Colin R

Now that is a simple layout, however for Ramelton I need something like a cross of Tooban Junction and Fahan as close as it can get. Sadly the famous warehouses in Ramelton are on the wrong side of the in let, but lets be honest here, a big bit of modeller licence might be the way to go, also from Google maps I notices that Ramelton has a converted tannery and water mill as well. Falcarragh station building looks the part as well.

A very useful looking building

The wee man in green told me about this thread, he has been giving me a few shape taps over the head with his shillelagh of late to get my A*** into gear. Now while I am a Donegal fan first and foremost, this has not stopped me from looking over the fence at that other 3ft gauge railway in Donegal that is the Swilly. As try as I might to read the book 'That Old Sinner' something comes up and stops me from getting on with it. That said what I have read so far has inspired me to think of a branch of the Swilly leaving Letterkenny heading towards Ramelton then heading North towards Milford. The line then splits into two the left hand branch head north towards Cranford and Downies, while the right hand branch head north east towards Rathmullen, The line then carries on towards Glenvar and Portsalon and finishes at Doagh Beg and the Fishing Harbour*. The thing is most of Donegal was known as the congested district and in 1889 there was a fund set up of £600,000 pounds to build railways in that part of the country to help out. Well Lord Leitrim had ideas to build part of this proposal anyway, anyhow in the smoke filled rooms of his London Club and over a good claret or two the Lord and he pals decided to modify the route. As can been seen the line had very little advantage to the local people of Donegal at first, in fact if anything it just made a lot more people decide that they wanted to head to America and start a new life. My branch line only took off after the first world war as this part of Donegal found itself as part of a tourist boom. Following the Second World War, Doagh Beg found itself as a storage port for a whole load of ex-German war ships and submarines. Later in the 1950 and early 60's tourism started to take off again and a small group of enthiastic railway supporters found that the Swilly wanted to lift the track to cut its loses and to concentrate on the improved road transport of the time. The CIE not wanting to shoot a gift horse in the mouth found that a number of its 3ft gauge locos and rolling stock could be leased to the project and thus began the collection you will see one day. Well that's my excuse for now what do you think? I should say that I still need to find some very simple track plans for this one. * in real life I don't think there was one, but there are a number of small Harbours around Ireland that I could base it on.

Angus Sorry about the delay but if you want more info about Signalling try these guys here https://signalbox.org/ I am not sure if they are related but I was advised to get a book called the 'The Signal Box' by the Signalling study group, I am sure they will be able to give you chapter and versus about your signalling requirements https://www.s-r-s.org.uk/archivehistory.php Regards Colin

Dose anyone have a list of standard CIE bells codes? The reason I want to use them is that I am thinking in having them on my next layout at some point. I have just been reading an article about an old layout by Peter Denny or better know to modellers of a certain age as Buckingham, complete with bells, whistles and a timetable etc. I think it would be a good Idea if I can find out a bit more about them. Colin Rainsbury

Try Simon Thomas of Old Time Workshop at Stevenage. He has a fair range of decals and linings available, he may be able to help out http://www.oldtimeworkshop.co.uk/Pricelists/4mmPriceListTransfers.pdf Regards Colin Rainsbury

That would be typical of model railways

Hi Guys. I am not sure if anyone will be able to help me, but I have had a good look on the web but nothing new is coming up, I am looking for photos or details of any of the 3ft gauge bogie coaches from this line. I have got the Joe Begley and Steve Flanders reference book, which is a help, however some photos appear to show coaches which Worsley Works have not made. The 2 compartment /Saloon 3rd is easy enough to rebuild from one of the kits, however it is the old Brown, Marshall & Co coach drawings which I need to try and find, any information would be welcome. Colin

Hi JHB I am with you on this, as I too find railway history interesting along with the models I see on here, compared to the usual UK based GWR or LNER layouts this is just so much better, some UK modellers take things far to seriously sometimes. This reminds me of a story I told about a fictitious 3ft gauge Irish railway project up in those hills of Donegal, it linked both the Donegal and Swilly railways as well as a few other places not served by any railway at any time, at the end I did say this was pure fiction, but I still had one or two people taken in and one person was convinced that he had actually been on the railway in question and had seen Paddy McGinty's goat to boot. Terry Wogan has a lot to answer for .

Well you learn something new everyday, I didn't know that

Hi Lambeg. I think I know what that payment was for, they con people into taking out an Amazon prime account thinking they will get books etc a bit cheaper, what they don't say is they don't make it easy to cancel the account, as you have found out, I guess your good lady kept it going thinking she was doing every one a favour. Amazon work on the basis of people being lazy or not understanding how to close an account down, I too have had issues with them in the past over an account I had with them, even now I still get text messages and emails saying what great opportunities I am missing out on............. right like I need a hole in my head Amazon. I just use them now to find books or something I want and once I have the details, I just go look on the Web, I have found so many times stuff I want a lot cheaper than on Amazon. Just a note to all if you are stuck with an unwanted Amazon account, you can stop payments to them on your home Amazon page, its a bit fiddly but once you have done it, you don't have to pay them to just look at the c**p they try to sell you, also it is a good idea to let the other half know the details just in case. It is sometimes worth the grief you get from them to know they are not going to get rip off in the future. Colin

Hi all having trouble finding that one book on line? Then try World of Books or https://www.wob.com/en-gb I am not the owner of this site or have anything to do with them, except I am a very happy buyer of books from them, so far I have not had any issues so I can give them 100% support have a look and see what they have they are cheaper than Amazon. Colin Rainsbury

Its times like this that I can see another modelling website being set up, but then you also have faceache as well to contend with, the sad thing is that while it is a pain to have adverts it does stop the mods/owners asking for money to keep the site open. I am not sure which I would want, the thing is of course that Irish model railways is such a small operation compared to some state side web groups such as the NMRA, but then that is what I like it is small and compact and friendly

The old Station building looks interesting any plans of it? Colin

As is the case at most Heritage Railways in the whole of Europe, I would love to see in the long term some replica rolling stock, but yes it all costs money to do.

That is some grand work going on, well done Colin

Can you pay them in to your bank account?

Hi Angus a bit late coming to this thread, but yes I have as yet to visit the part of Ireland I want to model. Being a fan of the 3ft gauge Donegal Railways, I can say that there where at least four extension railways proposed by the board of works to decongest the Donegal area most would have linked to either the County Donegal or the Lough Swilly Railways. As has been discussed elsewhere on here and above, it would be possible to model anywhere and given that you get the feel right most UK visitors at exhibitions can be fooled into thinking it is a real place. Currently I don't have the space I want for a layout, but I have been buying etches kits just in case they are stopped being make such as the the Backwoods Miniatures (I only have a few more to get, but I am just waiting for the owner of a couple of these kits to give me the nod). The next stage is getting all the details of the buildings right, this is the bit which is taking the time to sort out, as all the prototype buildings have been flatten and so far no architectural drawings have come to light, while this may be a problem when you start to look into it, however you may find that many companies have a sort of house style, so it would be possible to use another station from the same company and it would not look to much out of place. Also I forgot to say that another important factor is real history, in the early 1920 to 30's, the Donegal and the Swilly had discussions about a merger, sadly it did not happen, but in my mind it did and a number of proposed extensions also got built, up to the second world war. For what it is worth my big layout will be based on Stranorlar on the Donegal, but it also has an extension with a new direct route to Letterkenny to miss out the boarder crossings at Strabane/Lifford and also at Castlefinn. Another line on the wish list could have been one to Fanad Head and the Lighthouse, from Letterkenny. It could have gone via Rathmelton, Milford, Tawny and Port Salon, before it arrived at Fanad Head and the Port. It would have also skirted around the bottom of the Knockalla Mountains as well, so plenty of scenic work on the layout. I hope I have given you a bit more inspiration rather than perspiration, I do look forward to see some of the results in due course. Regards Colin

Hi Ken, just found this so I will be looking in from time to time to see what you are up to, sadly right now there is a lack of funds in the modelling budget right now, but when things get better I will be after a few of your wagon kits. Colin

Hi all Its been a while since I have been on here (work and life out of balance right now), One think I have been meaning to ask does anyone know who I can contact about finding any old 3ft gauge WCR rolling stock drawings. I have the ones in the published books (the Patrick Taylor Book), but more so the other 6 wheeled brake vans that were used on Passenger trains mainly, I have a feeling that they may not exist, but if anyone has a contact, I would be glad to be put in contact with them, the same also goes for any photos of WCR rolling stock as well. Regards Colin R

Hi Jhb do you still have any of these kits left or have they all gone to a new home? Colin

Thanks Patrick and Galteemore for the heads up, something else to add to the ebay wanted list

Hi Patrick Sorry if you have mentioned this before but on page one you had a green painted signal box. I take it it is still there but you have now repainted it, my question is simply do you scrtach built it or was it from a kit

Hi Guys, I have just had deliver my three kits from John M In New Zealand:- CIE Heating van 3101-3140 CIE Luggage Van 2700-61 CIE Post Office Van 2962-2971 Due to a possible move next year, I am going to put them into storage just in case I lose something from the boxes. but I do have one question did any of these run in the green livery (you can tell I haven't even open the box yet, so the answer may be inside) Colin

Ebay can be a pain in the back**** someone paid £500 for an old Backwoods Donegal class5 kit over the weekend, in total they spend over £1,100 for four kits which according to the new owner of that range (which will be available again early part of next year) for just over half that amount. I just wish they had done some home work on these kits before bidding, as now anyone who saw those prices is going to expect to get that if they put there own old backwoods kits on ebay next year. I think they may well be dissappointed