N Scale Ballywillan, Co Longford.

[David Holman]

Yep, some little beauties.

[Noel]

Creative excellence 

[Kevin Sweeney]

After a bit of a hiatus I'm back doing some work on the Ballywillan layout. I have promised to show it to the local I.C.A. Guild in September, so this should spur me on to keep the project moving.

The I.C.A. have also lined up a retired school teacher from the Ballywillan area to talk about the stations history. Her late mother grew up in Gilligan's pub so she should have lots of stories to tell. Should be an interesting night.

 

The big problem with being more into architectural modelling  rather than railway modelling per se, is that I get easily distracted from Ballywillan by other buildings for my Bellmont layout. I have decided to model the vanished hamlet of Ballyheelan, Co Cavan as it was in the early 20th century and incorporate it into the Bellmont layout.

Modern Ballyheelan is just three houses and a derelict mill at a crossroads, but in the early 20th century it was an important commercial settlement. It had a mill and grain kilns, a forge, a grocery shop, a butchers shop and slaughter house, a post office, a shebeen and a collection of houses. I have completed the mill (posted earlier) and made some progress on three other buildings.

This was the grocery shop which belonged to my Great Grandmother.

Sheridan's house, known as the big house. They owned the mill, forge, kilns and post office. It was also the home of my Great Great Grandfather.

McGarry's house and slaughter house, their butcher shop was on the other gable of the house. The slaughter house will have to be reroofed due to some water splashes.

My main sources for the Ballyheelan model are the 1901 OS map, my mothers incredibly good memory, a video shot in 1938 and an aerial photo of the big house taken in 1984 before it and all its outbuildings were demolished. The narrator on the video is my Mother.

[Kevin Sweeney]

Back doing some work on Ballywillan, after another hiatus.

I've started work on the first section of baseboard. I've made the main frame, which is 1600 mm long and 550 mm wide. The south end of the baseboard (nearest camera) will be totally flat. Except for a 4 mm rise on the western edge. I will use a piece of ply 887 mm long by 550 mm wide for this. The map of Ballywillan (below) shows the main frame and plywood baseboard as red rectangles. 

On the northern end the ground will rise 10 mm to the NW corner and drop 14 mm at the NE corner. The trackbed will remain flat. I'm not sure yet how I'm going to create this non flat landscape, but I'm experimenting with plywood templates, to give me the basic shape.

I've used Google Earth to survey the ground (below). The number in the bottom right hand corner of the image is the altitude in feet, under the mouse. It makes surveying the ground a breeze.

Once I get this section finished I will make extensions to the north and south

[2996 Victor]

16 hours ago, Kevin Sweeney said:

On the northern end the ground will rise 10 mm to the NW corner and drop 14 mm at the NE corner. The trackbed will remain flat. I'm not sure yet how I'm going to create this non flat landscape, but I'm experimenting with plywood templates, to give me the basic shape

I've been using 3mm and 5mm thick foamboard on my 4mm/EM micro:

This was a while ago and things have moved on a bit, but you can see the foamboard profiles. Easy to cut with a craft knife or scalpel, glued with Javis VeloSet quick setting PVA. Its light and strong and its easy to carve if you need to modify it once its in place.

I've got mine from a seller on eBay - this is the link to the 3mm foamboard https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/272000832907 

Looking forward to see your progress!

All the best,
Mark

[Kevin Sweeney]

9 hours ago, 2996 Victor said:

I've been using 3mm and 5mm thick foamboard on my 4mm/EM micro:

Looking forward to see your progress!

All the best,
Mark

Thanks for the tip, it sounds easier to work than plywood.

[2996 Victor]

21 hours ago, Kevin Sweeney said:

Thanks for the tip, it sounds easier to work than plywood.

It is! Much! I'd definitely recommend it.

I've been covering the foam board formers with a lattice weave of wall paper lining paper, and then four layers of newspaper strip papier mache. It makes a pretty strong shell.

Cheers,

Mark

Edited August 18, 2022 by 2996 Victor

[Mike 84C]

Re Foamboard, if you know of any firms that make those display hoardings  that you see at events like agricultural shows, horsey type shows. The ads are often vinyls stuck on foam board. The offcuts are often quite large and skipped. I got a cab full foc from one company, got lots left and thats over ten yrs ago. Seek and ye shall find!

[Mayner]

I generally use ply or stripwood framing for open top baseboard construction of where the railway is on an embankment.

These days I cut the ply strips on a bench saw and use  a jig saw for profile cutting and fascias

 

My current dock layout uses similar baseboard construction

[Kevin Sweeney]

Cork track bed laid. Next job is the platforms. I will then finish the top right surface, which is lower ground

[Kevin Sweeney]

Graiguenamanagh Creamery for the Bellmont layout

[Kevin Sweeney]

I'm on a steep learning curve right now. Landscaping, laying track, ballasting, and buildings platforms are all new to me. Rather than make big mistakes on the Ballywillan layout, I've decided to make a small diorama based on Crossdoney Station and make my mistakes on a small scale first.
 

[Kevin Sweeney]

Making progress on the Crossdoney diorama.

The shelter is the smallest structure I have yet modelled. The windows look very ragged up close but work fine when viewed from a distance.

[Kevin Sweeney]

More progress with Crossdoney diorama. including my first experiments with scatter. The long winter nights and bad weather are great for modelling.

 

[MikeO]

In my experience small buildings and small openings on those buildings as well as small window openings on coaches are particularly difficult to get right. Adding details to these openings can also be immensely frustrating to do accurately. In some instances I have painted in the necessary additions as making them from card or plastic was not feasible.

As you say they look well at the normal viewing distance. To me that is the most important part. If you are happy with the results just keep going. You will get better at it.

I like the foot bridge very impressive.

MikeO

[Kevin Sweeney]

27 minutes ago, MikeO said:

In my experience small buildings and small openings on those buildings as well as small window openings on coaches are particularly difficult to get right. Adding details to these openings can also be immensely frustrating to do accurately. In some instances I have painted in the necessary additions as making them from card or plastic was not feasible.

As you say they look well at the normal viewing distance. To me that is the most important part. If you are happy with the results just keep going. You will get better at it.

I like the foot bridge very impressive.

MikeO

It's an advantage of N scale that the finer details can be fudged and still look good from a distance. In bigger scales fudged details stand out a lot more.

[David Holman]

Coming along rather well!

[Kevin Sweeney]

21 minutes ago, David Holman said:

Coming along rather well!

Happy enough with progress. I'm glad I picked a small project which I can finish in a short run. My problem finishing bigger projects is that I see some new building I like the look of and get diverted into modelling that rather than finishing the existing project. 

[Mayner]

Great progress, your models of Ballywillian and Crossdoney bring back memories of a sunny August afternoon I spent about 30 years ago in a Ford Escort Van exploring the Cavan Branch between Float and Crossdoney.

I like your model of Graiguenamagh Creamery small creameries were a distinctive feature of regions where dairy farming was significant until the industry was modernised with bulk collection (from the farm) and large processing plants during the 70s and 80s. A small creamery diorama with a queue of horse & VW drawn carts, tractors & trailers is almost a must for a 1900-1970s layout set in dairying areas like West & East Cork, North Kerry, Cavan, Monaghan, Longford, Kilkenny

[Kevin Sweeney]

23 minutes ago, Mayner said:

I like your model of Graiguenamagh Creamery small creameries were a distinctive feature of regions where dairy farming was significant until the industry was modernised with bulk collection (from the farm) and large processing plants during the 70s and 80s. A small creamery diorama with a queue of horse & VW drawn carts, tractors & trailers is almost a must for a 1900-1970s layout set in dairying areas like West & East Cork, North Kerry, Cavan, Monaghan, Longford, Kilkenny

I remember it well, my first career in the late 1970s was as a dairy stockman. I used to draw milk to the local creamery in Kilnaleck, Co Cavan. I missed it when bulk collection came in the early 1980s. The morning trip to the creamery was a social occasion, as well as a welcome escape from the farm. The highlight of the working day.

[Kevin Sweeney]

Crossdoney diorama complete. It's been a very useful learning exercise. Now back to Ballywillan.

[David Holman]

Wowsers!

 

[murphaph]

Indeed. Class work. Hard to tell it's N gauge.

[Mayner]

11 hours ago, Kevin Sweeney said:

Crossdoney diorama complete. It's been a very useful learning exercise. Now back to Ballywillan.

That's one serious Diorama really captures the atmosphere of the station and its surroundings.

July 1985

The location was extremely compact for a junction station with the road bridge acting as a view block between the station and goods yard area and the signal box and junction with the Killeshandra Branch. In MGWR days the branch train appears to have run to and from Cavan rather than terminating at the Junction

[Kevin Sweeney]

5 hours ago, Mayner said:

That's one serious Diorama really captures the atmosphere of the station and its surroundings.

July 1985

The location was extremely compact for a junction station with the road bridge acting as a view block between the station and goods yard area and the signal box and junction with the Killeshandra Branch. In MGWR days the branch train appears to have run to and from Cavan rather than terminating at the Junction

Very nice photo. The station house has been renovated, extended and is being lived in again. There is a current planning application to turn it into a restaurant. In one way it's good to see it being used rather than lying empty, but on the other hand, the line really should be restored. This is what it looks like now.

I'm tempted to add to the diorama by extending it to the south and adding the road bridge, signal box and railway cottages. But that would be a future project after Ballywillan. The project that really tempts me is Cavan station, which was a terminus for both the MGWR and the GNR. There was a massive single arched bridge over the road right in the middle of the station. It would be a spectacular model, unfortunately, in N scale it would be 4 meters long.

[popeye]

I can't think of anything worse than putting all that modern crap on an old building, it just looks wrong.

It would be better to leave it to crumble away. 

[jhb171achill]

8 minutes ago, popeye said:

I can't think of anything worse than putting all that modern crap on an old building, it just looks wrong.

It would be better to leave it to crumble away. 

The bit on the left is in keeping, if it had a stone finish. The Dermot Bannon thing in the foreground is light years beyond hideous.

[Galteemore]

Glenfarne is the way to go. Can’t even see the join! 

[popeye]

That's the right way to do it. 

[Kevin Sweeney]

Agree 100%. The extension is an ugly post-modernist monstrosity, which completely destroys the beautiful, classically designed lines of the Station House. Cavan County Council applied the exact same "heritage" planning principals to Farnham House, the greatest, most important and most intact of Cavan's big houses. until it became the Raddison hotel in this century. Raddison built a huge post-modern extension onto the back of Farnham House. Just like Crossdoney but on a much bigger scale. There is no meaningful protection for historically important buildings like these in the Republic of Ireland. A more rigorous regime applies north of the border.

[minister_for_hardship]

10 hours ago, jhb171achill said:

The bit on the left is in keeping, if it had a stone finish. The Dermot Bannon thing in the foreground is light years beyond hideous.

A flat roof in a country famously known for its rain. That's archithicks for you.

[Kevin Sweeney]

Ballywillan stays on the back burner a bit longer. I'm still stuck in Crossdoney, extending the diorama to the south. The road bridge is the main design challenge here. I've used printouts from the 1901 OS map to get the positions right. All made so far with 2 mm mountboard.

[Georgeconna]

looking wonderful!

 

[Kevin Sweeney]

Some progress on Crossdoney bridge and signal box

[Mayner]

On 25/11/2022 at 4:30 AM, Kevin Sweeney said:

Anthony Burges described CIE's Inny Junction-Cavan line as a 'mouldering branch line" in his pictorial book Railways in Ulster's Lakelands (Colourpoint) which covers the GNR(I), CIE & SLNCR.

The Crossdoney photo certainly captures this run-down atmosphere.