Patrick Davey

24 minutes ago, gibbo675 said:

Hi Patrick,

I have just finished building some GNRI coaches by cutting and shutting some Hornby Stanier coaches. They are not 1005 accurate dimensionally but near enough. The one thing I had trouble with was the colour I used an automotive spray can with the colour code RAL 8023 orange brown. I used this shade as it is very close but a slight lighter than Humbrol's gloss 9 which I was advised as close to the scumble teak. I found both Humbrol 9 and RAL 8023 to be very similar to the British LNER teak coach colouring and so went with it.

I also looked on the RPSI's website however I couldn't decide as in the photographs some coaches looked quite orange and other copper red as yours do.

The photographs of your coaches look a more copper red shade than the photographs of my coaches and wondered what shade you had used.

Gibbo.

I bought these RTR

Also - an interesting fact:

Due to the layout being called 'The Stone Yard', Alan was obliged to introduce 'block' working.

A few short video clips:

Today was the second day of the UMRC’s annual exhibition in Methodist College, Belfast, and I was there to help Alan aka @Tullygrainey operate his exceptional ‘The Stone Yard’ layout although I’m not sure how successful I was in that job.  Anyway, why is it exceptional?  I shall let the following photos answer that!!

The UMRC show was, once again, superb!  My T2 No. 64 was very happy to see that I returned home with some very appropriate carriages for her to pull these were acquired from Chris Dyer - Chris’ stall should have a ‘wallet warning’
Such a friendly show, great to catch up with so many fabulous people - I spent today trying my best to help Alan Nixon @Tullygrainey operate his fabulous ‘The Stone Yard’ layout - look out for extensive photo coverage later!

Picked up a 2nd 121 decoder today from @WRENNEIRE Dave Bracken at the Belfast show - now I can recreate a childhood memory, 2 121s double heading.  This was common on the freight workings into Adelaide although by the time I was paying attention both locos would have been in Supertrain livery.  Easy to set up on the NCE PowerCab. 

1 hour ago, airfixfan said:

Europa closes for good from Saturday September 7th! Boyne Bridge going a week later

Has this all been announced somewhere  Jim or do you have somebody ‘on the inside’?  

I had a couple of hours to pass in Belfast city centre today, so I hopped onto a bus substitution service between Belfast and Lisburn and managed to grab some photos and video clips of the new Grand Central Station:

Plenty room for all the current services plus services to Armagh and onto the Derry Road.

A rather fine gantry, there are two of these at the station throat.

The bus is now travelling along the former railway approach into GVS.

2 hours ago, DJ Dangerous said:

No singing on this one?

Wait until the nuns appear……

Just when you thought it was safe to visit YouTube again......

If you frequent this forum, you will hopefully have seen the various videos which I have uploaded to my different layout threads - a big shout out to everyone who has reacted to these, all very positively, which has given me the inspiration to create further videos.  The number of videos is increasing, so I thought now would be a good time to gather them together into one place….

So I am pleased to announce the launch of my ‘Brookhall Mill’ YouTube channel, which currently features 28 videos, with another three scheduled to upload over the coming week.  Most of the videos have been seen on this forum before, but there are a couple of new ones there as well.

There are currently four playlists:

• Previous Projects - currently 2 videos featuring Ballynahinch Junction and Capecastle
• Brookhall Mill - currently 15 videos of my OO gauge GNR micro layout
• Clogherhead - currently 14 videos of my current GNR/CIE DCC layout
• Structures - currently 2 videos which show the different stages during the building of Clogherhead station and the church

Future playlists will hopefully be added, which could feature visits to friends’ layouts and also model railway exhibitions.

I will be very grateful for any feedback on the channel, and of course, feel free to…..

“Like, share, comment, and hit that ‘Subscribe’ button!”

Thanks everyone!

https://youtube.com/@brookhallmill-f9b?si=h6vimZarlmLgnUgn

PS - I made the decision not to feature myself in any videos, so it's model railway action only!

2 hours ago, Metrovik said:

A33 was A3 edited in Photoshop?

Close - A30 edited to A3 and A33!!  Similar cheats for the others too 

Has anyone worked out how I cheated with the above......?

A look at some of the other locomotives which visited Clogherhead over the years.

4 hours ago, airfixfan said:

Patrick cannot get that photo to open. Will send you a PM

Jim it’s a Facebook group, don’t think it has any privacy restrictions though?

I know Sam doesn’t usually get much positive feedback here, but I liked his review of the recent Dapol UTA-liveried Jinty.  He got it at a seriously knockdown price as well, so I’m tempted!  He doesn’t quite get the railway history of this part of the world, but I wouldn’t say I do either!!!

Definitely your best yet Alan - lined to perfection!

SUMMER SHENANNIGANS AT CLOGHERHEAD - 1956

It all started off so well too......

Fabulous.  It CAN be done!!!  Yes I know this line was still largely intact but let's be optimistic 

Just came across this cracking aerial view of Ballymena from 1943, which clearly shows the NG line crossing Queen Street and diving between the houses!!

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=2788669854589162&set=a.422306921225479&locale=en_GB

26 minutes ago, Galteemore said:

Lovely find Patrick. NCC mileposts may not be especially rare in and of themselves but finding any solid remains of the NI narrow gauge lines is very unusual. Most of it has simply vaporised, with very few exceptions such as Moorfields signal cabin. One of my favourite spots was Headwood station, swept away just a few years ago in the A8 works. 

David unfortunately each time I visit Moorfields, it seems that progressively less of the signal cabin remains.  It was but a shell yesterday although the elegant front finial was still hanging on for dear life.  Yes I know Headwood well and was sorry to see the building demolished.  The nearby Clements Wood offers a lovely walk along part of the line.

Exploring the narrow gauge routes of County Antrim with Alan @Tullygrainey yesterday started me thinking about the former and very short-lived terminus of The Ballymena & Larne Railway in Ballymena.   The line from Larne opened in 1878 and terminated at Harryville, on the southern side of Ballymena.  The location was provided with fairly extensive facilities including a coal store, goods shed, engine shed and turntable, although the passenger facilities were very limited, maybe due to the realisation that ultimately a connection would be needed to bring narrow gauge trains into the broad gauge station.  This connection was opened fairly quickly, after only two years, and narrow gauge trains ran up to the broad gauge station from 1880.  An avoiding line was built around Harryville station on an ascending embankment, crossed Queen Street on a girder bridge before plunging through a row of terraced houses (two houses had to be demolished to facilitate this) to meet the broad gauge line and run parallel with this into the station.  The B&L had a short independent existence, bring taken over by the Belfast & Northern Counties Railway in 1890.  Much later, in 1928, under LMS ownership, the line was provided with a fleet of quite luxurious bogie carriages, the finest to run on the Irish narrow gauge, which served the declining passenger traffic on the boat trains to Larne.  These unique carriages only saw 5 years of service on the Larne boat trains, as passenger services on the line from Ballymena to Larne ceased in 1933.  What a memorable trip that must have been.

The former railway facilities at Harryville are long gone but the gap in the terraced houses in Queen Street survives.  The fabulous Britain from Above website includes a decent selection of aerial views of Ballymena and in the background of one such view taken in 1953, the remains of the layout at Harryville can be seen, along with the avoiding line embankment, and the old goods store and coal store.

Excellent - so probably not B&L unless the BNCR decided to copy this pattern more widely!

I’m interested to know how many of these survive on disused lines throughout Ireland.  Although, it’s probably not something to talk about publicly for obvious reasons.

Yesterday, @Tullygrainey Alan and I enjoyed some explorations of the former narrow gauge routes in County Antrim - 'twas a fine sunny day for such an excursion!

We took in the delights of Doagh, Ballyclare paper mill, Ballynure, Ballyeaston, Ballynashee, Moorfields, Harryville, Martinstown, Cargan, Parkmore, Glenarriffe, Ballycastle and Capecastle, and along the way we were shown something interesting by a kind landowner - a very rare Ballymena & Larne Railway milepost.  The gentleman told us he restored it after researching the most likely colour scheme but he realised later that he painted it the 'wrong way round'   It is also mounted on a length of rail.

Anyway it's just great that it survives - 91 years after the last of the grandest narrow gauge trains in Ireland thundered past.  Another milepost survives at Moorfields - I wonder how many others are waiting to be discovered.

Bravo!

Magnificent!