Generic building styles

[Colin R]

Hi Guys

 

Sorry for all the questions, but having looked at various Irish themed layouts, I was wondering if it is possible to have or build a generic style building for each of the pre1923 Irish Railway companies.

 

Looking back at the experience of modelling UK lines in the past it is possible to build a freelance GWR branchline station and give it any name you like and it will still look plausible.

 

I am not trying to deny the unique Irish railway atmosphere than comes over in the various prototype photos I have seen, but something tell me that it must be possible to create that Irish feel about a freelanced model.

 

Can I take it that each of the railway companies had its own standard design signal boxes and possible station buildings and good sheds?

 

Now while I have had a look at this site http://eiretrains.com/stationindex/ for inspiration and with the exceptions of stonewalled buildings, there does not appear to be that standardization I would have expected.

 

Anyone have any thoughts on this? In the UK we have so many different societies which have been set up to look at how certain railway companies operate and what and how they done things, I sometimes forget that this is not always the case in other countries.

 

The downside of the above is that it can become too clinical for its own good. I know that I won't live long enough to model everything I see, so I am happy to model what I would call, the impression of the characteristics of a railway company if that make any sense.

[Broithe]

Bachmann have produced a couple, which turn up on eBay, etc., now and then.

 

Based on Clonmel.

 

 

 

And Carlow.

 

[Colin R]

Hi ya thanks for that, I also came across this sometime ago to use on an isle on man based layout, but I now realise it could be used as an Irish themed railway station as well.

 

http://www.springsidemodels.com/id30.htm

 

I am sure there are other building kits etc which could be adapted to get the Irish feel I am looking for I have just come across a station called Barnagh on the Limerick line which is now abandoned and the station track plan is just what I am looking for as something to start with in 21mm gauge.

 

I read somewhere this station was on the old North Kerry line as well, I am surprised to find it in this condition as I was under the impression that a lot, if not most of the ex old Irish railway stations had been turned in to private homes by now.

[jhb171achill]

The old companies were themselves amalgamations of earlier smaller ones. Therefore, no company had a standard "house style". However, certain styles were associated with companies, such as the gothic styles on the INWR and the yellow-brick of the GNR.

 

West Cork and the WRC were made up of many, many small companies with but a few stations each, but the corrugated sheet sides, and low platform awnings werecommon in West Cork.

 

The GSWR had stone buildings, often with great ornamentation, while the DSER used a lot of red brick, but with their very distinctive round-roofed signal cabins accessed off footbridges.

 

The SLNCR started off with nice stone single-storey buildings but ran out of money, so later buildings were tin sheet.

[Colin R]

Thanks Jhb, that's what I was beginning to conclude, I think in this case that the Peco many ways station kit is idea for Irish stations as it can be built up in so many combinations, one thing which I have found to be a lot easier and that is the Irish Narrow Gauge. Now while the Cavan and Leitrim and the Clogher Valley had a similar station building design and they both shared the plan to build the Ulster and Connaught 3ft gauge Light Railway line across Ireland this did not happen, but to me it has always been one of the greatest what if's.

 

Well off to sample some long lost bushmill's now and to have another look at the Airfix / Dapol Station building to see what can be made of it.

[Broithe]

 

E.g., Ballybrophy.

 

 

 

The Metcalfe range has a certain level of possibilities. E.g....

 

[jhb171achill]

....... plan to build the Ulster and Connaught 3ft gauge Light Railway line across Ireland this did not happen, but to me it has always been one of the greatest what if's.

 

 

A fascinating subject matter for a layout. Think LLSR 4.8.0s hauling corridor trains like the Ballymena & Larne, and Clogher Valley / C & L style stations!

 

Or, more likely, as on the original Welsh Highland / North Wales Narrow Gauge Railway, a straddling rambling rural line struggling to fill the thrice-weekly passenger train of two dilapidated unheated carriages, pushing their way through the weeds between deserted stations!

 

In terms of Irish station design, there are so many differences with British ones, that few of these will make convincing Irish ones. The hassle of conversion and kit bashing will almost certainly be more that the task of just building one from scratch. It's easier to build a building from scratch than a locomotive!

Edited May 28, 2017 by jhb171achill

[Mayner]

As JHB says it probably easier and more satisfying to scratch build an Irish Station building, the style of architecture and building materials were quite different to England and Wales.

 

The nearest you will get to a generic Irish design are Mill's brick station buildings on the GNR such as Malahide, George Wilkinson's buildings on the MGWR Sligo & Cavan Branches and the DWWR Dublin-Wexford line between Harcourt St & Enniscorthy and Nenagh on the GSWR

 

After building Workhouses George Wilkinson the Architect went on to build equally forboding railway stations

 

http://eiretrains.com/Photo_Gallery/Railway%20Stations%20D/Dromod/IrishRailwayStations.html#Dromod_20100816_012_CC_JA.jpg

 

The Waterford Limerick and Western had a nice cottage style of station building for smaller stations on the Limerick-Sligo and Thurles_Clonmel line

 

http://eiretrains.com/Photo_Gallery/Railway%20Stations%20K/Kiltimagh/IrishRailwayStations.html#Kiltimagh_20040703_005_CC_JA.jpg

[Colin R]

Snap, you and me are on the same page Broithe with this one. I was looking at that and thinking what could I use that for, I didn't at the time know what the old Downpatrick Station looked like from the road side of the building, I have since then received a photo of what it looked like, it would be possible to use the above as a basis for a freelanced Irish county town terminal station.

[Broithe]

Snap, you and me are on the same page Broithe with this one. I was looking at that and thinking what could I use that for, I didn't at the time know what the old Downpatrick Station looked like from the road side of the building, I have since then received a photo of what it looked like, it would be possible to use the above as a basis for a freelanced Irish county town terminal station.

 

The stone Metcalfe stuff does have some potential for non-prototypical Hibernisation, I feel.

[Colin R]

All this research has just brought me back in to contact with an Irish based book I had almost forgotten about, its called Buildings of Irish Towns, by Patrick and Maura Shaffrey, I can't recall where I got it, but it has a lot of useful stuff in it.

 

It has a number of coloured prints of buildings around Ireland, some but not all, are very close to OO/4mm scale so could be used as a backdrop for an Irish High street.

 

Architecturally speaking there are only so many design styles, but what makes the Irish buildings unique to Ireland are the details and the application of them to such great effect. Stone has been used in more Irish buildings than anywhere else, but it is the addition of details such as quoins on the corners of building that give it that style the other thing which I have also noticed and that is the use of render to give a smooth finish to station buildings as well.

 

I am going to go out on a limb and say that until the 1960's many buildings where painted white, grey or cream. after that period and the introduction by the Irish tourist Board to encourage owners in the picture postcard locations to paint there buildings up in various colour's from yellow to red with green and blue as well, it did not take much to brighten the place up, I am tempted to use some modeller's license when it come to modelling the township and incorporating some of the later colour schemes to the buildings, otherwise the whole model is going to be very dull colour wise.

 

One other Irish must have is the town triangle, I don't know how this came about, but it not something I have heard about in UK village or towns planning, village green's and town squares yes, but never a village triangle.

 

Great like I said wonderful stuff research.

[Broithe]

There's a village triangle in Dubai, at Jumeirah, but the architectural styles are way off...

[Colin R]

Thanks guys for the input, looks like there is still more to do at this stage.

[Glenderg]

Colin, as a conservation architect and having built a few buildings over the years, I'd have to say that GNR has the most modular of all styles.

 

Station masters houses, signal cabins, platform shelters, all follow a defined pattern. They are also the most difficult to reproduce, such is the level of detail.

 

MGWR might appear austere in its design, but it ranks second when it comes to buildings and patterns.

 

Anything in the GSWR world is a mess. You can see stations on both sides of limerick, Croome and Pallasgrean come to mind, and they are wildly differing styles.

 

If you like a building, build it, rename it, and cherry pick other buildings from other stations as needed. The right effect can be achieved. Richie.

 

Edit - I have that shaffrey book, the rendering of Thurles is lovely.

Edited May 28, 2017 by Glenderg

[Colin R]

Colin, as a conservation architect and having built a few buildings over the years, I'd have to say that GNR has the most modular of all styles.

 

Station masters houses, signal cabins, platform shelters, all follow a defined pattern. They are also the most difficult to reproduce, such is the level of detail.

 

MGWR might appear austere in its design, but it ranks second when it comes to buildings and patterns.

 

Anything in the GSWR world is a mess. You can see stations on both sides of limerick, Croome and Pallasgrean come to mind, and they are wildly differing styles.

 

If you like a building, build it, rename it, and cherry pick other buildings from other stations as needed. The right effect can be achieved. Richie.

 

Edit - I have that shaffrey book, the rendering of Thurles is lovely.

 

 

Hi ya, yes I have a feeling that is what I will end up doing.

[minister_for_hardship]

Nothing much standard, apart from examples like the polychrome GNR brick. Large companies like the GS&W made up of a hodge podge of smaller companies of varying means, constructing buildings at different times and going to different contractors and architects.

 

Some GSWR branches do have buildings, not really identical, but variations on a theme, say on the Kerry Road.

 

The GSR did do a line of signal cabins with a family resemblance though.

[murrayec]

The Dublin & Kingstown Railway Company- the first! Built beautiful Edwardian/Victorian station buildings like cottages n gate lodges of that time, each had their own little quirks- Blackrock station had a bit of Nouveau/Italian buzz, and many were decorated with eaves supports, decorative barges, and typical at that time decorative chimney pots. Also a place nicknamed 'Privo' with its Italian footbridges, harbour, and Greek bathhouse- now removed, all to appease the landowner. As time went on the Southern railway company continued on with the tradition and built Dun Laoghaire station- Italian, the later Dalkey station and say Greystones station, still employing the E&V style.

 

Sadly these building have been taken over by modernisation and some gone, but many of the old style details can be glimpsed here and there...

 

 

https://www.google.ie/search?q=dublin+kingstown+railway&client=firefox-b&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi-rcLlkJXUAhUCBcAKHVguDJ0Q_AUIDCgD&biw=1280&bih=890

 

Eoin

[MikeO]

Colin

 

Have you considered Alphagraphixs kits for station buildings and signal cabins.

 

In 4mm scale there is

 

F514 Station based on Glenfarne

 

F527 Manorhamilton Signal Cabin based on Saxby & Farmer Type 5

 

F536 Goods Shed based on Glenfarne

 

F552 Florencecourt Station

 

F555GNR Signal Cabin

 

These generally have stone or stone covered render.

 

F570 GNR W H MIlls style Station

 

This is the distinctive brick work usually yellow/cream and red.

 

The photos below are of N gauge versions where I scaled down the 4mm kit components. I have not yet built the W H Mills station.

 

F514

 

F527

 

F536

 

 

F552

 

 

F555

 

MikeO

[Colin R]

Hi Mike great models, Yes I have got those in mind as well, there is a station on the Irish network which could use one or two old Airfix station buildings I think it is Bray which comes to mind, but I could be wrong.

[Broithe]

This picture of Kiltimagh has appeared on Twitter.