Northroader

Just digging round, and came across a nice overhead shot of the yard at Belfast. Guessing at around 1900? with a full length main set across the middle, with clerestory stock mixed in. It’s the mix of shorter vehicles to the foreground and by the shed that’s so tantalising. Gas lights/ oil lights, birdcage lookouts, short brake vans. I wish….

Those Sharp well tanks with outside frames are pretty damn gorgeous engines. There were another two which could be very similar on the Dublin and Belfast Junction, working the Banbridge line, absorbed into the GNR.

Well, the thing is, Ballycombe is sort of drifting. Mostly because it’s competing with two busier standard gauge lines for British and Continental railways, so I’m doing a rethink, which is going very woolly. So far, it’s going to be smaller than it was, a sort of diorama with a run off, with a minimum of bits from what sources I can lay me hands on.

I think you could shorten a Minories plan by making the approach tracks both two way working into the fiddle yard, saying that the necessary crossovers are just round the corner off the scene. Then I started thinking about a slimmed down version of Sligo. You could have goods trains coming and going on a siding or two at the front, before they go on “down to the docks”, but save on the space needed for a full size goods yard? Then again Westland Row/ Pearse south end has all the makings of a good Minories layout.

I do like the look of the scenery in that short video. Something I ought to try and copy. (Not with the young trees growing up thro the track, mind.)

I was very glad when Leslie (Provincial Wagons) was able to pass on some of my GSWR 0 gauge stuff on to Ken, and really sorry to hear the news of his untimely death. Best wishes with sorting out the print files, it will be nice to see these get a wider availability.

Do you still have to put it all out on a little table at Goraghwood?

Commiserations on finding your walk blocked and having to turn back, if that had happened to me in Britain I would have been spitting blood. I suppose the compensation is you’re in interesting countryside with beautiful views. These days I think coming back half a mile from the supermarket is a good walk, most times I’m on the bus. Now If you went in the tourist office, and told them you were a bit old, got any level trackbed from a closed railway line to walk on, they’d tell you they don’t close railway lines in Switzerland.

The original vacuum brake system on the GSWR was a two pipe set up. Looking on local interest Facebook pages, there’s one old picture of a gathering on the rock of Cashel, with the station in the background: you should be able to pick out the station platform road and trainshed, a runaround loop by it, then across from this a siding serving the goods shed, which all appear in the usual pictures. In addition further across, you can see there’s a long siding, with just enough clearance for road vehicles at the goods shed, and then behind this an approach lane up to it off the public road, presumably for a cattle bank. In the distance there’s a small engine shed, probably standing on a headshunt for the two sidings. The whole lot is set on a curve, so it would be helpful in getting the layout to fit a corner situation.

I reckon France showed their Gallic insouciance over not being in the Final, “ who gives a sh** about third place”, allowing England to put four easy goals through, then went in at Half Time and got a rocket up their ar**. The second became a proper game, good to watch, and England got it. Phew!!

Sorry to hear of trouble at t’Exhibition, it must have been a strain when you wanting to put on a good showing. I’m just again DCC on the extra cost grounds, as I like to go for discount or pre-used on ordinary DC in any case. Just watching a DCC steamer in action, i worry how many DCC steamers dont synchronise the chuffs with the wheel rotation. Then looking at the chat I get baffled by the technicalities. This cheap skating has led me to purchase old controllers off bring and buy stalls, not recommended, so I’ve splashed out on a Gaugemaster Combi, which does well enough, so I’ve got two now. They’re intended for 4mm use, I gather, but my Gauge 0 is all quite limited in size and power with Mashima or Dapol motors, and these do quite well on the Combi. The one snag is they have a power knob, and a forward/ reverse switch, and I prefer just a centre off knob, combining both functions, as it’s all shunt moves, and I’m unable to walk and chew gum at the same time.

Have you tried Connoisseur models? Mainly 7mm, but Jim does a few 4mm, and his kits are not overly complicated, and decent value. www.jimmcgeown.com

My apologies, I was thinking back to apprenticeship days in a main loco works, rather different from today’s scene.

P.S. if you want a real laugh, set some cotton waste on fire, beat it out until it’s smouldering, then drop it into the tank filler after the mug who’s struggled into the tank.