Irishswissernie

Not Glengarriff! but another old modelling photo which might be of interest I have just come across . 7mm O gauge PP & JT outside shed based on Enniskillen GNRI shed . Most of the stone/brick work on the shed front was made from individual pieces of plastikard. I must have had more time in those days - working full time and with 5 bairns, 2 dogs, rabbit , Guinea pigs, ferrets and rats and the wife to keep amused! (ER not necessarily in that order- nearly shot myself in the foot!) Ernie

A bit more progress. All the ground now has some paintwork done . Foliage now started but I have discovered that I don't seem to have any 'turf' flocking. I am off to the Welsh Highland Gala tomorrow so hopefully will be able to pick some up then. Ernie

Looks as if its actually on the site of the old track bed of the Newry to Armagh line! Ernie

Had a reply from Tommy which confirms his email address given above. He had to close his IFM site as it had been hacked badly but may set it up again in the future. Ernie

I have sent him a message on 'faecesbook' asking him for an email address which I can put on here so you can contact him direct. I have purchased a fair number of wagons from him over the years ; they aren't a patch on the Irish Railway Models items but they were the best available at the time. He also sells items on E Bay trading as helix0_8 , there is a laminate on there at the moment. Ernie

On the facebook page at the left side there is the word 'STORE' click on that and it will bring up the shop

On my own today for a few hours so a bit of progress. The time of year is supposed to be Autumn so I can have a variety of greens and browns. The trees are heather which has been lying in the loft for some 6 years and whilst it is quite brittle Haltwhistle and the surrounding countryside's main contribution to nature can easily be re-plenished. It is probably somewhat over-scale. The box needs an interior.

I prefer to use it, as a.) Its easy to lay, has a 'built in' 'shoulder' , b.) Using loose ballast plus PVA or similar adhesive; this tends to get in the points etc and affects the electrical contacts, and most importantly c.) doesn't fall off when moving boards or even more importantly falls off on the carpet thereby causing a hiatus in marital harmony! The weathered bubbles are a marriage between the Dapol Prestwin chassis and my son Alan's designed 3D printed Shapeways Bubble mouldings. He built and weathered them and amongst the weathering material was some toothpaste! One or two developed an interesting green mould on this over the years. Yesterday I took the plunge and started similar heavy weathering (less toothpaste) on an IRM bubble. I think I hear cries of 'Sacrilege' but that's the way I remember them.

The ballast is Gaugemaster GM200 ballast underlay which you have to lay under the track as you lay the track down. Its is far less messy than trying to ballast the track with loose ballast/glue etc. You have to cut the strip when laying it under points but its quite easy after a bit of practice. The rails were painted after the ballasted track was laid.

Rails are painted with Phoenix Precision P950 Light Rust. I use oils, acrylics and poster/water colour somewhat randomly for ground cover, stonework etc . The next big job is grass, foliage etc.

Managed to do a bit more 'ground' work this week. Flocking and foliage to follow. The signal box has been re-built and awaits the paint brush. Ernie

With the temperature in the loft now down to bearable level and even more importantly Mrs B , No. 5 offspring and son-in-law in London for the week and therefore only me and the dogs in residence; work has re-started. I wanted a long cattle/sheep loading bank ,one of the main features of many Irish stations but now invariably overgrown with the demise of livestock traffic. Mine runs along the front of the right hand baseboard and will be used as the Guinness storage facility. The tracks in the yard have had the ground level built up to rail height where the bogie Guinness flats can be unloaded by Fork Lift; the 4 wheel flats can be unloaded direct from the loading bank by fork lift as the wagon 'bed' is higher. I have been converting the Bachmann signal box to look a little more Irish with the removal of the balcony and re-positioning of the steps. The end barge-boards have also been amended. Only 2 more weeks of the school holidays to go and then I should be able to crack on in earnest! Ernie

Glengarriff doesn't have a lifting section but the boards are at a height of 42 inches (107 cm I think - I'm to old to go metric!) which helps. I crawl under due to a bad back as well. I've actually done some work on the layout today as the loft temperature is only 70F; the Monsoon is now in full swing in Haltwhistle plus Mrs B and the 'lodgers' (daughter and hubby) are away for a week in London Ernie

I think as I'm weathering my proposed rake its more a case of shades of red and grey rather than lettering Tralee June 2001 ERnie

I will be staying with the IR version already ordered and paid for. Ernie

Here are a couple of the tractor + wagons https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishswissernie/5739249197/in/album-72157626638886303/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishswissernie/5739249427/in/album-72157626638886303/ The day I video'd these a 141 had gone on the far end of the rake and gave them a nudge to get them started! Saw tanks at Tralee and Waterford as well Ernie

Thanks for the kind comments! The O Gauge locos have all moved on , the 2 SLNC tanks via this forum in 2014, Des now has one of them. I also had 2 North Star PP's but they went elsewhere plus an unmotorised SG3 built to the correct gauge 37mm? , a JT and also a Class S 4-4-0, these moved on a bit earlier, probably via my mate Geof Poulter at Contikits. The 4 North Star locos were built for me by a friend of Ian Young (Sans Pareil Models). Ian still has memories of helping to knock out the rivet detail on the 0-6-4t's. I think Ian is doing the detail castings for the forthcoming 00 Works loco but I may be wrong. The NG stock was mainly plasticard bodies with Bachmann 00 gauge chassis for the locos and best described as a pastiche of Irish narrow gauge practice. I like to think they captured the 'ambience' of the Irish narrow gauge rather than an exact copy. I am probably more of an artist (some would say add Pxxx artist) than a modeller. Ernie

https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishswissernie/albums/72157690426038844 There are a few more in this flickr album which also includes some of the Irish O gauge locos I had at one time. A fair number of the layouts appear to have escaped the camera! Ernie

Not Glengarriff, not much progress there at the moment because the heat in the loft is somewhat oppressive. Roll on the school holidays as in Haltwhistle they normally start the Halti Monsoon season which lasts for precisely the same time as the holidays! However today I was watching some of my old video's now on DVD when I came across a short extract of a layout my son and I started some 20 years ago based on a narrow gauge Sligo & Donegal junction railway in On30 scale I hadn't realised we had progressed so far with the layout until now. Here are some stills, I don't possess the technology or more likely the skills to upload the video! ERnie

If you missed out on the ballast wagons, they didn't always remember them on the real thing! https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishswissernie/14731171042/in/album-72157646594210844/ Ernie

I'm not really a fan of mirrors for this purpose. One tends to get reflections of bits of the layout room or from the lights. When I'm 'playing' trains i.e. just letting them run around slowly I tend to sit down and get a much lower eye level view as per the prototype so the cut off nature of the buildings isn't evident. When I'm standing to shunt in the yard I'm concentrating on the yard action so the the layout in the background isn't so obvious. I am also partially sighted with some tunnel vision (one of its few or possibly only advantage's!) ERnie

Interesting although sad to see the station now from when I was there back in 2003 & 2005 but I see the tradition of having a dumped wagon is being carried on although I don't think the goods yard tracks are connected now! The Drone is a good way of finding out the roof details. Ernie

This photo on my flickr site I took at North Wall bears out the only one pallet in the centre 2 bays. I also video'd various mixed Liners with around 4 ferts in the consists https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishswissernie/5739848398/in/album-72157626638886303/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishswissernie/5739849932/in/album-72157626638886303/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishswissernie/5768010571/in/album-72157626825629406/ ERnie or even just 1!

I've got that DVD if its the Markle Tara & Clara one; very interesting! Does anyone know how they re-assemble the wagons after unloading (I managed to video the train arriving at the unloader and the loco running round back in 1905) The video shows the last wagon being unloaded and taken back to the front of the train but for the rest does the loco push the train in and after each wagon is unloaded and traversed to the mt siding does the loco then run out onto Alexandra Road and then then pull the wagon off the traverser with the rest of the mts. Ernie

The station overall roof and goods shed complex are now basically done and painted today which is why they have the "wet look" Its about 10 years since I have done any serious modelling but putting it on here is a great incentive to get on with it. A bit like 30 years ago when if I promised to build a layout for a Show then I just had to stick in and get it built. This often meant getting up at 6am and doing an hours modelling before going off to work but at least it got me out of walking the dogs/feeding the kids etc. Ernie