Irish Nn3

So I'm actually doing stuff for once.

With the arrival of a well-received care-package, containing the start of the layout, work started immediately.
I even managed to get a train running (albeit just a test with a Z-scale engine).

What stared as this:


...was quickly assessed to see what will need to be done to make it more appropriate as a slice of Ireland in the 1940s-50s

So within a half hour, the first small hill got shaped and glued down:


Then a second:


So with my having added two hills, and having kept one, the hill count is at three thus far.

I then decided that to better see where contours will need to be smoothed out, I painted it with a base coat of Duncan "Medium Brown".

Which brings us to this:



I also shot a test video at one point:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=748041408560785

The engine is a Marklin 2-6-0 from a set I was given as payment to install decoders in 30 locomotives.
Sadly the drivers are too large for the engine to be of any use for me to convert it into something more Irish looking.
I'm currently working on acquiring a Marklin 0-6-0 for that very reason. I plan to make it into a Baldwin-ish looking engine. Really I should be shooting for a 2-6-2, but an 0-6-0 will have to suffice.


The main reference for this project is a Flickr album I found while searching through google images.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishswissernie/sets/72157627623204943/


I plan to really push the bar with this. I want to go all out on the scenery to try and capture the look of rural Ireland in the 1940s and 1950s when many of the remaining narrow gauge lines closed up shop.


-Cody F.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

11"x17" and currently 3.25" high (from base to highest point)
Both turnouts are non-functioning.
Both bridges are also due to be replaced.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

I meant to also add these.
I added another hill and reshaped the river contours on Friday.




And the exposed pink then got painted.





-Cody F.

 

It's quite compact, but it will have some "Big" scenes.

 

The recent progress. Got the center hill carved, though I don't quite know how well I like it though.
I'm going to see about getting a rattle can of Floquil rail tie brown, and a bag of sculptamold.












And of course, that got painted. Only difference here is that the center hill isn't glued down.








Once I have the track painted, the final hill carved, and the land contours smoothed, I'll need to order some ballast. I plan to only use real material. No simulations.

Once ballasted, then I'll put down a base layer of ground foam, then I'll need to make my own static grass applicator, and start buying static grass fibers.



-Cody F.

 

Jim, the only "Industry" per-say that will be on the layout will be a small cattle-dock/freight-dock, but only for scenic purposes as the turnouts don't function. The only structure will be a small corrugated-iron shed on the platform/dock.

I've made a good bit of progress, but it's been slow going due to some debate (mostly my own internal debate) over on The Railwire about the placement of roads.
Although it's all been sorted out, it's now a matter of hacking away at the foam.

 

Ok, so it's been awhile since I've posted updates here.
Worry not! I have been continuing progress on the layout, but all the updates have been going to the layout's primary thread over on the Railwire.
http://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=32771.0

Heck, my last update was weeks before I took the trip of a lifetime to the UK.
So, here is a photo of me on the footplate of Dolgoch at the Talyllyn Railway in northern Wales.


While I was in the UK I of course had to go to a model shop, so while I was there I managed to get some Noch granite ballast for the layout. It's excellent stuff and it goes down very well.




And at current, the layout looks like this:





Anyhow, I'm currently trying to figure out bridge abutments. I've never done any before, so I have no idea how to install them.
I'm currently trying out Woodland Scenics retaining wall pieces. the thickness is perfect, but the dimensions are questionable to me.
That being said, I have never installed bridge abutments so I have no idea what I'm doing at this point.





Cheers!

-Cody F.

 

It was a long dream come true. And the best part was making the solo journey to Tywyn to visit the Talyllyn Railway where I had booked a driver's experience aboard No.2 Dolgoch.

Northern Wales, and specifically the Fathew Valley, is the single most beautiful place on earth. And this is coming from someone who has been to Alaska.









I also forgot to mention that the layout now has a name, "Killashandra". The name coming from an Irish rebel song "Come Out Ye Black and Tans".

 

It's the original track bed, but kept up to a more modern standard with the rail mostly lag-bolted to the ties rather than directly spiked to the ties. The Talyllyn Railway Preservation Society does an excellent job of maintenance.
Originally the track would have been ballasted with a mix of local stone and the crushed waste-slate from the Bryn Eglwys quarry, and all the rail was simply spiked to the ties. In the early preservation era the TR used second-hand ties from British Railways, sawn in half, for the original track-relaying project sometime in the early 1950s

 

Probably the Corris Railway.
The TR owns the two Corris engines, and the new Corris Railway therefore had to commission a new-build of one of the engines. The originals have visited home on occasion.

 

So based on some suggestions elsewhere, I revised my bridge abutments.



Those look far better, and are more suited to the size of the bridge. The bridge I'm now attempting to replicate is this bridge on the old Tralee & Dingle Railway.

 

Oh, and my bridge won't have railings.
I plan to make the girders from an old gondola.