Narrow gauge candy for amateurs

[Mountain]

I agree with you there. They had a whole narrow gauge railway network which was certainly one of the largest in Europe, if not in the world. Most narrow gauge railways were smaller isolated affairs, but the one in Ireland was more like a smaller version of the UK's national rail network except theirs was narrow gauge... I believe they used 3ft 6 inches?

I seem to recall that at one point there were three separate railway networks in Ireland, each with a different gauge at one time.

[b308]

I wouldn't quite put them on that scale, Mountain! The Irish NG was made up of a number of individual lines, some industrial such as the peat lines and most common user. They didn't even have a common coupling system and when locos were moved around after closure the couplings had to be changed, contrast that with the Saxon lines which really were a network and standardised on Locos and rolling stock. Some of them were quite long, especially by UK standards, but compared with many lines in Mainland Europe they were still quite short. Several lines over the channel had runs of 12 hours or more and one even had NG sleeper carriages! We in the UK tend to forget just how small our country is when compared with the countries over the channel!

BTW most Irish NG was 3ft gauge, not 3ft 6ins (which was known as "Cape Gauge" due to it's wide use in Southern Africa).

Daniel, there have been quite a few Irish NG layouts built over the years on 00n3 (00 scale, 3ft gauge), before Covid I remember seeing quite a few on the British exhibition circuit, especially since Backwoods released their kits and Worsely Works theirs. The trouble is that it's a kit/scratch building scale so not as common as 009 or H0e/m.

[Daniel]

Thank you, B308

When I was a member of the 7mmNGAssociation (last century!) I bought a couple of scale drawing collections published by them which includded many of the -for me by yhen- 'strange' designs of the Irish railcars.
I gave all the association material to friends when I notice I was going 1/32 scal, 600(or less) narrow gauge en a defoinitive French soul.
I suppose it may be still possible to get copies from the Association.

Daniel

[b308]

I think that most will be online by now, somewhere!!

[Mountain]

Thanks B308. I could not remember the exact details. I know I find it interesting but I steered myself to look at closer to home because it is naturally easier to relate to, but I will say the "Common carrier" concept which is rare in narrow gauge in the UK, but in Ireland with the charm of shorter mixed trains on lightly weight lines is really attractive.

[Daniel]

Worth to take a look

https://www.locosnstuff.com/about.php

https://laurell.today/shop/

Also his Shapeways shop has interesting stuff for almos every scale

https://www.shapeways.com/shops/henrik-laurell-models

[Daniel]

https://www.flickr.com/photos/189316830 ... 9984404046

[b308]

I will say the "Common carrier" concept which is rare in narrow gauge in Ireland

As I said before most Irish NG was Common Carrier (i.e. built for both passenger and freight use) like, for instance, the Welshpool and the Leek and Manifold in England. They were built for the same reasons, to open up areas of Ireland which wouldn't support a full sized SG (5ft 3ins!) line. The Cavan and Leitrim railway, which relied on coal traffic was an exception to that, though even so it still ran passenger and freight services like CC railways.

[Daniel]

http://www.ngrs.org/downloads/TNG.1-100 ... g-1971.pdf

[Daniel]

http://narrowmind.railfan.net/

[Daniel]

http://www.railwaysofthefarsouth.co.uk/ ... 20list.pdf

[Mountain]

I will say the "Common carrier" concept which is rare in narrow gauge in Ireland

As I said before most Irish NG was Common Carrier (i.e. built for both passenger and freight use) like, for instance, the Welshpool and the Leek and Manifold in England. They were built for the same reasons, to open up areas of Ireland which wouldn't support a full sized SG (5ft 3ins!) line. The Cavan and Leitrim railway, which relied on coal traffic was an exception to that, though even so it still ran passenger and freight services like CC railways.

I just saw what I wrote. What I wrote was different from what I meant to write. (Brain on autotype mode!).
I meant to say that in most of the UK common carrying narrow gauge railways were rare, but in Ireland they were common.

I have slightly ammended what I wrote to make it say what I was thinking if that makes sense?

[b308]

That's fine, I did wonder about the original post, seemed a bit unlike you! I've done the same thing in the past as well!!

[Mountain]

Not exactly narrow gauge, but someone I know of has made this. He is a young German man and his wife is from Israel. They are living in Israel. I met them when they came to the UK a few years ago and they called in. He saw my trains and showed me what he made. He is more of a scale modeller. I did like his technique in the way he makes houses and buildings because he makes them in floor sections so that the upper floor can be completely lifted off the floor below so one can detail the insides and add or remove figures as desired. I am not sure if thes buildings were made in the same way though, but his normal technique is to make them like this, and in a building I saw previously, one could not see the join due to the clever way it was hidden.

https://youtu.be/hjcDDdpPGoE

[End2end]

I did like his technique in the way he makes houses and buildings because he makes them in floor sections so that the upper floor can be completely lifted off the floor below so one can detail the insides and add or remove figures as desired.

Interesting concept. It would certainly make building old overhung Tudor / Elizabethan style buildings easier.
Thanks
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