Galteemore

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 ...

Thanks David — am sure you’re right. Do you use a round file or reamer to open the holes? I like the nail varnish idea. Much of my modelling in recent weeks has consisted of loco fettling so the rod hiatus was a good chance to try out some other techniques....track panels after a meths bath a la Iain Rice. Spot the sleepers that need resoldered..,

Lovely work Ken. Already captures look of prototype, and that’s a nicely arranged chassis.

Fair enough Angus! I do have a certain empathy with where you’re coming from, given my own SLNC leanings. It’s a little easier for me in modelling an SLNC might have been rather than an actual location, but I still want it to be historically plausible. One instance - I have a Drewry railcar to build. I had thought of a few finishes for it - CIE green which it never carried, or even SLNC two-tone green. That’s too much of a stretch for me so I’ll do it in genuine GSR livery instead, and just keep my time period flexible from 1945-55!

Fascinating! Another possibility which is slightly closer to real history would be using a Farish SECR C class 0-6-0 to recreate the SLNC’s ‘Glencar’ - pic courtesy of Mike Morant’s SmugMug site..

Good compromise Angus. It may help your machinations to know (if you didn’t already) that one of the last minute proposals put forward in 1957 was to keep Omagh to Enniskillen open purely as a freight line worked by the SLNC. In such a scenario, one can imagine the UTA being happy enough to allocate an obsolete/obsolescent loco (as you say, one of the Jinties was withdrawn quite early) to EKN to assist with the traffic. It could quite happily wander to Dromahair... Having seen many photos, I think they were fairly standard machines with the only big change being the regauge.

Looks like a cracking show !

Thanks David. Looking at it again, I suspect that part of the issue may be that I haven’t tightened up the nuts on the rods beyond what my fingers can manage, so there is probably too much lateral movement in the system still. Nor was the gear dead centre on the axle - as you know better than I, making a 32 mm kit up as 36.75 allows a lot of empty space between the wheels! I am awaiting a 12ba nut spinner so I can tighten the rods up properly and then see where we are. I think the problem, if it persists, is on the rear RH crankpin. So some gentle fettling may happen...but it’s been reassuring to see that we are almost there on the chassis. Much as I’d like to simply crack on, I am going to pause here and make sure it’s totally right before going on to stage 2. I’m also awaiting plunger pickups which Roger recommends. An opportunity to work on the layout while I’m waiting, I suppose!

Great stuff David - and your G2 will look right at home!

Thanks David! More progress tonight. I decided that the Alphagraphix motor mount wasn’t doing it for me. It’s meant to act as a cradle for the motor, and an aesthetic ash pan. But it makes access to the motor very tight (I have already had to Dremel off the rear shaft). And once the brake gear is on that access will almost vanish! So tonight I took out the cradle - including the front axle bearings. I used my Hobby Holidays chassis jig to resolder in new bearings, and will cut up the cradle in due course, to reuse the ash pan as a merely aesthetic feature. The jig is a cracking device and I had mine specially built to 5’3”. It includes a rolling road - the main reason I went for this jig in particular. For some reason, none of the local clubs have a 36.75mm line on their test track so a rolling road is vital when you’re a small layout man like me. Tonight was chassis work. It’s moving but there’s a small tight spot on the rods. Just don’t know how to pinpoint it...if anyone’s got any tips I’m all ears! The motor jumps as it hits a sticky bit and in one direction it is much more obvious.... IMG_1295.MOV