jhb171achill

There's two stories with happy endings, thankfully. A working colleague in the preservation world once pinched a book of mine too, which I never got back. I know who took it, and quite disgracefully another colleague covered up for this individual. The thief is no longer with us - it was years ago..... Just shows that even friends / colleagues can't always be trusted.....

Wick? Thurso? Ah! The narrow gauge.....

Archives like that are compulsory, and exceptionally valuable, viewing for narrow gauge heads like me!

Wowwww! 00 works, I'll have one. I did email you but no answer. Constructive comment; it beggars me belief that one option is black - none were ever black in that form! GNR blue would actually be nice.... ;-) Grey. Put me down for one.

Fertiliser Wagon Accurate A class CIE cattle truck Proper AEC railcar six wheel chassis at least, or ideally MGWR standard 6-wheeler. That's all.... Once we have those, pretty much anything will be possible. It's great to see freight wagons coming on so well. For years, we've seen increasingly accurate carriages, DARTs and locomotives, but goods stock seems to be poor relation. In the 1970s, the only way of having Irish stock was to paint a Hornby Jinty in grey, or a Hymek in orange. The only way to have Irish carriages was to paint Mk 2s in either NIR maroon and blue, or CIE orange and black. Even now, many layouts have little choice but to have all the excellent Murphy and Bachmann locos and passenger stock, yet still repainted BR wagons! Wagons are only just starting to catch up. For realism, the above half dozen items are so essential, that a layout based in the 1950-80 period simply is not realistic without whichever of those standards belongs to these various eras/

Tony If the outside is 6ft, that means the inside is 5tf, based on losing 6 inches each side - or maybe you mean 6ins in total, i.e. 3ins per side. If that is the case, a "U" shape really is the only option - and you're looking at short wheelbases as the one curve will be very tight indeed. Thus, a 4.4.0 will be necessary - an 0.6.0 mightn't take a curve as sharp. So, you're looking at a couple of "U" class really. Since the 141 class just barely made it to Omagh, you could use one on the basis that the line stayed open just a year or two more, and CIE started working them on the goods through to Derry, after the UTA scrapped most of their steam engines! Rolling stock would probably need to be all 4-wheeled, so a shunting end-to-end based on goods yards only would appear to be the only option - but - a very good one. It's a pity that the shed couldn't even be one foot wider, but there is the possibility of the above with what you have. My dad would have been delighted to see an Omagh-based layout.

In terms of space, as others have pointed out, a radius of less than a fraction over two feet is not really do-able in 00. many of us started off with layouts of 6ft x 4ft (maybe you did too?) and this allows about the smallest feasible layout with a continuous loop. the stations possible on the two "long" sides will allow little more than a platform which holds three bogies, or a run round which allows a loco to get around two. If, on the other hand, you have a "U" shaped setup, while a continuous loop isn't feasible, an end-to-end is, and this will give you about4ft to work with at either side of the layout. That type of thing is suitable for a shunting type of thing. You could have one side as a fiddle yard, and the other a more accurate representation of the goods yard. The "through road" would end as a blank end in an overbridge. Alternately, each side could be a "terminus", so here's a possible idea: One side is the markets branch terminus, the other is the main good yard. Assembled in modular form, with proper design (possibly via Baseboard Dave of this planet) it should be possible to make it portable. A couple of "UG"s and perhaps an ex-NCC "Jeep", or a dirty "S" clas in UTA livery would be all you'd need, along with (judging by the space you say you have) maybe a total of thirty or so wagons. I gather you're not that interested in passenger workings, but two old wooden GNR bogies and perhaps a K15 would add a bit of interest. The existing steam engines would be compatible, and their presence in a good area could be passed off as an IRRS special or Sunday school excursion, having stock stored there overnight. If you can, a circuit is better. This allows the Omagh - Derry local, or an Enniskillen - Derry train to pass through, with just those 2 or 3 carriages. Equally, a 2-coach AEC set with one of them in tow, or in the middle, would add interest as it passed by en route to Great Victoria Street. You could have a man in a long grey trench coat and a battered leather briefcase on the platform staring at a rail joint; this would be jhb171senior on his bi-annual inspection of the track! What were the dimensions of your shed internally again? And is it properly insulated?

Indeed!!!!!

Maybe best to have this discussion before laying any track, Tony, but from previous posts I gather your main interests are a shunting yard type of layout. To that end, would it be worth considering an actual model of the markets branch terminus, rather than the more extensive main station yard? Just a thought.... On the subject of shunting-yard-type layouts, I always thought that the Polloxfen's Mills sidings at Ballysodare would make an excellent model, as this site had an extremely cramped layout, complete, indeed, with several 3-way sets of points. And it was operable well into diesel days.....

Three-way points, while exceptionally rare in Ireland, are great space savers if absolute accuracy regarding track layout isn't paramount, and space is short.

I see a blue spaceship about to land! The little green men (Garfield & Warbonnet) will step out as it lands, and say "Take me to Limerick Wagon Works"!

Stephen Are any of the 141s in the original black'n'tan livery?

Brilliant! The backing music is like one of those youtube vids of the real thing!

Cuneo was the one who included a mouse in most of his pictures. I remember eagerly looking for the mouse on the new Hornby catalogue every Christmas.... Some of the catalogues themselves are now collector's items.

I can confirm that the FB used in GNR sidings would have been VERY old. Bullhead was the norm, EVEN in sidings, where recycled stuff was used, as mentioned above and standard practice on all railways. Jhb171senior never spoke of anything but BH in regard to his days as the GNR's Western District civil engineer.

That is really really excellent! The posters give it a great touch of realism too, and the colours are suitably muted as in real life. Brilliant, as was your pier!

An absolute beauty. If I was thinking of moving north I'd buy it in an instant!

Re. bridges; there's a simple solution. Build those extremely rigid steel bars across the road either side of them. Thus: driver wrecks his vehicle on contact, but railway unscathed*. With automatic half barriers, replace with those retractable bollards, which up-end anyone trying to dodge them. All will take money and time, but if done, offers a permanent solution. (* ...unless it's the Nenagh branch, in which case IE will rub their hands in glee at another excuse to close it for six months "just in case"....)

Fair enough; it seems, from various sources, that within the short term, our government will succeed this time......travel to Nenagh while we can.....

This is exceptionally low-brow and low-tech, but what I did on several occasions while trying to work out what quart I could fit into a pint pot, was to mark track sections and points out full size on old newspaper with a marker pen, but the bits out and lay them in place. This will show what fits very early! I know it sounds utterly ridiculous, but it's effective, and try as I might, no layout software is remotely intelligible to me!

Very true. Also, did you see the programme about the origins of preservation on just before it tonight? Truly excellent programme. It was the same type of treatment, only 12ins to the foot scale.

That really is some achievement. Compare the lengthy closures of the Nenagh branch for relaying seven metres of track, and cutting a hedge!

Excellent!!!!!! I heard that driver has made a formal complaint to the PHBTU (Peco, Hornby and Bachmann Trade Union). You may be getting a solicitors letter! :-)

Two photos up, same type of railcar. No other type of railcar ever ran on the line, toy than an occasional foray of the ugly Bullied design which ran with them, and of which there were mercifully few. This makes accurate modelling simple, as from their introduction (1953 to this line, I think) they formed virtually 100% of passenger trains into Bantry, the goods being "Bandon Tanks". On an occasional day off for maintenance, the railcar was substituted by (usually) an ex-GSWR 2.4.2T tank loco. A "Bandon Tank" might have deputised the odd time. While I've no evidence of it happening, I'm sure it probably did. Coaching stock is important for accuracy, and presents the biggest challenge, in the form of elderly GSWR and CBSCR stock. Bredins and Park Royals made occasional visits, but really only in later years, with PRs appearing sometimes as railcar intermediates. The oft-shown pics of the famous IRRS St Patrick's Day special has a steam-hauled train of then brand new laminates posing on the viaduct, but such carriage stock on steam train was certainly not typical - if it ever happened at all in normal service. Thus, if accuracy is to prevail, a three car AEC set (a Bredin being suitable as an intermediate) or a steam hauled train of a bogie third, maybe a six-wheel first, and a six-wheel brake third would be right. Most bogies in the period modelled were GSWR in origin, with at least two old, and very basic, Bandon coaches which were short wheelbase bogies. Most six - wheelers by that stage were actually ex MGWR, though I think I'm right in saying there remained at least one CBSCR one. None of these carriages are much like anything convertible or repaintable from British prototypes, and the railcars, while pure Southhall mechanically, were also unlikely British railcars. Thus, for passenger trains, either serious kit and scratch building, or serious compromise, is necessary.

Totally agree, Popeye!