Irishrailwayman

24 minutes ago, murrayec said:

These are built by George O'Rourke (MRSI), the 'Master' Brendan Kelly (MRSI) produced a limited number of kit parts for these locos, and many others, for members to put together.

I have a set of parts for the 121 and when I saw George running his yesterday it inspired me to search the dark recesses of my attic and find the kit!

Also;-

My 141 by Brendan, yet to be finished and may visit Maam Road soon!

Eoin

 

Love to see these running at the Dublin Exhibition in October (perhaps in a different livery)!

Some GM action on "Maam Road":

8 minutes ago, murrayec said:

I saw it today, a fantastic layout. 

Well done Gerry & Jenna for a very enjoyable morning, Thanks.

Eoin

Thanks Eoin. We hope to show the layout at MRSI's exhibition in Dublin October 2026.

"Maam Road" made its debut showing recently before a group of experts. A few photos including the finished station building in situ. Thanks to friends from MRSI for visiting with their fabulous Irish rolling stock. Next we have to develop a Goods Shed in stone...

Once again, Redmond O'Hanlon has excelled at developing a laser cut wood kit for a station building based in part on the examples on the Tullow line and Manorhamilton station. A couple of photos of the build before painting:

Donegal Dad-Rail has kindly published a short video on You Tube describing "Llangollen" in N gauge as shown at the recent North Down MRS  Exhibition in Bangor: "Llangollen" Layout in N Gauge

For the record on this forum string, I was very glad to show "Llangollen" in N gauge for it's 13th public outing at Bangor 2026:

Great to meet everyone at Bangor 2026 and show "Llangollen" in N gauge:

I have developed a demonstration model of the Manorhamilton Signal Cabin to show the various stages of assembling/painting the kit. This will be on view at the next Bray Train & Model Fair on Sunday 15th march 2026 where the kit will also be available from Redmond O'Hanlon.

Redmond O'Hanlon has now designed an O gauge kit for a signal cabin based on the design used at the Sligo, Leitrim and Northern Counties Railway. I have assembled the kit and finished/painted it in similar livery to the earlier water tower kit. I have added Peco interiour detailing and lighting. I have some detailing below the stairs to finish. This finished building will be on display at the next Bray meeting on 15th March 2026.

12 hours ago, Colonel said:

 A message from Roger in the latest Gauge 0 Gazette that he is retiring at the end of the year and looking to sell. Given that Alphagraphix have been such a key part of the Irish scene for so long, it will be a real shame should his stuff is no longer be available.

 So many card kits for wagons, coaches and buildings - at very reasonable prices - plus quite a range of etched brass locos and coaches.

I scrolled through GOG Gazette on-line but couldn't spot that - what page is it on please? No mention of this on alphagraphixkits.co.uk.

These look great in OO and will look even better in O!

While the water tower providing facilities at one end of the platform has been completed, I have modified a Skytrex kit to make a water column for the other end of the platform. On the prototype, these were often insulated with straw as depicted in a number of photos in a variety of books on the Irish railway network. This prevented the possibility of frost freezing the flow of water vital for the safe operation of steam locomotives. For the model I have used hairy string to reproduce the straw!

A couple of views around "Maam Road" before we progress with development of Irish outline stone signal cabin, station building and goods shed to the same standard as the water tower.

Moving on from the water tower, I have been trying some SouthEast Finecast Random Stone plasticard and polyfilla to make rough walls for the front section of Maam Road. This is with a view to hiding the GWR spear point fencing and also to ruggedise the presentation for the West of Ireland location. Some photos of the results:

I have assembled and painted another of Redmond O'Hanlon's water tower kits - a rectangular one based on that still at Gorey station. This time I used diluted Polyfilla as a means to bulk up the individual stones:

23 hours ago, jhb171achill said:

The apparently rusted finish on the water tank itself is most realistic. Many were painted black, others with galvanised (silver) paint, and in earlier CIE times green (naturally)! This captures a black one perfectly!

Thank you. The 3-D printing left a slightly roughened surface similar to rust pitting. I lightly brushed on Humbrol Matt #113 "Rust" using a flat brush to provide the finish seen here. This is a useful paint for general weathering.

Other progress on "Maam Road/Bóthar an Mhama" includes bi-lingual signage (thanks to Des Sullivan at Studio Scale Models), brake vans and corrugated open wagon (thanks to Enda Byrne at CK Prints), water column by Skytrex and water tower in place on layout (thanks to Redmond O'Hanlon). A truely collaborative project with creative craftsmen. The signage has the Irish language version in the "sean-cló" or old irish writing style with "H"s replaced by a dot over the previous letter.

On 17/12/2025 at 10:11 AM, Mol_PMB said:

How is the distinctive shape of the tank itself made? Presumably that isn't laser-cut?

For the stonework, you could enhance the appearance by dabbing Matte Medium onto some of the stones. That would better represent the rougher stone typical of these water towers. It doesn't take long and doesn't require any finesse - just blob it on and leave to dry, then paint over it. I did that on my laser-cut mill building.

I have tried some Icon Modelling Paste to raise the blocks a little and am experimenting with dilute Polyfilla to achieve the same...

Just a note to file on a suggested painting scheme for the water towers. First coat all exposed wood with Rustins grey primer/undercoat. Next "dry brush" with Humbrol #64 Light Grey matt (ie use small amounts of paint on a flat brush wiping it almost dry on kitchen paper before skimming across the "stones" avoiding flooding the "mortar" lines between). Pick out individual stones with Humbrol #27 Sea Grey matt. For woodwork, windows and door use Humbrol #80 Grass Green matt. For "yellow" brickwork lightly paint to avoid flooding the "mortar" lines with RailMatch #606 GWR Light Stone (Humbrol #121 Pale Stone matt would work either). For red brickwork use sparingly 50:50 mix of Humbrol #73 Wine matt and #62 Leather matt.

For the 3-D printed water tank streak sides with Humbrol # 113 Rust; insert clear plastic to fit, paint underneath with Humbrol #80 Grass Green matt and streak with Humbrol #113 Rust matt (could also paint blue/brown as colour in reality would be dictated by overhead light conditions). I used a section of 5 mm plastic tubing and some heat-shrink tubing to represent the water outlet leather bag which flops in to the receiving steam engine water intake point. I fitted small sections of clear plastic behind the windows with DeLuxe Glue& Glaze as glazing.

1 hour ago, Mol_PMB said:

How is the distinctive shape of the tank itself made? Presumably that isn't laser-cut?

For the stonework, you could enhance the appearance by dabbing Matte Medium onto some of the stones. That would better represent the rougher stone typical of these water towers. It doesn't take long and doesn't require any finesse - just blob it on and leave to dry, then paint over it. I did that on my laser-cut mill building.

Redmond 3-D printed the water tanks. Good idea on the rougher stones thanks.

11 hours ago, jhb171achill said:

These look amazing. May I ask if an 00 gauge version is likely?

Yes JB! Redmond is working on a OO version at present. You could chat to him at the Bray event if you are free on the 21st am? I hope to get a OO kit and paint it up as an example.

Next steps on the Maam Road project is to develop similar O gauge Irish outline signal cabin, station building and a goods shed to match in style the water tower. All may be available in OO in time.

11 hours ago, Patrick Davey said:

Wow!  Great stuff!!!

Thanks. I will post up the painting scheme used shortly.

I am working with a good friend Redmond O'Hanlon to develop laser-cut wood model O gauge buildings for "Maam Road". First up is the water tower based on an example at Gorey station with some details from buildings originally at Manorhamilton. Redmond has produced a lovely kit which fits together easily with wood glue. I assembled one and painted/detailed two examples per the following photos.

BTW Redmond attends the monthly Bray Modellers' Meet at Bray Wheelers' clubroom: next one is on Sunday 21st December 2025 if you want to chat to him about his work on this and other irish outline buildings and structures in a variety of scales.

12 hours ago, David Holman said:

The Alphagraphix J26 is pretty simple, especially the chassis. It's a single etch, so you just solder in the wheel bearings before folding up the sides and folding down the frame spacers. No alignment jobs required. I've built two and you can have a rolling chassis in a couple of hours.

 Very satisfying and very effective.

Is this similar to the currently listed Alphagraphix MGWR G2 Class 2-4-0 or MGWR J81/!9  Class 0-6-0 kits?

4 hours ago, Galteemore said:

Won’t matter as they are brass so you’ll have to paint it yourself anyway - is not like the card preprinted kits.  I have made up a J26 and 2 MGW coaches. Straightforward as David says / they are also designed for 32mm primarily rather than 36.75, and most of my building heartache came from the 5’3 bit!

Wow, these look great! Thanks for sharing.