A proscenium arch, focusing attention on the scene.
  • Hidden fiddle yards, keeping operators out of view.
  • A higher-than-average backscene, eliminating distractions.

To complete the atmosphere, a video of real-life Highland railway footage plays alongside the layout, immersing the viewer in the sights and sounds of Scotland in the 1970s.

Conclusion: A Slice of the Highlands in 4mm Scale

Portchullin is more than just a model railway—it is a love letter to the Kyle Line, capturing its atmosphere, operations, and rugged beauty in stunning detail. Whether viewed as a nostalgic recreation or a technical achievement in P4, it stands as a remarkable representation of a railway that almost disappeared.

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