Anders112

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: Enterprise -Mark 2Bs hauled by both NIR 111s and with then Introduced 208 and 209 in Nir Blue Orange Mk2s- regularly served the Irish rail set of the Enterprise hauled by A classes, 071s and later in this period 201s Dietrich Enterprise - Trials for the now existing enterprise sets started in 1997 MK3 Push Pulls- Drogheda was served daily by Mk3 Push pull, propelled by 121 or later a 201 Suburban- Cravens hauled by all types of locos ( Park royals were also made up in sets ) Arrow - 2600 introduced in 1994 Nir Railcars/thumpers Freight (where do I begin ) - Each flow has endless possibility in terms of Locos and rollling stock Cement- Bubbles, Pallet ( New type and Old type with wheels),Bogie Bulkers Gypsum Taras Liners - Such as Bell and Belfast or Dundalk liners Kegs Fertilizers 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

Thanks very much Denis for the support 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 IMG_4350.mov

@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

Hi folks, first post here on Irish railway modeller,just thought I would introduce myself. Like the majority of people on this my love for railways and model railways was inherited from my father. My Dad ,Nicky Anderson was a Locomotive Driver based in Drogheda from 1980s till late 2010s. Driving all traffic that was found in Drogheda in it’s prime- Cement,Gypsum,Bell liner and Tara’s Etc Etc Sadly in 2021 ,my dad passed away very suddenly at the young age of 59. To Mark Dads 2nd year anniversary, I decided to recreated Colm O Callaghans ( who was a very close friend of Dads) photo of driving with 112 on the Platin -Cabra cement on the 7th October 1996 76 times smaller in Murphy model form. Attached are both photos of the original photo and the recreation of the photo. For the recreation, I built an MIR Cement bubble kit and after various months of chasing,I managed to get my hands on a Murphy models NIR 112. I have very found memories when I was growing up of collecting model trains with my dad ,especially when the Murphy models 141s and 201s came out years ago ,of recreating trains that he drove from Drogheda 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 died, I’ve re kindledmy love for model railways and have found great comfort in remembering him by them. This was my first major attempt at kit building,scenery, ballast and weathering ,which I’m quite proud of. The recreation sits on a display case I bought in Marks models. I will post a behind the scenes photos of the recreation soon Thanks Dave

Here’s a video of Dundalk in 1984 with both 111s and Hunslets propelling the enterprise, so both were in traffic together