GNRi1959

First book I've read in years 'Smile' by Roddy Doyle - a great read.

Patrick, nice work. The curved backscene works really well. Thanks for your examples.

I'm seriously thinking of curving my backscene boards in two corners of my layout, it seems to get me out of a situation where I'm compelled to run trackwork into dead-ends for no reason. Is it a good idea to curve backgrounds, probably looks better too.

Good luck lads, done

Pure Class!

Noel, my feeling is that if you have the patience to build a very detailed 'master', then the obvious development from here would be to cast it and replicate it as many times as required. I don't imagine it will be 'plain sailing' but I think building multiple individual wagons is very time consuming. I love working with plasticard but it would be nice to see what results I can get from casting.

Thanks for this, it is a most interesting topic. One i'll be reading about over the next few weeks.

I'm sure quite a few members have tried polyurethane resin casting to make models. If the original casting master was a highly detailed piece it would produce endless copies quite quickly as 'easily'? Are masters generally made from plasticard?

Fantastic piece of work, you should be proud of this .

That loco and carriages should be in Omagh not the Alps!

John and Des, I thank you both. Another attempt at modelling Irish foiled........... Allen, has kindly accepted that I return the 'kit'.....

I made an effort to call with Joe McGrew tonight, he'd just been home after a week in hospital. I brought along my treasured GNRi enamel badge and pinned it on his pullover. He deserved to have it more than me. Joe was a shunter at Omagh General Station for over 20 years and shunted wagons between the Goods Store and the Market Branch every day. He talked of runaway cattle trains, BU's (Bread Units) from Inglis, Hughes' and Stephensons, as well as the big companies who had sidings there - Esso, Shell at the Coal Sidings - reserved for Wattersons and McCuskers Coal. We spent the evening looking through a wealth of photographs and talking about his days on the GNRi. He said shunting was 'like playing chess with wagons'. What an enjoyable evening.

Plans are now developing well with a fairly major change of approach. An end to end layout which features the turntable, kit by South East Finecast http://www.sefinecast.co.uk/Turntables/Turntables.htm , and engine shed at one end of the layout and Omagh Market Branch at the other. This means more long runs of track and less points but with lots of shunting possibilities at each end. Cutting out the station entirely (done it before in 1989) and concentrating on movement outside the station.

Popeye, to be honest I don't have many like these. Much of my work is portrait and landscape. I do though have almost 200 pictures of Omagh alone that I have gathered up over the years. I have a flickr account but only joined to view other work. Thanks, I'm glad you liked them.

Des, very kind of you to offer. Can I ask, how far away am I from a loco that actually moves. I take it theres a 'shopping list' of parts I need, that I knew nothing about when I ordered!

I've just received my GNRi UG class kit from Worsley Works, only ordered it yesterday! Anyway, its a nice looking series of etches in brass and nickel silver chassis. I know nothing about kit-building in brass and was wondering if there is anyone out there who has attempted a build like this in the past.

George, thanks I have always used Rolleiflex cameras and still do today. My only digital camera is on my iPhone. I used to go out in the morning and take pictures and develop and print them later the same evening. Unlike today, I could go away for the day and take as little as 7 shots and be satisfied with what I'd taken and finish the roll of 12 the next day or at the weekend. These were scanned in at 1200dpi but I can go to much higher on my Agfa 4490 scanner. In those days Charles was shooting with a Pentax 6x7. Glad you liked them.

Myself and the late Norman Johnston travelled to several steam excursions together from Omagh long before he ever started writing books on the railway. On this occasion it was the NIR/RPSI Steam Day celebrating 150th Anniversary of Irish Railways. The tour visited Belfast, Bangor and Lisburn and I managed to get a nice shot of Charles Friel on the footplate of 'Merlin'. The same picture made it into the Irish News the following week. They were memorable days, Norman would sit in the carriage with his notebook while I hung out of the window shouting back carriage numbers. Its ironic that this Christmas I found his book 'A Parting Shot' among my Christmas presents. 9th August 1989

Mayner, I have just returned from Enniskillen with a few lengths of flexi-track which will help set out my plans. I've also beeb taking measurements this mornings to add a few fillets to smooth out curves at corners.

Of course Noel, I have the timber framework to do this but have run out of 9mm birch ply. I will be adding these in the New Year when I return to work! Thanks. I might take a dash to Enniskillen in the morning for a few lengths of 00 flexi to make it easier to set out the corners, these are the biggest challenge. Either way, I could be reduced to fewer points around the station area, more curved track work and longer train runs.

Its ironic that we are back on the subject of N-gauge. I spent most of this morning setting out track work using trammels, compass and Peco paper templates. There is absolutely no way I can build an interesting layout in 00 gauge without sharp radius curves and lots of compromise. On the other hand if I move to N gauge this just opens everything up for me in terms in scale, dimensions, movement of engines and wagons, turntables and engine sheds. Anythings possible.

Does anyone have a 00 Works UG or U Class they are willing to sell - immediate payment

I'm toying around with the idea of capturing the movement of grain from Omagh Station to Scotts Excelsior. Everyday Eddie McAleer drew lorry loads of grain from wagons next the 'cattle beach' as it was known to the shunters at Omagh. Big Joe McGrew, now 88years old, was able to tell me the names given by shunters to the various sidings there. I've been in touch with various sources and am hoping to unearth some photographs of the traffic there. Hopefully, a small piece in the local press will bring up some material.

The layout stops short of the right side by 750mm to allow for the door opening. I may go for turntable one end and fiddle yard to other instead of run around.

I was actually surprised at how much easier it is to visualise a layout by placing decorators lining paper on my baseboards and setting out curves and pointwork using old points, steel rulers and trammel.