Westport Quay and the Project 42 Inglenook

[Sean]

I couldn't do the last of the ballasting without first doing the hill.

Now that that's all done I've just completed the last bit of scattering to the left of the tracks and with that the module is basically done!

 

I've still got to resurface the roads and I'll later add trees but officially I can now end construction and clean the rails in anticipation of some running over the weekend

[JasonB]

On 2/4/2023 at 6:53 PM, Sean said:

Ballasting in progress!

Lovely shot. Have to say, both the Ballast and Plough are still up there as one of my favourite IRM releases to date.  

[Sean]

my only regret is not buying a few packs of gypsums when they were still around as i love pulling a rake of these with a supertrain 121 going bonnet forward.

very unprototypical but looks like somthing youd see on a small private railroad in america at a quarry or somthing.

[DJ Dangerous]

3 minutes ago, Sean said:

my only regret is not buying a few packs of gypsums when they were still around as i love pulling a rake of these with a supertrain 121 going bonnet forward.

very unprototypical but looks like somthing youd see on a small private railroad in america at a quarry or somthing.

Get yourself a few Mags. Gorgeous little wagons, probably the nicest IRM wagon on that shared chassis.

[Branchline121]

28 minutes ago, Sean said:

my only regret is not buying a few packs of gypsums when they were still around as i love pulling a rake of these with a supertrain 121 going bonnet forward.

very unprototypical but looks like somthing youd see on a small private railroad in america at a quarry or somthing.

or a dreamy Kingscourt…

[Mayner]

2 hours ago, Sean said:

my only regret is not buying a few packs of gypsums when they were still around as i love pulling a rake of these with a supertrain 121 going bonnet forward.

very unprototypical but looks like somthing youd see on a small private railroad in america at a quarry or somthing.

Came across this on a Shortline while visiting family in the Mid-West about 20 years ago. Not quite 121s and 20T hopper wagons, infrastructure in a better state than the Kingscourt Branch or Westport Quay back in the day.

Both trains were parked on the "main line" locos locked and crews gone home or for a break, one facing South one North about 10 miles apart one in a town at an elevator the other out in the middle of the Prairie.

Typical small town serving the original freight house and elevator with additional steel grain bins, in this case receiving plastic pellets.

Should have stuck to the American modelling than going down the Irish 21mm gauge Rabbit Hole

Edited April 8, 2023 by Mayner

[Sean]

This was my pet project for a couple of weeks before I decided to build this random extra module.

Veteran 143 is in dummy hooked up to a newly delivered 129 to handle the mainline work. 

Both units are fitted with sound and a nice enough mix was achieved between the two locos. The volume is also set quite low in these units as my layout is set in a very small room and not alot of volume is needed particularly when I might have another loco running in the shunting yard that I would like to keep out of earshot until I actually go over to that yard. To complete this project ill need a dutch van with room for a speaker inside so we can have some generator sounds buzzing away as the train runs.

Another advantage to keeping the volume this low is that the coach noise can still be heard and these all combined create a nice little ambience that I can assume is at a somewhat "scale" volume if I consider the click clack made by wagons to be a constraint of the overall mix. Anyway . Two very quick observations.

 

I need to somehow get a taller backscene.

 

I must start shooting things on the GoPro, as the microphone and camera sensors far outdo the quality of the potato phone that I usually shooot on. 

Edited April 9, 2023 by Sean

[DJ Dangerous]

What ever happened to Project Dutch? Did @murphaph provide pictures or dimensions or something?

[Sean]

Still pondering it but ive a feeling we may see an RTR one sooner rather than later.

[DJ Dangerous]

2 hours ago, Sean said:

Still pondering it but ive a feeling we may see an RTR one sooner rather than later.

You mean 19 days from now?

[Branchline121]

On 8/4/2023 at 2:29 AM, Mayner said:

Kingscourt Branch

 

[Sean]

as would be expected after a few weeks of neglect trains were not running well around the loop and derailments were common, as theres an n gauge layout blocking my view this was making me very paranoid of a catastrophic derailment into the window sill!

so out came the n layout and today was spent reworking all of the background trackwork and getting it permenantly pinned down so trains are running beautifully now.

Fingers crossed.

the first radius siding has been given an exit route back into the loop so now i have a very nicely sized passing siding allowing me to keep 2 trains in service on the loop as i see fit. (Automation anyone?)

 

On 7/4/2023 at 11:39 PM, Sean said:

my only regret is not buying a few packs of gypsums when they were still around as i love pulling a rake of these with a supertrain 121 going bonnet forward.

very unprototypical but looks like somthing youd see on a small private railroad in america at a quarry or somthing.

Enevitable this was gonna happen after talking fondly about it  

On 7/4/2023 at 11:43 PM, DJ Dangerous said:

Get yourself a few Mags. Gorgeous little wagons, probably the nicest IRM wagon on that shared chassis.

the aesthethic isnt 100% there for me for this despite them being awfully similar, and besides i really cannot justify the financial turmoil of starting to build up yet another rake.... LOL, on the other hand im HIGHLY tempted to grab a few of the last ballasts to pad this rake out fully  

On 8/4/2023 at 12:08 AM, Branchline121 said:

or a dreamy Kingscourt…

 

On 10/4/2023 at 4:59 PM, Branchline121 said:

 

hmmmmmmmmmm 

 

Edited April 12, 2023 by Sean

[Patrick Davey]

Nice!  Always great to see trains running.

[DJ Dangerous]

On 10/2/2023 at 7:20 PM, Sean said:

 

 

 

I love this shot!

[Sean]

The PFA are a brilliant alternative if you want 20 foot flats but dont want to be putting kits together they have a fully modernised chassis too.

[DJ Dangerous]

52 minutes ago, Sean said:

The PFA are a brilliant alternative if you want 20 foot flats but dont want to be putting kits together they have a fully modernised chassis too.

How similar are they to Irish flats, aside from the colour?

[Sean]

if ya took off all the text and signs the biggest obvious difference is those big shoulders at the front and back of the container, I think the irish ones were taller too, the chassis covers up a lot of the visible portions of the wheelsets on these. 

 

they are a HUGE upgrade from the chopped up hornby carriage flats i had made up before this, they also had come in slightly too long,  they have kinematic coupling and all that other nice modern stuff. and they are rather heavy.

 

considering converting the containers into coal load containers so i can do an asahi liner.

[Sean]

So what's this then lol

[DJ Dangerous]

Hope it's well protected from the doggie!

[Sean]

i am convinced beyond reasonable doubt that that was some sort of "I am the one who knocks" territorial power move, lil shit.

[DJ Dangerous]

What size is the new layout? I had one in the attic when I was younger, 14' x 6', consisting of 8 x baseboards each measuring 4' x 2'.

[Sean]

I like to think of it as just under half a mile 

 

co-incidentally, this is made up of 8x 4x1.5 foot boards, overall we are at 12x7.

I think were going to need a bigger thread, this aint westport no more! 

[derek]

What happened this layout Sean?