Kirley

Great to see all the pictures of the show, looks very impressive. Was hoping to see to see (and hear) Railwayman’s Sulzer on display.

I see you have been following George’s work on the Tank on the RM site. Looking forward to seeing some pictures of your build?

Excellent work as usual, my favourites are 078 and 108, there’s something special about what you have done here.

Usual excellent standard, it was good to see it a few weeks back, like your Enterprise.

From the girder work to the rivets to the posters to the lights just excellent.

More please, this is fascinating.

Steam railway museum in £2.5m boost The new rail attraction will be based in Whitehead in County Antrim. Millions of pounds is to be spent turning a steam engine depot at Whitehead, County Antrim, into a tourist attraction. The depot is currently used by the Railway Preservation Society of Ireland (RSPI) to carry out work on their 10 locomotives. RSPI plan to create an interactive museum and said it will become an essential stop on the tourist trail. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-21824130

Thanks Ger for your comments, all wires coming into the Control Box are connected to numbered connection blocks so all can be easily identified, it's just there are so many, go to switches, to LED's and to the Module Boards. Perhaps BosKonay is right about digital control! I also can't wait to see the new civil engineering masterpieces!

A teaser?

Found this information on another site Castlerock Community Association Castlerock Railfest – This is the 160th anniversary of the first time a resident of Castlerock was able to welcome the arrival of a train at Castlerock Station. This advent of the railway gave the signal for the development of the village proper and on 23rd. March 2013 we are celebrating the return of the railway service with a commemoration and celebration of events and exhibitions in keeping with Castlerock’s origins as a railway village. DISPLAY AND EXHIBITION AREA – PETER THOMPSON HALL Throughout the Hall there will be a wide variety of Victorian period railway artefacts and photographs and posters on display from Derry Railway Museum, Causeway Museum Service, Translink and private lenders. A. Main Hall Several Railway Model layouts will be on display as follows: 1. North Down Model Railway Society will be exhibiting “BALLYCLARE” a large L-shaped layout (17.5’ wide x 11’ deep) set in the LMS(NCC) era together with their “hands-on” Shunting Layout” (8’ long x 2’ deep) which provides visitor participation. 2. IAN SINCLAIR will be exhibiting “KILLAGAN”, an “OO” gauge (4mm = 1Foot) layout (22’ wide x 6’ deep) based on the section of track at Killagan between Ballymoney & Ballymena in the 1950s – 1960s. Trains which ran through this station would also probably have run through Castlerock. 3. First Bangor Model Railway Club will be exhibiting two “N” gauge (2mm = 1Foot): · “Santa Clara Valley” - a west coast USA U-shaped layout 8’ wide x 6’ deep; and · “Charlie’s Ridge” - a very scenic layout with mountains, deep valley, trestle bridges, etc. It will have five trains running simultaneously! It is 13’ wide x 3’ deep. 4. The Damhead Railway (Coleraine) will be exhibiting an engine from their collection. 5. The “Historical Railway Display Boards” will tell the story of the railway and its impact in creating Castlerock. Boards will probably be on the following subjects: · RAILWAY DEVELOPMENT IN THE NORTH OF IRELAND · THE LONDONDERRY & COLERAINE RAILWAY · THE LONDON MIDLAND & SCOTTISH RAILWAY (NORTHERN COUNTIES COMMITTEE) · CREATION & DEVELOPMENT OF CASTLEROCK VILLAGE & IMPACT & INFLUENCE OF THE RAILWAY IN THIS. · CASTLEROCK RAILWAY STATION, ITS BRIDGE, SIGNAL BOX & SIGNALLING B. Pavilion This area will be the centre for The “THOMAS THE TANK ENGINE COMPETITION” and will have a display of characters from these stories (Ertl die-cast models) and children will be asked to name them on an entry form – a small per head charge of 50p. will be made for this and small prizes will be awarded to the winner(s). Entries will close at 4.00pm to allow for marking the entries and the Presentation of the prizes will be at 04.45 pm. C. CHRISTCHURCH Church Hall A continuously running film show celebrating the 'Golden Age of Steam in Ulster' by courtesy of Mrs Phyllis Ewing, who is kindly making her late husband's collection of films from the age of steam available for this event. Also 'Railway Reminiscence ' sessions with Ex-railway employees will sit and yarn with the public about all aspects of railway travel, lore and working practice in 'The Heydays of Rail', including memories specific to the Derry/Londonderry to Coleraine line. . STATION PLATFORM, STATION BUILDING AND ENVIRONS The Temple Bar in the former station building will be fully open to the public for meals and refreshments throughout the day and will be the venue for a closed dinner event in the evening. The platform will be decorated 'en fete' with a rich provision of floral displays and railway artefacts to recreate the Glory Days of years gone by. i. Throughout the day there will be a series of railway-themed, costume playlets recounting incidents from Castlerock's past railway heritage, performed by students from the Northern Regional College in Ballymoney, directed by Paul McMaster. A 'Railway Conductor' in costume will welcome visitors as they arrive onto the station. ii. A Jazz band will perform at different times during the day. iii. A specially erected 'Castlerock Ticket Office' will be selling the special souvenir tickets which will consist of on one side a facsimile of the original ticket from 1853 and on the reverse a commemoration of the 'Railfest' itself.

Fantastic achievement especially when you consider he was against all those major manufactures.

Great to see it finished and you got the lights working Ger, well done.

Great tips there, I have a Bachmann Class 08 waiting to be done, thanks for showing the extra details.

Still struggling with the Control Board wiring. I’ve stayed away from it for a while but forced myself to go back to it. It’s getting there but for every problem you solve another one develops. Bridges of Kirley Junction Still not finished yet but hopefully soon.

The coach looks as one end is painted grey, I never saw an NIR livery like that.

Well done, the brake gear adds another dimension to the models, looking forward to seeing them weathered.

Thanks achill & BosKonay, looking forward to the results.

Thanks again achill for all that detailed information. I would love to see all this information displayed in table form showing liveries from CIE onwards for all locomotives and rolling stock. A similar one from UTA onwards would complete the all Ireland picture. To have this information easily accessible in the Resource Section would be of great benefit to all modellers – the information is definitely out there.

Great set of videos, thanks for sharing.

Thanks for the update Gerry. I was wondering how you did your front windows. Really tempted by your soundchip.

Excellent work, very innovative

My very first venture into kit building was a NIR Hunslet. In 2010 I made a second one adding lights to both. Both were kits by MIR but with their demise I was still outstanding the 3rd member of the Hunslet fleet. When John of Silver Fox Models bought the rights from MIR this was my chance to get my third locomotive. The Silver Fox kit was £46 plus providing a Bachmann Class 20 chassis. The kit comprises of a Resin body and the mould is of the complete body not like the MIR one where you added brass grills, roof panels, hand rail along with white metal buffers and other small pieces. My first thought was to add my own hand rails etc but then decided just to do it as it was. Sorry I did not take any photographs of the resin model in its raw state but I found two pictures of it behind ones of the Sulzer under construction hence the limited view. In the second one you can see the only modification I made in cutting out the side windows, not an easy task as the resin was about 4 mm thick. I cut out the glazing in Perspex and painted the model. It was only when I got to applying the decals stage did I realise that Silver Fox did not supply the warning colour panel for the front. I decided to use this design from the early 80’s. Unfortunately I had to mask the whole of the loco just to do the front and side stripes. I’ve still to weather the model but my initial reaction is favourable to this Silver Fox Hunslet kit. Maybe Weshty may consider doing a detailing kit for the Hunslet.

Looks the part

Great video. Well done Gerry, she looks really good in that green livery plus the sound. How did the build go?

Congratulations Gareth on your second child. A new arrival and opening a new shop all in the one month -exhausting.