Angus

Having just invested in a ratio signal box interior the question has to be asked, how many levers at the Dromahair box? Counting the signals on the Enniskillen side we have four signals visible in this photo from Ernie's Railway archive The signal on the horizon having two arms (as seen in the photo below from the John J Smith collection held by the Bluebell Railway) http://www.bluebell-railway-museum.co.uk/archive/photos/jjs/b06/6-92-8.htm The strangely painted lower arm provided the signal to the driver that the crossing has been set for the goods yard when a train was to be set back into the yard to clear the mainline for another train. At the Sligo end there are two signals as seen in another photo from the JJS collection http://www.bluebell-railway-museum.co.uk/archive/photos/jjs/b06/6-93-6.htm So that's six levers so far. The crossover for the entry into the goods yard appears to be worked from a single run of point rodding so would account for another lever (the crank is behind the annoying placed gentleman in the above photo from Ernie's). I also think there two runs of rodding running east so I'm guessing a facing point lock operated by a separate lever (or did the SL&NCR use economical FPLs?). So we are now up to eight levers. There is another run of rodding running west just visible in this photo from the transport of delight website In truth I am not sure what this is for, it seems to run to the level crossing gates. As there was a crossing keeper at Dromahair responsible for the gates I am presuming these weren't operated from the box. So I am presuming this is a locking lever for the gates? Finally the JJS collection gives a view of a distant signal at Dromahair, presumably there would be one of these in each direction? http://www.bluebell-railway-museum.co.uk/archive/photos/jjs/b01/1-57-3.htm This brings the tally of levers to eleven, so say twelve with one spare. Finally I am presuming that the lever colours would follow standard UK practice (although I suspect anything is possible with the SL&NCR) of red for a stop signal, yellow for a distance signal, blue for a facing point lock, brown for the crossing gates lock and black for points?

A bit more progress at Dromahair. The yard has ballast down although I do need to add some static grass which should add a dash of much needed colour, and Mrs Hamilton's chickens are obligatory! Thge sleepers have all been painted a light tan/grey colour to represent aged wood although I think a couple of washes with some dark grey is needed to tone down the effect. I've also got the signal box stonework done. No masochistic scribing this time just Ration embossed sheets. I still need to add the quoin stones, this will completed using thin plastic.

I can't make London but I've signed up for the Manchester event in February. Which is a shame as it looks a great agenda!

It was good to see your rolling stock in the latest issue of New Irish Lines when my copy arrived yesterday. Mention of J I C Boyd reminds me, I got a nice surprise last year when my second hand copy of Neil Sprinks's Sligo Leitrim and Northern Counties Railway arrived. Stamped inside the cover is:- J.I.C. Boyd Rinneen Mathon Road Colwell Malvern, Worcs 23 APR 1970 There is also an typed half page precis of the book on green paper with a handwritten note "cheque sent 10/6 3-3-1970". All in all a bit of a surprise and nice link to an author of several books I own.

Hi David, It's an interesting point you raise. I'm not a big fan of brick paper. It looks great in photos but always looks too flat when viewed with naked eye. That said, having used embossed plastic in the past , this doesn't give a good representation either. In future I'm intending to switch to brick paper as it allows more variety of coursing. For stonework the texture is more important. For well dress stone brick paper would suffice, for any other stone then I feel the texture is more important than absolute scale courses. As with all things it comes down to personal preference and balance.

Hi Galteemore That lighting really gives a lift to the scene. Did you mix LEDs or just use one type?

More stone scribing over the weekend has got all the platform faces complete and the rear platform wall. There's still the wall at the back of the Goods loading bay but I'm going to wait until the goods shed is done so I can get the tie-in position right. I've then been over the stones with some washes of paint, particularly the platform edging which shows up lighter than the platform surface in most photos. To try and tone down the starkness I added some sienna yellow in at the end to give a bit of warmth. The stones are a bit over-scale when compared to photo s but these are the smallest I can physically scribe. I've also printed the station signboard and backed on some 10 thou plastic. I've only found one decent photo of the sign, which I would guess dates form the 30s, Next up I need to paint the sleepers and install the point rodding in prior to ballasting. Rather surprisingly for the SLNCR, the photos do seem to indicate the presence of ballast at Dromahair"

Hi Galteemore, Both the van and building look great. I'm glad to see the van getting some work. As jbh171achill has said too many layouts have well weathered rolling stock, great buildings with a nice colour tone then ruined by a garish out of the box car or van. Yours fits in well.

Thanks both. The black wash was just to exaggerate the scribing prior to painting. I was surprised how effective it looked although in reality it does look a little stark and in need of some tone and more colour.

Following on from a trial scribing the foam to represent rough cut stone I've done the first wall. This is just scribed foam covered in a black wash. I need to dry brush some lighter greys and browns to introduce more subtly to the colouring. The top surface in particular needs considerably lighting. None the less I am pleased with the effect so far.

Puzzle sorted. In this extract from the video slideshow on the Dromahair Heritage site (https://dromahairheritage.wordpress.com/2018/04/27/s-l-n-c-r-and-dromahair-station/#comments) the detail can just be seen. There is a better quality picture in Neil Spinks's SL&NCR Pictorial book. The gutter falls toward the porch then drop down in a series of two bends into the hopper. I bet they were a bugger to keep clear of leaf fall!

Hi Brothie, I did wonder if that might be the case but hoppers look higher than the front of the porch. It might just be an optical illusion in the photo mind. I'll have to spend some time looking at the historical photos.

Thanks Galteemore those two views are most useful. I haven't seen a rear view of the goods shed. I am puzzled why the downpipe hopper is so low though. It's the same on the front:- http://eiretrains.com/Photo_Gallery/Railway Stations D/Dromahair/IrishRailwayStations.html#Dromahair_20060618_005_CC_JA.jpg

Well, the inevitable happened when I soldered on the coupling rods onto the Y class and I managed to solder two of the pins solid. Strangely this was the last two I did so I was obviously getting complacent. I've freed them off now but in the process loosened one of the wheels. With a bit of fettling everything is running again, I just need to attack the recalcitrant pins again when I'm in the mood. Instead I turned my attention to developing the layout a bit more. Some 6mm MDF was salvaged from the garage and cut to shape for the station platforms. This actually took quite a while due to the need to size everything around the buildings. And there in lies a problem, I can't find any consistent data of measures. So short of trudge across the Irish Sea with a tape measure (I did suggest a holiday to my wife but she seemed unimpressed by the this....) I've gone with what looks right. My datum points were the 25 inch OS map, Bing maps aerial view and Google earth. All three give different dimensions for the buildings What initially threw me was the goods shed. I had presumed this would be the same as the one at Glenfarne. It looks similar in the photos and an I've bought an Alphagraphix kit of the structure, scanned it in and re-scaled it for 2mm. Looking at the Dromahair structure in more detail is is clearly a bigger building. I think I've got back to a pretty good approximation. No doubt if I ever get to Dromahair armed with said tape measure I'll find I'm widely out. Still if it looks right........ The building in the photo above are just held together with bluetak. The corners need chamfering and more door and window cut outs are required. The white strips are foam from a pizza base that will be scribbed and painted as rough stonework. Some initial experiments look promising.

Thanks Galteemore, I've just found a bargain copy, think I'll snap it up quickly....... https://www.amazon.co.uk/Irish-Metro-Vick-Diesels-Colourpoint-Transport/dp/1898392153

Thanks for the recommendation David. I tracked down a copy of Colin Boocock's Irish Railway Album which arrived in yesterday's post. Although coverage of the SLNCR is limited it is a very inspiring book. There is a great picture of a C class at Sligo next to one of the SLNCR's 0-6-4t just before closure of the SLNCR, which provides a nice might have been for a C class on excursion traffic. Elsewhere there this a love photo of a shiny new C Class hauling a train of three elderly six wheeled coaches. The juxtaposition of these items of rolling stock together creates an effect I'm itching to model. Can anyone recommend a book on the C Class?

I doubt that David, you haven't seen the levels of bodgery I frequently descend to. Hundredths of a mm measurements are much more of theory than reality!

Thanks David, Presumably that is Bob Jones of Fence Houses Model Foundry? Bob doesn't list the chassis on his price list, but then I'm struggling to see what would make it 10.5mm gauge? Frame spacers are usually strips of doubled side PCB. 7mm wide PCB used for 9.42mm gauge presumably 8mm would suit 10.5mm gauge. For Railcar B (and potentially 2A) I have bought this combined motor and gearbox:- https://shop.kkpmo.com/product_info.php?info=p1003_m400g144-micromotor-with-ratio-144-1.html The 1:144 gear box should provide a scale 60 MPH top speed. The 1mm dia axle will enable 2mm scale association carriage and wagon wheels to be slide on. It all works in theory I just need to test the practice!

The result of today's work is a rolling chassis with all three axles:- I've since removed the plain muff on the drive axle and replaced it with a geared muff. I've then run the chassis under power and all seems well. Next step is to solder the coupling rod washers in place and shorten the crankpins so the body can drop on. Hopefully I won't solder everything solid on the process!

Hi JBH, The section of line mentioned by Colin Boocock in David's post was actually MGWR/GSR/CIE rail that the SLNCR had running rights over into Sligo. As such I suspect it was in better condition, I still don't believe the 60 mph though!

I started on the Jinty conversion this afternoon. Firstly the components were brought together. The crankpins have been soldered into the wheels and the conversion commenced. The balance weight have been cleaned up with a file and superglued onto the wheels. As I suspected the brakes have had to be cut off and will need moving out to align to the wider gauge. The rear footsteps are also close to the wheel faces so these have been thinned down with a file to create a bit more clearance. After a false start due to cutting a wheel muff too short ( I forgot the axles are 1mm further apart) and I've got a 0-4-0 rolling chassis. Tomorrow should hopefully see the remaining axles complete and installed. I'm intending to use a plain muff first to enable a rolling chassis to check and remove any tight spots in the rods before I install the geared muff. For anyone doubting the benefits here is a comparison of the Farish coupling rods and wheels to the finescale ones.

Just to show I'm not completely mad by devoting such time to build rolling stock for a 2 foot by 9 inch layout I do have a follow up plan. If this version of Dromahair ,created for the 2mm scale associations diamond jubilee layout competition, works then I have a couple of Tim Horn base boards unbuilt. These were originally purchased for a Canadian layout I planned a couple of years ago whilst incapacitated with my arm in a brace following corrective surgery on my bicep tendon. Once active again the desire to build the Canadian layout wore off and the boards remained unbuilt. The boards are 800mm x 225m so the two boards give a length of 1.6m, Playing around with the OS plans and Templot shows Dromahair can fit with minor tweaks and no compression:- The light border shows the baseboard outline. I should be able to rob the buildings off the DJLC layout on the competition is over. The only additional building would be the long good shed which would make for a quick build.

Hi David, I don't think 60mph behind Sir Henry would have been a comfortable journey! At least it was on the GSR tracks. I wouldn't mind a copy of the Garrett drawing, I have a soft spot for them, but it would be way down the list of builds. Is it hard or soft copy? Thanks Angus

Hi Galteemore, I would at some point like to model one the two (well three actually, one was swapped out for a less knackered one) 0-6-0s, the C class as a starting point is a bit of problem though. For the C class Farish have moved away form their recent construction method that enables a drop in wheelset. This means a scratch built chassis is required, and to be honest, if I am building the chassis from scratch then building the body to match would not be that much more effort and will procide a better scale representation. I just need to find a suitable drawing first (and even then I want to do a model of each of the three 0-6-4ts first). Hi Mayner, Whilst I don't mind straying into "Might have been land" I do prefer to model actual prototypes, I find it more satisfying to create a miniature of reality.

Hi Galteemore, I was aware of the of the proposal to keep the Omagh - Enniskillen line open to allow the heavy cattle traffic from Sligo through. This traffic was the life blood of the SLNCR and in the early 50s when the SLNCR was first threatened with closure due to poor economics, the cattle traders agreed to increase their payments to help make up the deficit such was the demand. I'd always figured if the take over the Omagh section had gone ahead then the SLNCR would have been absorbed into the CIE as the line was effectively being kept alive by funding from the Irish government. I am tempted by the "might have been" which leads nicely onto David's comment:- Had the SLNCR been kept alive beyond 1956 and transferred into CIE ownership then the possibility of diesel motive power appearing raises its head. I don't know much about early Irish diesels but I do rather like the C class Bo-Bos, especially in their early aluminium livery. There is a 2mm scale 3d print of a C class body available on Shapeways, but it does seem to suffer from the layering in the print seen on many Shapeways products (but missing from the latest cheaper home resin 3d prints). A chassis is also available from Tomix in Japan that approximates to the C class chassis, the only real discrepancy is that the bogie centres are 2mm (one scale foot) too close together. I don't know how easy the chassis would be to convert to 10.5mm gauge though. Another alternative is a Deutz G class which is available in etch brass form (but no castings) from Worsley Works. I suspect this might be a bit of work to get into a complete loco though. These might appear in the future as a bit of fun (which is after all, what it is all about!) but are straying a bit far from the recreation of the SLNCR that I wanted to build.