
In April work started on the outdoor section of the railway, with all track laid by 16th June. I am in the process of building a page on the construction of the new line and I hope to publish this shortly.
The Culdaff station building featured in my last post has not stood up well to life outdoors, with serious warping of the walls and roof in the warm south coast sunshine. This building has been relocated to the indoor section and will become the main station building for the line's headquarters at Carndonagh. Hopefully judicious use of a hair dryer will help remedy the warping.
The replacement Culdaff building is a modified Modeltown kit. I have given the rather bland front wall a glazed set of double doors. These were from a set of Piko doors and windows which were in my bits box. My aim was to give the impression of the glazed and panelled frontage found on many waiting rooms in Ireland, particularly on the Great Northern, County Donegal and Clogher Valley railways.
The chimney provided in the kit was rather thin and spindly, so I have cut this down so that it looks more solid and squat. Modeltown have since modified the chimney in their re-vamped version of the kit.
The original Aughaclay station has found a new use as a halt halfway along the new line at the triangular junction. The extension building was removed, this will be re-used on the indoor section, and the waiting shelter and ticket office was given a new coat of paint to represent whitewash. It is painted with exterior masonry paint and the colour is named 'Buttermilk' which has a slight off white appearance. The halt will be named Aughaclay, using the original name board; which is almost as long as the very short platform!