Irishrailwayman

Work progressing on assembling GWR station:

For my 7th layout I have been planning for some time to do a compact O gauge to run some of the GWR rolling stock I have collected to run on Wexford MRC's "Little Siddington". Previously I have done GWR OO "Shunters Yard", BR/GWR "Llangollen", "Cynwyd" and "Llanuwchllyn" all in N and more recently OO "Diesel Depot" (my first OO Irish layout "Ballybeg" is now over 10 years old!) - all are still on the exhibition circuit. This compact O gauge is to be jokingly titled "Buffers Lock" but hopefully that won't occur on the model itself! The plan is that the layout and stock would fit 1-2 cars obviating the need to hire vans etc for transport to exhibitions. The dimensions will be roughly 13.5 feet by 2.5 feet including the fiddle yard all breaking down into three sections. The baseboards will be made using techniques developed for "Little Siddington" and used for "Diesel Depot" and the O gauge BR TMD currently under development by Wexford MRC members. More details will be revealed as I ramble through this project over the next few months. To kick off and to help determine the size of the baseboards, I am assembling some of the buildings that I have selected to populate the layout. Firstly the station building I am using is a model of the GWR Camerton Station Building produced by Timber Tracks. This is a laser cut timber product which is very well presented. Each section of the kit is separately bagged making identification of the different bits easy. The instructions are clear and a fast setting timber glue supplied by TT helps the project advance quickly. I have assembled the main structure and am starting to add some detail. The interiour is beautifully detailed including flush toilets and even a desk for the ticket office. I plan to make the roof detachable so I can show the interiour to exhibition visitors. A couple of pictures:

Second board has its wiring completed with some figuring out to do on the electrofrog double slip! Wiring on fiddle yard also completed at this point. Looking neat and easily tested/checked and repaired.

Super job well done. Is this a never-leaves-home layout or could it be exhibited?

Moving swiftly along, the wiring has been completed on the first board using the David McCabe dropper boards to form the DCC bus-bar. Each wire is colour-coded, labelled and numbered indicating which position on the bus-bar it occupies enabling fault finding to be expedited. No fishplates are used but each individual section of track has its own DCC feed. Cobalt slow-action digital point motors are being used for this project which also throw the polarity of the frogs.

The board under the diesel shed tracks is cut to make up the inspection pits. Wood sides are glued in place beneath the board and these are lined with stiff card, finished with polyfilla and painted. The track was replaced and the outside sleepers pinned in place before cutting out the centre of the sleeper to form the pits. Additional details will be added including steps down and fall-plates.

Best of luck to MRSI in Warley from all at Wexford MRC.

Ernie Shepherd and Gerry Beesley published a book "Dublin and South Eastern Railway" in 1998 which mentions Palace East a few times and includes photos and a track plan. Published by Midland Publishing Ltd ISBN 1 85780 082 6. Worth a look.

A couple of Alphagraphix card kits in 7mm built recently by John Walker of Wexford MRC and currently on display on the club's test tracks. Note the fully detailed interiours in the Signal Cabins:

Continuing to lay track - shaping up well:

Great! Would you like to exhibit at the Wexford Model Railway Exhibition on 9th/10th May 2020?

Fantastic project! Do you plan to exhibit this layout?

Each section of track is independently powered with no fish-plates used (just as developed for Little Siddington). The droppers will be brought to (D McCabe's) design board as part of the bus-bar. I guess BR Blue is the UK equivalent of our black/tan or Supertrain era and is the livery of choice of Barry the owner of this layout. You may have seen his mighty diesels on LS which should in time grace this new layout also. I have fond memories of BR Blue from the 1980's when I travelled by Interail through the UK to Europe as a student.

Progressing well with track laying with dropper wires soldered beneath the rails once their precise location is checked:

Some turntables survived beyond steam because of the need to turn 121 single cab locomotives!

I modestly omitted to include my own contribution:

My pleasure! It was great to present to such a large crowd and I got a great response. Looking forward to next year already.

Diesel Depot has had it's third public outing at Whitehead:

A great day with over 900 visitors! A few photos from around the show:

Once the position of the point motors is known, a 10mm hole is drilled for the actuating wire. Next the cross pieces can be glued in place using the hot-glue gun and all interfaces taped with glass-fibre tape which is then saturated with No-nonsense PVA. This results in a light but strong baseboard.

Track planning ongoing to ascertain the position of point motors before fitting cross sections beneath the baseboard.

Begobs!

Looking forward to representing Wexford Model Railway Club with "Diesel Depot" in IE mode with hopefully some visiting NIR locos:

When they are gone, they are definitely gone!

I got two packs at Blackrock and Mr B had only one more left at that point...