Galteemore

Try again on Monday…..

Back in east Antrim more times than usual this year, sadly due to my father in law’s final illness and death. As a lad, he and his brother used the 3’ gauge yard at Larne as a playground / shunting trucks by hand! Spending a fair amount of time around Larne this year rekindled my childhood interest in the east Antrim 3’. Reading some of @Patrick Davey’s musings on scale inspired me to make a little 5.5mm scale diorama on a wargaming base. It allows very cheap and easy sources of material - 16.5mm track and components being easily found…thus standard Hornby train set track duly butchered here to produce 3’ panels. So here’s Kilwaughter siding during lifting c1954, based on a photo kindly supplied by @airfixfan complete with an IoM wagon for now - NCC stuff is in progress! This will be a sideshow to my main projects but may eventually come to something. I have at least 1 loco chassis in stock…..spot the large blade of grass when I tried taking pics in back garden!! Some of the other pics were taken within 20 yards of the GW main line near Swindon- hopefully some day I will find a suitable spot in the Vale of the White Horse to take backdrop pics!

Retro tinplate style. Designed for shed or garden layouts with long runs and an emphasis on operation and sheer atmosphere over detail. Classic and most enjoyable stuff, but a world away from Finescale.

Very very nice indeed. The late Steve Rafferty would have loved that RT of yours! The GW collection is fab - is that a ‘Galloping Alice’ amongst them ?

Great work - really good effort.

Wow, where has this been all my life? Tell us more about locos and stock please…

Fabulous work David. Long and winding road to get there, as it often is, but this is a terrific end result.

As someone who has spent much of his life studying in archives, the more copies of a rare document in circulation, the better. Especially when the fragility of websites and electronic media is borne in mind. There’s probably a case for lodging physical copies of instructions with the HMRS!

Probably grey. But faded, weathered black will be good enough to cover both!

Key shareholders in the BCDR were the Andrews family, who owned a mill in Comber. Thomas Andrews is the most famous scion (of Titanic fame) but the family made a huge impact in the political and industrial life of Co Down and the North in general. In the mid 50s, JM Andrews, a former PM of NI and BCDR director, was still, as a Stormont MP, advocating that the Govt reopen the Ex BCDR main line before it was lifted, pointing out its advantages over road expansion.

Probably could use Scotland as an analogy of what to expect - so lots of class 37s to see….here’s Northern Blue’s take on a 31…. Fascinating to speculate how the LMS would have handled it. Perhaps some of the old LNW classes which were superseded by Stanier designs might have made it across - such as Precursor tanks and George V 4-4-0s…image from LNW society FB.

Very nice. Looks right at home with the Bulleids.

Are you looking at military trains to make a war type scene ?

Ford Wedgwood Blue is cited by at least one source. Image courtesy Scooby’s Paints

Oh go on, indulge us….

Only about 20 minutes away from me so I should be able to drop in !

No need to be superior.

But Reverend Mother, we thought this counted as ‘doing the stations’….

Class 55- Boats? They are Deltics. This is one where I’m not confused, I’m angry. No need for ire. The Napier Deltic was originally a marine engine, and the power unit was used by the Royal Navy right up to 2018.

Re coaches, old Mainline LMS ones have a nice almost Irish appearance. Not expensive either.

Gibbo - don’t want to disrupt @Patrick Davey thread so posting here:my six penny worth on GNR coaches. I have mine as a backdrop in my layout - just resin sides basically. But fully loaded with handrails etc to give the right illusion! Base coat of Matt brown. Light coat of orange. Top coat of streaky Phoenix paints mahogany….colour based on photos of the old stock used on the lNW lines west of Dundalk.

Rocking the puns as always, PD…..

And how does it suddenly change from ‘train station’ in the wee six to ‘rail station’ in Saorstat Eireann?? Some translation subtlety between Ulster Scots and Erse?

A masterclass in the subtleties of tone and texture

Absolutely Mayner - spot on comparison. Imagine an Irish Pendon…..no pressure, Kevin! Fabulous work and most inspiring.