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Arigna Town


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What a delightful layout! I shall be looking out for it at York. Fully agree about the use of the correct gauge; it really makes a difference. I was at the Dublin show a couple of years ago when Adavoyle Junction made its first appearance after its transfer to Ireland. It was the only layout at the show that used the correct gauge amongst the acres of Peco Streamline!

 

David

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This is a great layout with some very unusual and interesting rolling stock, I especially liked the railbus that looked like a routemaster with it's top deck lopped off.

 

I spent ages watching it at the Uckfield show when I should have been stewarding and/or assisting other layouts with operator cover.

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A new train is now ready for York. Meant to represent an excursion either to football/hurling matches, or a pilgrimage to Knock perhaps.

Loco is the new Tyrconnel G2 kit, with one of their 6 wheel Midland Great Western coaches. The other two six wheelers are also MGW, but these are scratchbuilt in plasticard on Tyrconnel chassis.

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  • 9 months later...

 It has been a while since I last posted anything, but as Arigna Town is booked for several major shows in 2016, then an update may be of interest. 

 First the shows. The layout is going to St Albans and then Pontefract in January, followed by Crawley, St Neots, Alexandra Palace, East London Finescale, Croydon and finally Cultra in Belfast - the latter something I'm especially looking forward to.

 Work on the layout itself has been limited to general maintenance, as it did 9 shows in 2015 and covered well over 1000 miles. However, some new items of stock are being worked on - the aim being to have a seventh train, which will then mean the fiddle yard is full. The new train comprises SLNCR Large Tank, Sir Henry, plus coaches number 4 & 10. The former is a six wheel saloon, the other the bogie 'day coach', i.e. it had no lighting!

 All are scratch builds, with Sir Henry coming from a GA drawing supplied by Manchester Museum of Science & Industry, where they hold the full Beyer Peacock collection. Being a decidedly non-standard loco, I've had to make the coupling rods myself [usually prefer to get a set from Premier Models], while [like the Small Tanks] the engine is liberally covered with rivets - well over 1000 of them. Thank goodness for the GW Models rivet press, which has a clever table to help churn them out evenly spaced & in straight lines. Part way through, decided that working inside cylinders and valve gear would be worth adding, so bought a set from Laurie Griffin at the recent Reading Trade Show. VERY clever design and would have been fairly straightforward to add if done while chassis was being built. Somewhat more fiddly as an add on, but fingers crossed, all now installed and running really smoothly.post-25580-0-74107700-1450466069_thumb.jpgpost-25580-0-69916400-1450466104_thumb.jpg

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I love this layout. It is what so many layouts are not these days - different. As for the new loco - wow! Real craftsmanship. There has been good use made of available trade products, and yet if I hadn't been told I'd have thought this a latter-day 'Buckingham', completely hand crafted. Truly inspirational. Now how do I get to Pontefract by train to see the nearest exhibition?

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What a pleasure to see an Irish model built to the proper gauge, such a difference (the 16.5 compromise in 4mm always makes the models look like they're Cape Gauge prototypes) and so beautifully executed. I shall have to try and catch this at a show sometime. Thank you for sharing these details.

 

Adam

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Thanks for the kind comments folks, much appreciated. Cultra is Saturday 12th November and it will be a real privilege to bring the layout over the water. Have visited the Museum before on one of several trips to Ireland & it is very much a favourite. Bit of a trek to get there though, as I'm based in SE England...

 Doing the layout to 36.75mm gauge was a lot easier than might first seem. Plain track is hand made, using code 100 FB rail [to simulate the lightweight stuff used on the SLNCR], while the points were commissioned from Marcway of Sheffield. 50% more than Peco, but they are self isolating, so wire in tube is all that is needed for operation. Fine scale standards work well in the broad gauge, so there is no need to go for S7, unless precision is your thing. Slater's do a broad gauge loco axle, while their wagon and coach axles are long enough to tweak the wheels out to 34mm back to back [33.98 to be precise, but I'm not!]. The rest is no different to any other type of modelling - except you will not find anything ready to run!

 However, the Alphagraphix catalogue contains a wealth of stuff to get you started. Their Tyrconnel range contains an increasing number of steam outline locos and etched brass coach kits. Indeed, it is possible to model the Timoleague & Courtmacsherry Tramway fairly easily, as most of the steam locos and coaches are already available. They have a lot of card kits too & at £3-4 each are cheap enough to use as colour plans for scratch building bodies in plastic sheet and strip, though they can be made into perfectly nice models as they are. White metal under frame detail is available too. 

 So, in many ways, no excuses for getting the gauge right & nothing sets the Irish scene better in my opinion. Yet, as far as I can tell, apart from  the legendary Castle Rackrent, by Richard Chown, there are no other 7mm scale broad gauge layouts being exhibited. Indeed, at the moment, it seems there is one P4 [Valentia Harbour], one 3mm [ballyconnel Road] and maybe one S gauge line & that is it. Plus Adavoyle, of course. I'd love to be proved wrong!

 By the by, Sir Henry's chassis occupied a disproportionate amount of my time on Sunday as, after painting the frames, I tried to re-assemble it. It would have taken a lot less time if I'd noted the order in which I'd taken it apart. However, have since had more practice as it needed a fair bit of fettling to get rid of paint which had got into the slide bars, but happily, all is running smoothly again. Indeed, the boiler/smokebox and tank/cab units have been reunited again, after priming and a spray of Halfords matt black. While this covers well in my experience, it is far too dense a colour, so the loco now needs time to high highlights, weathering etc before its next photoshoot.

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Can't wait to see this layout at Cultra. I am sitting in my living room looking out at what remains of the Weirs Bridge that crossed the Lough Erne. The local railway museum here in Enniskillen has a wealth of information on the SLNCR and would be well worth a visit if you are over in November. Selwyn Johnston is curator and has the original blueprints for much of the architecture and engineering for this railway including weirs bridge. Now what a fine model that would make in 7mm.

I have a kit to make Lisadell and would love to know how you built the railcars for your layout.

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Totally agree about building to the proper gauge not being that difficult.I spent a lot of time at Warley trying to get that across.One slight point Valencia is built to 21mm gauge using EM gauge standards as is the followup  Courtmacsherry.It would appear we are both going to be at Ally Pally this year,shame i wasn't bringing Arigna that would have caused some explaining.All the best Andy.

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Totally agree about building to the proper gauge not being that difficult.I spent a lot of time at Warley trying to get that across.One slight point Valencia is built to 21mm gauge using EM gauge standards as is the followup  Courtmacsherry.It would appear we are both going to be at Ally Pally this year,shame i wasn't bringing Arigna that would have caused some explaining.All the best Andy.

Have similarly tried to explain to folk that doing 5'3 does not necessarily mean P4 S7 etc standards. Given that some of the Murphy diesels are easily changed to 21mm gauge, it seems a shame there aren't more out there. Will look forward to seeing you at Allypally & about time someone did Courtmacsherry. It must be one of the most perfect branch termini ever - right down to the street scene behind the station making the ideal back scene. Very do-able in 7mm too, with all the Alphagraphix-Tyrconnel kits & again, surprised that nobody has done it before. One day perhaps, though the new Ragstone kit of the Clogher Valley Sharp Stewart tanks has taken my fancy. Branchlines still do the coaches [and a wagon chassis], while there is the card kit of Railcar No1 too. So, another 21mm gauge layout, eventually!

 

David

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Can't wait to see this layout at Cultra. I am sitting in my living room looking out at what remains of the Weirs Bridge that crossed the Lough Erne. The local railway museum here in Enniskillen has a wealth of information on the SLNCR and would be well worth a visit if you are over in November. Selwyn Johnston is curator and has the original blueprints for much of the architecture and engineering for this railway including weirs bridge. Now what a fine model that would make in 7mm.

I have a kit to make Lisadell and would love to know how you built the railcars for your layout.

 Did a field trip to Arigna a couple of years ago & very impressed by the Mining Experience Museum. Sadly not time to take in Enniskillen, though did managed Finn Valley, Bundoran, Donegal, Clifton and Achill. Wonderful places all!

 The rail bus was built using the Alphagraphix card kit as the drawing. Very simple rectangular  nickel silver chassis, Slater's disc wheels and a small Mashima motor & gearbox. The body is all plastikard and microstrip. Railcar B likewise has a simple chassis for the tractor unit, built around a set of Premier Models profile milled rods. The rest is again all plastic, with resin cast seats I made from my own masters. Both models [and indeed the layout as a whole] are extensively written up on the www.irishrailwaymodeller.com website. Look under 'Arigna Town, this week's scenery' for the layout and 'David's Workbench' for the railcars and other stuff I've built. This includes my experiences with the Lissadell kit. Got mine from designer Adrian Rowlands as North Star kits. Superb artwork makes for a very pleasant build. The only issue is punching out the 1000+ rivets, so worth investing in a decent press to do that & ensure they all come out consistently. As they are already half etched, alignment is not a problem.

 As for the bridge, suspect it would be longer than my entire layout, though there are worse views to have, I'm sure. At the York Show earlier this year, was given a copy of the Beyer Peacock drawing of the proposed Garrett. A 2-6-6-2, it would have been quite a beast, albeit with 12 ton axle loadings. Briefly tempted till I realised that a model would not fit in my headhunt, while the fiddle yard would limit its load to only 3-4 wagons at best!

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Clogher is on my to do list as well the main question being which station Fivemiletown seems the best though somewhat long,i.ve done the tractor and Atkinson Walker along with some of the coaches and a couple of the opens and theres 3 Backwoods Sharps in the queue,trouble is all the other things like the siren call of the Donegal(again!) Andy.

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A photo of Sir Henry. Just going through the paint shops, with further detailing still to do. I think it has captured the all important character of the engine, though I'd be the first to say it is not perfect! Plates, roof etc only a temporary fix at the moment, while the un weathered matt black [Halfords spray can] shows just how flat the colour is, so some weathering will be applied. Back to the Martyn Welch 'bible' for that, after Christmas

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  • 2 weeks later...

Began work on this model on 14th September, so 111 days later, it is finally complete. Did a weathering job on it yesterday, which involved getting the airbrush/compressor/spray cupboard out. Always fraught for me - was the clean up from last time thorough enough on the airbrush? Will I get the paint mix right? Will the spray pattern be ok or paint come out like a muck spreader, etc etc?

 Happily all was well & the paint mix [as per Martyn Welch's bible\ of Humbrol Metacote Gunmetal, Tarmac and Leather in ratio of 2:1:1 is just right for toning down & highlighting the very deep, flat black you get from an automotive spray paint can. After a couple of hours letting the paint dry, then did some gentle work with weathering powders. This involved grey on the tops of the boiler & cab, with browner tints for the smokebox & footplate, plus burnt sienna around the brake shoes, base of firebox etc on the chassis.
 Then left it overnight to dry hard [find this works better than covering with matt varnish as a seal for the weathering powders], before joining the body & chassis again. While doing the latter, found that the sandboxes were too far inboard, so had to prise them off the chassis & pack them out to the correct width. The sandpipers now sit much better, which explains an earlier issue!
 The last bits of work were glazing the cab windows, adding the crew & finally putting coal in the bunker. The latter is from a pice I liberated from the concentration plant entrance in Arigna a couple of years ago - so am guessing it is more likely Polish and Irish...
 The photos show the finished model, including comparisons between weathered and plain black, also alongside Hazlewood to show the differences between a Small Tank & a Large one. Also some poses on the layout. Not sure if I will get the two coaches finished in time for St Albans in two weeks time, so Sir Henry may well have its first outing running the excursion train with the three MGW six wheelers.
 The working inside motion shows up quite well & anyone who doesn't notice will certainly have it pointed out to them!

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