“WASHBOURNE”

[F-UnitMad]

4 hours ago, Regularity said:

A few pictures taken at Uckfield in October 2017:

I thought the goods siding was lower than the station tracks I bet that could be fun to fly-shunt!!

[Compound2632]

1 hour ago, Northroader said:

The backscene looks as if he’s attempted a rainy day, a very brave thing to do, I don’t think I could try it, and getting the pale grey streaky effect well. 

 

 That's a dry morning.

[Regularity]

48 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

 

 That's a dry morning.

I believe they go holiday to somewhere drier.

 

Like Preston.

(Two words rarely seen together, but I loved it in the mid 80s. Lectures overlooking P&L and P&W junctions, cheap beer, lots of pubs.)

[Regularity]

1 hour ago, Northroader said:

Thanks for those pictures, Simon, they give a very good impression of the layout. The backscene looks as if he’s attempted a rainy day, a very brave thing to do, I don’t think I could try it, and getting the pale grey streaky effect well. I was very intrigued by the engine, 0-6-0ST no 475, which looked a Really Useful Irish Engine, so I looked it up. Well suited to the West of Ireland, if not the GSWR section. They were a class of five, delivered in penny packets to the Cork, Bandon and South Coast from 1881. Built by Beyer Peacock, one of their standard designs, and the same as LSWR 330 class apart from the gauge. Taken into GSR stock as their class J24, and it looks as if they all went in the thirties.

 

The EWJR also had one like that, for a few years.

[F-UnitMad]

1 hour ago, Compound2632 said:

 

 That's a dry morning.

Looks like a 'soft' morning to me. Or, as the Guard on the train at the Downpatrick & County Down Railway said to me; "it doesn't want to be getting any softer"...

[Compound2632]

4 minutes ago, F-UnitMad said:

Looks like a 'soft' morning to me. 

 

When we were holidaying near Valencia one August many years ago, on a day when it was raining less steadily than others, our landlady did say, "O 'tis a dry morning."

[Nearholmer]

The strange thing about the weather in that part of Ireland is that the backscene could show heavy rain, while the foreground is in bright sunshine, and a moment later the reverse be true - you can actually watch heavy showers approaching from out at sea, and take shelter at the last moment.

 

And, you can be going up-hill, and meet the "rain line".  My good lady and I stood at the top of the Connor Pass above Dingle, and watched a cloud approach us, with the wisps of it first blowing round us and between us, then it getting so dense that we could barely see one another. Weird experience, like being in a plane flying through clouds, except that we were still, and the cloud was moving. We got soaked, but no rain was actually falling.

[Northroader]

4 hours ago, F-UnitMad said:

Looks like a 'soft' morning to me. Or, as the Guard on the train at the Downpatrick & County Down Railway said to me; "it doesn't want to be getting any softer"...

I think if I was ever able to get over to Ireland again, Jordan, Downpatrick would be my first port of call. They seem to be organising quite a credible set up, and it is a remnant of the BCDR, whichever way you look at it, was treated shamefully by the UTA (boo, hiss) 

Edited April 2, 2021 by Northroader

[Compound2632]

On 01/04/2021 at 10:16, Northroader said:

 

I would recommend this book, Stephen, still available and very good value:

 

A snip at £6 plus postage second hand. Thanks for the recommendation!

 

[Northroader]

Now get cracking!

[Compound2632]

1 minute ago, Northroader said:

Now get cracking!

 

No hurry. I'll improve my technique on Midland carriages first.

 

There's a rather splendid 1898 GSWR dining saloon in the book, that is evidently the outcome of doing some very thorough research between Holyhead and Euston and between Stranraer and St Pancras! But the GNR clerestory dining carriages I'm afraid look just as overblown as their counterparts on the GNR(E).

[Northroader]

Another model with a rainy backscene is Castle Rackrent:

 

i have mentioned this line before on here, page 8, as being an inspirational model. I became aware of it in the Railway Modeller, March ‘75, and the Model Railways, May ‘75, and have enjoyed seeing it at a rare visit to a show in the South. It was built and operated in Scotland, originally as a terminus overlapping with the fiddle yard, fairly long by later “compact” standards, but the length was well used to give flowing curves, not just the main line, but also the road and overbridge, and the backscene. The setting is a hypothetical branch on the Waterford, Limerick and Western Railway, the main line we've used to get to Cahir, and taken over by the GSWR in 1901. (The words and music for its locos are included in the GSWR locos book I’ve referred to recently) The model was created first in Richard Chown’s flat, then with his Railway Civil Engineer connections it overflowed into a disused service bridge at Edinburgh Waverley. In this condition it appeared in the RM for Feb ‘75, and it has since moved, but even with Richards death, a dedicated group still give it an occasional run. Here’s a link to some photos:

https://highlandmiscellany.com/2014/06/03/last-train-to-castle-rackrent/

It is 0 scale, and built to represent 5’3” gauge, which must have been difficult to do at that time. Now Slaters have nicely machined axles and wheelsets available, making things much easier. Irish Railways typically used flat bottom rail, so it quite simple to create track by soldering up copper clad sleeper strip from Marcway.

I get the impression that a lot of Irish modellers are quite happy to use 00 track and models, and I do this in 0 scale, so that I can use common standards with my British models and layout. One other aspect is well exemplified by the Valentia Harbour Line we’ve been looking at, done in 00 scale with 21mm gauge. This is that the trains are all pregroup era, but set later in time, as such were the economic conditions that nothing changed in a lot of locations from pre WW1 until the lines were either closed or dieselised in the 1950s, which is quite rare if you think of this in a British context.

Two good examples of this style, done in 0 scale and broad gauge, are firstly David Holman’s “Arigna Town” which I’ve referred to before on here, which captures the Irish atmosphere very well:

Then another layout which has appeared on RMweb in the last year, and is shaping up very nicely as a representation of  a small Irish layout with old equipment, is “Rosses Point”:

 

Edited April 9, 2021 by Northroader

[Compound2632]

31 minutes ago, Northroader said:

00 scale with 21mm gauge. 

 

That does strike me as, if you will excuse the phrase, an Irishism. Although I suppose 0021 is really no worse than 009. But then P4 is 0018.83.

Edited April 9, 2021 by Compound2632

[Northroader]

I’m afraid P4 always makes me smile, when they blithely quote that they’re working with a gauge to a tolerance of a hundredth part of a millimetre, which shows what a talented bunch they they are, at least with a calculator. No, charw teg, the standards they do achieve are impressive. There was a group from Merseyside who did an Irish P4 (no I dunno what that worked out at either) a layout of the GNRI called “Adavoyle”, which did the exhibition circuit way back, and you’ll never see anything that ran as smoothly as they achieved.

[Donw]

I am not sure what you would call it but Irish railways equivalent of 00 would be about 19-19.5mm gauge I would think. Yes Adavolyle ran beautifully. I had the please of seeing Castle Rackrent a couple of times as a multistation layout. Just brilliant. However I think Caley Jim who posts on RMWEB has I believe had the pleasure of taking part in operation sessions on the layout. Me envious you bet.

There was another 7mm layout  using the proper gaugewhich I saw forget now the layout name and builder.  However my favourite might be Cyril Fry's collection 5ft 3in gauge, trams, and 3ft gauge I think. Certainly grabbed my attention. Some of it is now a museum https://www.modelrailwaymuseum.ie/cyril-fry/   but you can only see the models in glass cases.

There is a film of what the first museum bit was like https://www.rte.ie/archives/2019/0326/1038732-malahide-model-railway/  but to be honest neither capture what the original was like. I had some magazines featuring it which were given away by my mother.

This photo shows a corner https://irishphotoarchive.photoshelter.com/image/I0000F.ASiQZWfU4

 

 

[Caley Jim]

26 minutes ago, Donw said:

However I think Caley Jim who posts on RMWEB has I believe had the pleasure of taking part in operation sessions on the layout. Me envious you bet.

Sadly, @Donw Though I knew Richard quite well from way back, I never did have that pleasure.  I saw parts of the layout on many occasions when they were exhibited.   Richard was quite a character and ended to do things on a grand scale, Kyle of Lochalsh to scale in 7mm for example!  He also had a French layout which had a large viaduct crossing a deep valley which had the track about 4' 6" - 5' above floor level.

 

 

Jim

[St Enodoc]

51 minutes ago, Donw said:

There was another 7mm layout  using the proper gauge which I saw forget now the layout name and builder.

The late Dave Walker's "Killaney" was one. There may have been others.

[Donw]

7 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

The late Dave Walker's "Killaney" was one. There may have been others.

 

That was the one I couldn't bring to mind.

 

Don

[Northroader]

I was unaware of the “Killaney” layout, so digging around I found this on the “IrishRailwayModeller” site, which gives some nice illustrations of a very good looking line, and I’m afraid, another talented Modeller passed away.

https://irishrailwaymodeller.com/topic/9761-dave-walker-rip/

Edited April 10, 2021 by Northroader

[Compound2632]

5 minutes ago, Northroader said:

I was unaware of the “Killaney” layout, so digging around I found this on the “IrishRailwayModeller” site, which gives some nice illustrations of a very good looking line, and I’m afraid, another talented Modeller passed away.

https://irishrailwaymodeller.com/topic/9761-dave-walker-rip/

 

I have that issue of Railway Modeller squirrelled away. It's a magazine that I've always bought very selectively but that article caught my eye and has been a keeper.

[Northroader]

 

And in another update, I was singing the praises of “Arigna Town”, and I see that is no more, the baseboards have been put to very good use in “Bellmullet”:

https://irishrailwaymodeller.com/topic/7592-belmullet

 

Edit: ps there’s a bit more if you go to “Blacksod Bay”

Edited April 10, 2021 by Northroader

[Compound2632]

3 minutes ago, Northroader said:

https://irishrailwaymodeller.com/topic/7592-belmullet/

 

Oh dear what have you started me down. 

[Northroader]

Now, calm down, lie down in a dark room for ten seconds for a period of quiet reflection, as we don’t want any Mr. Toad over reactions here, then start rushing around. And I’d take the view that you can get a very nice little flavour of what you want in quite a small space. And Alphagraphix aren’t on line, you’ll need to write for a catalogue. And Tyrconnell do good kits......

[Compound2632]

9 minutes ago, Northroader said:

Now, calm down, lie down in a dark room for ten seconds for a period of quiet reflection, as we don’t want any Mr. Toad over reactions here, then start rushing around. And I’d take the view that you can get a very nice little flavour of what you want in quite a small space. And Alphagraphix aren’t on line, you’ll need to write for a catalogue. And Tyrconnell do good kits......

 

I have a work-around:

 

 

Derby, 13 July 1914. Note how, with typical Irish economy, the NCC was using up old stocks of the pre-1905 Midland armorial transfer.

 

[NRM DY 10248, released under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0) licence by the National Railway Museum.]

[Northroader]

    NCC? Eh, sir? Come in the back room, and combine these two images in your mind. Suits you, sir?? They kept painting all the engines red long after Derby said stop...nudge... or is it those somersault signals that turn you on? Eh, sir?