Kevin Sweeney

Getting very close to finishing the distillery. All that's left is capping for chimney, hood for malt kiln, two large tanks and downpipes. This by far the biggest build I've yet done.

It's great to see this kind of work being done, protecting our heritage rather than sweeping it away, and replacing it with post modern junk. A particularly awful example from my own area. was the destruction of this farmhouse and yard, which was demolished completely some years back, only the hayshed is left. It was a really good example of a house that started as a single story thatched building and was extended as the family came up in the world during the 19th century. It was a great example of an upwardly mobile 19th century catholic family home. In Northern Ireland it would have been a listed building, instead it became rubble and was used as fill for the foundations of the modern house that replaced it.

Getting there with the distillery. It has taken almost four A4 sheets of slates to roof it.

More progress on the distillery. The big job of the last few weeks has been making slates, but well on with it now.

You've diagnosed my syndrome perfectly, I keep threating to lay track but get distracted by another bloody building. I was ranting recently to my wife about the 13 year schedule to open the Navan Dublin line, and she replied your a fine one to talk, your railway is taking almost as long to build. I need to dedicate an hour or two every day to actually building my railway, but the road to hell is paved with good intentions, or in my case with interesting buildings.

Thanks Patrick. It will make a great centre piece for the rural section of my layout.

More progress on the distillery.

It's looking good. I love the fine detail that is possible in OO, that cannot be got in N.

Brilliant work, it's coming together very well.

I knew when I say the plans I had to build it. Not only because it will make a great centre piece for the layout, but because I'm a whiskey drinker.

More progress on the distillery. The big building will require a full A4 page of Scalescenes slates.

It's looking good. I love the elegant simplicity of barn churches.

The distillery begins to take shape. I still haven’t laid any track yet, which is fine as I’m refining the track plan. Rather than store trains under the scenery in the rural section, the new plan is to build a fiddle yard on the branch line between the two scenic sections of the layout. This would mean moving about the room to three different control panels to run the full layout, or it could be run by three people. I was going to use some compression on the rural station, but I have lots of room and can go full size with the station. Right now, I’m thinking of platforms 800 mm long. I’m using Anyrail software to refine my idea about the scenery and trackwork. This is the plan so far. I was anxious to get track layed, until I saw a good maxim, lay track in haste, repent at leisure. So I think taking another week or two will be beneficial and refine the plan some more. I am also thinking about making the baseboard for the city section and getting all the track layed. This is where the plan is right now

Making good progress with the distillery. There are an epic number of windows in it, so I have spent much of the last few days cutting out tiny squares. I find it strangely therapeutic. I'm about 2/3 of the way there with the windows. Unfortunately the windows are too fine for the cutting machine. I've decided to use the Ballywillan station house and goods shed for the country station. I will need to remake the foot bridge and shelter from the Crossdoney diorama. I'm going to use Noel's track plan for Gort, which will give me good shunting operations at the station. I'm almost there with the cork road bed, so track laying is next. it's been a steep learning curve for me, with track laying and wiring, but Youtube has been invaluable.

It always amazes me how feeble the statuary protection of our built heritage is in this state. Our neighbours in the UK for all their failing have rigorous and well enforced laws to protect historically important buildings like this. Hopefully the hotel (or at least its façade) will survive.

I'm working on the Distillery and have really come to appreciate the Cricut cutting machine. It banged out this set of parts in about 20 minutes last night, while I drank coffee. It would have taken many, many hours to cut this lot out by hand.

I'm also thinking Limerick, but made as a through station, with a train shed. I have a drawing of it, I got at the Irish Architectural Archive exhibition last year. I love Limerick, it's a beautiful city, now that you mention it I'm thinking maybe of basing the city section on Limerick. Lots of great Georgian architecture, and beautiful buildings like the Hunt Museum and St Mary's Cathedral. I like the Railway hotel as well.

I've been learning the ropes with Anyrail software the last few days. This is what I've come up with so far. I have also started to lay some cork trackbed. This is the track plan for the rural section. The distillery will be the centre piece. There will be a country station, I haven't yet decided what, but I'm leaning towards a Great Northern station, as I like the fancy brick work on many of them. As I posted before the track will be flat, with rising ground towards the back and sides, hills will hide the track at the back. I'm going to put a removable roof over the storage yard at the back, in which I will store 4 trains. I thought it would need to be open for operations. But the new plan is to put in isolated section at each end of the storage tracks, so the trains will stop automatically when they arrive in the yard. Presuming I remember to throw the isolation switch. In the bottom left is the branch line which will go to the other baseboard, on the other side of the room. There will access to the branch line from both the inner loop (at the back) and the outer loop (at the front) This will be the urban section. The track plan here is still very basic and will be developed further. The branch line comes in at the top left and crosses a valley on a curved viaduct. The valley floor will be a small inlet. I going for a double tracked through station, maybe with a train shed. After going through the station the trains will go round a non scenic, turning loop and head back towards the branch line. The double track section on the left will be an unpowered dead end, just there to look good. It will also cross the valley on a straight viaduct. I think this plan has everything I want, continuous running, end to end operations, and lots of shunting in the port. I will also be able to operate it on my own, and if I should find a willing partner, it can be operated by two people. The priority is get the rural section completed before moving onto the city section. The buildings on the city section will take years to complete The urban station will include an engine shed for my steam trains and a diesel depot. I will probably use Scalescenes kits for those. Scalescenes Diesel Depot I made some years back. I will also use the Scalescenes ship kit for the port. I will probably try a kit bash as well and make a cattle ship, which will allow me to run cattle trains between the country station and the port A Scalescenes trawler or two will be moored at the port. Also maybe a life boat, again from Scalescenes. Also available is a Lifeboat station with a slipway, which would be a nice addition. I have some work done already on a dockside crane.

The internet is an amazing research tool. I went looking for a distillery and in about 20 minutes I found what I was looking for, the Tamdhu Distillery in Scotland. In another 20 minutes I had downloaded plans, drawings, photos and a map. The model will be 500 mm long and 300 mm wide. I will have to add a small extension at one end of the baseboard to accommodate it, but this will be a wonderful centre piece for the layout.

I would be mainly operating while seated. I like the sky idea, a lot simpler than a cliff face. I could line its base with trees and shrubs and not need the countryside in the distance at all. The small dioramas were good practice, but I'm looking forward to working with a much bigger canvas.

I finally got a baseboard built and am ready to start laying track. I purchased Anyrail software which I find very good. This will be the first part of my layout which will be rural. It's 4.8 meters long by 0.8 wide. The track will be flat but the ground will be hilly rising towards the back of the layout. I'm using set track for the curves and flex track for the straights. The track at the back will be hidden behind the hills and maybe covered with a lid of removable scenery, in case of derailments. The storage yard at the back, will need to be visible for operations so I'm thinking of a cliff face to hide it behind. There will be big hills at both ends and the track will emerge from tunnels at both ends. The buildings will include, a stately home (Bellmont), two farmhouses, a country station (not Ballywillan, maybe Crossdoney), a pub (Gilligans at Ballywillan), a shop (my Great Grandmothers shop), an Anglican church and Glebe house, a creamery (Graignamana), a crossing keepers cottage, a labourers cottage and a distillery (yet to be built). There will be a main road running the length of the layout roughly parallel to the track, a cross roads and a side road with a level crossing. I have an area on the other side of the room which will allow me another baseboard about 2/3 the size of this one. The plan is a single track branch line, starting at the back of this board, crossing the mainline, running along the adjoining wall (non scenic), and ending at a terminus station, probably based on Sligo or Limerick. This section will be urban and include a port, and a curved viaduct. An urban scene will give me lots of scope to indulge in my passion for making buildings. With a distillery on one side of the room and a port on the other, I can operate freight trains between the two. I'm looking forward to getting the track down and finally getting to run trains. Even though all the building will be Irish, all my rolling stock is British. The storage yard will hold seven trains. Bellmont House will be on a hill. The big shots looking down on the plebs. The bridge top left will carry the branch line over the main line and on to the city. Can't wait to get some of these running, They have all been run in, but most have never hauled a coach or wagon. My pride and joy. Still in the box, never even been run in. Really can't wait to see this beauty in action.

I got distracted again, this time by Cavan Town Hall. Built in 1901 as the HQ of Cavan Urban Council, it it now the towns arts centre. I made my stage debut here in a boy scout pantomime in the mid 1970s. Making good progress with the build so far.

I've gone back to the beginning of this thread and am back working on Ballywillan. I'm going to complete it as a diorama. The baseboards are made from 2 mm greyboard, which gives a very strong and light structure. The baseboards will be in two parts. Tracks layed and ballasted. Next the platforms.

Mullingar Athlone still has one derelict track in place, if they want to go double track they will have to kick the cyclists off. This is the one I'm really interested in as this would give me quick easy access from Edgeworthstown to Galway and Mayo, where I visit family, and holiday. The plan looks great and it certainly changes the debate about Irish transport policy. It is also a long overdue admission that the roads dominated transport policy of the last 70 years was a mistake. As a Cavan person who often argued with my friends and neighbours that we Cavan people should stop lamenting the destruction of our railway and start demanding its restoration, this report is manna from heaven. Up to now the idea would be dismissed as a hopeless dream, with this report that is no longer the case. It is only a line on a map so far but at last the idea is now out there, that there is nothing unreasonable or impossible about the idea of restoring Cavan's railway. This report will strengthen the hand of all us railway advocates in the border counties. The problem of course is delivery, if they are projecting 13 years to plan and build the Navan Dublin line, this plan will take at least a century to complete. My children, or grandchildren might eventually catch a train from Cavan, but I doubt I will. The one oddity is that it will leave Fermanagh as the only county with no railway. Why no line from Omagh to Claremorris, that would give us a west coast mainline.