Colonel

A couple of weeks in Canada, but since getting back, it is at least less hot in the workshop, so modelling is underway again. I've been concentrating on the left hand end of the layout, in particular the foreground section, where there is an opportunity to do some fine detailing. Hiding the exit to the fiddle yard is the station house. It is only a halt really, with a single platform - but also a block post with a small cabin controlling the points into the private sidings. So there's a vegetable garden, plus outside toilet, store and pigsty along with a few chickens too. It is the late 1950s, so produce, rather than pretty flowers to the fore, though there are roses round the door and along some of the fencing. All fairly conventional stuff. The hedges are rubberised horse hair, covered in Woodlands fine crumb, while the roses are Woodlands scenic matting teased out. Ground cover is also mainly Woodlands, but plenty of static grass too. The scene above shows where the main work is still to do - a low relief dairy that I'm waiting for the reprint of 'Milk on the Rails', which is hopefully due out in November. A few more pictures below.

Correct!

Possibly an idea from Robert Jenrick, the MP for Newark, which is of course an anagram of wan...

Yep, nice one Jim. Well done.

Also on Vancouver Island, at nearby Port Alberni, was delighted to find another logging engine, this time a 2-8-2T, on duty on a standard gauge tourist line. Meanwhile, back on the mainland, at Squamish [north of Vancouver] is the BC Railway Museum, a splendid collection of locos, stock and ephemera, telling the history of railways in the province. Star of the show is the Royal Hudson, a 4-6-4 that was used to haul the royal train across Canada. in the 1940s. I first came across in 1968, when visiting my grandparents. It was stored in the roundhouse at Vancouver & on the last day of that trip, they took me to see it. Imagine my delight when the friendly shed crew fetched a diesel switcher to haul it out on to the turntable for photographs! Later it was restored to full working order to haul tourist trains from Vancouver to Squamish. These ran for about ten years, but the loco is now retired to the museum and very splendid she is too.

The track is laid in a figure of eight & takes you past most of the exhibits and also out on a trestle over a lake. A detail picture below shows the verbal cylinders which drive two bogie trucks, via gears and shafts. As a result the boiler was off set, which is why they were known as "sidewinders". Bachmann used to do a 7mm NG model of something similar. A standard gauge Shay.

Recently had two weeks in BC, retracing old haunts from previous trips out there. Stunning scenery and amazing railways, but a lesser known gem has to be the BC Forest Museum, near Duncan, on Vancouver Island. Everything to do with the logging industry, there are preserved examples of Shay & Climax geared locos, including the only working Shay in Canada. Three foot gauge at that - so almost qualifies as Irish narrow gauge, but will climb 1 in 10 slopes with ease. Sound like it is doing 50mph, when actually only doing ten. Anyway, a few pics that may be of interest & more to follow. They are quite large files, so can only post a couple at a time.

Swillybegs/Fintonagh (at the Farnham Show on 10/11 October) only has one proper siding, rarely used plus an off scene kickback, yet the sequence of two railcars, three steam trains and a goods takes 45-50 minutes to run through, mainly because everything visits the turntable. A couple of wagons get swapped on the goods, using Phoenix as pilot, but otherwise, we keep things simple to keep trains moving. When the auto couplings are working well, it is very satisfying.

Ballyconnel Road, 3mm fine scale, is going to be in next month's Railway Modeller. Should be a treat.

Richard Chown was a great innovator. Only met him once, when my Arigna Town layout was at the Manchester show. After he passed, I bought some of his stuff, including WL&WR 0-6-0 Shannon, which he'd built for the original Castle Rackrent, in 36.75mm gauge even back then. It was interesting to see how worn the wheels were, from so much running on his vast system and little things like a removable coal load in the tender - presumably all part of authentic operation? There was also a Pacific Fast Mail sound system in the tender. Analogue, not digital like today, but it still worked. I think Rackrent bridged the gap between the earlier Cyril Freezer type of layout, with loads of track for intensive operation and the more scenic approach we see today. It did need quite a large team to operate it, but must have been amazing to be part of.

Looks like there are just enough trees and scrub at the left hand end to hide a hole in the sky. Real contrast between the lush green and the landward side and the dull scrub beside the sea.

As access is needed on three sides, if you fit a back scene down the spine of the two designs you can have two completely separate scenes.

Splendid!

Another thought on Sligo, is that while Galteemore did Rosses Point on the north side of the estuary, a passenger carrying extension to the quayside line would also spice up traffic a bit. Meanwhile, in pre - grouping days, with the GS&W, MGW, WL&W and SL&NCR all meeting up there, the range of liveries, locos and stock on show must have been quite something.

Not read the RM thread on Minories, but when you look at his Peco track plan booklets, it is clear that his main interest was passenger operations with freight traffic almost an afterthought. Contrast that with Iain Rice's designs where he took the view that on a terminus layout, most of the interest was in shunting, so goods facilities much more important. City termini always tended to be compact, because land was expensive and linear layouts often mean goods yards were further back up the line. Have always thought that parcels and van traffic fit in better with a city terminus, while the Sligo situation with the line to the quays kicking back from the terminus works well too. Ok, on a model railway, a freight comes into the terminus, only to reverse back out again to the (presumably hidden) quays, but traffic can be as varied as you like.The The thing about Minories style layouts is that they offer intensive operation in a relatively small space and seem a good alternative to just having trains go round and round an oval. As in all things with model railways, variety means there should something for every interest.