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David Holman

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  1. David Holman
    Recently been working on some GNRI vans, from drawings found via the website. These are 9 ton versions & were made from my own resin castings. A picture of the master is also shown.
    As I've mentioned before, there is nothing difficult about making your own castings and there has been a regular advert in Railway Modeller for the all important materials. however, have found that the silicon mould material has a definite shelf life & the stuff I used was a bit too viscous, resulting in some bubbles. Think I will make another mould & add some detail differences to the master to make what I assume were later versions of the vans, with different door fastenings. either way, it seems from photos that one can never have enough vans on an Irish layout!
    The eagle eyed amongst you may just notice that the trackwork has been weathered somewhat, prior to getting busy on the ground cover over the next few weeks. No less than 9 tree skeletons are in the process of being coated with PVA/filler & I am looking forward to getting some colour on the layout. In the meantime, have also been building brake vans, so will hopefully be adding pics of these in the next couple of weeks.[attachment=:name]
  2. David Holman

    Turntables

    By David Holman,

    Here are a few notes on the two turntables in last weeks 'photos' section.
    The loco turntable is a much adapted Dapol [ex Airfix] kit. Very cheap [about a fiver] and reasonably cheerful too. Turned the whole thing inside out & upside down, so it is now an underhung table. The plastic bearing surface is fairly robust, so the outer wheels are really only cosmetic. The design is influenced by the SLNCR's one at Enniskillen, though the well has turned out somewhat deeper at a scale 4'.
    The plastic kit was installed in a timber subframe, which is screwed to the underside of the baseboard. The walls of the well are 40 thou plasticard, covered in watercolour paper to simulate a rendered finish, while concrete slabs around the edge [more plasticard pieces] hide the small gap between them & the well wall.
    Running rails are the usual code 100 flatbottomed, soldered to longitudinal sleepers and the glued to the deck with 5 min epoxy. The outer wheels are 7mm scale 'lowmac' ones I had in the spares box and are about 2' 8" diameter. They used shortened stub axles, fitted to some U shaped brass section, this in turn is fitted to the ends of the deck by brass rod, which enables these wheel sets to 'rock' and therefore induce a bit of compensation.
    Power to the track comes from 0.5mm phosphor bronze wires at each end on the well & these are lightly sprung to wipe on small brass plates that are glued to the end girders of the deck . These are in turned wired to the rails. Though simple/crude, the system works well thus far. The deck is turned by a Frizinghall Models hand crank, which consists of a large gear wheel, plastic worm and some steel rodding. The turning handle can be switched from front to back of layout according to need.
    Late on, the design was changed slightly, by adding extension rails, so the track actually projects over the coping stones and extends the overall diameter to a scale 40'. This was because the new Railbus was found to be a very tight fit. however, perchance it will enable me to run small tender engines [sLNCR did have a few 0-6-0s].
    Am also pondering the need to have walkways either side. The SLNCR's table at Enniskillen did without them, though the well was a fair bit shallower. for now one of the crew will have to dismount the engine before it runs on to the table [needs someone to crank the handle anyway]. If not, the a step ladder will need to be kept in the cabs!
     
    The other turntable is the fiddle yard. In the past I have used cassettes to good effect, but with each baseboard being just 46" long, I felt it would be interesting to have a full train turntable. Originally hoped to have 5 tracks, but the curves required on the outer roads become increasingly severe & in the end had to reduce to 4 roads. Even so the locos grunt a bit on the outer ones and I have increased the gauge to around 37.5mm to compensate.
    Alignment is by home made bolts. These use brass tube/rod, soldered to brass plates, which are wired to the rails. Two bolts are needed at the layout end, plus two receiving tubes for each track & at each end. didn't take long to make or fit & again, seem to work well thus far.
    This week, have started on a rake of GNRI 9 ton vans. Made a master for side & end on Monday, created a silicon rubber mould on Tuesday, then cast three sets of sides and ends on Wednesday. Assembled these Thursday and added wheels, buffers, brake gear on Friday and Robert is your father's brother' as the saying goes & I now have three more wagons. Course they still need painting, lettering & weathering & that will take as least as long again. Hopefully some photos soon.
  3. David Holman
    Spent a couple of weeks in France, so not much time for modelling. However, did take some maps and ref books with me to finally try and nail down a precise location and name for the project. Details below:
     
    Arigna Town [sLNCR]
    Opened in 1882, the Sligo, Leitrim & Northern Counties Railway remained independent until its closure in 1957. Built & run on a shoestring, it never expanded beyond its 42 mile ‘mail line’ from Sligo to Enniskillen. However, at the end of the 19th century, there were proposals to build a railway to access the coal mining area on the mountains above Arigna, west of Lough Allen & to the south of the SLNCR.
    Coal being in short supply in Ireland, eventually the 3’ gauge Cavan & Leitrim Railway was extended up the Arigna River valley in 1920, but before that, there were several schemes that included narrow, broad and even mixed gauge railways. Indeed, Arigna station on the C&L [at the end of the mainly roadside tramway from Ballinamore, opened in 1888], was a good two miles from Arigna village and further still from the mines in question, so until 1920, coal had to be carted to the station along roads one assumes were less than perfect.
    Among proposals to get a railway to the mines, the SLNCR did consider a line from Dromahair, via Drumkeeran & the west side of Lough Allen, to Arigna in 1904. Before that, in 1895, an independent, broad gauge line, was proposed from Collooney Junction [where the SLNCR & M&GW met], via Ballyfarnon & Keadue, to Arigna. This was followed in 1907-8 with another Arigna – Sligo proposal, which would have seen the C&L converted to 5’ 3” gauge. Then, in 1913, the Arigna Valley Railway Bill propsed a further extension to the above scheme, with a 3 mile line from Arigna station [mixed gauge] and a 9 chain, 3’ gauge connection to the C&L.
    None of this happened of course, apart from the C&L tramway of 1920, but my model supposes that a project did get built in 1895, as a joint line between the SLNCR and the Midland & Great Western, from Collooney to nearby the C&L’s Arigna station. The latter was sited in a woodland glade, pretty much in the middle of nowhere. However, supposing a community had already begun to grow up there? Iron working had already started near Arigna village in the 18th century and even though that proved unsuccessful, my ‘imagineering’ supposes a community had emerged, away from the mines and works, that became known as Arigna Town.
    To build the joint line, it is supposed that the M&GW laid the track, while the SLNCR added the buildings, with signalling from Saxby & Farmer. The M&GW worked the coal traffic, while the SLNCR took responsibility for local passenger & freight. Arigna Town station was sited on the opposite side of the road from the C&L station [see map], while there was also a short mineral branch trailing in, just before the station, to the mine sidings.
    Apart from the GSR and eventually CIE taking over the coal trains, in practice little changed on the branch throughout its history. An ex MGW E class 0-6-0T & a few wagons made one or two trips daily, bringing coal down from the mines. These were linked to the sidings by aerial ropeway, as they were high in the slopes of Kilronan Mountain. The sidings had no run round loop, so empties were propelled there and the loco hauled them back, running round in Arigna Town station before returning to Sligo for onward movement, probably to the cement works at either Limerick or Drogheda.
    SLNCR operations would have closely followed those of the main line, with passenger traffic soon turning to railbus and railcar, with a daily steam hauled mixed train. Steam power would also have worked general freight and cattle traffic – probably the 0-6-4 ‘small tanks’.
    When the GNRI line through Enniskillen was closed and the SLNCR with it in 1957, it may well have been that the Arigna branch would have continued a little longer. However, in 1959, a new coal fired power station opened on the shores of Lough Allen & this would have effectively ended the coal trains, so the branch may not have lasted much beyond 1960. That said, given the [sensible] Irish attitude of mothballing, rather than dismantling, branchlines maybe cattle and other specials could have continued a little longer & C and G class diesels might have become the motive power?
    The reasoning behind all the above is that it provides a setting for my model and helps to map out not only what the line might have looked like, but also provides sources of traffic & thereby the types of locos and rolling stock to build. All of this should help sustain interest in what is otherwise a simple branchline terminus, with a model making programme that should keep me busy for at least another 2-3 years. The E class, one small tank and railbus 2a are finished, but will need another small tank, railcar B and a fair few more wagons to enable me to operate an interesting sequence. Add in C & G diesels, plus a MGW 2-4-0 for excursion traffic [with a short rake of Tyrconnel 6 wheelers and there is plenty to look forward to. After that, adding the adjacent C&L station could be very tempting!
    If anyone has any thoughts/comments on my history of Arigna Town, please let me know. My sources are not exhaustive and as none of it happened anyway, I’d be happy to adapt the story if more useful info appeared.
  4. David Holman

    SLNCR railbus

    By David Holman,

    As you can see from the Models section, my SLNCR railbus is almost complete. It still needs a bit of paint touching up & plus some weathering, but is now looking the part I hope.
    Its initial trial run was a bit dodgy, to say the least, but then I realised the wheels hadn't been cleaned, nor the chassis oiled. No surprise that it couldn't pull its trailer and the [undriven] front wheels weren't turning round... However, a bit of fettling and it proved capable of trundling round the layout, albeit a little noisily. Hopefully it will quieten down as it gets run in.
    As said before, the chassis is a simple nickel silver 'ladder' type affair, with drive from a small Mashima motor to the rear wheels. The motor intrudes slightly into the body, but seats and a few Slaters passengers help to hide it. The body is nearly all plastic sheet and microstrip, though the nearside mudguard is nickel silver and the rear steps are brass strip, for strength. The roof is balsa, sanded to shape, though the rear entrance section is all plastic.
    Main body colour is Halford's 'Ford Laurel Green' spray can acrylic, with the top half brush painted with Model Colour 'ivory' acrylic. Transfers came from my stores box & must be over 20 years old! the luggage van lettering is Woodhead transfers 'pressfix' letter, while the SLNCR is water slide from an SMS 'LMS' sheets, plus the '&' from a Fox sheet. Just goes to show you should never throw anything away.
    The other photo is of my fiddle yard. Given the Irish railways predilection for turntables at ever terminus, it seemed to me that a turntable fiddle yard was also merited. Cut from 12mm MDF, with a pivot using an M6 bolt, all seemed very simple until I discovered that my idea of 5 tracks was not possible because the board is only 46" long and the outer curves were far too tight. Indeed, even reducing to 4 tracks has meant I needed to widen the track gauge to around 37.5mm [instead of the nominal 36.75].
    Alignment is by home-made bolts, using brass rod & tube, bought on the cheap due to the sad demise of the Modelzone shops. We had two in my area, including the wonderful Signalbox in Rochester & now both are no more. Shame.
    The loco turntable on the layout itself is by Dapol, in other words, the old Airfix model. At 250mm diameter, it is ideal for the Sligo tanks, but a bit short for the railcar & trailer, so have fitted extension rails to make life easier & maybe one day enable a small 4-4-0 or 2-4-0 to visit on excursions. It is handcranked using the Frizinghall models kit [very Meccanno-ish & effective]. Will be working on track feed this week, so I can start doing some serious test running before the layout enters its 'scenic ground cover' phase. hopefully more pics of the turntable next week.
  5. David Holman

    SLNCR Railbus

    By David Holman,

    The heat of summer is never a good time for modelling - certainly not in my workshop anyway! However did manage to make some wire 'tree skeletons' in the garden shade [a good way of spending a quiet hour or two] & since things have cooled down a bit, have been working on my Railbus 2A.
    Photos show progress thus far. The model is scratchbuilt, but using the Alphagraphix card kit as a starting point. The chassis is nickel silver, with a small Mashima motor & gearbox from Branchlines. Found one or two castings from the scrapbox to use for front springs, while the wheels [slaters] will be embellished with a slice taken from the tyres of a Corgi Classis road bus to represent the patent ones on the prototype.
    The body is all plastic, apart from the roof, which is sanded balsa. Buses and diesels are much more complex things than steam locos when it comes to modelling, because of all the subtle curves and a lack of fittings too. However, did find a suitable headlight in the scrapbox. Techniques used were those from David Jenkinson's book 'Coach Building Made Easy', plus a lot of head scratching on how to make the seats, fit the glazing, roof and rear passenger doorway.
    The little trailer is a bit of a compromise, as W irons and axles boxes of a suitable size are not readily available for some reason [!]. Thinking about it, S scale ones would probably be a best fit, but again used some spare castings - LSWR type, but very cut down. Have fitted pickups to help spread the electrical contact, not least because neither vehicle has any compensation.
    Paintwork is currently Halfords grey primer, which looks surprisingly effective in black and white, but am hoping that Ford 'Laurel Green' will be a reasonable match. Indeed, the paintshop beckons tomorrow, after which final fitting out [handrails, door handles, starting handle, drawbar & wiring] will take place, so may have further pics by next week.[attachment=:name]
  6. David Holman

    Field Trip

    By David Holman,

    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.
  7. David Holman
    [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.
  8. David Holman
    [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.
  9. David Holman

    New Buildings

    By David Holman,

    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.
  10. David Holman

    Proper Blog...

    By David Holman,

    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.
  12. David Holman
    [attachment=:name]Just joined the group & keen get info on the 'Sligo'. Am building a 7mm scale, 36.75mm gauge model of the once proposed line into the Arigna coal mining area - mainly to enable a terminus fiddle yard set up, rather than end to end.
    Currently ok for coaches, wagons [mostly] & buildings, thanks to the Alphagraphix kits, which am using as colour plans to scratchbuild the actual models. Likewise have two of the Northstar kits of the small 0-6-4Ts, plus a J26 0-6-0T. What I'd also like to do is build a model of 'Sir Henry', one of the second batch of larger 0-6-4Ts, but so far unable to source a drawing. similarly anything on the articulated railcae would be good, so am hoping there are knowledgeable folk out there!
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