Gort Station

[Noel]

2 hours ago, DERAILED said:

Not Noo Yawk - nearer to home - and can be viewed at Dromod unless it has been flogged to somebody.

 

Does anybody know what font in MS-Office is closest to the Irish Gaelic GSR type face?

[jhb171achill]

7 hours ago, burnthebox said:

Ya mean the way this one did, & all the way to Noo Yawk, into Fitzpatrick’s no less....!

BTB

That's EXACTLY what I mean!

Disgraceful "stewardship" of railway "heritage" by IE.

7 hours ago, Noel said:

Does anybody know what font in MS-Office is closest to the Irish Gaelic GSR type face?

There's a thing called "bunchlo".  Seems closest to me.

There appears to be nothing that truly is VERY close to it.

 

[Galteemore]

Weshty at SSM will make some up for you. Happy with mine.

 

Edited January 5, 2021 by Galteemore

[Irishrailwayman]

3 hours ago, Galteemore said:

Weshty at SSM will make some up for you. Happy with mine.

 

I got mine from Studio Scale Models also for Ballybeg...

[Noel]

In for a penny in for a pound, I'll have to scratch build the Gort signal box. Gort only really has four unique buildings the Goods shed, station house, water tower and signal box. Can't do three and leave one out. 

Sourced drawings for it which is a help. Below a hornby RTR Box, but Gort is quite a little box distinctive.

Its just a start, will do the windows next to get the trickiest bits out of the way.

Link to photo in Clare Champion (C) John Galvin and John Kelly

http://clarechampion.photoshelter.com/image/I0000RkOBUbm6J4s

 

Edited January 21, 2021 by Noel

[leslie10646]

Pity about the nameboards.

I'm trying out a new slide scanner (for the Legal Appendage to scan my slides of our sons) and just happened to lift this out -

Taken on some RPSI tour, of course. I took the station building as well, Noel, if of use?

Good luck with the model. Now I know how I should have done mine!

Leslie

[Noel]

6 hours ago, leslie10646 said:

Pity about the nameboards.

I'm trying out a new slide scanner (for the Legal Appendage to scan my slides of our sons) and just happened to lift this out -

Taken on some RPSI tour, of course. I took the station building as well, Noel, if of use?

Good luck with the model. Now I know how I should have done mine!

Leslie

Hi Leslie. That’s really useful, thank you. If by any chance you also had a photo of the station building facade from the line side that would be a great help, as I can only find photos at an acute angle taken from the north.

[Noel]

Window frames done and re-roofed. Lots more still to do, fascias, gutters, brick chimney, steps, ridge tiles, painting, weathering, etc. There is also the option of the white lean-to at the north end of the box.

[Noel]

Waiting for glue and paint to set on other items, so made a start to the facade of Gort station ticket office building. The window surrounds will be tricky to fabricate. Guessed the dimensions as I could not find any half decent photos or drawings of this building from this angle (ie perpendicular elevation from track side). The ceilings on the RHS should be about 8ft and 10ft for the centrals section. Another micro project to chug away at.

[Patrick Davey]

The signal cabin is looking fantastic!!  Looking forward to seeing the station buildings!!

[Noel]

22 hours ago, Patrick Davey said:

The signal cabin is looking fantastic!!  Looking forward to seeing the station buildings!!

Cheers Patrick. Taking a break from the signal box for a while. The water tower is almost complete.

[Patrick Davey]

That is superb Noel - very neat work which captures the character of the building perfectly.  Great stuff!

[Noel]

Test fitting the remade goods platform. I wasn't 100% happy with the original versions shape so when remade this one added embossed high grip cobble at the cattle dock end. Was able to adjust the track to give it a better flow while enabling stock to get close to the edges for loading and unloading. Now have to make a small loading dock crane. The original platform will get recycled and reused on the other layout.

Peco platform edging strips make it really easy to make platforms from plastic card.

 

[Noel]

The basics are starting to come together.

Hopefully will be able to test run some stock in a few weeks (ie as an electrics check pre-ballasting)

Need to get the structure of the station ticket office building done now.

[Robert Shrives]

Hopefully wiring up will be successful and a spot of the old ballasting and you will be more than well on your way. Thanks for sharing progress. 

[Noel]

Finally got the main structure of the station house buildings done

Will test fit on the layout tomorrow

Photo below of the station courtesy of Leslie (thanks). 

Dam - I just noticed the roof has lead flashing instead of ridge tiles! Grrr will have to change that.  

[Noel]

Buildings of Gort montage. Its the first time I've scratch built model buildings for a very long time (ie Kingsbridge loco shed), but its been fun having a go. Now I can go back and focus on electrics for a while.

Edited January 30, 2021 by Noel
typo brain freeze

[David Holman]

Fine work and only goes to show how satisfying it is to make your own.

[Noel]

It was this photo by Barry Carse in 'Rails Through the West' book by himself and Jonathan Beaumont ( @jhb171achill) that put the idea and inspiration to do a layout of Gort into my head 3 years ago. Slowly getting near modelling that scene. Once the scenics are done will retake the layout photo in good daylight and see how they match up. The layout design was pretty much done using this photo.

[Noel]

A few more pics from this evening of the buildings dry fitted just to see how the whole thing is coming together before any glue, nails or scenics used. Working from photos was really fun and challenging too, but I've really enjoyed the process so far. Thanks to buying JHB's fab book 'Rails Through the west' a few years ago this has been on my heart since then. 

 

[Edo]

Just fantastic Noel - you are going great guns there - more power to your elbow!

[Galteemore]

Excellent work Noel. Building a real location is both constraining - you have to capture certain things - but also liberating because it gives you a template to follow. This is looking really good.

[popeye]

Excellent, just like the real thing. 

[Noel]

Thanks for kind comments guys. This project has been a dream of mine for a number of years. Relieved to have got this far. 

[Noel]

A few daylight photos of prorgess on Gort. I'm really looking forward to shunting stock on this layout when its finished and operational. Only two kadee uncoupling magnets should be needed to shunt the entire yard.

B165 about to pick up wagons and join them onto the holding goods train for onward trip to Galway via Athenry. Two wagons will be dropped off at Athenry for later collection by the Claremorris bound afternoon working. The layout only needs 7 points.

Gort circa 1970'ish a golden era for CIE and Irish railways. A hint of the transition era to containerisation with 20ft Bells. Goods train arrived from Limerick via Ennis collecting some wagons from the loading dock before proceeding to Athenry and then on to Galway

Overview shot of the overall station. Two loops made for interesting goods traffic operations. Gort was primarily a station that handled goods traffic rather than passengers being connected to agri heartlands out west.

 

Edited February 2, 2021 by Noel

[Noel]

Few more pics. Got the guttering and down pipes done. Used a ratio guttering kit. Now just need a fews sacks of produce and a few wooden barrels outside. No pallets in this era, no fork lift trucks. This was before modern era, bogies and containers. All manually loaded produce in the CIE golden era.

The ratio guttering accessory kit was handy, saved me forming realistic gutters from heated plastic strips. A bit of fiddling here to figuratively ensure water would flow downhill from the overhang into the main roof down pipe. Will have to put drain traps on the ground below these.

Overall pleased to have a unique scale model of a real building as it was back around 1970. The basic structure of this building still exists but its all boarded up now.

[Edo]

Lovely job Noel

[Galteemore]

Lovely Noel. That’s just how I remember places like Gort from the 70s.

[Noel]

Platforms under construction. Gort's platforms had edging stone, but no over hang nor recess, just a right angle vertical side to platforms from rough stone. This will be the goods yard platform, loading dock and cattle dock. Cattle pen to be constructed shortly.

Platform structure starts with Peco platform edging kits, plastic card sheets bought from graphic design art suppliers, and faced with greenstuffworld smooth stone embossed card as well as being packed out to the edge of the platform.

IMHO Peco platform edge kits are the easiest and most accurate way to make model platforms at correct height and without meandering edges.

Edited February 19, 2021 by Noel

[Irishrailwayman]

All coming together really well now Noel!

[Noel]

31 minutes ago, Irishrailwayman said:

All coming together really well now Noel!

Cheers Gerry, I was just rooting through my off cuts box looking for pieces that could be cut up for the cattle pens and a small crane for the main loading dock platform. Looks like the walls will have to be a triple layer laminate of plastic sheed to get the correct thickness with round balsa capping.

[Noel]

Gort Cattle dock has simulating that a few cattle have been there. Luckily weathering powders do not also come with synthetic smells!  A few heifers seem to have had a woeful dose of the scutters after getting off the train.

Also test fitting decorated platforms on Gort. Had to ensure they still fitted between track bed after the sides had been padded out.

Edited August 4, 2021 by Noel

[PJR]

Looks good Noel keep it coming

[Noel]

Some emerging Gort scenes as buildings test fitted dry after decoration, platforms test fitted and tested for loading gauge fit. Important to check all this sort of stuff out now, before wiring is complete and before ballasting.

View North towards Athenry. Slowly getting into some sort of shape.

View south towards Ennis/Limerick direction. Loading dock weathered a bit today.

View through Gort Goods shed

All loading gauges tested so ready for ballasting next after a wiring test.

I so looking forward to shunting on this layout which was inspired by the book "Rails Through the West"

[Noel]

Some platform walls constructed today. Capping stone done via strip of balsa shaped to half round and scored to represent each capping stone. Will weather these in a day or so when the paint is dry. These small walls are a distinctive feature of Gort. Now to find the right Gaelic font on my mac for the station board name.

Gort's essence is an overall greyness from all the stone.

Will weather these walls tomorrow. Pleased with the way the balsa worked into the wall.