I live in Cork,Ireland, and was struggling for ideas for a model railroad route when i realised a line used to run right up to my house, but is now long gone. how does one build a route that doesnt exist? where would i go for maps? also, is there such thing as a map of a railroad that shows every single turnout and siding?
thanks for the help, im new to prototype building.
I don’t know the answer for Ireland. Hopefully an enthusiast on the Emerald Isle may be of help.
In the United States, railroads often had track maps, not necessarily to scale, for employee use in identifying “every single turnout and siding.” I have some for Santa Fe from late 70s, early 80s called “CLIC books”, Car Location Identification Code. I have a similar book for Houston Belt and Terminal, and one of Louisville and Nashville terminals in Louisville.
Some of these were made for use by customers, rarely published to the public. You probably need to find someone who has collected one, or someone is selling railroad documents for your area at a train show and sale. (Do the exhibitions in you country have dealer sales tables?)
So the answer, “where would I go?” there is probably not single definitive place. Gotta dig. Could you find old zoning or land maps from some governmental agency for the spot you are researching?
Looks like you might take a look at the Layout Building forum…
A lot will depend on what dates you are looking for.
For maps you want the Ordnance Survey 1/4" or 1" maps made by those nasty British before you kicked them out for routes and 6" maps for detail. You could try searching the net for OHMS publications (I suspect the name may have changed). Your local library, County library or Records Offices wil probably have some maps in these or similar sizes. If that fails you could try the Public Records Office (PRO) at Kew… for stuff pre 192x (can’t recall when you escaped).
I trust that you are aware that Irish railways are Broad gauge…wracking my brain… I think 5’3" not 5’6" and models are extremely rare. The layout design and signalling were basically the same as in the UK… because not only were they built under our financing/management but they were inspected by the same Board of Trade Inspectors before and after they were allowed to go into public use.
You also had 3’ gauge (County Donegal Railway for one, the Cavan and Leitrim for another). There are plenty pf books (Mostly Oakwood Press) on these because of the NG interest. (Oakwood possibly did some BG books as well… try the “Lost Railways” series). (One author that I think covered the Irish narrow gauge was James I C Boydd / Boyd). (David & Charles is another publisher that comes to mind… large format books with lots of pics. I don’t recall much if anythi
hmmmm… well first of all,exact scales arent really important to me,-ill probably just use HO hornby stock and locos, I dont mind repainting stuff. Ive auctually got some bachmann CIE locos and stock that might work out nicely.Ill look around my local library,though its tiny and most of the records are not accessible to the public for some reason. is there any websites that might have them?
Hey Sean have you thought about proto freelancing? I might be doing that ( one of these days I will nail down what I want to do) soon.
Do you have an office of the accessor?(spelling) I was looking up ROck Island Lines here in my area and found the county court house had a planes view of each tract of land in the archives. Very neat but it didnt get the detail you are looking for.
Good luck! But thats something we Irish always have[swg]
I’d guess that the irish equivalent of an Accessor’s Office would be the Local or County Council’s Rating/tax department. They might have maps.
Web sites… sorry …don’t have a clue.
But try Railway Modeller or Continental Modeller… I’m sure that i noticed some Irish stuff in there.
Sean,
Railways do not just disappear, at least not in a hurry. The track might be gone, but there would possibly still be embankments or bridge abutments or cuttings. Sometimes railway buildings get converted to other uses. So the station might still be there, but you think it is O’Grady’s house.
Ask some people who live near the old track. They might have old photographs, or just memories that might help.
An interesting task you have set yourself. Not easy.