I am making my first ever layout i am trying to make harcourt street line im doing harcourt, viaduct at mill town nine arches, dundrum station and foxrock station.

[james1994]

3 minutes ago, Georgeconna said:

Lattice is the design of the post, the one from Dapol is a solid wooden post. Lattice was Metal as per the piccy below.

 

 

This one from dapol also would be good 

3 minutes ago, james1994 said:

This one from dapol also would be good 

Only bummer with signal is its upper quadrant 

[james1994]

Would anyone know if the motorised signal I got from dapol would work with a z21 signal decoder. I'm trying find out if it has momentary switching in the z 21 signal decoder so works with the dapol motorised signal.

 

I haven't bought the decoder yet.

Edited May 16, 2024 by james1994

[Sven-E]

On 16/5/2024 at 4:14 PM, james1994 said:

Would anyone know if the motorised signal I got from dapol would work with a z21 signal decoder. I'm trying find out if it has momentary switching in the z 21 signal decoder so works with the dapol motorised signal.

Don't know about that decoder. The problem with the Dapol semaphores is the momentary switching as you mention. There are some fixes for this.

MERG has a replacement PCB that changes the operation so you can use a toggle switch. You need to be a MERG member for this and capable of soldering SMD components. I have converted two of these signals so I can testify that it is not too hard to build.

I have seen a kit that uses a toggle switch as input and does the momentary connection for the signal when the switch changes. I think this was from Heathcode, but I am not sure. Problem here is that the unit can get out of sync with the switch.

Dave Fenton of Megapoints produced a Youtube video where he replaced the motor part of the semaphore with a servo. Then he could control the semaphore from his servo controlers and get a nice bounce effect.

[james1994]

Update restructured baseboard and still working on the layout it has been slow process but i will get there. working on dun laoghaire in south dublin model railway club ive got better knowlege of layouts and building now. everything is going as good as it can. i am gaining skills i didnt have when i first posted here. point motors are the next thing to go into the dundrum part of the layout. it is easy enough station to model i want the track perfect before any scenery is put in. it is taking bit time to do the layout but its mostly cause when i started out didnt really know what i was doing now i do. once point motors are in i will put put pictures up of it working.

 

will work on brass model kits as well to start off with wickam inspection car then next to a plough van cie then on the coaches and last the locos as the locos are easily the most complex.

[derek]

Welcome back James

[LNERW1]

On 29/4/2023 at 3:49 PM, Kevin Sweeney said:

The Harcourt Street station house was 362 feet long by 138 feet wide. In OO this building would have a footprint of 1.448 metres by .552 metres. That would be a tight enough squeeze in the space available. In OO it would need 2 metres to accommodate the full width of the station. You could half that with N scale, but there is no Irish rolling stock available in that scale.

Starting a modelling career by scratch building a big station like Harcourt Street would be incredibly ambitious, a bit like learning to fly in a fighter jet rather than a Cessna. Dundrum or Foxrock would be a more realistic project to learn the craft and a better fit for the space available.

If you want to try card modelling for making buildings, Scalescenes have some free download kits. I started my modelling career with the free Scalescenes coal office. I spent several years building Scalescenes kits before I moved on to scratch building. As a scratch builder i have developed many techniques of my own, but my basic method is still based on the Scalescenes method.

R024 Weighbridge/Coal Office - Scalescenes

I know you are anxious to get cracking and do some great modelling, but realistically you are at the beginning of a very long road, you face many steep learning curves in the years ahead. I love modelling because it is such a contrast from the instant gratification and speed of the modern world. All progress in modelling comes from slow, diligent, application, there are no quick wins. You can build a model of Harcourt Street, all that stand between you and that goal is acquiring the technical and artistic skills to do it. But that will take time. In my early years modelling I was always in a rush to see a finished product and would cut corners to speed things up, time has taught me the virtue of patience.

I would also endorse Flying Snails suggestion to check out the Chandwell Youtube channel. Michael at Chanwell is the man who sets the standards I aspire to achieving.

For some practical tips on surveying a building you want to model, check out the second half of this classic BBC Model World video.

 

 

 

That's such a lovely snapshot of the early 70s- or at least I assume that's the time period we're talking! Everything down to the half-hearted hi-vis jacket worn by the wonderful gentleman presenting. And a lovely layout to boot. Thanks for posting this clip.

[Galteemore]

The bearded gent is Bob Symes, an Austrian aristocrat who fled the Nazis and had a remarkable life. His WW2 service for instance - courtesy of Wikipedia…

After gaining the required letter of recommendation, due to his ability to speak German, French, Arabic and English, Symes was commissioned as a Lieutenant into the Royal Navy, operating Motor Torpedo Boats (MTBs) in the Mediterranean while based in Alexandria.[2][3] Quickly rising to command his own boat, he broke anti-torpedo measures in a raid on Tripoli.[2][3] After rising to the rank of Lieutenant Commander, he took part in protecting the landings that led to the liberation of Crete.[2][3]

[Kevin Sweeney]

7 minutes ago, Galteemore said:

The bearded gent is Bob Symes, an Austrian aristocrat who fled the Nazis and had a remarkable life. His WW2 service for instance - courtesy of Wikipedia…

After gaining the required letter of recommendation, due to his ability to speak German, French, Arabic and English, Symes was commissioned as a Lieutenant into the Royal Navy, operating Motor Torpedo Boats (MTBs) in the Mediterranean while based in Alexandria.[2][3] Quickly rising to command his own boat, he broke anti-torpedo measures in a raid on Tripoli.[2][3] After rising to the rank of Lieutenant Commander, he took part in protecting the landings that led to the liberation of Crete.[2][3]

A wonderful TV presenter, the personification of old school charm, a real action hero and a perfect gentleman. I have wonderful memories of watching him on BBC in my childhood, I think it was him who first stirred my interest in model making. Quite the contrast to the kind of zany morons that dominate todays media landscape.

[Mayner]

1 hour ago, LNERW1 said:

That's such a lovely snapshot of the early 70s- or at least I assume that's the time period we're talking! Everything down to the half-hearted hi-vis jacket worn by the wonderful gentleman presenting. 

The half-hearted hi-vis jacket takes me back to the mid 80s working for an Irish owned groundwork company on a Tesco construction site in London, possibly Wates as main contractor. At the time H&S was pretty much a top-down thing the main contractors managers wore hard hats and possibly hi-vis, safety gear (apart from boots (your own) pretty unknown for the contractors men (very few female construction workers then) till an edict went out that we had to wear high vis, it was mid winter and for several weeks I customarily wore an army surplus coat as my cloak of invisibility over my half-hearted hi vis jacket and no one form management said a word.

Anyway Bob Symes was an excellent presenter and a highly creative modeller who brought a sense of adventure to the hobby , I think he was involved in the building of diesel-electric powered Gauge 1 Class 47 a loco and possibly a diesel-hydraulic powered Class 35 or Hymek diesel. There was a series of articles on the building of the Class 47 with wonderful graphic (possibly hand drawn) illustrations in Model Railways magazine in the Mid-Late 70s, yeah those were the times!

[NorthWallDocker]

James, I once knew very well the places you wish to represent in miniature.  So I'm rooting for you.

You probably already considered the hard reality that, as much as the real places fascinate us, we cannot reproduce them in miniature.  We sometimes, though, can represent those places with the most iconic features.  

Thinking about the area you're describing, to me, the most memorable features are the Milltown bridge and the valley below.  The distance between, say, Milltown and Dundrum is not necessarily a memorable feature.  

Iain Rice wrote many inspiring, insightful books about representing the real world in miniature.  Before him, an American named John Armstrong wrote about model railway design.  You might want to spend time immersing yourself in them, if you haven't already.  I'm doing the same.

You probably are already thinking this, but "selective compression" of a real place into a representative miniature design is what allows us to make something recognizable. 

You'll also want to think about what you really want your end goal to "feel like."  Do you want to run model trains from one end to the other, recreating Harcourt Street Station to Foxrock (or Dundrum)?  Or might you want to represent the feeling of the railway line, perhaps by having an around-the-room set of relatively narrow modular layout sections (perhaps 12 inches to 18 inches deep), where the train leaves Harcourt Street Station, crosses Milltown bridge and the river valley, then pulls into Dundrum, then perhaps circles back past your terminus?

I look forward to your creative exploration.

[minister_for_hardship]

8 hours ago, LNERW1 said:

the half-hearted hi-vis jacket 

IE had those up to the 1990s aka The Bra.

[james1994]

14 hours ago, NorthWallDocker said:

James, I once knew very well the places you wish to represent in miniature.  So I'm rooting for you.

You probably already considered the hard reality that, as much as the real places fascinate us, we cannot reproduce them in miniature.  We sometimes, though, can represent those places with the most iconic features.  

Thinking about the area you're describing, to me, the most memorable features are the Milltown bridge and the valley below.  The distance between, say, Milltown and Dundrum is not necessarily a memorable feature.  

Iain Rice wrote many inspiring, insightful books about representing the real world in miniature.  Before him, an American named John Armstrong wrote about model railway design.  You might want to spend time immersing yourself in them, if you haven't already.  I'm doing the same.

You probably are already thinking this, but "selective compression" of a real place into a representative miniature design is what allows us to make something recognizable. 

You'll also want to think about what you really want your end goal to "feel like."  Do you want to run model trains from one end to the other, recreating Harcourt Street Station to Foxrock (or Dundrum)?  Or might you want to represent the feeling of the railway line, perhaps by having an around-the-room set of relatively narrow modular layout sections (perhaps 12 inches to 18 inches deep), where the train leaves Harcourt Street Station, crosses Milltown bridge and the river valley, then pulls into Dundrum, then perhaps circles back past your terminus?

I look forward to your creative exploration.

What I would like to do is make the goods sidings two of the lines into a through line so trains can run the whole way around the layout. So have trains always passing by each other. Like as if the line is busy with trains going up and down. End to end is maybe simpler but means I can't have train run the whole way around more Minding to do. Pretty much stations will be Harcourt street Dundrum and Foxrock. the nine arches i will have after Harcourt Street. I dont have space for Milltown so it's not gonna be there. Just going for places I have most interest in. I want to be realistic as possible but also put in my own creative spin to it. I want to make it look realistic not just like a play thing layout. For instance I will be putting catinarys as a what if stayed open and become a dart line later. It will mostly be older rolling stock on it and 1950s era buildings but I want to be flexible also with like super train and that. If it had of Survived you would of had mk 2ds and other coaches on it. 

Edited Thursday at 15:02 by james1994

[james1994]

My first time doing weathering on a loco 

This is some weathering I also have done on bullied wagons too as well.

 

Any feedback on loco or wagons would be great always looking to be more better

[Patrick Davey]

Weathering looks spot on!

[james1994]

9 minutes ago, Patrick Davey said:

Weathering looks spot on!

Thank you it was my first time ever weathering locos and wagons but any feedback or maybe little improvements be great. 

[james1994]

I have few brass model kits from studio scale models first to build will be the wickam inspection car then next the plough van then the coaches and lastly engines slive gullion and 800 

Edited Saturday at 12:06 by james1994

[Tullygrainey]

1 hour ago, james1994 said:

I have few brass model kits from studio scale models first to build will be the wickam inspection car then next the plough van then the coaches and lastly engines slive gullion and 800 

That's an impressive to-do list James. Take your time over it and enjoy the process. Be prepared for it to be challenging and likely to go wrong occasionally but keep at it. Most things are remediable, especially brass kits and the more we do, the better we get at it. 

Your weathering looks good. I especially like the wagons - subtle but suitably decrepit!

Alan

[derek]

9 hours ago, james1994 said:

My first time doing weathering on a loco 

This is some weathering I also have done on bullied wagons too as well.

 

Any feedback on loco or wagons would be great always looking to be more better

Love the job on the loco James. Any chance of a side on view?  What did you use to weather it? And how? Basically I want a step by step tutorial. I am thinking of weathering my A class, but don't think I will ever get up the nerve unless I know exactly what to do and use

[dropshort105]

That looks great, powder, wash or airbrush ?

[jhb171achill]

Superb weaterhing. You've absolutely nailed how they looked in their later days!

[james1994]

So weathering is black ak pigment I put over first with a dry brush. Then after that I for the ak enamel wash I put that over the model so to soak the pigment so it sticks. Enamel wash is for ship streaking but it does good job on gernally making models look more real. After what I do is while it's wet is wipe excess off with cotton bud and and paper blue towel to give finish that looks more realistic.

Then for bogies I did rust pigment and rust wash ak again then when it dried out the streaking over it so it's like bits of rust showing.

[james1994]

For the top of the model at both roof ends I need to make the streaking go more sideways as of right now the streaking goes back but in real life it has to go more like rain falling on the sides so that's a change to do a picture will show better

[Mol_PMB]

On 10/5/2025 at 10:12 AM, james1994 said:

This is some weathering I also have done on bullied wagons too as well.

Any feedback on loco or wagons would be great always looking to be more better

That's a massive improvement on the wagon compared to a shiny one out of the box - well done. It's similar to this photo on Flickr by Neil Smith:

Your door bangers and brake gear stand out as a bit clean on the model - these are often some of the dirtier/rustier bits.
With weathering, it's often best to copy what you see (in photos or on the real thing) rather than what you think it ought to look like, and the real thing can produce some surprising colours and effects.

Of course, wagons exist in all sorts of weathering states from almost brand-new to well-used, and out-of use wagons can look different from those in service. With the three I've done so far, I was aiming to have one very dilapidated one, another reasonably clean but with signs of use, and the third somewhere in between. I've probably slightly overdone the weathering on these. I've got a few more to weather now and I'll probably try for a subtler job representing more recently overhauled wagons.

One thing you often see is two vertical bands of brownish weathering on the ends, just inboard of the buffers. This is from dirty water thrown up from the wheelsets of the adjacent wagon, so they should be the same distance apart as the rails:

You might consider a little more variation in the weathering colours - at the moment it's all shades of rusty brown which is good, but there are some areas that might be an oily/greasy black/gunmetal such as the axleboxes and lower part of the W-irons, as seen in this photo on Flickr by Jonathan Allen:

They could be loaded with all sorts of things, and some loads might well colour the interior. Coal would tend to blacken it, but this example on Flickr from Ernie seems to have been loaded with lime and is white inside! That would be quite unusual but you can use your imagination about what the wagon last carried. Maybe it carried crates that had been packed in with straw and there's a bit of straw left over, or if it was loaded with beet there are probably a few roots and a bit of mud left behind.

Finally, gravity plays its part and you often see rust stains going vertically down from parts unprotected by the galvanising (particularly the door catches), or from random spills and drips:

I think your wagon weathering is extremely good, especially for a first attempt - you should be very pleased with it.  You asked for feedback so I hope these suggestions will inspire you to do some more.

 

I've also got a couple of orange locos to weather, but I haven't started yet so I don't feel qualified to comment on yours! I look forward to seeing more photos as inspiration for what I do with my 141s.

[David Holman]

The latest Railway Modeller has an article on weathering a Class 37 which looks very useful.