Northroader

A trip way back in the past, to the Jan/Feb 1950 “Railway Modeller”, which set quite a lot of modellers off. It was a 6x4 giving a branch line with a continuous run. I’ve drawn it from memory, not having the original to hand, and you’ve got a small terminus, with a nice length of run through a halt and a siding, then disappearing behind a scenic break where it splits, one line which could be used for stabling going on to join in front of the station to form the oval, and the other into a dead end siding to form a fiddle yard, although since then cassettes have been introduced. Then it’s just a question of tailoring it to where you want, and you might need to consider your waistline with the access hole. I did try it, making a softwood frame and insulation board top, but I did it as a one piece, and not having the dedicated space, it had to store under my bed, not the best place, and I was in my late teens, away from home to college and so on, so it never really stood a chance.

I like Iain Rices book, but some of his designs towards the back of this tend to squeeze a siding too many, Clun, f’instance. The Bishops Castle plan you show could happily lose the middle crossover, and get shorter in the process.

I know I’m a total Philistine, but I’m afraid I never worry about searching for a “back story”, if I fancy what I’m looking at, in it goes. It would be nice to get up that way and look round, though.

Cahirciveen was the first bit of Ireland I “knew” as it was featured as Prototype Layout No.3 in the early “Railway Modeller”, placing it in the early 1950s (sorry I cant be more specific) It was the terminus for some time before the line was finally finished to Valentia Harbour, so kept the engine shed and turntable. Recently Ernie has put an album of pictures of the branch on Flickr, some of them breathtakingly beautiful, and doing it in N should give you the chance of some plain line running through this. i think it could form a setting for any of the old Irish firms without embarrassment, including the SLNC? Me, I’ll miss the Blimp.

The most recent wagon sheets I’ve done use cooking foil, which should work for the roof sheets just as well. Fold the edges over flat to get a strong neat finish, and enclose battens at each side, as well as a length of thread for tie downs. Then I paint with Humbrol no. 1 primer, and a top coat of charcoal grey. You can letter them with a springbow pen, but don’t bear down too hard, or the point will cut through the foil.

All you need now is to fit rail wheels under the bus?

The NER/LNER J72 0-6-0T “Joem “ are very close dimensionally to the MGWR E / GSR J26 “Bat”, which lasted long, and got out into odd corners. If you cut a foot off the back of a GWR 2251 0-6-0, the chassis is a good match for the MGWR L / GSR J18/19, although the superstructure will need a lot of work.

Interesting question, with those old Victorian 2-4-0s I’d never be to a tater about slight differences in wheelbase and so on. However, the LNWR Precursors were built as express passenger engines with 6’6” diameter drivers, and these are very noticeable in size. Now if they’d have done a Precedent with 5’6” drivers, the field would have been wide open. The only Irish ones near this were the GSWR 56-59 class, and the 64-65 class, both with 6’6” drivers, McConnell coming from Crewe, and his locos looking quite close in details, the main problem being the raised fireboxes. Then there’s the MGWR Mail engines 7-12 class with 6’3” drivers and flyaway cabs. As a pregroup Modeller I would enjoy titivating either job up, but the Inchicore engines went in the 1890s, and the Broadstone jobs around 1910. Now if they were in the 6’0” - 5’6” blockhole, you’d find some interesting ones lasting right up to the 1950s, which I fancy would have a much wider appeal for a lot of modellers. The other thing is how much notice you take of the tenders, things like narrow bodies and springs above the frames.

Shame to hear that, but you have gained a wealth of experience to make a success of the next one.

Do you reckon there should have been a DWWR branch to Glendalough?

She was only the platelayers daughter, but she knew the gangers length.

Para Handy would say “Chuist pairfect”

Shaping up really well, just tell me the electrics all work o.k.?

I think a basic need is not to have the scenic background having a right angle in the corners where the back of the scenic section meets the ends of the section. I generally cut the baseboard to a curve of about 4” radius at the corner, and fit the scenery round this. I have tried making the back to fit a half ellipse, but this is wasteful of useful corner space. The actual backscene, printed or painted, needs support, and I do this with a 3mm hardboard sheet. At the curved corner you can curve the support to fit round the corner if you give the hardboard a prolonged soaking, then hold it to the required form and let it dry out. The other thing to watch is if the scenery has a straight horizon, to break it up with trees, buildings, or hills at the corner, or it does look odd.

That’s an interesting picture, it does show these engines did have a “best side”, something I hadn’t appreciated before. You’re very kind with your comments, David, but if you put my bodges in front of a well lit studio camera like these Manors have been, the howls of derision would be many.

The firebox does taper, sides and top, but the top looks as if it has a pronounced slant backwards, more pronounced than the real item, which isn’t too far off being flat. Is the front too high or the back too low, or some of both? I’m sure the model must have been made from the correct drawings, but the photos give an unfortunate appearance.

The firebox top don’t look right in those pictures

Everything looks so much better in colour, but I still love the last shot. Three brilliant shots there.

How many AA size do you need to get to Sligo?

Good luck with the venture, thanks for your willingness to make your craftsmanship available in this way. Like Schwarzenegger says, “I’ll be back”.

And someone is asking after information on a GNR “J” class, now where did they go?

Agree fully with you, really good articles across quite a range of subjects and scales, then there’s questions such as why good layouts are being sold and what’s being planned, questions, questions?

If you’re joining two pieces together they need to be both at around the same temperature before they will join, so always have a bit of solder on the end of your iron which will help the heat to flow where it’s wanted. No solder and the heat won’t flow as well, besides the need to have some flowing into the join and filling the gaps. Another thing is if you’re having a long session, more than a few joins, switch the iron off for a while. The iron can get too hot and you’ll have more trouble getting a decent joint.

https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/one-way-to-deal-with-asbestos-lined-carriages.32900/

I think it will look better with the shorter crane track. Your benchwork is so neat looking.