David Holman

Looks great, and particularly at home in the Rosses Point setting. What ever shade of 'black' that is, it looks very effective. Halfords 'rattle can' matt black is almost too dense and demands a degree of weathering to soften it a little, but this looks just right. Reminds me that I really must experiment with monochrome photographs too, though that station building oozes atmosphere in colour.

Black for me. Guess it the old rule of liking what you grew up with, so make that weathered black. As for the locos - lovely work!

Beautifully observed.

Seem to remember the track plan mostly evolved around the use of Y points, rather than the usual left or right. In Cyril Freezer's booklet on track plans for small spaces (mine is priced 2/6, which dates me somewhat), at the back are 10 generic plans where he showed how a six foot terminus could be reduced to 4' 6" by using all Y points. The result is contrived to say the least, but Y points can be useful. On Belmullet, the turnout to the goods shed is a Y, but the Marcway version, where the distance from the toe to the clearance point is just 12" on a 6' radius point. A Peco Y in 0 gauge is the same as as left or right hand point, where the distance from toe to clearance is more like me 18". So, used carefully, Y points can be good space savers, likewise slips and three ways, though these were much less common in Ireland where space mostly wasn't a problem.

Saw Kilbrandon a couple of times and it was great to watch. I if I was starting again, would be very tempted to do S - as the only true imperial scale at 1/64, Irish track gauge works out at 63/64ths of an inch, which for some reason I find rather attractive. Tolerances are pretty fine, trackwise, so stuff runs well. Real scratchbuilders scale though, with minimal commercial support. However, the Society is excellent.

Fintonagh's predecessors Midlandman was asking about these, so I dug out my old RM's to include a few pictures from the articles I had published. Hawkhurst High Weald, was my first ever magazine article & while I've been lucky to have quite a few since, there is still a real thrill to see your work in print - plus you get paid as well! The layout was 0n16.5 using hand made track, but with a short length of 0n9, using N gauge track as a feeder 'twig' to the branch. The High Weald Light Railway was very much a Colonel Stephens inspired system [the surname has much to do with it], replacing the Kent & East Sussex with narrow gauge. It did about a dozen shows in the early 90s, but to be honest, it never ran as well as I would have liked. The baseboards developed a sag and my point building could have been better.. However, I'd become reasonably ok with making buildings and had a lot of fun with the station [based on Hemyock] and, especially, the oast house. The latter is a real Kentish signature building & I went to town on making it as accurate as possible, right down to the thousand odd individual peg tiles on the roof, while the bricks were all painted individually too. Stock was an eclectic mix, to say the least. I made extensive use of 00 chassis, so an outside framed 2-6-0T [freelance] had a plasticard body on a Lima 08 diesel shunter chassis, while the same methods resulted in an 0-6-0T with tramway skirts and an 0-6-2T came from a Lima 2-6-2T chassis. There was 'proper' stuff too - the Vulcan kit of a Sierra Leone 2-6-2T that gave me my first go at outside valve gear and a Wrightlines Baldwin 4-6-0T. Wagons and coaches were all scratch built in plastic on Ratio wagon chassis. Their bogie brick wagon yielded a couple of open wagons, plus a coach chassis, for very little outlay, which is one of the joys of freelancing in 7mmNG. I kept all the buildings, but Hawkhurst went to the recycling centre; the oast was reused on Loose End. However, as I still had all the narrow gauge stock, I decided to build another, small layout, called Cranbrook Town, initially to exhibit, but also with the intention of selling it all on. Cranbrook was a quick build, because I used Peco track. Indeed, see to remember I made the baseboard, laid the track and wired it all up inside a week. Scenics took a lot longer, as I experimented with a detailed back scene, portraying a bluebell wood. Made up of three 3x2 boards, with integral legs, the layout was easy to set up and even quicker to knockdown. The record for being back in the car after a show was 12 minutes! Some new stock was added including the Branchines Clogher Valley bogies coaches. I butchered one of the then brand new Hornby/Dapol 08 shunters into a narrow gauge diesel [which ran beautifully], while one of the MTK El Crappo [yes, really] railcar kits was paired with a lorry trailer made from the Corgi Liptons tea van [as per the real thing on the Selsey Tramway] to make a neat mixed train. Both layouts taught me a lot. I cut my teeth on scratch building both locos and coaches. Being freelance meant there was no need to absolute accuracy, but even then, inspiration came from Irish as well as English prototypes. 7mm NG is certainly a great was of getting into making your own stuff, not least because there are plenty of cheap, second hand chassis out there as starting points. I also explored various elements of layout design, used cassettes in the fiddle yards, Tortoise point motors and even made some track. Any elements which have since appeared in my Irish models are by no means coincidental. The first three pictures are Hawkhurst [RM was still not all colour then], the rest are Cranbrook. What happened to it after I sold it on, I've no idea, but do know that one of my CVR coaches ended up on David Taylor's Bridport, after being rebuilt into a parcels van.

Courtmacsherry itself is for me the perfect branch terminus, with the sea at the front, the village street as the backdrop and [depending how far along you go, the loco shed or school to hide the hole in the sky. However, both of these are quite large for a small diorama, so trees may work and there are plenty of good quality ready made versions about if you don't want to make your own. Equally, if the line exits towards the front edge of the baseboard, this can be hidden by a fascia. Also, as a roadside tramway, maybe it could dive behind a nice big advertising hoarding, an idea I stole from Wantage Town, via Iain Rice for Fintonagh.

Giles Flavell, the man who builds all those fabulous radio controlled 7mm scale road vehicles, works in London theatre as a set/lighting expert. His layouts use the same techniques, so the fiddle yards are totally unseparated from the scenic area by any sort of barrier, fascia etc. Instead, these areas are painted black and are unlit in that all the spotlights are focussed on the scenic area. And it works! You only notice the lack of demarcation when it is pointed out to you. After that, things appear a bit weird for a while, but the fact is that human vision, though able to see up to 180 degrees (further in my wife's case), when focussing on a particular scene, the brain tends to block out the rest. In effect, we see what we want to see, which is why imagination is an important part of railway modelling, at all levels.

So, not just good with brass then! Not surprised... Unlikely I'm ever going to make a Martello tower, but fascinating to see the thought processes behind its construction and an inspiration in terms of always aiming for the highest standards.

Yup, plasticard body MM, while the chassis is a combination of various whitemetal castings. Angus' 2mm version is a master class in fine soldering. Check out Murrayec's pages too, he has lots of useful tips and the skill level to very high indeed. Re Loose End, there are photos on the first page of my Fintonagh thread in the layouts section.

Gorgeous. On my list to do in 7mm scale. One day...

Looking good. Witness coats can be both friend and foe - covering things you don't expect them too and highlighting stuff you hadn't noticed. Worth it though, as better now than when the top coat goes on!

Definitely worth a second, third, etc look. Just noticed the bilingual control panel. Class,

If/when we have exhibitions again, they attend the larger ones and, for a fee, you can be scanned and have models of yourself 3D printed. In my case it would certainly have children hiding behind the sofa!

Will see what I can dig out, MM - though they were all in the pre-digital age so will need to take photos of photos to post them here. Have included a picture of Jane/Shannon. She may look at home on my 5'3, but is narrow gauge, of course!

Here's my own version of the MGW horse box. Built it from the photo in Des Coakham's book. However, needs a repaint, as I've decided it will run in my 1950s version of Belmullet. Couldn't resist adding a 5p coin, which only goes to show just how tiny [and splendid] Angus's models are. 7mm scale is clearly 3.5 times bigger than 2mm, but volume wise, that rises to 43x overall...

Couldn't resist posting a pic of my 7mm Sligo van. Built in plasticard, using the Alphagraphix card kit as the drawing with their chassis underneath. All that nice, heavy, square strapping made it an ideal candidate for using micro strip.

Those wagons look great Mark, so am sure I won't be the only one looking forward to seeing how your project progress.

Lockdown working well it seems? All clouds have silver linings and Barrow Street is one of them!

Sligo van 2 and 3, possibly qualify as the shortest mixed train of all time. Drovers compartment, goods compartment and guard's area.

Been there, done it several times before I got the Irish bug. There were two 7mmNG essays - Hawkhurst High Weald and Cranbrook Town, which featured in Railway Modeller around 20-30 years ago and after that, Loose End, 7mm standard gauge, likewise in RM. Hawkhurst was broken up, but the other two sold as going concerns, though goodness knows what happened to them. That said, was reliably informed that Loose End made it to the same barn in France that housed Gordon Gravett's Ditchling Green. Fine company indeed! Before that there has been Oare, an EM gauge Col Stephens might have been, based on the Davington Light Railway, near Faversham. That went to about a dozen shows in the late '80s, but never made it into print. Diverse interests? You bet. Still have some of my 7mm standard gauge stock, notably Jane/Shannon, the George England Wantage tank that featured in an MRJ build it in stages series of articles by Laurie Griffin. Taught me a lot that little loco and still harbour ideas of doing a small layout just for it. By the by, the Wantage Town track plan scales out at just seven feet, in 7mm scale. See Iain Rice's book on Light Railways - that is only four feet in EM! Shades of Fintona? Just the small problem of making the horse tram work...

Wow, you look away for a couple of days and suddenly there are two full pages of gold dust on the MGW. Well done Victor/Mark for starting it and everyone else for contributing! Can't add much myself, despite having a J26, G2 and four six wheel coaches on my CV. The contributors above have been very helpful in me building them. However, David Jenkinson's Carriage Modelling Made Easy (Wild Swan) is my Bible for passenger stock, while the Alphagraphix six wheel chassis is ideal for sitting plasticard bodies on. My Arigna Town layout, now being rebuilt into Belmullet, was based on a protected branch to the Arigna mines from the SLNCR. Neil Sprink's history shows there were several schemes, including at least one from the Burma Road too. Given the SLNC's poverty, a joint scheme with the MGW didn't seem too far fetched. Sligo, meanwhile had trains from GSW, MGW, WL&W and SLNCR in the early 1900s. Indeed Belmullet supposes the above four all contributed, to bring Canadian Pacific mails from Blacksod Bay. A certain Jonathan Beaumont of this parish very much responsible for my Imagineering in his splendid book Rails to Achill, which outlines a host of proposed schemes into deepest Mayo. The Steam Age in Ireland, by the Lord O'Neill, is an album of commissioned paintings, which give an idea of colours, though as JHB will council, they may not be all that accurate! Finally, for now, seems there Alphagraphix portfolio, especially the Tyrconnell etched brass kits, is not as large as was, mainly because Roger is concentrating on his British light railway lines and with my surname, I can hardly criticise...

Probably need about 2m by 0.5m in 4mm scale, including the shunting neck. These sorts of layouts can make excellent short to medium term projects. Indeed, with commercial track, you could probably have it operational in a weekend and by using ready to plant buildings, it could be fully scenic in 2 - 4 weeks of lockdown. The main problem is that operation is a bit one dimensional in that you are limited to just shuffling wagons about - though a card index could make moves more challenging. Also, with only a single loco needed, it would be well worth investing in DCC for sound. Tried this with an American outline, dual scale, project a few years ago. It's in the foreign layouts thread under the name Dichotomy. Used 16.mm track for an HO Shay and an On16.5 Shay, each with a few boxcars. Sound made all the difference - whistle/horn for each move, brake squeal etc. With not much else to think about, you could make each movement that bit more realistic and absorbing.

Have to keep reminding myself how tiny the model is! A proper little jewel.

LEDhut are my 'go to' for lighting. They sell self adhesive strips with up to 70 LEDs per metre, in a wide range of formats, though I find 'cool white' works well. Fintonagh is 50cm deep and uses two strips, one above the front edge and one along the middle of the scenic area. The front strip is stuck to the pelmet, the middle strip is in its own 'tube' which LED hut also sell. It's a length of aluminium extrusion, with a clip on plastic diffuser. Works a treat and prevent heir service is excellent.