Ballyshane NIR

[NIR]

They would definitely be more interesting than a 1970s Mark 2 set. Those always seemed boringly BR to me and the Hunslets looked so much like a BR 'Western' too (though the photo of the blue Hunslet with white/blue stripe Mark 2s at Derry is giving me nostalgia now). My home ground would have been BR blue, urban, high/low level, electrified - I even heard someone being electrocuted - so I found the whole NIR experience fascinating.

Edited May 24, 2019 by NIR

[NIR]

Of course no NIR (NCC) layout could be complete without one of these totally utilitarian lineside huts

Single-skin brickwork, metal-framed windows and a corrugated pent roof - and such little architectural merit they actually have architectural merit.

One of these seemed to be passed every couple of miles, I'm assuming they are for PW or maybe a ground frame, this one looks like it might have had telegraph wires* into it via the bracket above the window.

This is heavily cropped from a Diesel Dawn/JM Allen photo, does anyone know of other photos?

* and there's another detail to model, poles leaning this way and that

Edited June 15, 2019 by NIR

[jhb171achill]

They were used also as shelters for PW gangs out’n’about.

As you say, very distinctive. The NCC (and the GNR as far as some bridges were concerned) were early pioneers using concrete, though these brick things were common.

In contrast to the very beautiful and distinctive architectural style of the Belfast & Northern Counties, in particular the work of Berkeley Dean Wise, the NCC’s own designs were truly awful!

[Galteemore]

On 5/24/2019 at 3:29 PM, NIR said:

Of course no NIR (NCC) layout could be complete without one of these totally utilitarian lineside huts

Single-skin brickwork, metal-framed windows and a corrugated pent roof - and such little architectural merit they actually have architectural merit.

One of these seemed to be passed every couple of miles, I'm assuming they are for PW or maybe a ground frame, this one looks like it might have had telegraph wires* into it.

This is heavily cropped from a Diesel Dawn/JM Allen photo, does anyone know of other photos?

* and there's another detail to model, poles leaning this way and that

Maybe it was just the Larne line but I also remember these with arched corrugated  roofs? Certainly passed one every day between Greenisland and  Jordanstown adjacent to the Up line. Roy Carlisle and Ian Sinclair’s books (which I don’t have access to right now or I’d look!) may help with pics.  

[Robert Shrives]

Great photos - is it me or is the road signal head for the crossing turned away from the road?

Robert

[NIR]

3 hours ago, Robert Shrives said:

Great photos - is it me or is the road signal head for the crossing turned away from the road?

Robert

It's the 70s, the photographer is inside the barriers!

[jhb171achill]

I took pictures up signal posts, on tracks in front of (very slowly!) moving trains, either side of whatever very few notices or barriers there were, and wandered around Connolly and Heuston stations among the tracks, and so on.

Unacceptable nowadays, but very much the norm back in the day.

We drunk and drove routinely then too, and smoked in restaurants and on buses and trains.

I survived!

[Robert Shrives]

Hi 

Thanks - yes well corrected it is the off side set looking "up the road" from within the crossing "envelope."  I watched some forward facing cctv of a voyager set running in Scotland where the train missed a cyclist by inches and train was doing 80mph!

So yes we survived but not all do it has to be said, still a good shot of a basic but practical shed.

cheers

Robert 

[NIR]

On ‎3‎/‎27‎/‎2019 at 11:16 AM, NIR said:

So it's a shunting puzzle without the puzzle! I'm happy with that...

Shortly after writing that I realised it was all a very BIG puzzle...

With platform, loop and fiddle yard all of 2 foot nominal length there is nowhere for the tightly-fitting freight and passenger services to actually cross. If the passenger remains at the platform the freight cannot run around but if the passenger crosses the freight then the freight cannot pull back to set into the siding!

So that is why it is now a through station

 

The passenger can now continue onto the traverser on the right rather than blocking the sector plate to the left, the freight pulls into the loop then runs around and pulls back onto the sector plate before propelling into the siding.

But there is still a problem, a passenger service can not come and go freely unless the freight dwells somewhere on the layout. The easy answer is a double-track traverser to hold the freight, but freight approaches from the left so I need to configure some massively complicated sector-traverser on the left using a finely-engineered slot to cam the disengage/traverse movement of two sector plates (probably...)

My easy solution, assume the freight arrives from the left early morning then runs around and propels, the passenger comes and goes all day as desultory shunting movements take place, then the freight departs to the left late evening. It even sounds prototypical.

I wonder though, has anyone ever seen or heard of a traversing sector plate? With the pivot being so close to the exit (the crossover and tracks actually represent the two positions of a single-track sector plate) a second track on the same sector plate has to intersect the existing track at that point (the crossover becomes an actual crossover) so adding complexity and compromising its useful length. I expect one solution is to place the crossover near centred across the join and then cut it, but that seems to be inviting trouble (and would only shorten the loop by the same amount the sector track length was preserved).

Edited August 26, 2019 by NIR

[NIR]

Reading through Parting Shot I am surprised and delighted to realise that an MPD set had no intermediates! If it wasn't a power car (or a restaurant) then it was a driving trailer. Now that is definitely a model that can be built up and multiplied over time...

Edited September 11, 2019 by NIR

[NIR]

On ‎3‎/‎8‎/‎2019 at 10:47 PM, NIR said:

Inspired by memories of travelling by train in Ireland from the 60s onwards, mainly Belfast/Larne ports to Derry but once Dún Laoghaire to Sligo in 1972*, the flat-faced NIR Class 70 and the frowning CIE C Class sum it all up for me.

A rethink, two lots of memories so two layouts, one NIR and one CIE.   

Timeline now freed up with the C Class no longer having to be a 1985 onwards NIR 104 Class.

No locomotive so 'disconnect' entry from the sector plate into the loop and have the 70 Class railcar shuttle within a static diorama of spoil wagons, cut-down opens, MED parcels van and brown van - very prototypical.

A narrower baseboard to give a travellers-eye immediacy to rolling stock and infrastructure (now 4 feet by 6 inches)

Rotate it 180, change LH point to RH then continue all tracks to the baseboard edge and you have a representation of my Mother's old local station, Ballyglunin CIE.

The C Class will operate on this layout in all black/yellow panel (hopefully ready-to-run by then!) and will occasionally make it up to NIR with a CIE freight (even if they didn't).

So my white bubbles are now the wrong colour...

Edited October 30, 2019 by NIR

[NIR]

For anyone contemplating a 70 Class or 80 Class build, parts for the BR Class 205/207 underframe (on which these were based) seem no longer available. The closest I can find are various bits from Replica Railways, correct in size/shape but not in detail.

(clockwise from top left) B5 bogie kit, Mk1 coach components, PCV chassis components, Class 419 (MLV) chassis components

I even know the names of most of these things now - regulator box/cradle, vacuum cylinder, reserve vacuum cylinder... and maybe a compressor?

Edited November 26, 2019 by NIR

[NIR]

The only relevant component I can find is the fan grille, so at least there's that

Edited November 26, 2019 by NIR

[skinner75]

On 3/8/2019 at 10:47 PM, NIR said:

the frowning CIE C Class 

I always saw them as more of a sad or depressed look about them

[airfixfan]

On 23/05/2019 at 8:52 PM, Lambeg man said:

The first NIR "excursion" set was put together in 1970 with a mix of ex-NCC former steam hauled carriages. The set was painted up in NIR maroon with a silver/white waistband stripe and was hauled by a spare '101' class loco. It was replaced circa 1975 by an 8-car set of de-engined BUT power cars which lasted in this role until circa 1979/80. I am not 100% sure, but I think a former Brake/Second BUT trailer was also retained to act as the Brake vehicle for this latter set. Livery was the same as the initial set. Some photo's at the time show vehicles from this set operating in smaller sets of only 2 or 3 cars.

595 was kept to run with the hauled BUT NIR coaches

[jhb171achill]

And then you’d 727, still with GNR upholstery, used as a railcar intermediate just into the 80s - the last GNR coach in service, looking well in the modern NIR blue and maroon!

[NIR]

Latest thinking - same track layout, different shape, no reverse curves

A micro of two large radius points, I like that contradiction

 

 

Edited February 18, 2021 by NIR

[Robert Shrives]

You will be in the market for two of the new finescale point kits ...  

[NIR]

Yes, of late I've been stuck in the standards doldrums

Edited February 19, 2021 by NIR

[Steveb]

On 24/5/2019 at 7:01 AM, NIR said:

They would definitely be more interesting than a 1970s Mark 2 set. Those always seemed boringly BR to me and the Hunslets looked so much like a BR 'Western' too (though the photo of the blue Hunslet with white/blue stripe Mark 2s at Derry is giving me nostalgia now). My home ground would have been BR blue, urban, high/low level, electrified - I even heard someone being electrocuted - so I found the whole NIR experience fascinating.

I loved the mark2s.

I remember a Hunslet hauled set on a Belfast-Portadown service, making a nice change from the usual 80 class.

It would be lovely to see models of those Bristol REs in your earlier post too. I'd be happy with either Ulsterbus or Citybus. On the other hand, most of the second-hand replacements can be had, without a repaint in some cases... lol

Steve

[Northroader]

Just looking at your new trackplan set me thinking of Ruyton Road, an old layout at present getting a face lift.

https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/154530-ruyton-road-revisited-what-to-do-with-an-old-classic/#comment-3964744

[Darius43]

On 24/4/2019 at 4:12 PM, NIR said:

 

With the houses that close this must be right next to the main line out of York Road station

With the southern end of Cave Hill in the background I would think so.  Brings back fond memories of the annual BRA school sponsored walks up over and around Cave Hill in the late ‘70s and early 80’s.  Happy days.

Cheers

Darius