Arigna Town - this week's scenery

[Irishrailwayman]

I had the pleasure of seeing Arigna Road in the flesh at the Telford Guildex Exhibition and of saying hello to David. Pictures hardly do the layout justice. This was probably the best exhibition I have ever attended with a very high standard of modelling and traders with huge stocks. A few of my shots:

[popeye]

Lovely pic's and rolling stock. 

[banntry]

I agree-it is superb in the flesh-saw it and assisted at Lincoln-lovely models (rolling stock and buildings)

[David Holman]

Thanks chaps!

Next outing in a couple of weeks at Fareham, then High Wycombe and Warley in November. Warley probably it's last show for a while as new layout, Fintonagh, makes its debut at Uckfield in October. Can I'll afford to have two layouts doing the rounds and Mrs H would not be pleased either!

[David Holman]

One last outing for Arigna Town this weekend at the Longfield show in Kent. My new layout, Fintonagh, already has five shows booked this year, so the broad gauge will be taking a back seat for a while.

 Various plans in mind as to what I'm going to do next, so will update you after Longfield.

 

[David Holman]

One more day. Managed to take some more photos, which will upload tomorrow. Offer new angles that I couldn't do with the layout in the workshop.

 This evening, have looked back through my journals to create a few statistics on the layout:

 It is been on the exhibition circuit for four and a half years, racking up 39 shows in all. This equates to over 70 days, or at least 500 hours on display. I reckon that means at least 600 sequences, so each train has travelled about 3000 metres in that time, while the layout itself has done over 10 000 km in the back of my car, plus one return trip from Holyhead to Dublin.

 Not bad, though am sure there are plenty of layouts that have done far more. Certainly puts exhibiting in perspective though.

 

[leslie10646]

David

Have a good day on Sunday - Kent's off my radar, I'm afraid. Looking forward to hearing all about the new layout.

[Andy Cundick]

And then there were three.ANdy

[David Holman]

Not writing its obituary yet, Andy! That said, the layout almost met a sticky end yesterday afternoon. A little boy, being held up by his grandma, suddenly started coughing, then wailing loudly. Two seconds later, he was spectacularly sick all over her. Poor granny! However, had he turned his head the other way...

 Anyway, the final day went well enough & everything is back home. As for the future, their are two plans:

Plan A

 To refurbish the layout, to the extent that it may not be instantly recognisable. This is because, I want to turn it around so that the back scene is the other side, thereby changing the view entirely. Apart from the station, all the buildings along the back will be removed, with some, along with the trees, being donated to the Chatham club 0 gauge layout. This is because the layout will be reborn as Belmullet, or more probably 'Black Sod Bay' in the far north west of County Mayo. Jonathan Beaumont, of this parish, covers all the proposals in his book on the Achill Island railway - such things being very must grist to the mill for me in terms of layout ideas. Further changes will involve replacing the turnout to the goods siding with a single slip, enabling an on scene junction to a harbour branch - off scene, of course. In addition, I'm planning a loco shed, beyond the turntable and a back scene which includes a view across Black Sod Bay to the peninsula beyond. All pretty barren and treeless, but shades of Burtonport, which has long been a favourite location too.

 For an extra twist, I want to turn the clock back to the early 1900s. I have Richard Chown's WLW 'Shannon' and his kit of the 101 class will be in GSW livery of the same period. Add in the MGW's 4-4-0 'Wolf Dog', one of the Sligo small tanks and some new, period stock and there is the makings of a colourful and interesting scene, in addition to the 1950s currently portrayed. I know, all rather unlikely, but I already have a bit of made up history to mind, while all four companies actually met up in Sligo, of course. 

Plan B

 I have considered selling Arigna Town as a going concern, with some, but by no means all of the locos and rolling stock. No point in offering the layout on its own, as, apart from Richard Chown's stuff, nobody else appears to do Irish broad gauge in 7mm scale. Was thinking in terms of one of the small tanks, the G class diesel & maybe the J26 and railcar, plus a selection of SLNCR wagons and coaches. However, clearly it wouldn't be cheap - though not as expensive as you might think, but it has been robustly built and is still in very good condition.

 However, note that this is not a ready to run train set. Everything is hand built and requires a degree of skill to maintain it. Loco servicing, soldering skills should a point tie bar break, etc. In addition, the controls are all at the rear, so to run it at home, a perspective buyer would be looking at adding point and signal motors - which is what I will be doing when/if I refurbish it. Alternatively, while the layout has been widely exhibited in the south of England, it hasn't been seen much at all in the north. If it was sold, then I have another idea for something brand new, but am not thinking about that at the moment. Anyone interested needs to send me a personal message, by the end of February at the latest, so we can discuss what might be available. As a guide, think at least £3-5000, depending on the amount of stock.

 For now though, here are a selection of photos taken on its final outing.

 

[David Holman]

On 12/7/2016 at 5:38 PM, David Holman said:

A thoroughly good time was had at Manchester, with the bonus of the fantastic Christmas Markets too.

Saturday was VERY busy, with well over 1500 people through the doors. Would guess well under half that on the Sunday.

Hence it was often four deep in front of the layout & I was busy talking to people when one gentleman casually asked if I was interested in running his 5'3 loco. I readily agreed, though slightly hesitant after Weshty's experience [turned out to be 32mm gauge] at Cultra. However, needn't have worried because another Lissadell appeared, this time in lined green with a polished brass dome. The visitor explained it was indeed a North Star kit, but adapted to early SLNCR livery & with new chimney & turned dome.

Fortunately, I had my camera with me & was about to enquire of his name, for inclusion on the website, when he said 'by the way, I'm Richard Chown'.

Now anyone who knows anything about modelling Irish railways will know that Richard began his magnificent Castle Rackrent project back in the early 1970s. It eventually grew to a vast empire, parts of which still get exhibited occasionally. He has also created several other model railways, including Norwegian 3'6 gauge and a big French layout with a 2 metre high viaduct - all in 7mm scale.

However, Castle Rackrent was very much the initial inspiration for me to try Irish modelling one day and though it took over 30 years before I got round to Arigna, many of the design features I've included in previous layouts have their source in Castle Rackrent. In my humble opinion, Richard's influence is on the same level as the likes of Barry Norman, David Jenkinson, Martyn Welch and Gordon Gravett. And there we were talking at length and watching his Lissadell in charge of the SLNCR passenger train. During this time, Paul Green also appeared, so at that point 60% of the active Irish BROAD gauge exhibition modellers were present in one place. Only the Ballyconnell Road team and Andy Cundick [Valentia Harbour] were missing, though if I've missed anyone out, many apologies, but do let us know who you are!

Needless to say, Lissadell ran beautifully for over two hours, while Richard visited the rest of the show, but [of course], eventually returned to reclaim it. For me, this was the highlight of the weekend and [alongside showing the layout at Cultra], was all I dared hope for as I was building it. Would very much like to meet Neil Sprinks one day too.

At the reception on Saturday evening, discovered Arigna had just missed out, by one point, on the exhibition trophy [judged by the club committee]. Given the winner was the fantastic Melton Mowbray North [N gauge], this was still quite an accolade for what is such a niche layout, but my prize was meeting Richard - very much a dream come true.

Now face a serious conundrum, as there is an invite to go to the Glasgow Show in February 2018. In reality, way too far to go & with it being a three day show, would mean 6 nights away. Then again, there might be a chance that some of Castle Rackrent's trains might appear on Arigna & just how cool would that be?

Here's the post I did in 2016, after the Manchester show.