Loughrea

Gauge: 1:76.2 | 21mm Gauge | 4mm to 1ft.

Prototype: Loughrea Train Station & Sidings

Period: 1960's to mid 1970's

Size: 8.5m x 0.8m

Track: Finescale 21mm gauge scratch built

Constructed by the MRSI members:

Brian Fennal, Frank Davis, David Mirolo, Tony Mirolo, Brian McCann.

Layout Manager: N/A

The Layout:

Loughrea is the Model Railway Society of Irelands recreation of Irelands last operational rural branch line, having outlasted most other country railway lines of this type by 10 - 20 years, and surviving long enough to have diesel motive power. The line was opened in December 1890 and finally closed in November 1975 and subsequently lifted in 1988 following a failed preservation attempt on the line.

Loughrea, in the West of Ireland, was at the end of a nine mile long branch from Attymon Junction on the Dublin-Galway railway line, the model is constructed to OO gauge but the track is 21mm gauge, this being the correct gauge to represent the Irish Standard gauge of 5’ 3”. The last few hundred yards of the branch are modelled, passing the engine shed / turntable and leading into the station area with its single platform, cattle sidings and goods facilities. All of the buildings are faithfully modelled as per the derelict prototypes still in existence today.

The trains on the layout show the lines history, from the long cattle trains to the short, 1 carriage passenger trains which ran until the lines closure, hauled by tiny Deutz shunting engines. The majority of the rolling stock has been scratch or kit built while all of the track is handbuilt, with DCC control