patrick

[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.

That cutting looks a bit wintry at this stage - just what I'm looking out at now..!

 

Great stuff!

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.

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.

Sorry for your loss Anthony, my thoughts are with you.

Work on extending the layout has began and here are a few photos of the base board mocked up to check clearances. I redrew the plan in order to gain more space for the five track traverser and the smaller passing station. This involved reducing the aisle to two foot in two places and the mock up shows that there is enough space for the three operators

at most, planned to operate the layout.The smaller station may be expanded with a passing loop and goods siding, the western end (left) unmodeled, represented in the traverser if there is enough space to make it work visually.

The section of line around Barnagh was truly wonderful with bridges, embankments and of course Barnagh station itself and the tunnel. Maureen and I got to pass that way this past October and I was sad to see it is now mostly obliterated by road improvments. The aera would make a stunning model and lets hope we wil see it done some day. I seem to recall hearing or reading about operations over the summit involving bankers or splitting trains. Has anyone any information on this?

I love them. Beautiful weathering.

There seems to be some interest among some members in the North Kerry line so I thought I would share a layout plan I came up with. The layout didn't get built due to the lack of traffic variety on the prototype and concern about acessability and room for operators. It is designed to fit my 13 foot 6 inch by 9 foot railway room. This plan is a first draft, were I serious about building it I would redraw it in a larger scale to work out grades and elevations and to be sure everything would fit. The layout is double deck, Ardfert and Abbeydorney are represented, connected by a helix. The station track layouts, although compressed in length, follow the prototype and bridges and level crossings are all in prototypical sequence. Minimum radius is 24 inches although wider radius have been used where possible. Points are whats known as #6 over here which I use on my current layout.

Trains from Tralee enter the layout under a over bridge, from a four track fiddle yard which is the lowest point on the railway. There are photos from this bridge in Michael Baker's "Railways of the Republic of Ireland" and "The Railways of Cork and Kerry". The prototype climbs out of Tralee and while I dont know where the grade ended, I have maintained it as far as Ardfert station in order to provide clearence for Tralee fiddle yard so the main line can run over it saving valueable space. The line crosses a small culvert, the signal protecting Ardfert station gates and the backdrop depicts the mountains of the dingle penisula. Imagine a sound equiped A class with an empty beet train here! Ardfert has a high level beet loading bank, goods shed station building and level crossing. I believe there were also cattle pens here. After Ardfert the line resumes its climb to clear Tralee fiddle yard crossing a minor road on a decked girder bridge, the Wills kit seems a close match for this, and enters the helix under a stone overbridge carrying the Ardfert abbeydorney road. The helix is drawn at 24 inch radius and using a grade of 2% would give a rise of 3 inches per turn or 4 and a half with 3%. Experiments would have to be done to ensure the motive power used could handle a reasonable train on this grade. It seems generally agreed on that deck seperation an double deck layouts should be in the region of 14 inches.

The line enters the second deck from the helix and proceeds to Abbeydorney. Here there is a passing loop, one platform, a high level beet loadindg bank signal cabin, goods shead, cattle pens, level crossing and crossing keepers cottage. The Feale River bridge ia a few miles further north but it seemed a shame not to include it if sufficent clearance can be maintained between decks.

The North Kerry changed very little over the years so the layout could represent many era's. The high level beet loading banks were built in the sixties or maybe very early seventies I believe but otherwise apart from station colour scheme's not much would have changed. There were frequent accomodation crossings on the line and these should be modelled along with appropriate farm houses and buildings, either three demensional or on the backdrop where they seem appropriate.

The line lost its passenger service in 1963, but one could employ modellers licence and extend it a few years. At that time there was I believe one passenger ,a Park Royal railcar, and one goods train each way between Tralee and Limerick. When I got to know the line as a teenager in the mid seventies operation was reduced to the Listowel goods three times a week. During the beet season the line got considerably buisier with two beet trains a day from Tralee to Abbeydorney one in the morning and one in the afternoon with a run to Fenit in between. I suspect that limited siding capicity was the reason for the two trains. If my memories are correct a train of about 40 or 50 beet wagons arraived in Tralee overnight and the wagons wrere dropped off in the North Kerry yard.The morning train also handled beet pulp, a by product of sugar prossing which was used for cattle feed. This was carried in covered vans and allocated to farmers who grew beet. Often loaded beet wagons which were rolled clear of the loading bank fouled the crossovers connecting the sidings and a cable was used to pull them clear. I remember the Listowel goods passing the morning beet train shunting at Abbeydorney. Power for the beet trains was generally an A class, however Gerry Mc Mahon of Tralee showed me photos of a pair of 121's on the line in the last year of operation. GM's and Sulzers were employed on the goods trains at various times.

Were I to build this layout I would initally set it in the sixties during the beet season and use modellers licence to run two passenger trains each way daily in addition to the morning and afternoon beet trains and the North Kerry goods each way. That's five trains a day each way and lots of shunting.

Anyone considering building a double deck layout might consider consulting Tony Kosters book "Designing and Building a Double Deck Railroad" by Kalmbach publishing. While a little thin on the nuts and bolts of construction it is a wealth of information on design, scenery, layout height, deck seperation and so on.

I hope this will be of some entertainmentto the group.