Mol_PMB

Red it is then! I tend to use some artists matte medium to add texture to some of the larger stones, talc as well is a good idea for other parts of the wall. The row of square holes in the wall (and the half-blocked windows on the first floor) are associated with a canopy across the tracks. That was present in the 1960s and 1970s but now missing. I get the impression that the wall under the canopy may have been whitewashed at some stage - there are still traces of it on the ground floor walls, but not above the row of square holes.

Forbes would have approved! I look forward to seeing what you come up with.

Most interesting - it shows the CIE livery nicely. I assume these are from lorries that had recently been withdrawn from use, which is also a useful indicator of their lifetime.

Wonderful - thank you so much for showing these. Some views and details that don’t appear in the published shots.

Ah, that’s very useful information. In England, green was more common. This isn’t the same building but it is the same mill, and at a much earlier date. Here the entire window frames look dark and they could well be red which looked dark in early photos. I could do worse than look through Ernie’s colour photos from the 1950s/60s and see how other buildings were painted.

This evening's work is most of a kit for the oldest mill building on the layout. I still need to do the roof, some internal bracing and small parts like windowsills, doors and window frames. This shows how the two layers of the front overlay: This is all laser-cut from 1.5mm card. I'm trying to decide the order of assembly, particularly with reference to: sealing the card painting the parts assembling the shell assembling the outer skin My gut feel is that the outer skin should go on after most of the painting is complete, as this will make it much easier to have the window frames in a contrasting colour. And that then of course raises the question - what colour? All the old photos are black and white, and don't show much of this building anyway. The more recent scheme was black outer frames, and red doors, red blanking panels for the windows. I doubt it would have been like that when the mill was in use. Any suggestions for a paint scheme?

Weekends are a precious resource at this time of year as they give an opportunity to work in daylight, even if it is the grey northern skies outside. Consequently the kindergarten art class has made some more fumbling attempts. I have painted the sky in shades of pale grey (it looks darker in the photo than it really is), with a blend towards brown as it nears the ground. I've deliberately varied the shades a bit, and I may well add some more variation in the sky as a second coat, or maybe using an alternative technique like a sponge to give some cloudy effects, Not sure about that yet - if I do they would still be in shades of grey. I then took the tree trunks I prepared previously and added some foliage. Like the trunks, my first attempts were awful but by the time I got to the best trunk I was beginning to think I've got the hang of it. It's going to be autumn at Quartertown Mill. I am now working on developing the laser-cutting artwork for the buildings. I have already made one platform and am now working on the old mill building.

Indeed. Would you be able to share any of the other photos here? I'd love to see them - there aren't many photos of the Bessbrook and Newry and I keep seeing the same ones in books and online.

They seem to be offering a spiked FB track for narrow gauge applications, so presumably the same trackform could be offered for broad gauge? Not sure if they're doing pointwork for that yet. I cheated a bit with my points, because (by luck) the crossing areas are embedded in concrete on the prototype, so you can't see the rail section. So I built mine using a mix of code 75 FB and code 75 BH, making the crossings and checkrails from BH and the rest from FB.

No wonder the black friday sale is a bit stingy, if they have to save up to pay your salary!

I know I'm resurrecting an old thread. I bought some new books from the RPSI recently and added to my order the booklet about the Bessbrook and Newry Tramway. This is closely based on A.T.Newham's original work from the 1970s but reprinted in a modern form with the photos reproduced to a larger size and a better standard. The IRRS has a few photos of the line in their collection, but many are also in the book: https://www.flickr.com/search/?user_id=142947080%40N07&view_all=1&text=bnt A bit on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bessbrook_and_Newry_Tramway This site on uniforms has a nice selection of photos too: http://www.tramwaybadgesandbuttons.com/page148/page4/styled-259/page682.html I hadn't realised that that surviving tram in Cultra had been so heavily modified from its original condition. Over on this thread, @jhb171achill posted a photo which doesn't appear in the book or elsewhere online, intriguingly it shows a van with doors in the side, whereas all the other photos of vans I've seen appear doorless (maybe the doors were in the end, or on one side only?) https://irishrailwaymodeller.com/topic/6037-from-the-catacombs/#findComment-130009 This may be the other side of the same van, though if so the wheels have been replaced at some stage: Relating to the decade-old question at the start of this thread, this photo from a Facebook site shows something of the complexity of the pointwork. The whole system didn't have many points, and not all routes were usable by the flangeless wagons (for example, the turning loops at each end were only suitable for flanged wheels). Going over these points, the flangeless wheels on one side must have had to bump over the raised running rails. There seem to have been very few points where the wagons had a choice of route, but there must have been 3 or 4. What a fascinating little line! I must avoid getting distracted into a narrow-gauge modelling whim... It looks like someone else has had a go: https://www.rmweb.co.uk/topic/180079-volks-electric-black-rock-station-diorama-and-other-early-electric-traction/#findComment-5213273

On RMweb it’s been confirmed that the Chontar Albion was at Paisley in Scotland. Cold Chon in Ireland used a similar Scammell conversion which still exists at Dromod.

With both these and the Mk3s, there were some early changes within the first couple of years of use. Particularly relating to first class, composite and catering vehicles. I think the identity of the state coach was changed too. The Mk2s had been intended to run in short rakes, hence the quite large proportion of catering, generator and first class vehicles. Soon the patterns of traffic changed and they were re-formed into fewer, longer rakes. There were also some further changes to the Mk2d fleet when they were replaced by the Mk3s on the top-link turns, and less first class accommodation was needed on the secondary duties. I think your listing is accurate for the post-1990 period but some things would have been different in the 1970s and early 1980s. The changes were quite well recorded in the IRRS journals of the time and I think I have many of those. I could check through and do a summary for you if you like?

Many thanks David, that’s great advice. I shall do some more practice with the sky and trees!

Nice! I believe the couplings between cars can be another source of derailment on these - either fouling on the body or the fixing screws a bit tight so they don’t swing freely.