Dugort Harbour

[jhb171achil]

A few pictures now that the first stage of this is ready.

 

"Dugort Harbour" is an imaginary place in the south-west of Ireland, an extension branch of a secondary line from Cork city to West Kerry or West Cork.

 

The "main line" is something akin to the North Kerry line, though ending in a fictitious large town called Castletown West, From there, the branch to Dugort Harbour was built to deal with an expected boom in fishing traffic, which never appeared, leaving the place as a remote and somewhat neglected backwater by the late 1950s / early 1960s, at which time the layout is based.

 

The  main terminus is reminiscent of Westport, with the extension branch having hints of Westport Quay, Valentia Harbour, or Baltimore, Co. Cork.

 

The space into which the layout is contained is three sides of an attic room, each side some 14frt long. The line runs from a fiddle yard, out of a tunnel mouth, into the main station, and on down the branch. The main station ("Castletown West") will be the main focus of activity with branch trains going one way, and the "main line" train to Cork in the other.

 

After several false starts, and Covid and a house move in the midst of it all throwing several spanners in the works, the station at Dugort Harbour is complete and operational, with the baseboards complete and track on order for the rest. Thanks are due to Dave Lindfield, Peter Cuffe and Kevin McIntosh for their respective inputs.

 

 

[jhb171achil]

 

[jhb171achil]

[jhb171achil]

I need to get backscenes organised pronto!

 

In these scenes, the twice daily local train is shown leaving Dugort Harbour for Castletown West, where a connection is available for Cork. On most days it's a two coach set, with a third on Saturdays! 

[jhb171achil]

The apparent "lay-by" on the platforms will be filled by a small corrugated lamp house and a signal cabin. The other larger one further up will have the station building, which will be a corrugated structure as found on various stations on the West Cork system and the Kenmare and Valentia branches.

 

Similar to Westport Quay, there is a fuel oil tank on the trackbed of a former siding for use by CIE in refuelling its locally-based bus to some gawd-forsaken place out the road. Other than sugar beet in the winter and the monthly cattle fair, this is about the only reason the line remains open; it will be closed by the end of 1967............

 

[jhb171achil]

Reminiscent of the photos of J P O'Dea, Henry Casserley or Cyril Fry, these are black'n'white.... makes the weathering on the wagons look good, but I need to do something about the lighting and the backscenes..........

 

 

[jhb171achil]

The old loco shed was knocked down years ago, but the former floor of it, and inspection pit remains. Steam still visits in the beet season, just for one more winter, and the weedspray train loads up there each spring, so the water column is working.

 

 

[jhb171achil]

That's all for now!

 

Once the track arrives, we'll get going on the rest......

 

Locos and rolling stock are in the 1958-65 period. Steam and diesel thus feature - and not a brown nor bogie wagon in sight!

 

Liveries cover the period, with about half the passenger stock in green and the rest black'n'tan. At least one "tin van" will remain in exceptionally filthy "all-over" silver, as per prototypes.

 

As befits the area, and the GSWR origin of the line, in steam times J15s will predominate. I have three, with all needing to be chipped, and two needing weathering. Diesel days see "A"'s, 121s and 141s.

 

Carriages will be a deliberate mix, again as per prototypical lines of this type in these times. Laminates of various sorts, Park Royals, Bredins and old six-wheelers, with between one and four of each type. There are but two Cravens.

[Darius43]

Absolutely fantastic layout.  I love the abandoned turntable - very atmospheric.

 

Cheers

 

Darius

[kirley]

This layout truly captures those scenes of by gone days, so much to like including that uncluttered look and the weathering of stock that adds to its realism.  Will be following progress on this layout keenly.

[jhb171achil]

Thank you for the comments, folks - much appreciated.

 

Next stage will be when the track arrives.

 

 

[killucan2]

4 hours ago, jhb171achil said:

Thank you for the comments, folks - much appreciated.

 

Next stage will be when the track arrives.

 

 

Track arrives? Is there more to this layout still to arrive to you 

[jhb171achil]

Yes.

 

Dugort Harbour was conceived as what you see - a shunting layout. However, a house move resulted in a large attic room becoming available, so instead of the station having a line just round the corner into a fiddle yard, it will now continue along the side of a room before entering a "big" station - which will not be unlike Westport in some ways eventually. This is the end of the "branch line" journey, but the "main line" leaves this other station and continues around another bend to a new, bigger fiddle yard.

 

Thus, main line trains with "Woolwichs" and "A" class will arrive at the main line station ("Castletown West") from the fiddle yard, which represents Dublin or Cork, and the branch line continues to Dugort Harbour. Thus, there is room for both branch line and (limited) main line operation.

 

So far, just the boards for the rest of it are in place, with track on order. There is a problem in that the Dugort Harbour "table" is a tad too low, but Baseboard Dave is working on higher legs for it, as the rest of the thing is fixed to the walls at a certain height through necessity. But that's do-able.

 

I've gathered a reasonable set of stuff to operate on it all, with several "A" class scheduled to join it all soon.

 

I'll post bits and pieces as things develop.

[Hunslet 102]

Great photos and some wealth of detail! A really stunning layout, with all the hallmarks of rural Ireland 

[Neils WRX]

Really interesting layout, I do like the filled in turntable pit, looks spot on.

 

Thanks,

 

Neil

[jhb171achil]

It’s spring 1963, and a brand new B165 arrives with the 1.30 p.m. local train from Castletown West. 

[jhb171achil]

On a fine summer day in 1964, the Saturdays Only 07:55 to Cork gets under way with B141……

[jhb171achil]

[jhb171achil]

It’s still 1964.

 

Once a month, on fair days, Dugort Harbour comes alive; indeed, pressure from the local cattle mart (run by the cousins of the Minister for Transport) is the main reason this windswept outpost still has a railway station at all. 
 

The following day, empty cattle wagons are joined by other goods stock as the 11:15 extra departs from Dugort Harbour….

Edited July 29, 2021 by jhb171achil

[jhb171achil]

That’s all for now!

[jhb171achil]

Not much happening on a dull day in 1959, but our intrepid photographer got the 12:30 goods arriving anyway…..

[Georgeconna]

Cracking Layout JHB, you must be well chuffed now living life in the 60's

[jhb171achil]

8 minutes ago, Georgeconna said:

Cracking Layout JHB, you must be well chuffed now living life in the 60's

Indeed, George; and I am told that soon they will invent a thing called a computer!

[kirley]

A story told in pictures.

[Patrick Davey]

Love this - every photo has a serious 'drool' factor!