Angus

I'm currently contemplating buying a Farish N Class for conversion to 10.5mm gauge 2mm finescale (coz I've not enough started and half finished projects.....). The 2mm scale association have just released a set of etched valve gear for the conversion and the Farish model utilises bearings which can swapped for a replacements that accepts 2mm finescale stub axles (another association product) to allow drop in re-wheeling. Apart from the book mentioned in Maitland's post above (which I've just bought) does anyone know of a comprehensive list of difference between the English and Irish variants? Some differences can be easily picked out from photos (cut outs on the tender sides, front footsteps, age dependent smokebox doors, wheel diameters dependent upon batch, etc), others such the width are more subtle but can be seen (the widening of the tender frames but the tender tank width staying the same leading to a step between the two). Just being lazy really and looking to avoid work that may already have been done!

With the help of some not so great bank holiday weather the pointwork is completed, all check rails added and the PCBs gapped, although I bet I missed a section. Shorts always seem to turn up no matter how careful you are. It was quite satisfying to remove the pointwork from the board it has lived on for nearly year and then peal off the template. With some free time left I prepped the baseboard, holes for the wiring have been drilled, along with slots for the point motors. Despite my careful planning I've managed to get one of the tie bars partially in conflict with a cross beam which will need some head scratching to resolve. Hopefully next weekend should see the pointwork glued down.

It must have been fun playing with a train set of that quality Galteemore. Not Jealous at all, not one bit, not even a little bit....honest.....

That's two of us then!

Thanks both, I start using some cheap magnifying lens with a built in LED mounted on a head band a few years ago. That helps with eyesight, I doubt I could do anything without them now.

A bit more progress to report, the switch blades have all been filed and fitted using my home made jig: And the tie bars have been made up With the obligatory 5p for scale. The tie bars are a bit of a faff to make but have worked well for me in the past. Some of my 2mm finescale compatriots opt for a below base board turnout unit with the blades connected by wires through the board. I've never been convinced by this approach and prefer the tried and test moving sleeper method. The problem is in 2mm scale the PCB moving sleeper is narrow so significantly weakened by the hole for the point motor level. The result is that I had several tie bars break. The solution came following conversations with another 2mm modeller who used to build pointwork on commission. His solution was to use a piece of thin double sided PCB (0.25mm) laminated to a piece of thin strip brass. The PCB can still be gapped to provide electrical isolation and the brass strip adds strength for the point motor level. These are now ready for installation, albeit I have to remake one as I've managed to de-laminate one of the PCBs, probably by using too much heat. All that is left then will be to cut and fit the check rails.... the bank holiday weekend beckons!

Hi Claire, You've got a few choices, however having the items boxed is an advantage. Due to Covid and manufacturing issues in China there is a dearth of N Gauge items in the shops so the second hand market is buoyant. Were you to sell on Ebay you could expect the get close to new price, £30-40 per carriage, £100 - £120 for locos, higher if the item is particularly wanted, less for some smaller locos. I'm not sure what postage you would incur as most of the interest will probably be in mainland UK. As you have the boxes you should be able provide detailed descriptions. You could sell to a dealer but they will need their cut so expect a fair slug less, alternately a local enthusiast may be interested in a bulk buy. Hope that helps?

Speaking personally it is the gauge that helps create the charm and challenge of modelling Irish railways. I accept the total scale approach isn't for everyone and there is some very effective modelling out there that proves you don't need an accurate gauge to produce some evocative scenes, however from my perspective the extra effort is worth it. If I want to run trains on someone else layout, surely that's a good excuse for more trains...... never a bad thing!

A quick progress update to prove to myself that the progress isn't fleeting: All plain rail and crossings are now complete with a wagon freewheeling happily through the crossings in both directions. Next is the moment of truth, once the switch rails are added any flaws become glaringly obvious.

So after months of procrastination, prevarication and other words probably beginning with P, I've finally started soldering up the pointwork. The in between months haven't been squandered though, I finally got around to buying the 2mm scale associations book on track. http://www.2mm.org.uk/products/nms/index.html I'm glad I did as it has helped identify errors in my previous track builds. I've always managed to get the track working, but never as smoothly as I would like. I'm hoping, with my now increased understanding, I'll finish up with better looking and better performing track. I've also been a bit more finicky with my quality control. Bin and restart actually saves a lot more time in the long run than bodge and try make good..... All but one of the crossing are finished so just a few more lengths of plain rail to solder in and it will be on with the switches.

Progress is dribbling on, with the odd hour snatched here and there over the past month. Before progressing any further I wanted to check the alignment of the rails in the shed area (this was guessed at in the Templot plan) and ensure the scene wasn't too cramped. I reduced the scale plans of the Loughrea shed in New Irish Lines to 2mm and printed them out on some thin card then assembled into the structure cutting out the shed doors. All seems to be in order. I need to work out how to replicate the mixed stonework with brick returns and reveals that are so charismatic and typical of MGWR construction. I've various manufacturer's embossed sheets, so some experimentation is in order. With the test complete it was time to cut the main boards to produce the levels down to the harbour. Hopefully self-explanatory, the lower level will be the water, the mid-level the quayside with the upper level being the track. The rear corners were also radiused to avoid corners in the backscene. I should be able to sheet the whole board in one long run. After a bit of thought I decided to invest in a 100mm diameter forstner bit to cut the turntable well. I thought this would produce a nice accurately cut hole. I should have guessed that with this size bit it is almost impossible to stop it wandering. It would have worked if clamped in a pillar drill, I just don't have one big enough to fit the board underneath. The resulting chewed up hole was a little demoralising. Having sat and thought about it some more, I used a core drill to form the well. I had to resort to a chisel to remove some of the wood but the core drill left a neat edge as a guide. Lesson leant! To tidy up the hole I wrapped the core drill in cling film and used this as a form filling the gap with with wood filler. After leaving to set for a few days the form was removed and the filler sanded. It's not perfect, but usable with a bit more remedial work. The outline of the cut made by the wandering drill can seen by the extent of the filler in the picture below. With that done it was on with the framework. I'm using L-girder construction. Awhile back I had a 7mm scale layout ruined due to a leaking garage roof, I recently stripped it down to take to the tip, on removing the badly warped MDF top I realised the L-girder framing was still solid and straight. Much of it is getting re-used here. The framing is mostly complete now, I just need to cut out the remaining board sections (9mm ply) and that should see the Larass board almost complete.

I learnt a lesson a while ago that trying to build 2mm scale pointwork in-situ is a pain in the proverbial. Fortunately in such a small scale the templates can be easily mounted on a small board. As all six points at Larass are clustered together this should make construction easier. I printed the templates onto card (I've had trouble with paper stretching and tearing in the past) then taped these to the board (and offcut of old ply I had knocking around). I had held off doing starting this as the 2mm scale association stores were out of stock of PCB point timbers (isn't that always the way...) but as they are back in stock now so I thought I'd get started and then work out how many packs I need to order. It turns out I had enough in store to complete the pointwork! A few hours later and all the sleepers are cut to size and laid on some double sided sticky tape ready for the rails.

Thanks Galteemore, I was contemplating Florencecourt helped by the fact there is a plan in the form an Alphagraphix kit available. I think this will more appropriate for the smaller station, the terminus needs something a bit more substantial. I have the plans for Loughrea station building copied from an old Irish Lines and some photos of Athboy, both of these examples being two storey though.

Well, I believe it traditional to do some DIY over a Bank Holiday weekend. So not being one to let traditions fall I did some wallpapering. Diluted PVA being the paste and Templot being the wallpaper, I've previous used Spray mount for attaching trackplans but this is getting stupidly expensive so the cheapskate in me resorted to glue. Supervisor no 1 wasn't impressed as there was nothing edible available.... Having the plan now attached to a sheet of ply gives the opportunity to check a few things out. First up was the Station building. The area for the actual building is quite congested but my mock up of the Dromahair station building fits ok, The second storey does dominate a bit though. I need to make a mock up of the engine shed to check the scene more. The carriage shed looks well, I was worried it might look a bit stunted I think it's ok. Finally the small goods shed, again from Dromahair was dropped in. A larger one will be built for this location with the Dromahair shed used on the smaller station (not printed and mounted yet). Supervisor no 2 is just checking Supervisor no 1 hasn't found any food..... The second picture is a more representative view as the first was take form where a wall will be (and the backscene). the near back corner will be radiused once I've marked out the footprint of the engine shed. The rear back corner will also be curved to suit rather than angled but there is anther 75mm of length to fit first. Another advantage of having the plan stuck down id I can start to plan the levels that will make up the quay side. For reference the board used is 1220 x 450mm (~4' x 1'6" in old money) so need to be thinned down by at least 50mm to fit the location planned.

That's lovely little engine that I'll never tire of seeing Northroader. For your first loco kit it looks superb, it must have a special place in your heart.

I like those Courtney and Stephens posts you've modelled, quintessentially Irish! Could I twist your arm to share how you did them? They are a lovely set of signals.

I never made the link but I am reliable informed the Patrick O'Sullivan in question is the very same that authored to two books on Farranfore to Valencia line published by Oakwood Press. He also arranged for the shot down J15 etches in 2mm scale I have, so I've a lot to thank him for! It turns out he is still a member of the 2mm scale association so if the niceties of data protection allow I am hoping to make contact.

I think Templot gets a bit of a bad reputation because it not the shiny user-interfaced type of software we are all used to and doesn't compare well to snap-together type track planning tools such as AnyRail. But then it is design for a totally different job and it has developed considerable since its launch. It does take time to learn but there are lots on line tutorials and its own support forum, I would be lost without it, particular for odd scale/gauge combinations but I also use for standard UK 2mm finescale also. I'd encourage perseverance! Just printing off templates misses the power of the tool in the fact that point and crossings can be curved and adapted to give a much more flowing (and realistic) appearance. There are a series of tutorials on the 2mm scale association YouTube channel which may help? https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRIhMhLNf_X1NTquYGCmt9A

yes..........moving on...... probably about time I did some modelling as opposed to planning. I've already noted that the Ratio carriage shed looked a good approximation for an Irish structure so I bought the kit and settled in for some anticipated "shake the box" kit building fun. As ever though it isn't that simple. If I had looked closer I would have realised only the the roof of the kit is corrugated sheet, the ends and the sides are timber planking. Now, no self respecting Irish company would squander precious money on such frivolities when crinkly tin will do the job more cheaply and just a well. No matter, a few minutes had some new ends cut out some spare plastic corrugated sheet I had. I took the opportunity to square off the ends as seen on the real sheds at Cariciveen and Achill. The kit as supplied is two separate structures to be glued together to make one long one. This looks slightly odd though as you have two ends and associated legs in the middle of the structure, so I also adapted that by removing a small section with the legs from one end. I then overlaid the sides with more corrugated sheet. I was concerned about the thickness if I simply glued the corrugated sheet on top of the kit's timber side so spent 40 minutes diligently sanding down both the timber side and the corrugated sheet on one side before deciding it made little to no difference to the overall look so just glued the second side directly on. I used the surplus timber end pieces, suitable trimmed, as intermediate roof supports to give the structure more rigidity. Its coming along nicely. Posed above with a MGWR brake third that is awaiting the return of some patience (is that ever worth the wait?) to attack the z style MGWR grab rails. Having carefully bent up three handrails from 0.2mm wire only to see them ping off into the nevertobeseenagain distance as I tried to fit them I've given up for a while.....

Hi Mark, I've been looking into turntable myself as part of my plan detailed in my topic: I've found some details of the MGWR's turntables in the November 2001 Irish lines which may assist: https://www.dropbox.com/s/i5fc04qa6q56fx0/New Irish Lines - Vol. 2 No. 6 - 2001 November.pdf

As a final check on the design I've been giving some thought to train length. When I drew up the plan I was working on an 18" 450mm length, but in all honesty hadn't tested this. I know 12" was too short and 24" would more than comfortable so simply pumped for mid-way. It should be noted that I find as you decrease in scale size compression of train length becomes less visually acceptable. In 7mm a tender engine four goods wagons and brake van looks an acceptable train, however, it just looks odd in 2mm (Unless of course the real train length you are modelling was this long). Now in 2mm, the following approximate lengths apply: 101 Class (J15) ~ 100mm Covered van ~ 35mm brake van ~ 45mm 6w carriage ~ 70mm Bogie Coach ~ 130mm So a 450mm train length will allow: Loco+8x wagons + brake Loco + 5x 6w carriages Loco + 2x 6w + 3x wagons + brake Loco + 2x bogies carriages + 6w carriage These feel just a little short for a maximum train length. Adding 50mm to extend train lengths to 500mm ( 20") gives a bit more breathing space. This allows two more wagons in the goods (now 10x wagons + brake) and mixed trains (now 2x 6w + 5 wagons + brake)and allows three bogie carriages or an additional 6w carriage to be added to the bogie rake which would be more representative of excursion traffic. Fortunately this still fits on the plans prepared without squashing the run around clearance to the minimum (which always looks a bit odd in small scales).

Hi David, that is very much my current thinking, there are a few examples of very short tunnels on the Valencia line, always accepting the Sligo is not Kerry! combined with some hillside and the odd tree clump it should work. That's what I was meaning by "splitting it into to separately viewable section with a hard divide". It would restrict the expansiveness of the view though. Whilst this enable easier "Cameo" style framing and enable the layout to be built in two halves, I am concerned about losing the sense of journey I am trying to create. Ultimately the split between sections would be conveniently situated on the board joint so could be retrospectively installed if the view breaker tunnel and headland didn't work.

Thanks David, High praise indeed!w if I can deliver a final layout anywhere approaching the standard of Castle Rackrent I'll be a happy man! I am pondering the split between the two layout halves, practicality would suggest splitting it into to separately viewable section with a hard divide. This would preserve the integrity of each scene. However, if I conjure up a view breaker with a hill side and short tunnel it should assist the feeling of spaciousness you mention. I'd like to avoid an road overbridge, it doesn't strike me that there would be many of those around. Any existent road or track wouldn't be busy enough to justify the expense of a bridge. Also on the S curve between the two stations I'm hopeful of being able to conjure up a scene harking to the picture on the front of JHB's Rails to Achill book. This would need the extended view into the Larass section. Then again I might be pushing the expectation of my creative skills a bit too much!

Still doodling on with the track plan. Overnight a couple of things struck me. Firstly the access to the goods yard is a bit odd for a terminus arrangement. The loco would need to pull into the platform road, run around, then draw back passed the crossover and shunt into the goods yard, presumably it would have to clear one of the roads first. It could then shunt as required without fouling the station by using the headshunt but all trains would need to be made up in the yard. This would necessitate a lot of additional shunting and restrict the yard capacity. If the crossover were reversed, once run around at the platform, the loco could simply haul the train into the headshunt then shunt at will isolated from the mainline. Once the shunting is completed and the outgoing train assembled the loco can propel the train back into the platform road ready for departure. I my head at least this sounds more rational. This also removes another concern. I added a second station because I rather like multiple location layouts where you follow a train (very much the American approach as demonstrated by Mayner in the currently active "Irish model Railway Track Plans" thread https://irishrailwaymodeller.com/uploads/monthly_2022_03/1835103048_NorthKerryNScale2022Version.thumb.jpg.a5ddd83c78636aa8c181ab49836d3550.jpg). Apart form adding the interest of another station it also creates a feel of "journey", however, to be successful it does need adequate space between stations. In previous endeavours I've worked on the principle of three train lengths between station to give adequate open running. Obviously this wasn't going to work in the space constrains here so I've relaxed this rule down to two train lengths. I'm planning a view breaker at the end of the head shunt so the Larass station scene is separated visually from the smaller station and open running section. With the original crossover, the train would have to break through this visual barrier to draw forward far enough to access the goods yard. This would destroy any illusion created. With the crossover reversed the illusion can be maintained. The only down side to this revision is that I've had to trim 30mm from my imposed minimum radius of 500mm on the headshunt to fit on the boards. There are no reverse curves in this section so hopefully this won't be an issue. I also took the opportunity to extend the approach curve through the station at Larass, I always think gentle curves look more realistic on a model that straight lines, even if the real thing is usually straight. It also give more room for the shed scene and allows slightly longer sidings in the goods yard. I've reworked the small station compressing it slightly. This helps maintain the open space between the stations and hopefully reinforces the minor nature of this station (Culleenamore). I've altered the layout slightly to add to the shunting interest. There is an annual horse race (according to Wikipedia) held on the sands at Culleenamore, so I am presuming a small horse bay is provided. The short spur being inspired by the layout at Killala, seen here at around 1.00 minutes in. So all that remained was to alter the signal diagram as appropriate (note distance signals have been excluded hence the missing numbers.). In my head the SLNCR contribution to the line is to provide the intermediate stations which give me an excuse to vary the architecture (and recycle the buildings I've started for my Dromahair module) whereas Larass will be pure MGWR. Well enough procrastinating, I really should get on with some modelling..... I think the plan is complete now, barring minor tweaking. I need to print off the Larass station end and ensure it all works with the turntable and intended structures.

Thanks Northroader, That's useful information. I was wondering about the level and figured is must be something to do with the release.