Kevin Sweeney

I wondered why the two platforms were different heights, that answers that question.

The only thing that has changed visually in those photos in 37 years is the Guinness sign is gone from the barn. i will have to include the sign in my layout. While Gilligan's pub is closed the building is still intact, although an extension has been added to it. There was also a pub the Mill Tavern, down on the main road which is also closed. Two pubs in a rural townland is a good measure of how much of an economic asset the railway was to the local community. While the railway is gone 62 years it remains a part of local culture and folklore. Old people in the area still tell stories about it.

Joining this forum has really energised me and helped to lift me out of the post lockdown blues. I have made good progress the last few days on the goods shed. Only the main doors and the downpipes left to do. I am off shopping tomorrow and will buy a small roll of 0.6 mm mild steel welding wire. The plan is to paint it black and use it for downpipes. It will be a bit over scale, but working in N scale some compromises have to be made and it should look OK. Next part of the project will be the signal box. I am waiting for a bright overcast day, to head back to Ballywillan with my drone. The plan is to take photos looking south so I can experiment with the back scene. This will make for a very picturesque backscene with Lough Kinale, Lough Sheelin, Mullameen and the hills of Westmeath as a backdrop. I will have to return in the summer to catch this scene when the trees are in leaf. I also want to photograph Gilligans pub and the barn, sheds and farmyard, and the railway cottages. All of which will be included in the layout. The baseboard will be 7 feet by 2 feet. There will be some compression on the north end as I want to include the bridge that carried the railway over the road in the layout. Without compression the baseboard would be 9 feet long. I am also thinking of using some modellers license at the south end and including the crossing keepers cottage which is about a mile to the south.

Three more of my models This was one my first scratch builds. The thatch is made with cotton wool, mixed with watered down PVA glue and acrylic paint, compressed between two panes of glass. The gate house at Lough Crew, Co Meath. All textures are Scalescenes. Another early scratch build. A conjectural model of Finea Castle, which once stood next to the famous Bridge of Finea.

On Bellmont I used all Scalescenes Texture sheets. On the Ballywillan Station house, I created the stone work from photos of the building, using Inkscape. The slates on both buildings are Scalescenes. I will include a coin in the next photo I post. I will post some more photos of my completed buildings. N scale is fiddly and in the case of Bellmont I had to simplify the portico, which has a lot of fine carved detail, I could not replicate in N but could be done in OO. The biggest problem I had to overcome was impatience, cutting corners in my rush to see a finished product. It helps that I am a musician, it is like mastering a musical instrument, or a musical genre, keep repeating until you get it right and eventually you develop muscle memory.

Can I second Peter's proposal, N gauge Irish rolling stock.

Thank you all for the kind comments and positive feedback. I started my railway modelling career in OO but soon developed a bigger interest in modelling buildings rather than railway modelling itself. That pushed me to make the switch to 2 mm scale. Being late middle aged this was challenging on my eyes and would not be possible without my headband magnifier. The great advantage of working in 2 mm scale card modelling over 4 mm, is that it halves the amount of card that has to be cut. This is a blessing for my late middle aged hands. My scratch building really took off when I discovered the Chandwell YouTube channel. Michael, the host works in 2mm scale and he is creating the most amazing scratch built layout I have ever seen. He uses the free windows graphics program Inkscape. His work inspires me and makes me constantly strive to up my game. https://www.youtube.com/c/Chandwell My most ambitious scratch build so far is Bellmont House, in Coothill Co Cavan, in 2 mm scale. Not quite finished but getting very close.

The railway station at Ballywillan has long fascinated me. In spite of being closed since 1960, it is amazingly well preserved, apart from a few huts and the tank on the water tower, all the buildings are still in place and very well preserved. If it were still open it would be my local station seven miles from home. My local station now is Edgeworthstown, 18 miles from home. Every time I head for the train at Edgeworthstown I pass Ballywillan and always take the opportunity to curse Todd Andrews. This will be first attempt at building a proper layout. I got into the hobby about 4 years ago, and became a big fan of Scalescenes downloadable kits. It has taken me that long to go from building kits to scratch building. I now feel ready to try an actual layout of an actual station. So far I have completed the Station House, next part of the project is the good shed.