“BALLYCOMBE”

[Galteemore]

21 minutes ago, Northroader said:

Hours running, five minutes shunting, (and that’s it) and an hour back. Good use of your time? Still ,you’re quite welcome, it’s all in a state of flux at present. (It always is, though) Do you ever get to the place in Gloucester? Maybe call by then.

Always good to see you Bob. Would be especially worthwhile if you helped me sort the pickups on my stuttery JT…..my department left Gloucester about twenty years ago and another part of the business  uses our old offices there so I don’t get back much. 

Edited September 12, 2025 by Galteemore

[Northroader]

OK, give me a bit of time to fix some wiring in, and you’re on. No DCC here, mind, we’re Primitive Fundamentalists.

Edited September 13, 2025 by Northroader

[Galteemore]

12 minutes ago, Northroader said:

OK, give me a bit of time to fix some wiring in, and you’re on. No DCC here, mind, we’re Primitive Fundamentalists.

Oh dear. I belong to the Order of Unreconstructed Luddites. We don’t even recognise the existence of DCC. But I’m sure we can get along  

[Galteemore]

Don’t know how I missed this before. Am planning a layout - a proper working one rather than a diorama as before - and turned to my trusty Gauge O Guild books. And look what jumps out….from our own @Northroader

Name clumsily expunged by me BTW - it’s not a fault in the original 

 

Edited September 20, 2025 by Galteemore

[Northroader]

Well, thank you for that, such a long time ago now. Me, expurgated in a model book! It did go quite well, I suppose the weak link was the sector table, my attempt to save space on the runaround. They could be found in real railway usage, in practice I found the sliding end made it very stiff to move with a loco sitting on top. The other drawback was really you needed to line the table up with whichever road you were shunting on, or sooner or later you’d get a wagon down in the pit.

I moved on to a traverser table, three roads on the table which slid under the  platform on one side or the other, so the pit was always covered. The table being mounted on a couple of drawer runners facing upwards, the ball runners making for a really smooth operation. The whole lot had.quite tidy, believable look.

These days I seem to moved towards “off stage” runrounds, even shorter layouts.

[jhb171achill]

On 13/9/2025 at 8:09 AM, Northroader said:

OK, give me a bit of time to fix some wiring in, and you’re on. No DCC here, mind, we’re Primitive Fundamentalists.

An excellent sect to belong to!

[Northroader]

Lovely day today, so a short bus hop to the local modelling clubs show. (Cheltenham) The real treat was Andy Cundick was there, with one of his layouts. This one is CDRJC, based on Bruckless on the Killybegs section, a big oval with staging sidings at the back, and a simple station with just a siding in front. Scale 4mm/ft, gauge 12mm.

Edited October 25, 2025 by Northroader

[David Holman]

Just when you think you've seen all of Andy's layouts...

Great way to display all his wonderful Donegal stock.

[Galteemore]

Saw it at Calne last year - had an impromptu railcar cavalcade! Delightful layout, especially given how Andy brings in the era before cream and geranium livery. 

[Northroader]

Just thinking about things last night, I struck me some folks might be interested in travellers tales, getting to Ireland back over seventy years ago. It was a tale I did over on the RMweb thread, before they had the great picture crash, I’m sorry to say. It’s what started me off with a real liking for the place.

https://www.rmweb.co.uk/forums/topic/107190-“washbourne-plus-deepfield”/page/60/#comment-4380728

 

 

[Northroader]

Yesterday I was looking at Ballycombe, stuck in the far corner of the railway shed, and thinking what was wanted, and then I decided to get stuck in, and with more done today. It’s St. Patrick’s Day, so it must be a good time to be doing an Irish line, after all,  and my best wishes to everyone both sides of the Sea.

This year I’ve been taking ideas for a microlayout further, the main idea being that rather than have a station with sidings shunted from a headshunt on a fiddle yard, you turn it round, with the station having the headshunt, and the sidings going in the fiddle yard. The sidings need only to be long enough for a few wagons after all, and the headshunt needs to be longer for your pride and joy engine to be seen moving about.

The track in the station been lifted, with just the main running line to go back. What was the fiddle yard was giving me grief anyways, some “cassettes” of track lengths laid on thin ply. There was stiffening strips each side, but they were going banana shaped just the same. Now I’ve made a two track sector table from a piece of 17mm. melamine clad chipboard shelf, much more dimensionally stable. This is pivoted at the far end, now I’ve got to get the board levels right, but as the layout is just a single lightweight unit, it should be easy enough. The track needs work to get the sleepers regular, and there is less track all told. Here’s what it looks like after a couple of days jobbing:

you could say it’s ended up as  diorama with moving bits, as it has got quite small.  I’m legislating for a small tank engine, a six wheel brake third, and four goods wagons, then just shunt the whole lot round. There’s just one wagon visible for now, built to the two Daves’ one true gauge, or near enough. Overall length is 51.5”, 1300mm, station length 30”, 760mm, sector table 21”, 530mm, and the width of the main board is 12”, 305mm. You can see I’ve started a backscene behind the main board, as it matters to me to give a sense of the place, but I don’t think it’s working, and it will get an overpaint. Probably I’ll put in an over bridge before the sector table join.

Edited March 17 by Northroader

[Colonel]

Good stuff and love the sky. Maybe the scene just needs lowering a bit, so there is less land on show?

[Northroader]

I think you’re right, lower the horizon, but I’ve made the sky too dark and threatening, needs to be lighter.

Nice Summers day, or more of a tonal contrast? (What would we do without Ernie’s Archive?)

 

Edited March 19 by Northroader

[derek]

Agreed. What a beautiful photograph

[Northroader]

A loco is needed for this spectacular, so I’m working on one, plastic frames, Slaters wheels with long axles, and Mashima motor found down the back of the sofa. There’s brass axle bushes cemented in the frames for the lead and driving axles. Next job is pickups and springing for the trailing axle, as it’s sitting four square on the lead and drive, and it will be ballasted to keep the centre of gravity there.

 

 

[Galteemore]

Very nice! Waterford and Tramore or MGWR? 

[leslie10646]

On 19/3/2026 at 8:10 AM, Northroader said:

I think you’re right, lower the horizon, but I’ve made the sky too dark and threatening, needs to be lighter.

Nice Summers day, or more of a tonal contrast? (What would we do without Ernie’s Archive?)

 

No, no Bob! The sky SHOULD be very dull.

I once told Andy Cundick that his Valentia Harbour needed some clever use of maybe a double layer of glass with water pouring down it to simulate the real thing!

[Northroader]

1 hour ago, Galteemore said:

Very nice! Waterford and Tramore or MGWR? 

It does have very dark green wheels, like a tramcar you helpfully pointed out to me. Just got to get it past JB.

[Northroader]

44 minutes ago, leslie10646 said:

No, no Bob! The sky SHOULD be very dull.

I once told Andy Cundick that his Valentia Harbour needed some clever use of maybe a double layer of glass with water pouring down it to simulate the real thing!

Trouble is, I think a bit of colour makes the whole lot look more attractive. I thought Andy did capture some rain at the scene of his Valentia layout really well. I was at a show a while ago, where the guy had gone out of his way for an industrial Northern valley, and it just looked terribly dowdy.

Colour, Leslie!

[Galteemore]

13 minutes ago, Northroader said:

Trouble is, I think a bit of colour makes the whole lot look more attractive. I thought Andy did capture some rain at the scene of his Valentia layout really well. I was at a show a while ago, where the guy had gone out of his way for an industrial Northern valley, and it just looked terribly dowdy.

Colour, Leslie!

Leslie takes the Henry Ford approach to colour - any colour you like as long as it’s blue …..

[leslie10646]

Hah! @Galteemore, at least you made sure that the "New U" was "ARMAGH itself (which is in my collection, of course).

Actually, I find GNR black with mahogany coaches almost as big a turn on. Like a wee T Tank with mahogany coaches.