Patrick Davey

I think the beach is largely finished. An important scenic tip is to use as much colour variety as possible, especially with scatter material, so adding some darker and thicker material has helped the image of the shoreline I think. It also gives the impression of a buildup of seaweed although I might develop this further using black thread and PVA glue. A lot of the details here are from the excellent Scale Model Scenery range, they can be a bit fiddly but are worth the patience and effort because they are very fine and make a big difference. The deck chairs in particular produced some innovative swear words, but overall I’m happy with the result. There isn’t enough room to employ resin to represent the sea but the sand is actual sand from the real Clogherhead beach

Beach progress.

Intoxicating! You must have a good head on you. Plenty of proof. Sorry…. The distillery is exceptional, and I concur that it is hard to believe this is N gauge!

I might do that, indeed, once I have everything in place

A few appropriate details added today, from the excellent Scale Model Scenery range: noticeboards & lifebelts. I am currently working on some very fiddly deckchairs and windbreaks too for the eventual beach, and I have also created the path which links the station to the beach. Coming very close to the moment when I can add the actual sand from the real Clogherhead beach, hopefully tomorrow for that

Safety first - a lifeguard lookout is on the workbench this evening. Definitely one of my weirder scratchbuilds!

A few more details arriving shortly too, to complement the cabinet

Getting impatient to get the sand down on the beach so time to improve access! Both units are made from mount board covered in Das Clay, the larger one will eventually form part of a path which will run from the station to the beach.

Heartbreaking for everyone at Hatton's if this is the direct cause of the demise. Heartbreaking all over.

Dodgy doings at Dugort

Too much information there JB! Each to their own I guess.........

Thankfully I was still able to order 4 lighting packs from them for the 4-pack CIE genesis I have on order although I felt really sad doing so. Hard to take it in that such an established and significant name in the industry will shortly be no more.

Always sad to hear this kind of news - they have been very good to their customers and I will look forward to receiving my Genesis coaches.

See the above @leslie10646

Two steam projects - interesting! My money is still on one (or both?) being preserved RPSI, maybe one blue and one green/black/grey although I’m still not convinced that IRM would overshadow OO Works with an even better J15. And I suppose it doesn’t even have to be a preserved locomotive, since the OO Works U and UG sold out….

Even though the railway is not as busy as in former years, the beach is still popular with families, so the emergency services need to put in an appearance from time to time. Pictured at Clogherhead beach today is an ambulance from Dundalk. With special thanks to Kevin Enright @Louth of this parish who kindly donated the ambulance to me when he discovered he had two - this is the impressive Oxford Diecast Dundalk Fire Service ambulance. Thanks, Kevin!

A bit more detailing today: the beach now has a nameboard, along with two typically garish beach huts and a food kiosk, all made from mount board, they will be weathered of course, to reflect the dilapidation theme of the project. Progress was also made on the promenade and the wave defences, more on this tomorrow I hope.

No idea how I managed to upload an empty post….. hopefully admin can delete this one and the empty one because I can’t see how to delete posts

So here’s his week’s progress: Concrete wave barriers for the beach and coping stones on the sea wall: Access boardwalk for the signalman (this will need weathered as the cabin is disused) along with bedding in of the cabin and a chain link fence around it:

Belated happy New Year greetings to all! My other half has come down with Covid, so I have been banished to my mother’s house in case I catch it, which apparently would be a disaster of seismic proportions…… In the spirit of clouds and silver linings however, this is where my railway activities take place and there has consequently been some decent progress on the new layout, details of which I shall reveal presently. My OO Works U class will probably never run on the new layout, unless I hook up a DC controller, but I couldn’t resist a few posed photos in the meantime

Getting back to working on the sea wall, between the station and the lower level beach…. Photos show the production line for making the large coping stones: 1. First I made plasticard formers 2. DAS clay is pushed into the formers 3. Once the clay has dried, it is removed and the blocks are cut into 1 cm lengths and smoothed off, any small fragments which break off, hopefully add to the realism 4. Using PVA glue, the blocks are fixed to the top of the wall sections 5. Once all the smaller wall sections are completed, they will be fixed into position at the bottom of the existing taller sections.

Lighting experiments:

The church is now in position on the layout, bedding in will follow. Looks a lot darker here than it actually is.

More or less finished the church now, a few tiny details still to go eg. gutters on the tower and sacristy, as well as doorsteps.

Back to the station today and it has now been bedded in, along with the station nameboard. More vegetation shall be applied once the glue dries.