jhb171achill

B147 for me!

Great to see so many familiar faces today at Raheny, and some of the regulars on here who I had not previously met in person.... congratulations to the organisers, and by the number of IRM, Mark's Models, and other carrier bags walking out the door, it looks as if sales were busy............ as if it's any wonder, given all the new stuff!

This is an interesting one - a bit over-exposed but I think it makes a nice shot. Where? When?

Will the jax be smelly in coach B?

Ouch! Me wallet is sore today!

I think the loco is the one which went to Maam Cross; I could be wrong, but if so, it’s about as MGWR as the starship “enterprise’

Possible, at a pinch; but there weren’t many LCs on the W & T, and there has been a glut of duds in the last 20 years…..

Looking over the scenic base with a critical eye through black & white; I find that this tends to show up things needing more attention.

That’s the plan, David. I want to borrow one of those static grass things soon - hardly worth buying one as I’ll never use it again. A question for you, though, as I’ve always found your scenic detail hugely inspiring: that gravelly stuff (from a roadside beside a turf bog on Achill Island) is lying loose just now. I need to secure it, but I don’t want it to look shiny, e.g. with varnish. I want it to look natural. I am aware that a light spray of diluted pva should do this. So, should I do this and then add grass or put the grass on first and then spray?

Wow! Wasn’t aware of that. I’ve no idea what he was doing in Ballater - he kept no notes whatsoever, and said little if anything at all about such jaunts! Pity…..

Scenic, or wha'! Mixed maroon and blue/grey Mk 1s. Scotland? And a "Woolwich" by another name, and narrower gauge.......

Yes. Like the all-grey of earlier years, until well into the 1990s at least, wagons were all brown, including couplings, buffers and bogies.

Indeed, OB, I've seen that vehicle (in picture form!) and you're quite right! Good thinking...........

The “tin vans” of Dugort Harbour, two each of JM Design and Silverfox. These cover the 1963-78 period between them (the six-wheeler ftom 1965, of course). I will soon take delivery of a green one and a silver one, having taken care to specify a correct black roof on the former, and all-silver on the latter. Both will be weathered before entering service.

A good deal of work done today. I made some progress on scenery, while my Learned Friend continued with the electronics. The scenery starts with the base painted a dark turf-like colour, which will have various bits lightened when dry. Real sieved soil (from the turfy west, of course) was added in places to create a gravelly background; this will be fixed once track ballast is down, with diluted PVA glue. Then vegetation. Right now it looks a bit of a mess, but it’s heading the way it ought to be. Meanwhile, points are being wired to a temporary control board at Castletown West, with loco and rolling stock trials taking place. Onwards and upwards…… Castletown West station is tonight under an engineers possession. Bus transfers are in place between there and Killarney.

Is that an old Gresley coach away over to the left? If so, it's well away from home..... And, indeed, what's the vehicle beyond it? Steam, of course, must appear...........

Steam still ruled the roost on fair days anyway at Dugort Harbour in 1960…..

. This is what it looks like at present. At the very least, it will get a dark grey roof.

Back to 1947, and sure you never know what carriages will turn up on market day in remote areas…. Both of these are off-the-shelf. The one on the left, now repainted 1950s CIE green, but as yet unlined and numbered, is sufficiently GSWR-esque to grace a layout which is supposed to be somwehere in West Kerry. I toyed with removing the clerestorey roof and putting a conventional one on it, but it was more trouble than it was worth - these things are really only a stop-gap until (sez he hopefully) some suitably Irish models appear - either completed kits or bought items. The original model was LMS, with the lining and panelling PRINTED on, so once repainted the sides are smooth. However, CIE actually DID do this to many old coaches in the early 1950s. Old beading disappeared under steel or aluminium sheeting, so such a transformationj is entirely plausible. The coach on the right is a SECR rebuilt 48ft vehicle, common at one time in the south of England, and again a common off-the-shelf model. With poor eyesight, poor light, and a 7-ft rule, it's just about acceptable as a 1915-25 era MGWR bogie, given the roof profile and windows. The brake van ducket, however, is no more MGWR than Sir Jeffrey Donaldson's right foot is, so that will have to be covered over by a "proper" one. That's if I see it as being worth the while - maybe I'll just leave it. This coach is in a British maroon livery right now, and would look a lot better if repainted in CIE green - or even black'n'tan, as a handful of MGWR bogies were repainted thus in their very last few years about 1963-5. However, the windows are hard to get out for repainting - I had not anticipated this - so another possibility is to leave it maroon, and weather it within an inch of its life to represent a vehicle in the early 50s still one of the very last with dilapidated GSR livery, for when I'm operating with an all-steam roster. The 1945-early 50s period would have still seen the odd maroon vehicle mixed in with CIE green, just as the 1960s saw CIE green lasting in decreasing numbers into the "black'n'tan" era. For now, a black and white image does the trick.

Thank you, much appreciated. Once the backscenes are proper ones, rather than creased bits of paper, it will improve that aspect of it! I'm hoping to get a good bit more scenic work done tomorrow on the non-sceneried area of the layout.

Market day, so an extra coach on the passenger train tonight, here hurrying away from Dugort Harbour behind B165. Well, “tonight” in 1965, that is.

Need to remove the smoke deflectors - other than that, weather it like mad and away ye go!

They’re absent from my 1924 GSWR diagram book, though they apparently lasted (in some form or other) Neil 1933. There was a bit of a purge of all sorts of very old or redundant stock during 1932/3.

Ah - was barking up the wrong tree. It's not a WCIR one that I'm thinking of. No, no pic....... but I'll keep my eyes open.

I'm looking to see if I can find a WCIR carriage in a photo..... if I can I'll post it here.