Anders112

managed to get my hands on this beauty of a Mk111 DVT from the collection without costing an arm and a leg.

also helps when you have relatives up North to avoid paying brexit charges  (hope revenue arnt keen Irish modellers ) 

DVT with the rest of the Mk111s and 201 propelling 

Little update on the Tara’s :

finally got around to installing the bogies on the Tara’s. Personally I didn’t like the bogies supplied with the MIR kits as they were too flimsy and the ride quality wasn’t  great. So I bought a pack of IRM black bogies and transfered 4 Tara’s.

 
First job was to remove the little clip that normally attached to IRM wagons such as 42 foot wagon which I borrow off for demonstration

next job was trying to secure the Irm bogies to the MIR Tara’s kits..after numerous cups of teas I came up with a idea that actually worked… 

I made some alternative changes to the bogies supplied by MIR,I removed the metal axle and coupling arm (coupling arm wasn’t clearing the IRM bogies).
a lot of swinging was involved with Mr hammer
So all that I was left with was the middle bit of the bogie housing, this then acted like a washer to secure to irm bogie in place with help of the little screws that came with the kit 

One Tara ready for the tracks

The four Tara’s weathered and fitted with bogies 

side of view of the 4 completed Tara’s, the remaining 3 will be finished once pay day comes

next step is to get suitable coupling fittings for the Tara’s and that should be them done 

Forgot to include the photos of the IRM bogie attached to the wagon with the MIR bogie centre screwed to the bogies 

Latest two arrivals to my Drogheda and platin layout… there’s just something about the tippex livery with the dayglo

154 came in the post today and just like @Flying Snail 189  was last week adventure of trying to get home from work before the post man landed with it

14 minutes ago, derek said:

Hi Oisin. Thanks for the reply, but I can't seem to download your videos. Thanks nonetheless  for taking time to upload them. From what you say in your reply, we seem to have similar set ups (and similar problems). I too use a pair of Hornby controllers. I have never had a problem before this with any of my locos. I have emailed IRM about it so we will see what develops. I wonder if anybody else is having this problem? (Although most probably use DCC) .Thanks again for the reply.

Derek

Hi Derek and Oisin,my Irish rail 181 made a similar noise when I first ran it on my DC layout. Got worried like yourself thinking there was something wrong.

On the instructions it says you have to let the gear in the motor to bed in by running it for a hour in each direction without any load . Left it running for two hours and have noticed the noise has faded significantly

hope this helps

thanks 

Dave 

5 hours ago, Rush and Lusk said:

Hi Anders112,

I have thoroughly enjoyed reading and viewing this thread - fascinating learning of the multiple activity, uses, and evolution around Drogheda Mac Bride Station. I wish you well and look forward to metaphorically joining on this journey. 

Glad you enjoyed it, Its hard to believe how the the railways were so important In drogheda and the different phases of rail use its gone through-from fright hub to now a railcar depot - being honest ive properly only touched the surface of history it.Thanks again for the support 

On 30/3/2024 at 8:02 PM, derek said:

This looks like it will be fantastic Dave. Best of luck with it. Can I just ask one thing? Your freehand plan looks to be quite deep ( front to back). Without measurements it's hard to tell for sure. My concern would be "reachability". In other words, will you be able to reach all areas of the layout once it is in place. I'm sure you have it all in hand , but thought I would mention it. I speak from experience here, as , since extending my own layout, when working near the tunnel/ church area I have to take to a set of steps with my calf muscles screaming from the strain of stretching. But I am only three and a half foot tall  after all Best of luck again

Thanks very much for all the support Derek and as well as keeping reachability in mind,last time we want is wagons detailing and can’t be accessed or pulled calf of hamstring muscles

whenever I get a new base board,the plan would be to have two main base boards separated in the middle but they would be connected with a narrow channel  at the bottom (basically like a U shape). the double loop of the mainline and Macbride station on one and platin on the other baseboard ,with the navan branch line connecting them.

i will draw a diagram up of it soon.

Many thanks

8 hours ago, Louth said:

You have probably seen this track plan on the IRRS website, but just in case...  Another source for the original layout is the Ordinance Survey website OSI.ie

Thanks very much for sharing this, I actually haven’t seen this diagram before, is it on there Flickr website ?

I’ll go have a look at it now,thanks

and for the Final post on my research on drogheda station ( Sorry for all the spam and waffling) 

Drogheda North Signal Cabin 

During the Gold old Steam days Drogheda had two signal cabins ( Drogheada North and Drogheda South ).The Signal cabin was located beside a Loading Bay at the Belfast end of the Platform, The signal cabin was demolished in the 1970s but the loading Bay stayed up till 1997 when the Belfast line was redeveloped.

Below is the Diagram from Drogheda North that i had screenshotted on my phone from rambling one night and for the life of me cant find the source 

Its the 3 road sidings in the last diagram that has 13 and 14 labelled on it. The loading bay was made up of very unique 3 way point. This was thankfully captured in the video below in 1995 

above is a screen grab of the you tube clip below, you can see that the point goes in 3 directions, Peco were the only model manufacturer who made such a point, but it will cost me a Arm and leg with the point being around 65 euro alone   

In the 1990s, this loading dock was home to another oil tank for refullling, aswell as Bullied wagon and a few 20ft flat wagons. 141s seemed to generally parked here as well. Even ore reasons to buy IRMs Oil tankers 

Thats it for me from now in terms of waffling .... thinks its time for a cup of Tea after all that typing and googling. Hopefully @Gabhal Luimnigh still has the kettle on 

Tomorrow or the next day I will post a few photos of my existing makeshift layout  

A Big thank you to the support given so far to me on this layout. I know its quite an ambitious Layout to start with and implement in modelling will be challenging but even just typing up (Waffling on and on) this thread has brought me such happiness and has been a positive distraction for me. 

I look forward to adding my progress to this thread and keeping you updated on this modelling journey.

Any Feedback, tips or tricks, recommendations in terms of track planning, what scenery to use, signalling,wiring,baseboards, skills and experiences  yous have learned from carrying out your own layouts, I would greatly accept with open arms 

Looking forward to it 

Many  thanks 

Dave 

Buckies Sidings and Bridge 

Buckies sidings 

Now it is the Railcar depot, There used to be a series of 3 sidings were wagons were commonly stored. Buckies sidings were disconnected from the main line around 1998 and the construction of the railcar depot began in the early 2000s 

https://www.geograph.ie/photo/697411

https://www.geograph.ie/photo/4277140

There is not much footage of Buckys sidiings except for these two videos

An excellent video of a 181 reversing ballast hoppers into the sidings 

 Buckies Bridge 

On the Contrary, there is 1000s of photography and videos of trains filmed from the bridge south of Macbride station which is locally known as Buckies bridge 

The 1991 GAA Special reappearing 

Yard and Wagon Shed with Turntable 

Accessed from a curved point on the Up Line , the yard breaks up into 4 sidings The wagon shed was generally filled with Bubbles.Pallet cement and gyspum wagons that needed to be repaired. At the weekend it was common for a rake of Tara wagons to be pulled into the siding of the yard that shares the platform with platform 2 

Important to Note the turntable to right hand side of of 072

The track from the Turntable stopped on the side the wagon shed, where generally there was an Oil Wagon used to store Diesel to fuel the army of Locos in and Out of Drogheda as soon in 076s case above....I think this justifies Pre ordering IRMs recenty announced oil wagons  (Peer pressure was never my strongest point)  

I think I might struggle with trying to find a RTR copy of the wagon shed,so will either have to learn how to scratch build one or Find someone with A 3D printer. More than likely ill use the peco turntable kit for the turntable https://peco-uk.com/products/turntable-well-type?variant=7264231227426, anyone had any luck building the turntable before ? or any other recommendations for a turntable 

Navan Branch Line 

My weathering skills will be put to test when weathering the rails of this section with the amount of oil that dripped onto the rails here in real life. 

This section of the layout is the most sentimental to me. whenever I went up to Macbride as a kid this always the first stop to see what orange looks were stationed on the branch line for the day.Normally to my delight it was usually two 071s but as you can see in the last 3 pictures, in its hayday there was at least Five locos stationed here. No wonder without the amount of trains going through daily between Gypsum which was three times a week ,Taras (4 daily) and Cement trains (God only knows) 

In terms of modelling,This will be a good area for my Locos such as A class, 141s/121/071s to be parked as i run passengers trains through the main or run cement/taras/gpysum through the other branch line while there parked. This section of the station during the early 1990s was a freight depot and usually filled with Lorrys,explaining why there was no fence or railing up between the line and the car park.This changed with the expansion of the car park leading to the fence.

The hope on the layout is to include the double branch like over the bridge which has the red and white clearance marker, eventually the double line will become single as it enters the yard for platin.I hope to include a model of he electric signal box at the points as you come off the main line 

Here is a drivers eye view of Joining the Dublin to Belfast Line from the Navan Branch, Filmed for them MK3 DVT from the All-Ireland Football special from Navan to Dublin,in 1991

Drogheda Macbride Station 

This will be the main section of my layout, where passengers trains will be running through or terminating. Freight trains will have a lot of shunting and running around to do. I have divided this section of the layout into five sections 

1. Platform 1 and 2 - including the famous middle row , this will be made up of station buildings and platforms, Car park and freight depot 
2. Navan Branch line- with buffer to reverse trains against the buffer stop
3. Yard and Wagon shed- Four sidings with wagon shed and turntable 
4. Buckies siding and bridge 
5. Drogheda North signal box  /Freight Bay 

Platform 1 and 2 

This will be my main for passengers trains coming and going 

This section will be made up of Platform 1 which has the main building of the station, Platform 2 which has a waiting room and canopy, connected to platform 1 by a enclosed footbridge.  .

In terms of Track laying, the middle row has thrown a curve ball, as it the starts as up line south to the station and then joins the down line at the end of the North of platform 1, which has messed up the geometry of the curve radius, I think ill have to use flexitrack for this 

Heres some action videos of 

Platin 

as you can see in the photos attached Platin was a hive of activity and brought a very busy freight flow to Drogheda in the 1980s,90s and early 2000s. Modeling Platin Yard to me  made sense as it allows me to store the Cement Bubbles, pallet cements and bogie bulkers in the sidings. Aswell as running Taras and Gypsum through the plant,

Below is attached my track plans of the above photos. 1) A general track plan 2) The names of each of the sidings which I was informed by a Form Loco driver and colleague of Dad 3) Any rail plans 

Please excuse my Bad handwriting, Here is a plan view of Platin and the loading roads. I am aware in the real life platin there is slight curve to the  right but it was just easy to draw straight lines 

As you can see from my second diagram and the photo above, each type of wagon had its place in Platin. The pallet cement were on the left hand of the yard that led up to the rolling door of the warehouse. The bulk cement and Bogie bulkers generally were on loading roads underneath the cement Silo  the gypsum was kept on the right in two sidings (the second one is kind of hid by the rockface to the right ) 

Any Rail track Plans 

My primary research for designing platin track plans were from the following videos (Videos start at sections of videos in platin) 

 Unfortunately as the cement traffic decrease in volume a number of the sidings were not use and became storage areas for the permeant way 

The now sad sight of Platin, a number of the sidings removed only action is permeant way and ballast trains. Hopefully we will see Taras rolling through here again later on in the year.

So after years and years of having make shift layouts without just track on MDF board on our Garage floor. I've Finally decided to take the leap and built a proper layout in the Garage . My layout will be a replica of Drogheda Macbride Station with the Navan Branch line running to Platin Cement Factory. i After lots of hours on Flickr and Youtube researching, ive come up with the following layout design,

Any recommendations or help for the layout would be greatly appreciated 

Why Drogheda and Platin ? 

 This was a easy one, my Dad was a Loco driver based in Drogheda station from the 1980s up till the mid 2000s,He drove numerous passengers trains and majorly drove all the freight on the Navan Branch line such as Cement from Platin, Taras from Navan and Gypsum to Kingscourt .A lot of childhood memories of mine were made of watching trains roll into and out of Drogheda or going on weekend adventures by train with Drogheda being the focal point 

This layout will also be a memorial to my dad, Unfortunately he passed away very suddenly a couple of years ago in his late 50s. Collecting Model trains was a big past time that my Dad and I shared together when I was younger. Regrettably as I look back now,when I was in college, my interest in model railways was distract with all the fun of college life. however, since Dad has passed, I’ve re kindled my love for model railways and have found great comfort in remembering him by them.

What era will it be based on ? 

My layout of Drogheda will be based on the Iris Rail "Points" or "Tippex"  era. From looking at photos on the internet, Im going to base it on the decade starting form the year 1987 to 1997. This will allow me to have a cross over in a broad range of liveries such as CIE Supertain, Supertrain with points, Irish Rail Tippex with dayglo and introduction of Iarnrod Eireann plug and socket livery. The majority of my existing rollingstock is in the Irish Rail Tippex liveries. In addition to this numerous Freight and passenger flows that could be replicated such as 

Passenger:

1. Enterprise -Mark 2Bs hauled by both NIR 111s and with then Introduced 208 and 209 in Nir Blue 
2. Orange Mk2s- regularly served the Irish rail set of the Enterprise hauled by A classes, 071s and later in this period 201s
3. Dietrich Enterprise - Trials for the now existing enterprise sets started in 1997 
4. MK3 Push Pulls- Drogheda was served daily by Mk3 Push pull, propelled by 121 or later a 201 
5. Suburban- Cravens hauled by all types of locos ( Park royals were also made up in sets ) 
6.  Arrow - 2600 introduced in 1994
7. Nir Railcars/thumpers 

 Freight (where do I begin ) - Each flow has endless possibility in terms of Locos and rollling stock 

1. Cement- Bubbles, Pallet ( New type and Old type with wheels),Bogie Bulkers 
2. Gypsum
3. Taras 
4. Liners - Such as Bell and Belfast or Dundalk liners 
5. Kegs 
6. Fertilizers
7. Timber ( ill get back to this in a later post )  

1997 is an important year to note, in April 1997, Drogheda station went under major redevelopment and the foundations in terms of track plans were laid for the now Railcar depot. 

Layout plans 

Here is what yous have been looking for. This is a dream layout, where storage for the layout and skill to model it is in abundance ( I wish ) . This is a rough plan but shows the main idea 

The layout will be made up of a double oval which will represent the Up and Down of the Belfast line. The layout will be broken in two main segments: 1) MacBride station 2) Platin cement factory

I had made track plans for both using Any Rail software and have saved photos from 1990s which ill attach in the next comment to prevent this being one majorly long text 

Please feel free to give your Comments, opinions and  recommendations as I keep yous updated on creating Drogeheda MacBride and Platin

Looking forward to It 

Dave

17 hours ago, Gabhal Luimnigh said:

Well done you.

Thanks very much Denis for the support

16 hours ago, DJ Dangerous said:

 

Savage stuff!

You've really captured the "Are they blue or brown underneath?" look, outstanding!

Cheers Dj, you summed it up brilliantly,hard to believe they’re  main colour in the 1980s and 90s were blue caked in road dirt and dust from the iron ore,before the now Iron oxide colour scheme.

I used dark rust powder to give the road wash colour on the bottom,on top I used a light grey weathering powder on top and then ran over the whole wagon with  grey concrete weathering powder that I’ll be using for my Mir bubble kits

Sample photo I based the weathering on, trying to go for the brown side and light grey dust on top using 3 different weathering powders 

finally got around to finishing the remainder of the Mir Tara Kits, painted and weathered. Pretty happy with how the weathering came out, some wagons were weathered  better than others but hey it’s a learning curve.

some of the buffers and under frames didn’t glue properly and fell out so have to stick them back on 

Next steps is find a way to get the IRM bogies to fit them bottom of the wagons and find couplers to glue to the front.

Halfords primer working a treat on the Tara’s 

first 5 have been targeted by the weathering brush,two on the right were still drying 

Here is our the wagons turned out,overall delighted with them 

Also keep a eye out for Adverts.ie,some people are selling Irish rolling stock on there

https://touch.adverts.ie/for-sale/q_Murphy+models/

currently there are few 141s,071s and coaches there 

also keep a eye out for millipede,on adverts,he converts and resprays roiling stock into Irish models, not as good detail compared to Murphy models or Irish railway models but it’s a good stopgap,you can’t go wrong for the price he’s asking for 

Hope this helps 

https://touch.adverts.ie/member/1578437/ads

Looking for Murphy models 071 number 073 in Weathered Irish rail livery  
Anyone know where I could get my hands on one ?

Thanks Dave https://www.hattons.co.uk/59165/murphy_models_mm0073_irish_class_071_111_diesel_locomotive_in_ir_orange_black_livery_weathered/stockdetail

206 and 9001 leaving Dundalk now (16:24) northbound to Belfast  

@WRENNEIRE  you can get them at Peter spares model railways 

stumbled across this website trying to look for spare couplings for my 201 but still can’t find any substitute

https://www.petersspares.com/p/keen-systems-bdbmkii4-bachmann-br-mk2-draw-bar-4-pairs 4 draw bars for 15 pound

Unfortunately they don’t come with any springs  

Hope this helps 

Hi @WRENNEIRE, I got these spare coupling arms for the cravens last year in the UK after I lost the originals for my cravens, thankfully in a clear out I found the originals. 
All you have to do is add NEM pocket to the end of them, let me know if you think they could work for you

Like all good demonstrations here’s “one I prepared earlier”. First painted and weathered Tara wagon. For these wagons I wanted to go for the great weathered and grimey livery of the Tara’s as seen in the 1990s and 2000s before they were painted in the red oxide 

first attempt at weathering rolling stock,came out decent when you look at the pro types below

https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishswissernie/6606191825/in/album-72157628649502947/ 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishswissernie/51787068473/in/album-72157629979572526/

now to get the rest painted and weathered.

With the new year arriving ,decided to give an old project that has been abandon multiples times. An old Tara mine MIR kits that my Dad got me 13 years ago for a birthday present. 7 wagons that we said one day we would built together when ever we got time,sadly that time ran. Never the less,can gladly say they have been started today 

Kit consists of Wagon shell,lid, buffer beam,buffers and undercarriage. 
6 wagons all glued together,ready to by primed by Halfords primer ,painted and weathered tomorrow or the next day.  1 wagon is almost finished, just waiting to be weathered and bogies to be completed  .Pretty straight forward so far