LNERW1

Wow! Maybe I should drop the hobby for a while and then start again- hopefully it will endow me with your skills! Obviously you have prior experience, but I envy your confidence and, again, skill!

I suppose long-haul, flying makes more sense, but I feel like it would be better to try to replace long car journeys with European-style, high(ish) speed, high frequency rail, it would eliminate a large amount of traffic and CO2 emissions. Not that any government will ever manage to push that through without multiple important people being killed by conspiracy theorists who think passenger rail is fascism’s greatest tool and Ford, GM, etc.-hired hitmen.

In fairness they do keep getting voted in so presumably they’re pleasing everyone enough to keep that out of sight and out of mind. The entire island of Ireland outside of Dublin, Belfast and a little bit of Cork has fallen into a rut of car dependence. It’s a little like America in that we seem to have forgotten how useful and important effective passenger rail (or in our case rail altogether) is. It’s unfortunate but unavoidable. Maybe the new developments in Dublin will spur on the rest of the country to demand effective public transport.

I have been known to post layout topics that don’t go anywhere and I thought I’d explain myself and prevent it from happening again, all in the one thread. Some people enjoy planning layouts, some don’t. I count myself among the former and have created enormously detailed plans before of layouts in many scales that I never plan or planned to build. I thought I’d stick up a few here as some people might be interested in reading all of my brain farts and maybe can find some inspiration- anything to feel helpful. My most recent idea that’s been floating around is a large balloon loop in OO/HO, with a large coal-fired power station at the centre of the loop, a Magnorail-powered motorway crossing the board, and some Soviet/British Isles 1960s blocks of flats anywhere they’ll fit. As with all (read: most) of the ideas in this post, I’ll outline this one in a later post, based on interest. Another recent enough idea, which I have posted a little about, is a massive model of Connolly and it’s adjacent junction, several Luas stops, North Wall yard and literally all of East Wall, in T scale. I still have no idea what size this would be, but likely at least 60 or so square metres, so not a likely undertaking. Going back to before I joined this forum is a London terminus called Liverpool Lane. This started out as a large sketch of a modern-image ex-LNER station in north London, based on a drawing by CJ Freezer, consisting of a double track tail chaser with a triangular junction feeding into a terminus. It later evolved into a much more realistic post-steam, pre-TOPS Western Region terminus, somewhere in northwest London. Another idea, more a track plan than anything else, I nicknamed the Bandaid. It has quite an odd story- it’s based on a pattern I once spotted on a mattress. After tracing it with my finger, I realised it was actually one compressed loop and not two overlapping ones. A *very* rough plan is reproduced below: I do have a few more, I think, but these, for me, are the highlights so far. If you would like to see more of this, please tell me. If not, that’s fine. I understand if you have no interest in my layout-planning brain farts. Best wishes, LNERW1.

I would guess a bit narrower too, but then nowhere near as out of scale for Irish outline as a scale 4ft 1 1/2 inch gauge, so probably not a problem for anyone not modelling in 21mm.

I put blocks at the corners to screw all three boards into, as 9mm is indeed to small to screw into without splitting.

Baseboard tops= 4'x18", 9mm Baseboard sides=4ft long, 7cm tall, 9mm thick Baseboard ends= 18" minus the 9mm on both sides The baseboard ends would be what would be duplicated. Sorry if the maths makes no sense- it was made up by me, for me, and it works for me. I didn't realise I'd need to share it so I haven't worked out cohesive measurements.

When you put it like that... Also someone please dissuade me from relaying all the track with code 75. Please.

Actually that’s a lot closer to what I’m going for than the picture I put up tbh, thanks a lot! As much as I did say I wanted it to look good, I wouldn’t be confident making something that good with just DAS clay. Maybe in future. Thanks very much lads, very helpful contributions- and quick!

On a more serious note, would anyone have any good pictures of track that isn’t quite overgrown but has grass between the rails- somewhat like an unintentional equivalent of this: I think I’ve seen a picture of an IRRS special at a station with such track on@Irishswissernie’s Flickr page but I only thought today to look at doing something like it after looking at @Galteemore’s Rosses Point thread and seeing the brilliant ash (I think) ballasting. Even if it is my first layout I do want this to look good and I thought something like that, but a little less comprehensive, would look good for the layout. TIA. LNERW1

I suppose I do swear a bit much, I may start using less extreme alternatives, like, oh i don’t know, ”Oh, snap” literally turns into sand

It’s all marine ply so I doubt I’ll have to worry about that- plus there’ll be cork and scenics in between the glue, water, clay, Modroc etc. and the baseboard most of the time anyway. I’ll look at cutting bracing- two more , spaced about 16” apart, per board?I will still glue the sides to the top as the waving around really does piss me off.

Do you have photos of the layout as it is now?

Couldn’t agree more. Brilliantly evocative.

Well it took a while, and working literally until sunset, but I finally have all 5 baseboards for Ardree Quay. At the moment they’re structurally ok but the sides are only fixed at the corners, so I’d like to add some glue to stop the long sides from flopping around. I had the maths done a while ago, but only cut up the boards yesterday and screwed it all together today. I’m really happy with this as it means I can finally get a good idea of what I’m working with and where to go next- Peco would be a good idea as I don’t have a lot of track. This feels really good to have gotten such an important part of the layout done. Thanks for all the support getting me through my needless self-pity. Be prepared for a lot more of the same for the next while, at least until the track is all down and working. LNERW1.

I. CAN. EXPLAIN. in school, I always have a half day on Wednesday, so I get home at 3 instead of 5, UNLESS I have a match, in which case I leave school at 11, travel to Dublin or Limerick or Tipp or somewhere to play and get home far later. I didn’t think I’d be picked for the match as I didn’t go to training yesterday, plus it was an A team only game and I usually play in the B’s. However I was, and in fact I did play well and enjoy it, but instead of getting home at 3 and having some daylight to work in, I got back at 8 and so it was far too dark outside to be using power tools. I have training again this evening, so, unfortunately, I’ll have to cut the boards a week late. At least we won.

Great piece lads. Jim did a great job explaining everything and really conveyed how impressive the project was. Best of luck to all of ye now, and let’s hope Santa trains aren’t too far out of reach- id definitely travel all the way from Laois for it.

Anyone know what’s happened to @Sheldrake9er? Last time he visited was September 19th, the day most of this thread was posted. I do hope he’s alright.

The GeoHive Map Viewer has some satellite coverage of the works from the 90s, though it’s not very clear. Below is from 1995: While below again is from, I would guess, the mid-late 90s: Regrettably the coverage isn’t too clear. Quite good for nearly 30 years ago, though, considering how much technology it’s taken to get where we are now, that is, definitely not the best we could be at in terms of Google earth etc.

OK, so I can't cut the wood- don't have anywhere I can do it outside and I've missed the sun. Sorry, ye'll have to wit till wednesday.

Maths done, off to mark and cut some wood.

Wow! Let me find an excuse to run these on my 60s branch line layout based on Connemara. For your layout or for Maam Cross?

Bit pricey- one of the problems with G and SM32!

My problem is that I'm not super confident about painting the wheels and motion. or rather stripping paint off the motion (?). I'll see about it and I might buy it at the weekend. Need a bit of time to think first! 100 quid might not be so much to some of ye but it's still a fair bit for me! This isn't really a hobby for anyone under 25 is it? (/s)

The MSC green is far closer to CIÉ. I’ll probably still buy the offered one!