the Wemyss Layout - the Track Plans

Baseboards built, it was time to lay white paper and to start looking at track plans.

An issue was, that I had been looking for a track plan of the area around Wemyss Castle Station for over 3 years. Eventually, when I found one then along came . . .
 

The first track plan I found in a booklet ‘The Methil Branch Line Railway’, published by the Kingdom of Fife Railway Preservation Society in 1996. ( KFRPS )

Quote from booklet:

‘Wemyss Castle Station boasted sidings for general goods, a goods shed, a freight loading bank and a hand crane. Despite the fact that this station lay directly above and parallel to the High Road of the village of East Wemyss, the station’s name never reflected the village’s name, which must have caused great confusion to anyone who was not local. The reason that the station was so called was that the Wemyss family used Wemyss Castle Station when traveling by rail and, for this purpose, had their own private waiting room.’
 

Copies of the above booklet are available by contacting:
The Kingdom of Fife Railway Preservation Society through their website.
Choose The KFRPS Shop from the menu.

I then found an OS map site that finally gave me a view of what the track and buildings were to the left of Wemyss Castle Station. For me it was a great revelation, as I could now see where the bridge was, where other buildings and sidings were placed. The size of the Engine shed and Wagon Works did worry me a little. After doing some rough calculations I worked out that in ‘00’ guage, 1/76 scale that the Engine Shed and Wagon Works building would be approximately 5’ 6” long... My baseboards are the standard 4’ long... Building such a large building did make me a little nervious...

When I visited the Glenrothes Model Railway Exhibition in 2011 I met up with Peter Westwater for the very first time. He is very knowledgeable and helpful, he offered to send me a copy of a hand drawn plan of the Wemyss Castle Station area that he did many years ago from an original. Above is part of the drawing that finally gave me an idea of where points were positioned, and as a bonus there were indications of signals and types of signals. This then led to me being able to lay out my first attempt at a track plan which can be seen below.

The two images above show my fist attempts at laying down a track plan and placing the station building etc., I was a bit concerned that there seemed to be a lot going on in such a small space. Happily on a visit to Fife, Peter Westwater informed my that the loop sidings beyond the goods shed were lifted in 1954. I breathed a sigh of relief.

The two photographs above show the proposed track layout minus the sidings. I had the embankment running along the back of the layout to give some height. The embankment would then cross over the NBR line and flow down past the engine shed/wagon works and lead on to exchange sidings. I am of course having to take a large pinch of modellers license on the layout as space is of a premium.

On the left, image is the proposed station area, the goods shed, the goods shed lines and the main loop line and finally a head shunt. As can be seen the working track plan at the station end is made up of old track, printed points and pieces of card. Anything can do to give an idea of where the different parts of the puzzle will lie.

It was now time to start to do some building. I have decided to start building the embankment running the length of the first two boards. The thinking being that once the embankment was in place, we could then see where the rest of the track and buildings would fit in around the station area. Also once this first part of the embankment is placed we can also look at the fiddle yard at this end of the layout.

The next web page will show the building of the 1st part of the embankment...

Looking for maps from the Wemyss area that show rail track detail, then you can do no wrong by visiting the following links to the National Library of Scotland (maps online)

Peter Westwater shared a link to the National Library of Scotland Website where you can view OS Maps of Scotland but in particular, the Wemyss area. These are good maps to view online and you do have an option to purchase any maps you have an interest in.

There is a link on the home page headed ‘Maps of Scotland’.

The following link will take you to the map above of the WPR and NBR at Wemyss