N Scale Ballywillan, Co Longford.

Kevin Sweeney · February 18, 2022

This is the page I printed from Inkscape for the water tower base and the completed base. Ignore the few pieces on top of the sheet they are parts for a crossing keepers cottage. Inkscape is a brilliant program, before I learned how to use it I drew everything by hand. It took a lot of time to learn how to use Inkscape, but once I got the hang of it I can make models a lot faster.

StevieB · February 19, 2022

Keep up the good work.

Stephen

Kevin Sweeney · February 19, 2022

Finished the water tower. The ladder is made from printer paper impregnated with varnish, it is surprisingly rigid,. I won't glue it into place until the tower goes permanently on the baseboard.

Next part of the project is a long, single story goods shed. But my photos of it are not good enough, so another visit to Ballywillan is needed, in the coming days.

In the mean time I might start doing some work on the base board.

Edited February 19, 2022 by Kevin Sweeney

Galteemore · February 19, 2022

Inspiring stuff. One of the best tests of a layout is how much you can tell about era and location without any stock present. No doubts about that here!

Kevin Sweeney · February 19, 2022

1 hour ago, Galteemore said:

Inspiring stuff. One of the best tests of a layout is how much you can tell about era and location without any stock present. No doubts about that here!

Praise indeed. Also thanks for sharing the Planxty Johnston link on youtube, the tune has infested my head and I've been playing it since.

Kevin Sweeney · February 20, 2022

Not related to Ballywillan, but to Bellmont House (see earlier post in this thread) and my next project after Ballywillan is finished. I have a big space available, 15 feet by 15 feet. It used to be my sons bedroom, but he has left home, so it will be my main railway room. I'm planning a 15 foot long scenic section. Nothing elaborate in railway terms, just a double tracked line running through a rural landscape. Bellmont House will be the centre piece, included as part of the Bellmont estate will be a walled garden, with big lean to greenhouse, a farmyard, gate lodge and stables. The greenhouse and gate lodge are finished, and I'm well on with the stables (see photos below). The stables are a model of those in Lough Key Forest Park.

With this much space and working in N scale, I will have loads of room for buildings. I'm planning to include an Anglican and a Catholic church, a glebe house, a school, a pub and shop, creamery, corn mill, houses and farms. This awaits when I will finish Ballywillan.

For the last four years I have been a full time carer. Which leaves me stuck at home most days, but with a lot of time on my hands. This is why I started making models. Modelling has become my main distraction and therapy, and in many ways my salvation.

MikeO · February 20, 2022

Seriously impressive models both for Ballywillan and Belmont House. The scale of the stables really catch the eye. I must give Inkscape a try.

MikeO

Kevin Sweeney · February 20, 2022

55 minutes ago, MikeO said:

Seriously impressive models both for Ballywillan and Belmont House. The scale of the stables really catch the eye. I must give Inkscape a try.

MikeO

Thanks Mike. I got started with inkscape by watching this video from Michael at Chandwell.

David Holman · February 20, 2022

Railway modelling is clearly good for you!

Mayner · February 20, 2022

5 hours ago, Kevin Sweeney said:

Not related to Ballywillan, but to Bellmont House (see earlier post in this thread) and my next project after Ballywillan is finished. I have a big space available, 15 feet by 15 feet. It used to be my sons bedroom, but he has left home, so it will be my main railway room. I'm planning a 15 foot long scenic section. Nothing elaborate in railway terms, just a double tracked line running through a rural landscape. Bellmont House will be the centre piece, included as part of the Bellmont estate will be a walled garden, with big lean to greenhouse, a farmyard, gate lodge and stables. The greenhouse and gate lodge are finished, and I'm well on with the stables (see photos below). The stables are a model of those in Lough Key Forest Park.

With this much space and working in N scale, I will have loads of room for buildings. I'm planning to include an Anglican and a Catholic church, a glebe house, a school, a pub and shop, creamery, corn mill, houses and farms. This awaits when I will finish Ballywillan.

For the last four years I have been a full time carer. Which leaves me stuck at home most days, but with a lot of time on my hands. This is why I started making models. Modelling has become my main distraction and therapy, and in many ways my salvation.

Great to see Irish architectural and landscape modelling on such a grand scale, where N/2mm scale comes into its own perhaps an Irish Chiltern Green

Kevin Sweeney · February 20, 2022

1 hour ago, David Holman said:

Railway modelling is clearly good for you!

It has been great. There is nothing worse than sitting around brooding on your troubles, when you can't change the outcome. You need to focus on something you can change. I always had a casual interest in modelling, I built a few model boats when I was younger but never had the time to really pursue it. When my life changed 4 years ago I suddenly had lots of time and needed some thing productive to fill it with. modelling was just the ticket.

There is great satisfaction is making something physical, as opposed to virtual stuff on a screen. There is the sense of achievement as I see my skills improve. Many mornings the very first thing I think about is the current build. Like playing music it bring great joy into my life. Ultimately no matter what your troubles, life is what you make it.

Kevin Sweeney · February 20, 2022

21 minutes ago, Mayner said:

Great to see Irish architectural and landscape modelling on such a grand scale, where N/2mm scale comes into its own perhaps an Irish Chiltern Green

Wow, that is amazing. That is the kind of layout I'm aiming for. I'm happy with how my modelling skills are developing, I have a good handle on modelling buildings, but I'm a complete novice on modelling terrain and landscapes. Ballywillan will hopefully help me develop those skills on a small project before I try a much bigger project.

Edited February 20, 2022 by Kevin Sweeney

David Holman · February 21, 2022

Very much the way to go. Start small and create something that satisfies in a reasonable length of time.

And enjoy, of course!

Kevin Sweeney · February 21, 2022

Didn't manage to get back to Ballywillan yet to take more photos but I did find a photo online of the railway cottages there. The photo has a big copywrite notice on it so I won't publish it here. But the cottages have been extensively modernised and turned into a single house, with an extension added. I'm not going to model the modern house at Ballywillan but will base my model on the MGW cottages at Crossdoney, Co Cavan. And an oblique image of the rear of the cottages from the O'Dea collection.

On 14/2/2022 at 3:33 PM, Robert Shrives said:

Double Wow and crossed spanners for top notch work you make my work look bin worthy! It is inspiring and keep an eye out for Grahame Hedges in UK N modelling , like you he can take card and with a cut to two create wonders.

Robert

I finally got round to checking out Grahame Hedges work. Very nice indeed.

Kevin Sweeney · February 22, 2022

In spite of saying my photos of the second goods shed where not good enough, I decided to try making it based on the photos I have and I'm happy enough with the result.

Kevin Sweeney · February 22, 2022

I'm well on with the railway cottages, so I tried laying out the buildings at the correct spacings to see how they look together. It's really starting to take shape now.

MikeO · February 23, 2022

The buildings, even without scenery, give a very good impression of the look and feel of a stone built Irish rural station. Sited in an expanse of scenery back and front will really bring it to life. A good backscene can add enormous depth to the scenario. The use stone block work in the original building was such an inspired choice. It really makes a statement. Such a pity the station is long out of use.

MikeO

Kevin Sweeney · February 23, 2022

I came in with a copy of a history project about the station, done by some local school kids back in 1992.

The current signal cabin was built right after the War of Independence. The original cabin was about 50 yards to the north and was burned by the Black and Tans during the war.

Michael Collins often used the station when visiting his girlfriend Kitty Kiernan in Granard. Her father Larry Kiernan was a carter who drew goods between Ballywillan and Granard.

The stone for the spire of the church in Maynooth College was quarried at Ross, Co Meath, carted to Ballywillan and onwards to Maynooth by train.

The station has strong associations with the great All Ireland winning Cavan Football teams of the 1930s and 1940s, being only about half a km from the Cavan border. When the conquering heroes arrived by train at Ballywillan, hordes of Cavan people came to Ballywillan to welcome the team and see the Sam Maguire Cup.

The well known Percy French song Come Back Paddy Reilly to Ballyjamesduff was written in a pub in Granard. The line "turn to the left at the Bridge of Finea and stop when half way to Cootehill", are directions on how to get from Ballywillan to Ballyjamesduff.

The most famous passenger to pass through the station was Queen Mary, wife of George the fifth, during the royal visit to Ireland in 1911.

David Holman · February 23, 2022

Love it when research discovers local colour like this!

Kevin Sweeney · February 23, 2022

31 minutes ago, MikeO said:

The buildings, even without scenery, give a very good impression of the look and feel of a stone built Irish rural station. Sited in an expanse of scenery back and front will really bring it to life. A good backscene can add enormous depth to the scenario. The use stone block work in the original building was such an inspired choice. It really makes a statement. Such a pity the station is long out of use.

MikeO

I am a complete novice at scenery so progress might be a lot slower than with the buildings. My plan for the backscene is to take the photos with a drone, as I think this will be a better perspective, than taking photos from the ground.

Patrick Davey · February 23, 2022

This is superb Kevin and I enjoy your updates. Your prolific output is putting us all to shame!

Kevin Sweeney · February 23, 2022

24 minutes ago, Patrick Davey said:

This is superb Kevin and I enjoy your updates. Your prolific output is putting us all to shame!

Thanks Patrick. my prolific output at the moment is mainly caused by the bad weather, which is keeping confined indoors. It will slow down when the weather improves and I get busy in the garden.

David Holman · February 23, 2022

Scenery is easy when you can do buildings like yours, Kevin. Messier, but far less precise! By all means use a drone to build your backscene, but have a think about the viewing angle you want for your layout, as the horizon may be lower than you think.

There are plenty of books and articles to guide you with scenery. Static grass machines are really effective in 4 and 7mm scale, but you may find that Woodland Scenics fine crumb is just as effective in 2mm scale.

Kevin Sweeney · February 23, 2022

1 hour ago, David Holman said:

Scenery is easy when you can do buildings like yours, Kevin. Messier, but far less precise! By all means use a drone to build your backscene, but have a think about the viewing angle you want for your layout, as the horizon may be lower than you think.

There are plenty of books and articles to guide you with scenery. Static grass machines are really effective in 4 and 7mm scale, but you may find that Woodland Scenics fine crumb is just as effective in 2mm scale.

Thanks for the advise David. Scenery does not sound too challenging.

My idea about the drone is all theory and may not work in practice. I guess the only way to find out for sure is to put the bird in the air and try it out. It would not take a lot of elevation to get the broad expanse of Lough Sheelin into the backscene, as the land between Ballywillan and Sheelin is low lying and there is a chain of hills in the distance beyond Sheelin, to the east.

The image below of Ballywillan is from google street view, the green marker on the map shows the position the street view is from, the black line is the position of the station. The dark areas on the east end of the map are the hills in the background. The location of the street view screengrab is 17 feet above the elevation of the station

Hopefully I can get over to Ballywillan in the next few days and try it out. I need to go over soon anyway as I need to photograph the pub, barn, and farmyard next to the station.

Galteemore · February 24, 2022

There are some great books out there on this. Paul Bambrick’s one…https://www.amazon.co.uk/Creating-Backscene-Railway-Modelling-Companion/dp/0711038422

and John Ahern’s is old but useful https://www.abebooks.co.uk/book-search/title/miniature-landscape-modelling/author/john-h-ahern/

Mayner · February 24, 2022

9 hours ago, Kevin Sweeney said:

Thanks for the advise David. Scenery does not sound too challenging.

My idea about the drone is all theory and may not work in practice. I guess the only way to find out for sure is to put the bird in the air and try it out. It would not take a lot of elevation to get the broad expanse of Lough Sheelin into the backscene, as the land between Ballywillan and Sheelin is low lying and there is a chain of hills in the distance beyond Sheelin, to the east.

The image below of Ballywillan is from google street view, the green marker on the map shows the position the street view is from, the black line is the position of the station. The dark areas on the east end of the map are the hills in the background. The location of the street view screengrab is 17 feet above the elevation of the station

Hopefully I can get over to Ballywillan in the next few days and try it out. I need to go over soon anyway as I need to photograph the pub, barn, and farmyard next to the station.

Funnily enough I took a photo from much the same view point all those years year ago! Lough Sheelin and the distant hills would make an excellent backdrop with the land in the foreground dropping gently towards the railway and the lake, something that's reasonably achievable in a moderate space in 2mm but not really workable in 4mm or the larger scales unless you have a double garage or a Ball/Billard Room in an old Country House

Edited February 24, 2022 by Mayner

Kevin Sweeney · February 24, 2022

How Ballywillan has changed over the years, from the OS maps

On the left is from Griffiths Valuation 1850s, shortly after opening. No signal cabin, no second good shed, no railway cottages, no pub or related outbuildings. In the middle is 1901 (to the left of the Goods shed is the original signal cabin that was burned by the black and tans), and on the right the modern map.

This map below is a bigger view of Gilligan's pub and the related outbuildings. I'm intrigued by the three parallel buildings on the right of the map, which are no longer there. This is not a classic arrangement for farm buildings in this area. The one at the bottom appears to have a porch. I wonder if they might be related to the railway, accommodation or stores perhaps. I'm gonna spend some time looking on the 1901 OS map to see if I can find a similar array of building near another rural railway station. I will enquire from locals if anyone can shed any light on what they were. Is anyone here aware of a similar collection of buildings near any other rural railway station.

Kevin Sweeney · February 24, 2022

I've wasted most of the afternoon, when I should have been making models, looking at other rural stations in this part of the country on the 1901 OS map. None of them are anything like the scale and size of Ballywillan. It had two goods sheds, there were two pubs in the townland and the complex of buildings behind Gilligan's pub.

According to the the local history project carters were operating between Granard and Kilnaleck in Co Cavan, that makes sense it was the nearest station. But there were also carters working between Ballywillan, Ballyjamesduff, and Castlepollard. This is odd, Float station was 7.4 miles from Castlepollard, but it's 10.4 miles to Ballywillan. Even stranger Oldcastle is 7 miles from Ballyjamesduff, but it's 13.5 miles from BJD to Ballywillan.

The OS map does not show any cattle pens in Float or Multyfarnham to the south; or Drumhownagh or Crossdoney to the north. And Ballywillan has an impressively long platform for loading cattle. So this maybe part of the answer.

The only other major industry mentioned in the history project using Ballywillan was the stone quarry at Ross.

I'm afraid the people who could have answered this question are gone, but as a local historian it intrigues me.

I'm developing a terrible obsession with Ballywillan.

Kevin Sweeney · February 24, 2022

The crossing keepers cottage at Kinalagh, 1.2 km south of Ballywillan. The real building is uninhabited but intact and in good shape. It has a very ugly modern, flat roofed extension, which I decided not to model.

I'm thinking of using modellers license and including it at the southern end of the Ballywillan layout. Or I may use it on the future Bellmont layout.

Noel · February 24, 2022

That's absolutely superb. Class

Kevin Sweeney · February 24, 2022

9 minutes ago, Noel said:

That's absolutely superb. Class

Thanks Noel. I love the MGW crossing keepers cottages, to my eyes there are just perfect architectural gems.

Mayner · February 24, 2022

2 hours ago, Kevin Sweeney said:

I've wasted most of the afternoon, when I should have been making models, looking at other rural stations in this part of the country on the 1901 OS map. None of them are anything like the scale and size of Ballywillan. It had two goods sheds, there were two pubs in the townland and the complex of buildings behind Gilligan's pub.

According to the the local history project carters were operating between Granard and Kilnaleck in Co Cavan, that makes sense it was the nearest station. But there were also carters working between Ballywillan, Ballyjamesduff, and Castlepollard. This is odd, Float station was 7.4 miles from Castlepollard, but it's 10.4 miles to Ballywillan. Even stranger Oldcastle is 7 miles from Ballyjamesduff, but it's 13.5 miles from BJD to Ballywillan.

The OS map does not show any cattle pens in Float or Multyfarnham to the south; or Drumhownagh or Crossdoney to the north. And Ballywillan has an impressively long platform for loading cattle. So this maybe part of the answer.

The only other major industry mentioned in the history project using Ballywillan was the stone quarry at Ross.

I'm afraid the people who could have answered this question are gone, but as a local historian it intrigues me.

I'm developing a terrible obsession with Ballywillan.

The most striking thing about the station is the sheer scale of the buildings despite the purely rural location, Granard would have been a reasonable sized town/rural service center when the railway was built Castlepollard and Ballyjamesduff are of a similar size and would have performed a similar function. I seem to have developed a similar obsession with approximately 15 photos of the station, 1 each of Float and Drumhownagh and half a dozen from Crossdoney. The big attraction was the almost complete and un-spoilt nature of the site, the main thing missing being the track and signals

It looks like Ballywillian was the railhead for a large area of South Cavan and North Westmeath with the MGWR using carters. There may have been competition between the Midland at Ballywillan and the GNR (at Oldcastle) for traffic from Ballyjamesduff and the area around Lough Sheelin.

Another source of traffic under Midland ownership was ballast trains from a Gravel Pit at Derryard to the south of Lough Kinlane. The pit was served bay a short branch off the "Main Line" but probably have closed after the Midland began using crushed limestone ballast from Lecarrow Co Roscommon during the early 1900s.

Kevin Sweeney · February 24, 2022

29 minutes ago, Mayner said:

The most striking thing about the station is the sheer scale of the buildings despite the purely rural location, Granard would have been a reasonable sized town/rural service center when the railway was built Castlepollard and Ballyjamesduff are of a similar size and would have performed a similar function. I seem to have developed a similar obsession with approximately 15 photos of the station, 1 each of Float and Drumhownagh and half a dozen from Crossdoney. The big attraction was the almost complete and un-spoilt nature of the site, the main thing missing being the track and signals

It looks like Ballywillian was the railhead for a large area of South Cavan and North Westmeath with the MGWR using carters. There may have been competition between the Midland at Ballywillan and the GNR (at Oldcastle) for traffic from Ballyjamesduff and the area around Lough Sheelin.

Another source of traffic under Midland ownership was ballast trains from a Gravel Pit at Derryard to the south of Lough Kinlane. The pit was served bay a short branch off the "Main Line" but probably have closed after the Midland began using crushed limestone ballast from Lecarrow Co Roscommon during the early 1900s.

That's right its the sheer scale of Ballywillan that is so striking, compared to other rural stations. It must have been a bustling place in it's heyday.

Competition between the MGWR and the GNR would explain the carters working between Ballywillan and Ballyjamesduff. As the saying goes competition is the life of trade.

The branch line was still there in 1901 it's on the OS map and is still disenable from the satellite view. The gravel pit can be clearly seen on the satellite view. When I get a chance I will fly the drone over there and get a closer view.