This well-known West Highland Line junction was Renfrewshire Model Railway Club’s exhibition mainstay for many years. KEITH BATHGATE explains its fortuitous start and plans for a successor. Photography, Mike Bisset.
FOR A LAYOUT that was to serve as the mainstay of Renfrewshire Model Railway Club's ‘N’ gauge section for three decades, the beginnings of Crianlarich are very uncertain. Exactly who started the layout, when, and with what ultimate plan are all now lost to time.
For the club, the layout began around 1992 when the original station board was saved from destruction, and ended with the sale of the layout in summer 2023. Between these dates, the layout was subject to several major remodellings, the only constant being that original station board. The plan and photographs accompanying this article show the layout in its final form as a club exhibition layout, shortly before it was sold.
Above: Class 37/0 37027 approaches Crianlarich station with the daily overnight ‘sleeper’ train from Fort William to London Euston.
Crianlarich is the junction station on the West Highland Line where the branch to Oban diverges from the Glasgow to Fort William line. This representation of it first came to the club by way of a member who wo…
