Patrick Davey

A wonderful post, very creative & entertaining! And absolutely superb modelling, every aspect of it. The Inspectorate should be more complimentary!!! Something to be very proud of LH - congratulations.

When a train from the UTA (ex-NCC) section travelled to Brookhall Mill, it would first go as far as Brookmount station where the locomotive would run around before bringing the train onto the mill siding. This meant that the brake van would be next to the locomotive on arrival. Here is a short video showing the shunting movements that would take place after the train arrived, in this case to collect a consignment of linen for the Northern Counties Hotel in Portrush. Earlier, one of the ubiquitous ex-NCC brown vans had been brought to Antrim, from where a Jinty tank loco brought the van to Brookhall. 1264703779_UTATrainatBrookhallMill.mp4

Thanks GM - they surely are, very distinctive.

Cheers Philip!

That has brought the model a huge step closer to looking very like the original - great work Alan!!

Early UTA days at Brookhall Mill and Jinty No. 18 is still wearing her NCC livery as she arrives with a short goods train from the north. The consist includes two ex-NCC vans as well as a UTA coal wagon and brake van. The two Jinty tanks rarely ventured far from York Road and the Belfast dock lines but this was an occasional working which brought them a far as Antrim before taking the GN route towards Ballinderry and then into Brookhall. Loco: Murphy Models/Bachmann UTA coal wagon & van: RTR Provincial Wagons UTA brown van: Provincial Wagons kit UTA brake van: built by Gareth Brennan

Ah ha............. gotta be The Ballymena & Larne......

Emmmmmm........

Superb - really enjoying this!

Thanks David - nice to see I share the front cover of the latest edition of NIL with your good self!

Last one for tonight, I promise!

Ha!

Late evening at the mill.

Cheers JB. Hard to believe it's actually nearing completion!

Some CIÉ action from Brookhall this evening. Apart from a protesting platform lamp everything is running smoothly! IMG_0931.mov IMG_0932.MOV IMG_0933.MOV IMG_0934.mov Those of you with the vision prowess of a large bird of prey will spot that the Provincial Wagons CIÉ vans are as yet unfinished, with buffers and decals still to be added.

iPhone not great with low light shots but I am pleased to report that Brookhall Mill is now fully illuminated, with all buildings so equipped. Really only the backscene, surround & overhead lighting rig to go.....

UPDATE: The original electrics are still working fine! Yay!

Without the voltage!

I had a decision to make regarding the turnout control on Brookhall Mill. There are only three turnouts, and not being electrically-minded, I wanted to keep all the electrics as simple as possible so I was considering some form of mechanical solution. One of my modeller mentors had previously offered to wire the turnouts for me but then with lockdown etc I got impatient and kept building the scenery and buildings etc and thought that this would make it tricky to work on the electrics (I know now that this isn't the case as the baseboard is quite deep and can easily stand up on its side). Anyway I seem to have found a mechanical solution, a bit rough 'n' ready but it seems to be working! An 8mm wooden dowel, with a short length of brass tube inserted at one end which has a 1mm Peco turnout pin soldered inside; a drawer knob at the other end: The dowel assembly is positioned under the layout, after an 8mm hole is drilled in the baseboard side and screw eyes provided: The knob (behave in the back row) is on the outside of the baseboard side: And...... it works! Points.m4v It certainly is rough but it works, and as the three knobs (stop the sniggering) are very close together, they can all be accessed without having to move from the operating position. So the next stage is to set the layout up for a running session tomorrow and to find out if I have destroyed the electrics......

Superb!

Looking forward to seeing how the louvres work out - an ideal solution!

This is an absolute masterclass Alan, the model is of course going to be a complete work of art and I am watching progress with great interest but the main question has to be this...... how do you keep your cutting mat so clean??????

This is great news, an order has been placed!

And videos!

Now that is a really nice bit of work!!! Thanks for taking the time to photograph each stage LH, that is appreciated as I always find it very useful to see how a fellow modeller approaches, and solves, challenges. Great stuff!