Hollybank Depot

A layout with an illustrious history.

This layout was constructed by a club member way back in 1990 and has visited over 60 model railway exhibitions as far afield as York, Preston and Leeds. The layout also featured in ModelRail supplement no. 20 of Rail magazine issue no. 185 in October 1992. Since then it has been handed over into club ownership and can be linked to our Mossbank Yard layout.

This is a layout with an illustrious history.

The 'OO' Gauge layout set in the 1998 to 2002 period depicts a diesel and electric Railfreight depot situated somewhere in the north west of England close to the west coast mainline. The loco shed is an old steam shed which is now used for light maintenance of diesel locos and the stabling of electric locos. The depot also features a diesel refuelling point with the oil storage tank and rail tanker unloading facilities nearby. Beyond the canal there is an old brewery which is in the process of being demolished.

It all looks very authentic, but the overhead catenary and masts are Sommerfeldt which is purely cosmetic, and the electric locos are powered from the track. Most of the locos are RTR and have been modified by either weathering, added detailing or number changes.

There are many trackside details...

... and many opportunities for operating shunting.

And now for something really unusual: a very distinctive Deltic.

The model is a modified and repainted Bachmann Deltic, which was purchased already in this livery a few years ago. The Deltic represented had quite an interesting history, which for lovers of railway trivia we tell here:

The Deltic D9016 named "Gordon Highlander" was owned by the DNLL (Deltic 9000 Locomotives Limited) and had an overhaul started in about 1998/1999 sponsored by Porterbrook Leasing. This was due to the other locomotive owned by DNLL, D9000, being used on Virgin CrossCountry services and Porterbrook planned to also use D9016 on these workings after its overhaul.

The loco was modified by having the 'Wipac' lighting installed on the nose fronts and also a repaint into Porterbrooks house colours of purple and white. It didn't make it into service until 2002 only being used on Railtours. It spent some of 2003 based on the Watercress Line and was used for passenger services as well as assisting their steam locos when running railtours on the mainline.

It was sold on sometime in the mid-2000's and was put back into its original two tone Green livery. The Wipac lights were removed and the nose front was put back to its as built condition.

And what has become of D9016? It is now owned by Martin Walker with the long term intention of returning the loco to mainline duties. It is now based on the Great Central Railway where it arrived in March 2014. Wouldn't it be great to see a Deltic return to the mainline.