Galteemore

Looks great so far Bob! This will be one to watch .

How’s your project coming along Bob? Got to confess, as I think we may have similar space and track plans in mind, your ambition to include passenger workings played a part in nudging me away from a goods yard diorama!

Thanks Angus - I managed to tune in and catch as much as was possible!

Thanks David. Funnily enough yesterday I looked up Robert Kosmider’s article in the Gauge O Guild Gazette doing a similar thing with Hamblings pre-war lithos. I have that Gravett book so will check it out….

I notice what you left until last Patrick….had I the space, it would be Manorhamilton I’d be building

For a while now it’s been apparent that my plan to build a slice of Florencecourt won’t happen immediately, as I just don’t have 12’ of convenient space to put up the main board fed by fiddles either end. But I was feeling rather guilty about the three baseboards and trestles I’d built two years ago for the project. I also really need some kind of layout on which to test out locos and stock - even just a bit of back and forth. Much head scratching and I realised I could use one of the boards to make an Iain Rice cameo, with two tracks fed by a cassette fiddle. This can stay up more or less permanently in the workshop. So a busy morning at our local community woodwork facility saw the carcass made……and painted in SLNC station colour of grey/blue. So if I can’t model Florencecourt - for all its simplicity - what on earth can I model? Why Enniskillen of course! Sounds lunacy but check out…..https://www.carendt.com/micro-layout-design-gallery/passenger-lines/ The Farthing layouts are also inspiring….https://farthinglayouts.blogspot.com/ - layouts built as various sections of a station. I had initially thought of modelling a segment of Dromahair goods yard to allow a shunting puzzle but that would rule out passenger ops. Then I recalled dear old Carl Arendt’s micro terminals as above. So I can model a section of the SLNC bay at Enniskillen. There was no run round so quite prototypical for trains to run in and propel out. The canopy will be at rear of layout - just have to work out how to imply that the station continues beyond ! Trains will be short but it’s better than no layout!! And in any case I am more of a rolling stock constructor than an operator at heart. With some thought and care, I could run the full SLNC timetable with the right stock. After all most services were by railbus so quite short in length - and the goods services would often shunt as far as the dock platform. Thus lots of scope for meaningful minimal space operation. Unlike anything I have done before this is straight out of Rice’s cameo layout book in terms of planning from day 1, rather than the suck it and see approach of previous efforts. Shunting, for instance, will be hands off - no space for electro-magnets so I am not using AJs. I have ordered a batch of Flippems from our own @Bob49 and when those arrive I will start experimenting with magnet placement.

Great. Lots of scope to let your imagination go in that little corner!

Excellent. My Latin teacher at school had the middle name ‘Lynn’ which was handed down through the family in memory of Surgeon-Major Lynn who had saved the life of a family member that day.

It’s very good indeed. By Colin Boocock who actually travelled on it.

184 is currently being restored for static display. Unlikely to steam ever again. 186 is too small for current mainline ops but far too big for Downpatrick- would cost far too much to steam.

Some NG lines are laid with steel sleepers. It’s more efficient for temporary construction lines etc which can be easily lifted and relaid -Google the Decauville railway system. At a guess that’s ex BnM track.

The Hattons range will not be 21mm friendly, I suspect. With footboards etc I imagine clearances would be tight

Rats. I’m in Portsmouth two days before best wishes for Sat!

Strictly speaking DJ I model 7mm not O gauge -o gauge being 32mm whereas my wheels are set at 36.75……

Fabulous. The SLNC pic is probably taken about 5pm - this is the 4pm ex Sligo passenger service crossing the 2pm goods out of Enniskillen.

Carriage looks fabulous. And you’ll make short work of the etches I think….Swilly engines were famously clean so those brass spectacle rims will look rather splendid gleaming against the deep green cab front…..

Great work

Inspiration for those who may wish to make their Manors seasonal - as seen in Swindon today….

Or railbus. May 1950 Dromahair

Fabulous. Can’t imagine which Co Antrim coastal town inspired this…..is the ballast area called ‘Magheraless’? ;

Fabulous. Note the mail being loaded on to 2A. A far cry from the 4-4-0 hauled ‘Mail’ of the 20s!

Incredible Patrick. Could pass for 7mm. Very nicely done.

Nice model of a very distinctive class.

Now that’s most interesting. Yes I did build ‘Halstead’ and showed it in part finished form. Then I started building an Irish loco for it and that was that! Layout sold and 5’3” I went. Oddly enough I had been thinking this week of a Lyddlow too as a test bed (my engines can spend long months with no use, which I need to rectify by having a simple layout close to hand). So it’s quite striking to see yours in progress. Can’t wait to see what you produce!

Talking of rails, what’s the track plan Bob? Really looking forward to this - another 36.75mm layout and not a million miles away from me either…