NoelG

Might need a few tulips or roses to brighten these bedding plants up a little or a touch of blue. Just some filing left to do. These will make platform beds. The more I continue with this very enjoyable project and the more I look at photos the more I see what has yet to be done and the list becomes like ever expanding foam to infinity.

Spot the differences - IFM Park Royal Coaches livery converted to CIE era rather than IR/IE Tippex modern era. Done by brush. Unfortunately the masking tape took the coach no transfers off with it so will have to replace those. I just cannot run modern era Tippex livery behind my beloved black'n'tan locos through stations with sidings full of two axle goods wagons. Its just not 1960s or even 1970s. Love these unique coaches. I have 3 RTR like this one to be converted back to CIE and two further kits which I'll paint myself so they will end up CIE era. That'll be enough park royals to form at least 3 rakes of CIE era coaches in formation with other assorted CIE era coaches such as early Cravens and Laminates (IFM+SF). When I was a youngster no passenger train was ever made up of the same coach type, not until the super train mk2d's came along in the mid 1970s hailing the transition to modern era trains with uniform rakes of both passenger coaches and fitted freight wagons.

These are the two gaelic fonts I managed to install on my mac. No 1 is the one I've used on the sign board. IrishUncialfabeta-Bold MeathFLF

Some tweaking needed but we're getting there

Thanks George, Donal over on FB helped me discover a better font

This evening I figured out how to get Gaelic fonts working on my Mac for station signage, etc

Platform walls decorated, weathered and varnished. There's a hint of the burren and Fr Ted about that stone

Some platform walls constructed today. Capping stone done via strip of balsa shaped to half round and scored to represent each capping stone. Will weather these in a day or so when the paint is dry. These small walls are a distinctive feature of Gort. Now to find the right Gaelic font on my mac for the station board name. Gort's essence is an overall greyness from all the stone. Will weather these walls tomorrow. Pleased with the way the balsa worked into the wall. Really enjoying this project.

Photo of scratch built buildings in situ being test fitted to new layout. Platforms built from plastic card.

Some emerging Gort scenes as buildings test fitted dry after decoration, platforms test fitted and tested for loading gauge fit. Important to check all this sort of stuff out now, before wiring is complete and before ballasting. View north toward Athenry View south towards Ennis/Limerick View through Gort goods shed Its been slow but have really enjoyed this process Really looking forward to shunting this layout which is only 10ft x 2ft . . . more to come (in the fullness of time)

Platform edges decorated and had first round of weathering

Platforms under construction. Gort's platforms had edging stone, but no over hang nor recess, just a right angle vertical side to platforms from rough stone. This will be the goods yard platform, loading dock and cattle dock. Cattle pen to be constructed shortly. Platform structure starts with Peco platform edging kits, plastic card sheets bought from graphic design art suppliers, and faced with greenstuffworld smooth stone embossed card as well as being packed out to the edge of the platform. MHO Peco platform edge kits are the easiest and most accurate way to make model platforms at correct height and without meandering edges.

Cheers Kieran. Just a little moss and green mould to put on the base of the walls once the building is in situe on the layout

Few more pics. Got the guttering and down pipes done. Used a ratio guttering kit. Now just need a fews sacks of produce and a few wooden barrels outside. No pallets in this era, no fork lift trucks. This was before modern era, bogies and containers. All manually loaded produce in the CIE golden era. The ratio guttering accessory kit was handy, saved me forming realistic gutters from heated plastic strips. A bit of fiddling here to figuratively ensure water would flow downhill from the overhang into the main roof down pipe. Will have to put drain traps on the ground below these. Overall pleased to have a unique scale model of a real building as it was back around 1970. The basic structure of this building still exists but its all boarded up now.

Patrick, You are very kind with your comments, but I consider myself a relative novice and newbie to scratch building with much to learn, but its such fun doing the journey. I'm just slow and methodical, but hopefully will get these set of buildings complete in the end.

Thank you. Its a learning process that's relaxing and enjoyable. For that building I used http://www.greenstuffworld.com smooth rock wall sheets. For the station ticket office the stone was dressed so used some old slaters sheets I bought 20 years ago.

Nearly finished the Goods shed. Just down pipes, and moss remaining. and a tweak to the weathering to blend it in a bit more.

Gort goods shed nearly finished, skylight windows in, gutters, doors, just downpipes left and some gentle weathering done today. Will have to have another look at it tomorrow in natural daylight before adjusting. But its getting near the end. Water tower got a little aging done Now back to the station ticket office building before starting the south east platform shelter.

Some more tweaking to Gort goods shed, sliding doors added via hanging runners. Ready to be "bloody blown off" by the arrival of the A class in the coming months (aka italian job M cain).

But does the vanilla sound project have Irish CIE horn sounds, Irish rail clank sounds and all the prototypical driving features (ie coasting, braking, train loads, and Irish light combinations for Shunting, Parking, Train Mode, Push Pull, etc). IMHO the best sound project I've ever come across so far for Irish model GMs (121,141,181, 071, 201) are WheelTappersDCCsounds. They drive and sound like the prototype.

One of the latest batch of my mk3 resprays before weathering. This time I tried Lima donors. Next up will be some Hornby shorties. Now to get back to cutting, filling, sanding and filing an EGV for them.

Front of Gort Ticket office building Rear of building from road side Just door handles, guttering and some weathering left

Front of Gort Ticket office building Rear of building from road side

Yes that would make sense. It was explained to me that with a train heading south for Ennis/Limerick, when the loco and a few wagons uncoupled from the train, the loco could run along that loop, uncouple a few wagons beside the loading dock, run forward partially into the goods shed and then reverse back running around the wagons it just dropped off. Trains heading in the athenry direction would not need the loco to run around as it would be at the head of the north going formation. Anyway I'm looking forward to emulating these types of shunting manoeuvres with the kadee couplings on my stock since I converted from TLCs a few years ago. That little loop fascinated me until somebody explained its purpose a few years ago. Wagons could then be rolled by hand into the goods shed one by one as needed and common practice at small rural stations.

Thank you, I'm glad you are, it was you after all who inspired this project. Its been a dream of mine ever since I read your book and saw those photos of Gort in the 60s/70s as I remember it from childhood through the hazy memory of time, but the book brought it back into sharp focus.