jhb171achill

Popeye, believe it or not you've done exactly the job I was thinking about! (Great minds think alike?).. Now, I am doing it for certain, and hoping it turns out half as good as yours! This era is currently very neglected despite being arguably the mos interesting and varied in Irish railway history. If you take the bow-ended style, used commonly in Britain but ONLY by the WLWR here, and look at Ratio kits, if you take their brake third, keep the curved end, and splice on two compartments from a full passenger coach, you've a very nice WLWR brake third which lasted until - I think - about 1955. Somebody here joined two Hornby "Thomas" coaches a while back to make a vaguely GSWR vehicle. It looked amazing - I was thinking of that too. I have a list somewhere of potentially Irish conversions of British wooden bodies stock - must look it up. But congratulations on that one - it looks amazing! Final thought - given the window profile and panelling, with a slightly higher arc roof, you'd get a very good DSER coach. There were few, however, in traffic after 1950.

Having seen this layout in the flesh, I can testify that it's every bit as good as it looks in operation - and better. And when I saw it, there wasn't even as much stuff on it as now! So a continuing well done to ttc0169 for sharing..... The "Enterprise", RPSI specials, and he even has a Craven with a well known wandering railway photographer hanging out of the window! All it needs is a steam special...... ;-)

You'd wonder, wouldn't you! A light dust sheet can be helpful if it doesn't risk damaging delicate scenic details.

For 1950s, wagons easy enough - use lots of Leslie's vans - but the U, UG or S class really is the only show in town for locos.

Thank you, Patrick. It'll be small and simple, just like Banagher, Skibbereen, Westport Quay or Baltimore in 1960! Discussions with Baseboard Dave satisfactorily concluded now. J15, 141 and two laminates in stock, and orders in with Provincial Leslie, SSM and Worsley.....

Do you mean loco or coach or railcar, Tony? While it's not cheap, you can get a kit of an AEC railcar fro Worsley. It would need suitable motor, bogies etc.

Ahh!!!! I'm quoting CIE colours - but I forgot it's meant to be in Britain! D'oh.... (mind you, if it turns out to be based in Ireland, the above applies!)

Yellow and other bright colourings of brake wheels, levers, handles and other bits and pieces, and yellow walkways etc etc... are all a modern phenomenon. Generally, you're well into the mid / late 1990s before they start appearing.

Directions?

Or "looking in the mirror and seeing a rail-car"?

W O W W W !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Outstanding!

With space and budget undoubtable considerations for either young people, or the increasing number of single parents, I suspect that layout may become "online" more. This, while regrettable to the likes of us, may be the way it'll go. "Virtual" locos could be bought / downloaded, with "virtual" layouts on computer screens, like the popular game of "Sims" of such complexity that the same thing in real life would cover a few acres.

I'll certainly take a standard open.

In that case, Sean, we're looking at the following. Internal: Dark leaf green painted walls, with dark cream upper panels separated at waist level by a 1" black line. External: Painted walls - be they wood-panelled or perhaps painted concrete finish - light grey or light cream colour (cream if wood). Doors, door frames and the like, weatherboards, gutters and facias, the same dark green (CIE pre-1955 darker green / CIE bus green / CIE steam engine green). Tanks on water towers usually the same, though occasionally galvanised silver / grey. The actual glazing surrounds on windows are white. Station signs: If of ex-GSR origin, enamel signs with bilingual white lettering on black background, but the white will not be pristine - you'd need to weather it to off-white. Or - if it appears to be newly painted, a new CIE plastic sign or a repainted pre-GSR one, the opposite: white background, black letters. I'm assuming you're looking at CIE lines. If you're thinking of GNR or UTA, whole different ball game, though the UTA was also fond of dark green and cream! Your model shown above looks like a rendered cement finish wall. If that is correct, a very pale grey stone-coloured finish (if not a cement-like finish: many cement walls WERE bare unpainted then, but were only painted by IE years later). The corner stones are highly unlikely to have been picked out a different colour, though I think (but stand to be corrected) that a few buildings would have been - if so, dark green, but probably same stone colour. Facia boards dark green. If those window surrounds on your drawing are stone surrounds, unpainted bare stone. If they are wood, dark green, but the actual frames round the glass inside them - white. Wooden doors - solid green.

David, once this is finished, I'm definitely going to have a go at a 21mm thing - probably a Holmanesque imaginary offshoot of the Blessington tram...... long term.

Hi Sean I can give you more detailed info if you let me know what period you intend to represent.....

Vote early and vote often!

Nice! Bear in mind the colour scheme on the oft-seen model of Carlow station displays the modern IE colour scheme of cream and grey. In the 1990s it was red, white and blue; while in the 70s / early 80s, it was white, black and two shades of grey. Prior to that; from the dawn of time (GSR, early CIE) into the 1960s, cream with leaf green door frames and white glazing bars.

In the late 1960s / early 70s, it was about ten shillings (50p) a gallon. Pre Feb 71, prices in shillings and pence. After that, when decimalisation did away with the shilling, which was 12 old pennies, or 5p, it became 50p a gallon. Litres were many years later.

Her hair is the wrong shade of livery!

I bubbled. Good luck, gentlemen; an award would be well deserved and also assist in the launch of your narrow gauge endeavours in the People's Republic of Brexit!

I'm looking forward to the scenic side of it. I had a great meeting with baseboard Dave today (thank you very much for your time, Mr. L!), and we discussed the whole project in detail. Understandably, he is very busy and actual construction won't start immediately, but the collection of rolling stock will. David Holman, yes, I hear you! - and it had occurred to me to maybe base a terminus on something like Glenties (SHORTER Donegal railcars!) or Ballyshannon. It would run on 00 gauge track and the model would be an appropriate scale to use it as 3ft gauge. However, Railcars 12-20 would need a fair sized turntable and running them backwards wouldn't be an option. Another one on that scale might be one of the mine offshoots of the Ballymena, Cushendall & Red Bay Railway; a couple of converted Isle of Man tanks and a few short wheelbase coal trucks - the passenger train being a twice-daily one-carriage affair. However, what I'm focussing on now will resemble Westport Quay in some details, and Valentia* Harbour in others. The idea is that of a "branch off a branch" extension. Perusal of old timetables shows that Valentia was operated more as a shuttle from Cahirciveen, where the main train terminated, while Baltimore was operated as a further extension of the main line train which went only as far as Skibbereen. Equally, Westport Quay traffic tended to operate only to and from Westport Station. The idea here is to allow very short trains in a terminus setting which is way smaller (and thus shorter) than most - while retaining absolute authenticity. If Murphy Models ever get around to doing a RTR horse, Fintona would fit this bill absolutely exactly. One might allow a little licence here, and assume the GNR pogrom never happened, and Fintona survived until, say, 1968. Had that happened, it would almost certainly very quickly have become just a goods siding, as freight into the town was still quite busy; but had a passenger service been retained, just watch UTA buy the Sligo Leitrim railcar from CIE, or transfer in a double ended thing like NCC 1 or that old GNR Gardner car which used to do the Derry - Strabane locals. It looks, thus, as if this year will be spent gathering locos and rolling stock. The eventual idea is that there will be three separate sets of locos and rolling stock. One will span the 1940-50 period, all steam, with older wagons, many cattle, and convertible "soft-tops". Half a dozen six wheelers, maybe a few each in GSR maroon and original dark CIE green, will fulfil the passenger requirements. Another set of stuff will utilise some of these, but Park Royals, laminates, McAllister "H" Vans and "C" class diesels appear. Tin van heaven... Finally, a motley collection of maybe nothing more than one each laminate of several types, a Craven, Park Royal, Bredin and an stray old GNR K15, a three-car Worsley AEC set (LONG term!!!!!!!!!!!!!) and along come the 121s and 141s; this lot all black'n'tan. Don't hold your breath folks; Rome was never built in a day, and the above will take a good while to build up. There will be wallet-related matters to consider too, of course, plus hopefully successful applications to the Dept. of Domestic Planning, Tidiness, and Fiscal Approval..... The major card I have to play in my planning applications is this: 12.01 Please describe the major benefit of said application for the Construction and Housing of a Layout to the overall domestic economy, with particular reference to the back of the upstairs sitting room. It'll keep him off the streets It will keep me occupied, thus preserving peace and quiet downstairs. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ (Administrative use only. Please do not write below this line) Decision: Application Granted. M'lud, I rest me case. I'm off for a cup of tea. Over'n'out. (* The GSWR, GSR and CIE almost invariably called it Valencia).

Ok, Phil, maybe you might pm me with details? Many thanks!

I'm looking for a couple of these, if anyone wants to sell one or two each of the heating van and the luggage van.

It tried to give me the option to "open in a spreadsheet".... ????????????? In truth, Bantree, you can never weather anything too much. Pavements, fenceposts, buildings, sheds, track, ground surfaces, locos and rolling stock in REAL life are ALWAYS weathered. Tha building looks fantastic. Look at any layout that strikes you as especially realistic scenery-wise, or in respect of the trains running, and I'll guarantee you that weathering has been liberally applied to everything. For those aspiring to accuracy, it's actually a much underrated aspect of our hobby, I think.