David Holman

Thanks Minister - at least this one is easily cured with an all over coat of black. Hopefully a few Irish Moyles will come along later.

Did bit more detailing on the cattle and thought it might be interesting to show them on the layout. As they are not fixed at the moment, there is a choice between having them in the meadow or on the cattle dock. They are vaguely modelled on black Dexters - a breed that seems fairly common in Ireland. Having them black all over also hides the current lack of detail. Maybe after York, I'll do a bit more on them. If any of the IRM.com fellowship is at the show, please come and say hello this weekend. The Friesians are Slater's white metal models.

I don't think I'm particularly tight fisted, but somehow the idea of paying quite a lot of money for some model cows for my cattle dock rankled a bit. Slaters ones are at least two quid each and with a loaded cattle train and eventually a populated cattle dock, I could easily use £60-£80 worth. A lot of beer tokens in any currency. So, set about hand crafting some. Started with a frame of plasticard, then painted this with dilute PVA and then covered the frame with DAS modelling clay to give a basic body shape. Tried to give slightly different poses too. Once the DAS had gone off, set about fettling each model to try & match it to a Slaters white metal one. Scribed in mouth, eyes & nostrils, then added a tail from 1 amp multi strand wire. Thus far have just painted them black, but will go back to them & try to give a bit more detail/colour. Which probably means some brown around the outlet end of the primary orifice - if you get my drift. Not a quick job, which explains why ready made models are not cheap, but it has been an interesting little challenge & a change from more conventional modelling.

Working my way through the 'to do' list for York. Fingers crossed, the turntable is working well now, with the centre spindle sleeved and an additional bracket to support the drive rod underneath the baseboard. The platform ramp has had a visit from a large file & since been repainted, while buffer locking on the cattle train was traced to wagons being in the wrong order, plus a stiff coupling chain. The cattle wagons are now numbered on the underside, so the rake should now work without problems. Servicing the locos means a thorough wheel clean, plus checks [like the stock], for back to backs, wheel nut tightness etc. On the latter, discovered two wheels were loose, but the countersunk screws which hold them in place could not be tightened because the hexagonal holes [for an Allen key] had worn. Only way to replace them was to drill out a suitable slot to get a jeweller's screwdriver in. Not too difficult as it turned out & the new wheel screws seem to be of a much harder metal - so will hopefully keep their allen key holes intact. Most layout preparation now done, so will turn my attention to the fascias pelmets, etc, plus the all important tools & sundries boxes. one job still to be done is to put some livestock in the cattle dock. The ones in the wagons are hand crafted & have been making some more detailed versions to go on full show. Hopefully will be some pictures in the workbench thread by the end of the weekend.

If any organisers of shows are reading this & interested, I would be very pleased to take Arigna Town 'over the water'. However, am only too aware it would be expensive. For shows within about an hour of where I live, my costs are simply fuel to get me there, plus a second car for operators - hence £30-£50. Further than that calls for overnight accommodation, though in the case of York, this is eased by the fact that Gordon Gravett is helping me operate and a fellow club member is travelling up with me in the car. So, fuel cost is a tank of diesel [£50], plus 6 nights hotel in two rooms. No idea what rates York have negotiated, but even at say £40, that takes the expenses up to nearly £300... To visit Ireland [North or Republic], I am looking at a full day's drive to the relevant ferry port, the ferry cost itself [no doubt much more than the £40 or so it takes to cross the Channel on a booze run]. For a Saturday & Sunday show, I'd probably need Fri/Sat/Sun night accommodation, as the idea of driving back straight after a show doesn't exactly appeal over long distances. Hence could be upwards of £500. Because of this I'd be willing to cover any expenses in Britain, but also appreciate that it might just be too costly to justify. At least it would only be me & the missus to put up - I'd be more than happy to have guest operators, so set against the cost of a large layout [van hire comes into the equation, along with multiple operators], maybe it might be ok for a bigger show?

If you can get Humbrol paints, my advice is to get hold of a copy of Martyn Welch's The Art of Weathering ( Wild Swan). Gives a painting by numbers approach to the subject, using standard colours. Eg: for chassis weathering use 53 (gunmetal) and 133(bauxite) with matt black and leather or orange. By some distance my most well used book and I refer to it for every new paint job.

Very interesting to see what you are doing with that old 33, Rob. Has got me thinking because this sow's ear also exists in 7mm scale. Same issues re pancake motor, 'orrible wheels, chassis etc, but can be got hold off fairly cheap on the second hand stalls. The thing is - is it worth a punt in the larger scale? I'd be reasonably confident in a major fettling job, but would a scratchbuild be ultimately a simpler option? What is it about early diesels that attracts...? Comments welcome folks!

Arigna Town is about to embark on a series of exhibition dates, starting with the three day show at York over Easter. Hence thought it might be of interest to record my experiences in the coming weeks & months as, after York, there is Epsom [25/6 April], Gravesend [May], Bexhill [Aug], Worthing [sept], Beckenham [Oct] and Tolworth [Nov]. York will be the layout’s 4th outing &, as usual, following the previous one at Orpington in January, there is a list of things to attend to. However, before having a look at this, I would like to share a few thoughts about exhibition layouts generally. Have attended a couple of shows recently as a paying customer & it seems to me that some layout owners are missing the point of why they are there – ie to entertain the paying public. To me, that doesn’t just mean keeping the trains running [realistically too if possible], it also means ensuring there is a decent standard of presentation on the layout as a whole. Things that bugged included one layout where the backscene seemed to have footprints on it, while others had baseboards joints so obvious they were more like earthquake cracks. Then there was the diesel motive power depot where every loco was fitted with sound and ALL of them were running on tick over – there were over 20 of them & the resultant white noise made me feel sorry for the layouts either side. However, would any self-respecting shedmaster waste fuel in that way? One loco on tick over would have been enough, and undoubtedly the effect would have been so much better, also enabling the full start routines to be used too. Anyway, enough of the soapbox, because I’m only too aware that things do not always go as planned at exhibitions, as the list from my last outing shows: • Wiring between baseboards two and three needs replacing, due to a serious short • Loco turntable spindle requires a brass sleeve to improve operation. Likewise, pickups to turntable deck need adjusting • Austin 7 car – three of the wheels need re-fixing [just one still on then…] • Bakers/dentist shop had come adrift • Several items of stock are fouling the platform ramp • Suddenly, some items of stock were buffer locking, esp cattle wagons going into the cattle dock [turns out what order they are marshalled can cause problems] • Extra foliage needed behind the Miner’s Welfare building, as found it was possible to see the point lever supposedly hidden behind • One buffer & set of steps to repair on Brake van 2 • New ‘excursion train’ requires fresh info label for the fascia. Sadly, none of this is particularly unusual where exhibition layouts are concerned. Compared to home based [fixed] layouts, they lead a hard life. Every show means the baseboards are split up, crated & loaded into a car/van/trailer, then bounced & vibrated over often quite long distances [York is a 400 mile round trip for me], only to be set up again, operated intensively for 8 hours a day over 1-3 days, before being split up once more to be returned home. Owners & operators also go through it. The long journey to York means I am given Friday night accommodation [could have the Monday too if I’d wanted], but one day shows often mean you have to be there early in the morning to set up. Arigna Town needs about two hours, so a 10am start means being at the venue before eight, which can mean a 5am alarm call, or earlier. Packing up is usually quicker, because stock starts being put away in the last hour, but it is usually up to an hour after the show before I am driving home. Indeed, I often leave the layout in the car overnight [i do bring the stock in], because experience has taught me that tiredness causes all sorts of unwanted bumps and scrapes, to the layout and me, for that matter. So, one thing I always take with me to shows is a notebook, into which every fault/problem is recorded. It is therefore an unbreakable rule that these things get fixed before I go out next time. Because exhibitions give you an extended amount of [quite intimate] time with your layout, you often notice things that you might not see at home. Any electrical or track faults that might get ignored at home have to be sorted at a show, or you face the embarrassment of being seen with a duff layout – though there are a few who seem quite blasé about this. From time to time, I like to join the punters at the front of the layout, to see how things look to them, while seemingly simple things like a sticking three link coupling can be extremely frustrating when you have 20 people watching you struggle. Hence, it is better to get it all sorted before the layout goes out again. As well as working my way through the Orpington ‘list’ recently, a few changes have been made. These include painting the gates on the Georgian house & signalman’s cottage [they’d previously been left bare white plastic], removing the buffer stops beyond the turntable, touching up the backscene [mainly to cover up dirty marks made in transit], plus making new stock boxes for the excursion train. The last couple of weeks leading up to the York show will see all locos and stock serviced and repaired/repainted where necessary. Track, wheels and pickups all get a thorough clean, while all the ‘support items’ are also checked. Lights, toolbox, soldering iron, drapes, fascias, pelmets , controllers etc. There is a list of these in the back of my notebook & I shudder to think what I’d do if I forgot a key piece of equipment. Hence, watch this space, as I intend to add to this blog after each show, so you can get a feel for how things have gone and [with a bit of luck] an insight into some of the other layouts that catch my eye.

Thanks for the info folks. Have often wondered about the relationships between mines & tramway. History books have always seemed a bit vague, while Arigna C&L station is miles from the village itself - hence my liberties with local geog & hist. The Irish Times piece was especially interesting. My grandfather was a Yorkshire miner, though methinks there was likely a bit more headroom than the Arigna miners had. Even the modern 'mine experiences' [all that Thatcher has left us in Britain] barely scratch the surface of the conditions these guys faced. Remember supporting a miners strike demonstration while at college in the 1970s. All the bands and pit banners were out - it was a rousing experience, especially when they stormed parliament to 'lobby' MPs. A different age...

It is indeed Broithe. Mine is from Greenscene & was bought as a short plait. You tease a small piece out, spray with fixative of choice and sprinkle with scatter material. Very effective and quick. Am fairly sure it is a synthetic material, though mine is very curly/springy, so you never know!

Many thanks for that. Ought to have made the connection, having visited the Mining Experience in 2013. A very fine tourist attraction it is too. Down in the village picked up a couple of lumps of coal from the works entrance. Enough to filly wagons and loco bunkers. Would like to think it is Arigna coal but may well have come from Poland I guess...

Mixed feelings. They have done a wonderful job on the pictures and plans, but splitting my notes in two has made parts of the article seem a bit muddled. Things are mentioned which will not be in text or pictures till October. Also, had the info about the Sligo in the first paragraph, as not everyone knows the line. I must bear some of the blame for writing too much! Overall though, it is still a nice buzz to see your own stuff in print in the biggest selling UK model railway mag.

Good modelling Nelson, but the subtlety of the finish is what really sets it off. Hard to believe it is 4mm scale.

Many thanks JB - especially for your help with the colours

Will commit total heresy here, I suspect. DCC certainly has its uses, but am finding that operating Arigna Town [very much analogue] a refreshing change. No dialling up loco addresses or worrying about chips shorting out on brass locos. Just set the direction and turn the speed dial. OK, no sound effects, but having recently seen a diesel loco depot where all the stock was in 'tick over' mode, the resultant white noise soon has me walking away. Felt sorry for the layouts nearby, who had to put up with the racket all day.

Not much happening on the layout itself these days, but the arrival of the new excursion train has meant the buffer stops beyond the turntable have had to go. This is because though the G2 2-4-0 [Tyrconnel kit], fits on the table, such are the overhangs, the buffers needed moving. considered shifting them back a few [scale] feet, but this would have meant digging up some of the scenery, so in best Sligo [or indeed, Donegal] practice, have decided to do without them. Not sure the crossing keeper's pig is too happy mind, his sty is right in the firing line if a loco should overshoot! The new excursion train has largely been described in the workshop section. However, a couple of points to note are as follows: The loco ran nicely, but soon found it would not pull the skin off a rice pudding. Traced the problem to several sources.Firstly the tender pickups were causing too much drag, then also realised that the nickel silver wire providing a degree of spring on the front pony wheels was lifting the front drivers fractionally off the track. Tried to fix by filling the firebox with lead, but not effective until I replaced the spring wires with thinner material. Also had to do a fair bit of work on the coaches, as their wheels were rubbing on the [cosmetic] axleboxes. This was also down to the wire springing, used to give a degree of flexibility in the 6 wheel chassis. Adding small blocks of plasticard to the underside of the coach body has limited the movement here, though the coaches are certainly heavy and not as free running as I would like. Nevertheless, the now well weighted loco has enough oomph to haul its intended three coach train. This is meant to represent anything from football/hurling specials to Galway, or pilgrimages to Claremorris [for Knock] and Westport [for Croagh Patrick]. The photos also show the repaint given to the coaches after some gentle [& valid] chiding from JHB & Mayner. The were originally far too dark, so resprayed them a lighter green, then removed the roofs to replace the glazing. Finished off with black roofs [instead of grey] & solebars, plus a bit of weathering. Hopefully now looks the part.

Lovely work AND a brass brake lever... First step towards etched brass perhaps? There again, when a model turns out this well, who cares what it is made of!

16' x 2' JB. Or 4.8m x 0.6m in new money. Overall though, it needs about 16 x 4 because of the sliding and rotating fiddle yard. The scenic section is 3.6 x 0.6m Will be in the April Railway Modeller in a couple of weeks!

Can only agree with your sentiments, especially the measuring and reading, though still need to do that twice as well! However, do find cutting out parts from the fret helpful if I do a few at a time. Use either a permanent pen or masking tape to label the part numbers. For me it speeds up the process. Not for everyone though.

They do indeed John. However, as an essentially one engine in steam line, the interlocking will be purely imaginary I'm afraid...

Looking back, I'm not quite sure myself how I did it in that time, Alan. However, I logged each session on the model and here is how they added up: Day 1: cutting out tender parts - 1 hour Day 2 & 3: soldering up tender body & frames - 4.5 hours Tender therefore completed in 5.5 hours Day 4: loco chassis - 2 hours Day 5: add rods & rolling test - 1 hour Day 6: footplate work - 2 hours Day 7: pickups added to loco & tender - 2 hours Day 8: paint chassis, then assemble cab & firebox on footplate - 3 hours Day 9: rebuild splashers to fit chassis & wire up motor gearbox to test - 4 hours Day 10: Boiler smokebox unit, plus general clean up - 5 hours Day 11: adding cast detail items [chimney, dome etc] - 2 hours The basic loco body structure therefore took 21 hours & the whole loco a total of 26.5 hours Painting preparation, including detailing the smokebox door took 7 hours Further fettling, painting the wheels & backhead took a further 4 hours Final painting, weathering & lettering another 5 hours, bringing the total so far to 42.5 hours So - must have miscounted earlier & there is still a bit more to do, but even so, the final tally should come in at under 50 hours. Not bad for a tender loco, but then it is a fairly simple loco, with not a lot of extra detailing. In the past, a lot of 7mm locos have run to 100 , hours each or more, though much depends on stuff like outside valvegear, external plumbing, plus things like lining, lettering & fancy paint job.

Would the Sligo have that many spare sleepers? A nice addition to the prototype for everything file and no wonder HF limps with those in his pockets. Not sure where I got witness coat from. May have been Martyn Welch's weathering book. Will certainly be the thing to wear on a protection programme...

Thanks chaps - though a good coat of paint hides a multitude of sins! Some of you may have noticed that, while the G2 wheelbase fits ok on my turntable, the loco currently fouls the buffer stops. Seems I have two choices - move the buffers back a bit, or remove them entirely. Thus far, have failed to track down any photos of SLNCR buffer stops - maybe they were like the Donegal and largely did without. The latter is the easier option for me as would only need to titivate the foliage a bit. Moving the 'stops back is a lot more work as will have to dig into the scenery a little. No prizes for guessing what I'd prefer, so any info on getting away with the easy route is welcome

Approaching 40 hours work on the Tyrconnel G2 kit now & getting close to completion. Interestingly, close to half the total construction time has been spent on 'fettling', painting, lettering & weathering. Something that has made a real difference was to fix the smokebox door clips. Not included in the kit, I made then from small pieces of plastic strip [40 thou square], fixed with cyano & then drilled to take .7mm wire for the handles. The smokebox is the 'face' of a loco, so adding this bit of detail really makes a difference for me. At this point, it was worth doing a thorough clean up and giving the loco a witness coat of grey automotive primer. This showed where there were still things to fill & file, before a second coat of primer was added over the bald areas. For the top coat, it was a case of girding my loins to get the air brush out. Not my favourite modelling job, because the amount of setting up and cleaning time is significantly more than the actual painting - plus I always seem to end up wearing a fair amount of paint myself. Referring to The Art of Weathering again, decided that a fair representation of CIE dark grey would be a mix of matt black, gunmetal, plus some 'leather' as well [all Humbrol]. Thinned 50/50 with thinners, the first coat came out too light, so added more black and got what I hope is a reasonable result. not that any of you will be able to judge though, as the loco has since been weathered. Did this by stippling, with a flattie brush, using a similar mix to before, but with more leather, gunmetal and a blue/grey tarmac shade. More brown/leather on the tender sides, but blacker on the boiler top and cab roof. However, before the weathering, added the numbers. Cabside ones are Fox waterslide transfers from a Southern Railway sheet I had to hand. Seem the right size, though the 5 is not quite square enough, while the 6 and 9 could be more curly. The bufferbeam numbers are pressfix, 4mm scale numbers from a LSWR sheet which I must have had for over 20 years! They seem to match the shaded type used quite well, hopefully. Additional work has included fitting a fall plate, to cover the gap between loco and tender, plus adding couplings, vacuum pipes and coal in the tender. The fall plate is 10 thou nickel siver sheet to which I soldered some 0.7mm wire, which fits into holes drilled in the cab splashers. Another very fiddly job was to wire the loco to the tender, to give additional electrical pickup. Got some tiny plug and sockets so the tender can be separated from the loco. The extra pickups certainly make a difference, as only the driving wheels have them on the loco. Still needed to be done are to add some sheet lead to the inside of the boiler, plus the driver & fireman. Will also do a bit of extra weathering, using powders and talc, plus add a bit more coal. After that, must go back to the 6 wheel coaches & attempt to sort out the paintwork, then 569 will have a short excursion train to haul at the York exhibition over Easter. Before then though, look out for the April Railway Modeller, which has a full article on Arigna Town, with a feature on locos and rolling stock likely in October. The photos show the loco both in its initial primer paint, plus how it is now, lettered & weathered.

The G2 is approaching the end of the construction phase and moving into preparation for the paint shop. Have included a few pictures of where filling is needed - mainly around the splashers and firebox. If I was tidier at soldering, there'd be less general cleaning up too. The main tools I use are a set of 'whifflers' I picked up a few years ago. Essentially these are odd shaped needle files, which enable you to get into awkward places. Another favourite is a conical burr in the mini drill. While things are looking a lot neater, doubtless there will further work to do, though will probably do a 'witness' coat [car primer from a spray can], as this can help hide minor blemishes, but will also show others not easy to spot in raw brass. Another bit of work has been to chop out the middle section of the footplate [shouldn't be there anyway], to enable a small section of dummy inside motion to be installed - something not possible if I'd followed the instructions and put the gearbox on the front axle. As is often the case, the pics have not uploaded in the right order, but hopefully you'll see what I've been doing.