patrick

I roughed in platforms at Grange station. Since they are on a curve I wanted to figure out clearances an how to build them before risking more expensive materials. Also my neighbor Bruce, a train fan, has been asking about the first formal operating session and a place to board passengers was desirable. The whole scene is just crying out for some SSM signals, which I have on hand just waiting to be built.

I have been trying to figure out how to model stone walls on the layout for the fast few weeks. The commercially available products would be expensive for the quantity required and inflexible when it came to hills and turns. After using some cat litter to represent rocks at the bottom of the retaining wall with good results I tried it again for walls. The cat lit is bonded with dilute white glue. The trick is to mix about one tea spoon full at the time with as little glue as possible. too much liquid or mixing will cause the cat lit to turn to clay. (If this happens on the layout dry cat lit will bond to the clay saving any wall already built.) With a little experimenting you will get the hang of it. The first picture shows a free standing section of wall on a scrap piece of styrofoam, the second, a section built against the backdrop. The third shows a section where some of the Wall mixture was applied behind clump foliage which was already fixed on the layout. I don't know if this method has been used before but I'm very pleased with the results. Excuse the picture quality but any higher resolution won't download for me.

A lot of progress is due to the fact that the layout is so accessable, I just have to walk downstairs from the livingroom. There is a kitchen sink downstairs ten feet from the layout, which is very convenient, all supplies are nearby and not having a duckunder makes visiting the layout much easier, often I go take a look at my progess and get sucked into a project. Track ballasting is getting done one foot at a time whenever time allows. None of the above could be said about my previous layout, after 10 years it had only got as far as baseboards track wirinng. I also get a lot of fun from planning and research so by the time a project is started materials are at hand and I have worked out in my head how to proceed.

I have added some Woodland Scenics bushes, undergrowth and clump foliage to the scene. The dry flower arrangement trees have been removed. Following a group members suggestion (I cant remember who, some of the posts have disappeared ) I looked into the possibility of improving them and applying foliage but they didn't look right. Some smaller pieces were used as bushes however. The scene as it is suggests that not too many trees will be need on the layout so buying some decent ones wont brake the bank.

Both local hobby shops were out of Hydrocal plaster so casting rocks for around the tunnel mouth could not go ahead this weekend. Instead some ground cover was applied and track ballasted to make a mostly completed scene. The wintery trees came from a retired dry flower arrangement I found in the garage which I couldn't resist using for now. With a little more work they might stay.

[quote= I tend to do it the old fashioned way,start pinning the track and see if it matches my thoughts!! It works for me. What looks good on paper may not look great on the baseboard. There is no substitute for seeing track in position to evalueate how a finished scene will look like. We tend to get too optimistic about what we can achieve in the space available, pinning down some track can be a valuable reality check. On my layout the only scale trackplan I drew was the main line to ensure sufficent space for aisles.. The minimum radius chosen was 26 inches because a track laying template was available (the options were 22, 26 or 30 inches) and after laying out a curve with flexitrack and double sided tape on the kitchen counter top under controlled conditions (Maureen was not at home!), it was found that the craven coaches looked acceptable on it. From this plan baseboard demensions were worked out and the space available for stations evaluated so I had an idea what might be acomplished. The track plan was then finalised on the baseboard. Your approach oviously worked for you, the layout has an uncluttered feel to it. I look forward to more photos.

I love the layout since I saw it on RM web last year. Any chance of a trackplan?

A few more beet specials.

Seems like an appropriate scene for a beet special.

Building scenery is fun!

The tunnel mouth is a plaster casting from Woodland Scenics. Its was tall enough for HO scale double stack cars so I reduced its height by removing the botton three courses of stone.

I started putting in some scenery today. The landforms are built using strips of corrugated cardboard from cardboard boxes woven together and stuck with hot glue. The whole thing is then covered with Woodland Scenics plaster cloth. The next step is a covering of a plaster compound called Sculptamould to smooth out the surface.

It sounds like a great theme for a layout. A port could also serve Tara mines traffic as Arklow did for a short time in the 90's. I look forward to seeing more.

Thanks for the encourageing comments. I started the signal box about nine months ago and set it aside when the layout got started. Now I'm encouraged to finish it!

A few photos of the signal box as requested. It is a modified Dapol kit, my first ever attempt at structure building. It's a little rough, but serves as a stand in for now.

Oops, lost the photos on the previous post!

In a burst of activity in the last week the benchwork, trackwork, wiring and valance for the layout was completed. A number of things were changed from the original plan. A fiddle yard was substituted for the planned traverser which I was never too keen on in the first place. The original plan for the station on the west end of the railway (which will be called Grange, the second station name has yet to be decided on) was for a single platform and one siding. I was never happy about this arrangement since most if not all such small stations were closed by the mid sixties. There was enough room for a passing track, long enough for a four coach train, and goods siding provided a traverser was used, but after mocking up this arrangement on the baseboard the station appeared cramped and I wanted to maintain the spacious feeling of the rest of the railway. The solution I came up with was to have the main line and passing loop disappear under a road bridge directly into a fiddle yard giving the impression that the station is longer than it actually is, and I didn't have to build a traverser. A second controller was also wired up. This is an Aristo Craft Basic Train Engineer. It consists of a device which is wired up between a 12 volt DC transformer and the track and a radio control throttle allowing cordless walk around control.

Some pictures of rolling stock in airline livery. Guilford corporation, a regional railroad in New England aquired the rights to the Pan Am name and soon began repainting its stock. I remember my bewilderment the first time I saw one of these boxcars!

A short video showing the painted sky background on the new section of the layout. [video=youtube;uKT7NOzp_-c]

I've noticed from reading Model Railroader that a lot of American layouts are use foamboard as a baseboard. Have you used this material or did you lay the track on a wooden baseboard? The base board is indeed foan board mounted on a wood frame with construction adhesive (Liquid Nails) which is braced every 12 inches or so for stability. I had seen it used a number of places and thought i would give it a try for reasons of cost and being easy to work with. It does not hold track nails well however and solvent based adhieseves will dissolve the foam.

While recording the video we were listening to Electric Warrior by T Rex and thought it would make a good soundtrack. Strange, it plays over here. Here it is again without the soundtrack.

son Kieran shot this video of the layout this morning. Hope you enjoy.

Thank you all for the positive comments, they inspire me to get more done. John is right about the design being inspired by American practice. In 1984 I left Ireland for Berlin Germany and soon found a copy of the Model Railroader in a hobby shop and ever since have been intrigued by the idea of building an Irish layout with prototypical track arrangements, high level narrow benchwork, walk around control and the main line running through each scene just once. Frankly I would have liked to have a continuous run with a double ended staging/fiddle yard but this would have required a duckunder, a considerably shorter main line and a much more overcrowded appearance. The visual separation between the two stations and the mid point beet siding is intentional, giving operators, who will follow their trains a sense of distance and going somewhere. A signalman, or possibly two now that there will be a second block post will control movements on the line. The fact that the layout is located in the living area of our home has proved to be a huge advantage in the sense that lighting and presentation became a high priority early on. It is so much easier to allocate funds to fun items like rolling stock and building kits than lumber and light fittings, a trap I fell into before! As regards station names, these have not been decided on yet. I have consulted a map of the area between Youghal and Dungarvan but nothing jumped out at me. Has anyone got some suggestions? Finally, the vinal. One of the photos shows the rest of it!

I got a lot of work done on the layout in the past week. Mocking up the baseboard was well worth while as as it proved that the isles could be narrower than initially planned leaving more room for the railway. There is now enough space for a passing loop and siding at the second (west end ) station. The baseboard, lighting and valance is now in place almost as far as the yet to be built traverser and track has been laid. Next up is painting the sky backdrop.

I have been offered a Christmas gift of a model railway magazine but I am not very familiar with whats currently available. Any recomendations? Thanks.