My 7mm scale 1950s workbench

[David Holman]

Splendid and as you say, fiendishly difficult. A coach is a box (albeit with many add ons), a steam loco is a box with a boiler (ok, sweeping generalisations for both), but a railbus is another level in terms of all the complex curves and glazing. Road vehicles likewise, which is why we don't see many scratchbuilds of such things. 

 Seriously multimedia and great to see a whole host of techniques brought together. Very neat on the trailer too and will have to look into the idea of a capacitor for my 2b. Shame they never ran the two back to back, Colonel Stephens style - it would solve the problem of turntables!

[Galteemore]

3 hours ago, David Holman said:

Splendid and as you say, fiendishly difficult. A coach is a box (albeit with many add ons), a steam loco is a box with a boiler (ok, sweeping generalisations for both), but a railbus is another level in terms of all the complex curves and glazing. Road vehicles likewise, which is why we don't see many scratchbuilds of such things. 

 Seriously multimedia and great to see a whole host of techniques brought together. Very neat on the trailer too and will have to look into the idea of a capacitor for my 2b. Shame they never ran the two back to back, Colonel Stephens style - it would solve the problem of turntables!

Thanks David. As you’ll see it fits quite well ….think it’s a 35/470 one that’s recommended. Key issue is that it’s not polarised, given that current flow will regularly reverse. 

Edited January 2, 2024 by Galteemore

[Gabhal Luimnigh]

That's a lovely model, I think you've captured the look brilliantly.

[Northroader]

You’re right, it’s all the curves in the bodywork. Buried in all the boxes somewhere there’s a few pieces for the NCC one. Will I ever do it? will I ever find it? Yours is an inspirational job.

[Galteemore]

Back in east Antrim more times than usual this year, sadly due to my father in law’s final illness and death. As a lad, he and his brother used the 3’ gauge yard at Larne as a playground / shunting trucks by hand! Spending a fair amount of time around Larne this year rekindled my childhood interest in the east Antrim 3’. Reading some of @Patrick Davey’s musings on scale  inspired me to make a little 5.5mm scale diorama on a wargaming base. It allows very cheap and easy sources of material - 16.5mm track and components being easily found…thus standard Hornby train set track duly butchered here to produce 3’ panels. So here’s Kilwaughter siding during lifting c1954, based on a photo kindly supplied by @airfixfan complete with an IoM wagon for now - NCC stuff is in progress! This will be a sideshow to my main projects but may eventually come to something. I have at least 1 loco chassis in stock…..spot the large blade of grass when I tried taking pics in back garden!! Some of the other pics were taken within 20 yards of the GW main line near Swindon- hopefully some day I will find a suitable spot in the Vale of the White Horse to take backdrop pics! 

Edited September 21, 2024 by Galteemore

[David Holman]

Lovely diorama - only goes to show there is always room for a model railway. Thought you were going garden railway at first, but using the great outdoors for the photos works a treat.

[Patrick Davey]

Nice David!  The earthworks for that siding are still clearly visible on Google Earth.  Am a big fan of outdoor photography for model railways, and I am reminded of this shot I took of Capecastle:

 

[airfixfan]

Great stuff digging out more photos of the Ballymena and Larne for another project. Showed some of these photos to galteemore senior recently

Edited September 22, 2024 by airfixfan

[Galteemore]

Earlier this year I decided to try building another Alphagraphix loco kit, for myself, as I have sold all the ones I’ve built. Roger doesn’t do any Sligo locos but GN locos did venture into the SLNC yard at Enniskillen for shunting, so I can justify a JT - I think! @Richard EH mentioned the Alphagraphix JT recently as a 4mm proposition, so this may of interest to those wondering about Roger’s kits.

As @leslie10646knows, I was brought up to love the elderly black locos of the GN out in the wilds of Fermanagh and Cavan even more than the main line bluebirds. So here’s no 92, with a few build photos. I have very few modelling rules but one is that black engines must be weathered, or the details won’t show. This weathering is based on extensive photo study and has been an interesting exercise in its own right. The appearance of dusty smears on the tanks is very evident on 1950s colour pics of GN tanks. If the vid works, you’ll see that she does work….kit is more or less as supplied; new buffers and chimney are main changes, plus adding rivets and such fripperies as sandbox lids. Much fettling was required to build it to scale 5’3” and extensive grinding of the interior parts with a Dremel was the only way to allow the rods to rotate. Even then the bolts on the coupling rods had to be trimmed right down. The wheels are extensively padded with washers to ensure that everything stays lined up under the footplate!! 

Edited October 26, 2024 by Galteemore

[David Holman]

That looks great - subtle weathering and very much at home on Enniskillen.

[Tullygrainey]

Fine job David. You’re right about the weathering and No92 looks convincingly work-worn. 

[Northroader]

Interesting that you changed the chimney, the Alphagraphix one looks a bit slender? Lovely little engine now it’s done.

[Galteemore]

8 minutes ago, Northroader said:

Interesting that you changed the chimney, the Alphagraphix one looks a bit slender? Lovely little engine now it’s done.

Thanks Bob - that’s right. I had actually finished it off with Roger’s chimney - and showed a picture to my dad, who can actually remember seeing a JT working - no 91. First thing he said was - the chimney’s wrong! So a quick chat with Laurie Griffin and a J88 alternative appeared. Thankfully I hadn’t mixed the epoxy very well so it was quite easy to remove version 1.
The whistle is also a buy-in, as the provided casting was a little bulky in the wrong places. 

Edited October 27, 2024 by Galteemore

[Galteemore]

Latest project - two GNR parcels vans, variants of which traversed SLNC metals regularly. Alphagraphix kits. Not quite finished yet / need to sort last few transfers. Will lightly weather them when that’s done.  Nice little kits. Rocking axle allows some compensation. 

Edited December 23, 2024 by Galteemore

[Gabhal Luimnigh]

Tasty work.

[Galteemore]

There are two main hazards with buying a half built kit off the web. One is that it may be incomplete. The other is that work done so far will be badly done. This PP arrived as a box of half-used etches and a few made up body parts. The chassis did look good in the eBay pics, and so it proved in real life. The body was mounted on a wooden block, which is a combat indicator that the builder knew their business. Having gone through the boxes, most of it seemed to be there, bar the tender chassis. It took longer than I would have liked to make this from scratch , but it’s more or less done now. Several attempts were required to get it right and I will fine tune it before final assembly. It will be sprung - albeit crudely - and the weight will be transferred to the loco as per Mike Sharman’s recommendations for 4-4-0s.
 

The tender body carcass had been very competently assembled and just needed detail work such as lamp irons and water filler. The arrival of tender toolboxes from Laurie Griffin today mean that the tender is basically done. The loco needs a little more work….some of the cab parts were distorted by the time in storage - and horribly tarnished - but 74 is coming together. I had to desolder some of the existing work as the parts had not been assembled as per the kit instructions. Adrian’s very clear on the order in which things should be done and it’s not wise to ignore that.  As you can see, the cab area is now more or less on track after some careful cleaning, metal bending/squeezing, and not a little soldering. I am a little alarmed to find that this is my fourth GN model in a row and I haven’t touched anything SLNC for a year…..I blame @leslie10646….

As an historian by training , it’s been fascinating to discover from the paperwork accompanying it that this was one of the first kits to be bought - the builder was on Adrian’s ‘expression of interest’ list, and this kit dates from 2001/2.

 

 

Edited January 9 by Galteemore

[leslie10646]

Don't blame me, @Galteemore, when the PP is finished, you'll be happy that you did it!

My PP, built by Tony Ragg and came to me via Ken Gillen, is delightful.

[David Holman]

Great to see this progressing. Certainly looks like somebody knew what they were doing re initial construction, so looking forward to seeing it completed. NPQ booked again for Aldershot in October. A parcels special via the Burma Road?

[Galteemore]

2 hours ago, David Holman said:

Great to see this progressing. Certainly looks like somebody knew what they were doing re initial construction, so looking forward to seeing it completed. NPQ booked again for Aldershot in October. A parcels special via the Burma Road?

Thanks David. A PP on the Burma Road - what’s not to like? They were called ‘the wee bouncers’ by GN crews because of their springing - can just imagine a PP bouncing along near Tubbercurry…..

[Galteemore]

Well @leslie10646you were correct of course. That GN brake van does look good at Enniskillen…..and look what brought it in….same seller was offering a 36.75mm SG. It needs some TLC but it’s built to an incredible standard with springs and plungers and goodness knows what. It may need a repaint but will try a clean first…..

[jhb171achill]

That brake van is really top class!

[Horsetan]

On 10/1/2025 at 10:41 AM, Galteemore said:

Thanks David. A PP on the Burma Road - what’s not to like? They were called ‘the wee bouncers’ by GN crews because of their springing - can just imagine a PP bouncing along near Tubbercurry…..

If you remember K2 no.461 being used in the Michael Collins film, you may remember seeing a distinct bounce with every revolution of the wheels!

[David Holman]

Tasty. Very tasty!

[Tullygrainey]

Lovely stuff David. Betjeman seems impressed too. Looking forward to seeing both progress.

[David Holman]

Nice to see there are other folk who have been working in 36.75mms too - though it still seems to be a very small, or even secretive club. Often wonder just how many folk there are out there indulging?

 Ultimately, there is perhaps a single item that is crucial - Slater's broad gauge loco axle. Wagon and coach axles, plus wheels, not a problem, while fixtures and fittings can be found or adapted. Without that loco axle though, things would be a lot more challenging.

[Galteemore]

28 minutes ago, David Holman said:

Nice to see there are other folk who have been working in 36.75mms too - though it still seems to be a very small, or even secretive club. Often wonder just how many folk there are out there indulging?

 Ultimately, there is perhaps a single item that is crucial - Slater's broad gauge loco axle. Wagon and coach axles, plus wheels, not a problem, while fixtures and fittings can be found or adapted. Without that loco axle though, things would be a lot more challenging.

Absolutely David. First thing I do when building a kit or a scratch loco is buy the wheels and axles just to have them laid by - everything else can be bodged after a fashion. This guy, it turns out,used to build locos on commission for people but the Irish models were his own pride and joy. These two items were the very last of the collection. One wonders what else was there ! The quality is outstanding. Although the motion is dummy, I think, is beautifully done. Once I get rid of that silicon appendage I’ll give it a run….it’s got jointed rods and hornblocks aplenty so should float along nicely. The brake van has working sprung axleboxes ….

[David Holman]

Looks like quite a find! Jealous? Absolutely!

[Galteemore]

David - I think you’d best prepare for a GNRI takeover at NPQ next time…..although this distraction from the SLNC is rather disturbing. I think it’s a case of Dundalktivitis which will no doubt pass…..I’m genetically predisposed to it. As a child I daily saw a GNR carriage crest on the wall at home, and a Joe Magill painting of a PP. Not to mention boxes and boxes of photographs and every Mac Arnold book (Galteemore senior had worked with Mac in the Northern Bank in the very early 60s and in later life was something of a liaison between Mac and his publishers/printers on occasion).

As you know from taking over Richard Chown’s stock, it’s always a privilege to handle someone else’s work in what is rather a niche field. You might have noticed that I posed one of your vans with the new acquisitions. A rather crude M’ton is now chalked on it to give that definite SLNC connection! 

Rambling on here but what tipped me over the edge to bid on the van was the fact that my dad and his friend used to work the Antrim branch goods on a Saturday. The guard, who has long gone to his reward, found that visiting the Lisburn hostelries somewhat reduced his capacity. The wonderful Irish police court expression ‘drink was taken’ sums it up - a state of being somewhere between sobriety and intoxication. Two Belfast teenagers filled the breach and happily shunted the train at its various stops - including use of the shunter’s pole. 
 

 

Edited January 16 by Galteemore

[David Holman]

Always welcome!

[Galteemore]

A positive post before the inevitable frustration of adjustments kick in. Boiler rolled and it fits - just……

[Mol_PMB]

2 minutes ago, Galteemore said:

A positive post before the inevitable frustration of adjustments kick in. Boiler rolled and it fits - just……

Very nice! It already captures the character of the prototype.

[David Holman]

Yep, looking good. And if it just fits, then it is probably just right!

[Galteemore]

9 hours ago, David Holman said:

Yep, looking good. And if it just fits, then it is probably just right!

On the original etched boiler spacers it wouldn’t have / they’d been etched too large! Adrian included a ‘revised’ smaller set which the original builder had snipped off the etch (despite not being at that point in the build when he/she stopped construction). Thankfully the ‘PPs Revision’ discs were still in the box of miscellaneous empty etch sheets and random bits of wire….