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Craignure and Torosay Line

Running along the north coast of Mull the Isle of Mull Railway is a recent Narrow Gauge railway dating from 1984.  Visitors often ask when the “original” railway last ran; “prior to preservation” and this prompted the idea of creating an “original” line from the early part of the 20^th century that shows its original working condition or as a modern preserved line, the latter to excuse the eclectic collection of OO9 rolling stock.

As you will see from the map, everything a narrow gauge modeller would want is available, a port, a mine, a castle, a forest, a town etc.  There are even Druid standing stones and a peat bog!

The layout runs as a single-track working, faithful to the original, and has the benefit of return loops enabling at least one continuous running loco.  This minimises the need to reverse long trains in the holding sidings.  The arrangement allows five trains of around five coaches or wagons to be available at any one time along with two further end-to-end shunting locomotives.

The entire system is digitally controlled (DCC) allowing simultaneous control of multiple locomotives in close proximity and removing the usual banks of isolating switches.  You will see the operators using hand controllers and this allows them to stand at any point round the layout in front or behind.  There are also secondary point controllers mounted behind and close to each point set, just in case a fast point change is required!

The layout is built in four modules, each capable of being operated on their own.  These both allow for future expansion and smaller shows.  The layout took around six months to build and will have its first outing at EXPO Narrow Gauge 2005 on 29th October at the White Oak Leisure Centre, Swanley.

Map Reproduced from Ordinance Survey digital map data © Crown copyright 2005.  All rights reserved.  Licence number 0100031673