Templeross

Templeross is my second attempt at an Irish railway prototype and will hopefully correct some of the enforced compromises that I had to make with Dunmore & Fidlin.The main difference is the track. I had previously used 'OO' gauge, but as we all know, this equates to 4ft 1½in gauge in 4mm scale. Not only is this wrong for standard gauge, but very wrong for the Irish standard gauge of 5ft 3in. It should be 21mm! This means that all the track and stock running units have to be hand built to the wider gauge. However, this is not quite as daunting as it first seems, a lot is available if you look around for it. In addition to the broad gauge, I want to include some Bord na Móna running on 3ft gauge (12mm). Again, this narrow gauge track has to be hand built, but some rewheeled TT and HOm gauge mechanisms can be used. The basic format of the layout is a large oval, station at the front, fiddle yard at the back. The narrow gauge runs at one end of the front.

The baseboards are constructed out of ply board forming a five sided open box measuring 48in x 27in. The sides and top are 6mm ply with the end plates using a thicker ply. The sides are 6in deep and have a series of 50mm diameter holes to reduce weight. Pattern makers dowels are fitted to the end plates to assist with accurate location. The boards are then secured with bolts. Cross bracing is fitted under the board surface in an attempt to eliminate torsional forces. The whole assembly sits on a series of legs giving a board surface height of some 42in. For transporting the layout, 'H' frames are attached to each end of a board being secured by the same bolts used for joining them together. This assembly is then rotated onto its side and the second board secured to the free end of the 'H' frame. The scenic sides of the boards face inwards and simple hardboard panels are attached to the sides to prevent damage by the elements etc.

The trackplan is loosely based on Enniscorthy Station. This gives me the typical Irish station layout of a single approach line forming a passing loop in the station with a goods facility, cattle dock and engine shed. Irish platforms are quite short, some are only four carriages long leaving the other three carriages off the platform end, but the loops are long enough to accommodate a seven car train. The goods area is simply a stone goods shed served by a loop off the running lines with a cattle loading bank at one end.

The engine shed area includes a stone built engine shed and a 45ft turntable. At one end of the layout, a small area of Bord na Móna is included. This 3ft gauge track is at a lower level than the broad gauge and forms a self contained loop, half of it concealed. There are a few sidings forming a refuelling point and a passing loop.

At one point, the narrow gauge passes under the broad gauge, a fairly typical scene in Ireland occurring in several places. I hope to use something based on the prototype illustrated left. This is at Coolnamona just south of Portlaoise on the main Dublin-Cork line. A simple concrete structure has been positioned under the main line, an installation typical of Bord na Móna. The two locomotives seen, an IÉ 201 Class and a Bord na Móna Hunslet DH, have already been built. All that remains to be done is to build the layout! Most Bord na Móna installations are quite utilitarian in appearance, as in common with most other industrial railways. These tend to be either made of brick or rendered blocks, although there are still a number of the old pre-fabricated type wooded buildings to be found. Although I am modelling a small facility, I shall, no doubt, be able to include suitable versions of most types. Workshops tend to be the usual industrial type steel framed building clad in either corrugated steel sheets, asbestos sheets etc. I shall not have room to include on of these though.

Most railway buildings in Ireland are made of locally available granite. The goods and engine shed are normally built of fairly rough finished uneven sized blocks with slate rooves. Stations are normally built of even sized blocks of dressed granite. Templeross station is based on the Great Southern and Western Railway station at Dundrum, Co. Tipperary. This decorative Gothic style is typical of early Great Southern and Western Railway stations. Similarly styled buildings, varying in size and minor detail can also be found, for example, at Portarlington and Portlaoise. A nice feature of this type of station is the bell tower. In early days, the bell was rung to indicate the arrival of a train. Signal Cabins, not Signal Boxes in Ireland, are usually a stone base and wooden upper and are of a standard design.

As mentioned earlier, the track has to be all hand built. Fortunately this is a fairly easy affair. The Scalefour Society retail all the necessary components. This includes code 75 bullhead rail, pre-punched 5ft 3in gauge plywood sleepers, rivets, chairs and the most of the important gauges. Exactoscale can also supply some of the gauges. To construct turnouts, I simply use a standard gauge template as a guide and use the gauges to correct for the extra width. Turnout operation is by Tortoise motors driving the Ambis units. The detail of the track is the same as English trackwork, not surprising really when you consider that Irish railways where subject to the same BoT regulations until independence, not to mention that some of the lines were owned by English companies (the Northern Counties Committee by the LMS, the Fishguard and Rosslare Railways and Harbour Company jointly by the GSWR and GWR). The usual pattern of three bolt chairs is quite sufficient with the same types of facing point locks etc. However, a lot of the panels in present use are still only 45ft long, some sections dating back to the late 1800's ! The 12mm gauge track is slightly different. The heaviest rail in use on Bord na Móna is 55lb/yd flat bottomed rail, used on their 'mainline' sections. Lighter 35lb/yd flat bottomed rail being used elsewhere. Wooden sleepers are normally only found on the 'mainline' sections with pressed steel 'pig trough' sleepers being used elsewhere. All trackwork is made in 30ft panels. I have made some gauges to assist with the construction of the track but have not progressed very far with construction yet. The main problem being finding some suitable way to reproduce the pig trough sleepers.

This couldn't be easier. Signalling equipment in Ireland was mainly supplied from English manufacturers, with the Railway Signalling Co. and MacKenzie and Holland the most common with a few Stevens. Components for all these can be obtained from Model Signal Engineering. There are a few subtle differences though. In my CIÉ period, the main signal arms are slightly flared towards the end and have a fold running along the horizontal axis. The colour of the arms is the same for both homes and distants and is a bright 'day-glo' red shade. Subsidiary signals tend to be square, not circular, but are painted the same with a red stripe on a white background. One interesting point is that all semaphore signalling in Ireland was of the lower quadrant type, except for just one post of upper quadrant at Larne. I haven't finalised operation of the signals yet. It was my intention to use memory or smart wire, but I think I might end up going for a solenoid system capable of reproducing the signal bounce. Such a system is in use of the L&WMRS Walford and Clarendon layouts.

Although the layout forms a large oval, operation will be on the out and back method. All the track is broken down into sections and can be controlled by any one of two controllers. The smaller Bord na Móna section is independently controlled and forms a smaller oval, again with a concealed fiddle yard. Trains here with operate out and back but shunting can take place in the sidings.