N Scale Ballywillan, Co Longford.

[Kevin Sweeney]

2 hours ago, Mayner 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.

The last regular passenger services on the line were in 1947. CIE suspended the service during the 1947 snow and never reinstated it. There were some specials for football matches in Dublin and pilgrimages to Knock in the 1950s. My mother recalls using Virginia Road Station in the 1950s. A cousin told me about his father getting the train from Dublin to Cavan via Clones in the 1950s. Like much else in the region, partition presumably had a negative impact on the line.

[Kevin Sweeney]

In another thread, I recently sang the praises of the OSI website to get the footprint of inaccessible or demolished buildings. Many years ago, the man in the reference section of Cavan Country Library told me that council engineers told him that modern OS maps have many errors, whereas the old OS maps are stunningly accurate.

Here is a screengrab of Ballywillan signal box from the modern OS map. The building at the bottom of image is Crossdoney signal box from 1901. The Ballywillan box in this modern map is almost square. It's amazing that Victorian and Edwardian surveyors using simple analogue tools could produce such accuracy. And that their modern counterparts with all their digital tools can produce such inaccuracy as this.

The old timers really knew their stuff.

[Kevin Sweeney]

Crossdoney signal box finished. A few design flaws but I'm happy enough with the result.

[Mayner]

12 hours ago, Kevin Sweeney said:

The last regular passenger services on the line were in 1947. CIE suspended the service during the 1947 snow and never reinstated it. There were some specials for football matches in Dublin and pilgrimages to Knock in the 1950s. My mother recalls using Virginia Road Station in the 1950s. A cousin told me about his father getting the train from Dublin to Cavan via Clones in the 1950s. Like much else in the region, partition presumably had a negative impact on the line.

The "suspension" and closing of Cavan Branch passenger services was more to do with CIE replacing loss making branch line passenger services with its own road services, than an an effect of partition.  Meath Line, Tullow and Cavan Branch passenger services all ceased in 1947 while the GNR continued to operate a relatively frequent Belfast-Clones-Cavan passenger service (4 each way daily) until the closure of the Border Lines in 1957

[Kevin Sweeney]

2 minutes ago, Mayner said:

The "suspension" and closing of Cavan Branch passenger services was more to do with CIE replacing loss making branch line passenger services with its own road services, than an an effect of partition.  Meath Line, Tullow and Cavan Branch passenger services all ceased in 1947 while the GNR continued to operate a relatively frequent Belfast-Clones-Cavan passenger service (4 each way daily) until the closure of the Border Lines in 1957

I'm sure that is correct but how do you disentangle that from the general negative economic impacts of partition on the border region. Would the line have been loss making if it had not been for partition. It's a measure of the important economic, social and cultural connections that once existed between Ulster counties, that 11 years after direct rail services between Cavan and Dublin were gone there was still a rail service to Belfast.

On the economic upside the black economy was boosted massively by smuggling, but this came with other downsides.

I'm entirely sceptical of the way economic arguments were used to justify the destruction of our rail network. All forms of transport are subsidised, but road is the most subsidised of all. The decisions were based on ideology, politics, emotions and copycat thinking. The post war western world was becoming increasingly individualistic, road transport was compatible with this idea. Rail was seen as an outdated anachronism.

Orwell said they will call you a great intellectual if you provide the establishment with an intellectual rational for what they want to do anyway. This applies to transport economists. We can see it in action today, prominent transport economists droning on and on about the waste of 110 million to reopen the highly successful Galway Limerick line, while silent on the 1.14 billion spent on the Gort Tuam motorway.

Your line about CIE replacing rail "with its own road services" drew a wry smile. Those road services evolved into the shambolic, ramshackle mess that is Bus Eireann in Cavan. I'm a very lucky Cavan public transport user, I am within electric bike range of Edgeworthstown and so only travel by bus when no other option is available. I do not have a good word to say about Bus Eireann, in my view, almost no one in that organisation from drivers, to route planners (especially route planners), to the CEO gives a toss about the travelling public.

There is one thing better about the bus. On modern trains striking up a conversation with fellow travellers is increasingly rare. It's very easy on a Bus Eireann Cavan Dublin bus to strike up a conversation. Just say to a fellow traveller, this is a bloody awful service, and away we go sharing Bus Eireann horror stories.

[Kevin Sweeney]

As usually happens I have been distracted again by another building that grabbed my attention. This time Belturbet railway station, which is not only a very beautiful building, but has a train shed. Not as impressive as Connolly Station, but an unusual feature for a small-town station.

The only thing that made me hesitate to tackle it is the complex windows, which are curved at the top and my efforts to cut them by hand produced unacceptably ragged results. So, I turned to Michael at Chandwell for help and discovered the sticky label method for making windows. The photo shows my first attempt. A little ragged at the top, but with practice I should improve. The glazing bars are about one third of a mm wide. From here on in all my windows will be sticky label windows.

 

[Galteemore]

It’s not distraction Kevin - it’s broadening your skill set. Nice work on the windows. I’ll watch that vid for inspiration. Belturbet is one of my favourites. Looks much better now than when I saw it thirty years ago. 

[Georgeconna]

Wonderful!

 

[Kevin Sweeney]

14 minutes ago, Galteemore said:

It’s not distraction Kevin - it’s broadening your skill set. Nice work on the windows. I’ll watch that vid for inspiration. Belturbet is one of my favourites. Looks much better now than when I saw it thirty years ago. 

Belturbet looks amazing with all the buildings restored. I'm hoping to get down and visit it soon. It is a particularly beautiful station. I knew the moment I saw photos I had to build it. I have architects plans for the station house, station masters house, goods shed and engine shed from the CCC planning portal. So happy days.

[jhb171achill]

Kevin, if your efforts in replicating Belturbet are anything like what you’ve done so far, it will be a masterpiece….

[MikeO]

The sticky label method of making windows is very good. I particularly like the fact that you can cut through the frames. Other methods I have tried for cutting out the glass area usually end up with the frames cut and having to be replaced. In n gauge an exceptionally fiddly and time consuming job prone to more errors.

 

MikeO

[Kevin Sweeney]

1 hour ago, MikeO said:

The sticky label method of making windows is very good. I particularly like the fact that you can cut through the frames. Other methods I have tried for cutting out the glass area usually end up with the frames cut and having to be replaced. In n gauge an exceptionally fiddly and time consuming job prone to more errors.

 

MikeO

It's great, the results are so sharp compared to hand cutting and it possible to do much more elaborate windows than by hand. It is for sure fiddly in n scale. The window in the photo was my first attempt at it. I had beginners' luck, when I sat down yesterday evening to do it again, the first 10 or 12 efforts were failures, but I'm getting an 80% success rate now.

[David Holman]

Master modeller Gordon Gravett has been using this method for years, so you are in good company - though he mainly works in 7mm scale. Cutting window frames  0.3mm wide seems bonkers to me!

Respect!

[Kevin Sweeney]

Making progress with Belturbet. It's been an epic session of cutting out windows the last two days, mostly for the trackside wall which has a lot of windows. Happy with progress so far.

[Dermot F]

On 18/2/2022 at 10:56 AM, Kevin Sweeney said:

Almost there with the signal cabin, just the downpipes to do. I'm going to leave out the finials on the roof. The bad weather is keeping me indoors, so making good progress at the moment.

Below is a screen grab from the O'Dea collection in the National Library taken on October 12 1959, about a year before the line closed. The man in the photo is Neal Fearon. Originally from Crossdoney, Co Cavan. He spent most of his working life at Ballywillan. After it closed he was transferred to Mullingar. He still lived at Ballywillan and I'm told cycled to work in Mullingar, a mind boggling round trip of 50 miles. They were tougher people back then. He had a big family most of whom emigrated, but one of his sons is still living in the townland.

Next job is the water tower.

 

On 18/2/2022 at 10:56 AM, Kevin Sweeney said:

Almost there with the signal cabin, just the downpipes to do. I'm going to leave out the finials on the roof. The bad weather is keeping me indoors, so making good progress at the moment.

Below is a screen grab from the O'Dea collection in the National Library taken on October 12 1959, about a year before the line closed. The man in the photo is Neal Fearon. Originally from Crossdoney, Co Cavan. He spent most of his working life at Ballywillan. After it closed he was transferred to Mullingar. He still lived at Ballywillan and I'm told cycled to work in Mullingar, a mind boggling round trip of 50 miles. They were tougher people back then. He had a big family most of whom emigrated, but one of his sons is still living in the townland.

Next job is the water tower.

Hi Kevin, that's some lovely work. Thats my grandfather in the above pic. Great memories coming back of playing around the Station House and outbuildings on our holidays there and of course Gilligan's pub! Don't think he cycled to Mullingar though I think he had a wee motorbike!! Would love to see more of your work! 

Regards 

Dermot Fearon 

[Kevin Sweeney]

3 hours ago, Dermot F said:

 

Hi Kevin, that's some lovely work. Thats my grandfather in the above pic. Great memories coming back of playing around the Station House and outbuildings on our holidays there and of course Gilligan's pub! Don't think he cycled to Mullingar though I think he had a wee motorbike!! Would love to see more of your work! 

Regards 

Dermot Fearon 

Hi Dermot

I thought the story about him cycling to Mullingar seemed a bit far-fetched. I posted the photo on a now defunct Ballymachugh History Facebook group, and that's where the story came from. All my modelling work is on this thread (except the stuff I binned) and I will continue to post it here. Do you have any photos of Ballywillan, when it was open.

[Kevin Sweeney]

Making good progress on Belturbet.

[Kevin Sweeney]

More progress on Belturbet. Got the basic structure of the train shed roof done. It is starting to come together nicely. 'For simplicity sake I dispensed with the purlins, which will not be visible anyway in the finished model.

[David Holman]

Love those roof trusses.

[Kevin Sweeney]

1 hour ago, David Holman said:

Love those roof trusses.

300 gsm card, impregnated with acrylic paint.

[MikeO]

Very prodigious work carried and out very well. Cutting out that many windows is a real labour of love. The trusses really look the part. I have some 300gsm card which when cut is very pliable so I have to ask the question did you just paint the card with a heavy wash of paint before cutting. I previously tried using some wood hardener to get the card to stay in shape. Reasonably successfully but pricey for just occasional use.

An excellent thread.

 

MikeO

[Kevin Sweeney]

9 minutes ago, MikeO said:

Very prodigious work carried and out very well. Cutting out that many windows is a real labour of love. The trusses really look the part. I have some 300gsm card which when cut is very pliable so I have to ask the question did you just paint the card with a heavy wash of paint before cutting. I previously tried using some wood hardener to get the card to stay in shape. Reasonably successfully but pricey for just occasional use.

An excellent thread.

 

MikeO

About two days work cutting out the windows.

I cut the card out first, then applied the paint. The trusses are not really structural and remain quite flexible. I glued the two sections of the roof together first, which are made of two layers of 300 gsm card, before gluing the trusses in place. My tip for giving some structural strength to card or paper is to impregnate it with varnish.

[Kevin Sweeney]

Current state of play on Belturbet.

[Kevin Sweeney]

Almost there with the station house.

[MikeO]

Very good workmanship. How did you make the facia boards for the roof and gables? It helps the roof and walls line up extremely neatly.

No matter how I cut the roofs and walls they always end up slightly off with the result that the roof edges are not level.

 

MikeO

[Kevin Sweeney]

2 hours ago, MikeO said:

Very good workmanship. How did you make the facia boards for the roof and gables? It helps the roof and walls line up extremely neatly.

No matter how I cut the roofs and walls they always end up slightly off with the result that the roof edges are not level.

 

MikeO

The facia on the walls is made from two strips of 1 mm grey board. On the gable I used 300 gsm cards for the barge plates. I also put in a sub roof, made from 1 mm grey board. I had exactly the problem you describe before I starting using the sub roof. The slates are standard Scalescenes, strips glued to 200 gsm card. Hopefully the photos will give you some idea how it works

[MikeO]

Thank you an interesting technique and choice of materials. A sub roof may be the way for me to go. The main roof could then be more accurately cut.

MikeO

[Kevin Sweeney]

More progress on Belturbet

[MikeO]

Coming along very well. I was wondering if you would be doing the same roofing style for the 1 and a half storey building (the stations master's house?).

Just noticing you have a black edge to all the roofs does this represent the guttering? If so better than trying to glue half round plastic strips to the roof.

 

MikeO

[Kevin Sweeney]

4 minutes ago, MikeO said:

Coming along very well. I was wondering if you would be doing the same roofing style for the 1 and a half storey building (the stations master's house?).

Just noticing you have a black edge to all the roofs does this represent the guttering? If so better than trying to glue half round plastic strips to the roof.

 

MikeO

Yes both roofs are done the same way. The black edge is to represent the guttering, it is 200 gsm card, stained with marker.

[leslie10646]

Kevin, Your work simply makes my lower jaw hit the floor - you're a man of few "posts", but what work! As Robert said a lot earlier in this thread - double "Wow" no other words for it.

A master class.

Congratulations

[Kevin Sweeney]

59 minutes ago, leslie10646 said:

Kevin, Your work simply makes my lower jaw hit the floor - you're a man of few "posts", but what work! As Robert said a lot earlier in this thread - double "Wow" no other words for it.

A master class.

Congratulations

Thank you Leslie for your kind words. I've had to cultivate patience, in my early days modelling I was always in a rush to see a finished product and would cut corners. Now I always take it slow and will bin anything I'm not happy with and start over. As time goes on less and less stuff goes in the bin.

[jhb171achill]

“Cultivate patience”…… wow. That plus your other stuff is absolutely outstanding. By far the best “N” scale stuff I’ve ever seen anywhere.

Makes you think, too - that was a very substantial station for a place the size of Belturbet, even allowing for the C & L connection.

[Kevin Sweeney]

21 hours ago, jhb171achill said:

“Cultivate patience”…… wow. That plus your other stuff is absolutely outstanding. By far the best “N” scale stuff I’ve ever seen anywhere.

Makes you think, too - that was a very substantial station for a place the size of Belturbet, even allowing for the C & L connection.

The GNR went all out with Belturbet, even without the train shed it is a big station for a small town.

[Kevin Sweeney]

Getting closer to a finish on Belturbet, it's really starting to come together now. I could not resist the temptation to include a little section of narrow gauge track in the model.