patrick

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.

OK, I just checked it out again, The website is http://www.waterfordcountyimages.org and type in "railway", "railways" wont get you anything. There are a lot of Mallow Waterford photos from just before closure.

The Waterford County Museum website has a wonderful collection of railway photos. Just go to the image gallery and type in "railways".

I agree with you totally Dave. As I gained experience my earlier attempts were modofied upgraded or recycled, with increasingly better results. My own philosophy is that while I strive to build models as accurate as I can within the confines of my budget and skills, if I'm already compromising using a guage of a little over four foot, if it looks right and captures the atmosphere of the prototype it works for me. Your timber wagons look great and I look forward to seeing more of your work.

The 12 ton ex GN van's are from Parkside Dundas. These kits come with two different ends and I use the end with the smaller sprung buffers. The other ends with the larger hydraulic buffers are then used with the Parkside Dundas palvan kit to make the sliding door vans. According to "The Locomotives of CIE and NIR" these wagons were built with three different ends but I dont ever recall seeing ends similar to those supplied with the kit. I dont know for sure but from the photos I'v seen the corrugated ends seemed most common. A little carving on the lower inside of the corrugated ends is needed to make it work. The H van and bulleid open's are scratch built on Dapol meat van underftames with the brake gear modified to represent the simpler Irish arrangement. The brake van is scratch built on a shortened Hornby underframe. The Guiness and fertiliser wagons are scratch built on Dapol Prestwin underframes and the tank wagon which is for the moment is masquerading as a tar wagon is a combination of a shortened Dapol tank wagon with prestwin sideframes. This was built to see if a more typical irish 20 foot tank wagon could be produced with the correct wheelbase. Speaking of tar wagons, does anybody know if CIE had any similar to the 12 foot wheelbase vacume braked oil tanks?

A few more pictures.

Recent progress on the layout involved fine tuning track and wagons and backdrop painting. Operation is much improved making shunting much more fun. This is my first effort at backdrop painting but I may redo it having acquired some experience.

In the mid seventies my family would spend a week at Butlin's Mosney every summer. My favourite attraction there was not the rides or swimming pools but the view of the Dublin Belfast main line from the comfortable first floor lounge near the billiard room. There was a lot of freight in those days, bulk and bagged cement, mostly behind B class Metro-Vics, Guiness liners and loose coupled goods. One day an A class and some coaches all painted black and lettered SNCF passed by. I later learned it was used in filming a Pink Panther movie on the Kingscourt branch. The highlight was always the NIR Enterprise in maroon livery and Hunslet's fore and aft. That will always be my favourite Enteprise.

Glad to see you back. Look forward to seeing more photos.

I love your work John, it always inspires me. I considered using 21mm guage for a while but having a big intrest in operation , I decided to use OO guage in order to get a reliable running railway in a short period of time. Building the layout as close to eye level as possible helps make the narrow guage a litltle less apperant. When the present layout has run its course and I have more scratchbuilding and scenery skills it will no doubt be up for consideration again. One question, how do you weather and ballast your track?

Your out of luck, she has three younger brothers, none railway modellers! While house hunting last year we had a definate idea of what we wanted in a home, space for a layout was one factor. I am very fortunate that Maureen is very supportive of my hobby.

Progress photos.

Here is some information about my layout. In my previous house I was attempting to model Conrail in western Pennsylvania in HO scale in the 1980's in a 10foot by 20 foot basement room. The layout never got beyond baseboards and track mainly because the basement was damp and uninviting and having grown up in Tralee in the sixties and seventies I really didn't have any first hand experience of what I was trying to model. There is a lot to be said for modelling what you know. When Maureen and I moved in January this year, the space available for a layout was a finished windowless room fifteen and a half by nine feet at the foot of the stairs on the bottom level of our split level condo. The room opens off of the hall and doesn't have a door and it was agreed that the layout could spill out into the hall provided the finish was neat and tidy. Thought was given to continue modelling Conrail but it was clear that instead of 20 car freights I would have to settle for a switching layout or a coal branch. I had being checking out the Irish Railway Modellers site for some time and had acquired a Murphy Models 141 and 181 when I realized that an Irish cross country line set in the late sixties to mid seventies, with shorter more frequent trains would be a good option. I considered the North Kerry Line, of which I have fond memories of having traveled on the Listowel goods and beet specials in its last years. I even drawing up a plan for a double deck layout featuring Ardfert and Abbeydorney connected by a helix but reluctantly dismissed this due to the meger traffic. The western rail corridor was also considered but eventually settled on an imaginary link between Youghal and Dungarvin. This would allow me to run oil, manganese and Bell Ferry trains between Cork and Waterford in addition to passenger and mixed freight. The layout is end to end, with one main station with passing loop, a halt with a goods siding and an intermediate siding used for beet loading. The setting will be fall at the start of the beet season. It is planned to run a beet special from Mallow to the main station picking up loads and dropping off empty's along the way. Track level is 54 inches high and designed for walk around operation. It would have been nice to use code 83 track but I have a load of code 100 from my previous layout and enough demands on my hobby budget. When viewing the layout left is West and right is East. A valance hides the lighting overhead, the intention being to give a diorama effect. Maximum train length is 4 foot, enough for a loco and 4 passenger cars or 10-11 wagons. Control is at present DC using 2 walk around controller's wired for twin cab control using SPDT switches. Ideally the layout will be operated by three operators, one signalman, who will control all movements and two drivers operating trains over the line. Eventually I would like to have wireless DCC with sound! So far track extends from the East (Waterford) fiddle yard to the viaduct west of the main station. Construction of the peninsula will begin shortly. The photos show the extent of the progress. Since starting this project I'm having more fun than ever railway modelling and making more progress.

The layout will represent a section of line between Dungarvan and Youghal from the late sixties to the mid seventies. The intention is to replace the buildings with models of protypes from the Mallow Waterford, possibly Kilmacthomas, line at some point. For now the Bachmann models are so much nicer than the slightly modofied Dapol models on styrofoam platforms which they replace.

Thanks, my favourite layouts represent the common or mundane railway scene and that is what I strive for.

Thanks, me and technology are not always on the best of terms! The crossing boards are cut from the sheet of planking from the Wills level crossing kit.

Help, can anyone help me reduce the size of the photos?

Here are some pictures of progress on the layout. On a trip to Ireland recently I picked up the Bachmann Irish station building and signal box which I got me around to build platforms. Thanks to Mayners photo of Tralee tar depot I also built a representation of it.

Thanks for the information guys. The photo is extremely helpful. I want to build representations of these wagons on Dapol prestwin underframes and hopefully can now estimate demensions.

Does anyone have any photos or drawings of manganese wagons? The only information I have is from "Locomotives And Rolling Stock Of CIE and NIR". Top and end views would be espically helpful. Thanks.