Patrick Davey

Thanks David - and the fall back position for explaining damage could always be a ‘shunting accident’

Oops - I have just noticed a few places where I was a bit heavy with the sanding…… more patience (and maybe a bit of filler) required!!!

Ballycastle Railway 0-6-0st No. 2 ‘Countess of Antrim’ looking very neat after a few light coats of primer. With light sanding in between coats, I’m taking this slowly, so I don’t remove any of the important detail from the superb 3D print which was generously provided by Jamie @J-Mo Arts. I am however gradually removing the name plates and builder’s plates to make way for etched replacements, which I have ordered. The handrails are also being replaced with separately fitted ones. She looks great, sitting on the chassis, which was also generously provided by Alan @Tullygrainey. I’m researching all available information about the locomotive and constantly studying all available photographs, so with a bit of luck, the final product will do justice to the prototype. With many thanks once again to Jamie and Alan for making this easy for me!

Superb

Or 666

How's this for a 'meant to be' situation..... I have just ordered custom etched nameplates and builder plates for my 5.5mm model of 'The Countess of Antrim' and I had to look up the build year and the works number - the year was 1879 and guess what the works number was..... 555!!! Just missing a decimal point!!!

Hi Nelson - yes, good spot! @J-Mo Arts also did a superb CAD of one of those vehicles but am not sure if they were original BR stock or later NCC additions. I suspect the latter which would put them out of my era

Thanks Alan - about time I contributed something to the build

Working now on the Ballycastle Railway's 'Countess of Antrim' - specifically preparing the superb 3D print from @J-Mo Arts for painting. I have decided to remove the moulded handrails and replace them with separate fittings, and there will also be etched nameplates added to finish off the locomotive. The chimney has also been filed out. The resin is quite brittle but files off easily. A spray of Halford's grey primer shows up areas that require further attention. As always, continued thanks to Alan @Tullygrainey for his ongoing assistance!

Cracking videos Darius -can't wait to see what you do with the scenery.

Superb!

And thanks to everyone who has commented above! Yes - plenty of scribing of Das clay for both!

A MORE REALISTIC PLAN!! Having reluctantly parked my plan to create an exhibition layout featuring the GNR station at Killylea in County Armagh, my always-restless mind has moved towards some alternative and more realistic ideas for the next project to follow Capecastle. And I think I might now have the answer!! Laurencetown is a small village in western County Down, and from 1859 to 1955 it had a railway station - this was opened by the Banbridge Junction Railway which connected the large town of Banbridge to Scarva on the Belfast-Dublin line, until the line was absorbed into the GNR(I) in 1877. The line served linen mills along quite a scenic stretch of the River Bann and must have provided a convenient connection for Banbridge citizens into mainline trains. I have a childhood memory of visiting the site of Laurencetown station during the glorious summer of 1976, as one of my family friends had a connection to the railway at Lawrencetown and he presumably knew that I would be interested. I don’t remember much about the visit as I was only six years old at the time, but I do remember seeing wooden sleepers remaining in place along the trackbed. Laurencetown station was quite small, with a single platform on the down side, on which stood a classic WH Mills station building. There was a loop off the up side of the running line which served a stone goods shed, and the stationmaster’s house, of a non-typical design, stood close to the station building. A stone overbridge spanned both the running line and a portion the goods loop, at the Scarva end of the station. There does not appear to have been a signal cabin. Here’s a nice shot from the excellent ‘Banbridge Back in the Day’ Facebook page, showing the miniscule GNR Railbus at the station in 1950: A short distance away from the station, in the Banbridge direction, the railway crossed The River Bann on a sturdy three span girder bridge, at the far end of which was a level crossing where the bridge met a road bridge which also crossed the river: The station was crammed into quite a compact location which makes it an ideal subject for a ‘micro’-type layout, especially because it has the classic overbridge at one end to mask the scenic break. And…… there is the potential for the project to proceed in a two-stage plan: Main station area, with fiddle yards at each end with ‘half’ a bridge as one of the scenic breaks Complete the remaining half of the bridge as part of an additional scenic module which features the girder bridge over the River Bann, connecting to the existing fiddle yard which will be relocated further back. This has the big advantage of breathing new life into the project and hopefully sustaining the interest but of course when stage 2 is completed the layout will no longer be a micro I was last at the site of Laurencetown station back in 2021, and took the following photos, showing the overbridge, derelict stationmaster’s house and the platform, which is visible if you study the yard closely: The overbridge still remains at the station site, along with the stationmaster’s house which looks to have been recently renovated after being derelict for a long while - a site visit is planned to verify this and also confirm if the platform is still extant, the most recent Google Earth photo suggests that it has been redeveloped: I have now amassed a decent collection of GNR(I) locomotives and rolling stock but no layout based on this line would be complete without a model of railcar A, which operated the majority of the services on the line during its final two decades: https://mikemorant.smugmug.com/Trains-Railways-British-Isles/Irish-railways/Irish-railway-archive-GNR/i-MmN5vXm So that’s a potential scratchbuilding project to throw into the mix! But now my attention must return to Capecastle and the legendary locomotive ‘Countess of Antrim’………

Mighty!! Would love to see one of our weathering gurus replicate in miniature the weathering as seen on 124 above!! Along with, of course, a miniature Mike Beckett.

A BUSY MOMENT AT CLOGHERHEAD Had this station ever actually existed, I don’t believe that this level of activity would have been too commonplace…… It was at times like this that the top brass at Amiens Street must have regretted closing the signal box at Clogherhead in 1950. It’s a summer Saturday in June 1955, and there are three steam locomotives creating a lot of noise on the county Louth coast. No. 205 ‘Down’ will be the first to depart, with the empty stock of an excursion that she has just brought across from Castleblayney and other stations to Dundalk: the carriages are going to Drogheda for cleaning before returning to bring their excursionists back to the Irish North. No. 147 will follow with an unusually heavy morning goods train for Dublin before number 64 will round off the trio of departures with a train of (mostly) empty coal wagons headed to Dundalk. It’s not often that the continuous cackle of the Clogherhead seagulls is surpassed, but it certainly was on this occasion.

Great programme, very sad though

Waterford too - ish

Thanks Rob - I should’ve done that, but I will aim to do so on my next visit. It would be a great subject! I always aim to please PS…… a more realistic plan is in the development stages!

UPDATE: I have decided that the above plan, appealing as it was, is totally impractical for the space I have available and my meagre transport capacity. But it was nice to imagine!

Magnificent!

Tasty! 3 on their way to Clogherhead.......

Sounds like a great day - well done all. All the layouts look great!

Enjoy the trip Leslie!! Looking forward to seeing you in Dublin!

Ok just a couple more……

Real coal added as well. Big improvement. Or at least it will be, once the PVA dries......