Galteemore

Sad but entirely believable. Any heritage line requires the golden triangle of cash, crew and crowds to keep it going - a sustainable money flow, staff/volunteers, and paying punters. Some of the Irish schemes seem to start off with a burst of public money but are unsustainable after that. The RPSI seems to thrive on a few tightly packed seasons of fully loaded trains, especially in the Dublin area - having many years ago ruled out the viability of a branch line type operation on the mainland UK style. Downpatrick have made it work but I suspect Ireland simply cannot support too many such schemes with the population base it has. There are some signs that even the UK preserved sector is struggling in places. And as the folk memory of railways in public life invariably dies off, there will arguably be fewer people ready to commit themselves to recreate a railway atmosphere they don’t actually remember.... From my own highly unscientific observations, the lion’s share of labour on heritage lines here in the UK is provided by healthy retirees in their 60s and 70s, who can give their time and energy to trains because their mortgages are paid off and the pension is rolling in. That pool of labour may not exist in such quantity in the years ahead :economists have shown that the current working generation in the western world now is the first generation in a long time to be worse off than their parents..and will not be able to retire at 55/60...

Who needs Schroedinger’s cat?! This is an even better problem. If the last train hasn’t run, does that mean that the line is technically still open ?

Or as the station staff at Buggleskelly on the Southern Railway of Northern Ireland used to say.....

Lovely work and will blend in nicely with the existing mise en scene.

Here’s a Land Rover on CIE... screenshot courtesy of Provincial Wagons. in all seriousness I’m not aware of such a thing, although there have been a few rail lorries such as the Scammell one used at Oranmore.

Lovely stuff. Pure Great Northern mainline - love it!

Great stuff. My dad has a copy of that which he let me borrow when I was in Ireland over the summer. The whistle codes on entering a station are interesting. As is the 1946 timetable, which features a tiny bit more steam passenger action than the 1957 one which most of us are familiar with. Apparently, so my dad says, the advent of Railcar B effectively did away with the remaining steam passenger diagram bar the legendary 19:20 mixed ex Enniskillen. The Saturday only Manorhamilton to Sligo return was a surprise to me too - that also failed to make the 57 timetable.

Thanks David - one of my inspirations! Not least as there was no lever frame which is a rather nice way of avoiding installation of point rodding ...,,

Have you tried the IRRS or HMRS? Not sure where you’re located to physically go and check out some of these collections...may also be worth seeing if anyone’s monitoring the Blennerville website as the loco they have in store will probably be close enough....

Nice work Patrick. I shouldn’t really admire the bus given what the UTA did to Ulster’s rail network but that livery is rather nice. On the plus side, the driver’s lost if that route blind is anything to go by!

Try Kirtley Model Buildings ? https://www.kirtleymodels.co.uk/

Thanks ! This one....Dromahair, Sligo Leitrim railway.

Station building work today. Crude stone quoins applied from DAS clay on PVA

Wish I lived closer!

Door chains and a bit of weathering. Not entirely happy but that’s all part of the learning experience...think it may look ok from a distance. A mile might suffice...

Nice work. Looks suitably distressed!

Hope so. I was lucky enough to see it about 40 years ago when the signal cabins were in place and even a gents urinal IIRC. Most people who own such buildings these days seem to have a better vision than those who took them over in the 60s and added ugly concrete blocks across facades etc. Glenfarne and Belcoo on the SLNC have certainly fared well in recent years.

Having visited this place many years ago, whoever buys it will have no time for modelling as they’ll be too busy cutting all the grass!

Almost finished but the last few bits I need are back in GB. In the lower picture, it’s 0700 on an Irish summer morning in 1957 and van no 32 waits on a siding for collection on the 0630 ex Sligo goods....it’s quite nice I’ve got to this stage before we leave Ireland and head home, as I can show my mother the wagon later- she travelled on the SLNCR as a child...:)

Beautiful, Leslie.

Just as I remember it from my days at TCD - fab!

Looking really good. Love the backscene.

They are from Slaters - ref 7120 from memory. They are 32mm gauge originally but I have squeezed them out to 36.75- they simply slide along the axle.

Dummy run with loose roof in the sunshine

Yes - I do get that...Almost done - on wheels now...