The Skebawn and Castleknox Light Railway and Tramway

[IrishPeter]

Funnily enough, I spotted that DWR was new around here so assumed that he had recently read the first page.  I know I read a lot of the ralway & layout threads through when I first joined and I assume other folks are afflicted with a similar level of curiosity.

Meanwhile, I am still kicking myself about not putting in the spacer for the carriage shed points!  I had cut the requisite 20" bit of track, and then laid it on the wrong side of the set of points leading to the cattle dock!  Grrrrr!!!

Peter in AZ

[IrishPeter]

I will quietly ask HERSELF to upload the pictures out the camera tomorrow morning.  She has had a bad week so she is deserving of the kid gloves treatment right now.  If that happens perhaps I will get page 4 of S&CLR&T pictures up tomorrow.

In other news - as they used to say on 'The Two Ronnies'

I have a 'Millie' due for delivery towards the end of the month.  She will be dark brunswick green which was the S&CLR&T's livery before the GSR grouping - honest gov - though what she is doing still in that livery in 1937 is a bit of a mystery.  She will eventually acquire a cab, and various bits will be painted black quite quickly.  When I have finished tinkering she will allegedly be an 1890s acquisition which has lost her sideplates.

The four wheeler in the photos on page one now has a near twin referred to as "No.6" which is a little narrower and has windows in the fore and aft bulkheads.  The Irish side of the gene pool shows when I build "identical" vehicles as they never are the same.  There is always my inner 'Paddy' making the little change or improvement! The underframe for a 21' four wheeler "No. 1" has been sketched out on some basswood, so she will be next through the Carriage and Wagon Dept. unless I make another three plank wagon first as I am still a bit short on goods vehicles.

Anyway, hopefully photos tomorrow...

Peter in AZ

[IrishPeter]

"The best laid plans of mice and men...

Mouse: "And what have men to do with it?"

(Half remembered quote from the TV version of 'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.')

Anyway, after belting my head one too many times on a low limb of an oak tree I decided it was time to do something about it - especially as the belting of the head now comes sharper due to the diminishing amount of hair under my flatcap. As interferring with the oak tree would get me the wrong side of the domestic version of DEFRA, I decided it was time for a re-route. A bit of investigation with a screwdriver revealed that I could lower the old summit level by 5", which gives me half a chance to get down to front yard level without creating a rival to the late, unlamented Death Hill.

As we are due a wet weekend it is a good time for making new earth works. Pics will follow in a day or two.

Peter in AZ

[IrishPeter]

The wife is in the middle of a big eBay binge - selling, not buying, which is to be encouraged, so the pics are still in the camera.  However, that will give me chance to take a few of the new alignment before she empties the camera.  

I spent today dealing with those odd spots where things feel duty bound to derail. They seem to divide, roughly speaking, into "wet spots" and "hard spots."  A wet spot is a familiar enough beast being a soft spot in the roadbed that causes excessive vertical movement. I think hard spot are a speciality of my yard as they are basically caused by an undetected rock or stone under the formation that causes things to go out of level as the surrounding roadbed weathers and drops.  The cure is basically the same - add more soil under the weed membrane on an embankment and then ram hard, or alternatively add more ballast and tamp thoroughly, then check the level.  I have had a lot of practice, sonow consider myself adept at the art!

The next stage of construction is going to be interesting - getting down to lawn level without the gradient getting too steep.  I already have some 1 in 30 on the line, and I really do want to avoid anything worse than that.  One of my engineering rules is that curves and grades should be separate if possible, so I am hoping that the alignment I am investigating will allow me to climb in a straight line, making life easier for the 0-4-0Ts I use. Thankfully being one of the mongrel Irish breed of Tramways, trains tend to be rather short - two/three wagons and two or three coaches.  If the 'Millie' breed  is as sure footed as I have heard she is going to be earning her keep on cattle market day specials!

Peter in AZ

[Narrow Minded]

I never said a word

[IrishPeter]

Do not worry - pix are on the way! I had a derailment free orperating session on the new alignment today and I am feeling fairly bullish. I will get some more Pix tomorrow and get HERSELF to empty the camera, I think my husband credit is high enough to get away with it! What I have on the camera should give us two or three more pages of Pix of the S&CLR&T! If you can stand that much...

I am going to have to find a book on building buildings next. Anyone know anything about ant-proofing?

Peter in AZ

[Pretoria]

I am going to have to find a book on building buildings next.  Anyone know anything about ant-proofing?

Build them out of concrete !  

And -- to quote from "The two foot gauge enigma" (the book about the Beira Railway) in which I am currently esconced:

"During this period .... the telegraph line had been completed using iron poles .... to obviate the problems caused by white ants. This did not, however, get over the trouble caused by elephants who found the poles to be excellent back scratchers."

[IrishPeter]

Better late than never...

http://www.angelfire.com/ca7/ttac/SCLRTphotos4.html

and

http://www.angelfire.com/ca7/ttac/SCLRTphotos5.html

Peter in AZ

[Narrow Minded]

[IrishPeter]

We had some heavy rain last night, so I have some canine assisted subsidence to deal with tomorrow (day off - yay!) but it is not a big job.  Due to lack of cash I am concentrating on extending the earthworks towards the Castleknox end of the line.  Unless I get a windfall I am not going to be able to afford any track until after the first of year.  On the other hand, a couple of boxes of straight track are not that expensive, and the wife can only kill me once - right?  When I have the earthworks extended a bit further I'll post some construction photos.  At the moment the road bridge just north of Aussolas is giving me some difficulty as it is a skew bridge and has to be made removeable; the domestic authority sez so!  Current thinking is in favour of a metal Howe truss on concrete block foundations.  That way I can just undo rail clamps and lift the truss out.

Peter in AZ

[IrishPeter]

The beginning of this week saw me have a major push to get the second of my four wheelers (No.6) more than halfway finished.  This was the second to the Dick, Kerr-esque design.  The first (no.5) came out wanting to do something with an old Bachmann caboose underframe, but I forgot about the strengthening strips on the upper edge of the frame.  In the end the four wheel tram ended up on a scratch-built chassis, and the caboose chassis ended up under a brake van!

Having got that one complete enough to use I started another four wheeler, this time patterned after Castlederg and Victoria Bridge No.4, except, that for S&CLR&T use, the partition is at the halfway mark giving two saloons seating 8 first and 10 third rather than 6 and 14.  So far it has been an interesting build due to the curved ends to the frame and the tumblehome on the lower panels.  The roof is going to be the really interesting bit as it has a some compound curve in the end, so will need carving out of a solid block. It may end up looking nothing like the original!  It will end up as No.2.  The three bogies - Nos 7, 8, and 9 are already runnable largely finished.  Of the three No.7 - the composite sees the most use, as it has most of its interior. I tend to fit out the interiors 'as and when.'

So my thumbs and berves can recover it is back to goods wagons for a while after this. I need more covered as these out-numbered flats at least 2 to 1 on most lines. The exception being the Antrim lines where there were steady flows of minerals and coal.
 
Cheers,
Peter in AZ

[IrishPeter]

Not much doing at the moment.

Thanks to the weather and work, not much activity outside as the railway currently buried under the snow, and when we have been snow free I have only had about an hour at the end of the afternoon to even potentially get outdoors. At least the cold has fixed the squawking kid problem. I just have next door but one's howling dogs to ignore when I am outside.

I did get some aluminium channel to start a bridge over the path that bisects the railway at about halfway along its completed length.

So I am holed up because of the weather on my day-off. Consequently I am looking at the wood stash and thinking - what wagons do I build next - goods, cattle, or convertable?

Peter in AZ

[IrishPeter]

Ended up holed up again today - which makes two days off on the trot when no major railway activity was possible.  Doubly frustrating as my dark brunswick green 1.75" gauge 'Millie' arrived today.  I am currently working on a pair of closed wagons similar to the Oldbury built wagons owned by the Co. Donegal.  My freight stock is ending up a mainly of Oldbury (CVR/CDRJC) and Metropolitan (IMR) types.  No discernable trend with the passenger stock yet, though I currently have a mad urge to either build a rake of Cleminsons, or some carriages based on the IMR saloons, which I am sure will pass.  Trouble with the IMR saloons is that they are long (37'/555mm) and tall (10'3"/154mm), so might overwhelm my small locomotives.  The result of all this deliberation will probably be a CDR 31' five compartment bogie coach, which is closer to my usual size envelope for bogie coaches, or more likely one of the TDLR 27' carriages with the inward opening doors , or another Schull style 4-wheeler.

Peter in AZ

[IrishPeter]

Also posted across at "Locomotives - Steam" but I also decided to put them here so all the Skebawn and Castleknox stuff is together.

S&CLR&T in the Snow
http://www.angelfire.com/ca7/ttac/SCLRTphotos6.html

and No.3's first day
http://www.angelfire.com/ca7/ttac/SCLRTphotos7.html

Peter in AZ

[IrishPeter]

This afternoon I did a little more work on the track levelling a couple of places where the 1:30 had slipped to 1:24.  This improved the running no end when I had 'Millie' in steam later in the day.

I am now winding myself up to build the road bridge and get the railway completed down to Aussolas, which station I think will be very simple - loop and a long siding to serve the goods shed and cattle bank.  After that it is on to Castleknox.

The Castlederg four-wheeler did not make the cut and has donated its running gear to a new brake van based on an old Manx Northern example.  The only major adaptions of the original being the addition of end doors and the replacement of duckets with end windows.

The most likely desin for the new passenger carriage will be a composite to match the T&DLR style brake-third you see in a lot of my pictures.  The proposed Cushendall carriage proved to be just too long for my tightest clearences, which unfortunately are on the mainline.  It seems that roughly 18" is about my length limit for carriages without there being a lot of juggling and aggro. The two 17" long carriages that I have built so far look about right with a Roundhouse "Millie' and hopefully will not look out of place with the 'Ruby' that is due to get a tram engine body sometime soon.

There should be another page of photos coming at the weekend.

Peter in AZ

[IrishPeter]

The S&CLR&T lives, and finally crossed the middle path this evening.  I am eying up where to put an intermediate station.  That will depend on how long a loop I think I need.

There is also another somewhat Schull and Skibbereen-ish 4-wheeler passenger carriage under construction.  It seems that the S&C is doomed to have 3 bogie and 5 four-wheeler passenger carriages.

No buildings yet - but the top station is currently looking very Schull like.  I have found that that arrangement gives me somewhere to put my feet when shunting.

Peter in AZ

[IrishPeter]

Having tried several different layouts for the top station I have ended back with the Schull derivative I first tried a year ago.  I am still brewing on where exactly the engine shed and the cattle dock will go.  The one thing that is certain is that one will go on the short siding at the north end of the loop and the other on the short siding at the South end.  The long siding at the back of the layout is for carriages and the one at the front for the Goods Shed and loading bank.

I have found the Skull-type layout works well for me as it puts the sidings that are shunted several times a day on the west - i.e. path - side of the layout, whilst the carriage storage, which I only need to access at the beginning and end of each "day" is at the back.  I learned back in my OO days to put the stuff you use where it will be get-at-able.

I have made my mind up about several of the buildings.  The goods shed will be a generic tin shed.  Marine ply body covered with corrugated tin (either beer can-thru-crimper or bean).  That will probably be the first building attempted.  The station building will be based on the original wooden IMR station at Peel for which there are drawing in Vol.1 of the Isle of Man Railway by Boyd.  Engine Shed will be a cross of Peel and Schull.  I might make a temporary station whilst honing my building making skills which I can later move to Shreelane, or Aussolas.  That however, will require me and a tape measure to stop at Santon whilst I am on holiday. That said, the Peel line Class 3 station is a simpler outline.

Hopefully I will get another page of pix up this weekend.  There is a bunch in the camera - just need herself to download them.

Peter in AZ

[Andrew]

Hi Peter,

Looking forward to the photos. Your line seems to have a real life of its own which I really enjoy, probably because it's so grounded in real railway history. Must admit I was alarmed by the S&C's recent European identity crisis, glad to see it's back in Ireland again! Will watch the progress on the wriggly tin buildings with interest, need to construct a few of those myself...

All the best,

Andrew.

[listerboy]

Hi from a fellow Irish modeller!

[Annie]

I really love the look of your line Peter. It's very much a railway that's a part of the landscape and that is a quality not often seen on garden railways. I enjoy seeing your scratchbuilt rolling stock too, having been a scratchbuilder of railway models in various scales myself for some years it's always good to see other peoples' handiwork and see how they've done things.

The question of how to build timber and corrugated iron buildings that can survive both weather and insects is something that's on my mind too even though it will be a while before I move out into the garden with the Kotanga tramway. We don't get snow, but we do get monsoon like rain just before Spring so everything will have to be able to survive getting good and wet.