Drogheda MacBride Station And Platin Cement Factory

[Anders112]

So after years and years of having make shift layouts without just track on MDF board on our Garage floor. I've Finally decided to take the leap and built a proper layout in the Garage . My layout will be a replica of Drogheda Macbride Station with the Navan Branch line running to Platin Cement Factory. i After lots of hours on Flickr and Youtube researching, ive come up with the following layout design,

Any recommendations or help for the layout would be greatly appreciated 

Why Drogheda and Platin ? 

 This was a easy one, my Dad was a Loco driver based in Drogheda station from the 1980s up till the mid 2000s,He drove numerous passengers trains and majorly drove all the freight on the Navan Branch line such as Cement from Platin, Taras from Navan and Gypsum to Kingscourt .A lot of childhood memories of mine were made of watching trains roll into and out of Drogheda or going on weekend adventures by train with Drogheda being the focal point 

This layout will also be a memorial to my dad, Unfortunately he passed away very suddenly a couple of years ago in his late 50s. Collecting Model trains was a big past time that my Dad and I shared together when I was younger. Regrettably as I look back now,when I was in college, my interest in model railways was distract with all the fun of college life. however, since Dad has passed, I’ve re kindled my love for model railways and have found great comfort in remembering him by them.

What era will it be based on ? 

My layout of Drogheda will be based on the Iris Rail "Points" or "Tippex"  era. From looking at photos on the internet, Im going to base it on the decade starting form the year 1987 to 1997. This will allow me to have a cross over in a broad range of liveries such as CIE Supertain, Supertrain with points, Irish Rail Tippex with dayglo and introduction of Iarnrod Eireann plug and socket livery. The majority of my existing rollingstock is in the Irish Rail Tippex liveries. In addition to this numerous Freight and passenger flows that could be replicated such as 

Passenger:

1. Enterprise -Mark 2Bs hauled by both NIR 111s and with then Introduced 208 and 209 in Nir Blue 
2. Orange Mk2s- regularly served the Irish rail set of the Enterprise hauled by A classes, 071s and later in this period 201s
3. Dietrich Enterprise - Trials for the now existing enterprise sets started in 1997 
4. MK3 Push Pulls- Drogheda was served daily by Mk3 Push pull, propelled by 121 or later a 201 
5. Suburban- Cravens hauled by all types of locos ( Park royals were also made up in sets ) 
6.  Arrow - 2600 introduced in 1994
7. Nir Railcars/thumpers 

 Freight (where do I begin ) - Each flow has endless possibility in terms of Locos and rollling stock 

1. Cement- Bubbles, Pallet ( New type and Old type with wheels),Bogie Bulkers 
2. Gypsum
3. Taras 
4. Liners - Such as Bell and Belfast or Dundalk liners 
5. Kegs 
6. Fertilizers
7. Timber ( ill get back to this in a later post )  

1997 is an important year to note, in April 1997, Drogheda station went under major redevelopment and the foundations in terms of track plans were laid for the now Railcar depot. 

Layout plans 

Here is what yous have been looking for. This is a dream layout, where storage for the layout and skill to model it is in abundance ( I wish ) . This is a rough plan but shows the main idea 

The layout will be made up of a double oval which will represent the Up and Down of the Belfast line. The layout will be broken in two main segments: 1) MacBride station 2) Platin cement factory

I had made track plans for both using Any Rail software and have saved photos from 1990s which ill attach in the next comment to prevent this being one majorly long text 

Please feel free to give your Comments, opinions and  recommendations as I keep yous updated on creating Drogeheda MacBride and Platin

Looking forward to It 

Dave

 

[Gabhal Luimnigh]

Great stuff, I'll put on the kettle......

[Anders112]

Platin 

as you can see in the photos attached Platin was a hive of activity and brought a very busy freight flow to Drogheda in the 1980s,90s and early 2000s. Modeling Platin Yard to me  made sense as it allows me to store the Cement Bubbles, pallet cements and bogie bulkers in the sidings. Aswell as running Taras and Gypsum through the plant,

Below is attached my track plans of the above photos. 1) A general track plan 2) The names of each of the sidings which I was informed by a Form Loco driver and colleague of Dad 3) Any rail plans 

Please excuse my Bad handwriting, Here is a plan view of Platin and the loading roads. I am aware in the real life platin there is slight curve to the  right but it was just easy to draw straight lines 

As you can see from my second diagram and the photo above, each type of wagon had its place in Platin. The pallet cement were on the left hand of the yard that led up to the rolling door of the warehouse. The bulk cement and Bogie bulkers generally were on loading roads underneath the cement Silo  the gypsum was kept on the right in two sidings (the second one is kind of hid by the rockface to the right ) 

Any Rail track Plans 

My primary research for designing platin track plans were from the following videos (Videos start at sections of videos in platin) 

 

 Unfortunately as the cement traffic decrease in volume a number of the sidings were not use and became storage areas for the permeant way 

 

 

The now sad sight of Platin, a number of the sidings removed only action is permeant way and ballast trains. Hopefully we will see Taras rolling through here again later on in the year.

 

Edited March 30 by Anders112

[Gabhal Luimnigh]

Great pictures and great plan, best of luck Dave.

[Anders112]

Drogheda Macbride Station 

This will be the main section of my layout, where passengers trains will be running through or terminating. Freight trains will have a lot of shunting and running around to do. I have divided this section of the layout into five sections 

1. Platform 1 and 2 - including the famous middle row , this will be made up of station buildings and platforms, Car park and freight depot 
2. Navan Branch line- with buffer to reverse trains against the buffer stop
3. Yard and Wagon shed- Four sidings with wagon shed and turntable 
4. Buckies siding and bridge 
5. Drogheda North signal box  /Freight Bay 

Platform 1 and 2 

This will be my main for passengers trains coming and going 

 

 

This section will be made up of Platform 1 which has the main building of the station, Platform 2 which has a waiting room and canopy, connected to platform 1 by a enclosed footbridge.  .

In terms of Track laying, the middle row has thrown a curve ball, as it the starts as up line south to the station and then joins the down line at the end of the North of platform 1, which has messed up the geometry of the curve radius, I think ill have to use flexitrack for this 

Heres some action videos of 

 

 

Edited March 30 by Anders112

[David Holman]

Looks a very good plan. Best advice is the old one of "every journey begins with the first step". An ambitious project, for sure, but take your time and enjoy it - keeping us all posted as you go along.

[derek]

This looks like it will be fantastic Dave. Best of luck with it. Can I just ask one thing? Your freehand plan looks to be quite deep ( front to back). Without measurements it's hard to tell for sure. My concern would be "reachability". In other words, will you be able to reach all areas of the layout once it is in place. I'm sure you have it all in hand , but thought I would mention it. I speak from experience here, as , since extending my own layout, when working near the tunnel/ church area I have to take to a set of steps with my calf muscles screaming from the strain of stretching. But I am only three and a half foot tall  after all Best of luck again

[Anders112]

Navan Branch Line 

 

My weathering skills will be put to test when weathering the rails of this section with the amount of oil that dripped onto the rails here in real life. 

This section of the layout is the most sentimental to me. whenever I went up to Macbride as a kid this always the first stop to see what orange looks were stationed on the branch line for the day.Normally to my delight it was usually two 071s but as you can see in the last 3 pictures, in its hayday there was at least Five locos stationed here. No wonder without the amount of trains going through daily between Gypsum which was three times a week ,Taras (4 daily) and Cement trains (God only knows) 

In terms of modelling,This will be a good area for my Locos such as A class, 141s/121/071s to be parked as i run passengers trains through the main or run cement/taras/gpysum through the other branch line while there parked. This section of the station during the early 1990s was a freight depot and usually filled with Lorrys,explaining why there was no fence or railing up between the line and the car park.This changed with the expansion of the car park leading to the fence.

The hope on the layout is to include the double branch like over the bridge which has the red and white clearance marker, eventually the double line will become single as it enters the yard for platin.I hope to include a model of he electric signal box at the points as you come off the main line 

Here is a drivers eye view of Joining the Dublin to Belfast Line from the Navan Branch, Filmed for them MK3 DVT from the All-Ireland Football special from Navan to Dublin,in 1991

 

 

 

[Anders112]

 

[Anders112]

Yard and Wagon Shed with Turntable 

Accessed from a curved point on the Up Line , the yard breaks up into 4 sidings The wagon shed was generally filled with Bubbles.Pallet cement and gyspum wagons that needed to be repaired. At the weekend it was common for a rake of Tara wagons to be pulled into the siding of the yard that shares the platform with platform 2 

 

 

Important to Note the turntable to right hand side of of 072

 

 

The track from the Turntable stopped on the side the wagon shed, where generally there was an Oil Wagon used to store Diesel to fuel the army of Locos in and Out of Drogheda as soon in 076s case above....I think this justifies Pre ordering IRMs recenty announced oil wagons  (Peer pressure was never my strongest point)  

I think I might struggle with trying to find a RTR copy of the wagon shed,so will either have to learn how to scratch build one or Find someone with A 3D printer. More than likely ill use the peco turntable kit for the turntable https://peco-uk.com/products/turntable-well-type?variant=7264231227426, anyone had any luck building the turntable before ? or any other recommendations for a turntable 

 

[Anders112]

Buckies Sidings and Bridge 

Buckies sidings 

Now it is the Railcar depot, There used to be a series of 3 sidings were wagons were commonly stored. Buckies sidings were disconnected from the main line around 1998 and the construction of the railcar depot began in the early 2000s 

https://www.geograph.ie/photo/697411

https://www.geograph.ie/photo/4277140

There is not much footage of Buckys sidiings except for these two videos

An excellent video of a 181 reversing ballast hoppers into the sidings 

 

 Buckies Bridge 

On the Contrary, there is 1000s of photography and videos of trains filmed from the bridge south of Macbride station which is locally known as Buckies bridge 

 

 

The 1991 GAA Special reappearing 

 

[Gabhal Luimnigh]

Great pictures.

[Patrick Davey]

This is quite an ambitious project, but you’re obviously doing considerable research, so I wish you every success! And please keep us updated as you progress.

[Louth]

You have probably seen this track plan on the IRRS website, but just in case...  Another source for the original layout is the Ordinance Survey website OSI.ie

[Rush and Lusk]

Hi Anders112,

I have thoroughly enjoyed reading and viewing this thread - fascinating learning of the multiple activity, uses, and evolution around Drogheda Mac Bride Station. I wish you well and look forward to metaphorically joining on this journey. 

[Flying Snail]

Excellent choice of locations - really lends themselves to a wide variety of stock. Best of luck with it!! 

[Anders112]

and for the Final post on my research on drogheda station ( Sorry for all the spam and waffling) 

Drogheda North Signal Cabin 

During the Gold old Steam days Drogheda had two signal cabins ( Drogheada North and Drogheda South ).The Signal cabin was located beside a Loading Bay at the Belfast end of the Platform, The signal cabin was demolished in the 1970s but the loading Bay stayed up till 1997 when the Belfast line was redeveloped.

 

Below is the Diagram from Drogheda North that i had screenshotted on my phone from rambling one night and for the life of me cant find the source 

Its the 3 road sidings in the last diagram that has 13 and 14 labelled on it. The loading bay was made up of very unique 3 way point. This was thankfully captured in the video below in 1995 

 

above is a screen grab of the you tube clip below, you can see that the point goes in 3 directions, Peco were the only model manufacturer who made such a point, but it will cost me a Arm and leg with the point being around 65 euro alone   

In the 1990s, this loading dock was home to another oil tank for refullling, aswell as Bullied wagon and a few 20ft flat wagons. 141s seemed to generally parked here as well. Even ore reasons to buy IRMs Oil tankers 

 

 

 

 

Thats it for me from now in terms of waffling .... thinks its time for a cup of Tea after all that typing and googling. Hopefully @Gabhal Luimnigh still has the kettle on 

Tomorrow or the next day I will post a few photos of my existing makeshift layout  

A Big thank you to the support given so far to me on this layout. I know its quite an ambitious Layout to start with and implement in modelling will be challenging but even just typing up (Waffling on and on) this thread has brought me such happiness and has been a positive distraction for me. 

I look forward to adding my progress to this thread and keeping you updated on this modelling journey.

Any Feedback, tips or tricks, recommendations in terms of track planning, what scenery to use, signalling,wiring,baseboards, skills and experiences  yous have learned from carrying out your own layouts, I would greatly accept with open arms 

Looking forward to it 

Many  thanks 

Dave 

[Anders112]

On 30/3/2024 at 8:02 PM, derek said:

This looks like it will be fantastic Dave. Best of luck with it. Can I just ask one thing? Your freehand plan looks to be quite deep ( front to back). Without measurements it's hard to tell for sure. My concern would be "reachability". In other words, will you be able to reach all areas of the layout once it is in place. I'm sure you have it all in hand , but thought I would mention it. I speak from experience here, as , since extending my own layout, when working near the tunnel/ church area I have to take to a set of steps with my calf muscles screaming from the strain of stretching. But I am only three and a half foot tall  after all Best of luck again

Thanks very much for all the support Derek and as well as keeping reachability in mind,last time we want is wagons detailing and can’t be accessed or pulled calf of hamstring muscles

whenever I get a new base board,the plan would be to have two main base boards separated in the middle but they would be connected with a narrow channel  at the bottom (basically like a U shape). the double loop of the mainline and Macbride station on one and platin on the other baseboard ,with the navan branch line connecting them.

i will draw a diagram up of it soon.

Many thanks

8 hours ago, Louth said:

You have probably seen this track plan on the IRRS website, but just in case...  Another source for the original layout is the Ordinance Survey website OSI.ie

Thanks very much for sharing this, I actually haven’t seen this diagram before, is it on there Flickr website ?

I’ll go have a look at it now,thanks

[Anders112]

5 hours ago, Rush and Lusk said:

Hi Anders112,

I have thoroughly enjoyed reading and viewing this thread - fascinating learning of the multiple activity, uses, and evolution around Drogheda Mac Bride Station. I wish you well and look forward to metaphorically joining on this journey. 

Glad you enjoyed it, Its hard to believe how the the railways were so important In drogheda and the different phases of rail use its gone through-from fright hub to now a railcar depot - being honest ive properly only touched the surface of history it.Thanks again for the support 

[Louth]

37 minutes ago, Anders112 said:

Thanks very much for all the support Derek and as well as keeping reachability in mind,last time we want is wagons detailing and can’t be accessed or pulled calf of hamstring muscles

whenever I get a new base board,the plan would be to have two main base boards separated in the middle but they would be connected with a narrow channel  at the bottom (basically like a U shape). the double loop of the mainline and Macbride station on one and platin on the other baseboard ,with the navan branch line connecting them.

i will draw a diagram up of it soon.

Many thanks

Thanks very much for sharing this, I actually haven’t seen this diagram before, is it on there Flickr website ?

I’ll go have a look at it now,thanks

Yes on Flickr. Put in "Drogheda" on the search and the track diagram will come up along with many useful photos. I'm doing something similar to you with Castlebellingham. Unfortunately only the platforms remain but using photos and taking measurements of the station house in Dunleer I have a reasonably good representation under way. I remember the station well from my youth when trains were still stopping there, and like you it brings memories of my own father. I'm just finishing the Castlebellingham signal box at the moment. You are fortunate that most of Drogheda station is unchanged. You will get great satisfaction from constructing your project and even more by running your rolling stock.  Keep us all up to date with your progress as there is huge interest and help out there.

 

Kevin

[David Holman]

If you have the space, then this prototype really looks a good'un.

[Mayner]

A layout combining Drogheda station, Buckleys Siding and Platin is very ambitious for a first layout, on the plus side a lot of the locos and stock are available or announced in ready to run form, the challenge is likely to be fitting a workable layout into the available space and considering train length and degree of compression to achieve a workable layout particularly if your focused on prototypical train working. 

The other thing to consider is that apart from a double track continuous run or some degree of automation we can only control/drive one loco at a time, during solo operation you could become fully occupied shunting wagons in and out of the wagon-repair shop at the old loco depot and you don't have the time of inclination to shunt Buckley's sidings, or simply time to run the layout. 

It might be worth contacting the Model Railway Society of Ireland.  The society built and exhibited a OO Gauge model of Drogheda which included the station and viaduct which was one of the clubs principal exhibition layouts during late late 80s/90s. Its possible that some of the buildings and structures may exist.

There are photo of the viaduct on the section on the Dundalk Work's Layout https://www.modelrailways.ie/layouts/dundalk-works

 

[Blaine]

4 hours ago, Mayner said:

 

It might be worth contacting the Model Railway Society of Ireland.  The society built and exhibited a OO Gauge model of Drogheda which included the station and viaduct which was one of the clubs principal exhibition layouts during late late 80s/90s. Its possible that some of the buildings and structures may exist.

There are photo of the viaduct on the section on the Dundalk Work's Layout https://www.modelrailways.ie/layouts/dundalk-works

 

Very little remains of the old Drogheda layout, time has moved on in both skills and available materials

Dundalk will be on display at the October Show, along with another Dundalk based layout

[Anders112]

Pre existing layout: The start of the Journey 
Finally got around to taking pictures of my current makeshift layout before I started planning this project and writing this forum: 

a couple of things to note 

space for future layout: fortunately im quite lucky to have a large garage 6m x 9m shed to set up shop for my layout.( see pictures below) 

this gives me a great foundation to start and to give ample space to plan and built the future baseboard for this layout. I plan on having two baseboards joining together( I’ve marked baseboards on my original drawing of the layout in picture 3 below)

 

the main baseboard which will have the majority of the layout -Drogheda Macbride station and Buckys siding (red baseboard on layout plan in picture 3)

the additional baseboard will go off the main baseboard at an angle which will include the navan branch line from the station all the way out to Platin and the Platin sidings.( green base board in picture 3).

This then gives plenty of space between two to walk around and access to track, or as the the scholar @dereks coined it “reachability” 

 

The current baseboard: in the picture below is the left over baseboards from my childhood layout that my dad built for me many moons ago. 
This is currently just thrown together to allow me to run the trains for fun and to enjoy as I built my collection 

why is the layout on the ground you may asked ? Well the layout sat on four trestles but unfortunately are missing in action since I returned home from Uni

Future baseboards : 

Thankfully with the garage there is a lot of space to spare, this will allow me to construct an even bigger baseboard and allow me to be smarter with the shape of it. Currently pondering about buying a baseboard from Modelrailsbaseboards,especially as you can take them apart quite easily. This will decision will be made after I fix a number of track plan issues that I currently am experiencing 

current track plan and parts of the layout.

Below I’ve attached photos of the current layout and protypical photos of what McBride was like in the 90s. The track I have available is what I had to make do with from my childhood collection 

Above the 3 roads of drogheda station including the famous middle row,filled with 201 and bubbles,cravens in the middle row and some IE mark 2s. Below is some image of the 3 roads from the southbound  section of the platform 

** issue- I feel like on the layout these three roads should be closer to together 

 

 

access to the Yard: which is a curved point off the inside main line vs what it looked like in real life below 

 

issue- as you can see in this pic where my Bachman 2700 is parked, the sharpness of the the running line radius restricts the length of the yard,in future I may have to invest in flexitreck to made the the running line where the mark 2s are parked to be longer and less sharp to give more inside room for the yard 

** Currently struggling with connecting the middle row to the outside bend, I think flexi track is going to be needed in order to connect the middle row and outside bend. The prototypical looks so easily connected

Notice the points inline with the 1st mark3 carriage how it curves out of the outside bend as the platform starts 

The view from what will be buckys bridge… think I’m looking forward to modelling this part the most as it will be give me a chance to do a lot with the trees both sides of the track 


 

below are pictures of the navan branch and platin section of the current layout :

The navan branch will need to be longer and required a less of a curve 

Platin: I’m currently quite happy with the track plan of platin bur will need to make the sidings longer,again will come in due time when a more permanent baseboard arrives 

 

enjoy the pictures,any tips or tricks would be greatly appreciated and I’ll accept with open arms

Thanks 

Dave 

Edited June 30 by Anders112

[Galteemore]

Looks fabulous. I know this is a temporary board, which will help you think about how to access centre of board on  the ‘production version’ for track cleaning and - not that this will happen of course, derailments.

[Anders112]

7 hours ago, Galteemore said:

Looks fabulous. I know this is a temporary board, which will help you think about how to access centre of board on  the ‘production version’ for track cleaning and - not that this will happen of course, derailments.

thanks very much for the feedback @Galteemore, I was thinking on the production version I would cut out the board to in the middle as shown here in the picture marked with yellow X’s. 

It would give access to both baseboards. 
also thinking of making the navan branch which is marked in green in this photo - longer so I could park the Tara’s, bulk cement and gypsum at meeting of the branch line and Belfast line just like what they do in real life 

[derek]

Absolutely relishing this project. Mouth watering stuff to be sure. The amount of research you have done is great and the photos are excellent. Keep it coming Dave And you can never make a baseboard too big- just ask Denis  @Gabhal Luimnigh

[gibbo675]

Hi Anders,

You asked for tips and tricks a couple of posts previously. From what I see of your track plan could you not place the Drogheda part of the layout in the corner of the garage and have the Navan branch double back along the other wall behind a scenic break where Buckie's sidings would be placed and pop out in the far corner at Platin's. The return loop could run underneath where the tracks are shewn in red.

The tight curves are approximately 3rd and 4th radius which are 505mm and 572 respectively you could save a little by using smaller radius curves. All the other curves could be done in flexi track to suit and the board might be just over 1m wide at the widest point. Having the layout on an "L" shaped shelf leaves you with about 7m X 4M of floor space left in the garage.

It should give you roughly the same amount of track joined up by long thin bits on shelves around the edge. You could put loops in along the joining bits or underneath where the track is marked in red.

Gibbo.