Hunslet 102

Lovely tidy work again Nelson,well done

Ha Ha Irish Rail,you had an insight into my plans!! Unfortunately,there won't be enough room for a helipad,although when travelling to work this morning,I saw a mountain rescue sea king helicopter on the helipad at the new Glasgow hospital and boy it would have made an interesting model.There will be a helicopter incorporated in the rebuild,a Westland scout has been waiting to make an appearance for over a year now!!

Thanks TDR,looking forward to getting stuck into the rebuild,although already the ambitions are bigger than the room available!!

Thanks Irish Rail,I appreciate your comments.The RUC station has been dismantled,but will be back,hopefully a bit larger to accommodate the landrover fleet.

Thanks Kieran,your support for the layout is much appreciated.Hopefully you will like the changes that are going to be made.Without giving too much away,all of the buildings in the photo will be retained with a few more added and together with this and the vehicles,new ones to be added,it will really give a Belfast feel to the layout,which is what I want to achieve.

Below is an old photo of the police station and housing area that sat above the railway for many years,until last night when it was all blown away!! (excuse the pun). I built this area many years ago,but made one fatal mistake,it was made permanent. With a number of points under the structure,by law of averages one was bound to develop a fault,which of course happened recently! As like all good modellers,I lived with it for a while until the 'chewing the fat' moment last night! A new building project will now be on the drawing board,retaining all of the above with a few other additions,built with removable access!!

The best show in Scotland,even including Glasgow,with a good friendly atmosphere and more space to enjoy the layouts on show. Have been attending this show for many years and always come away from it with the modelling mojo back on a high. Looking forward to it.

Nice work and at an astonishing pace! The cement works looks great,well done

NIR early morning heaven! A busy day is about to get into full swing at Great Victoria Street with corporate NIR maroon the order of the day. Hunslet 102 Falcon is ready to depart from platform 2 with the 8am Enterprise service to Dublin. Beside her in platform 3,is AEC railcar No 116 ready to follow the Enterprise out with the 8.05am direct service to Lisburn. Over on platform 4,BUT railcar No 122 is getting prepared to depart with the 8.15am service to Portadown,while on platform 1,MED railcar No 22 will follow it out with the 8.20am all stations service to Lisburn. Not timetabled,Hunslet 101 Eagle will leave with a ballast train also for Lisburn,quickly followed by DH shunter No2 with the homemade NIR weedkilling train,that will perform its duties on the third line that connected Great Victoria Street with the former GNR loco works at Adelaide,in preparation for the opening of the new Adelaide freight yard.

Nice pics and nice looking well built wagons Kieran, Kirley Junction is looking as good as ever

Thanks John,look forward to the release of the side overlays for the second open and brake second open.

Hi GSR 800,below are a couple of pics of the wiring,simple in practice for those of us that are not great with electric's. I have some peco switches which I intend to wire up some day,but the push/pull method has lasted a few years now and as the layout is a home static one in the loft I am in no rush to change it.As the old saying goes,if it ain't broke,leave it! Anyway,the station track has 2 plastic fishplates isolating the sections,with one line rewired either side to continue power,with the other line have the push in/pull out connector,hope this helps.

Look forward to seeing your DH on the forum one day soon.

Will try to get a couple of pics over the next few days

The terminus is wired quite simple,which suits me as electrics is not my strong point.The layout is DC controlled,powered by 2 twin Gaugemaster controllers,allowing for 4 trains to be operated at any one time,which is a bit much for me only! Anyway,all the points are insulfrog,so thus are self isolating,while each of the 4 tracks to the platforms are isolated half way down each platform with plastic fishplates,with the wires operated by a push in/pull out contact below the baseboard for either isolation of the section or full power to the lines.When isolated,this allows another train to approach the platform while another train is in it. This allows for prototypical operation of GVSt,as I like to operate it to a 1970s timetable. This is achieved by the 2 twin controllers each controlling separate sections but all linked to each other.Controller 1 controls the 2 main lines,the station throat and the hidden sidings,while controller 2 controls Adelaide freight yard and GVSt carriage sidings. Thus a typical operation begins with railcars moved from the carriage sidings via controller 2 unto the main line,then reversed into the platforms via controller 1. These trains then leave GVSt with their service,do a couple of laps of the glorified oval and disappear into the hidden sidings.Other operations follow suit,like the DH shunter will marshall the Enterprise rake and deposit the coaches into platform 2 for the Hunslet to back unto before heading to Dublin.Operations are reversed for trains coming from the hidden sidings (Dublin,Portadown,Lisburn) and this is were the isolation comes into play as the CIE Enterprise engine will remain at the buffers while the DH removes the coaches to the carriage sidings before it too then can head to the carriage sidings.Hope this is of some help,needless to say,a 1 hour train operation has a lot involved,but brings great enjoyment recreating operations from the past

Nice work again Nelson,well done

Hi GSR 800,not had a chance to get a pic of the station throat yet,but hopefully can get some soon.Below,are a couple of photo's from the early stages of the layout that may be of some use.

Hi Liverbird81,can't remember what the thickness was,but it was very sturdy,so probably around the thickest on the market. With regards your 450 class,you would be better using plasticard around windows and door and using the Milliput for final touching to get the profile right

Great job with the North Atlantic coaches Kieran,they look superb.Nice job also with the extra shelving,it certainly helps to keep the layout clear

Superb work TDR,the ballasting is very neat and really lifts the layout to a whole new level.Really like the large style country houses,they really capture the look of rural Ulster,a complete contrast to my own layout,although the St Stephens Green section looks like it will develop into an interesting section and a nice contrast to the more rural scene.A really nice balance and atmosphere to the layout,well done,its a credit to you.

Hi John Any decision as to which option you are going to go with for these coaches? Andy

The rear of the DH was made with plasticard,as were some of the sides to get the right looking profile of the original.I reused most of the bodyshell were possible,but the build involved a lot of cutting and shutting.

Hi Liverbird81,I used a Mainline/Bachmann Class 03 shunter for the conversion to the NIR DH class.

Having completed the spoil wagons,I could not resist running them with their normal mode of transport,behind a Jeep! The following photo shows a Jeep powering out of the tunnel with a spoil train for the foreshore of Belfast lough.An MED railcar is heading in the opposite direction with a service to Larne.A couple of Belfast Corporation buses can be seen on the road above. The next pic shows a side on view of the spoil train on its journey in 1970. As I am on a nostalgia trip down memory lane,the final photo shows the back street houses of Belfast,the type of which I grew up in.They were cold,they were damp,but they were home with a great community spirit,something which I think has been lost in recent times.

Hi GSR800,just back down from the loft with a few more pics to post,but none of the station throat I'm afraid.I will try to get a couple of the throat over the next few days and post them up for you,thanks. Thanks for the comments Kieran and Seamus,glad to see you back posting again Seamus.