Kevin Sweeney

More progress with Crossdoney diorama. including my first experiments with scatter. The long winter nights and bad weather are great for modelling.

Making progress on the Crossdoney diorama. The shelter is the smallest structure I have yet modelled. The windows look very ragged up close but work fine when viewed from a distance.

I'm on a steep learning curve right now. Landscaping, laying track, ballasting, and buildings platforms are all new to me. Rather than make big mistakes on the Ballywillan layout, I've decided to make a small diorama based on Crossdoney Station and make my mistakes on a small scale first.

Graiguenamanagh Creamery for the Bellmont layout

Cork track bed laid. Next job is the platforms. I will then finish the top right surface, which is lower ground

Thanks for the tip, it sounds easier to work than plywood.

Back doing some work on Ballywillan, after another hiatus. I've started work on the first section of baseboard. I've made the main frame, which is 1600 mm long and 550 mm wide. The south end of the baseboard (nearest camera) will be totally flat. Except for a 4 mm rise on the western edge. I will use a piece of ply 887 mm long by 550 mm wide for this. The map of Ballywillan (below) shows the main frame and plywood baseboard as red rectangles. On the northern end the ground will rise 10 mm to the NW corner and drop 14 mm at the NE corner. The trackbed will remain flat. I'm not sure yet how I'm going to create this non flat landscape, but I'm experimenting with plywood templates, to give me the basic shape. I've used Google Earth to survey the ground (below). The number in the bottom right hand corner of the image is the altitude in feet, under the mouse. It makes surveying the ground a breeze. Once I get this section finished I will make extensions to the north and south

After a bit of a hiatus I'm back doing some work on the Ballywillan layout. I have promised to show it to the local I.C.A. Guild in September, so this should spur me on to keep the project moving. The I.C.A. have also lined up a retired school teacher from the Ballywillan area to talk about the stations history. Her late mother grew up in Gilligan's pub so she should have lots of stories to tell. Should be an interesting night. The big problem with being more into architectural modelling rather than railway modelling per se, is that I get easily distracted from Ballywillan by other buildings for my Bellmont layout. I have decided to model the vanished hamlet of Ballyheelan, Co Cavan as it was in the early 20th century and incorporate it into the Bellmont layout. Modern Ballyheelan is just three houses and a derelict mill at a crossroads, but in the early 20th century it was an important commercial settlement. It had a mill and grain kilns, a forge, a grocery shop, a butchers shop and slaughter house, a post office, a shebeen and a collection of houses. I have completed the mill (posted earlier) and made some progress on three other buildings. This was the grocery shop which belonged to my Great Grandmother. Sheridan's house, known as the big house. They owned the mill, forge, kilns and post office. It was also the home of my Great Great Grandfather. McGarry's house and slaughter house, their butcher shop was on the other gable of the house. The slaughter house will have to be reroofed due to some water splashes. My main sources for the Ballyheelan model are the 1901 OS map, my mothers incredibly good memory, a video shot in 1938 and an aerial photo of the big house taken in 1984 before it and all its outbuildings were demolished. The narrator on the video is my Mother.

After a break of several weeks working in the garden, I'm back doing some modelling again. Still waiting for the leaves to come out to do the back drop for Ballywillan, but will start on the base board in the next few days. In the mean time I working on some more buildings for my Bellmont layout. This is my progress so far on the mill, which is a model of Ballyheelan mill, in Co Cavan.

N scale labourers cottage. Again this not for the Ballywillan layout but for the Bellmont layout. All pressure is off for Ballywillan right now, as I've completed all the buildings and I'm waiting for summer to take the photos for the backscene. So I have two months to do the baseboard and scenery. In the mean time I can keep doing new buildings for Bellmont. I'm working now on a Glebe House and farmyard.

Almost there with my Anglican Church.

I'm still attempting to build an Anglican church. The first version has gone in the bin, after being used for some varnish tests, this is version 2, it's St Patrick's, Church of Ireland, Kildromfertan. About a mile north of Kilnaleck, Co Cavan.

I made some progress, the sheds next to the station, are ready to roof. Time to start thinking about the baseboard and terrain. My main distraction from Ballywillan this week was Bellmont, I'm working on a small Anglican church.

I doubt I'll get round to making a kit, not right now anyway. In the future who knows. Vernacular farm buildings make very nice models.

Gilligan's barns and the current state of the farm yard. On the base board the pub will be raised higher in relation to the barn, than in these photos.

Finished Gilligan's farm sheds. I have yet to build the sheds next to the station house, and have a few finishing touches to put on Gillian's pub and barns. I've started work on the road bridge at the north end of the station. I have completed the abutments but have no images of the bridge itself. I remember it as a child but only recall it was a metal bridge. Lacking any images I'm just going to use a Scalescenes plate girder bridge kit. Almost there with the buildings.

This is the pdf I printed from Inkscape. The roof texture is glued onto 200 gsm card, cut to size (not on this printout). The white edges are painted with a dark marker. The secret is to pre bend the card before gluing the texture sheet, use a workable glue like PVA and get all the wrinkles out before the glue is dry.

Kinale is the nearest and most visible lake, but nearby and visible in the backscene will be both Sheelin and Bracklagh lake. Thankfully we are not short of lakes in this part of the world. Strangely most locals don't call the lake Kinale, they call it Killana.

Progress so far on Gilligan's barns. I had a day out in the big smoke, it was great to get away on the train, and I came home with a 3d printer. The plan is to make barrels, crates and other cargo. Should also be possible to make a cart and some other farming accoutrements for Gilligan's yard. Being a complete novice to 3d printing and CAD it is a very steep learning curve and so far all my output has been binned. But I'm making progress. I also visited the exhibition of railways drawings at the Irish Architectural Archive, on Merrion Square, well worth a visit if your in the area. I got some photos which may turn into future scratch builds. Irish Architectural Archive – Cartlann Ailtireachta na hÉireann (iarc.ie)

Progress so far on Ballywillan. I've started work on the first barn in Gilligan's farmyard.

Almost there with Gilligan's pub. Just the chimney pots, flashing, sills and downpipes, left to do. The good weather is causing serious delays in my modelling, I need some bad weather to drive me out of the garden and back indoors.

I love that cab ride video, it's cool. You can nearly smell the diesel fumes.

MGWR cottages. The Ballywillan cottages have been modernised so these are based on the railway cottages at Crossdoney. This is version two, the first build went into the bin. When I had them finished I realised the windows were too small. Act in haste, repent at leisure. I have one station building left to do, the L shaped shed next to the station house. I am going to come back to this, the next build is Gilligan's pub.

To take that story of the importance of the railways back even further, I often think about how they revolutionised the world. My home town of Kilnaleck, Co Cavan, is the place in Ireland probably farthest from a navigable waterway. Before railways, water was the cost effective means of freight transport, road transport was prohibitively expensive. In the USA in the age of carting it cost as much to transport goods 20 miles inland as it did to ship them from Liverpool to the USA. In the 1821 census there were a lot of artisan trades in the town. Kilnaleck was a hive of small scale manufacturing. Lots of people in the linen and apparel making trades. They were even two nailers, making nails. Once Ballywillan opened and slashed the cost of transport, that would have been the end of these artisan producers, who would no longer have been able compete with factory produced goods. We modern people like to think we live in a time of unprecedented change. But I think no people ever experienced such rapid change as those who lived through the coming of the railways. The railway literally made the modern world. GENUKI: Kilnaleck 1821 census, Cavan

BINGO. I got the planning drawings online at L.C.C. website. I have front and rear elevations, and the ground and first floor plan. No conjecture needed. If only I had such detailed plans for every model. The farm buildings are perfectly preserved. I looked up Ballywillan in the 1901 census returns. There were three people whose occupation was Victular. Their business was supplying goods to the military.