meathdane

3 hours ago, murphaph said:

Fabulous. Very atmospheric indeed. I really like it, shades of Dugort Harbour about it. I'm no expert on backsecenes, having never made one but would a blast of matt varnish be an idea to reduce the light reflecting back from the lanterns?

Very kind of you to say, especially comparing it to the wonderful Dugort Harbour! 

1 hour ago, Galteemore said:

An overhead lighting rig, with a wash of light over the backscene, would also mitigate this. 

Yeah, I'm looking into possibilities of dulling the light reflection. My first attempt at a backscene, and truthfully I'm not overly happy with it plenty of bubbles and ripples in it, so I may come back to redo it at some stage or even paint a backscene instead! 

Thanks for the comments lads

7 hours ago, Galteemore said:

Terrific work. You should be well pleased with what you’ve achieved so far! 

6 hours ago, JasonB said:

Progressing nicely. The dreaded light bleed is a scourge for us all, but can always be fixed with a bit of work. Great modelling. 

Thanks lads! Much appreciated! Hopefully more to come soon!

Late night work needs some beverages,

Working away to get the layout lit up! Some light bleed issues to sort but progress is moving along steadily!

Thanks,

Dane

Found this in my travels today! 

Thought it might be of interest to this parish!

5 minutes ago, Sean said:

An idea I have been toying with is taking a flat green screen and setting it up as a backscene for photographic shots. I might still do it as a "frontscene" that i can lift in and out of place as i please.

 

the reason i mention it here is that your low down POV shots are really good and would make great use of such a feature if set up as you would be able to add whatever backdrop you liked after a photo was taken instead of say your kitchen for example.  not sure if anybody has actually ever done that though.

It's a great idea, it wouldnt be too hard to do, some editing software and some sheets of green paper glued to a piece of board/green sheet stapled to one, it wouldn't be too hard to achieve! And the advantage here is the backscene is attached to a separate board, so swapping out would be easy done 

If I was sensible I'd take it outside, but I prefer working at night, so I'll have to wait to get it lit up.

I'm sure everyone here is sick of seeing my kitchen!

It's amazing the difference a backscene will make! Getting onto decorating the station and lighting next!

As well as gearing up to transition fully to true Irish rolling stock!

A15 with an outbound empty goods back to Navan Junction and B131 seen shunting wagons beside the cattle dock

Absolutely fabulous! Love every update, it's an inspiration to follow and watch grow. Thanks Noel!

4 hours ago, murrayec said:

I reckon this would be the best starting point;-

https://www.dckits-devideos.co.uk/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=973&search=mk3+dvt

Eoin

Not to hijack the thread, but has anyone got a guide on this kit/personal experience with it? 

I.e - what comes in the kit/modifications to the Chassis required 

Decided to take a quick photo, more progress and a new engine

A backdrop would help the atmosphere, hopefully should have one sorted very soon, within the next week or two.

Delighted with how much the little layout has come along in a month!

Thanks all!

Dane

The static grass applicator finally arrived and I've been putting it through its paces.

Embankment is more or less completed now, including power lines, hand made from plasticard, skewers and thread

Field has had the first layers of grass applied, more work required to vary the tones.

Track weathering has been finished off to the end of the board

Overall very pleased with how it's all come out, very excited to come home most evenings to continue the work! 

Thanks all!

Dane

So while theres paint and glue drying, I decided to do the only thing I haven't done so far, play trains! 

The branchline's tired surviving ex-NCC 'Y' class has been bought by a preservation group, saving her from the cutters torch.

A46 is assigned to pull the locomotive to her new home, along with a van packed with spares sourced from various places.

A local farmer along with his dog watch this unusual movement, thinking out loud to himself that the lines closure can't be too far away with the loss of the branch's only engine...

Please excuse the mess! Working clean has never been a strong point, but I'll clean up later! Right after I get to those dishes I left soaking a while ago....

Lots going on this week, 

Remainder of track has been ballasted, and weathering has begun

Barrow crossing laid and painted

Fields, embankment and goods yard have had a start made, just need the static grass applicator to arrive from fleabay and I can really get going there!

Walls made very simply from Das Clay, nothing special, but hopefully a lick of paint will bring them to life!

Decided on a position for the cattledock, little bit of ballast removal required but nothing major!

Started work on a yard office/ticket booth, recycled from an old Hornby 4 wheeler, need to build a little interior for it, as well as a gate and barriers 

Thanks all!

3 minutes ago, jhb171achill said:

Love the withdrawn steam loco….. very much a thing to be seen at certain locations in the early 1960s. Very realistically “weathered”….

Thanks JHB, it's my little nod to the changing of the guard in time period I'm aiming for. I have to admit I'm quite proud of that weathering job, did my best to hide the English-ness of the loco and make it halfway passable at a glance

1 hour ago, 2996 Victor said:

Looking good, Dane, excellent track layout and nice progress. Great work on the concrete which notoriously difficult to make convincing.

The shed also looks fantastic, the windows are particularly effective. Have you got any details on the build?

Looking forward to seeing your next instalment

Cheers,

Mark

Hi Mark, 

Kind words are most appreciated! 

I wish I could take credit for the goodshed, however it's a run of the mill Hornby Skaledale Granite goods shed I got for twenty quid basically brand new! Adding to this makes more sense than scratchbuilding as I wasn't basing this off anywhere in particular, so I could get away with it, though I may come back in the future when my skills allow me to building something more Irish looking! 

Thanks again!

52 minutes ago, Sean said:

with smalller boards like this, it really does seem like a process whereby you design an overly complex track plan and then over time as you begin to play with stuff you come to realise that less is more without nessesarily sacrificing on operability whilst increasing realism of operations. 

Absolutely Sean,

Kind of a Goldilocks situation, that's why it changed so many times! I stood back from V1.0 after test laying and realised I wouldn't get very much enjoyment from it, hence the industrial 2.0 attempt, but I didn't give myself enough room for scenics, it was a sea of trackwork, operationally it was great, but would have been a visual eyesore, as well as limiting me to goods only operations.

This one has hit the right middle ground for me, I can run passenger only, goods only, mixed traffic, I can conceivably fit two trains on scene with an outbound goods waiting for an inbound passenger before departure, without fouling the branch line. The only thing I am missing is a cattledock, which I could fit opposite the goods shed, and store the loaded vans in the siding for cattle specials, still very much a work in progress as I build, but I don't want to crowd the scene either.

48 minutes ago, Rob said:

Nice progress, Dane-  good to see it.

What era roughly is it based in?

Thanks Rob, much appreciated, I'm trying for a 50s-60s style layout, all of my A's and my 121s are BnT/Green/Grey, I do have more modern stock, but I prefer the unfitted goods and older coaching stock myself, but who's to say a 141 with some Mk3s won't make an appearance for a GAA special

Back with an update at last, lots going on, including completed reworking of track number 1 million, however I finally settled with a track plan and have progressed onwards in my model railway journey!

New trackplan is a small branch terminus in the Meath area, coming to the end of its life, incorporating a runaround loop big enough for loco + 2 coaches, goods shed with the ability to store 4 two axle wagons, a siding able to accommodate a further 4 and a headshunt with a capacity of 5, plenty of operations without overloading the board with trackwork

Hard standing made, dried, cut and weathered to resemble concrete, using Vallejo black and burnt umber both heavily watered down for washes and undiluted for certain parts, as well as weathering powders. Thankfully all locomotives are behaving over the hard standing! So there's a win!

Goods shed acquired and detailing has begun, yet to add interior decor and lighting.

Sides of all rails painted brown

Made a start at the ballasting, using a mix of woodland scenics light grey medium and dark grey fine

Platform built and has a layer of polyfiller applied, as well as bascoated to see the highpoints in order to smooth away. 

thanks all!

Dane

We've had quite a taking to the lovely A Class! Must get hold of a lovely silver one before they disappear!

One during daytime hours, the other at night! Lights make all the difference!

How could you have breakfast without oil to cook it with? And how could I have an oil train without a safety lamp?

Temporarily wired for a systems check until the bridge rectifiers arrive, might add a stay alive capacitor in the line yet. Weight needed to be added as the kit is very light and causing an occasional pickup issue, as well as helping to offset the resistance from the wipers, should have gone with the axle spring pickups in hindsight

55 minutes ago, David Holman said:

Fictitious sources of traffic for model railways have included treacle mines and even a factory that produced the holes for toothbrush handles, but seems there is also a large ketchup refinery in Ireland that I didn't know about!

Someone has to supply the country with their breakfast condiment of choice!

Another day another wagon awaiting Kadees, a Dapol Class B tanker wagon ready for service, 4 to go! Weathering hasn't been fixed in yet, not 100% happy with it, and not decided on Decals, most pictures I've seen have them plain black with just a running number or in their original Esso livery, I may paint them in both fashions

Im starting to build up a fleet of unfitted wagons as seen behind a suspiciously clean A15. Could also do with a layout underneath them....

I need to get on to Leslie after next payday for a few H Vans to compliment the appropriated ex-SE vans and a 20' flat as a barrier wagon

7 hours ago, Noel said:

Looking good. Very neat trackwork. Will enjoy watching this evolve. What point motors do you plan to use?

Thanks Noel!

I have a heap of Seep PM-10s I was gonna use for the main layout, but I'm going a different direction so I'll probably just repurpose them for this project to save some money and time considering I already have the motors and point switches

It's been a modelling marathon this week! 

First board down, tracks laid and testing underway, pleased to report no issues! On to point motors, uncoupling magnets for Kadees and then scenics! 

Decided to forgo laying cork, the shelf seems to absorb the running noise, possibly due to the thickness of the material. But past that, I'm very happy with how everything has proceeded so far!

30 minutes ago, leslie10646 said:

Hi Dane

Looking very good. Excellent for a first go and nicely weathered.

Leslie

(PS the money's in a brown envelope - thanks for the plug - I think they're a great wagon and worth the effort)

Thanks Leslie! Much appreciated!

The envelope will be return to sender for more kits soon. They've given me the bug for wagon building! Because I them I've actually built some tanker wagons I've had sitting in the pile for 2 years, so thank you for that!

I'm on a roll this week! Making use of some time off to finally get to the wonderful Bullied Corrugated opens supplied by  @leslie10646 at provincial wagons.

As a first time wagon builder, these kits proved to be an absolute dream to cut my teeth on, and produced some absolutely amazing wagons! However I've just noticed I put one set of brake shoes on the wrong way around..... Oops must fix that! But past user error I cannot recommend them enough and I'd urge anyone to go ahead and order yourself some!

Just waiting on some Kadees and they can enter service as my first true pieces of Irish rolling stock!

Thanks again Leslie!

OfFirst scratch built building underway, a small shed for a shunting engine

still have detailing to do on it, need to add a vent for steam and diesel fumes, some gutter work, downpipes, windows and a other bits before painting

It's going to sit on a foundation on the layout so I don't need cutouts for the rails in the door. 

Quite enjoying this scratch building stuff, first attempt at it and I'm surprised how much I'm enjoying it! 

Few A Classes appeared on Adverts. Might be some use to those missing a running number or two!

And not scalping prices either!