Irishrailwayman

No worries, I have had complaints about choosing prototypes with difficult to pronounce names! Including Cynwyd I have modelled three stations on the Llangollen (Ruabon to Barmouth) line. There are other stations worthy of modelling but I am running out of storage. Looking forward to the Wexford Exhibition which won't be long now!

FYI Heathcote Electronics supply much smaller magnets which should suffice to trigger the reed switch.

Thanks Rich. I will be showing a different layout - Llangollen - at Wexford at Easter. Llanuwchllyn (above) is booked to have its exhibition debut at the exhibition at Bala, North Wales in May this year. Bala town is at one end of a restored section of the line to the (real) Llanuwchllyn station. My layout represents the station a it was before closure in the early 1960s i.e. standard gauge. The restoration has been done as a narrow-gauge line (which would make a nice OO9 layout - Bachmann have plans to make a model of a narrow gauge locomotive resident on the line called Alice).

A couple of shots of Llanuwchllyn with BR 1960's rolling stock although GWR stock might be equally at home here:

Thank you - I will be showing my Llangollen layout in Wexford at Easter and Llanuwchllyn will have its exhibition debut at Bala, Wales in May. I hope to attend the Ulster MRC show in August and hope to chat to them when they visit us at Easter but not sure which layout to bring. I won't make Enniskillen this year as I will be away at the (real) Llangollen!

Llanuwchllyn has had its trees planted and numerous other details added. Functional testing has begun to iron out any technical glitches. Note the unusual GWR Calling-on signal lower arm on the Down Starter: Two guys have a chat by the Goods Shed while their colleague services the lamp on the Advance Starter signal on the Up line:

Preparations are well underway for the Wexford Model Railway Exhibition at Easter. Here is how the line-up is looking so far: 26 layouts (15 new to show); 7 model displays (4 new to show) and 14 traders (5 new to show): Model Railway Layouts: Swanbourne Vale Light Railway O gauge: John Izzard Taylor's Yard (16mm narrow gauge) and Sandown Valley Railway (O gauge): East London MRG Rosslare Strand OO: SDMRC Castlefinn OO9: MRSI {Exhibit withdrawn} Galloway Road N: Ulster MRC A Country Scene N and Airborne 1941 N: Garrison MRC Kemberton T-Trak: Midlands MRC Ballyredmond OO: Eamonn Redmond Percy & the Circus Train: Bobby Joe & John O'Toole HOe narrow gauge layout: Nigel Harris WMRC Badger's Heath OO: Paul Shannon WMRC Ballinrobe OO: David McCabe WMRC Llangollen N: Gerry Byrne WMRC Joseph's Bridge OO: Tommy Nolan WMRC Ballygannon OO: Patrick Nolan WMRC Thomas OO: Seán & Mark Allen WMRC O Gauge Work-in-Progress: WMRC Scully's Dock OO: WMRC Bushville HO: WMRC MacMine Junction OO: WMRC Bridge Street OO: WMRC Two Hornby Interactive Layouts OO: WMRC Z scale layouts: Walter Oberle Traders: Sean Ryan; PW Models; Brian Collins; Martin O'Hanlon; GModelscene; Model Rail Baseboards; ECM Trains; Marks Models; Model Rail Accessories; Irish Railway Models; Provincial Wagons; Weir Park Books; Walter Oberle; Top Choice Embroidery. Other Displays: Go-Pro Cab-view of model railways video show; Vintage Hornby O Gauge; Live steam working models; Viking diorama; St Joseph's Warhammer Club; Model Die-cast; RNLI; Exhibition Raffle; WMRC information stand; Second-hand models stall. Station Café will be offering hot and cold drinks, home-made cakes, savouries, sweet treats to all visitors and exhibitors.

A couple of finished seafoam trees ready for planting on Llanuwchllyn. Note the lack of uniformity and variety of colours and shapes - just as with the prototype. In nature, trees are quite tall relative to the train so quite tall ones may be used on a layout even in N gauge.

Fiddle-yard to fiddle-yard is definitely an option and is a change from the ubiquitous roundy-roundies. In DC the movement of trains can be automated including station stops/station passing loops etc (in DCC no doubt the computer buffs could set up automation). This is the approach I have taken with my N gauge DC Cynwyd (automated station stops) and most recent Llanuwchllyn (automated station passing loop). The beauty of F2F is that you don't have to bend the track at each end to get the trains back around meaning the flow into/out of the layout is more prototypical.

Will you have to do some drastic surgery to get the chassis to fit?

George, looking forward to this layout making it's exhibition debut at the Wexford Show Easter 2019! I really like the Art-Deco signal box so be sure to incorporate a few more of those era buildings. Best of luck with the build. Will you be going DCC sound?

While my trees are drying, here are a few photos of Llanuwchllyn with some detail added. I also am working on the signals at present.

They must have been hanging around too long in some sidings unsupervised alright. These are a set of rub-on transfers I got a few years ago.

Great stuff Noel. Would you consider adding grafitti to the heavily weathered bubbles?

Trees for Llanuwchllyn have been developed using the Gaugemaster Sea Foam kit - the same technique used for my Llangollen and Cynwyd layouts. The dried sea foam natural plant product comes packed in a box and pieces are selected and teased out into "tree-like" shapes. Any natural leaves present may be removed. The stems and main branches are painted in brown or grey to simulate different "tree" species. Dilute PVA glue is daubed on the stem (e.g. to simulate ivy) or on the "branches" and a variety of scatter materials can be used sprinkling them on (material that does not stick can be caught on a folded piece of paper and re-used). Noch produce "leaf-like" scatters in a variety of colours but any fine scatter material can be used. In fact, the more variety, the more a natural variation is created - just like in nature. Similarly, the sea foam being a natural product means that no two trees are alike. The fineness of the model "trees" make them particularly suited to N gauge but they should also be at home in OO. A couple of pictures to illustrate the above:

Super building - just need an Irish loco now to complete the scene! Great project.

You could always use a clear varnish to give any of the above finishes if you wish.

I used Glue and Glaze to provide a lens if I recall correctly but a slice of a clear plastic bar would do either. I tried fibre optic cables previously but the type I had were a bit inflexible - perhaps there are better types available now.

Hi Noel, The directional lighting was done DIY on all of these Silver Fox locos. The LED lighting shines through two apertures drilled in the bodywork and was wired in to the DCC soundchips fitted in each case. The Mr Soundguy sound project from A39 was used. Gerry

This is the model from Irish Freight Models to which I added a red lamp and guard. The wooden planks are vertical but I have seen photos where the wood is planked horizontally so it may have varied across the fleet. The model features NEM pockets, spoked wheels and has wire grilles on the internal doors/window apertures. A couple of pics:

A couple of shots of Ballybeg in Steam, Black n' Tan and Supertrain era liveries:

Multi-era layout perhaps?

Any O Gauge versions on the horizon?

Generally good reaction from RMWebbers: http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/130571-accurascale-announce-4mm-scale-huo-and-buffer-detailing-kits/page-1

and the advanced engineer's models with livery variations?