amdaley

Hello Everyone. The Story of a Layout. Before I begin I must advise that this is a rather long story so I would suggest getting a coffee or a six pack from the fridge before you start. About five or six years ago with a lot of encouragement from my partner I got back to railway modelling after a long time away from the hobby. In my younger days I had a couple of layouts but then life got in the way & the models were stored away. Having spent all my life in Cork I now found myself living in South West Kerry where railway modelers are as rare as a Kerry man with a hurley in his hand. If any modelers from the South West see this please make contact. Next job was where to put any proposed layout. There was the loft which although it has a stairs leading to it & a floor of sorts also has those v joists which stop the roof from falling in. I really don’t like these but it would have been too expensive to get rid of them. We live in a split level bungalow because the site where it was built is sloped. The downstairs portion was a converted garage, a laundry room & a store / junk room with bare walls, a hole in the floor which filled up with water every time there was heavy rain & a rock face from the foundation because as I said the site is sloped. About this time I had laid a slab of concrete at the side of the house for another project. By some miracle this stopped that hole in the floor that I mentioned earlier from filling up with water so things were looking up. I didn't mention that this store / junk room was piled up to the ceiling with junk which had to be sorted / dumped. Being on good terms with the resident planning officer I stole / borrowed about 10 ft from the laundry room, knocked a wall & leveled out the floor because the laundry room floor is about 6” lower than my proposed layout room. I filled the hole in the floor, slabbed the walls with 2” kingspan type insulation with foil on one side & plaster slab on the other. I also slabbed the ceiling because the floor joists from upstairs didn't look very nice. The ceiling & walls were painted & a few boxes of cheap laminate flooring took care of the floor area. After all this I was left with a very nice cosy room of 23ft x 9ft & so layout planning began in earnest. By this stage I had got hold of every book of model railway plans published since the beginning of time & the search began. I needed a plan where I could get something running in a reasonable time before I lost the urge & eventually settled on this plan from one of Freezers earlier plan books. Layout Plan. Below is generally the plan I set out with but certain little changes have occurred as the build went on. End Layout Plan.bmp I had decided that I wanted to keep the floor as clear as possible of baseboard legs etc so I decided to cantilever the baseboard support from the walls using this type of support bolted into the walls. Picture of Supports. I decided that I would use an open top type of baseboard with the track bed supported on cleats from the framework. Picture of Open Top Baseboard & Trackbed. Baseboard & baseboard support construction method that I used. The cantilevered supports are 3 x 2. The baseboard framework & the cleats supporting the track beds are 3 x 1. All track beds are 3/8” / 10mm ply except for a very short piece of MDF because I had nothing else in stock at the time (never again because it bends to easily). The track is laid on thin cork which I bought in rolls & cut to size. Scenery & scenery supports. Scenery like hills etc was constructed by fixing pieces of ply to the walls & than using rabbit / lettuce wire to support the grass rocks etc. The wire was covered with plaster bandage & then painted with a plaster mix of hardwall plaster mixed with water & emulsion paint so that any that got knocked or damaged would have a brown colour instead of the usual white. Most of the grass used which you will see in my next postaing is teddy bear fur which I bought from the UK. I trimmed it a bit because it was too high. I then dyed it in a bucket filled with a mix of water & green emulsion paint, squeezed it out & left it on the floor to dry. I found that using a dehumidifier in the room helped greatly with the drying. When dry it was stuck to the hills where needed with thick PVA glue which is often used to bond laminate flooring boards together. Rock faces are coloured plaster again mixed using emulsion paint & water. Track & Electrics. As I mentioned earlier track & points are Peco code 100. Points are electro frog type. Crossings are not available as electro frog in code 100 so I used code 75 crossings. The only difference is the rail height in code 100 is higher so the code 75 crossings where needed are laid on a piece of card on top of the cork base. Points are controlled by various methods. Some points are controlled by piano wire & a sliding switch which is used to switch the frog polarity. Others are controlled using DCC Concepts smart switches which work well but which I found finicky to set up. I bought some at the time because they were supposed to be the greatest thing since sliced bread but they aren’t always totally reliable. All point motors are solenoid type like Peco or Seep. If I had to start again I would use something like Tortoise slow motion types but I used the solenoid types because I had lots of them in stock. All points are controlled from local switch boards & panels. I use this method because I like to be close to the trains as they run. Wiring. I have run two DCC bus wire around under the layout with droppers soldered to every piece of track. The main DCC bus wires are 32/0.2 & the droppers are 16/0.2. I use suitcase type connectors to join the dropper wires to the main DCC bus wires. These suitcase connectors work well provided you use the correct size for the cable you are using. Its also important to use the correct tools for the job. So far I’ve had no failures. I have no central control panel because I can control everything locally using the wireless system. Ballasting. The ballast I use is a mixture of Woodland Scenics Fine & Medium Grey. The method of fixing the ballast is a method I picked up from a modeller in Australia. This method was given to me by Richard Johnson of DCC Concepts fame. The method involves a mixture of Meths, Water & PVA glue. It’s very easy to use & always works even though it might be a bit scary when you first try it. If anyone would like a copy of this method just send me your e mail address in a pm & I will forward it to you. When I began I decided that I would use Peco code 100 points & track because it was my intention to run some older items of stock which I had from all those years ago. Eventually I sold off most of the old stuff but by then I had most of the track I needed for the layout & so was stuck with code 100 so to speak. If I had my time back I would use code 75 which is neater in appearance but doesn't take kindly to older wheel profiles. DCC System Control. I run DCC & my system is the NCE Power Pro wireless system. Being wireless I can walk around the layout as I please which is why I also use local panels to control the track points. I bought the NCE system at the start & I have never had any problem with it. Here is a photo on one of my local point control panels. Railway Modelling to me is a hobby not a chore so I don’t spend more than a few hours a week at the layout. The result of this of course is that the layout has gone on for five or six years now but so what. I have other interests as well so the modelling never gets tiring or boring. What I will show over time is a series of photos taken from the start which will show the progress or lack off on the layout up to the present day. Well that’s the story of the efforts of a modeller in South West Kerry. I know there’s still a lot to do but I’m in no hurry. I decided to put my experiences down on paper after discovering this Irish Modellers forum recently & visiting George at Marks Models in Cork. I was lucky enough to be at the last modeller’s night which George held at the shop on a monthly basis. Unfortunately George has now moved on but I was fortunate at least to catch his last demo evening which was on Airbrushing. I have an airbrush myself but have only just begun to use it now. George’s evening gave me the confidence to start using it. So far I have only used it to weather the track & ballast but its great fun. This covers 2008. The next time I will post photos from 2009. I have just built an over track signal box based on the Midland one which stood at Barton Street in Gloucester but I will put that in a separate posting later on when I get a few photos together. If I missed anything or if anyone would like to ask any questions then please feel free to ask away.

That's very very tasty. Some beautiful crisp brass detailing there.

Its big, its spectacular but I can's say I really like it. Its just a lot of expensive products thrown together & but there's no real modelling there.

First time seeing this post. Some fantastic work going on there & very well done Bren. Those buildings & retaining walls look really wonderful also your use of colour makes the whole layout so realistic. Have you any A4mallards on it

After I telling the Mrs that I was going to choir practice. She was wondering why I was looking at the camera instead of the demo until I told her George was wearing his french maids outfit Thanks George for a great night which was very informative & thanks for the buns as well. They got a good death.

Just to let everyone know I tracked down a copy of the book DIESEL DAWN - Irelands Contribution to the Development of the DMU 1931-1967 Author: FLANAGAN COLM Its on its way. Thank you to everyone who answered my query.

There are plenty of photo's here. It must be one of them ? https://www.google.ie/search?q=%22The+Railways+of+Ireland+Past+and+Present+-+Dublin%22&sa=N&rlz=1C1OPRA_enIE565IE565&espv=210&es_sm=93&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&ei=7702U4L7KLOO7QaXlYCQDg&ved=0CFsQsAQ4Cg&biw=1280&bih=899

Hi Riain. I would suggest that you sell them individually on E bay. Describe them by manufacturer & catalog number when listing them any where. Say whether they are boxed or not & be honest in your description of the items. If you do a search on E bay you will get an idea what similar items are fetching. Good luck.

Someone might be interested. http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=400682662087&ssPageName=ADME:X:RTQ:GB:1123 Postage to Ireland is about £6.

That's a beautiful loco

Any good to anyone ? http://cgi.ebay.ie/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=400684218114&ssPageName=ADME:B:SS:IE:3160

Is this what you are looking for ? Irish Locomotives & Rolling Stock book (1997 edition) written by Andrew Marshall & Peter Jones. Its the 2nd one down on this page. http://www.irishtractiongroup.com/merchandise.htm

That's a simply beautiful piece of work. I'm constantly amazed at the skill of some modelers.

Well done. That's a great railway room you have there. Looks fantastic. Some very nice carpentry work going on there.

I presume its a shunting signal.

I know of a few spare in case you run out, children that is

Good luck George. Hope to see you before you go.

Hello Everyone. Don't know if this has been posted by someone else but I spotted these while looking for something else. No connection with this company & don't know anything about them Just thought it might be of interest on here. Some Irish Road & Railway signs down the page. http://www.modelrailwayscenery.com/ooho-accessories/

Thanks for that Hunslet. Not really interested in going down that route. I was hoping that something modern might be available in Rtr. Anything available is either a repaint of something else or old technology. I had hoped that Murphy's might have plans to bring out something but it seems not. I have examples of all of Murphy's products except the 201 which I simply don't like as I'm not into modern stuff.

Thanks for the links but nothing at the share site & the ebay item is no longer available. Thanks for that. I'll chase it up when I get back tonight as I'm away all day.

That was my first port of call. Everything comes to he who waits I suppose. A copy will turn up eventually.

Would Murphy's be interested I wonder ? Even though I don't have an Irish layout I would certainly buy a couple as they have great memories for me. Another model I would be interested in is a C class No 227 which was on the last train to leave Caherciveen on the 1st July 1960 on the Farrenfore to Valentia Railway.

Sorry I don't have names for you lads but thanks for the info. I'm not going to build one right now so I will keep an eye out for a copy of that book. Bound to turn up eventually like the local bus

Hello Everyone. Perhaps someone can help me with this. As a kid in Cork I remember CIE Dmu's leaving the station next to the City Hall bound for Bantry I think ? Can anyone tell me the model of there dmu's & is there a 4mm model available anywhere ? It would have been around 1960 ? I understand that there is a book available Diesel Dawn Ireland's Contribution to the Development of the DMU 1931-1967 However I haven't been able to find a copy. Perhaps someone can help ? Thanks everyone.

Hello Everyone. A new member here & while searching for something else I spotted this thread. I use these crimp splice connectors on my layout. For main bus wires I use 32/0.2 cable so I use the blue crimp in the center here http://www.rapidonline.com/Cables-Connectors/Crimp-Blade-Splice-33-0190 For dropper wire I use 16/0.2 cable so i use the red spade connectors here http://www.rapidonline.com/FFSearchResults.aspx?qFS=&query=330665&x=0&y=0 You can put on the blue crimps with a good pliers but you need a crimping tool for the spades. I have never had a problem with these connectors provided you use them properly. There is a company Cooney Electronics in Dublin who bring stuff in from Rapid on a weekly basis. I got all my cable & connectors from them & they are very good. No connection with them other that a happy customer. If anyone wants any further info just drop me a pm.