Broadstone

That's a good point David about the spikes. I tried putting them in and found it too onerous and am not sure they were missed, mainly because people focus on the trains and scenery? But Rob's bases are a big step forward and the track looks good and is very strong as a 'monocoque' over a length as opposed to a single sleeper. I must look again at Northport Quay and your use of AJs! I'm considering them.

Superb modelling by the way Mol!

The Templot plug track is excellent. I think its just for bullhead track though, not spiked flat bottom?

I have now managed to construct a yard length of track on my layout Broomebridge Junction using Rob's 3D printed track bases and Peco Code 75 rail. I picked a section of track on a 4' radius curve and as the photos show, it looks great. I took my time and learned on the job, but I like that aspect of modelling. I'm really pleased with it and think it looks the part from every angle and is the closest I've come to getting that Irish Broad Gauge spiked FB look - hitherto all my track has lacked spikes and has looked a bit 'naked'! I picked the Liffey Branch from Liffey Junction which in my Broomebridge Junction layout is single track because I dont have the width for the full double track. As I have said it is 4' radius as this an oval continuous run layout. First of all I test glued a length of Rob's sleeper base on the cork using Gorilla woodwork glue and left it overnight. Success, it was glued solid. Secondly I then got enough bases and cut the webs on one side and threaded a yard length of Code 75 rail through before curving and then glueing it down on the cork underlay. Then I weighted it down overnight with loads of tool steel to hold it while it set. I checked the curve against a 4'radius curve I have and made a few adjustments before the glue set. Thirdly, next day I removed the weights then threaded the second rail through. This took some time because the spikes really do hold the rail which is what you want really! Fourthly, I ran some stock up and down and found that at 25.1mm gauge it was a bit tight because you need some gauge widening. I therefore very carefully used a 25.3mm gauge and my soldering iron on a low heat to heat the rail and very gently shift the outer rail outwards by 0.2mm or until the gauge dropped between the rails. Success, all my stock moves through the curve successfully. And the track looks great. Excuse the layout building chaos btw! In future I'll probably thread both rails through before glueing down what would be in effect a length of flexi track. It would also make it easier to curve. These bases are great and the track, even before painting and ballasting, looks really great. Thanks Rob, this a definite game-changer. My problem now is to make sure my pointwork looks as good!

This looks to be a real game changer from Rob as it is so difficult to realistically model spiked flat bottom track in a reasonable time. The bullhead boys are very lucky with plastic chairs produced in all the main scales (including S) to match proper rail and be fixed to wood or plastic sleepers. But for flat bottom, most people either solder flat bottom rail to copperclad sleepers or glue it to wooden sleepers, or perhaps a combination of both. But then there's the spikes! On my old layout I tried adding bent staples or bits of wire and decided that they looked a bit naff for a lot of work (4 holes and 4 bits of wire per sleeper). In the end I decided it probably wasn't worth it and was in any case a potential threat to my sanity with a big layout. Rob has sent me a batch of these 3D printed plastic bases and they look really good. Sleepers 1mm thick to match my copper-clad track, good to gauge and fine 'spikes' that look the part and strongly grip the rail. After Christmas I am going to construct a length of track on my, very slowly evolving, Broomebridge Junction layout and properly test them out. I'm not anticipating any problems to be honest and know I'm going to have a length of really good looking and robust track, complete with Spikes! I'll report back in due course on this thread. Thanks Rob. The downside will be that I'll want loads more! I think it's getting high time I brought my own printer and mastered these dark arts. I admit that I work to 25mm in S David! What's 0.003mm between friends?

Wow! Brilliant picture Rob.

Trevor was a very fine modeller and man. As David and John have said he had that rare combination of artist and model engineer to a very high degree so that everything ran and looked so fine. He also did everything to that very high standard - baseboards, track, buildings, stock, signals - and usually from metal, wood and card, very little plastic. The other thing about him was that despite his sublime skill, he was always ready to share and show his knowledge and techniques and was never judgmental about other's work - a quality held by David and the Gravatt's, to name a few. It's fair to say that quite a few S scale locomotives have been through his hands, growling, jerky old dogs of engines would always return like sewing machines! I got a lot of help from him when I was building Kilbrandon as he asked if I needed any help and built the Kerry Bogie, although the tender is from etches for a 101/J15; it runs beautifully. He also fettled my MGWR 2-2-2ST 'Elf' so that it ran better and could actually haul a train! He also built me a NER Long Boiler Goods which I got professionally painted - Trevor's skill deserved a great finish and I would have only ruined it. There was a big turnout of family and friends at his funeral. He was a very fine man all round and the S Scale fraternity have lost a giant. But his inspiration and example will live on for a very long time.

I don't know how I managed to miss the development of this stunning new layout of yours David, but having just read through the whole thread, I'm very glad that I have caught up; it's another beauty, well done! Not only is your modelling brilliant, the design and the learning and your honesty about what doesn't always work first time is refreshingly honest and very inspiring. I was put onto this layout by a friend Richard who attended the recent Chatham show, sent me some pictures and declared it the best layout there. From the pictures he sent and those on this thread I am highly impressed. You have squeezed a lot in but it looks so spacious - that backscene is a work of art in itself and gives the layout such depth. And the detail and the cameos are marvellous. I considered using Alex Jacksons on Broomebridge Junction but am once again using 3 links with all their limitations. But, having myself some of Richard Chown's 7mm wagons note that he used them, but very much in the old pre=magnetic way where a ramp pushed them up to uncouple. They worked for him though and clearly do for you; they are probably the most unobtrusive of the auto-coupling systems. Thanks again David, another brilliant layout! Paul

I have this week started building a model of the actual Broombridge over the canal and railway. I did do an earlier mock-up in card, but revised it following my recent trip to Dublin and getting some more accurate dimensions. The carcass is from 5mm Foamboard. It will later be covered in DAS modelling clay and the stonework carved in, plus the adding of coping stones along the parapet. The distance between the railway and canal on my model is greater than on the prototype because on my model the tracks are curving around instead of straight. The photo also includes my model of a MGWR Horsebox, such a unigue vehicle with its integral dog box.

I brought one of the 7mm Alphagraphix card kits and, having asked Roger Crumplehome beforehand at the Warley Show years ago, re-scaled it to S on my photocopier to produce an S Scale model. I used S Scale Society castings and a bit of scratch-building to complete it. I did do a write-up for New Irish Lines a few years back. The colour is wrong on mine and may have faded a bit. I suppose I am pretending that the real ones faded also but maybe not in my period. I may investigate using Ink to deepen the colour. And I must build a few more.

They are lovely models John. If I was a 4mm modeller I'd have brought a few myself.

I've just returned from a few days in Dublin and did much walking along the Royal Canal and 'bazzing' around Broombridge and Lock 7 where the railway crosses the canal. And the measuring tape was deployed to get a few bridge dimensions much to the embarrassment of my Wife and perplexity among some locals - but hey ho, all in a days work of a railway modeller! Attached are a few images of the place now and a few years ago to give an idea of what I am trying to achieve:

Good point Rob. I'll have to twist your arm to build some stock and give you full running rights! I'm intending to illustrate Hamilton and his Wife on that famous occasion in some way. Even though it occured long before the railway was built.

Thanks again John, re-reading your post, I may well be setting a stiff time target. But I did recover the double slip and single slips from Kilbrandon and am re-using them on Broombridge, so that is going to save me a lot of time and trouble. And I have started drawing out the buildings so some progress has already been made. Intending it as an exhibition layout also focuses the mind!

As above to Gabhal, its 4'4" David, so in line with Fintonagh and Northport Quay as well as Arun Quay. I like looking 'into' these layouts and another advantage is being better able to control the sight lines and hide where the tracks disappear. I've long noticed how in real life trains disappear behind buildings and trees without the need for bridges and tunnels. The actual Broombridge will hide the trains going off to the right, whilst on the left the water tank and some trees will hide them as they pass through the backscene. Yes auto-couplings are 'satan's spawn' and I'm not sure any of them work 100%. I'm experimenting with Jackson's as a friend of mine uses them fairly suuccessfully on his EM layout, even when it went to shows. I'm hoping to limit their use through the passenger and cattle trains being in 'rakes' with 3-link couplings inbetween and an auto coupling at the end. And most goods trains will be the same, just passing through from the MGWR and GSWR down to the docks. So, I'll just need to fit auto-couplings on the engines, brakevans and a few wagons likely to be shunted into the various sidings. I really like 3-links but after 20 or so years of taking layouts to exhibitions, it is undeniable that they can get a bit tiresome by the Sunday afternoon of a weekend show! I'm hoping that Broombridge will have a decent balance between some shunting and watching trains ambling slowly through the scene. We'll see. Ah, Ballyconnell Road, a brilliant layout and a really nice group of excellent modellers. Which show was that David?

Apologies, I made a mistake Gabhal! Its 4'4" and I'm not that tall!! I think I must have started typing 56" then switched to feet.

I collected the boards and supporting beams from Ken on Wednesday and have now set them up in the garage. I have laid out my trackplan and just to get a feel for how it could look, added some of my stock. The layout is currently set at a height of 5'4" on the trestles and although I have never gone that high for a layout, I do like it. I think it may have been Iain Rice who pioneered this approach and Gordon Gravett has shown it to good effect on Arun Quay. A few other fellow members of the Leeds Club have also used this approach on their layouts - Peter Kirmond with York and Laramie, John Aldrick with Ivy Bridge and more recently, Andy Ross with his brilliant model of the Hunslet works. What I like about this approach is how you look into the model rather than down on it and, with a full height backscene, viewers can avoid looking at me drinking tea behind the layout. The downside is that I would have to switch over to auto-couplings and operate from the front (where people could get a close-up of my tea drinking. The alternative is the conventional height and operation from the rear with a lower backscene and the 'hand of god' operating the 3-link couplings. I will make up my mind soon. Next step is to start building the fiddle-yard and connecting curves and then track-building. If I can get trains running before the year-end I'll be well on course.

Here are some pictures of the nearly completed baseboards on their beams that my friend Ken has built for me. I am hoping to collect them later this week or early next, can't wait! There's no way that I could have made them so well. I'm just itching to start building the track, my target to have finished the connecting curves and fiddle-yard (I'm building them) and getting trains running by the end of this year. Next year being buildings and scenery and more stock.

Thanks David, my Sister lives fairly near Buckingham in Bucks and visiting it a few years ago was struck by how it could never have warranted a 4 platform station with an overall roof and expresses to London Marylebone! But it was, and is, such a stunning and influential model. I am confident that I will have those 'signature elements' - great phrase! Paul

Thanks John, my idea of an actual public station there is fanciful as maps from the period do not show much if any housing, unlike now with the large Cabra estate. But I want a railway model that is attractive and has some traffic other than just cattle. My Blakey Rigg layout in S Scale is a fairly faithful model of Blakey Junction on the NER's Rosedale Branch and although I'm pleased with and enjoyed building it, I fancied a bit more 'imaginative leeway' with this new layout. I do realise that I am pushing it a bit but still think it will have much of the character of Liffey Junction and enable me to show some attractive GSWR and MGWR trains in action alongside a canal. I'm uncovering information about the area all the time and was stunned and delighted recently to read on FaceBook that one of the Liffey Junction signalmen (presumeably in CIE days) was a Brian Greene!

It will mainly be set around 1900 as most of my stock is in that period and I like the liveries. But, you are right, there will be a bit of everything if I can build it! Thanks David. Should keep me busy for a few years. I already have the single and double slips, recovered from Kilbrandon. And a lever frame and a few huts. And I have been making a few building carcasses. So, its already slowly coming together.

I suppose I should have started off this blog with the Broombridge Junction trackplan instead of describing it? But to be honest, it has been drawn out in so many scratty sketches before being drawn out full size with all the track and pointwork accurately laid out. So, here is the finalised neat and tidy trackplan. Simon Dunkley has helped with a Templot Plan that I printed out and hacked about to get my final plan and I'm very grateful to Simon, particularly for the single outside slip that forms the main part of the actual junction. I have had to make a fair few compromises from the prototype Liffey Junction: 1. The Liffey Branch heading down to the Docks and the LNWR's East Wall Terminus is now single track because I didn't have the width to make it double like the prototype. 2. The original Liffey Junction station was, in my humble opinion, not amongst the cream of the MGWR's stations, but then it wasn't a 'public' station. It was a lonely and forebidding outpost, so I have made a proper 'public' station next to Broombridge, and in the location of the modern and very busy Broombridge station with its interchange with the LUAS tramway into Dublin (that runs along the former MGWR's trackbed to Broadstone - now there's an attractive station building!). 3. I have shortened the extensive cattle bank, but added in a loop and goods-shed. I am going to model the attractive Cattle Bank Office from the real Liffey Junction. 4. I am modelling the 1914 signal box as it is such signature building from the real Liffey Junction. It replaced a rather drab box next to the up platform but I prefer the later box. This despite my intention to run trains from before 1914. 5. I am looking forward to modelling the combined water tower and shunter's mess-room; its almost like a small church and the water tower still stands, sentinel like. Along with the signal box it is such a feature of the original Liffey Junction. 6. The Station building will be based on that at Moyvalley and there is a plan and picture in Ernie Shepherd's excellent MGWR book. It will be accompanied by a fairly standard MGWR wooden platform shelter on the Up platform and a MGWR metal foot-bridge similar to that at Enfield. The goods shed will a fairly standard MGWR design. So, although there is a lot of freelance thought in all this, it will have a lot of the signature of the real Liffey Junction plus recognisable MGWR buildings. Finally there are some very interesting articles about Liffey Junction in the Irish Railway Record Society (of which I've been a member for over 30 years) Journal: No 195 February 2018 - "Broadstone revisited" by Ernie Shepherd and No 209 October 2022 - "Broadstone revisited - again" by Richard Maund. Both are full of great photographs and the interesting history of Liffey Junction and the MGWR services that used it. There is a truly tremendous Harold Fayle picture of a passenger train passing through Liffey Junction in the rear inside cover of Journal No 195 which was and is such an inspiration for my model. I would love to include some of those pictures here, but am not sure that is allowed under copyright. Thanks for reading.

6mm ply for the tops and 9mm for the ends and sides. But not birch David, as I haven't won the lottery! No its just normal, but quite nice ply from a woodyard out near Selby chosen by Ken. Who incidentally is a very skilled, not skinned, joiner from the last post!!

At the moment the main scenic boards are being built for me by a friend Ken who said a few years back that although he thought I was a reasonable modeller, my carpentry was rubbish, or words to that effect! He's a very skinned joiner as well as a brilliant modeller and I'm very grateful to him. So, in the meantime before I show the finalised trackplan, please see these images of the central scenic board which shows Lock 7 on the Royal Canal. The Scenic section will be 14' long by 2'6" wide and curves will then run round the back to a fiddle yard, the whole thing being 18' by 11' to fit inside my railway room. The Board 2 photo clearly shows Lock 7 just before it is crossed by the Liffey Branch which will be on the adjoining board. More to follow..........