I had a very interesting weekend well Saturday anyway touring layouts at an informal American Railroaders convention in Auckland. We visited four layouts including our hosts N gauge.
Second: A double and treble deck GNR layout in a converted double garage.
The government owned NZR was very slow in completing rail links in Northland ferry sailings on Kaipara Harbour ceasing in the late 1940s when Dargaville was finally connected to the national network.
Finally: How many modellers can
After an almost classic tailchaser with Patrickswell I looked at Fenit as a sleepy branch line terminus. I initially looked at including Spa with its beet siding and treating the Harbour Commissioners line as part of the hidden staging, but eventually decided to omit Spa and include a representation of the pier and its railway.
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The layout is a lot more challenging in terms of trackwork and operation compared to Patrickswell, with little in the way of structures, the fo
The main purpose of the planning exercise was to see if it was feasible to fit an American style walk around design layout inside an 11'x17'6" garage. The idea definitely seems feasible in N and just about possible in OO though probably better off in American N or HOn3 given the amount of rolling stock building required for an Irish layout of this nature.
In 21mm gauge it seems to be basically own to a simple through station on a continuous run or a U or L shaped terminus to fiddle yard effo
I drew this one up mainly to see if it was possible to fit OO gauge E shaped block plan into a single car garage, rather than a more traditional around the walls effort. It just about fits in with a reasonable aisle width by reducing the minimum radius on the turn back section on the peninsula section to 2' radius.
The scheme is just about workable in OO though would look a lot better visually in a wider room or in N or perhaps American or Continental narrow gauge in either HOn3 or HO
Although I have tried to be faithful to modelling Irish railways mainly GSR & CIE in 4mm scale, I had various flings with British, American and even freelance modelling in scale and had a long and sometimes stormy relationship with N American gauge.
I first tried N in the late 70s frustrated at trying to fit a OO gauge layout into a box room and even more so with my efforts to kitbash and scratchbuild Irish stock. A nice scenic N gauge layout with repainted or slightly modified rtr stock se
The tendency for modellers to organise conventions rather than exhibitions is probably the greatest difference in the way the hobby is organised between the UK and Ireland on one hand and North America, Australasia. The local model railway clubs hosted this years National Convention over 180 delegates attended with American guest speaker Lance Mindheim http://www.shelflayouts.com/, together with workshops and clinics on various aspects of railway modelling including layout planning, operation, s
As we have looked at most of the main line stations on the North Kerry, I thought we might as well look at the North Kerry Yard in Tralee and the Fenit branch, both were important in terms of beet traffic and the North Kerry yard continued to handle keg and container traffic after the main line closed.
The GSWR and the North Kerry originally had separate stations on either side of Edward Street the connecting line and level crossing was a late addition, the North Kerry station closed severa
My interest in Irish railways was pretty much ingrained in childhood experience, my grandfather on the mothers side was a driver on the Midland but had died before my time, in the 60s railway did not exactly have a positive image breakdowns and line closures, a sunday afternoon walk over pat of the Meath Line before it was lifted. Ours was very much a car family but got the occasional squint over the railway wall when we were driving somewhere, despite this I got interested in model trains, and
Although Abbeyfeale was a much smaller town than Newcastle or Listowel the station seems to have been reasonably important in terms of traffic serving as a railhead or a large area of North Kerry and West Limerick, at one time there were even plans for narrow gauge feeder lines to serve the town and villages south of the man line. During GSR days in addition to the three daily through passenger trains Abbeyfeale was the terminus off a daily passenger train from Limerick. The working was unusual
A brief look at the eastern end of the "main line" the busiest section of the North Kerry between Carey's Road and Ballingarne. Definitely worth including this section of the line possibly including both Patrickswell & Ballingarne in an American style possibly two level "walk around" style layout.
The stations buildings on the original Limerick & Foynes line at Patrickswell, Adare and Askeaton are to a common attractive cut stone design, the track layouts very simple. Patrickswell an
Well David got me thinking. Newcastle West another station with an unusual track layout, there are a number of photos in A J O'Rourke's book and the news section of the IRRS Journal from the early mid 70s I had a look around but did not take any photos before the track was lifted in the 1980s.
Originally built as a simple terminus by the Rathkeale & Newcastle Junction Railway in the late 1860s, it became a junction when the Limerick & North Kerry opened its line to Tralee in 1880
I have been kicking around ideas for a layout for a good few years, but always seem to have moved just as I got things started. I have reasonable space in a convert garage 18X10 for a layout in OO or N, but a bit tight for anything other than a small terminus to fiddle yard effort in 21mm gauge.
Having dabbled I American modelling I wanted something interesting to operate than watching trains go round and round or a loco shunting a small terminus. Although I prefer the Midland the Burma Road
During the past few weeks I have mainly been catching up on a backlog of other projects mainly loco work in various scales before starting work on the layout as such.
Keeping to a Midland or GSWR secondary line theme a dozen yards of Code 70 fb rail, wooden sleepers and spikes arrived, followed by a session of pretend cresoting using Carr's sleeper stain before reaslising an acrylic wood stain would be more effective and economic.
The sleepers are 1.8mm stripwood rather than ply which s
Nothing much to physically show at this stage I looked at the pros & cons of most Burma Road stations on Waiheke Island ferry shortly after Easter http://www.waiheke.co.nz/ I basically had a 10 minute job on the Island but it took most of the day to get there and back.
I have had a play with Templot tried some of the tutorials before having a go at Ballymoe on the Mayo Line before starting serious track planning.
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All I can say is that the programme takes a bit
I have finally started work on the new layout, maybe it was because of Patricks Day :cheers:maybe it was the end of the drought, anyway apart from listening to U Tube clips of Sharon Shannon most of Sunday was spent framing and setting up baseboards, I had already set up the board for the backscene at after Christmas.
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Having got so far I threw down some ply on top of the framing to get a feel for the first stage of the layout. I looked initially at Kiltimagh compact an
An interesting couple of weeks converting the office to a guest room served as a spur to get things sorted out on the Narrow Gauge layout and move most of the work shop items out to the work shop strange that .
Some interesting things turned up long lost drill sets and other tools together with odd pieces of rolling stock.
The Narrow Gauge layout originally ran across the top of a computer desk and scanner printer.
Eye level is great in theory but it was difficult to work on and you
I had great plans to strat building baseboards and finishing various modelling projects over the holidays but ended up painting windows and making a set of doors for a shed started over a year ago.
The modelling highlight was testing out some 21mm stock over the Christmas mainly adjusting Kadee couplers and getting the AEC railcar set running.
Having gotten over that bit of excitement there was a major move in shifting the 4mm dock layout to the shed and moving the N Scale American from
The fit out of the railway room/workshop is going well with most of the trackwork complete to the G Scale storage sidings and the 21mm test track.
The 21mm test track is basically a section of double track with a crossover and a short section of track with a reverse curve to detect buffer/gangway locking locos and bogie coaches.
The curved track varies between 2'6" & 3' and the crossover is an A5 (approx 3' radius) which would generally only be used where space is tight.
T
The building work is nearly complete I fitted a pair of windows, finished most of the internal capentry and painting the walls over a long weekend last week. There is still some external work to complete but at last we are getting into longer days drier weather.
5:37 pm 3X2 treated framing in place.
8:30 pm tracks 1&2 fixed in place 3&4 roughly in position.
The Irish layout hopefully will be U shaped with the track approximatley 4' above floor level to give a partial ey
This week was mainly spent preparing and lining the walls on two sides. While there was little sign of rot or insect attack I got a nasty shock when one side of a stud broke away while I was nailing in bridging or nogs to support the bottom edge of the plaster board. Treated the area around the affected stud for borer (similar to woodworm) but otherwise very little sign of attack. My basic reasoning is that if the garage has survived for 80 years it will probably last longer than a modern buildi
Despite a burst of activity in May and June I have done very little on the modelling front in recent months, not sure whether or what but things were just not conductive to modelling.
When we moved to Hamilton I initially concentrated on the garden railway to get something running but had no permanent home for my Irish Models.
We initially planned to build a new hobby room/studio as the garage appeared to be in poor condition and all the rooms in the house in use.
I set up a tempora
I tried to bore everyone to death on the old Newsgroup with a series of threads about a small Narrow Gauge layout I started eight years ago as "quicky" project to maintain interest when we first moved to New Zealand.
I have been working on the current phase for two years and last night I finally got something moving my little Bemo Tractor http://www.bemo-modellbahn.de/produkte/schweizer-bahnen-h0m.html?tx_userbemocatalogue_rubriclist%5Bitem%5D=182&tx_userbemocatalogue_rubriclist%5Bacti
Modified RTR Dapol/Mainline Tank Wagon
Probably the crudest conversion I wanted a couple of traditional Private Owner tank wagons the only problem was the need to cut the chassis in two!
Crude as ! runs fine not sure what i will do with this one.
Parkside wagon Conversions
SSM & the S4 Society introduced W irron assemblies suitable for 21mm gauge in the mid 1990s together with frets for the traditional Irish single shoe wagon brake.
Cattle wagon chassiss with SSM
I have never attempted a blog before, GSWR101s thread seems to have stirred up considerable interest in the practical side of 21mm gauge modelling so I though I would write up my experience with rolling stock conversions and leave the locos to a later date.
I first tried my hand in 21mm in the early 1980s but it took about 10 years to develop the necessary experience to achieve half decent results.
I was an MRSI member, some of the more influential members were starting to modify or s
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