The Skebawn and Castleknox Light Railway and Tramway

[laalratty]

As well as some photos it would be nice to see a trackplan of your line, just to get an idea of where everything is in relation to each other.

[IrishPeter]

Plan drawn, and submitted to 'Her Indoors' for transformation into something I can post - like a .pdf or a .jpg. Same goes for a few piccies of Aussolas station, and the building thereof.

Cheers,
Peter in AZ

[Andrew]

Excellent - looking forward to 'em!

[IrishPeter]

What surprised me the last time I was working on 'Aussolas' was the degree to which the addition of a top layer of decomposed granite, & the half built station building begins to make the scene.  I am considering altering the approach at both ends so that the main runs in a station straight, then "turns-in" at the departure end of the station as is the case at Ballasalla and Castletown on the IOM, but without trailable weighted levers on the points that may well be a PITA.*

Cheers,
Peter in AZ

* - as indeed proved to be the case!

[IrishPeter]

I have made some major strides with the track work on the S&CLR the last couple of days.

I decided a few weeks ago to shorten the line by about 25 feet to give me a chance to keep up with the maintenance.  This put the southern terminus on a flat area at the bottom of the rockery, and I decided that I would take that.  The loop, loco shed line points, and goods siding points for Castleknox went in today.  The track layout is somewhat reminiscent of Coachford. However, there will eventually be a broad gauge side.

The track at the halfway station - Aussolas - has been almost complete for a month.  Just needed to cut an irritating piece of rail to close the loop and I was done.  Well looking in the off-cuts box for something else, dug deep, and found a shot end that was close enough, and it was job jobbed.

The top station - Skebawn - has acquired its platform line, the goods yard points, the loco shed road, and a temporary r/r loop.  That leaves a second goods siding and carriage shed to go in.  The building will be based on the original at Douglas - maybe. The Cork and Muskerry seemed to like wooden buildings, so the Skebawn and Castleknox is following suit.  

With loops at both ends (and in the middle) I can now operate the line - which is end to end - without having to "crane shunt" at one end or the other.

The building for Aussolas is coming along nicely.  The outer shell is covered with siding and painted, the roof is cut to size and needs covering with corrugated, and I am working on the interior of the passenger waiting area using coffee stirrers to pass as T&G.  I am thinking 'basic interior' - table and a couple of chairs in the stationmaster's office; bench in the shelter; and some shelves in the porter's room-cum-office.  I suspect that the Porter would have spent most of his time in the main office and only retreated to his layer to retrieve things when folks came to collect parcels, etc..  A couple of boards advertising the wares of the GNR(I), LMS and the GWR would be in order.  The GSR would not have had that much space for advertising its own services - maybe one board strategically close to the ticket window, and that's that.

Peter in AZ

[IrishPeter]

Ferret Sweeney and the lads have been out the last few days making track repairs, and they have made good progress on the worst bits.  Skebawn station has been seriously tidied up ahead of the anticipated (dreaded) visit from the District Superintendent Al "Misery" Mahon, who does not like the NG sections - he calls them 'inefficient relics of the past.'  Ferret is hoping that the BG section down from Cork will keep him busy most of the week giving the Lads a breathing space to complete repairs.

There does need to be an all out effort on the embankment either side of Rickety Bridge.  The bridge survived the winter well enough, but the embankment on either side of it experienced some slippage.  Ferret described it as being "more holy than righteous" and has had a 3mph slack on it since the first of the year, and most passenger trains have consisted of the little Black Diesel and brake-compo No.8. However, if it isn't fettled before Misery gets down here the S&C can expect to be sanctioned, which is bad enough, but when the repairs are finished we can expect another visit from Mr. Mahon. Ferret has decided on an all out attempt on Monday and Tuesday.

Finbarr "the Spanner" O'Toole is busy repairing wagons with Chippy Norton, and has also given the two bogie composites the once over ready for the summer timetable. He would also like to get one of the older coaches back on its feet by Easter, when traffic is usually pretty brisk with folks coming down for the long weekend.

Malachy Cruise has been seen around the loco shed checking out a new arrival - a German built tank locomotive that has been bought from the Ardnacrusha Dam project to help shore up the motive power side of things now that the old mines at Curranhilty are showing signs of life again. His conclusion was that she looks powerful enough, but she is as ugly as sin. Being 900mm gauge she has banged a few check rails, but Ferret has an idea for a cure, as he was explaining at length in Maggie's Shibbeen.

Peter in AZ

[IrishPeter]

Rickety Bridge was patched up enough last Monday and Tuesday to withstand Misery Mahon's visit as - much to Ferret's relief - they were able to push an open balcony carriage over it with a steam locomotive without mishap.

Spot re-ballasting to overcome the worst effects of the winter has continued, and the line is now in pretty good shape. Aussolas to Shebawn needs some attention, but is basically OK. Aussolas to Curranhilty is in good shape, though the points at the south end of Aussolas have been realigned.

Cheers,
Peter in AZ

[IrishPeter]

One train working is still the rule, as the points at the south end of Aussolas Station are clamped pending the completion of work on the passing loop.  Misery Mahon's annual visit passed off with only a mild rollocking, but cold weather (and the usual Triduum exhaustion) meant that the Easter weekend train service was the little black diesel and the brake compo with no steam to be seen

Goods stock is still a bit lacking.  The covereds are in reasonable shape, but there is only one open available at the moment.  Chippy Norton is having a happy time trying to empty the RIP siding.

Cheers,
Peter in AZ

[Soar Valley Light]

Hi Peter,

Sounds like a busy time for the SCLRT! Good to hear the progress and the success of the visit from the 'officials'!

Andrew

[IrishPeter]

The staff had a bit of a celebration at the "Buffer and Bog Chain" - aka 'The Tramway Bar' - last night as the wagon repair programme has been completed. Two coal wagons, a ballast wagon, and the loco coal wagon have all been repaired. Due to the intermittent non availability of chopper couplings over here, the good stock has been fitted with a centre "bumper" and I am using coupling chains, whilst the choppers are going to be used for passenger stock in the main.

The next objective is to get the bottom station into some sort of shape.

Peter in AZ

[IrishPeter]

Passenger and goods services on the Skebawn and Castleknox Light Railway section will cease from September 1st 2016 due to staff relocation. Substitute road service will be provided.

In other words...

My day job is moving me to the East Coast early next year, and as we have no desire to repeat 'the move from hell' which occurred 14 years ago when I moved here, we are taking our time over it. Most of the railway will be removed late this summer, and hopefully, after the move, I should be able to get a short track up and running fairly quickly. OK, I know - famous last words! Whether the new line will be the S&CLR Mark II or something else, I do not know. I do know that we are buying another house on a hill, so there will be major engineering works once again.

Cheers,
Peter in AZ

[Big Jim]

Good luck with the move Peter

[IrishPeter]

Of course, one pleasure of moving is that one can begin to plan a new railway. The new house has a large and fairly dry basement, which is an obvious site for the main station and steam up area as it is well ventilated. However, my usual preference for old houses on a slope means Kalka-Simla gradients ad curves once the railway exits the basement.

The city gummint provides a 2' interval topographical map which is at least giving me an idea of where the tracks should run, but it is going to be a bit of a wild ride getting a decent run built in the new yard.

Cheers,
+Peter in AZ

[IrishPeter]

The last of the track came up today, so all that is left is an empty track bed. The last train ran, unrecorded I am sorry to say on August 31st. Everything is in storage now until I can make a start in the new location.

Peter in AZ

[LNR]

One door closes, another opens. I hope the new door has wide horizons for you Peter. Hope the move goes to plan too.
Grant.

[IrishPeter]

The worst thing about this move is that it is clear across country - 2200 miles - which is making our previous move of 350 miles, fourteen years ago, look like moving up the street.  On the other hand, I am looking forward to getting out of an environment that has been driving both of us batty. Reorganisation a few years ago has had me flying across country every 4 to 6 weeks, and that has been making things somewhat difficult, especially as we are two hours from a decent sized airport, whilst the local puddle jumper goes the wrong way - to Los Angeles rather than Dallas or Denver, which would actually be some use to me.

Anyway, the new house has a large, fairly dry, basement, so that is targeted for use for the works and main station provided the railway can make the climb out the basement windows and up into the back yard.  The other possibility is to use the present garden shed for the railway, but that would not be optimal. Of the houses we looked at, this one had the fewest problems, the trouble is that what problems it does have are all on the railway side of the leger, not the house/work side.

Cheers,
Peter in AZ (but not for much longer)

[bazzer42]

Good luck with the move Peter, living on a smallish island it is hard to put a 2200 mile move into perspective! 350 miles moves me up into Scotland. Us railway builders can always find a plan to make it work, I'd love a basement as a man cave...

[IrishPeter]

I have pretty much decided that the Skebawn and Castleknox Light will be making a comeback after I move. There will be some changes. Skebawn will be in either the shed or the basement so that I can leave most of the stock on the railway when not in use. Secondly, I am giving it a definite 'Tramway' character. I still have the idea of its starting out Castlederg and Victoria Bridge-ish, and getting a little more "heavyweight" over time.

Most of the original stock is now packed away. There is one project still on the work bench which will be more or less finished before we move finally. I am also entertaining the idea of the two 'Ruby' class locomotives that I own ending up as American style Tram locomotives. No doubt the original acquisition of those wee beasties involved Clan Knox and a bottle or two of the mischief, and a very persuasive catalogue from Messrs Baldwin.

Peter in AZ, soon to be VA

[IrishPeter]

Well, all of our stuff has made it to Virginia - finally - and I am more or less settled into the new parish, so today was going to be the day I started surveying the new version of the Skebawn and Castleknox - except it started raining at 5am this morning... Plan B is to drag out the Dremel and see what mischief I can get up to on the rolling stock front.

Peter in VA.

[Peter Butler]

Whatever you decide to do, it is good to hear your move is now complete and that you are back on the Forum to update us with your project. I look forward to hearing, and seeing, the progress on your challenging site.