Irishswissernie

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

Hurray! Half term is over and the Missus has returned to school therefore work has resumed on the station buildings etc. The Goods shed will be portrayed as having been modernised with a canopy over a widened entrance. Were these rebuilt to form garages for road vehicles does anyone know? Ernie

You could also include the original route of the Fishguard & Rosslare Railway (originally Wexford & Waterford railway I think) south of Wexford which was superseded by the direct route towards Waterford from Rosslare Strand and didn't see much use afterwards closing about 5 years later. My brain hurts! ERnie

The links from the Burma Road , the Sligo, Leitrim & Northern Counties and the M&GWR Sligo line at Collooney/Ballysodare also formed a triangle, although I doubt if they were ever used as such. Ernie

Charleville, Limerick City, Moyasta (West Clare), Greenisland and nowadays Belfast GVS. Ernie

Well er! actually the Sundeala boards are grey to start with! ERnie

Some progress has been made. The station area track, laid and ballasted and the track painted. There has been some adjustment to the track plan. The run round for the bubbles has been lengthened so that a long former cattle bank can be created but now utilised as a Guinness compound and siding, whilst still be long enough for releasing the 'bubbles ' loco and odd wagons. The passing loop at the station has been shortened with a new connection to the running line and the former 'off scene' point now will serve a loco siding/stabling point. Basic shell of the station train shed has been built so that I can check the aesthetics. The sky backdrop has also been cut and glued onto the back boards as this is an almost impossible job once one starts on the scenics in front of it. Its half term next week and the Missus is off from school so little chance of getting anything done for a few days! Ernie

Sorry, I gave up on Exhibiting back in the late 1980's although I continued attending Shows but working on various friend's Trade stands for many years thereafter and also looked after a local model shop when the owners were doing shows, having holidays etc. I have a flickr album in Ernie's Railway Archive of some of the layouts. Thankfully not many photos were taken and those that were are mostly of the same quality as the layouts! hhttps://www.flickr.com/photos/irishswissernie/albums/72157690426038844/page1 I have now reached my '3 score + 10' and being retired have discovered that I don't have any free time any more. Apparently this is a common problem! Ernie