Swillybegs

[David Holman]

Swillybegs out of Fintonagh

 Guess it is about time I started a new thread for the conversion of Fintonagh to Swillybegs. The work isn’t too drastic [& certainly far less so than Arigna Town to Belmullet], but an explanation as to my rationale may be useful first.

 The idea is that the Famine wasn’t quite as severe in this part of Ireland, which then didn’t suffer the same population decline as other parts of the country. Hence there was scope for the sort of railway development seen in Brittany, France, where in addition to the main lines and metre gauge systems like the Reseau Breton, various other feeder lines were built, including some roadside tramways. Hence, when the Londonderry & Lough Swilly Railway arrived in Letterkenny in 1883, the County Donegal Railway came soon after [rather than in 1909]. The two companies then joined forces to construct a branch to the port of Swillybegs on the shore of Lough Swilly, somewhere near present day Rathmelton. Meanwhile, an independent roadside tramway, the North Donegal, was building a line from Downies [on the  Atlantic coast], via Carrickart and Millport to Swillybegs. 

 Downies was an important herring fishery in the 19^th century [true], so there was a decent amount of traffic at first. However, this soon declined in the 20^th century, so it is likely that the section beyond Millport gradually fell out of use. Indeed, both railways would have struggled from the 1930s onwards, but my assumption is that The Emergency [aka 2^nd World War] kept them going. Redundant locos and stock from the Clogher Valley Railway found work on both lines during the fuel crisis, right up until the early 1950s, when both sections finally closed at the same time as the L&LS railway.

 The reasons for all this nonsense go back to the last Cultra Exhibition, when I took Fintonagh there and got several new books from the Donegal Society stand. From these, I learned about how Clogher Valley stock went to both the Donegal and the Swilly and with a long held admiration for both railways, the die was cast!

 However, both lines tended towards quite long trains and big locomotives, which made me think that the only way to do it would be a brand new layout. Equally, the smaller Donegal railcars and latter day trains on the Swilly – which could be as short as a couple of wagons and a bogie brake coach – gave food for thought that maybe Fintonagh could be adapted. Both the Barclay 4-6-0T and Kerr Stuart 4-6-2T would fit on the turntable, while from the CVR, Railcar No1 [Donegal No 10] and Phoenix diesel tractor were easily converted – little more than a repaint. CVR wagons went to both companies, but I still needed to find a role for my two 0-4-2T – hence the additional fiction of the North Donegal Tramway.

 Still with me? Well done! So what of the layout?

 The map below shows the geography, while the track plan shows how the two lines meet up at Swillybegs. If you haven’t clocked the name yet, it is of course a play on Killybegs, the actual Donegal terminus.

 There are no changes to the track plan of Fintonagh. All I’m doing is adapting the front edge of the layout to look like a quayside. The Donegal/Swilly line comes in, at the rear, behind the rebranded warehouse, while the Tramway enters at the front, squeezing between that warehouse and a new ‘flat’, complete with a bridge joining the two, which will also hide the exit to the fiddle yard.

 The Tramway is deemed to be where the goods yard is, so there is some transfer traffic, which will largely be in the hands of Phoenix. Swilly trains will most likely be short mixed ones, with a coach and a couple of vans, while Donegal ones will be railcars, one with a passenger trailer, the other with a couple of vans. There’s a temptation to enhance the layout wiring to enable two trains on the layout at once, but this will probably make the scene very crowded and also cause sight line problems for operators. So things will probably remain one train at a time, though [as on Fintonagh], a train loco can go to the turntable while Phoenix does the shunting.

 So, there we are –  an introduction to my latest piece of nonsense. Most of the layout stays the same and the backscene is not entirely unlike the Rathmelton townscape anyway. The new and revised stock will partly set the scene, but presenting a convincing quayside will be the main challenge, especially with so little room to work with. The photos below show where I’ve got to and with this new thread to chart progress, more will follow in due course.

 Anyone invested in Fintonagh can find the whole story in the Layouts thread under Clogher Valley Project, while locos and stock are within David's Workbench in that section.

 

[Tullygrainey]

A compelling back story.  Love it. Good luck with this one David. 

[Galteemore]

Fabulous story. Will be a nice mix of stock. Multum in parvo !!

[David Holman]

 Having cleared the scenics on the front edge of the baseboard, a thin layer of DAS was applied and then once dry, the laborious process of scribing in all the stones began. Decided to use small setts for the road surfaces [including the tramway section leading off scene under the new warehouse bridge. It turned out to be not as tedious as I'd thought: scribing straight lines for one axis and then doing the individual setts by hand, including rounding the edges and ensuring there was a decent amount of mortar space between each one.

 I was a bit concerned about the painting, because photos often show a wide range of colours and I really didn't fancy having to pick out individual setts with a small brush...

 Began with a wash of a fairly light stone colour, using acrylics, then, once dry went over this with a wash of dark grey, which toned down the top colour and went nicely into the mortar lines. Then remembered my [many] crayons - pastels, various pencil ones and, in particular, a set of much prized Berol Karismas. These are water colour pencils and can be blended nicely with each other. So, using various shades from yellow to brown, it was a much simpler matter to touch in various setts with these, rather than using a paint brush.

 Further titivation is needed, but am quite pleased with the effect thus far, as shown below.

 Only this corner has made significant progress, but have also scribed in the larger stone blocks on the quayside itself, which now await painting.

 Meanwhile, couldn't resist doing a few trial scenes with the initial corner. I've added a few weeds along the base of the warehouse and posed the lorry and donkey cart for effect too.

 The main action on this section will be either Phoenix transferring wagons to/from the off scene goods yard and tramway traffic, so there are also a few posed shots of this too.

 

Edited December 22, 2024 by David Holman

[Tullygrainey]

Beautiful. The colours of the square setts are spot on

[GSR 800]

David this is absolutely fabulous.

Phoenix coming out between the buildings is a wonderful shot on a brilliant layout.

[David Holman]

The structural work for the quayside is now largely complete, though much titivation and detailing is still required and orders are going in for some fish boxes [Langley] and some rather nice 3D printed lobster/crab pots I've found on the web. Maybe a couple of figures and some luggage too, while fencing along the back of the tram platform is also needed.

 The latter has been made from basswood, scored to represent planking, while more basswood strip has been used to make the large posts protecting the quay wall. Am tempted by the Langley fishing boat, though this would need a baseboard extension to sit on and at nearly £150 ain't cheap, so this is in the maybe file at the moment.

 Over Christmas, had to content myself with drawing out some coaches and a wagon on to plastic sheet. We were away at my mother's and it was suggested that taking the soldering iron, solvents etc might not be a good idea. Can't think why...

 Anyway, at least now have some basic 'kits' that can be made up when the Muse takes me: two Schull & Skibbereen 4 wheel tram coaches, a Swilly Brake 3rd, also a bogie fish van, plus one of the Donegal red wagons. The latter has already been made up and awaits painting.

[Patrick Davey]

Lovely stuff David!

[Angus]

Hi David, 

Great progress with the changes, I'm looking forward to seeing the transformation as the Swilly (my spell checker altered that to Willy which would have taken this post off in whole other direction.....!) has always been a favourite of mine. 

When transferring drawings to plastic sheet I found I could scan a drawing then print it out onto the plastic sheet. My cheap home ink jet printer will feed 20 thou (0.5 mm) plastic sheet without a problem. 

Leave the print to dry and apply some sealing spray otherwise the print just rubs off when you touch the sheet. 

I always check the print size on a piece of paper first as they often need rescaling slightly. 

Onviously this is limited to A4 size (unless you've got a posher printer) which isn't much of a restriction in 2mm. 

It does save a lot lot of faffing about with pencil and paper, and avoids my inevitable inconsistency. 

[David Holman]

Interesting - thanks Angus. Recently splashed out on a new inkjet printer, an Epson one with tanks rather than cartridges. Costs more to buy, but works out better in the long run.

 Will have a go with 20 thou sheet, the Alphagraphix card kit sheets could transfer, but are already printed in colour, so that might be interesting. Am thinking the 7mm Narrow Gauge Society drawings would work best as they are just outline.

 Learned the lesson of not trusting the scale on drawings early on. It was my first ever attempt at a scratching coach in 4mm (a LSWR brake third). Only after completing  it and putting it next to my Terrier did I realise it was too big. Probably about 4.3mm/ft...