Clogherhead - A GNR(I) Seaside Terminus

[Patrick Davey]

Following on from my 'Rumblings' thread...... I now have a plan for a new layout.  Staying with the GNR(I), I'm heading down to County Louth for a fictional seaside terminus, at Clogherhead.  The idea is that the history of this branch closely mirrors that of the nearby Ardee branch, being a late opener and early closer to regular passenger services, but the seaside location gave an advantage in that excursions remained fairly consistent until final closure in 1975, and there was also a steady traffic in sand which the GNR (and later CIE) were licensed to extract from the nearby beach (probably totally implausible but works for me!)

The layout will be set in the decaying 1970s, a perfect setting for my black & tan IRM & MM stock.

The layout will have the following:

* 6ft x 2ft baseboard (built a long time ago for a previous layout)

* DCC - chips have been acquired!

* Passenger terminus - GNR(I) polychrome brick

* Derelict signal cabin - built (pic below)

* Sand store

* Seaside pavilion - under construction (pics below)

The branch would have been worked from Drogheda, and left the GN mainline a few miles north of Drogheda, to swing east and enter Clogherhead from the south, with the terminus being located beside the beach:

I can already hear the seagulls........

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 25, 2023 by Patrick Davey

[DJ Dangerous]

This is gonna be great!

How seaside-ish will it be?

[Patrick Davey]

1 hour ago, DJ Dangerous said:

This is gonna be great!

How seaside-ish will it be?

There will be more sand than ballast between the sleepers 

Edited May 25, 2023 by Patrick Davey

[Tullygrainey]

Looking good Patrick. Great back story too. Best wishes for this one. 

[Galteemore]

Fabulous. My favourite part of the GN main is the seaside section between Louth and north Dublin. Lots of scope too for an RPSI special behind that U of yours…..and I can foresee the Hunslet making the odd visit…..

Edited May 25, 2023 by Galteemore

[Niles]

Excellent idea. You could probably justify a Tara Mines flow too had it survived into the modern day.

[Patrick Davey]

CLOGHERHEAD TRACKPLAN

Here's a rough idea of the trackplan so far, using an 'aerial' photo of the roughly-positioned track.

The site is bordered on the left and top by a road, which may have some low relief buildings.  Not a lot of trees in this plan due to the exposed location.  Passenger trains enter from under the classic scenic break overbridge to the left, cross the double slip and stop at the platform, the loco runs round (just enough space in the headhunt for an A class loco!) then takes the train out again.  The platform will be longer than I can show in this plan.  Sand wagons can be brought into the headhunt below the pavilion (which will be on a higher level) and shunted down to the sand store.

The beach completes the plan.

Edit: There won't be as many straight lines as shown here!

Edited May 26, 2023 by Patrick Davey

[Northroader]

And you’ve got a beach!

[Patrick Davey]

Some basic interior detailing being added to the pavilion along with roof lettering.

 

[Patrick Davey]

My obsession for interior detail returns…..and I just had to create skylights, so it might be seen!

 

 

[Tullygrainey]

Lovely work Patrick. Just taking in the artwork on the walls now I'm viewing this on a desktop. When I looked at it on my phone earlier, I took them for windows! Can't quite identify the artists though

Alan

[Patrick Davey]

3 minutes ago, Tullygrainey said:

Lovely work Patrick. Just taking in the artwork on the walls now I'm viewing this on a desktop. When I looked at it on my phone earlier, I took them for windows! Can't quite identify the artists though

Alan

Thanks Alan: they are all originals by someone called Scalescenes Downloads......

 

[Tullygrainey]

Of course! Should have known. He did some work at Loughan Quay...

[DJ Dangerous]

Lovely jailhouse feel to those long bench tables.

Edited June 1, 2023 by DJ Dangerous

[Mayner]

 Although born and bred in Dublin never actually visited Clogherhead, nearest were childhood trips by car to the seaside at Gormanstown and a couple of visits to Butlins with friends in my early teens including one by train returning non-stop Mosney-Connolly in an ex-GNR K15 coach, first journey on a fast train being used to AEC railcars on Connolly-Bray subbies.

Its possible Clogherhead might have become a GNR equivalent of the BCDR Ardglass a Light Railway branchline serving a quiet seaside terminus and fishing port possibly with a couple of morning and evening peak-hour Dublin-Drogheda services running through to Clogherhead for season-ticket holders and day-trippers, only light axle locos like U & UG and similar small locos allowed over the line because of its light railway heritage. Possibly some of the entrepreneurs/political figures behind Ireland's drive for self-sufficiency during the 1930 (ESB,CSE,BNM etc) though an Irish equivalent of Butlins or Pontins may not be a bad idea. 

[Galteemore]

Butlins….Now there’s an interesting bypath and potential cameo….for some odd reason, back in the 60s, Billy Butlin bought up several steam locos for display at his English camps. https://www.butlins-memories.com/other/locos.htm
 

Although the scheme fizzled out, the locos he saved then entered mainstream preservation. I have read in an authentic source that Butlin was apparently going to acquire a VS for Mosney but the scheme didn’t come off. Perhaps Clogherhead Camp succeeded where Butlin failed…..;)

Edited June 2, 2023 by Galteemore

[Patrick Davey]

Tea room completed. Pity it’s closed, looks like it would have been a nice spot for a coffee and an iced diamond….

Edited June 2, 2023 by Patrick Davey

[leslie10646]

15 hours ago, Galteemore said:

Butlins….Now there’s an interesting bypath and potential cameo….for some odd reason, back in the 60s, Billy Butlin bought up several steam locos for display at his English camps. https://www.butlins-memories.com/other/locos.htm
 

Although the scheme fizzled out, the locos he saved then entered mainstream preservation. I have read in an authentic source that Butlin was apparently going to acquire a VS for Mosney but the scheme didn’t come off. Perhaps Clogherhead Camp succeeded where Butlin failed…..;)

Yes, G'More, that story, Apocryphal or not, did do the rounds. If he'd got No.207, I wouldn't be saving a couple of Million to build a new one from scratch!

Great building, Patrick, especially the interior - one wonders what your fertile brain will come up with next?

You could build an Orange Hall for that well-known Co. Louth Lodge LOL 1916?

[Patrick Davey]

Great suggestion @leslie10646 - it would surely have sash windows? 

[Mayner]

2 hours ago, Patrick Davey said:

Tea room completed. Pity it’s closed, looks like it would have been a nice spot for a coffee and an iced diamond….

Almost looks like it was shut down by the Food Standards people or District Health Board.

[leslie10646]

9 hours ago, Patrick Davey said:

Great suggestion @leslie10646 - it would surely have sash windows? 

Nice one Patrick - I really asked for that!

Now, about the advertising ON THE ROOF -are you expecting passing aircraft to "'drop in" for a cuppa char? I assume that Clogherhead is going to include a local Flying Club with a suitably flat-ish field to land bi-planes?

[Patrick Davey]

A friend on another forum wanted to know who ran the tea rooms and I was able to find out the following information from a Co. Louth local history website:

".....the tea room at Clogherhead station was run by a retired husband and wife team, Earl Grey and Nan Barrie. Their friend's granddaughter would occasionally help out at busy times, she was called Miss Kipling - she was fifteen and exceedingly good at her job but sadly they had to let her go due to her fondness for putting her hair in a bun.  There was also a Miss Cherry and she would definitely bake well but some of her products were a bit crepe.  The tea house was very popular with visiting troops of brownies and it did well until the 1970s when it hit a bit of a rocky road and the turnover began to crumble."

Edited June 3, 2023 by Patrick Davey

[Tullygrainey]

Stop,  Patrick!

[DJ Dangerous]

The puns are definitely not stale in this thread.

[Galteemore]

18 minutes ago, Tullygrainey said:

Stop,  Patrick!

Hopefully that message will percolate through to him. 

[Patrick Davey]

Gone to ground now. 

[Patrick Davey]

So it’s on to the station building next, which is going to be based on the very attractive example at Dunleer. A lot of Great Northern station buildings had a glazed wooden panel fronting the platform so that’s where I have started.

The diagonal boarding was created by gluing together 1 mm plastic strips and cutting them into 10 mm² panels with the strips set at 45°.  There is another layer of small windows to go along the top.

The panels had sliding doors, so I might fix these in an open position.
 

 

[Galteemore]

Classic GNR Patrick. Agreed- Dunleer is a lovely building. Are those signalbox windows again? 

[Patrick Davey]

1 minute ago, Galteemore said:

Classic GNR Patrick. Agreed- Dunleer is a lovely building. Are those signalbox windows again? 

Yip - the last ones I had, so I’m glad I didn’t break any!

[Patrick Davey]

18 minutes ago, Patrick Davey said:

Yip - the last ones I had, so I’m glad I didn’t break any!

The Ratio Midland Railway cabin windows have to have some of the vertical framing removed to match the GN ones and it can be a heart stopping moment each time…..

[Louth]

Dunleer is an great prototype and your model looks great (the island waiting room in Drogheda is somewhat similar to the now demolished one in Dunleer). I recently completed a GNRI platform shelter using Ratio signal box windows. The building had to be constructed slightly over-scale to get the proportions correct. Dimensions were based on the shelter in Gormanstown which is one of the few remaining on the system. I have almost completed a GNRI signal box, again using the Ratio windows, but am a bit stymied by how to do the gable-end finials. Help anyone??

[Patrick Davey]

1 hour ago, Louth said:

Dunleer is an great prototype and your model looks great (the island waiting room in Drogheda is somewhat similar to the now demolished one in Dunleer). I recently completed a GNRI platform shelter using Ratio signal box windows. The building had to be constructed slightly over-scale to get the proportions correct. Dimensions were based on the shelter in Gormanstown which is one of the few remaining on the system. I have almost completed a GNRI signal box, again using the Ratio windows, but am a bit stymied by how to do the gable-end finials. Help anyone??

That is an absolute beauty well done! I would like to see photos of your cabin as well?  For a previous build, I had used finials from Shapeways, but they were very easily broken, so I have used whitemetal ones for my recent cabin builds, I shall look up the link where I ordered them from and update this post accordingly.

That is a really beautiful shelter, and looks like a very neat build, would like to see more!

UPDATE: Here is the link to the whitemetal finials I used: https://www.wizardmodels.ltd/shop/buildings/slc012/

 

Edited June 4, 2023 by Patrick Davey

[Louth]

Thanks Patrick. I will take a few photos and put them up. I'll check out Shapeways and would very much appreciate the link to the white metal finials. Kevin

 

[Patrick Davey]

Just now, Louth said:

Thanks Patrick. I will take a few photos and put them up. I'll check out Shapeways and would very much appreciate the link to the white metal finials. Kevin

 

Updated my post above with the link Kevin.  They are great finials, quite close to the GN ones and very robust.

[Louth]

Thanks again Patrick. The Wizard finials are perfect.  Below are photos before cladding and after painting from the side.

Kevin