Patrick Davey

A few more ‘artsy’ ones.....

Some further updates.

Too ‘narrow’ Leslie - very good! I suppose it’s hard to ‘gauge’ the demand..... My era is just before closure (the dreaded ‘Withdrawal of Services’ notice will be displayed). But as it’s a static diorama am not that bothered to have a train, just a few hoppers in the limestone siding perhaps!!

Yip, just as soon as some brave supplier releases a range of RTR LMS NCC narrow gauge stuff!!

Success!! Nicely bedded in - just need to add foliage and some planks at the front to hide the gap (the original setup had some planks as far as I can see) then just need to dull the roof a bit.

Fascinating stuff thanks JB, as always!

Yes indeed

Yip, plenty of photos of those ancient vehicles, and indeed my mother remembers them from childhood visits to BC. Did I read that they were brought to Ballycastle - very slowly - along the NG line, with NG bogies attached? Can imagine the anxious moments getting them through the tunnel..... Part of the challenge in these scenarios is is to make a ‘best guess’ decision based on sometimes very limited evidence - my next guess will be to do with the colour of the station nameboard and the lettering thereon.....have only seen colour photos of NCC-region UTA nameboards from broad gauge stations and they had either black lettering on a yellow background or red lettering on a cream background (nicer!). Will assume that one of these will be correct for the NG lines, until more concrete evidence emerges. JB, what would one give to have a copy of the Ballycastle line survey that JB Senior authored.......

I’ve also noticed from looking at the photo that I have placed the platform too far away from the track.....fixable by adding a new platform face in front of the current one, although it won’t really be noticeable without a train present, which won’t be likely. Still, if it starts to annoy me I can fix it ok. ⛏⚒

The only photo of it which I have seen JB is from an angle (in Colourpoint’s excellent reprint of Dr. Patterson’s book) so hard to be sure - the van seems to have had a non-original roof added which makes me think it might have been one of the ‘open head’ vans, therefore needing to be fully covered over for use as a building. I eagerly await further photographic evidence...... I wouldn’t normally do this but here’s part of the photo I’m referring to, Admin can remove if breaching copyright......

I can add a sign saying ‘No Peco vans were harmed during the making of this diorama.’

Yes fair point and I’m on the same train (ha) of thought..... the van has easily removable couplings, vacuum pipes and brake gear but the rest of the chassis seems to be moulded to the body which was causing some head scratching as I needed the van to be lower down on the platform. So I slept on it and may have awoken to a solution.....rather than chop the chassis to make the body lower, I’m going to sink the immediate platform area lower so the van can go into this, and stay intact, minus the removable parts which can be stored inside as the roof is also removable. So in the event of the diorama being decommissioned, the van can be returned to running order with the removable parts to hand! Pretty smart!!!

Some further progress - the van is from the Peco range and will, regrettably, shortly be dissected and grounded for use as the station building, as on the original. Pity, it's a lovely van!!

Tony lots of makers bring almost-completed layouts to shows and the visitors totally understand and don’t mind at all! In fact it’s helpful sometimes to see work in progress, or, as in this case, a masterpiece in the making!

Fantastic - those buildings are superb!!!

Some more scenic progress on Capecatle. I am actually approaching the final stages with this diorama - just some trees to add then the very limited platform furniture and a wooden shed for the lever frame which controlled the siding. Then some tidying up of the sides of the baseboard to hide the edges of the polystyrene ceiling tiles which form the base of the landscaping.

Ha ha totally - shows how reliable the replacement bus services are going to be! Thanks for the nice comments Galteemore

Cheers Popeye!

Making further progress - am enjoying checking out new materials & techniques, including using hanging basket liner as a base for the grass & foliage, and I have just acquired some seafoam trees to help build up the wooded parts of the diorama. Hoping to have Capecastle ready for the RPSI show in November!

Very nice Tony, love those gate posts!

Very nice!!!!

Very kind Mayner, thank you! It’s 4mm, I wasn’t planning on tackling coaches or locos but now that you have told me about the WW coach sides that might change things a bit......!!!

Thanks Tony - what I meant by 'on the QT' was that I have so far managed to protect herself from unnecessary worry about himself returning to the hobby....... 009! First excursion (ha) into this area!

Here are a few photographs of an LMS-NCC narrow gauge diorama that I have been working on for a few months (on the QT). It's a representation of the small halt at Capecastle on the Ballycastle line in North East county Antrim - the location was notable for having one of the few tunnels on the Irish narrow gauge. The layout is more of a diorama as it is not currently intended for it to be operational - building the appropriate motive power being the biggest obstacle...... It actually grew out of a desire to get back into the modelling groove by trying out a few techniques which had become a bit rusty.....the plan is to follow this post with more details of how the diorama evolved - every stage was photographed. Hope you enjoy! The photos wouldn't post in chronological order but you'll get the sequence ok! I should also point out that the diorama is not finished - lots of scenic work still to be done.

I'd say more of a 'drooling' sample......