David Holman

Track cleaning in the fiddle yard? Impressive!

Thanks Mark. A few other things I've used are: Y points are great space savers - nothing but in the first p!an The fewer straight lines the better, but keep curves gentle Going diagonally across the baseboards is better than parallel to the sides If you put a frame around the scenic area, you can hide an exit at the front edge with it, as per the first plan and Fintonagh itself Layouts do not have to be big to be interesting. Iain Rice's rule that a train needs to be able to travel three times it's own length on a layout to look 'right' is at the heart of all my plans. However, the 'through' layout plans didn't get built because they need a fiddle yard at each end, which means half the total space is non scenic. Would work better as part of a continuous run. End to end layouts are not ideal at exhibitions - they need extra operators and (because trains spent less time on scene) more stock and bigger fiddle yard to keep things interesting.

Haven't posted here in a while, but recently came across various track plans I drew while thinking about Fintonagh. Don't know about anyone else, but I find myself doodling lots of these, which can often be very useful, if only in exorcising the idea of starting yet another layout. Perhaps these plans might inspire somebody to build something similar - even it is a case of 'certainly wouldn't do it that way!' First up, an idea for a through station. I was trying to incorporate a bit of CVR roadside tramway and the annotations alongside are typical of the thought processes I go through, aiming to justify the plan's existence, alongside the sort [and amount] of stock needed. Here's another through line, but simpler this time, not least in there is no passing loop. The two sidings could only be shunted by trains going right to left. Next is a similar idea, but with the two sidings going off in opposite directions, means trains could shunt in either direction - though only one siding at a time. Notice how various view blockers hide where the tracks exit the scenic section. As a roadside tramway, over bridges, let alone tunnels were absent on the CVR. I even dabbled with a circular layout, which could have made an interesting exhibition concept, though as the left hand sketch shows, storing all the boards would have been problematic as indeed would setting it up at home. In the end, I devised the terminus scheme that became Fintonagh. The CVR never had a branch line, but Fintonagh is supposed to be a small town somewhere between Fintona and Armagh [hence the name]. There is a semblance of street running as the line exits to the left, while a kickback siding to the front exits to a standard gauge transfer siding. The rest of the track plan is fairly conventional, while the annotations provide insight into the planning process, most of which has actually worked out in practice.

Have wandered back to more specific workbench stuff, after what seemed like too much painting and ground work over the last few weeks. That's the joy of layout building for you - if you get fed up with one strand, there's always something else to do! One thing that had been on the 'to do' list for a while was remote control of the starter signal. I could have gone along the electronic route, with maybe a servo or a solenoid, but it seemed easier to just make it mechanical and looking through my materials boxes, I found there were enough angle cranks and wire in tube to make that happen. As can be seen from the picture, the wire in tube uses two cranks, one to make a right angled turn to go parallel to the track and the other to go vertically up to the signal actuator arm. Only a very small amount of movement is required, so I made a simple knob from a small bolt, by drilling into it so the wire in tube fitted inside. The actual wire itself comes out of the top of the knob and is bent over and soldered in place. [More than] a few rude words got uttered while I was working how long the wire in each bit of tube needed to be, but got there in the end and [fingers crossed] it all works nicely and without the rather small control panel getting too crowded. I also put an order in to Skytrex on Sunday for some all important scenic bits and pieces so was pleased to find a package arriving from the postman this morning. A mixture of boxes, crate, barrels and parcels - some in cast white metal, others in resin. Spent a happy hour trying out some of them on the layout and then gave these a scrub in warm water & washing up liquid before an overall spray of primer. I also ordered a set of white metal buffers, which, after drilling the beam to cope with the wider gauge has been posed on the siding, awaiting painting and bedding in.

Depends whether is for an Irish project or elsewhere, I suppose. Early loco names often focused on speed and strength, or something from mythology, so for Ireland check out some of those early kings and chieftains. Another oft used option was to name locos after directors and their families, or indeed loco landmarks, towns etc. Pretty much anything goes therefore as long as it is not something with a modern spelling!

Always thought that Swiss and Austrian layouts were very 'train set' in concept, with far too much track. Then I went there and realised that it can actually be like that in places! There has been a school of thought that we tend to model what we saw in our formative years - a nostalgia kick I guess. Still there, but I sense a growing urge to do something different. After all a loop and two sidings is not the same if it depicts a much earlier era, or a light railway, industrial scene, etc. The major manufacturers are starting to feed this, to some extent, but unless you build your own stuff, you are still very much limited by what they provide.

Interesting! Have always got a lot of satisfaction from pursuing alternative paths. Guess it boils down to enjoying doing something different - be that lesser known railways or even freelance stuff. Essentially very much at the heart of modelling Irish railways in the steam era. A model of 'Lion' and its Titfield Thunderbolt train is supposed to by out soon, though suspect the price will put off any thoughts of conversion, at least to begin with. Years ago, ace modeller Mike Sharman built a substantial collection of early Victorian trains and there is growing commercial support for stuff from early railways, so well worth pursuing!

Really good to see quality models brought to life like this.

I seem to have spent the last week or so being busy to little effect. It's been all about painting the quayside surfaces, using multiple washes of acrylics. Started by using a mix of black and Tamiya 'deck tan', which worked well enough, but then, in trying to get a darker mortar colour, I used too much black and had to start again - including lightly sanding the surface back a bit. Half a dozen new washes takes to what you can see in the photos. Not exactly a huge change, with the wooden posts probably the most noticeable. There's also been some tidying up around the edges, including the base of the signal post. To brighten things up, have included a WL&WR train in the scene, with Richard Chown's superb model of 'Shannon' [now nearly 50 years old] at the head of a 'Mail Goods', comprising three scratch built vehicles of my own. Am starting to get a bit bored with all this scenic work of late, but what this area now needs is a range of details/cameos, so am off to explore various websites for things like packing cases, barrels and so on in the hope of bringing the scene to life. Am also wondering whether it is time to have a go at the travelling crane too. Did a sketch of what one might look like a few months ago, so let's see where the Muse takes me!

Seems no matter how contemporary you try to be, barely a day goes by and it becomes history!

It's a four page article, and and reading it through seems a bit complex, albeit very effective looking. Any water based sealant ought to do, though to be honest, the method used by weathering guru Martyn Welch is a lot simpler. Ordinary masking tape, cut to size, then painted with Humbrol gunmetal, looks pretty good and have been using that method for years.

Couple of things may be of interest in the latest edition. First an article on creating wagon tarpaulin from bath sealant and Kleenex. Second a remarkable couple of photos on page 77. Hard to tell if they are of a model, or the real thing. In fact they are neither, instead being virtual images (made using Fusion 360) of High Wycombe station buildings in broad gauge days. Very clever, though one wonders if in future, folk will actually be making real models and it will be all virtual stuff instead!

Always enjoy seeing the latest updates. A fine quality rake, which must have needed more that a bit of discipline and patience!

A former member of the Chatham Club was in the Royal Engineers. Did some time in N Ireland during the Troubles and also went to Falkland after that war. Couple of times he did a slide show and remember see photos of the Donegal stock, taken at some personal risk because at the time it was not a good idea for a squaddie to stick his head above parapet... When on Falkand, also got to visit South Georgia, so this slide show had pictures of the whaling station railway, plus lots of penguins too!

Not sure and other things have taken precedence! The problem is that the kit underframe seems very close to prototype dimensions, so unlike the usual van and open kits, there is not a lot of wiggle room to move the wheel back to backs out to 33mm. Suspect the cure may be to make new buffer beams, or add a fillet to move the buffer spacing out to 6'3. So much easier to do at the start methinks!

He certainly knew what he was doing! Lovely models. As for Queen v GM, the diesels were 950hp, I think, but electric transmission would reduce that by about 100hp at the rail, while top speed was 75mph. Feel sure the Queen would be capable of putting out well over 1000hp and over 80mph, so no contest!

Nice conversion JB and like the idea of using a glasses cleaning cloth for the canvas. Another method is to use masking tape, which simulates canvas quite well. The only British wagon I've found that directly converts to Ireland is the Slater's standard/RCH tank wagon. It's a nice kit, though have found that building mine to 5'3 has caused the wheels to short out against the frames, so it is currently malingering as a rather expensive static model. However, would certainly encourage anyone to have a go at wagon scratchbuilding - even if it is just a case of making bodies to go on second hand chassis. Vans are probably easier to do than opens, especially empty ones as you need to put in all the interior detailing. At the end of the day, a van body is two sides, two ends and a roof, plus strapping and planking, the former only needing some microstrip. Alternatively, start off by doing a grounded van body that has been repurposed as a store. Either way an enjoyable exercise that can be done with the minimum of tools.

Article by Colm Flanagan in the latest RM, which describes this 4mm scale, 00 gauge layout. Very nicely done, with the 16x12 space enabling generous curves and a lot of railway. Innovative adaption of rtr stock to create a convincing depiction of County Down. Well worth reading and some great pictures too.

With the left hand baseboard going fairly well, it made sense to try and finish it, so that meant addressing the quayside and ground cover. First though, I finished off the above ground parts of the signal, by adding the ladder and finial, before touching up more of the paintwork. The idea for the ground work was that there would be substantial stone blocks making up the harbour wall itself, with various sized stone setts filling in between the tracks. In practice, that has meant a lot of scribed DAS clay. Began with a foundation of mounting card, to bring the ground level up to about 1.5mm below the rail tops. This was fixed down with contact adhesive, which was then lightly painted with PVA, before smearing/thumbing on the DAS to about 1mm thick. I smoothed the surface and rubbed it down once dry, but the surface is far from even. Ok, the variations are probably only +/- 0.25mm, but that is enough to create a bit of texture. After that, came the laborious process of scribing in all the setts and stones. The tools for this are very basic - a square and a scriber, plus a rat tailed file for making some of the scribed lines a bit wider/deeper. An old toothbrush is also important for clearing away the dust. Half an hour in, it occurred to me that some of you out there would be contemplating laser printing various sections, but once you get in the zone, it is a pleasantly mindless operation - although best done in chunks of no more than half an hour or so. I used a straight edge for the long lines, but everything else was done by hand in a deliberately random fashion. Smaller setts go parallel to the rails, with larger ones at right angles in between. For the harbour wall, the large stone blocks have much smaller gaps between them, while I have added some 5mm square strip wood to act as a barrier to any craft moored against it. The not insignificant task of painting everything comes next, but thus far, it seems to look the part.

There was also the Mullaghmore harbour tramway (1820-1840) and Barium Consolidated's 2' gauge line (late 1920s) en route. By the by, I may have to start and a thread on the bizarre interpretations of an Amazon Tablet. This morning, it replaced tramway with 'grandpa'! Not sure what planet it comes from, but if ever strange words come out in my posts, it is not me!

Ordinance Survey - the organisation behind all map making in these islands.

Well done Mark and we'll done, Ken!

I've got LEDs in the trainshed and locoshed on Fintonagh, which give a nice low level light. Unfortunately, no idea what type they are and pretty much impossible to access now...

The line at Clifden was a two foot gauge, isolated affair, serving the Marconi radio transmitter station. Not much to it, though a couple of well known photos exist showing Alcock and Brown after their historic flight across the Atlantic, having crash landed nearby. They were transported down to Clifden in a rail mounted motor car, which could make a nice diorama. Clifden was also the intended terminus of the Ulster and Connaught Railway - a three foot gauge line starting at Newry, taking in some of the Cavan and Leitrim, then wandering across to the West coast. No exactly micro layout though, but the possibilities are endless.

Pretty high tech for the day and still look great now.