Carlow Station and Sugar Factory. First venture into 00 gauge

[driver301]

Hi all,

 

I've decided to build a 00 gauge layout which is my first venture into the scale. This will finally give the stock that I've built up over the years a home to run on! The layout will be in my Raikway room which is a converted garden shed and will be an around the room style layout.

 

I've decided to build my home town station carlow and include the sugar factory. My sugar factory however will be rail connected unlike the real one which had it's rail link severed in the 1960s.

 

The factory sadly closed in 2006. All buildings and traffic flows will be prior to this date to achieve realism.

 

I've started the ball rolling by using the scenecraft model of carlow station and scratchbuilding the extensions to it.

Here's a few photos of progress so far. More updates to follow as I progress.

 

All comments and suggestions etc are welcome.

[jhb171achill]

Brilliant progress so far.

 

The factory could be at the end of a Tegral-type spur.....

[Kirley]

Some class work already, looking forward to seeing the build progressing.

[josefstadt]

Seriously impressive work Paul. Your work so far on the additional structures has taken the Scenecraft model to a whole new level. Can't wait to see your progress in the larger scale.

[burnthebox]

Very well done driver301, that's looking very impressive, keep the pics coming,

[minister_for_hardship]

There's a kit for the vertical boilered Cockerills knocking about, expensive (for the size of it)and in HO.

 

Not 100% sure were they the same as the CSE Carlow ones, photos of the Irish ones are not easy to come by.

 

http://www.portail-trains.com/coin-des-passionnes/petites-annonces/ads-entry-8667.html

[Dave]

That's a great start. Looking forward to seeing the layout progress.

[Weshty]

Lovely work, really exploits the scenecraft model to its maximum.

[NIRCLASS80]

Really nice. I must make a start on something Irish myself

[dave182]

Nice one Paul, can't wait to see this one progress. I'm especially looking forward to the sugar factory and how you approach that!

[richrua]

my goodness that is fantastic.

[DiveController]

Really like that very much, Paul! Very good indeed

[ttc0169]

Paul,I'm delighted you have decided to venture down the OO gauge track,

As with your previous fabulous N gauge projects I have no doubt this layout will be up to your usual high standard,

Best of luck with it....go DCC as you won't regret it-I haven't,

I'll be watching your progress with interest.

[Irishrailwayman]

Nice job on the station. I am doing an extension on my own Carlow Bachmann model for Ballybeg also.

[BosKonay]

Fantastic!

[scahalane]

Great job, always nice to see some scratch building going on.

[Mayner]

The factory would make an interesting model with really large industrial buildings. Although beet traffic appears to have ended in the 60s, CIE operated occasional liner trains in the early 1970s with export sugar to Dublin Port in 8'6" containers on 4 wheel flat wagons. The siding and marshalling yard was still connected to the main line into the mid1980s

 

The factory was served by a siding which trailed back alongside the Main Line from the station giving the appearance of a double track main line. The track layout at the factory was similar to Mallow and Tuam a marshalling yard with several loops beside the main line and a siding crossing the road on the level into the factory

[Hunslet 102]

Nice work,if your 00 layout turns out anything like your N gauge layout it will be worth waiting for

[The Derry Road]

your attention to detail is first class, watching with great interest TDR

[seanrail]

Great images of your Carlow Layout. can't wait to see the final result. Keep up the good work.

[DiveController]

yes, superb layout by @driver301. Looking forward to any progress that may have occurred

[PJR]

Lovely work, looking forward to more progress

[Speedy]

How did this turn out, over 2 years since original post. Would be interested in seeing the finished article. Nice to see the local station being the subject of a layout

[StevieB]

How’s progress 4+ years on?

Stephen

[driver301]

I haven't been active on this forum in a few years but have posted plenty of photos on the Irish Railway Modeler Facebook page and many members here would have seen the finished Carlow model and my other projects on that page. 

As queried here is an update. The initial plan was to have "round the room" type layout with Carlow Station on one side and the Sugar Factory on the other. I did finish the Carlow station model but decided to build a model of Ashtown station on the other side instead of the factory. 

The layout is in my Shed and since completion I have been concentrating on N gauge projects. I find that although the quality of OO gauge models being produced is out of this world the scale itself is just too big and it is difficult for most modellers to run prototypical trains in the space they have available. Nevertheless I have purchased most of the IRM releases as they are just too good not to have and run on this layout. 

Here are some photos of both sides of the layout. 

[scahalane]

Super stuff.

[Mike 84C]

As a non facebook person, thanks for posting ! the wait was worth it! Super, brilliant and I very much like the seventh picture with the light catching the coach roof's.

[Galteemore]

Excellent work - great deal of thought and care gone into this.

[Westcorkrailway]

Perhaps with the new Hornby Ruston loco, somone else could try Carlow sugar factory 

[DJ Dangerous]

Absolutely incredible. I rarely ever get onto FB so this is my main transport hub. My only criticism is that you don't have a BMW parked across three of the disabled spaces.

 

39 minutes ago, Westcorkrailway said:

Perhaps with the new Hornby Ruston loco, somone else could try Carlow sugar factory 

 

How close is the Hornby Ruston? And which one?

[Rob]

Brilliant stuff- really impressive

Love the locos and rolling stock!

[Mayner]

Really creditable architectural modelling, its good to see a layout which incorporates early (1840s) railway architecture at Carlow and modernistic (post 2000) buildings and structures at Ashtown.

The compressed nature of the station layout & low relief cement store is a good example of the challenges in building a model of a large mainline station such as Carlow in OO something that a lot easier to do convincingly in N Scale. I switched from OO to N scale around 1980 for much the same reason, but later returned to the larger scale in order to build Irish locos and stock.