Portadown Junction

[LARNE CABIN]

Recalling photographs I have seen, Leslie, Richhill looks very accurate and realistic.

[leslie10646]

Thanks, Mr Larne, but it's still a long way from finished - the Gents has to be added, the Up side waiting room (perhaps I didn't give Glenderg the photos!) and a lot of landscaping. I took delivery (yesterday) of some materials to try a bit of embankment - good exercise for my Static Grass toy, which I just love!

Back to the Guinness for a moment and a scene which never was, or would be - delivery of Guinness for the Richhill pubs - at the "Beach" - the first bit of platform I tried modelling - the goods shed is a masterpiece from Glenderg  - sort of Richie's contribution to Richhill? Sadly, apart from seasonal traffic it saw little business in reality.

Time I got a backscene!

[leslie10646]

Just six months since I last posted on this thread.

I have an enthusiasm for Christmas extra trains, so my railways always have a lot of passenger vans (even the earlier German layout - now Fleischmann did nice full brakes ....)

So, the first extra this year was scraping the barrel a bit - no bogie vans! I hope to retrieve them tomorrow, when you'll get a really long parcels special.

This is GNR S Class No.172 Slieve Donard (built by Daniel Wu in Hong Kong 25 years ago and recently modified by Alan Edgar) with the first postal special of the year - six wheel X Van (Richard Ellis-Hobbs), with a train of my Y5s (the brighter ones by Nelson Jackson and the darker ones by the late and revered Anthony McDonald). These vans were, of course, the forerunners of the Tin Van!

Edited December 24, 2020 by leslie10646

[Patrick Davey]

Happy Christmas Leslie, hope you have recovered from your mishap earlier this year, and please post more photos of your excellent layout!  Hoping you have a fantastic 2021 and thank you very much for providing us with such excellent models, you are part of the great movement that has made the hobby so enjoyable for all of us in recent years. Thanks again and stay safe!

[leslie10646]

Hhmmmm, just a year since the last post on this.

The GNR's Christmas traffic was so heavy that CIE are helping out with the bread train . (Taken on phone balanced on the Armagh Line facing Portadown Jct, while twiddling the knob on the radio controller!). The T Class tank is in the coaling stage headhunt at the roundhouse , the Park Royal is on the Down Dublin line which runs around the back of the roundhouse (with a grey B121 at the head of the train. A30 is having a rest - actually as it's an original A Class, it has probably expired .........

I'll post a few more trains when (if) my Son comes on Christmas Day and there is someone to hold a camera and another to drive trains - it gets pretty hectic having three trains running on the double track - No.207 on the Enterprise chasing No.172 on a Christmas parcels train on one track, with the Class UG running a local on the Up line (yep - three controllers!).

 

 

 

[leslie10646]

After admiring Mr Beaumont's (very dirty) selection of locos on The Harbour - I thought I'd show a shed-ful of CLEAN locos.

Apologies for the German turntable!

To aid you identify them, a snip of video?

NCC No.97 Earl of Ulster (Colm Flanagan)

00 Works UG (un-numbered)

SSM T Tank ( as yet un-numbered)

The Engine of Engines Class VS No.207 Boyne

Class WT  No.10

Class AL (Northstar)

00 Works "101" Class No.131

Class T Tank No.64

00 Works Class U No.205 Down

ANOTHER SSM T Tank

Class PP No.42

00 Works CBSCR No.5

I'll do another snip later with ONLY GNR(I) locos!

 

Edited January 3, 2022 by leslie10646

[leslie10646]

It's time the permanent way department fixed this track! Slieve Donard's driver hangs on tight while working the Christmas Mail.

Sorry about the cotton buds - I'd been wheel-cleaning!

 

Edited January 3, 2022 by leslie10646

[leslie10646]

Fake News!

Unique film of the GNR trying out one of these new-fangled CIE diesels on the Enterprise.

 

 

[jhb171achill]

1 hour ago, leslie10646 said:

 

Fake News!

Unique film of the GNR trying out one of these new-fangled CIE diesels on the Enterprise.

 

 

I love all those GNR carriages, Leslie. Are they SSM?

[leslie10646]

JB

The Enterprise set is Worsley sides on donor chassis, then superbly painted and detailed by a Brass Coach friend of mine - oft to be seen at exhibitions beside me - aka the IRRS Drawings Man, Richard McLachlan. The Buffet is from Silver Fox and a pretty decent job, I thought? You all know where the (non-sound) A Class comes from! The silver A Class looks better in the flesh than any picture can relate.

The Mail train is more fun - Loco by Daniel Wu of Hong Kong from the SSM kit - almost a quarter century old - renovated by the King of 4-4-0 Suspensions, Alan Edgar. The coaches are three Richard Ellis-Hobbs 3D print jobs and the final Y5 is from the Provincial Wagons kit, superbly finished by Our Own "North Eastern Steam", who did an admirable "scumble" effect. (PS I have one for sale!).

Glad you liked them - they reflect all that was wonderful about a GNR(I) train.

Edited January 3, 2022 by leslie10646

[Patrick Davey]

Excellent Leslie!  Happy new year to you.

[Mayner]

Leslie

Nice to see Slieve Donard your GNR passenger and good stock including GNR bulk cement wagons.

Just might give me the impetus to complete my models of 174 Carrantouhill and Q Class 132 though both on the heavy side for the Burma Road perhaps a GNR/MGWR joint line from Kells to Cavan and possibly onwards to Enniskillen, Ballyshannon & Donegal Town

[leslie10646]

Thanks, John.

White's Law applies. (for those in the dark - when it was pointed out that something shouldn't have been on David's "Old Blarney" - he boomed "It's my layout and I'll run what I like on it!"!

It's your railway, so run what you like on it!

Wait until you see the GAA specials from the Midlands to POrtadown - hauled by your 2-4-0!

[Galteemore]

Prototype for almost anything. S class locos weren’t meant to run to Enniskillen but photographs clearly indicate that they occasionally did so….

[jhb171achill]

1 hour ago, Galteemore said:

Prototype for almost anything. S class locos weren’t meant to run to Enniskillen but photographs clearly indicate that they occasionally did so….

An 800 in Limerick, 141s and laminates on the Derry Road, MGWR and GNR six-wheel carriages on the BCDR main line, a Mk 4 in Killarney……the mysterious Clogher Valley van on the Glenties branch, a GNR wooden clerestory bogie on the Loughrea branch still in GNR livery, and another the same in West Cork…..”A” class locos in Monaghan, a GSWR 4.4.0 in Achill….. the list of oddball exceptions almost equals a bedroom layout with a Hornby Jinty hauling IRM fertiliser bogies, and a Murphy 141 hauling the Orient Express, with a Union Pacific goods caboose on the end…..

[leslie10646]

Railway rolling stock DID get to strange places - the CIE Open wagon which I did in my "Dapol Commissions" Period was a GNR four plank with a Snail slapped on it and photographed at Courtmacsherry by John Langford. CBSCR fans - take note!

[Mayner]

2 hours ago, leslie10646 said:

Thanks, John.

White's Law applies. (for those in the dark - when it was pointed out that something shouldn't have been on David's "Old Blarney" - he boomed "It's my layout and I'll run what I like on it!"!

It's your railway, so run what you like on it!

Wait until you see the GAA specials from the Midlands to POrtadown - hauled by your 2-4-0!

I was wondering if you were able to get the 2-4-0 go!

Better still Broadstone-Belfast and Portrush trains over the Kingscourt-Castleblaney and Armagh .

The Midland's plans to extend north from Kingscourt to Armagh and link up with the NCC was blocked by the GNR Carrickmacross  branch.

I keep going back to Kells-Cavan as a missing link that could have kept Cavan and Monaghan on the map with direct Dublin-Cavan-Monaghan passenger service after the Border Lines closed.

[jhb171achill]

Wagons were indeed great wanderers. There were common sightings of wagons with “G N” in West Cork and Kerry after CIE ate the remains of the GNR, and in my Achill book there’s a picture of a DSER van at Achill.

Edited March 18, 2022 by jhb171achill

[leslie10646]

10 hours ago, Mayner said:

I was wondering if you were able to get the 2-4-0 go!

Better still Broadstone-Belfast and Portrush trains over the Kingscourt-Castleblaney and Armagh .

The Midland's plans to extend north from Kingscourt to Armagh and link up with the NCC was blocked by the GNR Carrickmacross  branch.

I keep going back to Kells-Cavan as a missing link that could have kept Cavan and Monaghan on the map with direct Dublin-Cavan-Monaghan passenger service after the Border Lines closed.

Yes, Mr Mayne, I did post her moving under DC control somewhere back in the mists .......

Chipping is the next issue!

Those "missing links" keep enthusiasts amused for years on end -

When Colonel McNaughton (late Inspecting Officer of Railways) gave a talk to the IRRS in London he recounted how he, as a young subaltern, with a colleague, was told to change into civvies during WW2 (The Emergency to my Southern Brethern) and sent to survey the possibilities of a link from Kingscourt to Carrickmacross - in case our German cousins invaded the Free State - when another rail link would have been useful to assist the Brits to help their Empire brothers (and sisters) to kick them out again!

They reckoned a couple of weeks would do the trick!

Edited January 4, 2022 by leslie10646

[jhb171achill]

1 hour ago, leslie10646 said:

Yes, Mr Mayne, I did post her moving under DC control somewhere back in the mists .......

Chipping is the next issue!

Those "missing links" keep enthusiasts amused for years on end -

When Colonel McNaughton (late Inspecting Officer of Railways) gave a talk to the IRRS in London he recounted how he, as a young subaltern, with a colleague, was told to change into civvies during WW2 (The Emergency to my Southern Brethern) and sent to survey the possibilities of a link from Kingscourt to Carrickmacross - in case our German cousins invaded the Free State - when another rail link would have been useful to assist the Brits to help there Empire brothers (and sisters) to kick them out again!

They reckoned a couple of weeks would do the trick!

 

1 hour ago, leslie10646 said:

Yes, Mr Mayne, I did post her moving under DC control somewhere back in the mists .......

Chipping is the next issue!

Those "missing links" keep enthusiasts amused for years on end -

When Colonel McNaughton (late Inspecting Officer of Railways) gave a talk to the IRRS in London he recounted how he, as a young subaltern, with a colleague, was told to change into civvies during WW2 (The Emergency to my Southern Brethern) and sent to survey the possibilities of a link from Kingscourt to Carrickmacross - in case our German cousins invaded the Free State - when another rail link would have been useful to assist the Brits to help there Empire brothers (and sisters) to kick them out again!

They reckoned a couple of weeks would do the trick!

That would have been interesting - though they already had an alternative in Inny Junction - Clones - Porteedown….

[Mayner]

19 hours ago, jhb171achill said:

 

That would have been interesting - though they already had an alternative in Inny Junction - Clones - Porteedown….

The Midland route via Inny Junction was very indirect for Dublin-Cavan passenger services and was 'mouldering' away in CIE days after the ending of passenger services. The GNR and CIE focusing on serving Navan, Cavan and possibly Monaghan by direct bus and coach services from Dublin rather than the indirect rail routes via Inny Junction or Dundalk.

Although there was a railway mania era proposal for a Dublin-Enniskillen Direct Railway which presumably would have connected with the Londonderry and Enniskillen to provide a direct route from Dublin to the North West the Midland and the companies that formed the GNR would not have wanted another company invading their territory and a Kells Cavan line was never built, though the Dublin and Meath acquired running powers over the Dublin and Belfast Junction and later the GNR between Navan and Kells. 

Dublin-Navan-Cavan-Monaghan has a certain logic to it a direct route serving reasonably large towns by Irish standards with rail providing a more competitive journey time with Expressway Bus services.

Anyway its a nice fantasy with Virgina as the principal through station something of a tourist destination for anglers and reasonable goods traffic in connection with the local dairy and meat processing industries and these days a growing commuter town.

The big question is whether the buildings and structures would have followed the Wilkinson's solemn styling found on the Midland and DWWR, the redbrick gingerbread styling found at Bellavary and the Western Branches or GNR Mills era brick building or the more humble building found on the Meath Line

[leslie10646]

To try and overcome an issue with a diamond crossing on my layout, I have been ripping it out and replacing it with points.

So much removal of track, replacement of the underlay first. Then -

inserted a crossover on the "loops" section (and straighten the mainline. Loops next. Since this photo, point motors attached. I have motorised the points at the other end of the loops (which will take a twenty wagon goods train) and connected them up to a Digitrax DS64 point controller - that has changed my life, for they are 30 feet from the main control position!

[leslie10646]

Next job was testing the new curve to see if my rolling stock "liked it". Sorry about the mess - the results of a dirty weekend (sorry week!). oo Works Class UG with wagons by a well-known wagon company, bar the Oxford six plank at the rear.

 

 

[leslie10646]

Then, for variety, No.193 from same "stable" - just 40/50 years younger but happy with a couple of dozen wagons! When you get to the end of this video, note the train on the left hand loop, for it's up next!

 

 

[leslie10646]

This is a SSM kit-built GNR(I) Class PP. If this 4-4-0 will go over my dodgy tracklaying, most things - no need to test the diesels, they run over anything!

 

Sorry about blank video - how do I delete it from here?

 

Edited March 18, 2022 by leslie10646

[Patrick Davey]

Great videos Leslie - very jealous of the PP!

[leslie10646]

Thanks, Patrick.  The most satisfactory thing about these videos over my recently-laid track is that I managed to run TWENTY four-wheel goods wagons, plus a brake van. The layout was intended to allow for that, all the loops being for such a train - but this was the first time I had run one.

Like Noel, I like Kadees, but I have further work to do to ensure that they don't foul various track deliights - like the Richhill level crossing!

 

 

[leslie10646]

Not the day to be away from the layout, or I could post No.207 coming through the Junction on the returning "All-in" full of delighted rugby supporters!

For once, do we whisper "Com'on England!" ?

 

[jhb171achill]

2 hours ago, leslie10646 said:

 

For once, do we whisper "Com'on England!" ?

 

We didn’t have to……!

[leslie10646]

1 hour ago, jhb171achill said:

We didn’t have to……!

No, but it's nice to get The Triple Crown.

[leslie10646]

As promised "cine film" of the returning Rugby specials after last Saturday's Grand Slam.

The delay was caused by having to get them "developed" - those over the age of thirty can explain that to those under.......

First the train for the hoi poloi hauled by ex-NCC Mogul No.97 Earl of Ulster.

Then the big train of the day - the "All-in" excursion usually hauled by a Class VS - No.207 Boyne  on this occasion - just six coaches of well-heeled Belfast folk - note the two dining cars! Seen here traversing the just re-opened Main Line round the back of the roundhouse.

 

 

 

[StevieB]

Lovely stuff, Leslie.

Stephen

 

[David Holman]

On 19/3/2022 at 7:25 PM, leslie10646 said:

Not the day to be away from the layout, or I could post No.207 coming through the Junction on the returning "All-in" full of delighted rugby supporters!

For once, do we whisper "Com'on England!" ?

 

Sorry we couldn't oblige, Leslie!

[leslie10646]

1 hour ago, David Holman said:

Sorry we couldn't oblige, Leslie!

Never mind, David - personally, I thought England played better than all season.

Putting these trains together took me back to the excitement of a "VS" hauled special to Dublin in the very early 1960s, or, indeed with one of the NCC Moguls. Usually ten coaches on each train and only the "All-in" with dining facilities. It always had a kitchen car (rebuild from a M2 full brake, I believe - I could have sneaked one into the train. On one Rugby Saturday, even a very run-down S Class, which had a tough day.

Needless to say, we didn't go to the match - there were J15s on specials to Lansdowne Road, or once TWO S Class working Howth locals and finally, Q Class No.132 on a local to Greystones - they were more important - Ireland would be winning Rugby matches for decades afterwards!

The railway is in "relay" mode, so you'll have to wait for Down going to Croke Park for the GAA Final to get a ten coach load behind these locos.

[jhb171achill]

7 minutes ago, leslie10646 said:

Never mind, David - personally, I thought England played better than all season.

Putting these trains together took me back to the excitement of a "VS" hauled special to Dublin in the very early 1960s, or, indeed with one of the NCC Moguls. Usually ten coaches on each train and only the "All-in" with dining facilities. It always had a kitchen car (rebuild from a M2 full brake, I believe - I could have sneaked one into the train. On one Rugby Saturday, even a very run-down S Class, which had a tough day.

Needless to say, we didn't go to the match - there were J15s on specials to Lansdowne Road, or once TWO S Class working Howth locals and finally, Q Class No.132 on a local to Greystones - they were more important - Ireland would be winning Rugby matches for decades afterwards!

The railway is in "relay" mode, so you'll have to wait for Down going to Croke Park for the GAA Final to get a ten coach load behind these locos.

I’ve only one recollection of travelling on those 207-hauled excursions, and the highlight being Senior getting sticky buns for myself and sister-the-elder en route….. and the old side corridor first we were in….