Patrick Davey

Yes indeed, well spotted! There is another subtle reference to a legendary BNCR name as well! I’m glad you’re enjoying the stories LC, credit has to go JHB Who has inspired me with his Dugort Harbour antics

It's a very happy day at Brookhall Mill, or is it.... Mr. Weaver's only daughter, Millie, is getting married. Now, in more enlightened times, this would be a cause for unrestricted joy and unlimited merriment but this is rural 1950s Ulster, and as it happens, Millie Weaver's new husband is from 'the other side'. Mr. Weaver was horrified when he found out and did everything in his power to derail the relationship, and he was particularly incensed when he found out that the two had met through the columns of the dating magazine for steam locomotive enthusiasts, called 'Tender'. Mr. Weaver earnestly tried to dissuade Millie from proceeding on such a foolhardy enterprise....even going to the extent of using his considerable local influence to convince all local clergymen to decline any invitations to officiate at the nuptials. But it was nothing to do with religion - Millie's fiancee was, wait for it, an NCC man. Oh, the shame of it at Brookhall. His name was Malcolm Bowman and his family were from Drumsurn ("Never heard of it..." sneered Mr. W) and when later asked for his opinion of his prospective son-in-law, Mr. W's educated response was 'Well he's obviously not Wise...." Anyway Millie was adamant and it was only after threatening to have a BCDR fireman act as best man that Mr. Weaver reluctantly gave his consent. He even allowed the marriage to take place at the oratory at Brookhall and arranged for the mill chaplain Fr. Flax to officiate. Mr. Weaver arrives at the oratory with Millie, meeting Fr. Flax at the door. The guests arrived by private GNR bus, organised by Barmy Barry. Mr. Weaver even allowed one of his many vintage cars to be used as the wedding car. Barmy Barry was eyeing up Millie's Matron of Honour, and later gave her a tour of the back seat of his bus. And the happy couple emerge in wedded bliss. Mr. Weaver discusses the rest of the day's plans with Barry and of course Nosey Neville just had to have his brake van positioned to give him a bird's eye view of everything. Malcom and Millie Bowman pose beside the car prior to Mr. Weaver driving them off to have their photos taken at the very picturesque Knockmore Junction signal cabin, before returning to the mill for a four-course meal and an after-dinner céilí, with music from 'The Steamin' Shamrocks'.

So the York Road posters are at last on display at Brookhall. Mr. Weaver was never going to just promote a rival company, especially after they stole a lot of the GNR’s Antrim traffic when they opened their fancy loop line in 1934, so he decided to make a point, in his usual subtle way. The station supervisor, Wilbur Whistler, is about to burst a blood vessel over it but Mr. Weaver is close to retirement and thinks he can get away with anything. Nosy Neville thinks the whole thing is hilarious and can’t wait to recount the whole story to everyone in Newry shed. 

Nice view here of the exact locomotive I'm interested in, only I'd be doing it in unlined black NCC livery: https://mikemorant.smugmug.com/Trains-Railways-British-Isles/Irish-railways/Irish-railway-archive-2/i-LZpC9MD/A

They’re still hard at it at the mill, arguing about what to do with the posters from York Road. And to make matters worse, Nosey Neville from Near Newry has just arrived in his brake van to offer his unwelcome tuppence worth. The poor driver decided to take his tank loco away to get some peace from the bickering but he was then accosted by Barmy Barry the Banbridge Busman, whinging about the lack of affection shown to his beautiful buses by Mr. Weaver.

Been studying this photo from Ernie's invaluable collection, as it shows a detailed 'full frontal' of an S class loco, conveniently too, for me, at Capecastle: As well as the front arrangement it shows the interesting coupling setup, which actually looks a bit like a modern tension lock coupling? Plus the locomotive does not have any buffers so am guessing the coupling doubled as a buffer too, and upon investigation I see that a lot (all?) of Irish narrow gauge stock was devoid of buffers and had a similar coupling arrangement - some were roughly rectangular as above and some had a more rounded shape. Am sure someone here would be able to offer more background to this style of coupling? Also noting the distinctive fishplates and the neat stack of these to the left of the shot - I have never seen right angled fishplates before, were these used elsewhere on NG lines? Thanks again Ernie for this and for all your superb photographs. Also - what are the cone-shaped fixtures above the buffer beam? They look like jacks for re-railing misbehaving locomotives......?

Wow this is just superb - echoing everything said above and I love the small details such as the passenger line being on a slightly higher level and the stone/slate steps giving access with some rusted abandoned machinery beside! Perfection!!! Lots more please Alan!!!

Yes I have seen that beast - had actually been considering it too but am not sure it went to Ballycastle though........ there's an excuse for a Ballymena & Larne micro next!!!

Impressed - just received a dispatch notification for this so things are moving! Am not doing anything on this project until I have a working, and fairly reasonably accurate chassis........always tempting to start the scenics..........

Super stuff thanks for that John - I actually do have a Fowler tank in the cupboard, with thoughts of a Jeep conversion at one point..........

John these are superb scenes - the elderly 440 is the star!

Just bought a black Hornby Adams Radial off eBay - updates to follow! Thanks again everyone.

Definitely one to show the kids.....

Great stuff Alan thank you!

Name updated - thanks GM! All makes sense - thanks

Having studied both locomotives closely, I think the main issue will be modifying the cylinder/pistons etc - please forgive my ignorance of the correct terminology and please fill in the gaps in my knowledge below..... So the arrangement of the aforesaid (motion?) on the Adams Radial is as follows: And on the S class: The red coloured connecting rod could be key to the conversion - the Adams Radial cylinder block needs moving closer to the wheels and the connecting rod needs moving to the rear driving wheel. I imagine the cylinder block is attached to the Adams Radial locomotive body so it would need removed and attached to the new NCC S body I would be making. Once the cylinder is relocated, am wondering how easily would the connecting rod be repositioned as indicated and would that actually be enough to effect the modification? I know the NCC loco has a much more complicated system than this but it would be a good start! I am currently looking at the Hornby Radial on eBay - the Oxford Rail one doesn't seem to have as good reviews.......the only thing is the Hornby one has a metal body so probably wouldn't yield itself to cannibalising for chimney, dome etc.....

Thanks GM - must look up that book. Great suggestions re. castings etc. See my next post for further musings re. cylinders......

Thanks again everyone for your input here, it has been very reassuring!! So here's the current plan: * A second creation of Capecastle, this time in 5.5mm scale * A model of S class No. 41, in NCC plain black livery - this loco was one of two which received bunker extensions which I think improved their appearance * DCC rather than DC * A few scratchbuilt goods wagons and vans to start, then maybe carriages to follow if I survive the loco build The loco will be based on an Adams Radial chassis although I know I will be gritting my teeth when I take the body off as the Adams Radial has been very successfully converted to a BCDR 442t which would be something I would love to do in the future. I wonder will the body yield any useful parts for the NCC loco eg. chimney, dome etc? The big challenge will be the cylinder/pistons/cranks arrangement - these little locos were quite complicated in this area and there is an issue in that the cylinders would need moved closer to the driving wheels, necessitating shortening of metal components etc and I do not work in metal so I will need a little bit of help from my friends, as the song goes!

Thanks David - it was your own inspirational creations in the larger scale which started me thinking about O-16.5 and I was tempted, especially by the easing of pressure on the eyesight, considering I have never tackled a loco before. Galteemore's point about the correct scale/gauge ratio has me decided on 5.5mm though so I'll see how that goes. The Bruiser was considered but I decided on the S class as I will probably be modelling the 1940s period and The Bruiser was I think gone by then, plus the S class were the main (exclusive?) motive power by that stage and they have a lot of very convenient straight lines which are a further attraction to the beginner loco converter......

Most definitely!

This really is jawdropping stuff!!!

Quite happy to be hijacked by something of such unbelievable quality, definitely agree with JB, you should definitely start a new thread Alan!

Folks this is a textbook example of why a forum such as this is so beneficial, thank you for all your feedback and suggestions, I started off with a general idea and it has now been shaped by the collective experiences and advice of so many of you so I have decided that yes it is indeed feasible and I am going to use the proper track from Peco, and go for 5.5mm scale. So many valid points raised above, all gratefully received! Still a bit of work to do on Brookhall Mill then attention will return once more to the County Antrim narrow gauge

Thanks GM - sounds interesting, the straining eyesight made 7mm seem the best option for scratchbuilding/modifying a loco but your point about the scale/ratio makes it worth looking into! Where would I find more information? Thanks again Well that would make that bit a lot easier!! Thanks for that comprehensive diagram JB and I take your point about the track, there are definitely going to be trade-offs but it's still early stages so if I decide to do Capecastle again for example I might just buy the proper track - it's a very simple layout after all with just one siding with headshunt so just two turnouts.

This might well end up being 'pie-in-the-sky' stuff but here I go...... I don't usually like posting in forums until I have something firm to show but as what follows is completely new to me, I figured I'd be best getting some advice first!!! As my current build Brookhall Mill draws to a close (after 2 years of building) thoughts are inevitably turning to the next one. I had a plan to create another 'micro' which would feature some of the fantastic IRM and MM diesels but then I realised that my heart currently lies in the Antrim narrow gauge!!! I built a diorama of Capecastle a few years ago and was sad to have to dismantle it so maybe pangs of guilt are hitting me..... But I don't want to build a diorama. I want something that moves and can be operational, so even before I decide on a setting, I'm looking at locomotives. The most distinctive Antrim narrow gauge loco (for me anyway) was the S class compound 2-4-2t: https://transportsofdelight.smugmug.com/RAILWAYS/IRISH-RAILWAYS/NORTHERN-COUNTIES-COMMITTEE-NARROW-GAUGE-LINES/i-KvrR3WF/A A very attractive prototype so that is the most likely target. Building a working model of one of these in OO gauge would be impossible for me but then I started thinking of O gauge, but using OO technology.... The use of OO scale track to represent narrow gauge track in O scale (known as O-16.5) has been done before so my current thinking is to find a suitable OO gauge chassis and modify it for use as an O scale narrow gauge chassis. I thought initially of using a Hornby Peckett 0-4-0 chassis as my starting point then an esteemed friend suggested an Adams Radial tank instead, the only modification needed there would be to chop the leading bogie in half so that seems a better option. Plus the Adams is cheaper than the Peckett..... I am quietly confident of being able to construct a decent loco body from plasticard, incorporating metal components. I also did a test modification of a spare piece of OO track, removing every other sleeper seems to give it a narrow gauge feel for O scale - photo attached. Grateful for thoughts and even ridicule!