David Holman

When the Clogher Valley Railway closed in 1941, Henry Forbes of the County Donegal Railway purchased three items of motive power. The Atkinson Walker tractor became Phoenix, while Railcar No1 became No10. Then there was 'The Unit'. Essentially a second tractor unit for the Railcar, it was fitted with a wagon body & indeed the loco parts were interchangeable. I guess Henry Forbes was hoping to continue the idea, though one of them was badly damaged, so there was only ever Railcar 10. Shame, as the Unit proved itself very useful on both passenger and freight work for the Clogher. Converting Fintonagh to a Swilly/Donegal branch means I can repaint all three of my CVR models just mentioned, so decided to make a start on the Unit. Working on the principle that, being a bit of a 'Rail-Lorry' decided to do the cab in red and cream, with wagon body in grey. The only other work has been moving the headlight from in front of the radiator to the cab roof. Not entirely sure about this livery combination & am wondering if the lorry bit would be better in red - as per a 'red van'. Let me know what you think. The cab side crests and numbers are from an LMS sheet of transfers by the way. Not too bad under the 'two foot' rule, I hope. I've given it the number 5, as this appears to be vacant by the time the CVR stuff went to the Donegal, though given the Unit's interchangeability with the railcar, may 10A might also be appropriate. The model was originally built in 2017, using a set of Worsley Works etches and if you go back to that time in this thread, you'll see a few posts on its construction.

Fingers crossed, the fiddle yard is now finished - at least as far as Northport Quay is concerned, though narrow gauge track still needs laying, once I eventually get hold of some Code 83 rail. Painting is a mixture of Sage Green, to match the layout baseboards and plain white [on primer] for the rest, mainly to put a protective seal on the timber. A couple of additions come from getting some 3mm ply sheet from Hobbycraft, to cover the open topped framework at each end. The 3.6mm ply I'd used elsewhere was just a tad too thick and made the sliding and rotating actions a bit stiff, especially when the table is fully loaded with trains. My locos weigh between one and two kilos each, so five trains come to between 10 and 15 kilos in all. A bit of sanding was needed in key areas of the 3mm ply, so that when the train table is turned, it rides smoothly over the ends. I've also reversed the electrical connection, with the crocodile clip connectors on the other end of the wire from the screw clipping onto the leads from the main baseboards.

Clogher Valley Railcar No1 went to the Donegal, becoming their No10. They took the 'Unit' too, which was exchangeable with the power unit of the railcar. Indeed, I believe the latter soon became part of Railcar 10, following accident damage to the other power unit. However, what if the Unit had survived as a separate tractor/loco, complete with its wagon body? It could have been very useful for light freight or even passenger haulage and if so, what would the livery have been? Am assuming the cab would have been as per Railcar 10, but what about that wagon body? Would this have been painted in the geranium red, or left in wagon grey? Am in the process of converting both my CVR models to Donegal form, along with the Atkinson Walker tractor to Phoenix, so any ideas welcome please.

Seriously clever stuff - got to love those jigs! My Alphagraphix 2-4-2T uses a similar system to the one for Cleminson 6w coaches with the pony wheels lightly sprung to both guide into curves and stay on the track. Mostly successful, but remains a bit of a problem child because the pony wheels can stick, while in a ideal world it would be nice to have them with pick ups to spread that load as well. Hence will be watching with even more interest than usual. Looks a super project and having just bought some universal rods from Gibson, that little jig is a very timely reminder!

All are available in 7mm scale, from Alphagraphix, along with six wheel coaches, various wagons etc. Go on, you know it makes sense!

Would have made an ideal preservation project. City to seaside, holidays and weekends, while if the single wheeler had survived, what a draw that would have been!

Not many points either!

Two in a week and two too many. So sad. Many condolences.

Towards the end of page 20 of my Work bench thread, you'll see how I represented peat on a pair of 7mm scale turf wagons, using matchsticks.

That's pretty much the standard way of doing things, though rather than brush the excess away, it is worth putting a handkerchief over the nozzle of a vacuum cleaner to hoover it up and thereby save it for further use.

Interesting. Over many years and at least a dozen layouts, would say that a through layout needs more stock than a terminus to fiddle yard set up. The former needs more operators too - especially if there is a fiddle yard each end, rather than a continuous run where you can just let trains circulate. Fintonagh, my Clogher Valley layout, has just four trains and at shows, a sequence takes around 30-40 minutes to complete, depending on how much visitors want to talk to you. Incidentally, over 100+ shows, have found that, for me at least, there needs to be a balance between sequences that are interesting to operate, but not too complicated so that it becomes stressful. Overall therefore, half a dozen trains can be plenty to keep visitors amused, because the vast majority will only spend a few minutes in front of a layout. A couple of spare locos is always a good idea though, because at shows there is always a greater chance that things will go wrong. After all, not many folk operate trains at home for 6-8 hours on the bounce and that is another reason to avoid making operation too complex. Another factor with exhibiting is that the more stock you have, the longer it takes to set up before a show and likewise put everything away at the end. I can get Fintonagh set up in about 45 minutes and back in the car afterwards in half that. Then there's the issue of moving everything too and from the car/van/trailer, including when it might be raining, or worse. I could go on, but if you can get hold of any of Iain Rice's books like Cameo Layouts, he goes into detail about all the things to consider. Exhibiting is good fun, but it's not easy!

Given the site of the station, a fair bit of engineering would have been needed to make it into a through line. Would make an interesting model though! More than one person on this forum has pondered on the other line out of Sligo, namely the branch down to the quay. Have often thought it would have made a nice passenger line if extended up the coast a bit.

Looks ok to me.

Finally got the new fiddle yard hooked up to NPQ today, enabling trains to be run for the first time in months! Just as well really, because the layout's next outing is the Chatham Show, at the end of July, which isn't that far away now. The main work was wiring in all the bolts - two wires from each one to the adjacent rails, meaning only one track is ever live. Power to the track comes from two wires from the layout, which each have a crocodile clip on them. These go on a screw each side of the short bridging track & a single wire from each screw goes to the rails, with another from the rails to each bolt. Safety next, with the hinged aluminium strip buffers at each end of the train table. Small blocks of plywood mean the buffers will clear the Alex Jackson couplings when lowered. The main frame of the fiddle yard was flexing a bit, so I cut some strips of 12mm ply and fitted these as diagonals between the intermediate frame pieces, which nicely triangulates things and adds some all important rigidity. Also replaced the oversized bolts, which ensure the table remains parallel to the frame when being slid from side to side. After that, it was time to put trains on the table and do a few test runs. Happily, all seems well, though care is of course needed when turning the table, once everything has been out & back - but then it was the same with the previous model. Some priming and painting now required, so everything matches the layout boards, plus I really must work out where to fit the all important coffee/tea cup holder.

Fab. Well done!

It was really sad to read of Ken's (KCME) passing today and looking back at some of his posts didn't make it any better. We have lost a rare and remarkable talent. Recently, we have also learned that Patrick's wonderful layout has run its last train and this has set me thinking. This Irish Railway Models Forum is a really valuable resource and hopefully Ken, Patrick and other's work will remain here, available to view for many years to come. However, as is the way of things, when individual posts no longer get updated, they eventually drop off the front page and fall down the order, not lost, but increasingly out of sight, so I have a proposal: Is it possible to set up a new category to cover such things? For example Ken didn't just have his work bench thread, he posted other topics too and wouldn't it be nice to put them all together under a single heading in a new category? Similarly, rather than just see Patrick's layout drop from the scene, would this also be a worthy move to preserve its interest? There must be other layouts that have similarly passed on, as it were. Another thought concerns esteemed modellers of the Irish scene, who have not been with us for quite a while - for example Drew Donaldson, Richard Chown, etc. While neither posted here, feel sure we could easily create an archive of their work. Technically, am thinking it would probably be down to the administrators to set up a new category and then find and migrate posts to appropriate sections - especially for folk no longer with us. An archive for old layouts could be cut and pasted by anyone still around, likewise any historical stuff. Seems like a decent idea to me, though there may be obstacles I haven't considered, but just wondered if there might be a way to honour the best of what we have here and Ken was certainly up there.

Such sad news. Always interesting, innovative and just genuinely clever in his modelling. We are all richer for his contributions here and would have loved to meet him. RIP Ken.

The fiddle yard's design has been, of necessity, somewhat organic - given it needs to serve two layouts, with different track exits. Getting track heights right at the two interfaces has been tricky. I used 12mm ply for the single, broad gauge track & [for once] careful measurement has meant that Code 100 rail and copper clad sleepers line up nicely with Northport Quay. The home made bolts line up the track table, though the ones on the 'bridge' have needed to be raised by one millimetre - not really surprising given that the track table uses 9mm ply. Another built in complication is that Fintonagh's boards are one centimetre deeper than NPQ's, so the fiddle yard requires a piece of plywood at the far end to level it up. However, fingers crossed, laying the track seems to have everything lining up nicely &, if necessary, the copper clad sleepers mean the rails can easily be adjusted. For Fintonagh, decided I needed a completely different interface, so when this layout goes to shows, the NPQ one will be unscrewed. After much thought, decided to make Fintonagh's hinged from the layout baseboard and wide enough to cover both layout exits. However, the different baseboard height, along with the fact it uses Code 83 rail, has meant a degree of jiggery pokery has been required. The exit from the layout is 3mm higher than the track table, so rather than use copper clad sleepers on the bridging section, I've used small screws and soldered the rail to these. Have also used screws for the first 15cm or so of the track table, before the rail eventually gets soldered to the broad gauge sleepers. This reduces the gradient between the two to about 1 in 75, compared to 1 in 25, though am yet to find out if this works or not. Have managed to salvage quite a bit of Code 83 from Fintonagh's turntable fiddle yard, but not enough for all of the new one. At least I'll be able to test it, once the wiring is completed, while another, unplanned, test occurred this afternoon when the new fiddle yard fell of the work bench onto the workshop floor. It seems ok, though not sure how the floor would have got on if it had been the old version!

Fantastic work, Roger.

Back in the day, I believe it was common practice for an unfitted goods train to stop outside loop of a terminus station to ensure it was under control and minimise the possibility of a runaway smashing into the buffers. Not something I see done very often at exhibitions, but worth including for that extra bit of authenticity perhaps?

Wonderful stuff! Many thanks, Roger.

And even then, compromises with the driving wheel spacing are required. On the prototype, they were almost touching!

Thanks Patrick - stunning to see the layout in its entirety.. As for those buildings, just exquisite.

Still need nearly twelve feet to model that...

12 years and over 450,000 views! Quite a ride, Patrick. Hope the moves go well and that it won't be too long before you start posting about a new project