Glenderg

Uhm....look who's talking! My layout is only a fraction of a thing in comparison to what's going on Kent wise! As far as marine modelling, if it fits one of the unfilled era's then it's go, waterline from now on, those hulls are a hoor to get right! USS Slater is currently a sad sight, but I'll get some photos next week of her. The guinness barges and their larger draughted aunties are also on the cards incidentally.... I'd really like to have a crack at one of the coal boats that came over from wales early in the century. There was a great story of a mother who had a fling with a "coloured lad" and she produced a boy of colour at the turn of the century, who ended up working on the coal boats, disgorging it's cargo onto the coal trains that were sent around the country. This coloured chap was a bit of an oddity at the time, as you'd imagine, but he drank pints at the rate of knots and beat the heads off all comers and was as good as any in Mayor Street. His mother was interviewed around 1966 and asked why it was that she tied a red neckerchief around her lad's neck going to work every morning, given that he'd stand out anyway. Says she "shur they were all bloody darkies bee the time they were done wid da coal, twas de only way I could find 'im for his dinna" Another tale was that the famous "one and one" came from that era. A chap came over working on a boat from italy and jumped ship. Think he was a stevedore but he quickly realised that the lads on the docks were relying on their mammies to bring down cold pasties etc. for the grub so he set up a little hot oven with a bicycle to serve cheap and cheerful to the masses. After a few months, he had made enough to bring his missus over, and whilst he served the north quays, she was allocated the south quays. Problem was, she hadn't a bloody word of english, so the men of Townsend Street would queue up and point at what they wanted. "Wun o dat, and wun o dem" they'd say, trying to break the language boundary. (Apparently she was a bit of a looker too, italian lassies!) She would respond with "Uno y Uno?" pointing feverishly and the transaction would be completed with a nod and an exchange of a few pennies. Evermore, the expression of a "one and one" became commonplace in chippers with the imbibed of Dublin. Why am I telling yee this? No reason, really, just when researching all this lark you find these gems of real life that infects the modelling ideas. I've thought about using adjustable lighting and looped audio to help with ambience, perhaps to offset flange squeal etc., from loco speakers and set the tone without wrecking my head - reeling in the squeals? Thanks lads for the positive vibes - and shem - if I can get Weshty to produce enough GSR wagon stock, I'll have Larkin giving a speech surrounded by the huddled masses, and the peelers bailing in 1913 stylee! R/

Other things I really want to capture was the process of painting brickwork with signage, that hinted at times past, particularly when Dublin was the second city of the British Empire, and then subsequent graffiti tags such as "No to the EEC" Then there are the German built bascule bridges which are iconic remnants of that era. I've inflicted a "you've no choice" policy on this one, and I think it'll be worth it. This will form the scenic break at one end of the layout. A second board has been designed which will have it's bigger sister, featuring the customs building, coroners court and the harbourmasters office. There also has to be ships at some point - one of my other hobbies. I have the hull complete for the LE Eithne, and a 1:76 of the Canon class USS Slater destroyer done, so they will satisfy the marine part for the 80's and the 40's respectively. The will be on a separate shelf that attaches. Track layout has been fun designing, but I've still a bit to do with wagon turntables and narrow gauge guinness stuff. Here's the test run of the track on the kitchen floor. That's fine in practice, but how does it work in theory? I've always wanted to use a scissors and prototype formations early in the century used this to come from private owners sidings onto the main line - for the life of me I don't know why. Anyway this is how it all ties together, and it's taken me about 3 years to get to this point, so I'm going to allow myself 54 months to complete it. For the 1944 layout, it will be mostly coal wagons, steam shunter Sambo, and transfer of MGWR, GNRI and GSWR wagons from the main line to the goods shed, and back into the wagon yard (fiddle yard). As it moves on to the 60's delivery of new 121's will feature, more goods wagons etc. but by this time my fictional MGWR transfer yard has become a Guinness Yard, so there will be early guinness traffic. For the eighties, CIE have taken back the yard, and the scrapping of laminates etc. has begun within, plenty excuse for old black and tan stock to appear dockside. Pushing onto 2004, I can have deliveries of MK4's, tara's (alexandra road exploded so this is a re-route ) and so on. I know this sounds fairly mad and ambitious, but I won't be getting the hands dirty anytime soon. I've more than enough to finish for you lads before that happens! Thoughts welcome. Richie.

Evening All, It's called Arthur's Quay for three reasons - I grew up in Limerick City right across from it, I wanted an excuse to include some guinness traffic and 1'10" gauge stuff, and I needed a name that was synonymous with Dublin, without being a specific location. It's very loosely based on a part of the North Wall in Dublin, but takes plenty from the south side of the river before it was replaced by Googleland etc., so it's kind of a historic nonsense layout, but it's a multi-period layout - 1944, 1964,1984, & 2004 give or take a few years either side. Like many here, I'm restricted with both space and time to work on this, so the dimensions for the layout are 296mm x 1400mm, designed to fit onto an IKEA Lack shelf, so I can hide it away when not in use. It also means I can work on small bits at a time, rather than having to tackle it all in the one go. Anyway back to the plan - This part of the docks had an amalgamation of MGWR, LMS, and GSWR all jockeying for the most traffic, and along the frontage were these enormously long goods sheds which handled the main goods - cattle, timber and so on. There are two of these sheds remaining on the south side of the river which I've surveyed three times in the last few years. As part of the multi-period, it functions as a shed up until the 80's period, and will then become a shed for rail traffic. I also want to use off the shelf code 100 track, using odd formations to create a shunting puzzle or three. I've had good fun dreaming up a scenario - "Breakdown Brake Van" - more of this when it gets going. But I'm aware of the nasty look of 16.5mm versus 21mm so I'm going to cobble the entire area with varying patterns to blend the rails into the surface. Yip, much fun ahead but this is the effect I'm after. But there's the buildings there too, and some are mind blowingly epic, so I've chosen a few around the area, some long gone, some from other similar parts of the city. The Multi-period thing is defined by the fashion, posters, vehicles, rolling stock and minor changes to buildings, so I intend to create each building in it's 1924 condition, and as each period rolls around, fill in windows with steel shutters, or cover with period billboard posters as necessary. One building - the Ivy House above, will be modelled in two states though as I need one that really highlights the grim conditions of the early eighties - roof missing and steel supports etc. to be continued next post...

He also has the roof of the weedspray coach on the wrong way round!

Weshtys flat wagons coming soon, paddy dropping super standard mk2's shortly, and 201's shortly after, not to mention mayners goodies. Gawd man, bargains reduce the wallet contents for useful stuff!

stinks of repro. The Art Deco shading doesn't belong on an 1888 plate. Plus is too clean/tidy.

CIE broken wheel roundel H vans/goods vans in bauxite and light grey. Or RTR Turfburner RTR double beet wagons 21mm setrack and points Nah, who'd want that crap. I'll go with the H van theory.

Sorry Mike - only one I could find that shows an approximation of what's beneath. and

Mayner of this parish is yer man, with a 4 wheeled van... http://irishrailwaymodeller.com/showthread.php/2639-Tin-and-Hooded-Vans

Cheers lads - heres the photo I was talking about. You can barely make out the stencil of the flying snail on the upper left, and "20 TON BRAKE" to the right.

Ah here popeye, that's class. The j-hangers on the pallet wagon - explain please, iVe been fighting them for some time. They make it so irish. R.

They did run with the snail totem but only rated as 20 tonners - even though the body is identical to the 30 tonner, would love to know the genesis of these- without the vac brake text. Undergear appears to be naked, but you'd never notice in fairness. The long steps tend to obliterate that view. Mid build - please forgive the unfinished look. The totem was on the upper left panel, and the "20 ton brake" text on the upper right with the number stencilled on the lower right hand panel. Works' stencil tests seems not to be present. I have a few photos from the O'Dea collection showing same with date - don't have them on the tablet here but will post tomorrow from the big rig. Grey and black for the centre panel is an option for early running - late 70,s. Lemme dig through a few snaps and see if any capture the undercarraige. R.

I fear Heirflick may have something to say about this....

Paint was supplied by the likes of Hendersons before technical specifications and BS standards were even heard of, so the manufacturer just had to colour match what was required. There were no long term tests done, UV exposure, or the like so paint got desaturated and broken on semaphore arms etc. It was only when the likes of 3M started supplying IR/IE with the panels on the rear of coaches, and specifications complied with EEC(at the time) and BS standards that paint had more colour fast properties.

Said well. Hic.

Loco is pointing almost due south, due to the suns position time of day etc. which tallies with Snappers thinking.

I took these about 12'ish years ago - apologies for the fuzz in some, crappy nikon first generation digital camera...pfff. Hope they are of some help. http://irishrailwaymodeller.com/album.php?albumid=88 http://irishrailwaymodeller.com/album.php?albumid=89 Richie.