LNERW1

Plenty of progress up ahead so. Well I look forward to it.

I gave Dundalk the interim name MacMahon, after my mams old hairdresser who hailed from there and who, somewhat ironically, referred to it as Fun-dalk.

For something like that I plan on using something akin to Manchester Metrolink, where the vehicles can run as both trams and mainline vehicles. Luckily I was too lazy to use accurate 1600mm gauge track, so interchangeability shouldn't be a practical issue, though it may draw some logical concerns!

Pre-1916 had occured to me- I believe at one point I replaced North Wall with a huge station and named it Dublin Tone. Sounds a little too much like some sort of perfume or a song though, I think monosyllabic names rarely work. The only reason Pearse works, in my opinion, is because it's a very sharp word, and defines itself enough that it doesn't just sound like punctuation, which Tone unfortunately does. Peace activists and widely respected politicians are something I had in mind for the North. I would have to be careful with the placement though, as obviously the huge levels of division would necessitate a lot of consideration as to what stations would be named after who, I'd say it'd especially cause issues along the Dublin line as the line divides East and West Belfast and so naming a station on the border of the two after a political figure would be an issue as the vast majority of politicians in the North are hated by enough people to be controversial, so more nonpartisan names, such as artists or performers, might be the best solution in that case, although an unfortunate bulk of art, especially from an area as politically charged as Belfast, is not entirely nonpartisan. Overall most art to emerge from the city in the past half-century is pro-peace though.

Thought I'd share a newer network, started a couple of months ago as my early mistakes were proving troublesome. Whole Island: Galway (the start point of this attempt): Limerick: Kilkenny: Belfast area: Greater Dublin Area and beyond: I've also got two closeups, one of Dublin proper: And one of Drogheda McAleese HSR station: I really can't reccomend this game enough. The "world" you build on is in fact OpenStreetMap, meaning you can build anywhere-and I mean literally anywhere- on the planet and the tools at your disposal are simple but allow almost any level of detail, plus there are a huge number of buildings, track types, trains, map styles and translations available. I really do recommend the "show existing railways" map overlay as it allows recreation of networks that you can then improve, or just play around with. Syra_One on YouTube has a couple of tutorials, it's probably best to check them out here before you get started. I didn't, and now I have to deal with a frankly messy network unless I completely relearn how to use the software. Well, I say software, really it is just a game. It does take a bit of memory to download but the game itself is very unlikely to cause any performance issues even on older and/or less capable computers, so even if you only have an old work laptop, it is not at all performance intensive, unless you want to do something silly like recreate Japan's entire rail network down to every siding, with thousands of trains. It's currently €18.49 on Steam (the page is linked in my first post), and all mods can be downloaded for free, safely, and usually within only a few seconds from the Steam Workshop, in fact they can be downloaded and enabled while the game is running. You can literally pause for a moment, open up a side menu, and in about a minute have a brand new train model to run. There's a respectable amount of good quality IÉ and NIR stock available, and absolute swathes of British stock. There's also different tracks available, with the appearance modified to represent narrower gauges, tram tracks, metro tracks, and even bus lanes, trolleybus wires and sea and air routes, all of which have supported vehicles, although it's all still nice and simple as it's only re-textured tracks and trains. I cannot recommend the game enough as the sheer scale and level of detail possible is incredible and really is worth the price.

Yeah another good one. Presumably Carlow works best? Although there is a plaque to him at Portlaoise as well. Also, having just headed back on over to continue playing (digital) trains, I was reminded what I'd named Drogheda's new high-speed station: So I seem to have accidentally made the argument for more recent political figures myself.

I was joking a bit but you are right, that hadn't occured to me. I feel it likely would happen that, should 1916-style renaming start up again, figures other than solely rebels would likely be chosen, but your suggestions are quite good. Frankly there is a lot of politics involved so I see the point. I will try put this all to use, so if I do come to any conclusions I'll share them here to be dissected.

Free Staters on the south side, Republicans on the North could have a chance at reducing immediately local controversy.

I think the logic was just that the then (and probably now) 15-biggest/busiest stations would take the names of 1916 martyrs. I do quite enjoy the precedent we have in Ireland of naming stations after people- when designing networks in the software I mentioned, it's usually quite fun finding someone to name a station after- where it makes sense. Just for reference, here's the network I have at the moment- I actually started with suburban and light rail in Galway and worked my way eastwards. As such, the MGWR has the most attention, as it should having been so neglected for so long! The blue line from Dublin to Drogheda is the under-construction Northern Highspeed Line. At the moment Galway, Dublin, Limerick and Belfast have internal/suburban services as well. I won't clog up this too much longer but, for reference, here's Dublin:

Just wondering- if Harcourt Street and Broadstone were reopened and given 1916 names, what would they likely be? De Valera and Collins jump to mind, although as far as I'm aware all the executed leaders' names are taken. I'm building an ideal Irish network in NIMBY Rails, a software I've mentioned before on this forum and want to use the two as underground high-speed stations, but am not quite sure what to name them. Obviously I could just use their original names but it does feel a little out of place among Dublin's 1916 stations, plus a surname is usually less clunky than a geographic location (Although De Valera is probably more of a mouthful than Broadstone- more than likely it'd be shortened to Dev in real life). I'd appreciate a bit of help as this problem's been sitting with me for a good couple months now so I thought I'd turn to the much smarter people on this forum for a hand.

No graffiti? Jesus that actualy winded me with shock. Maybe the cleanliness is a subtle reminder that the 29s are on the way out (at least on suburban work AFAIK) with DART+ units coming. Didn't they always say if a station had a fresh coat of paint it would be closed soon? Maybe the same principle applies if you do enough mental gymnastics.

That's such a lovely snapshot of the early 70s- or at least I assume that's the time period we're talking! Everything down to the half-hearted hi-vis jacket worn by the wonderful gentleman presenting. And a lovely layout to boot. Thanks for posting this clip.

This forum is basically solely info dumping so your explanations of gull species are very much welcome. I do find birds in general interesting, despite having only a very basic knowledge of them. And when they're not using my layout/soldering area as a public toilet I must admit I don't have much against them.

Given I’m modelling a seaside location that would probably be a nice detail. Is it just a trickle of paint? Frankly if I was doing it more than likely I’d just use Tipp-ex.

Two tickets for the upcoming IRRS branchline railtour, €50 each or €95 for the both. €80 each original price so heavily discounted- €30 or €32.50 off. Therefore I believe this is not ticket touting, a friend couldn’t come so im selling the tickets on to someone who may be interested. If this is considered ticket touting or is violating any rules or laws please inform me, thanks. Also IRRS has been contacted in regards to a refund but have not responded. If they do, these tickets will not be sold and instead we will get a refund. Please PM if interested. Thanks.

When I woke up this morning, I liked birds. They are impressive creatures and make a lovely sound in the morning, and had never done anything to get on my bad side. A few minutes ago, I was sitting at a table in my back garden, soldering together the track pieces that made up the goods shed road. I was getting a little bit frustrated. I had only managed to solder 6 track joints, they were all messy and only 3 were holding. It was becoming apparent that I didn't know what I was doing. However, I was still enjoying it and was listening to a good podcast, so I decided to keep going. I was about to touch the tip of the soldering iron to the solder when a sound emanated from a spot about two inches from my hand. It was a mixture between a plop and a splat and came, more precisely, from the area between the loop and shed road I today scraped clean of clay. I looked up and saw a yellow-white sludge with a few black-brown nuclei sitting smack bang in the middle of my layout. I no longer like birds.

I think I’m going to try running over the clay with a lot of wet fingers. It’s a technique I’ve seen used often and it seems to work well.

I do have older stock with coarser wheelsets so I prefer to use a 10c coin. Rolls along nicely too.

Progress report. Just a quick one really. The railway room has been rescued from a suffocating layer of random debris and Ardree Quay has risen. No work has actually been done but the next project is to improve the track- soldering the track joints, painting rail sides, completing ballasting and re-doing the inset rails and quay surface in DAS clay. This is a fairly defined and straightforward task, and can be done with materials and tools I already have to hand, so hopefully I can do a little bit of this in the coming weeks, maybe as a way to decompress after school.

It’s an estimate not a deadline. I think…

Most of my housemates (well technically family but housemates sounds cooler) are in Galway at the moment so I don’t have any additional manpower to exploit. This unfortunately means I have to wait until later to start clearing up, but rest assured the debris removal process will begin within the next 36 hours. Or maybe days. No, let’s go with hours.

VERY BIG MAYBE INCOMING! The Easter holidays have furnished me with half a month of absolutely nothing to do and, honestly, I have done nothing. So, if my complete lack of dedication, work ethic or positive attitude to anything manages to not get in the way of tidying up my railway room and getting the layout going again, there might be a bit of progress here. Now I realise my layout is not exactly the star of the forum but I feel a bit hypocritical starting so many playground spats on a model railway forum without having a (currently running) model railway. So, over Easter Ardree Quay- if I don't fall into a coma from inactivity- will be pulled out of the deep piles of rubble, steel, books, Lego, files, unwanted ornaments and stationery currently piled several feet high in my railway room and have some scenic work done over Easter (insert hilarious and original comparison to Jesus rising from the dead because nobody's ever done that before). Again, massive maybe but please do hound me to complete this as only peer pressure on a model railway forum can make me do anything. Hugs and kisses, LNERW1

Looks even better in person- what a pleasure to see the layout and to meet the brilliant @Tullygrainey. Not a bad word to say about either.

It's just going to Tyrone.

I will be. Looks like a lovely layout to see in person and I'd be thrilled to meet the mastermind behind it, as well as many other brilliant projects.