Junctionmad

Does need a bigger venue, it was seriously overcrowded. It also needs a 21mm layout, there where too many "exhibition" style layouts dave

Noel and I were talking about this, my first trip on a train was in the early seventies when I was 12 ( my dad was a car nut and never liked going anywhere by train). I grew up near Portlaw, and could hear the GMs and A's on the dolomite and magnesite trains, lulling me to sleep. ( I can clearly remember them at night accelerating up those gradients Then in my early twenties ( first job) , new minolta camera, and a CIE full access trackside pass, I photographed everything, including a full signalling survey of waterford station,dublin, elsewhere etc , 1000s of photos, which sadly all got lost in a house move some 20 years later, you for me it was baby GMs, 071, orange , and I love block freight, CIE had such an interesting collection of "hacked" together freight stock in the 80s and 90s. I never had much interested in the black and tan days, I then modelled a succession of GWR ( my grandfather worked for them for a while ) layouts, all with hand built stock and track etc. But eventually I ran out time and other things got in the way. personally I always wanted to model CIE in the "orange " era, It was a time when loco hauled reigned supreme, but the older infrastructure was still prevalent. I remember meeting rail enthusiasts from the UL in the 80s who came over because to then Ireland was a working rail museum . I never saw Irish steam as alluring, it always seemed to broken down and decrepit. IN fact really irish railways never had a golden period ever. Today I find looking at IRs antics entirely depressing, I don't even want to travel by train anymore. What I do find interesting is the interest in so called "modern image" ( I hate that term) , you are now seeing fine scale diesel layouts etc. good stuff,

Are you not there saturday ?

My own view is that train lengths on model railways have to be appropriate to the layout. Running trains that stick out miles beyond platforms looks wrong and especially where its fouls points and signals. Hence there is no correct answer, unless your layout is a very accurate representation of the prototype, ( including station and track length ) then the question is moot. I suspect most modellers decide on train length based on the availability of stock rather then any other decider

I was looking through flickr. I wonder was that cabin against the side of Mount Misery , really a signal box, given that the Central box , has been there from early in the 20th century, what would be the point of that cabin. Interesting the old waterford north station building, quite beautiful, given the monstrous carbuncle that replaced it. it seemed to take up much of the space where the roundabout is now, i.e. it came out towards the bridge. Amazingly had it existed today, preservations orders would have never let it be demolished!! Was it the only place that five railway lines converging in Ireland ?. had any six ?

Thats exactly as I remember it . I remember as boy travelling on the dolomite ones, never travelled on the magnesite. My memory is that the oil/magnesite trains dwindled away quicker then the dolomite. I well remember the GMs hauling at night, I lived within earshot I loved the pre-74 pics of waterford , I never got to see the station until after the rearrangement and the removal of the river sidings. it must have been a spectacular place in its heyday

Ah yes the IR way of business, well why not double the fares and reduce the timetables, then 2 foot of platform would do , the whole thing could be moved to kilmeaden and the whole station " surplus to requirements" make a railway journey like a bus journey , result, people travel by bus, if you keep sawing off services, cheapening everything, ultimately it all just dies,

God those photos bring back memories of a fine station, I spent half my teenage years in the west cabin ( the advantages of a track side photo pass) . Never knew there was a cabin just under the cliff , v-dodgy! I travelled in the loco on some of those dolomite trains, never remember them running around in the station area, Despite what was said, the oil trains and the dolomite hoppers were rarely run together. They were usually separate trains. The hoppers were also used to load ballast from the quarry at carrolls cross ( i know this cause I was in the loco at the time!) . The line went straight through the middle of the quarry.

I very much doubt any structure would prevent or retain a serious rock slide

Was in Waterford yesterday, visiting my mum , stopped in to look at station holy god What left, a single track now at the platform. Even the centre track is disconnected. Which means it looks like they can't use the long main platform for trains. Nothing but track lifted everywhere you look. You get the feeling IR is abandoning more then just the L-W line ! I notice with the new fairs. You can get from limerick to Galway via wrc for5.99. The round trip limerick Waterford is 24.99. Two trains a day , upto 1 hour delays at LJ, still no Sunday service. Hey what do you know, poor passenger numbers , lets **** it down. Could the minister not just kill off IR instead.

Of course with a bit of interfaces, which are readily available, it os possible to use a lever frame on dcc. The other thing is how do you model manually controlled siding points that were never connected to a lever France in the first place. Having those on dcc cab control is more prototypical I'd suggest !

You can get DCC decoders for about 15-20 euros, Join MERG ( http://www.MERG.co.uk) and build their DCC command & throttle for about 60 quid, this is 2/3 of the price of a MM 071 !.. Sure sound , fancy systems, etc cost. but it can be done cheaply

Yes Ive done a lot of copper clad fine scale in the past and I know exactly the pain of making large amounts of ordinary track. Im ordering some exactoscale bits so will have a go at all plastic points etc dave

Thanks, I presume you are supporting the crossing Vee, with rivets as well ? How come you decided to use rivets and not Slide Chairs for the switch rails ? Lovely work , Im really torn with avoiding 21mm ( cause I don't want to make oodles of straight 21mm track) I was even thinking of going EM dave

Are you using all plastic chairs for the points or a mixture of rivet and chair? dave

I was wondering about doing copperclad with wide sleeper spacing in the fiddle yard. I think it could be a lot cheaper

What are going to do for the non scenic track Beautiful track work btw

Nice work. I've ordered some parts myself. Note if your going down the plastic chair route exactoscale do a four bolt chide that is far closer to the common GSWR chair then UK two bolt chairs.

Parts of the main line were CWR , however as of photo evidence in 1980 the up and down line through the staton remained bullhead , with siding laid in lighter flat-bottomed rail Evidence suggest the up and down were replaced around 85-90 with the typical over ballasting that arose with higher running speeds and modern PWC practice Clearly the height of the main lines rose above the surrounding tracks. Yes I think centred around 1980 , while a terrible time for cie , was a very interesting period Reading the 2013 strategic rail review recently shows how the whole freight system has utterly collapsed and in fact is now perilously close to being incapable of recovery ( no locos, no stock , no infrastructure, no people )

Well yes , but heres to hoping

Could you detail the processes in doing the resin moulding, what were the masters made off etc. dave

Looks like laminates to me Dave

The software is trax 3 . It's a bit quirky and some of the turnout/point dynamics are a little quirky. I'll be using templot in real life as more then likely I'll be hand building the points. At this stage it's definitely code 75 bull head , SMP or C&L where visible. ( pity the rail chair bolt design is wrong for GS & WR ) peco 75 for the fiddle yard The layout will be designed as a DCC layout from the get go. What I'm going to do now is establish a series of build standards for each major component., ( a) test track , point construction to OO-SF ( 1mm knuckle , 1.25m check rails ) (B) ballast and weathered track © turnout operation using servo motors for realistic. Operation , frog switching either by frog juicers or electronic switching (D) MERG CBus dcc , ( DIY dcc ! ) I've ordered enough to do tests ( e) railcom transponding , allowing automatic control of main line running (F) operating signals and operating ground signals. (Servos& memory wire) I'll make a start on modelling the buildings too. I want to establish all these first before any track goes down , ( as I'm only slowly building the stock necessary) . In the past I rushed to track construction , and then found at the end my standards and execution at the end were better then the start and there was always the temptation to start again. So over the next 6 months I'll be doing track comparisons , test track construction ,ballasting testing dcc , railcom etc Then when I'm ready the layout will start I'm aiming at about 2 -3 years to reasonable completion I try and document as I go Dave

OK corrected the anomalies , in the engine shed track work and re -aligned siding at cork end to more closely follow prototypes Its interesting to note that there was fairly constant mucking about with the signals on the back road as it joined the limerick waterford line , they moved around over the years

First draft of the proposed layout , all I need now is 19 by 7 feet !, comments ( the squares a a foot) Some compromises, The direct curve is omitted as is the passing loop at mill town, but direct curve trains can be simulated via the fiddle yard. mainline curved approaches to save space. The engine shed has two many sidings , as the roads were removed in 1969 to facilitate a continuous welding rail setup, there should only be two roads into the shed. not three The line running by the water tower was mostly removed or lost in the mud by then too. The scissors is too big, as using the track software it can't create the tighter geometry of the original, but Ill be custom building that and it will look right Next up is a templot template diagram - OMG. ( and a proper signalling block diagram) Im not happy with the waterford direction return path, as it effectively blocks the view of the layout , it may be possible to have it drop down into a "channel" out of site of even a tunnel etc ( basically I need it to "disappear")