Tullygrainey

Thanks Patrick. I'd need to up my game a bit before I'd consider offering castings to anyone else. I'm still at the hit and miss stage with the process and my efforts so far have needed a lot of fettling to fit together properly. Some were unusable, either too thick or two thin (or both sometimes!). And the W Irons are a real faff. I remember thinking "Enough!" after the third van. I haven't done any more since that first batch so I need to go back to it again and practise a bit more. Watch this space

Some more info Patrick. Starting with the outside W Irons. I used MJT etches from Dart castings to make these. The one to choose is 2299 Compensating Wagon W Irons (RCH/GWR type) which has the horseshoe shaped bits needed. The pack comes with 4 of these etches if memory serves. Only some of the parts are used. Some delicate 'editing' of the required bits and a touch with a soldering iron gives you this... The open wagons were the easiest to do - a kitbash of the Slaters 4mm Midland Railways 3 plank dropside (Part no: 4029). Just glue the new bits on... The covered vans are based around resin casts from a master made with scribed plastic card, 1.0 x 1.5mm plastic strip (I used Evergreen 143) and 0.45 brass rod. The various brackets and strips are made from bits of sticky address label with rivets embossed. Here's the master for a side and the silicone mould made from it... And here are the resin casts for one wagon... For springs on these, some MJT white metal castings (MJT 2249: Midland Axlebox with spring); Everything attached with epoxy. The underpinnings are a bit primitive. Because of the dimensions I used for the ends, the standard 26mm pinpoint axle isn't long enough to reach the axleboxes. This is the brake van. No brakes yet, bit of an oversight in a brake van . On reflection, it might be better to make up longer axles from 2mm rod and grind pinpoints onto the ends. If I'm honest these guys look better than they run. Cheers Alan

Thanks John, that’s worth considering. Their Drewry, in OO was my introduction to etched chassis building. Didn’t make a great job of it at the time but learned a lot from doing it and gained confidence to try again.

That's heartbreaking. Best of luck with the rebuild.

No 16 earning its keep No16.mov

Now NCC No 16... More plastic card and brass wire. Even more butchery... The starting point, an unsuspecting Hornby 0-4-0 Pug... I used 10 thou plastic card to wrap and extend the tank - easy to bend and glue down. L&Y Pug chimney (LYR0001) from Wizard Models. Dome carved from dowel. Archer rivets. Can't remember where the buffers came from. Now the chassis. Plastic cylinders cut off. Connecting rods trimmed and drilled for 12BA bolts. New piston rods, crossheads and slide bars are Hornby spares (Ref: X8834W)from Peter's Spares. New cylinders cut from the plastic barrel of a disposable propelling pencil. And some weathering to finish. A scratch build might have been easier! Certainly more accurate. Next time

All mostly done with plastic card, brass wire and stuff from the bits box Leslie. And a certain amount of ruthless butchery. The photo sequence is fairly self-explanatory I hope. First BCDR No 30... The starting point, an Oxford Rail Adams Radial. Very little was done to the chassis bar removing the outside cylinders/slidebars and the connecting rods. It all unbolts easily. The plastic cab and boiler all come off easily too. Unwanted features filed off the metal bit.... Butchery over, the rebuild starts... Halfords primer... Humbrol aerosol paint and Fox transfers. Crew from Dart Castings. Only realised later that it should have 2 water fillers in the bunker. And hey presto. Not entirely accurate but close enough for jazz? It came DCC ready so it's now chipped.

Thanks Patrick. I used photos in Desmond Coakham's BCDR books as guides. The opens are made from Slater's 4mm kits for a Midland Railways 3 plank dropside. The covered vans are resin casts made from masters I made out of plastic card, plastic section and sticky labels (David Holman is the guru for this). The brake van is a one-off, made the same way as the masters. The hardest bit was the outside W irons for which I used etches from MJT. I'll pull together some photos and do a better description in due course. Just now I'm off to PRONI for the talk and book launch on the Belfast Central Railway. More soon. Alan

Track plan David. Loughan Quay has always lacked a decent fiddle yard, which restricts operation a bit. There's not much room left along the wall where the layout sits. Sloping ceilings don't help either. I have considered adding another board at right angles at the fiddle yard end to make an L-shaped layout but that would require curving the current exits to ease the turn. It's all a bit provisional at the moment. I actually conceived the 3 sidings at the back right as an Inglenook shunting puzzle but, tucked behind the goods store, it's too awkward to be used in that way.

I wrote in an earlier post that the loco roster at Loughan Quay didn't make a lot of sense. Well, here's the proof... UTA No. 22, ex LMS and LMS NCC, a Harland and Wolff built diesel which ended its days back with Harlands as a works shunter. Judith Edge etched kit with High Level gearbox, Mashima motor (remember those) & Alan Gibson wheels. BCDR 4-4-2 tank engine No. 30, escaped from Cultra for the day, looking in vain for some passenger coaches to haul. Made from an Oxford Rail Adams Radial bought second-hand but mint on eBay. My attempt at the BCDR's long-lived workhorse, 0-6-0 tender engine No.26. A kit bash from a London Road Models etched kit of a L&Y Barton Wright Ironclad. Mashima motor, Branchlines gearbox and Alan Gibson wheels. Proportions are a bit off I think - too long in the boiler among other things. But it runs quite well and I have a soft spot for it because it nearly broke my heart building it. (No reflection on the quality of the kit - it was all the modifications) Class G Deutz diesel 601, well off its normal territory. Black Beetle bogie under a Silver Fox resin body. Like the Jinty in the last post, another escapee from the Belfast Dock lines. NCC 0-4-0ST No. 16, built at York Road in 1914, survived into UTA days. Created from a Hornby Caledonian Pug. Not long ago, Hattons were selling these new for £19. I bought three at the time and used the chassis in all sorts of things. Looking at the prices asked now, I wish I'd bought more. I bought a few very cheaply on eBay but it was a false economy. Most of them were knackered. New ones run much better. No.16 is probably a bit over scale but that's what you get for starting with a Smokey Joe. Onwards in a parallel universe Alan

Don't do that Patrick. You'll short circuit the track! Brilliant! I like those. Needed the clue for Ballyshawbeagan though! I'll draw a proper track plan soon but in the meantime, here's a photo of an early stage which gives some idea. Some of those buildings got the chop later. As did the Mourne Mountains on the backdrop. Bulldozed into the sea Two exits to FY, one front, one back, on the left hand side.

What a fine piece of work. It's a perfect demonstration of the value of looking properly and reproducing what you see. Heavy weathering is really hard to do well, even harder than light weathering in my experience - it's too easy to bury the model in gunge but you've really cracked it Adrian. Subtle and totally convincing. Masterclass. Alan

Coal comes in at Loughan Quay and goes by rail to Downpatrick, Newcastle and Belfast. Hugh Vernor operates a small coal business at the quay, supplying local domestic needs. Scandanavian timber arrives too. Sand sometimes comes in as ship's ballast and is moved on by rail, ending up with the building trade. The produce going out includes potatoes, grain, some whiskey, pit props from timber grown locally and occasional consignments of Mourne granite - kerbstones mainly but the trade is gradually ceasing as concrete supplants cut stone. There's no provision for livestock export at Loughan. Not sure what's in the McCaughans' packing cases. I'd ask if they weren't so busy. James Nixon. Fruit, Veg, Poultry.... and propellors. Actually, the propellors originate from Townley and Sons though their usual trade is in goods and services for local agriculture. UTA Jinty No 19, lately strayed from the Belfast docks (anything's possible in this universe), heads back there with the evening goods. Jinty Goods.mov

An embarrassment of praise! Thank you very much everyone. GM, I will treasure your Iain Rice reference. Thank you. Onwards with swollen head Alan

Thanks FS, glad you like it. If you've ever been to the Folk Museum at Cultra, you might recognise that street in the backscene. Regards, Alan

A few people have asked to see more of this layout after BCDR diesel No2 was recently spotted trundling round it, so allow me to introduce ‘Loughan Quay’ (say it out loud.... see what I did there). Actually it should probably be called ‘The Learning Curve’ since that’s exactly what it was/is for me. It replaces an earlier layout which had too much track and too little thought. It’s 4mm OO gauge, with a scenic section around 180 x 55 cm. It’s wired for DCC and uses an NCE PowerCab but a DC controller can easily be plugged in for ‘one loco in steam’ operation. The points are conventional solenoid-driven using a stud and probe control panel. It was started in early 2015 and reached its current state around the end of 2017. Not much has been done to it since but the chief engineer has plans... I have to confess to being more interested in building stuff than running trains though that might change if I ever manage to build a layout that works well operationally. I wanted a dockside and places like Dundrum in County Down and the harbour branch at Donaghadee provided inspiration. Essentially though, the thing evolved as my interests changed and each little sub-project led on to the next. I tried wherever possible to make things rather than buy them ready-made, rolling stock as well as buildings and structures. Along the way, bits got changed, buildings got replaced, and rolling stock has come and gone. Thematically, it’s all over the place and the loco roster makes no sense at all. But bear with me, I’ll get there eventually. Is it Irish? Well it’s definitely not a GWR branch line. Anyway, a few pics... Alan Buildings are mostly card or foamboard shells clad in embossed plastic (Wills, Slater) or printed paper from the Scalescenes downloadable print-it-yourself range. The loco shed. That coal has gone a very funny colour. You'd never raise steam with that stuff. No 20 waits to draw wagons out of the goods shed. One of a number of hacked Hornby Caley Pugs lurking around here. Business at McCaughan Bros going at its usual pace I see. The Clyde Puffer is a Scalescenes download with a few additions - brass rails, white metal details and wooden hatch covers (good old coffee stirrers, where would we be without them). The deck winch is a Langley Models white metal kit. The harbour surface is made up from painted card, Wills plastic cobblestones and Metcalfe paving slabs grouted with filler (Gyproc ProMix finish, a brilliant product. You can even repair the walls in your living room with it. Who knew!) The cables on the cranes (non-working) are made from 0.45mm brass rod, blackened and painted with Humbrol Metalcote. As a result, they always look taut, something hard to achieve using thread or elastic. Likewise the rigging on the Puffer - though don't look too closely at that, it's a bit of a fudge. That crewman is looking pretty relaxed despite the fact that his vessel isn't moored. Stone walls are Wills Coarse Stone with Das coping stones. The businesses are named after my 4 great grandfathers. Hope you like the wagon Leslie. I do. The evening sun softens the shadows as No 16, ex-NCC (another hacked Pug) hauls the last load of the day.

Thank you chaps. Perhaps best to start a new thread in the Layouts section? I'll put something together in the next few days, all being well. Look out for Loughan Quay. Alan

It’s possible to gently abrade the transfers off using T-Cut and cotton buds. Might be worth a test in a corner somewhere?

I did a G Class in 4mm but in contrast to BCDR No2, I just put a Black Beetle chassis inside a Silver Fox resin body shell. Bit of paint, job done

Another fine set of rolling stock David. I love the turf wagons and the matchstick turf is very convincing. Your resin castings are beautifully crisp. Resin casting certainly saves a lot of time compared to scratch building every wagon but it's messy stuff to work with isn't it! The G Class diesel is spot on.

As the object of a scratch build, No 2 was probably a good choice. Chassis jigs and quartering tools notwithstanding, the lack of crankpins and rods probably made life a bit easier and the body shell has lots of flat panels, straight edges and no compound curves to speak of. There are still a few details to add and I might consider DCCing it after it's been run in a bit though I always find adding chips a bit of an ordeal - what ran smoothly on DC suddenly starts stuttering and stalling on DCC. In truth, there's probably enough room for a sound chip and a speaker but I probably won't go there. Also, not sure what sound files you might use. Anyway, thank you everybody for all the encouragement, advice and praise, without which this project might not have got as far as it has. May this community of modellers continue to prosper. Onwards, together Alan

Brilliant! Just wow!

Three years well spent Patrick! It looks really well. A lovely piece of work and beautifully finished too. The cameo framing sets it all off perfectly.

Thanks GM. The layout was loosely inspired by places like Donaghadee and Dundrum.

A few more pics of No 2, now weathered, and some video of the inaugural run. It still needs a few tweaks to get it running reliably but the fitters are lying down in a darkened room at the moment. It also sounds like a bag of nails on the video - not so bad in reality The observant will notice it hasn't got any brakes. I always find those a real pain to fit. I have some tender brake shoes from Gibsons which should do the job and being plastic, they won't cause any electrical shorts, which is always a problem. No appropriate passenger stock available for it to haul yet. Goods wagons will have to suffice for now. I think I see light coming down the tunnel Alan * just realised the sandboxes don't have any pipes either. BCDR No 2.mov