A Railway Evolves

[Mayner]

I have been working on and off over the past 10 years converting our garage into a model railway room. The garage like our house is timber frame and weather board construction dating from the mid 1920s probably intended for the owners Model T Ford. When we moved in the garage had a distinctive lean the timber (Totara) piled foundations had rotted away. Luckily the framing was generally in good condition and we were able to level up and re-pile and renovate the interior of the garage as a model railway room/workshop. Although I installed the baseboard framing nearly three years ago, there has been little or no progress on the layout, which had become a repository for rubbish and half completed models.

This week I finally managed to clear out some of the clutter in the garage and start thinking about planning the railway. 

 

The baseboards for the 4mm layout are approx 1.4m above floor level above storage shelving and the Staging for the garden railway.

The initial plan was for a U shaped layout around 3 of the walls, until I get round to replacing the roller shutter garage doors with a conventional doorway. One of the spurs for renewed interest in the layout was that we are likely to remain in Hamilton for at least another 7 years. I have a history of having to move once I make good progress on a layout.

The original plan was for a single track point to point layout with a minimum of two stations running to hidden staging at each end, based on the Limerick-Sligo line. 

The option of building the layout as a continuous run opens up the idea of a looped 8 style tracklayout doubling the length of the main line and increasing the distance between stations, with what the Americans call "Surround Staging" where the staging is sited behind a scenic break around the perimeter of a layout rather than a traditional fiddle or staging yard. I used this technique on a N gauge layout where the 6 road staging yard was hidden behind a low backdrop at the back of the main yard.

 

I am planning to build most of the layout using open top baseboards using a variant of the American L Girder system where the trackbed is supported on risers fixed to crossbearers, part of the layout is supported on L Girders salvaged from a layout I had started in Auckland .

The staging track will be laid at a lower level than the scenic section, the Mail train is supposed to be posed on an embankment, the E Class and wagons in the staging. At some stage the folded 8 will have to cross over itself which will either involve a crossover very unusual in Ireland or an overpass to allow one line to pass above another with interesting grades.

The current staging set up is based on a traverser which runs on kitchen drawer slides. This allows longer trains to be staged in a given space compared with using a turnout ladder, but 1200mm is short for a main line goods or passenger trains.

Next stage is to rough out a block design for the main line to see if I can make the idea of "Surround Staging" work for a 4mm layout on 500mm wide baseboards & to clear the remaining clutter from the baseboard tops

Irish stock MM B141 diesel Shapeways E421on Bullant chassis with my detail overlays, JM Design heating Van & 4w PO van, SSM GNR 30T Brake & modified Parkside BR vanfits

The train in the second is part of an EM gauge minimum space Welsh Borders effort using "floating trackwork" which did not quite work. The loco is an Airfix Dean Goods on a brass chassis (with motor in the engine!) coupled to a City of Truro tender and a mixture of Cambrian, Parkside and Airfix wagons

Edited February 15, 2018 by Mayner

[murrayec]

Hi John

I love it, trains everywhere....

Eoin

[David Holman]

Definitely one to watch.

[Glover]

John,

I like the idea of what I would term a 'meandering' layout; well suited to the Sligo-Limerick, especially the northern end, the Burma Road.

Can I suggest that stone walls are an absolute must!

Glover

[Mayner]

I came across my planning notes from around four years ago, it looks like I considered a multi level end to end layout and a layout with an island in the center of the room before deciding on a single level U shaped scheme.

 

I tested the center island concept by dividing the with of the room into 1m units based on a 900mm minimum radius & 100mm min distance from the edge of the square, I later prepared a scheme using 1136mm squares based on a minimum radius of 1000 for 21mm gauge, with a minimum aisle width of 500mm. I abandoned the center island concept as my workbench occupies the centre of the room.

The main station in the initial plan was based on Kiltimagh, the second a typical of smaller stations on the Limerick-Sligo line with a goods loop and single siding, though the diamond crossing crossover arrangement is similar to Ferbane on the Banagher branch, at this stage I still seem to have had fantasies about an upper level.

Kiltimagh did not work visually in the space available with most of the yard hemed in between the two level crossing gates.

I eventually looked at Tubbercurry which appeared to be a better fit for the available space & the bonus of a loco shed and turntable, Ballingarne Junction seems to have slipped into the plan though I don't remember if this was intended to be part of a multi level or island set up.

Hopefully I will find time during the next week to draw out the block plan for the folded 8 scheme to scale to see if the concept can be made to work in an Irish context., I may need to widen the baseboard to fit a hidden line into the area behind the main station.

[Mayner]

More planning and theoretical stuff: I prepared a block plan to scale and it looks like its feasible to fit in a folded 8 plan with a 1m minimum radius in 21mm gauge with two stations and perimeter staging in the available space. The basic reason for adapting a folded 8 design is to improve the illusion of distance between stations on a single track line, by increasing the time it takes a train to clear a section and the loco of a train shunting station A does not have to enter Station B while carrying out a shunting manouvre.

I thought it would be useful to look back at what worked and did not work in the past before, developing the plan further let alone starting track laying. A U shaped N Gauge layout in an 11X11 room came closest in terms of meeting my operating requirements for a CIE secondary main line in the 60s & 70s with a small intermediate junction station open for passenger & seasonal beet traffic and a medium sized terminus open to passenger and freight traffic.

An operating sequence based on the Sligo Line with passenger, goods and mail services with the addition of a goods only branch serving a small port with an oil depot modelled off scene and seasonal beet. There was sufficient distance and visual separation between the two stations to avoid resorting to a "twice round" plan. 

My second N gauge iteration was an American looped 8 layout based on the Delaware & Hudson Railroad in the mid 1970s a Class 1 Railroad that acted as a funnel for traffic between Quebec/New England the Mid-West, Eastern & Southern States the center piece was a large yard  where trains were re-marshaled and motive power changed a very different kettle of fish from a secondary Irish main line. The layout was designed with perimiter staging with the staging yard immediately behind the main yard and a scenic section with a large steel trestle and a small town with crossing siding and a spur serving a coal fired power station. The illusion of distance was reasonable taking 3-5 minutes for a freight to work at scale speed in either direction between the main yard and staging, but also capable of Scaletric operation by finescale modellers!

In practice the main focus was marshaling and running 6-8 through freights in an operating session, as a consequence there was seldom time or the inclination to switch the local industries or stage "meets" at the crossing siding, though it was used as a refuge for locos on pusher service out of the main yard.  A Montreal-Washington express freight or a Buffalo-Newark Intermodal was much more exciting than switching a grain elevator or power station!

My current American Narrow Gauge garden railway is a much more relaxed operation a large oval around the garden with two small and one large town or yard fed by a branch from a storage yard in the garage/garden shed. Separation distance is good except between two of the yards where a loco switching a long train will occupy most of the section. While operation is mainly out and back between storage and the main yard, I am starting to explore the option of operating a trip or turn from the main yard to the two smaller turns, the main limiting factor at the moment is insufficient stock and the chore of working everything back to the garden shed at the end of a Sunday operating session. This Sundays operation session was interesting I ran a through freight behind a 2-8-2 which ran-round and round while I was mowing the lawn and other gardening. Then switched the cars into the yard & turned the loco at lunch time, ran an empty livestock special from storage to the main yard behind a small 2-8-0, picked up some empty gondolas, then worked a turn dropping off the stock cars at one town and the gondolas at a second, before running back with the caboose.

Finished gardening then ran a "caboose hop" with a small 4-6-0 to run a stock special with the stock cars.  2-8-0 then ran out collected the gondolas before marshalling all the cars in the yard into a train to be double headed with the 2-8-2 after tea. Final runs were a bit tricky as it was getting dark and both stock special and freight were too much for the locos on the 4% grade to the shed and I was not in the mood for sending out another loco in pusher service or particularly wanted to "double the hill"

How this will work with a 4mm layout I am not sure, this sort of operating model requires a lot more rolling stock than a simple continuous run layout watching trains run round and round, does the garden railway satisfy my urges for realistic operation and small scale modelling my kit/scratchbuilding urges and may not bother to operating a 21mm gauge model railway if I ever get around to building on which is what has largely happened  during the last 15 years with Keadue my Irish narrow gauge layout.

Edited March 19, 2018 by Mayner

[Mayner]

Finding space to do anything in our garage has been like a 3 dimensional chess game, no sooner than I completed the baseboard framing for the Irish broad gauge layout than it became covered by other unfinished products and models.. Thankful these days there has been some progress. Progress with other projects finally freed up space to clear the traverser and about 12' of baseboard, while the N gauge will probably be returning to the house by Christmas.

 

Anytime between 1890 & 1963? 650 Class and perishable (6w bk3rd, horsebox and string of meat vans. I will have to find a permanent home for the watertower.

1960s Night Mail, heating van TPO 3 fitted H Vans, to connect into the Galway-Dublin Night Mail at Athlone or Mullingar

I have a photo somewhere of a mock up of a Midland station and AEC railcar set.

At this stage I am toying with the idea of a U shaped layout with a  Mayo Line or Limerick-Sligo crossing station in this area buildings possibly buildings based Ballymoe or Kiltimagh entering as a double line through station from traverser with road bridge view blocker before entering single line section to terminus on opposite side of room.

Like idea of mixing MGWR & GSWR (ex WLWR) lines possibly one road GSWR bullhead other MGWR flatbottom rail. Variety of MGWR & GSWR steam power and rolling stock.

Baseboards are open frame construction with trackbed supported on risers so the ground contours are both above and below the railway, possibly with some bogland and a river crossing (lattice truss bridge?) on the connecting section between the two stations .

[WaYSidE]

more please. love your brass models,

[David Holman]

Yup, count me in on that too!

[jhb171achill]

On 10/14/2018 at 11:12 AM, Mayner said:

Like idea of mixing MGWR & GSWR (ex WLWR) lines possibly one road GSWR bullhead other MGWR flatbottom rail. Variety of MGWR & GSWR steam power and rolling stock.

I had considered (and may do again) a line which resulted from the Parsonstown & Portumna bridge line having been extended to Loughrea. 

Once the GSR takes over, it becomes quite logically a single route, with services operating from Attymon or Galway - Ballybrophy.

Hey presto: Midland and Southern stock on the same line.

Edited March 26, 2019 by jhb171achill

[Mayner]

On 3/27/2019 at 6:35 AM, jhb171achill said:

I had considered (and may do again) a line which resulted from the Parsonstown & Portumna bridge line having been extended to Loughrea. 

Once the GSR takes over, it becomes quite logically a single route, with services operating from Attymon or Galway - Ballybrophy.

Hey presto: Midland and Southern stock on the same line.

 

In terms of simplicity, scenic interest and varieties of rolling stock Carrignagat Junction-Sligo takes some beating, double track main line, Ballysodare Station compact layout with an interesting private siding (branch line) to Pollexfen's mill, WLWR(GSWR),MGWR & SLNCR trains, add in McAndrew's Sligo & Arigna if it got built operated with cast-offs locos and stock like the Athenry & Tuam & Ennis and Athenry.

Interesting rock cuttings, nearby railway viaduct and interesting mountain backdrop.

Nothing to report in terms of layout or rolling stock building, though the baseboard framing should be well seasoned before I start to lay the road bed and tracklaying. I have most of the softwood framing in stock for over 10 years and haven't got around to laying track

[Mayner]

Although my main interest is the Midland I settled on Kiltimagh on the Burma Road mainly because of family connections, the compact and attractive nature of the station. My father was born in Ballinamore (nr Kiltimagh) and spent most of his childhood there before moving to Galway in the 1920s.

I was struck by the sight of the signal box guarding the level crossing at the south end of the station as we drove over the crossing on our first family holiday in the West when I was about 10 or 12.

I had my first decent Grice around the station during my summer holidays in 1982. Gradually surveyed the station on three visits between 1996 and 2018 and have been working on drawings of the buildings and structures since around 2004, I am not exactly a fast worker!

I had the signal cabin laser etched by York Model Making, but decided to "scratchbuild" the remaining buildings in ply or mounting board with Wills Scenic Sheet walls and etched window frames and architectural details to my own design, I will probably follow Andy Cundick's or Simon deSouza's example and slate the roofs in paper rather than the Wills Scenic sheets.

Although the 'facilities" passing loop and two siding loading banks and good shed are similar to other 'large" Burma Road stations the tracklayout is unusual with the station hemmed in to the space between the two level crossings with both siding running behind the platforms as opposed to the more elongated layouts at Swinford, Tubbercurry and Collooney South with the goods facilities largely separate from the passenger station.

The line through the station is on a down grade in the Sligo direction, a fatal accident occurred during WW1 when a North bound ballast train ran through the station and collided with a Southbound goods or Cattle train, the short stub siding at the Sligo end of the loop was probably provided to prevent loose coupled goods trains running away during shunting, gravity shunting is featured in a Video of the line in its final years. A 001 Class and a couple of vans arrive at the platform from the Limerick direction, followed shortly afterwards by some vans for the yard arriving by gravity, followed by the rest of the train when the signal man re-makes the road for the main. I hope to model the down grade but would be challenging to re-create the gravity shunting.

The station building appears to be a standard WLWR design used at several of the smaller stations between Ennis and Collooney Junction and on the Clonmel-Thurles line. 

I forgot to measure the width of the gable end during the 2003 survey and had to make some adjustments to the drawing following the 2018 visit.

The buildings featured a nap rendered finish with stone quoins, I prepared a set of etched window frames one-two years ago and recently prepared a set of decorative bargeboards and quoins.

 

I measured up most of the buildings in 2003 before moving to New Zealand  and re-checked some of the dimensions during an Irish holiday in 2018 but forgot to measure up the crossing keepers cottage.

This lead to some skulldugery to produce a drawing using Google Maps, photos and working out brickwork modules. The brickwork in the porch is laid in Flemish Bond which lead to an interesting exercise on working out the brick 'closers' used at quoins and window and doors openings something I last studied 40 years ago. Ignore the dimensions, I had to re-size the drawing to produce a usable image

 

I am planning to focus on the buildings until I relocate my OO gauge Timesaver layout to another room and will probably start with the Crossing Keepers Cottage having enough Wills Sheets and etched parts in stock.

[Galteemore]

Excellent choice John. As a child we spent much time in Leitrim and to alleviate the tedium of rural life my dad used to drive around showing us old railways - including the Burma Road. This was about 78 so it had not long closed. As a child, it was magical - a railway that looked as if it had fallen asleep and just needed woken up - everything was intact bar a light coating of verdure and rust…..

[jhb171achill]

Only saw a train on that line once - the daily goods crossing the street in Charlestown….. he only had about 4 or 5 wagons on…… superb choice and those drawings of the crossing cottage would be suitable - and easy to build - in many applications.

Its making me wonder if I can fit a level crossing on my extension station….

[David Holman]

Lovely stuff!

[Patrick Davey]

Thankfully Kiltimagh is still looking very tidy for a station closed for nearly 50 years - photos from a recent visit.  Looking forward to your layout developments John. 

Edited December 19, 2021 by Patrick Davey

[StevieB]

The survival of the Claremorris-Collooney line virtually intact is really quite something. There remains the possibility, albeit many years hence, of reconnecting it to the national network and providing a train service from Sligo to Limerick.

Stephen