N Gauge Irish

[GNRi1959]

Having done nothing for over a year in the modelling scene I started to miss the thrill for moving locomotives and trains again. Last week I bought and fell completely in love with the Union Mills C Class 700 0-6-0 locomotive which I bought from Colin in Union Mills, Isle of Man. I cannot even get a piece of n-gauge track at the moment anywhere so I started reading about the possibilities of N.

This morning I came up with an idea that may or may not be feasible.....

A layout based on what Omagh might be like, if it still had a railway running through it today. Now you can just imagine that all those beautiful stone buildings would be gone and replaced with modern platforms, shelters and buildings. So if I use the mainline track plan and assume that there was still a bit of a goods yard, I could use the same track layout and just bring the buildings all up to date. No harm to the people of Fermanagh but my guess would be that Derry to Belfast train operations would have continued and the Enniskillen line out of Omagh would never had been kept.

Thats the idea/plan........

Now the big question for all you experts out there is....  is there anything in N gauge that remotely looks Irish?

I await your views,

Tony

[Galteemore]

Have a look here..as a former N gauger, I loved Colin’s models and at least some of his catalogue has Irish conversion possibilities...

.

Edited April 27, 2020 by Galteemore

[jhb171achill]

Hi Tony

With "N" scale, a repaint of something British into an Irish livery - if such a thing exists as to be suitable - would become exceptionally fiddly....

I know that you can buy a modest number of Shapeways 3D-printed kits of Irish stuff, like 141 class diesels and some railcars, which is the good news. However, their 00 gauge stuff, as you may have seen from some posts here, appears to be quite coarse, let alone N gauge.

You mention what Omagh would be like today - it's reasonable to assume that the CIE goods which ended up (after 1965) going over the NCC, would instead have gone from Portadown probably to Strabane, but probably not stopping at Omagh, until goods ended a few years ago. So, in the 1960s / 70s, you're looking at a diet of AEC / BUT (ex-GN) railcars, gradually replaced by 80s. It is reasonable to assume that 70s would have stepped through there too.

It is possible a through Dublin - Derry passenger might have been trialled at some stage - cue an ICR set!

So, like anything else on NIR, from 1970 on it would have been "Railcar City"! With IE having followed suit over the last 15 years, we now, of course, have an entire railway system, IE and NIR, 100% railcar operated bar some of the Cork sets and the three "Enterprise" sets - and even they are railcars since the coronavirus started.

If you are planning to model Omagh in N gauge, perhaps a few random thoughts might be:

1.  1960s - Is there an LMS / BR 2.6.4T which might be used to represent a "Jeep"? It is a certainty that had the "Derry Road" managed to survive 1965-70, "Jeeps" would have appeared increasingly regularly, to the extent that by the end of steam, they were all there was.  Some wooden-panelled LMS, or Stanier "steel" coaches of standard "bought" provenance will bear a good resemblance to some NCC types. Again, of the surviving steam stock 1965-75, over half was of NCC parentage. Quick lick of UTA green, and they'd be what was on steam-hauled passenger trains. It is possible that one of the Craven variations of British railcar (like what Silverfox models "repainted" in pseudo-irish liveries for sale a few years ago), might be OK to repaint in UTA guise. Wagons - well' opens and vans OK - after 1965 it's all CIE stock, and you can get British Railways goods vans which are very close to CIE "H" vans. Paint grey and you're fine. In 1970-5, you could do a few in brown too for variety. I wonder is there a British 0.6.0 which with minimum alteration might be made to look a bit like a UG?

2.  1970s - We're looking at 80 class sets here, without any doubt whatever. BR Mk2 stock is available - but a bit of botching to make a power car really would be essential. Steam is now gone, so a CIE loco is needed for the goods, with everything else railcar. Maybe an NIR "Hunslet". Had the line survived they might have bought more than three. But really, suitable railcars are absolutely essential. You could keep you UG and Jeep on the basis that an imaginary preservation society had made its home in the old goods sheds in Omagh. Goods goes over to liner trains about 1974/5 - someone more knowledgable about modern stuff might point out suitable long-wheelbase 4-wheel container flats, or something British to resemble CIE's 42ft flats. Container gantry at Omagh?

3.  1980s - Same as later part of the seventies, but you can introduce the "Castle" (Cattle!) class railcars. Being based on a standard British design of body, there is a British railcar set (is it a "150"?) which isn't unlike one of these awful things. It is a scary thought to think of travelling from Foyle Road to Central in one of these awful things, but they appeared in Waterside from time to time, so it was possible! We'll need a CIE diesel in orange and black now, as well as one for earlier in black'n'tan. Maybe you can get round that by just having a Hunslet....

4.  1990s - probably the same.

5.  2000 onwards. I wonder is there a British equivalent of the NIR CAFs? In all reality, if that line was open today, it would be a bit like Antrim station - passing facilities for railcars, and the two main passenger platforms. the goods sheds would have long been sold off or levelled for a car park - or that imaginary preservation society? For maximum artistic licence, I would have some sort of Derry - Dublin ICR passing through, and possibly Donegal - Dublin (or Waterford!) timber trains - could that allow a 201-class loco? In "N" scale, a slight conversion of a British class 66 might suffice for that....

Just a few thoughts.

[hurricanemk1c]

There's Class 3000s and 4000s on Shapeways, otherwise modified 170s

[GNRi1959]

To be honest, I have had my fill of modifying, scratch-building etc. Maybe I should just move my N gauge interest over to the N-Gauge forum and continue there. 

Jonathan, I read with interest your in-depth scenario which was appreciated.I think it has to be, pain free, scratch-built free and off the shelf- RTR.

[airfixfan]

Graham Farish do both a Fairburn tank and a BR Standard 2-6-4T that is close to a Jeep. They also do LNER Teak coaches as well. Check their website?

[jhb171achill]

18 hours ago, GNRi1959 said:

To be honest, I have had my fill of modifying, scratch-building etc. Maybe I should just move my N gauge interest over to the N-Gauge forum and continue there. 

Jonathan, I read with interest your in-depth scenario which was appreciated.I think it has to be, pain free, scratch-built free and off the shelf- RTR.

That's the beauty of N gauge, Tony. As Airfixfan mentions above, many items can be bought which "look the part". A Fairburn tank, "off-the-shelf" and LNER coaches (ideally if you can get ones of (British) Great Northern origin) in teak, would do a nice job - as I'm sure you're aware, many ex-GNR carriages still carried their old brown livery for a good few years into UTA days. Maybe there's a little 0.6.0 which could function as a UG?

[WRENNEIRE]

Only RTR N Gauge bits I have ever seen Tony:

Hens teeth!

 

 

 

[GNRi1959]

6 hours ago, WRENNEIRE said:

Only RTR N Gauge bits I have ever seen Tony:

Hens teeth!

 

 

 

 

Dave,

 

Are these pieces CIE badged or genuine Irish prototypes?

 

T

[Midland Man]

Hi @GNRi1959 

One of hard things I sea in N gauge is livery. The reason being is that you don't want to sea lumps of paint not a plastic feel so for reapainting use a air brush.

[GNRi1959]

Don't worry, i'll not be painting anything. If I do, it will be a rake a rake of open wagons done in Halfords grey primer sprays!

 

 

[WRENNEIRE]

4 hours ago, GNRi1959 said:

 

Dave,

 

Are these pieces CIE badged or genuine Irish prototypes?

 

T

British outline used as donors, nothing prototypical.

[GNRi1959]

Another thought, can you actually buy N scale

Irish GN waterslide transfers from Railtec or elsewhere?

Edited April 29, 2020 by GNRi1959

[GNRi1959]

I think I have contributed enough to the Irish modelling cause. I have a OO gauge model of Omagh on display in the local Station Centre and have also completed a OO model of the Omagh Goods Yard, which should be on display after lockdown, I hope.

 

With that in mind, Im diverting my attention to modelling N-gauge with no location in mind and I am purchasing a selection of the wagons that catch my eye and thatI'd love to see being hauled by my Class 700 Union Mills 0-6-0.

Edited April 30, 2020 by GNRi1959

[jhb171achill]

On ‎4‎/‎29‎/‎2020 at 10:02 AM, GNRi1959 said:

Another thought, can you actually buy N scale

Irish GN waterslide transfers from Railtec or elsewhere?

If they don't, I have heard that they are very amenable to making up batches of something that a customer is looking for.

If you decide to "go British" (or American), there is loads and loads of N scale stuff. For example, you could go all-LMS (I know, too close to being NCC for a good GNR man!), and you'd have lots of choices of engines, carriages and rolling stock.

[Galteemore]

I did Japanese N for a bit - great fun for plug and play!! Stock is cheap and the whole system is designed to pack away after a session..

[Midland Man]

Nice steam engine there 

[jhb171achill]

Having an interest in Indonesian railways, I often thought of doing a small layout, believe it not, with a few of these on a Surabaya - Jogjakarta "main line". where a very similar-looking Japanese design hurried express passenger trains along back in the day. If a German class 52 could be had in that scale too, it wouldn't be unlike the PJKA's D52 class...

Alas, not to be.

Edited April 30, 2020 by jhb171achill

[Midland Man]

Pelabhan Durgort @jhb171achill(Durgort harbor spelt in Indonesian )

MM

[jhb171achill]

You're the only other person I've ever come across who knows a few words of Bahasa Indonesia. Ada dimana kereta api?

I even had a name picked for the layout based on a rural station on the south line - Gunung Merapi ("Fire Mountain"), after the well-known local volcano of that name, which two weeks after I was there destroyed the local rice economy completely by spewing a two-foot-deep layer of pumice and ash all over the surrounding countryside after it blew its top for the first time in many years! That was 1980; since then it has bubbled and smouldered a bit now and again.

[Midland Man]

51 minutes ago, jhb171achill said:

Ada dimana kereta api?

 

Anda lupa garis yang ditutup tahun lalu  [I learnt it from a freind who parents were from there and for words i dont know i use gogle translate]

MM

 

Edited April 30, 2020 by Midland Man

[jhb171achill]

Brilliant! I was there for a month or so, and I learned it back then, though I've forgotten most now. It's a surprisingly easy language to learn, and pronunciation is easy. Good for when you wanted to say "I would like to see round the steam engine shed. Would you like some European cigarettes?".....

Anyway, I'm off topic...

[GNRi1959]

Would you say that this was close in style to the Jeep

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/GRAHAM-FARISH-N-GAUGE-372-750-LMS-BLACK-2-6-4T-FAIRBURN-2691-STEAM-LOCO/133381299638?epid=22011170121&hash=item1f0e251db6:g:ECMAAOSwtANejEbY

Edited May 5, 2020 by GNRi1959

[Galteemore]

Big issue is the tapered boiler. Otherwise not far off - esp in N 

[Angus]

On 4/29/2020 at 10:02 AM, GNRi1959 said:

Another thought, can you actually buy N scale

Irish GN waterslide transfers from Railtec or elsewhere

Hi GNRi1959,

Railtec do GNR freight transfers in 2mm https://www.railtec-models.com/showitem.php?id=1159  and Steve will reduce any of his 4mm scale sets to 2mm if the printer resolution works.

He is a one man band though and seems to have an immense workload so patience is the key.

I'm currently waiting for him to reduce his NCC Jinty set for me.

[Galteemore]

47 minutes ago, Galteemore said:

Big issue is the tapered boiler. Otherwise not far off - esp in N gauge. And running bunker first would look reasonably convincing.

 

[GNRi1959]

1 hour ago, Angus said:

Hi GNRi1959,

Railtec do GNR freight transfers in 2mm https://www.railtec-models.com/showitem.php?id=1159  and Steve will reduce any of his 4mm scale sets to 2mm if the printer resolution works.

He is a one man band though and seems to have an immense workload so patience is the key.

I'm currently waiting for him to reduce his NCC Jinty set for me.

Angus,

 

I actually placed an order this morning, thank you. 

Take Care