Patrick Davey

At the risk of sounding like Hannibal Smith from 'The A Team'..... I love it when a plan comes together..... One of the cabins I am currently building will be finished in a decaying condition and I wanted to feature some missing/broken roof slates with timbers visible below. Here's how I did it: 1. Scale Model Scenery produce nice kerb stones, but I was more interested in the 'sprues'...... 2. The sprues were inserted into holes cut in the roof pieces: 3. Scale Model Scenery's lightly weathered roof slates were fixed in position: 4. A few loose slates were added: 5. Job done!

Some small developments today - I opened out the spaces for the window frames in the brick bases and added some underlying roof detail to the decaying cabin - once the roof tiles go on, those 'wooden' beams will poke through a few damaged sections. I'll outline how I do this once it's finished. This cabin will also have the lower window bricked up. Also primed the white metal interior detailing items - I have used these before and they are very impressive. More tomorrow......

Glad the show was a great success - looking forward to more photos and video clips!

Another superb addition to the range - full marks IRM!! Two ordered.

Noel this is superb - any more?

Well done Gerry!!

More progress today. The temptation is to just focus on one and get it completed, but I'm trying hard to progress both at the same time. There is a reason!

Love this Alan!! Will be another masterpiece!

Ordered!

I drove past Maggie's goat's place about 3hrs ago! Amazing layout.

Looks fantastic Noel - hope to see Gort in person sometime! Enjoy the show!!!

Thanks JB! Here’s where I am at close of business tonight: I have another busy few days ahead travelling with work, but back to it again on Monday! Or maybe I’ll be too excited to do any more work on this following the announcement from IRM at the weekend……

I had a pencil like that one time, it would never spell correctly…….

Started the external framing of the cabins today. The blue scheme has been changed to light green as this seems to have been more common on GNR cabins.

Was away with work these past few days but I got stuck in as soon as I got back today - working on basic interior details here, floorboards etc, from a Scalescenes download.

Brilliant shot JB! Are the trains running now from the harbour round to Castletown?

Thanks GM, they are the Midland signal cabin windows from Ratio, with some of the vertical framing removed. Product code is Ratio 539.

Wall decoration and glazing continued today for both cabins. Colour schemes have also been chosen: both will be white, but one will have red panelling and the other will have blue. The red one will be a semi-derelict structure, hence some of the windows have been boarded up already.

A few short clips of No. 64 in action at Brookhall Mill. Mr. Weaver is very excited. FullSizeRender.MOV FullSizeRender.mov

AN OLD FRIEND RETURNS! Lots of excitement at the mill today as an old friend returned following a chassis upgrade, courtesy of Alan (Tullygrainey), a craftsman in brass! This venerable lady started life as one of the excellent Studio Scale Models T2 brass kits over 30 years ago, built for me by a friend. The model spent most of the next few decades hiding away in my attic, but received an overhaul from Colm Flanagan a few years back when she became GNR No. 64. Recently I decided to replace the chassis with one cannibalised from a Hornby Adams Radial tank and Alan very kindly carried out this work for me. Now No. 64 is working on the layout and is a perfect complement to the blue-liveried U class No. 205 ‘Down’. With grateful thanks to Colm and Alan for bringing this beautiful model back to life for me

So now that my Brookhall Mill layout is complete and at the - mostly - operational stage, I have enjoyed being able to sit back and relax and just enjoy it, and not think of another project. But that lasted all of five minutes… I have already started planning the next project, and indeed a little bit of work on the buildings has started. I will explain more about the project when it starts to evolve more solidly, but in the meantime, I have started working on two GNR(I) signal cabins, drawing on experience gained in building the one for Brookhall. That one was necessarily smaller than the standard, but these two will be the standard size, and I am fortunate enough to be in possession of detailed plans which are actually very close to 4mm scale! There is a reason for building two, which I will explain once they are completed. And we’re off…..again…..!

Very nice!! An unusual and very interesting model!

Just been reading through this entire thread - truly amazing and inspirational stuff!!! Love those class 37s!

The Armagh-Castleblayney line must have cost a fortune to build with at least three huge viaducts required, at Milford, Tassagh and Keady, thankfully all still standing (haven't actually seen the Milford one so open to correction!) Unsurprisingly there aren't too many photos of the Keady-Castleblayney section in operation.....if there are any at all in fact. But a fascinating stretch of railway all the same.