The Friends of the Far North Line
Cairdean Na Loine Tuath
the campaign group for rail north of
Inverness - lobbying for improved services for the local user, tourist and freight
operator
On the 8th of May an interesting, and unusual, request came our way:
"Friends of my parents at the Inverness Model Railway Club suggested getting in touch with you. My parents were members for many years but have now both died. They were very keen modellers working in Gauge 1, the club has taken away one layout which they can still use for exhibitions but we are left with a 44 foot long model of Fearn railway station which we would love to find a home for. I have attached some photos, it was also featured in British Railway Modelling. I was wondering if you could advertise it amongst your members, free to a good home but will need to be dismantled and collected by the new owner, or if you have any other suggestions for where I could advertise it. It is currently near Tain."
The message was accompanied by some photos which showed an amazing model. Gauge 1 is a scale not often seen in home model railways since the track is 45mm wide - more than twice that of 00 Gauge. It was clear that for the person who'd contacted us to have to demolish her parents' work would be soul-destroying.
FoFNL could help. We would email our members and put the request up on our website and our Facebook page. It's a very large layout so we didn't think that it would be easy to find it a home.
The Facebook post received a positive response a few minutes after it went up, even better the layout might be able to be kept in Fearn itself.
It is now likely that the layout will actually find a permanent home in the Patersons Fishing Stores - Seaboard Heritage Centre which is currently being developed in Hilton, near the fishing village of Balintore, only a short distance from Fearn Station.
We put the layout's saviour in touch with Sheena, who's parents built the model, who told us, "It means a lot to all of us, we were dreading having to destroy it as we had all been involved in its creation and it is nice to know that it will live on."
We also had a response from Tain Museum which is too small to accommodate the layout, but was keen to use some photos in a display about it.
Of course, being a station on the Far North Line, there are no trains to be seen most of the time! Now all that's needed is a locomotive or two and some rolling stock. The new owner suggests some fish vans for the siding - my own thought was potatoes, remembering a story from FNE contributor Mark Nolan a few years ago.
