Galteemore

Great effort, Jan. Hope you enjoyed Broadstairs -and Fintonagh!

Thanks Angus. It’s one roll of Amazon-sourced cool white LEDs, cut into three strips with wire jumper leads connecting them. They have a built in dimmer switch. These are they....

Thanks everyone! Much help has come from this forum. Tonight I made a basic ladder frame to sit on top of the baseboard as an LED canopy with a temporary foam core pelmet. Reminds me of a fish tank but it’s lovely having a constant light on the stage ...

Lovely Angus - coming on well!

Frantic day of progress at Rosses Point. Track laid after much deliberation. Needs wired up next. Basic design inspired by this http://yourmodelrailway.net/view_topic.php?id=9636&forum_id=21&highlight=luxted - but with an Irish twist. From back of layout to front, goods bay, main running lines, and harbour branch...note gap in wall where gate will go. The branch beyond the gate down to the harbour is conveniently derelict by 1957 ! I was originally going to make all the track parallel to the baseboard edge but having read wiser counsels, the quay branch has a slight but pleasing undulation.

Great stuff! My wife is a Larne girl so this is somewhere I see several times a year when we’re over. I used the Larne line daily in the 80s going to school from Carrick to Belfast so it’s nice to see part of it being replicated - semaphores and English Electric traction will hopefully appear in due course! I was at an IRRS meeting in London on Thursday and saw some lovely shots of maroon and blue 80 class as I remember them, although I think the 70 class were my favourite and I was sad to see the 450s kill them off. Don’t be daunted -as I was for too many years - you’ll be surprised what you can do! As you’ve already found, one of the best aspects of this pastime is the sheer variety - you can put down one aspect for a while and focus on another.

Here’s another....http://www.sct61.org.uk/zzorr333 look carefully - it’s behind the bus!

Thanks gents! I will file down the tyres before final placement - top tip as you say. One of the main things I am trying to do with this layout is keep a fairly consistent colour and shade palette, with the intent that everything blends in together. We’ll see how that works as the layout develops!!

Thanks JHB - went further than I’d intended as removing the transfers left a few scars. Basic idea is Gordon Gravett’s albeit executed with less skill! Just a general tone down makes a huge difference such as dark grey matt tyres. Washes and dry brushing over the ‘chrome’ give more of a patina than the raw plastic can. It’ll be at the back anyway so should look ok from a distance and add a gentle splash of colour!

Low relief factory for Rosses Point. 1930s rough concrete affair from De Valera’s industrialisation campaign. Very loosely based on my childhood memories of the button factory in Manorhamilton. Scratchbuilt from 1mm card with various add-ons. Not quite as dirty as the photo appears ! Good reason for freight flow - wool arrives in from the western seaboard and finished ganseys go out! Complete with factory runabout - an Austin A40 I mauled about a bit...I chose this rather than an A35 as it gives me a wider time window!

I suppose one way of explaining such a long overgrown turntable in 1963 would be to use the Athlone analogy. Fully equipped separate stations existed prior to the 20s, built by 2 railway companies, the GSWR passenger station being downgraded to goods only by the GSR. In similar vein, under the GSR the separate pre-amalgamation facilities at the Harbour may have been considered a luxury with alternative loco handling equipment a mile or two away. Cue an overgrown turntable and roofless shed....

And Dr Cox’s collection of Donegal stock would still have been there!

Fantastic ! I land back in the UK to find that the mystery of Dromahair’s downpipes has been sorted as I crossed the channel! The link is one I really like, not so much for the pictures as the text. It’s the best account I have ever read of the typical freight flow through a small Irish station. Looking at the site, one of the other recent stories on the blog describes the country school near Dromahair that my mother attended!

Yes, Angus, rather odd. I’m sitting in Amsterdam airport right now so can’t check my SLNC collection but I do remember that I thought the water pipe arrangement wasn’t quite what I expected when I made the Dromahair-ish station building...

Looks good to me Angus. I was fact finding in Dromahair in July and took a few snaps. As I’m looking for the SLNC house style to emulate rather than a exact replica, I’m afraid I didn’t take a tape measure...but the goods shed looks a bit bigger than Glenfarne, which I have just this week mocked up in 7mm.

Lovely job, John. Nice view of the inside motion, too.

Or try this....https://www.irfca.org/faq/faq-model.html

May be worth an email to the Continental Modeller team at Peco. Probably the most informed UK source on what may exist in the model arena...

That is how to do it. I think any museum in the Moyle area would take that off you in a heartbeat. Quality.

Unless using battery power, the rail tops need to be shiny or you won’t get power to the loco. You could chemically blacken the track and that might work. Best compromise is to leave the siding ends rusty but keep where the loco will go as clean as you can.

Barry Carse’s book on Metrovicks may be your best literary option, although available copies are rarer than a rare thing....

Never thought I’d see the SLNC dragged into the great debates of steam performance history.....Did ‘Truro’ manage the first 100mph? Does “Mallard’’s record really stand scrutiny? And now, did ‘Sir Henry’ manage 60? Of course, this need not be a purely philosophical discussion. Before ‘Lough Erne’ finally dissolves into rust, it would still be technically possible to try conclusions with an SLNC 0-6-4T on the MGW between Collooney and Sligo..move over, Sir Nigel and your duck!

How tantalising an idea though! And no less an authority than RN Clements comments on the mechanical fettle of the SLNC locos - it was ‘unknown’ for them to be the slightest bit off in the valves - even the ancient ‘Hazelwood’ apparently ran like a sewing machine. So it’s not hard to imagine a summer night just north of Collooney, as ‘Sir Henry’ blasts along the MGWR metals with just the bogie coach and a brake, as the 19:20 sometimes was, I can just see it roaring through Ballysodare! I’d even settle for 50 mph ...

Gorgeous work Patrick. Absolutely captures the location.

Thanks everyone. I have some proper engineer’s broaches as shown so hopefully a smooth running chassis is only a few strokes away ...