Irishrailwaymodeller

The trees look great - lots of brown paint for mud under the tanks should do it!

A couple of shots of some scratch and kit-built buildings and other features for Llanuwchllyn placed roughly where they will appear on the layout. Next steps are to fill in missing sleepers and start the ballasting...

A home-made version of Santa Express:

Hi, got my Dapol O gauge Autocoach light-bar/DCC ready today and it looks pretty good. Some minor damage including a missing screw-link coupling noted. Some Questions: has anyone fitted this model with a DCC soundchip (the 21-pin socket is under the light bar. Also, will the lights work on DC and DCC straight from the box (as with the Lionheart carriages)?

Final update at this time to show the control/electronics at the back of the layout. The layout may be operated in manual or automatic mode. The points are operated in pairs by push buttons to make the road for the trains. Automatic mode allows the trains to stop and cross at the station including changes to the points as needed to accomplish this. The Goods Sidings are operated by a separate manual controller only. Note the use of side-action point motors at the back allowing manual control.

Next for the record, an update on the buildings/platforms developed before painting/weathering and placed roughly where they will be. Some buildings will be scratch built based on photos of the extant and historical structures.

Good progress on Llanuwchllyn with all wiring completed, tested and working fine in both manual and automatic modes. The track is also finalised and ready for completion of sleeper gaps and ballasting. Mirrors are in place at each end to provide an infinity perspective. Initial work has commenced on buildings some of which will need to be scratch-built. Then its a case of painting/weathering the buildings and developing surrounding scenery to the standard achieved with Cynwyd. First a look at the trackwork pinned down:

Got my Dapol GWR Railcar No W12 today and it looks great. I fitted a 3-function decoder and it runs along fine with front/rear and cabin lights working directionally. However, the interiour lights don't seem to be working - do I need to map some functions to a different button I wonder? The space for a speaker is small, I would think only a sugar-cube would fit? I understand that Mr Soundguy has developed a suitable sound-chip/project.

Does anyone know if Dapol plan to do equivalent N and O gauge versions of this model?

Thanks John, Looking forward to showing Cynwyd at the Bala Show on May Bank Holiday 2018! I am also working on a layout of Llanuwchllyn for the same show. How are you getting on with Llangollen in OO? Gerry

I am delighted to report that Cynwyd has won another Award this time at the South Dublin October Exhibition: Best Layout - Scenic.

For information, I have posted up photos of my model which were lost to Photobucket by editing my previous posts. Not sure if they are all the same as those previously posted but they cover the layout well.

Isn't it extraordinary the ingenuity engendered by war!

Another thought on this line is that the next station at Corwen had extensive goods sidings/facilities so a smaller station like Carrog may have had quite light goods traffic. In the case of Cynwyd (2 miles west of Corwen) I was shown its goods logbook at Berwyn recently and goods traffic was very light throughout its life also.

Visited Carrog on a lovely September day recently - good of them to keep the prototype so like your model!

A recent visit to Llanuwchllyn Station to meet some of the folks there from the Bala Model Railway Exhibition allowed me take a few photos to inform my modelling. Great to meet David, John, Bernard and Barbara again! The station has been preserved as a narrow gauge line with some additions made to the station building itself.

The other trick I use to get "heft" into wagons is to add lead or other weights under the "load". This can also be easily removed if you want a long train running without shunting. I have a short video also of shunting on my Shunters Yard OO layout which might be of interest:

If the NEM pockets are a bit loose, I have used some PVA glue to keep them straight. As with the sponge/plasticard-insulating tape dampers, this can easily be removed without damaging the wagons later if needed with no harm done. Your Carrog in OO is looking great! I am travelling over in September to see the prototype again and also Llanuwchllyn to research my latest N-gauge layout.

For Kadees to work well you often have to dampen or muffle the free running of some of the axles particularly single wagons or at end of rake: The attachments can be temporary so it is easy to revert to free running for long train runs without shunting.

Rail lengths cut to size ready for pinning down and then to the wiring which should be interesting: 4-pole Double throw switch to alternate between manual and automatic shuttle/passing loop operation including synchronised turnout change; reed switches for passing loop operation including wiring in to fiddle-yards being shared with Cynwyd; two frogs to change with two turnout operations along with alternating direct and linked power source to diamond centre rails; not to mention manual control to separate the power to the two fiddle-yards.

Kadee have a magnet you can bury under the ballast...

I think there comes a point with every model railway where good enough is good enough. Your model of Carrog is more than good enough at this point most would agree.

" I will be making a much smaller goods shed than the rather overpowering one at Cynwyd, as I want it to look more distant." Good idea, I used a smaller shed but with the line running through as on the prototype...

Corwen had a complex series of goods sidings but Cynwyd had a simpler but interesting asymmetrical passing loop with two headshunts one leading to a cattle dock and a bay platform behind the station building...

The baseboard has been assembled and painted with a photographic backscene fitted (from Gaugemaster) which approximates the scenery around Llanuwchllyn (I may add cut-outs of photos of significant local buildings in time as I did for my Llangollen model). Reproducing the 1960's track layout at this station will involve 7 trackwork elements: 3 right-hand points, 3 left-hand points and a long cross-over. I have selected the appropriate Peco Code 55 Finescale sections and have laid them out roughly to show the general look of the layout with the two platform tops. Llanuwchllyn was a passing station for this single line with a passing loop through the station and goods yard area. First up, a couple of views of the backscene: The rough layout of the model track elements which will be used from left to right: