David Holman

As some of you will know I am currently building a 7mm scale model of a Sligo Leitrim & Northern Counties Railway [proposed] branch to the Arigna coal mines area. Neil Sprinks photo album hints at this project, but I don't have his earlier history of the line, which appears difficult to get hold of. However, do have Patrick Flanagan's excellent little book on the Cavan & Leitrim [David & Charles 1966], which goes into considerable detail about proposals for that line to be extended up to Sligo, as well as other places. During a very enjoyable visit to the area a couple of weeks ago [& getting hold of an appropriate OS map], it seems clear the SLNCR line would have run down the west side of Kilronan mountain, rather than via Drunkeeran & Lough Allen, to reach the Arigna area. So, my question is - does anyone have any details of this, please? Even a vague outline of the route, together with dates of the actual proposals, would help me to construct a fictitious history for my model. I'm sort of thinking that it might have had a bit of support from the Midland & Great Western [maybe even run on a joint basis] & if so, this would be a serious excuse for eventually broadening my loco and carriage fleet - as if one were needed... Thanks!

Me again. Looks like the system only posted half my ramblings, missing out a tour of the SLNCR route around Manorhamilton and the Arigna area. Gave me lots of ideas for my might have been branch down to the latter and have a small piece of Arigna coal which may well go in my next loco's bunker! More of this later, but for those of you who haven't visited the west of Ireland, it is well worth the effort. Beautiful scenery, great food and hospitality, plus lovely people and extra-ordinary history. add in the railways and you have a great holiday.

No modelling for a while [new kitchen taking up much time] but have just returned from a few days in the West of Ireland, so this is a brief account of my wife & I's travels. Flew into Shannon, courtesy of Mr O'Leary, and then hired a car and motored first to Galway and then west to Clifden. Was delighted to find the station buildings intact and still serving the community over 70 years since closure. Are the tracks in the car park original? If only the line was still open, am sure would make a fabulous tourist route. Foyles Hotel in town a very decent overnight stop. Next day took in the next branch, from Westport to Achill, where again was pleased to see the station buildings still in use. A long drive took us all the way to Bundoran for a couple of nights. Called in at Sligo's enormous fortress of a station to see the arrival of a Dublin train & discovered the truncated remains of the harbour branch. Found Bundoran an odd little town in that few businesses seem to face the fine beach & instead stare at each other across a rather austere Main Street. Fitzgeralds Hotel an exception, with a rather decent restaurant. Didn't see anything of the station, but did have a fine day touring. First went north, via Donegal town [fine base for touring methinks and a lovely centre]. railway museum was shut, but Finntown Railway was open. We'd rushed a bit to get there for the 1100 train, but needn't have worried. Despite being the only passengers, a crew of 4 [two in the diesel, two in the railcar] ran us up the lake and back.

[attachment=:name] Here are a few pics of the backscene to my SLNCR layout. The low resolution photos make them appear a bit flat to me, but like any sort of proof reading, it is useful to get a different perspective! Either way, the backscene still needs some work, but will probably not do that until after I've got the scenic and ground cover done. That way it should be easier to blend the 2D and 3D aspects together more easily. For me, especially in 7mm scale, it is essential to have some sort of backscene to extend the layout beyond what is always a rather minimal depth. In my case, the latter is just 2 feet [600mm in new money], so not much space for anything beyond the railway fence. Additional limitations are that the height is just 8"/20cm. I've done higher in previous layouts, but deliberately kept it low this time to make the baseboards, when paired for transport as small a volume as possible. There are four boards, so two pairs, which will make a box around 4' x 2' x 18" and therefore fit easily inside my Yeti, once the seats are removed. The backscenes are made from the same 6mm birchply as the rest of the baseboards and an integral part of them. I did consider have a separate, single sheet of roller blind material to avoid the joins & likewise ducked out of making curved instead of square corners at the ends. The former will be hopefully fairly well hidden by the scenic features I have painted on, while the latter are hidden by two full height, low relief buildings. You'll see that dodges for the baseboard joins include a church spire and trees of different sorts. The current 'earthquake' crack in the baseboard surface will be hidden by removable items like small buildings, foliage, vehicles, barrow crossings etc. Creation of the scenes uses a range of media. I started with a basecoat of white emulsion, then added poster paints [in small quantities] to paint in the sky. A fair few clouds seemed appropriate, but it would be interesting to see if anyone can create a proper 'soft' day. Remember a layout years ago where everything had been gloss varnished to suggest rain. Best bit was the name - 'Piddlin Down'... Details were then drawn on and then part painted [using acrylics and enamels], part coloured with felt pens, crayons and white markers. Pens are so much easier to use than a brush if you want straight lines. Inspiration for the subjects themselves came from the various colour photo albums available, particularly of the C&L tramway section, which is not a million miles away from where the layout is supposed to be set. The final picture is my latest project, to build Railbus 2A. Have used the Alphagraphix card kit to produce drawings, including of a simple chassis, which is what you see in the photo. 18 thou nickel silver was used for the sides and spacers, while the scrapbox has produced a couple of suitable looking front springs. The motor and gearbox will drive the rear wheels, while the body will be made from plasticard and the roof [probably] sanded to shape from wood. Still thinking about those patent wheels [steel rims outside pneumatic tyre & road wheel], but at least I only need to make two as the rear ones are hidden. Some sort of overlay methinks.

And why not indeed, sir! From what I can see of your 'avatar', there looks to be a slice of the C&L. With the Iron Mountains as well as the coal seams, one wonders whether a Sheffield, Consett or Corby might have blighted the hills, had the resources been a bit richer. I will admit to a certain amount of guilt in projecting a branch of the SLNCR down to Arigna, as it would not have bode well for the C&L. That said a possible long term project for me would be a broad and narrow gauge interchange of some sort. Love the idea of the trans-Ireland 3' gauge line, which would have put the C&L in the centre of the through route. Feel sure it would have needed something like the Swilly 4-8-0s or 4-8-4Ts for such journeys, which would make a challenging model making project to say the least. Then again, I have also pondered the idea of doing 3' NG in Gauge 1, using 0 gauge track. Did several drawings of Clogher Valley locos/railcar/tractor & am very tempted, but not for a couple of years at least.

[attachment=:name] Tyrconnel kits are marketed in the Alphagraphix catalogue and as well as the E class include Cork, Bandon & South Coast Railway 4-6-0Ts and several highly individual small Irish locomotives including a Fairburn 2-2-2T and two Timoleague and Courtmacsherry Tramway locos. The E Class 0-6-0Ts were introduced between 1891 & 1894 by Martin Atcock & built in Britain by Kitson & Sharp Stewart. Originally numbered 106-117 by the MGW, they became 551-562 under the Great Southern, ranging far & wide across the system. There is a photo of 558 at Sligo in the 1950s, while other allocations included the T&C in the far south west and the isolated Waterford & Tramore line in the south-east. The Tyrconnel kit [£90] is mainly etched brass, with whitemetal castings for things like chimney, dome, buffers & other fittings. Additionally required are wheels, motor, gearbox, wheel bearings, handrail knobs & various gauges of wire. Suggestions of various sources for these are provided in the fairly extensive instructions, which also include several labelled photos of a part assembled model as well as the prototype itself. A scale line drawing is also provided. However, as a ‘flatpack’, there is no box to contain the finished model. The loco was built pretty much as per instructions, which proved to be a pleasant, largely stress free experience, taking about 40 hours work in all, including painting & weathering. The builder is advised to split the work into three parts – superstructure, boiler and chassis. For the superstructure, the only difficult part was at the start – soldering the splasher backs and tops to the footplate. Heat from the soldering iron tended to warp the footplate & with hindsight it might have been better to add the valences first to make the unit stiffer. However, once done, things went together easily, aided by slots and tabs, plus a few half etched lines on the bunker rear to help curving. Alternative etches to make the Waterford & Tramore line versions are also provided. Boiler, fire & smokebox units come as flat etches & need rolling to shape, but as the brass is quite thin, this was easily achieved using ¾” plastic pipe, as suggested in the instructions. A neat touch is the provision of 6BA holes in the boiler & smokebox front/rear, enabling the two to be bolted together prior to soldering. The combined unit then slotted neatly between the tanks/cab front & sat nice & level first time. Boiler fittings are whitemetal castings. Alternative chimney & smokebox doors are provided for early/later models but, along with the dome & safety valve units required a fair bit of fettling before they would ‘sit’ properly on the boiler. However, in fairly quick time, the loco body was complete. The chassis is interesting in that it is designed to simply fold up from a single etch. Unfortunately [for me at least], it is designed for 32mm gauge as opposed to the correct 36.75mm for Irish [5’ 3”] broad gauge. The latter is catered for by reversing the fitting of the wheel bearings, so they project outwards, which gives the right back to back measurement. This was the route I followed and though very suspicious of the fold up chassis, it actually worked out very well. My ‘portfolio’ runs to over 50 locos over the years, including several scratchbuilds & having always used separate spacers, I wondered whether the single etch would fold up accurately. However, my fears were unfounded & apart from having to open up the etched axles holes a fair bit to take the bearings, when I did a trial fit of the wheels, the chassis sat level & true. Coupling rods seem very lightweight & are just a double laminate. As per prototype, they are not jointed, so again are quick and easy to assemble. Fitting them to the wheels gave a smooth, free running chassis first time – always rather satisfying! My only major departure from the instructions was to fit a commercial motor/gear box, floating on the centre axle, rather than soldering the motor to the etched mount provided & suggested in the instructions. For a while, I also contemplated making a set of dummy frames [by tracing round the etched ones] to go outside the narrow ones. However as the loco is only really seen ‘side on’, I decided in the end this wasn’t necessary. Tyrconnel kits were a new name to me, but if the little E class is typical of the range, then I can thoroughly recommend them. They should be well within the scope of a careful beginner. Building mine to 36.75mm gauge was not a problem. Slaters provide the longer axles for a small fee, while I have found their wagon axles are more than longer enough to ease the wheels out to broad gauge without the need for any replacements. My new layout is using custom made points from Marcway, with plain track soldered up on copperclad sleepers. The light rail & broad gauge really help set the scene & it is a shame that most 4mm scale models seem to use 16.mm track – especially when that is already narrow gauge! The Alphagraphix catalogue includes several etched coaches and a large number of card kits for wagons, coaches and buildings, all of which provide useful starting points for anyone contemplating modelling the Irish scene. Given the many delights of railways across the water, it is a relatively neglected area for modelling which deserves much more attention & hopefully Alphagraphix are doing just that.

The last few weeks have been all about the buildings at the ‘country’ end of the layout. The general scenario is that trains appear/disappear through a hole in the sky that is masked by a combination of a garage, tree and large, Georgian house. Immediately after is a level crossing, with signal box and cottage. Behind the signal box is an end terraced house and then come a couple of low relief buildings before the goods yard is reached. At the planning stage, it was envisaged that all these buildings would somehow blend into a backscene, showing elements of the rest of the town. The signal box is both the smallest yet most complex building on the layout. It is based on a standard Saxby and Farmer design, which I adapted from the Alphagraphix kit, using the latter as a drawing. Unlike most of my other buildings it is almost completely made from plasticard. The base uses Wills random stone sheet, which is thick enough to not require any bracing. Though nominally intended for 4mm scale, the stone pattern seems to also work well in 7mm scale, for which the same can also be said of their corrugated asbestos sheets, which are very good for the generic corrugated iron you see as roof covering on many Irish buildings. Inside the random stone is an inner layer of 40 thou glazing, though this only goes to roof height for the fixed middle windows. The outer windows are made from separate sheets of glazing and sit in U shaped slots so can be slid open like the prototype. Glazing bars are made from 20 thou square microstrip, with 40 x 20 layers for the outer frames. The glazing material is something called ‘Cobex’ [or similar] which is a harder plastic that does not go cloudy when touched by solvent. The lever frame is a whitemetal kit from Skytrex. 16 levers in all, while you also get a level crossing wheel and block instruments as well. Pay a bit more and the similar Springside kit gives you a desk, clock, signalman etc, though my furniture was easily made from bits of plastic and wood. The roof has a considerable overhang, with guttering hanging from this. I used half round Evergreen strip for the gutters, fixed to small brackets made from other microstrip and welded to a false plasticard roof. This has an inner layer which sits snugly inside the walls of the cabin. The rest of the roof is ordinary card, fixed to the false roof with UHU. Slates are strips of cartridge paper a scale 18” deep, cut at 12” intervals and fixed with PVA. The finial is a piece of plastic rod turned in my drill. Steps are always difficult to get right, but making a jig helps, as did deciding the ‘slope’ would be 45 degrees, regardless of what the prototype suggested. Paintwork is mainly green, using Humbrol xx. The stone walls were done by stippling various greys onto the surface & not worrying about mortar lines. The indigenous limestone of the area seems to have many shades [probably not 50 though] of grey, often within the same piece, so there seemed little point in painting them individually. Inside, the levers are painted in what I hope are the right colours and in order of where they are sited. First up is the outer distant, then the home, then the lever to lock the crossing gates, after which comes the starter signal then points [and locking bars] in the yard. Spare levers are white, points black, locking bars blue, home/starter sigs are red, distants yellow and crossing gates brown. While I’m here, a word about the wider concept of the trackplan is appropriate. As I do not have enough room to model the coal mining aspect, this is deemed to be ‘off-stage’. The sidings are set as being a trailing connection for trains approaching the terminus, about half a mile distant. Points are unlocked by a key and empty wagons are then reversed into the mine sidings. Loaded wagons have to be pulled into the terminus for the engine to ‘run round’ as there is no loops at the mine itself. This means I only need a train of loaded wagons and avoids the problems of how to load/unload in view of the public. The other buildings [apart from the garage, which is just an empty shell] are coming along well, though all are yet to be bedded into the ground cover. The Georgian house and end terrace are built on a core of 5mm foamboard, while the signalman’s cottage uses more Wills sheet, this time the ‘whitewashed stone’ effect. The latter features a reasonable amount of interior detail, again made from scrap bits of wood and plastic. Ideas came from the BBC ‘Heirhunters’ TV programme which featured a typical Irish cottage left untouched since the early 1960s and yes, the furniture was indeed painted in those bright colours. Next time will have a look at how I painted the backscenes.

It is a long time since I started this and not being a regular contributor, it occurred to me that to do a blog properly is to provide an on-going commentary on the project. Beat me round the head and I get there -eventually... Anyway, with luck I will endeavour to do something here once a fortnight or so, which should mean I can usually report on something new. So, maybe I should backtrack a little. My SLNCR project began towards the end of 2011. I'd long been tempted to do an Irish line, having completed an EM gauge light railway - must be something to do with having the same surname as Col Stephen's Christian one. 'Oare', was exhibited in the late 80s -early 90s and this was followed by High Weald a 7mm NG railway running through Kent. This appeared several times in RM, as did its successor, Loose End, my first 7mm scale standard gauge project, which was exhibited around southern England in the late 90s. There then followed a sojourn with 'mainline' and the Eatonswell layout. This is still being exhibited, but I've always favoured independent lines with a bit of character, so spurred on by Neil Sprinks excellent photo album and the availability of Alphagraphix kits, I decided to have a go at the SLNCR. Inspiration also came from good friends Gordon & Maggie Gravett, who have shown with their Pempoul model what can be done even if you end up scratchbuilding almost everything. If mine is half as good as their masterpiece, I'll be well satisfied. The first thing I built was the Tyrconnel E class 0-6-0T. This was my 50th loco build in all scales & proved that 36.75mm gauge was not going to be a problem. Thoughts then turned to what sort of layout I might build. The SLNCR never had a branch, but there was the proposed line into the Arigna area, which gave me my 'might have been' scenario. The trackplan was kept deliberately simple & from the start I wanted to keep everything else that way too. So, analogue control [use DCC on Eatonswell, but could not justify it here], with wire in tube point operation and manual signal/turntable control to minimise wiring too. Baseboards were started early in 2012 & are made from good quality 6mm birch ply. The 20cm high backscene is integral to each board, of which there are four in all. Three of the form the scenic section, with the fourth a train turntable. All are just under 120cm x 60cm so the layout fits along one wall of my workshop, which used to be the integral garage of our house. Track came from Marcway - custom made points [copperclad] with plain track soldered up by me. In what seemed a very short space of time, I had the E class trundling round the layout, with one or two wagons I'd also built by then. That was about a year ago and since then I've managed to produce a fair bit of stock and most of the buildings are finished or nearly so. It helps only working part time these days! Reviewing the list still surprises me: - Beyer Peacock Small Tank - Northstar kit - Coach No 9 - scratchbuilt using the Alphagraphix kit as a drawing; plastic body with cut down Slaters bogies - 5 cattle vans, 3 seven ton vans plus a brakevan, built as above - 4 SLNCR open wagons & a carriage truck, scratchbuilt from photos - a rake of coal wagons [4 & 6 plank] from resin castings I've made from my own masters, using drawing on this website - station building: Florencecourt - ish - good shed & signal box [again using Alphagraphix kits as starting points for scratchbuilding] - bakers, pub, end terrace house, half relief Georgian house, stone barn, stone water tower, stone cottage and corrugated iron village hall Recently, have been painting a backscene to frame the layout and once the buildings are painted will take some photos to show how things are progressing. The aim is to have the layout exhibitable in time for the Chatham Show in June next year. That means completing scenic ground cover and ensuring I have a bit more stock. At the very least I want to build Railbus 2A and some GNRI wagons to complement the SLNCR ones. After that, the Walker railcar and a large tank will hopefully follow, especially as I now have drawings of both. Unlikely before June 13 though! Normally when one scratchbuilds something, an RTR model comes out shortly after. Can't see this happening here somehow, but then it is part of the challenge & fun. What the project is starting to need now though is a name. After significant amounts of pondering, playing with words and scouring maps of the area, I am not intending to model an existing location. Instead, a fictitious town is deemed to have sprung up near the mines, though this is no Yorkshire pit village - I really want to capture the essential flavour of the area. So it can be neither Arigna nor Drumkeeran, while Killyconcarnay or Ballyshawbheagan [think about it!] seem just a bit too twee. Currently am leaning towards something like 'Sprinxtown' - to honour both Neil Sprinks and Alphagraphixs, without whom the project could never have started. Comments welcome, including any ideas on a Gaelic translation. Next time, hope to have photos showing the backscene and also buildings at the 'country' end of the layout.

Interesting - I've done something similar [see thread in workbench], but kept the casting 'flat', so making a kit for myself. Haven't tried 3D casting yet, but will have a go as could be very handy for all sorts of detailing.

Many thanks for all the replies - was hoping that a Parkside or Slaters conversion/adaptation might be possible, but looks like scratchbuilding & resin casting will be the way forward for now. For anyone working in 7mm scale, the Alphagraphix catalogue has a growing range of etched brass kits from the Tyrconnel range, including several 6 wheel coaches and a Bandon 32' bogie. Add in Timoleague locos Argadeen & St Molga, plus Elf, Fairy and a Bandon 4-6-0T and there is some nice stuff available. Haven't built any of the coaches, but the E class 0-6-0T which is also in the range was very simple to put together & has a reasonable amount of detail, plus all the names and numbers for the class too. Would be nice to see some wagons for 7mm scale, though again the Alphagraphix card kits are a good starting point.

While I haven't read all the comments, for what it is worth I would certainly suggest reading up on baseboards and layout design in general. Iain Rice's books are all excellent, but 'Finescale in Small Spaces' goes into a lot of detail about planning, baseboards etc. Doing a small layout and treating it as gaining experience is far better than launching into something too big and finding it doesn't work out. Terminus - fiddle yard, or even just a small diorama can be just as satisfying, while a small project can be finished quickly too and could even be planned to be part of a larger project later on. Check out my current project - though 7mm scale, it is only 12 feet long, with a 4 foot fiddle yard, about 9 feet in total in 4mm scale.

Interesting & many thanks. Will keep on scratchbuilding... Good to know such knowledge spans the entire globe.

A new question for the historically minded among you. While I'm well aware of certain steam locos and modern locos and coaching stock being essentially common to both sides of the water, I'm wondering if this was also the case for steam era wagons? Looking through a wide range of photos, it seems that most open wagons were 4 or 6 plank, rather than 3, 5 or 7 favoured by the 'mainland'. However, it would be interesting to know if there were wagons built by independent companies that got used both sides of the water - vans too. There are lots of kits out there and if any could be used for Irish models, I for one would be very grateful, much as I'm happy to scratchbuild. Likewise RTR, even in my preferred 7mm scale, where some things are almost ludicrously cheap. Dapol 7 plank opens, for example are barely more than a Slaters or Parkside kit. Makes you wonder. Have got the 'Modelling Irish Railways' book and though very useful the section on converting kits and RTR seems to indicate a fair few compromises are needed and though no rivet counter, I do like things to look right from two feet away, or so. Am now going back to study the GA drawing of a Large Tank and dribble. Sad or what?

Having almost driven myself to distraction scratchbuilding multiple SLNCR wagons, I decided to explore the possibilities of resin casting. I looked up casting materials on the web, but recently there has been an advert in Railway modeller for such things & I can only say how straightforward the process is. Included are some photos. First you need to produce a 'master of the model you are building. In this case one side and one end of a 4 plank and 6 plank open wagon. I used 40 and 60 thou plastic sheet, scoring for the planks and then adding strapping and metalwork from microstrip. I also used a wire brush to add some wood grain to the planking. The master was then stuck to a larger sheet of plasticard and a low 'wall' built around it with more plastic strip to make a mould. Then followed the casting kit's instructions, mixing the setting agent to the latex 'goo' and poured this into the mould. 24 hours later, this had set and I had latex moulds of my wagon sides and ends. The resin comes in two parts and is mixed 50/50. A cheap set of measuring cups from a pound shop helped with getting quantities right and avoiding waste. The resin mix goes into the moulds and within an hour has set, so you can quickly produce multiple copies. The level of detail picked up is very impressive - the wire brush scratched wood grain really shows up well, as would finger prints and any crud, so care is the order of the day. Drawbacks? Very few. It helps to keep the moulds level as the resin is initially very watery and flows really well to where it is not wanted. Bubbles can form in the resin mix, but it is easy to prick these out with a cocktail stick while still wet. Also, a bit of thought needs to go into how thick you want the castings to be. Important with an open wagon, less so with a van. I've used cyano to glue the pieces together around an 80thou plastic floor. Slaters wheels and JPL whitemetal castings cover the underframe, with brake gear coming initially from the scrapbox - Parkside and Slaters kits seem to provide plenty of spares which fellow club members are happy to off load. Have managed to cast some 'V's and brake levers from the originals in the kits, but they are inevitably a bit thick and fragile. Haven't tried casting more 3D shapes yet, but can see all sorts of possibilities for things like fence posts, chimney pots etc. Evidence suggests the latex moulds should be good for 20+ castings, while I still have plenty of goo left to produce more if needed. The casting kit cost me about £50 and should produce enough models to make it worthwhile, if only in the time saved. As anyone who has scratchbuilt wagons will tell you, the sides are the cheap bit, it is the wheels [£9.50 in O gauge], buffers [£4 - £14 depending on type and quality] & couplings [£5] which cost the most. Makes those new Dapol RTR opens seem very cheap at only £30 or so... Shame they are 7 plank - my research seems to suggest most Irish opens are 4 or 6 planks...

FAB -U - LOUS!! Many thanks to you both - have tried the Manchester site before but couldn't see how to navigate the archive of Beyer Peacock stuff & kept coming up with lovely but not very useful diagrams of injectors & the like. Detail is good, but I am not that pernickety... Lovely Sligo pics too, several I have not seen before. Interesting to see that the brake van is definitely lower than the cattle vans, but the latter are the same height as the coach - which is not the case in the Alphagraphix card kit. Am still happy to believe there were varying heights, especially as I scratchbuilt 5 of the things and am in no hurry to alter them, which would not be easy anyway. Must join other societies too, especially as seem to remember one group is in the process of doing a book on the Large Tanks.

Many thanks for all the kind comments. Especially like the Sligo solicitors and the fact that you think it looks the part. Have never visited the area, though a field trip is planned - shame it can't involve time travel as well... By the by, the cattle in the vans are scratchbuilt [irish Moyles and Dexters]. Needed 30+ and that would have cost about £100 for ready bought models, so had to do something! Plasticard frame covered in DAS clay was the answer - will do something for the workbench section shortly, though need to make some more first. The trackwork seems to have caused a lot of interest - am guessing because it is broad gauge and that seems to be rare, whatever the scale. Possibly easier in 7mm because Slaters do an extended loco axle and there is nothing much [if any] ready to run. However, one tip when starting a new project might be to consider smaller profile rail. mine is code 100 [instead of 124] and not only does it give a better impression of lightweight track, but also makes the gauge look wider. Did this on an earlier 'standard' gauge roadside tramway and several people thought it looked broad. Maybe code 75, or even 40 might work in 4mm, but check the wheels will still run first. Marcway custom built points use copperclad & flatbottom rail, costing about 50% more than Peco, but are very robust and self isolating, so only need wire in tube for operation. C&L timber tracks could be very good, but they only do kits for bullhead rail. Will also do something on the resin castings I made for the coal wagons - very easy and very useful for producing multiple models. I was pleasantly surprised at how much detail is picked up in the latex moulds. Am hoping to have the layout presentable for next year's Chatham show [June 2014], though before then am still exhibiting my BR 1950s East Anglian project called 'Eatonswell'. Next out at the Basildon show in July. If you go there by all means come along and say hello.

As a relatively new recruit to the Irish scene, chasing prototype information is proving considerably harder than when I modelled BR. It seems there is always a book or three on any chosen subject for mainland Britain, with any number with drawings of wagons, coaches etc. Much less so for the Republic or NI, even with new books coming out all the time & it is the details that I am finding hard to come by. Hence am hoping some of you might be able to point me in the right directions. My project is the Sligo, Leitrim & Northern Counties Railway, in 7mm scale, 36.75 [ish]mm track. Check out my latest photos in the Layouts section. I have the Neil Sprinks photo album, plus most of the railway books published in the last 10 years for Ireland in general. SLNCR modellers are also fortunate in that the Alphagraphix range of card kits covers many of the prototypes & I have made extensive use of these as colour plans for scratchbuilding. However, I am not sure that the height of some of the box vans and cattle vans is accurate, especially the GNRI vans & despite scouring all available photos have been unable to find anything conclusive. Neil Sprink's album shows that SLNCR vans varied between 10 and 13 planks in height, but does this mean the planks were different or the vans taller? Indications are that most vans came level with the roof of the 'small tank' 0-6-4T cab, but models I have made come up short by about a scale 10 inches. Equally, these are the 7 ton version, so maybe the larger vans were taller? Any answers welcome, please. Other issues I've been pondering are: Brake gear - were SLNCR wagons [and GNRI for that matter] braked on one or both sides? Likewise, on the open wagons I've made for my coal train braked on all 4 wheels or just two? SLNCR Large Tank 'Sir Henry' [and siblings] - thus far all attempts to source a drawing for this loco have failed. Would dearly love to have a go at building one, so if anyone knows of a source, please let me know Other Irish wagons - would be happy to know of any sources of drawings, other than those already on this website, likewise any photos showing details of brake gear, buffers etc. Have long since stopped worrying too much about the latter, as there seems to be ample evidence of wagons with different buffers each end, but the devil is in the detail as they say! Seems clear that there is wealth of knowledge out there, so any you can send my way will be much appreciated.

How splendid! John Ahern's famous Madder Valley Railway [now at Pendon], had Quibble and Cuss as the solicitors, but this one is even better & will ensure a local branch will be installed somewhere on the layout. Thank you

And here are some more pictures. The signal box uses the Skytrex lever frame castings and the windows do slide like the prototype.

Thank you! Only working part time and the generally lousy weather have both helped improve model making time! Am hoping to get started on Railbus 2A soon so that the layout might be ready to be exhibited [if not entirely finished] next year.

I am building SLNCR in 7mm scale, 36.75mm gauge. I've used Marcway points [copperclad] and made my own plain track in the same way. Slaters do broad gauge loco axles for an additional fee, while wagon wheels can be moved out on the existing axles with little trouble. The Alphagraphix catalogue [see Railway Modeller ad pages] contains a wealth of steam era card kits for wagons, coaches and buildings, including a fair bit of narrow gauge stuff too. I use them as drawings for scratchbuilding purposes. Their catalogue also contains the Tyrconnel range of etched brass locos and coaches. Fairly basic, but they go together well and look the part. The biggest problem I have found is getting hold of good quality drawings - of all locos and rolling stock - as there is nothing like the resources available to British railway modellers. Photo albums likewise end to focus just on locos, though recent works give some good info on infrastructure. Equally, there are lots of very helpful people out there & am sure the charm of all thing Irish will mean interest continues to grow

Thanks - have managed to get some done by a roundabout way & now on the 'Layout' section.

Hello all. Here is a selection of some of my model making over the winter. The layout is yet to have a name, but depicts a might have been SLNCR branch to the Arigna coal mines. It is 7mm scale, 36.75mm gauge and everything is scratchbuilt, apart from the superb Northstar kit of Hazlewood and a very nice Tyrconnel kit of a J26/E class 0-6-0T. Wagons and buildings are based on Alphagraphix kits, but are made from plastic sheet, card, etc, though the coal train is a set of resin castings I did from my own masters. Track is Marcway. Am keen to add to the wagon fleet, but though I have been collecting drawings, details of brake gear would be most welcome. Likewise would love to do 'Large Tank, Sir Henry'. Any idea where I could get hold of drawings?

Only 100k, so can't see why it is not interested. The browse tool is not letting me link to the 'my photos' file on the computer either & I had to get there via 'my recent places' route. When I try to add new pics the 'busy' icon comes up, but nothing happens. Obviously text is coming through, but not photos... Thanks anyway.