Bawnboy Road

[Phil3150]

I have been lurking on this site for a while now so it’s probably time for me to come clean about my current project which is Bawboy Road station on the Cavan and Leitrim. 

I have had a fascination with the Irish narrow gauge from a very early age. My father had a copy of Harold Fayle's "Narrow Gauge Railways of Ireland" and I spent many hours studying it. Two family holidays to Ireland in the mid-sixties as a teenager served to increase the interest as, although the lines were all closed by then, we did find many remains. By coincidence it was on one of those holidays that I also bought a copy of the April 1964 issue of the Railway Modeller containing the late David Lloyd's description of his Augher Valley Railway. That article made an enormous impression on me and I decided that I would have to build my own model of the Irish narrow gauge. There have been many distractions since then: university, work, marriage, family as well as 009, P4 with the Cambridge Area S4 Group and American h0, but I could never shake off the Irish narrow gauge bug. Finally redundancy and the ensuing early retirement provided the impetus to bite the bullet and build something. Even so it has not been that easy. I have discovered that retirement is not all it is cracked up to be as regards modelling time, especially when grandchildren and even great grandchildren intervene.

I had decided some years ago that my chosen line would be the Cavan and Leitrim and I made a start planning a model of Arigna. Then along came Andy Cundick with his layout which he had interpreted almost identically to my plans so I turned my attention to Mohill. I spent some time researching the station and its surroundings but slowly the realisation dawned that it was too big a project for me to tackle alone. The layout would have been over 20ft long and that meant a lot of modelling and problems with storage, transport and even in being able to set it up at home. (If anyone is considering tackling Mohill - please get in touch). I have finally settled on Bawnboy Road which has a much greater prospect of being completed in my lifetime.

So where am I at? I have drawn up a plan that will fit neatly into the corner of a room. I have never come to terms with Templot and although there were offers to help I have used it only to generate the point templates and have connected these with my favoured CAD package. The first baseboards have now been laser cut for me by my friend David Barham, “Fen End Pit” on another forum, and some track laying looms although I have a number of issues to sort before that begins. Over the years I have not been totally idle and I have built up a collection of rolling stock courtesy of the various kits that have been made available. I have also built a Backwoods 4-4-0T, although I’m not happy with its looks, and Alan Edgar, well known in these parts, volunteered (I think) to build one of the Branchlines Hunslet 2-6-0’s for me. 6T was my best Christmas present by a country mile!

Any layout based on the C&L mainline in 1957 has two “must feature” items – the ex-CB&PR 2-4-2 tanks and the Inchicore built “bus-coach”. The 2-4-2 was important in the layout design process as its ability to go round curves rather defines the layout’s geometry. Never-the-less taking the Worsley etches to my Scalefour area group and asking “How am I going to get this to go round corners?” was always going to be dangerous. The result was another friend, Brian Page, designing a new, fully sprung chassis with working radial trucks – and while we are at it let’s do a new body too! The chassis is undergoing ‘refinements’ but the superstructure is going along well, even taking into account my soldering skills. I am also looking at designing an etched ‘bus-coach’ with printed ends.

I will try to keep you updated, mainly to encourage me to keep the layout progressing.

Phil

[David Holman]

Sounds great, Phil. Keep us posted!

[leslie10646]

Get on with it, Phil!

Even a bit of the roadside tramway to Arigna will get you started and allow us to see Alan's Tralee tank!

You've got quite a team there, so no excuses! Alan has sorted out the running of several of my locos.

Good luck.

[Colin R]

Sounds a great project and I look forward to seeing some photos. I would like a bit more info on the 2-4-2T chassis as I have four of them to build at some point plus a number of other 3ft gauge 2-4-2T's which never saw the light of day except on a design concept for the Isle of Man Railway.

I have a few Ideas on how to go about it, but any shortcuts or new inspiration is always welcome.

Is the layout going on the exhibition circuit at some point? if so let me know and I shall put it forward to the organisers of EXPO-NG.

PS a bus coach body is available from Alphagraphix in card I have been wondering about using that as a basis for an etched kit.

KIt No CC455 I think it is.

You can email him on sirberkeley@outlook.com for more details.

Good luck with the model.

Colin Rainsbury

[Phil3150]

I like to think I've made some progress over the past 50-odd years.

My first Irish 3-foot model was this version of Tralee and Dingle no. 4 built as a 15 year old from the photo in Fayle's book. It has a plastic card superstructure with balsa wood boiler top and white metal fittings on a well hidden Tri-ang TT 0-6-0 chassis. It did run - honest!

This is my current project - the CB&P 2-4-2T. It has an etched nickel silver body and the chassis will be sprung. Boiler fittings are 3D printed and balanced on for this photo. Hopefully it will run too!

Phil

[jhb171achill]

I'm coming late to this thread as I was away all month.... that is a superb job - is it entirely scratchbuilt? What chassis will you use?

[Phil3150]

Thanks Jonathan. The loco is built from nickel silver etches we designed and the chassis will be likewise. As soon as there is more to show I will post more photographs.

Phil

[Colin R]

The C&L bus coach is a must for all Irish narrow gauge modellers, if you want to help reduce the costs I wouldn't might having a copy once you get to that stage, in fact I can think of a couple of other guys who model the C&L who might also like a coach body etch as well but as far as I know are not on this forum.

 

Colin Rainsbury

[Andy Cundick]

Phil Looks like you got me back i've been looking at doing Bawnboy Road ,as a "mainline" Cavan layout to accommodate all the stock which has got to be more than enough for Arigna so i might move down the line a bit and do Ballyconnel  .Incidentally Arigna has a little trip out next month to Ally Pally.Andy.  

[Phil3150]

Hi Andy, what comes round comes round!! Ballyconnell's good.  I'm hoping to be at the Ally Pally on the Sunday. If its progressed far enough I'll bring the 2-4-2 along for a run out!!

Phil

[Andy Cundick]

Look forward to it Phil,you're welcome to come and have a play.Andy.

[Phil3150]

For those who have asked there has been some progress with the 2-4-2 chassis which has reached the stage of a 2-0-2 (!) with the radial trucks in place. The springing for the driving wheel hornblocks is visible.

The gearbox has to be very slim to fit between the suspension springs with the motor mounted at an angle to allow access to the fixing screws.

Driving wheels next!

Phil

[merlinxlili]

Well done Phil! How did you arrange the radial trucks please, and which gearbox do you use? Continuous springing, also bearing on the radial trucks? 

[Phil3150]

The radial trucks are based on the London Road Models ones for their LNWR radial tanks and the gearbox started out as a High Level Slimliner but now has been on a serious diet and got new sideframes. The springing does bear on the trucks as you can see in this photo.

And this is where we stand now

Phil

[merlinxlili]

So it looks as though the radial trucks have an etched box containing the axles which can move horizontally as well as bearing the end of the common suspension spring to control vertical movement. I guess you made this yourself based on the LRM original. It all looks very nice - well done!

[Phil3150]

On 1/28/2019 at 10:33 PM, leslie10646 said:

Get on with it, Phil!

Even a bit of the roadside tramway to Arigna will get you started and allow us to see Alan's Tralee tank!

You've got quite a team there, so no excuses! Alan has sorted out the running of several of my locos.

Good luck.

Hi Leslie

6T made a couple of trips up to the Arigna mines at Ally Pally today and a couple of photos are attached - old mobile phone I'm afraid so not great quality.

 

 

On 3/23/2019 at 7:20 PM, merlinxlili said:

So it looks as though the radial trucks have an etched box containing the axles which can move horizontally as well as bearing the end of the common suspension spring to control vertical movement.

The thicker wire running centrally between the frames controls the horizonal movement of the truck, the cranked wire against the frame is the suspension wire. It all seems to work ok so far!

Phil

[Mayner]

30 minutes ago, Phil3150 said:

Hi Leslie

6T made a couple of trips up to the Arigna mines at Ally Pally today and a couple of photos are attached - old mobile phone I'm afraid so not great quality.

 

 

The thicker wire running centrally between the frames controls the horizonal movement of the truck, the cranked wire against the frame is the suspension wire. It all seems to work ok so far!

Phil

Snap 

Modelling the C&L I guess we were likely to end up with different models of the same locomotives!

I would be interested in an ex-CBPR tank, though its likely to stick on the curve from the station to the roadside section on my layout-------------just like the real thing!

[Andy Cundick]

Quote

m

My Passage tank will make to Arigna which it did a few times over the weekend,,just fits on the turntable ,its one of the reasons theres another C&L layout in the pipeline.ANdy

[Phil3150]

It was good to meet up with you again today, Andy. Thanks for your hospitality!

[leslie10646]

Hi Phil and Andy

Great to see Arigna getting new traffic.

Sorry I wasn't there to see it - I was one of the specks in the helicopter shot of the Million marching to protest about this insane Brexit thing.

Very good-humoured - interesting to see the Union Jack and the Green, White and Orange on the same flagpole carried by one marcher! If you guys who favour Europe and are UK voters haven't done so - sign the petition - over five million signatures, up one and a half million since i signed it on Friday. We gotta stay together!

[banntry]

that's looking really nice

 

[Phil3150]

Steady progress but 12L is nearly there now

[popeye]

Very neat work, can't see any solder.

[leslie10646]

Nice work Phil. Don't engines look terrific in unpainted state?

The little CB&PR tanks were pretty little things. When I showed the late Lance King's piccies of the C&L recently, it was 10L which was on the connection he used from  Dromod to Ballinamore and back again in the evening.

[jhb171achill]

Absolute beauty!

Will it be in lined CBPR livery?

[David Holman]

As it is 12L, suggest not, JB. A fine looking model, with some very neat soldering too.

[Phil3150]

10 hours ago, jhb171achill said:

Absolute beauty!

Will it be in lined CBPR livery?

Afraid not, it will be heavily weathered grey and rust!

3 hours ago, David Holman said:

As it is 12L, suggest not, JB. A fine looking model, with some very neat soldering too.

I’m also afraid that I can’t claim that all the neat soldering is my own work. I have my good friend Brian Page to thank for much of the recent detailing. 

[jhb171achill]

Heavily weathered grey will look amazing too - you could paint a locomotive as beautifully built as that, in purple with tartan spots and it would still look great!

[Colin R]

That is just fantasic modelling well done.

[David Holman]

Whether an individual or combined effort, it looks the business!

[Mayner]

Excellent looking model, the high standard of detailing really lifts the model to another level almost 7mm or gauge 1 standard of realism.

You could always do an ex-works version, there is a nice photo of what looks like a freshly repainted 12L under repair in Ballinamore erecting shop in 1956 in the Pan paper back version of P J Flanagan's C&L book.

 

[Phil3150]

9 hours ago, Mayner said:

Excellent looking model, the high standard of detailing really lifts the model to another level almost 7mm or gauge 1 standard of realism.

You could always do an ex-works version, there is a nice photo of what looks like a freshly repainted 12L under repair in Ballinamore erecting shop in 1956 in the Pan paper back version of P J Flanagan's C&L book.

 

Thank you all for your kind comments. My next big problem will be building the rest of the layout to the same standard!

I already have one ex-worksish engine in the form of 6T which arrived from Inchicore in the summer of 1957 and I think two would rather give the wrong impression of the state the railway was in! Mind you I’d have been a bit miffed if I’d spent time painting up 12L only for it to be in the state it was a year later.

It does however beg the question “would 12L have been painted black in 1956?” JHB?

[Colin R]

Hi Phil

Going to the personal library I find in Tom Ferris Book Irish Railways In Colour (1955 to 1967) page 103 has 10 L (1956) in a clean but flat Black / Dark Grey colour, it certainly is in used condition but at that moment in time does not look to bad, no big bits of rust etc.

However on page 104 10L is shown at a later date in a much more used condition with rust on the smoke box door and the chimney as well.

I would think the guys on the railway knew that time was almost up, so the spit and polish of a clean loco had gone years before, I am not sure how often they got cleaned in the last few years, if at all.

To me the final colour looks more like a very dark grey, but with a fine covering of coal dust and oil, not the most easiest of finished to achieve, but it is possible, the guy from Golden Arrow has done it on a few custom paint jobs for people I know, it can be very effective, good luck with it.     

 

Colin R

[jhb171achill]

It was very dark grey, made darker very quickly by lack of care!

As far as I can ascertain, one of the T & D locos on the C & L was the only narrow gauge engine to be painted black, and even that only in the last few years.

Regarding 12L, I’ll delve. There was ONE of the Passage engines in the C & L which received a non-standard cast numberplate which it retained to the end, instead of a cream-painted number. It was very much smaller than the standard Inchicore plates as worn on West Clare or Dingle engines, and unusually the raised rim and number were picked out in red instead of cream.

[PorkyP]

Fantastic model, most impressive!.. The C&L is my main model interest too. Coincidentally the Mrs is visiting family over that way right now....I must get her to take some straight on photos of the Ballinamore station building, I've got an alfagrafix Ballyconnel station as a starting point that I'd like to 'convert' into Ballinamore !