colmflanagan

A fine looking train, and hopefully I'll get a chance to see it in action sometime. Colm

Just trying out my "new" camera took this video of a tour around the layout - a sort of "drones eye view". Colm

It's looking very well, Tony. Now, the 'Golfer's saloon' would be a great new challenge! Colm

One of the most pleasurable aspects of our hobby, is spending an hour (or three!) on taking a little corner of the layout which has been quickly set in place when building, but not properly "finished". Though there's always something more to tweak...the "bus station" was one such, but I've recently spent a few hours on two other areas, before beginning work on a loco conversion,which I keep putting off for some reason! At Ardglass (to feature in Railway Modeller sometime in the next year DV) there was a row of cottages which sit half over the controller. I built them from plastic card nearly twenty years ago. At long last i fixed them in place and added gardens etc; I think they still look quite appropriate. And before anyone asks, no there are no chimney pots, in the village I grew up in there was were some very old cottages and they didn't have them! Gardens are a bit cramped, of course, but the back windows have nice views of the trains, unless blocked by carriages left on the narrow Gauge siding! The end cottage has a wee bit more garden with room for a shed and a tree! The other area is a narrow gauge halt near the Stranraer motive power depot. It was also on a previous layout, though facilities have been improved, there's an ex-bus shelter now. There's even someone waiting for a train! The"Ballylumford" station name board, I had lying about for years from a friends 009 layout. The two 6 wheel coaches come from the same source, No1 on the narrow gauge is a little Roco continental H0e 0-6-0 - I've made it look a bit more irish/british (I think) and it's nickname on the line is "Tiny".....after all it's not much bigger than the Wickham trolley in the background. The final pic is just a crop of one above but I think captures the atmosphere of a narrow gauge railway, stepping back in time. I think mine adds a lot to my pleasure ! The man standing on the platform is a little metal one from an unknown manufacturer -possibly pre war Hornby Dublo - he's wearing "Plus 4" trousers, once beloved of golfers.

yes, but I can't remember the formula! I think it was paint supplied by Jim Poots, and some extra duck egg blue from my own stock. Colm

I've been a bit busy recently, though not with teh railway! Still, I've been doing little jobs around the line. Some semaphore signals have arrived (from the boxes of stuff from the old layout, and what's great is that they still work. Of course, t here's some scenic work to finish off. This Dapol upper quadrant is the "distant" for the Stranraer branch. In the background are some others! Stranraer outer home, on the "direct lien" from Ardglass; the finial makes quite a difference amd gives it quite an "NCC" look, even if it's not a somersault. However, this type was used in earlier eras of the BNCR. Also,a piece of "waste ground behind Platform 2 has been changed into a small bus depot in a generally UTA style, it's really a garage but with a couple of "stands" outside; I've a nice little collection of UTA and other irish buses - it's good to see them emerge from their boxes! Eagled eyes people will notice a very diverse lot of destinations not normally served from Coleraine depot. I plead guilty! the No 18 and 36 both came from my Newcastle junction layout c 2004, and the No. 9 happens to be the service from Belfast, which passes through Ballywalter via Carrowdore so it's not too far from home in Bangor. Some folk may recognize the poster from it's days hanging in the old Stranraer ferry terminal. The ship model is to the left of the picture. The Royal Mail van is a vintage Dublo Dinky.

A very impressive terrace, and so typical of the whole Adelaide area - the view from the railway was mostly of people's back yards, not the most inspiring on a wet day! A suggestion - i recall pigeon lofts at some of them - worth having a go at a few of those? That'd really shout "Belfast" to me! Colm

Some recent pictures of the layout, with some more detailing complete. As the electrics of the layout are not yet complete and await my next visit to Ken "sometime after lockdown(s) in 2021", any locos seen are "posed" rather than operational. I look forward to seeing it again myself! Station buildings in place, and signals, pw hut have been added also. Hopefully there are no cattle in the wagons as it will be a while before they get shipped out! The pub is a "wet" one so it's closed for now; two people outside are waiting patiently..... Looking towards Ballymena, a WT "Jeep" waits for the signal ... Cheerio for now. Hoepfully the next post on this may bea video of somethign running. Colm

One snippet about the "Castle" class - in view of the fulsome references to passenger safety and comfort from the advanced heating system. Alas, the latter was the bane of a friend's existence, he travelled regularly from Glynn to work in Belfast. He described thee trains as "the mobile fridges", as the heating was very poor. It seems as though there wasn't enough juice to really warm it up, possibly because it was designed for all electric vehicles, which shared the same bodywork. Eventually a solution was found.

The Fenaghy Junction station building has now found it's way to Antrim and Ken has installed it on the layout, which is now nearly complete scenically. An "aerial view" . There are a few tidying jobs -for example, we still have to wire up signals, including the Hornby Dublo one, which needs access to the connections before we "bed it in" on the platform. The Braid riverside quay is in the foreground. In actual fact the Braid river isn't close to the railway but we've only got about 10 feet to get it all in! Getting signals operational won't happen until i can get up there to work on it, and that'll depend on Covid, which has so far shown that forward planning is for now is a thing of the past... And there's the matter of finishing wiring all the points (including the three way one!), as well as fixing/finishing our control panel. No 51 outside the engine shed View over the station buildings, looking North West, the main line to Cullybackey on right, Portglenone branch on left. However, it is,we think, looking well. a view of the goods yard

Looks like a very attractive and well detailed little layout, hope it gives you lots of pleasure in days to come! Colm

LIGHTS IN THE DARKNESS on the Ballycrochan Line Back at the beginning of the month I'd mentioned that I was re-connecting lights on some of the buildings. I got a bit of a bug about it and, among other routine servicing and planning some loco adaptations, re-connected nearly all the lights I had on the previous railway, and added some more. I’ve now got more lighting on this layout than in any other I’ve had. The Ballycrochan line night time illumination : Coleraine station in foreground. Ardglass is on the right but pictured separately -the lens can't give that wide a picture! The "blue" lights are LED lamps at the storage siding points - my LightDetecting Resistor train detectors don't work in the dark!! Ardglass Station Control panels have their own little lights - 4mm) station lamps! Shielded a bit so as not to spill too much light on to the layout itself. . I still won’t be doing any complex shunting in the dark, but now at least I’ve fair chance of being able to see the trains as they go round, and do some switching of routes without needing the main lights The Coleraine station entry Then I got to thinking about coaches with lights. I have a few already, a Hornby Dublo rake with LEDs fitted by me long before the various kits now available appeared, and powered by 2 xAA cells in a full brake coach, with little jumper wires between the coaches! It looked well but the jumper cables have never been 100% satisfactory as the wire I had was either too stiff and had a tendency to push bogies off on curves and points, or too flimsy and broke from the flexing involved. One of these days I will try and fit it with "decoder wire" which might prove better. There's a Blue Pullman and some Hornby Pullmans with lights, and some of my diesels have them. But I wanted a rake of maybe 5 Mk1s and some "vintage" coaches to add to these, so began to research lighting units. For DC, remember. After a look I decided not to go for wheel pickup, The light is invariably altering as voltage changes, and flickering if wheels are contaminated or on a dead frog, is an ongoing issue (even, I believe , in DCC). Also, it definitely adds drag, and with my gradients and a five coach train, that might prove a bit tricky. So I was left with on board battery based lighting. Eventually I settled on two i liked the look of one from Train Tech and also a firm called Layouts4U. (Usual disclaimers here). I ordered samples of both and decided to illuminate my 1980s 5 coach Stranraer-Glasgow "Sealink" Lima Mk1 coaches; I'd already fitted them with flushglaze sides and before installing the lights I decided to do some repainting of the interiors (everything was dark brown), and so, very important I think, to add people. Personally I use HO figures, as they seem to “ fit” better; for some reason actual 4mm ones seem too big. Maybe it is because rthe actual space on our compartments etc is smaller than the real thin, due to thicker sides and suchlike. PrEiser make very nice, but expensive figures, various other firms do cheap ones which come from the Far East; these do need considerable plaiting up to look right – the clothes colours seem very “bright” to me! The Train Tech is the more expensive of the two units, more than double the price of the layouts for you; it is much more sophisticated, with a motion sensor which lights up when the coach mores and has a delay switch circuit so when the coach stops, it takes some minutes to turn the lights off. This allows “station stops” without all the lights going out. The LED board is a sturdy one, and options are available to fit taillights as well. Power for both units comes from a coin cell (provided in both) and holder which can fit in a Mk1 toilet. the two pictures below are of this train. The tail light is available on the Train Tech unit for extra coast. (The storage siding lights are more blue in the pictures than they are in reality.) The layouts4u has a more flimsy LED strip, which is self adhesive - quite strong too, so position it carefully before finally pressing it down!” Both systems allow strips to be shortened and power can be applied from various positons as convenient. Layouts4u use a latching reed switch positioned near the LED strip, which can be activated by passing a small magnet over it to switch on, then a second pass will switch off. Both come with instructions. I’ve decided to use the cheaper of the two as I want to do about 10 coaches, but either works well and it’s up to you. One thing is; as it comes the layouts4u is much brighter than the Train tech. In daylight you have to look very closely indeed to see the lights (very prototypical I suppose, carriage lighting even today isn’t all that bright on a lot of trains, and the old battery/generator powered ones tended to be on the dim side. I found that the Layouts4U unit with a 470okhms resistor in line with the reed switch, dimmed the LEDs to the same light output as the Train tech, and that’s what I want. You will need some soldering skills with both these units and also be prepared to do a little surgery on the partition walls of some toilets on older coaches, if the compartment area is small. The Hornby midland clerestory coach shown was a tight fit. And remember, leave a little slack to the battery as you’ll need to get it out completely to change the battery. Hornby midland Clerestory coach at Ardglass The "Caledonian Princess" berthed at Stranraer Hope folk enjoy this little diversion - but one of the things I love about railway modelling is it variety! I'll get back to the UTA in due course.... Apologies if the pics are a bit murky - it's the best i can do. Colm

I did consider that but in the end decided not to, you need to be incredibly flexible to actually see the platform face, there's no access from the rear or side, so if it needed fiddling with or tweaking it would be very hard to see what you're doing. It doesn't really bother me anyway. Colm

THE ARDGLASS RETARDER Maybe a word not commonly used by railway enthusiasts today, but (in this country at least) associated with “hump” marshalling yards of the 1950s on British railways. A retarder is a device for slowing/stopping moving wagons. They are still in use in many shunting yards worldwide, but I have found a use for one at my Ardglass station. I was working some trains through the station and recently useda rake of 3 of my “UTA” coaches, which happen to be pretty free running. Anyway, on stopping the train, then reversing it for the loco to uncouple and run round, I found I had to physically stop the carriages from running down and recoupling on the loco. How come? After a few minutes I had my answer – sometime over the last three years the board had developed a sag in the middle. Not enough to be obvious to look at, and not a problem with slightly stiffer rolling stock, but…definitely one for some of my more recent coaches with free running wheels – important on a railway with intended gradients. What to do? A few minutes looking at the construction of the board banished any ideas of lifting the centre. MY friend ken had built and mounted the board with shelving underneath…heavy duty stuff. That was not going to move. I decided to try and build a device which would stop the carriages running down on the loco. A retarder, in short. After quite a bit of thinking I devised something I thought might work. You could almost regard it as a vertical version of the uncoupling ramps many folk used for Hornby couplings, a strip of clear plastic with a “hump” . I was going to use a separate Gaugemaster remote uncoupling ramp anyway, and a quick trial of one of the original design showed they had little or no effect at holding coaches. I decided to mount a narrow (6mm) strip of 020thou clear plasticard glued to two track pins, on one side of the track, and bowed it towards where the coach axlebox would run. It had to be far enough not to foul things like battery boxes, but close enough to press in on the axlebox and slow/stop the coach, over the ramp where it could be uncoupled. It would be travelling slowly upwards, as the loco reversed the coach towards the ramp, so it might just work. Operator's view! After painting of retarder - ramp still in whitemetal grey! Track View To my great pleasure (and a bit to my surprise) it has worked very well, as demonstrated by the video below. And rather satisfying to solve a knotty problem. I’ve painted it, which I found actually makes it less obtrusive; the ramp too has had a coat of track grime since I took the photos.

I recall one other use of the tin vans. In the early seventies I was at Trinity and watched a number of rugby matches at Lansdowne Road. Shuttle trains conveyed fans and some of these were comprised of tin vans - standing room only, everyone just piled in. The journey from Pearse was about five minutes and no one seemed to mind! The vans would reappear after the match for the return trip. I presume there was a shortage of "proper" passenger rolling stock on those occasions. Colm

Hi All, It's quite a while since I posted any report of progress on the railway. I haven't been idle, as shown on the Fenaghy Junction topic. However, it's been little projects of one kind and another, and some stuff you can't actually see; on my previous layout most of the buildings were fitted with lights, but I had snipped off the cables (leaving a decent "tail"). I have now had a rolling programme of re-connecting the have now almost completed this task, along with the extra switches and power units to operate them. Pics are difficult of this sort of thing, but the signal boxes for both standard and narrow gauge are now illuminated as in the pic below, which also shows the transhipment loading bay and the "boat train" leaving for Stranraer in charge of No6, which recently featured here and in New irish Lines. The narrow gauge is essentially complete now., apart from suitable station facilities at Stranraer and two of the halts en route. There's been development in the "Coleraine" area as well; I have re-instated the colour light signals used before and although they don't quite correspond to the new track plan, they still look well. Lights have been installed under the canopies and in the main station building, the platform ones remain to sort out. There's a TPO here now, a "scale version" of the old Hornby Dublo apparatus. Works a charm -great for "playing trains"! Were there any in Ireland? As far as I know, there wasn't. though there were TPO coaches on the GSR/CIE line to Cork. Non working lampost will be replaced for night operations! And there's still lots to do round this area, which is all a bit bare still. This signal box was originally built for "Fenaghy Junction" but has been superseded by a platform based one, after we decided it looked better. I had a larger box which just looked wrong on this site , so it was swapped for this one from ken';s layout. the original tall chimney was cut back and it's now "Eden Lane"; I refer earlier to "Eden Cottage" which is just out of shot on the left. And some more work on the same lifting board area, a row of Superquick terraces, and the Up line TPO, a Hornby Dublo one disguised a bit; works great too! The signal at the tunnel mouth is an automatic one, controlled by a very old track circuit I had in a box for about 15 years before exhuming it; with a little help from Ian Sinclair who knows more about electronics than i do, it now works perfectly . As trains pass it goes to red when the loco or power car (as in the video) passes, and only clears when they have left the other side of the tunnel. It isn't on a timer but adjusts to the speed of train which is a very good feature. And finally, what do you do with small bits of land too small for a building _I'd planned alittle workman's cottage but it was too big. Well, this is a little site of scientific interest with a standing stone on it; this stone starterd life as part of a kit called "Make your own Stonehenge" - we used a lot of it on "Bleach Green" to build a circle, but a few "stones" were left over. Just the job That's all for now, folks.

Paint colours for models, always a tricky one. An early teenage memory I have is of Des Coakham (probably the best informed person on the BCDR telling me that he actually thought the BCDR engnes were black, but then realized they were revarnished from time to time and this darkened the colour. I also recall him saying that No30's colour was wrong. Desmond's final and definitive book on the BCDR has this picture on the front. Hmmm. I wonder what Desmond thought of it? Even allowing for the fact that it's a painting, has been photographed, scanned etc, it looks a pretty bright green on No 6. Rather similar to the paint on No 30 in the Transport museum. Now, I am pretty sure No 30 never carried that livery - but maybe someone had some of that bright green when she was being prepared for preservation......it's all such fun, and it keeps us engaged, anyway! Colm

Hi Tony, regarding my earlier reply, I'd not taken into account that your model is the rebuilt No6 and received a brighter green according to des coakham and others. So perhaps southern malachite green or BR(SR) green might work? Colm

I've now finished the "Fenaghy Junction" station building; Like every model, you think of ways you might have done better but it should satisfy viewing at a few feet away and these are close ups to minimize background clutter (as well as some "photoshopping!" here and there.) The station viewed from the front; the fiddly ridge tiles and two little bay "things" came from cutting off the edge of some ratio platform canopy valances. The building has interior lighting, dim enough to save me having to fully furnish any rooms! The other "end" with the canopy and showing the name boards which were made using Slater's "alphabits". A reversal of UTA colours but no one from York Road visited Fenaghy to see how they'd painted this old style name board! It will sit between canopy and signal box on the layout, and it's only done this way on the viewer's side! A side view as seen by the operators (the main line side) And the side the public will see best, the branch platform. -it's a busy day at Fenaghy, 3 people waiting.....someday the train will come and someday the layout will be seen in public. Colm

Hi Tony, that looks the part, I am in awe of this type of model engineering! As regards livery, on my 4mm BCDR models (see pic of my No 4 & 14, though like all such you need to see them in the flesh, so to speak!) I have used Precision Paints GNR dark green (tender lining. It's certainly a pretty dark green. I did try doing BNCR "invisible green"for No 62 by mixing black and brunswick green but on a small scale model i decided there wasn't the surface area to actually reproduce that colour as described in various books. Look forward to seeing this someday! Colm Nos 4, 14, and 28 -the two front are in the GNR clour, 28 was done in the now discontinued Midland Kirtley green, which looks much the same in this light, but had a tinge of blue in it - it'll need to be mixed in future, I used it for most of my UTA models. It's slightly lighter with a bit of a blue tinge , i think, in "reality"! No 4 on my previous layout, mostly natural light, As also this pic of 62 from my previous layout.

It's been a while since we had any updates; with all going out "outside" the likelihood of Fenaghy Jctn being seen by the public in the next six months or so, is getting smaller. With out current regime we can't actually meet up at Ken's so work on the control panel, started a few weeks ago, has had to be postponed. However, I decided to make a start on the station building, It's a very scaled down Berkeley Deane Wise "Antrim" style - the directors approached him to design the junction buildings, and he obliged with this smaller version of Antrim main line station. Still under construction, here are some pics of it on a temporary site at Coleraine! Scratchbuilt using Slater's plasticard; the two "bays" area distinctive feature, though they are less pronounced than at Antrim! Left hand side is a general waiting room, right hand one the booking office. The exit to the platform, there will be a canopy here. The flat roof is the toilet block. Work has started on the roof slates; a design like this is quite fiddly! Hopefully it will be worth the effort. Windows by Brassmaster, doors from Peco. Canopy is a Ratio one.

Well done, it's good that you were able to create new from old so speedily. A bit of operating interest is I feel important for a satisfying home layout. "Trains passing" is great for an exhibition vide Bleach Green but I wouldn't want it at home unless I had another 15 feet to build a station! Look forward to seeing it as it develops. Your attention to accuracy is much higher than mine! Colm

Hi there, It's been quiet on this topic for a while, but Ken and I have managed to meet up at last and work has begun on the unseen parts of the layout - i.e. the electrics, which, while not on a large scale, are a bit more complex than either Bleach Green or Killagan. So there's not much to We have still to install/connect the main control panel so nothing is running yet. At this time we do not think it likely there will be any exhibitions to take the layout to anyway, certainly for the rest of this year, so we're not putting ourselves under any pressure. However, one project has moved forward, the signalling. We plan to use mostly the Dapol signals (slightly tweaked with tall finials) for working signals and a couple of ratio ones for fixed ones (though without interlocking!) We had a slight re-design of the signal box when we moved it, and then had to discuss the starter signal on the platform. Although Dapol make a junction signal it wouldn't be right for this location as it has definitely a "main and branch" arrangement and the starter at Fenaghy would have two "equal" signals, if you get my drift. Now, in my humble opinion, the best r-t-r signals in terms of ruggedness etc were the old Hornby Dublo ones - the bases are quite substantial, but would be readily hidden and no problem as this signal will be on a platform, which is just wide enough for it. I had an old working HD distant junction signal and decided to have a a go.. There was really quite a bit involved. First of all, you can't just replace the arms. The H-D models were all upper quadrant and this isn't Larne Harbour! That might need quite a bit of fiddling and working out where the operating wires could go, and shaping them. The signal arms are ratio (I think LNWR - I have a "bits box" of some of the kits from previous layouts) ). They needed a new pivot, for which i used a piece of copper wire, the arm and the rear signal covering were glued to this AFTER I had drilled a new smaller hole for the operating wire in the dark spectacle plate. I thought I could use the old stronger Dublo wire but it wasn't possible so I used some Alan Gibson handrail 0.31 gauge wire - very fine and next time (if there ever is one) I'll use the slightly heavier gauge. It does work though. The whole arm/pivot arrangement is by nature flimsy so will not put up with the originals ability to be knocked about a bit. That's why the pivot and wires come out the front - not ideal but this is a prototype - and may be the only one of its kind. Though years ago my friend Edmund Calvert Harrison (an NCC signalling fan) had converted some Dublo single arm signals with some success. i owe him for the idea! Finials were the ones made by MSE, and platform on the bracket again was heavily cut down from a ratio signal kit one. Ratio ladders are available but won;t be fitted until the signal is firmly panted on the platform! It all had to be painted as well, of course, mostly in advance. I reckon about 4-5 hours steady work, and not really for the faint hearted. Though i expect doing more, it would get a bit slicker. The single arm ones are a good bit easier. Anyway, there it is, ready for transport to Fenaghy. .

Just a memory of travelling on one of the AECs which still had the luxurious seating in first class, in this case at the back of the train. Coming into the city from Blackrock in the evening and passing through the closed stations at Booterstown, Merrion, Sandymount and Sydney Parade and watching the crossing gates close immediately after we passed through, the red lamps glowing in the semi darkness. Most trains ran from Blackrock to Lansdowne Road non stop. Apart from Merrion, all these re-opened later. Lovely.... Colm Flanagan

Indeed, my wife sometimes refers to it as the "summer house"..! Pure escapism ... A short video of a UTA "neverwazz" formation - Railcar No4 with a luggage/generator van in tow, on a test run from Stranraer to Coleraine. The GV (Hornby respray) is for another modelling friend.