Meeting 19th November 2025

[JulienW]

The meeting was attended by Alan G., Alan P., Brian, David H., David M., Lee, Mark R., Martin, and Paul.

Apologies were received from Alan O'R., and Henry.

Alan gave a talk on a journey he made from Skibbereen to Schull in West Cork following the abandoned route of the Schull and Skibbereen Railway. He showed photographs he had taken of what remained of the stations and the impressive Ballydehob twelve arch viaduct. Schull railway station is still owed and occupied by a daughter of the last station master and from her he was able to acquire scale drawings of the station buildings and many further details about the station site.
As a result of this visit Alan made a 00n3 model of Schull Station which was invited to many model railway exhibitions. Articles on constructing the layout were published in the January and February 2012 edition of the Railway Modeller.



Brian's inspiration for modelling the 3' to was a very common and well known one – David Lloyd's Augher Valley Railway as described in the April 1964 Railway Modeller. Previously he'd not even heard of 'narrow gauge' so he was introduced to a new, fascinating world of railways. When he started railway modelling thirty years ago, narrow gauge was the obvious choice. And in 2024 Brian decided to finally have a crack at OOn3. It may have taken sixty years but the Augher Valley was still the inspiration.

David gave a presentation on the Isle of Man Railway drawn from a talk he had recently given to the Craven and Skipton u3a Railway Studies Group. He picked out the sections covering rolling stock and routes. The talk drew on David's own photos and previously published views
Slides included the development of the steam locomotive fleet of the IoMR and the Manx Northern, a selection of coaches, and four types of freight stock. Route pictures included stations at Douglas, Port Soderick and Foxdale, which now serves as a museum. David also included pictures of the Ramsey line as it now exists and some historic shots of viaducts. Present day projects included coach and locomotive restoration and two internal combustion engines, courtesy of the Chair of the Railway Studies Group, Paul Hayward.

[JulienW]

Mark writes "The tour company I went with to Eritrea in Jan 2023 was called Farrail. It is run by a German called Bernt Seiler who has been doing these sorts of tours for many years now, to far flung parts of the world mainly for groups of people who love railway photography. I understand he is planning another trip to Eritrea in January but expects it may be their last as sadly the railway is ever less well maintained. It feels like 'see it now before it is too late'. I would recommend his company and I am really that glad I went.

As I hope I explained, what amazed and intrigued me was how much essentially of a European metre gauge railway system has both survived by historical accident, but not been preserved, also never seriously modernised, and which one can still see. For those who cannot make the trip but would like to see more I would recommend the Nick Lera "Eritrea - Rebirth of a Railway" documentary on YouTube which dates from 2003."

[JulienW]

Paul showed a series of photos on the modern day Roslagsbahan, the Swedish 3' gauge (891mm) light rail system serving Stockholm, Sweden. The line is now electrified, is dual track over a considerable distance, has 3 lines serving 3 different suburban areas of the city and the modern Stadler trainsets reach speeds of 110kph in places.




Photos taken at Stockholms Ostra terminus.

The next meeting will be held on Wednesday 21st January (confirmed) when we will discuss models and their progress/challenges/success and any 00n3 news.

s.p.t. 21-11-25