All Activity

Hello all, So we are taking the layout out to the Macclesfield exhibtion in April and with it only being 82 days before we load the van up, I thought I would pop a photo up from our last trip out to Railex last May before i startred the prep work on the layout for April. Have few things to sort out, from getting the tall depot lights to work and fettling a couple of the points that were begining to stick a little, along with some more stock. One new item that made it to Railex was the ZCV 'Crab' ballast wagon. Which spent most of the weekend at the show in that position.

Work on the coach has slowed a little as the next stage is to create the roof section of the birdcage and it needs the domstic authoristes to be out of the hosue so I can use the cooked to anneal the section to make it easier to bend. So whist that is waiting to happen, i made a start on a Dia &£ L&YR covered goods van. Its one of the David Geen kits nd is mostly white metal with the odd bit of plasticard throw in. As per Geen kits, the body fell together and a quickly got to this point Then added the W iorns and the cross shafts for the brake gear, along with the handles on the doors.

Yes, it looks like a lot of ealry coaching stock was very similar and for us modellers, with a bit of work, things can be altered to suit other railways, even if it not quite right.

What was the internal layout of a Bulleid 'Tin Van' - the luggage variant numbered in the 2700 series? Was the guard's office partitioned off from the luggage space? My impression from photos is that the interior was entirely open-plan. Since they acted as a guard's van, I imagine that there must have been at the very least the following, but I don't know how they were arranged: a seat a desk a handbrake Some photos give an impression of a fire extinguisher and a shelf at one end: Has anyone on the forum got a drawing, photo or recollection of how the interior was laid out? I have found this information for the heating variant - both a drawing in the HMRS collection and a very nice model by David Malone illustrated in N.I.L. https://hmrs.org.uk/hmrs-5597-train-heating-van-18ft-w-b-30ft-o-b.html https://newirishlines.org/archive/ Vol 7, No.5, page 166 The luggage van variant could have been similar, but without the boiler compartment and tank.

Thanks John, that's very useful to know. The one and only time I tried shorting a wheel with a bit of brass wire, I cut right through the wheel boss with the piercing saw in my heavy-handed enthusiasm!

UTA ex GNRI May 1964. UTA309 1964-05-11 Goraghwood WT1 on 2.15pm GVS - Dublin. UTA310 1964-05-11 Goraghwood WT57 nb goods, 104 to Newry. UTA308 1964-05-11 Portadown WT1on 2.15 GVS-Dublin & 33 (17). UTA318 1964-05-12 Portadown WT57. 8.15 GVS-Dublin.

Excellent post, thank you! I look forward to the next installments once you have worked them out.

If you send me private message we can have a chat?

Hi Alan I originally (app 30 years ago!) used to short out plastic centred wheels using soft brass wire, I used to cut a shallow notch in the wheel centre using a piercing saw with a fine blade effectively a force fit between wheel centre and axle, only soldering the wire to the innerface of the wheel rim after wheelset pressed on to the axle. The loctite retainer used to prevent wheel moving on axle does not appear to effect electrical continuity. The holes in the 'spiders" were etched undersized and gradually opened up with a reamer to an interference/push fit on a std 1/8" axle, The spider effectively acts as a spacing washer! If I was doing them again i'd etch the legs of the spider 1/2 thickness The bogie is set up to a design in John Ahearn's "Miniature Locomotive Construction" basically a glorified pony-truck, haven't tried springing or side control in 4mm

Great example of latheral thinking, finished track with laser cut sleepers looks great. Now the challenge of designing jigs suitable for curving track, points etc.

Following on from the excellent talk last night I thought I would post up what little I have gathered about the wagonry of the erstwhile SL&NCR. I have no primary sources, just the late Mr Sprink's books and keen eye when trawling through the internet. The IRRS of course does have a small selection of Manorhamilton drawings available in the SLNCR Wagon Compendium, absolutely invaluable but as is so often the way with these it raises almost as many questions as it answers! I suspect most, if not all the SLNCR goods vehicles were rebuilt, probably more than once, so it is likely that there were 153 unique and very individual wagons at the end. I am slowly compiling a spread sheet,trying to match numbers to wagon types as well as indexing known photos. It will be some time before this is anything like presentable but in the meantime I will try and outline the different varieties of wagons that were running in the SLNCR last 30 years or so. The starting point for any research is the list of extant wagons at closure to be found in the Sprinks history. This gives an overview of the surviving wagons and their numbers but only breaks things down to a basic description such as Opens, Cattle, Vans etc. II must thank Ernie for his excellent collection of SLNCR photos on Flickr and I hope he doesn't mind if I use a few here. To start with I will pick the low hanging fruit - the Open wagons. The Sprinks list gives the numbers of the surviving 30 vehicles and from photos I have identified 6 more which faded from the scene before the end. I have identified 6 types of open wagons including the 6 wheel P Way wagons. The numbers quoted below are those I have confirmed from photographic evidence. 4 1/2 ton 3 plank No 1 Illustrated in the Sprinks album 7 ton 3 plank Nos 3, 7, 9, 23 7 ton 3 plank dropside Nos 143, 145, 148 7 ton 4 plank Nos 3, 67, 133, 134, 137, 139, 196, 198 Note the buffers differ to the unidentified example above. 7 ton 3 plank drop end "Flat Truck for Road Vehicles" No 201 possibly more, an unidentified vehicle shown here. Similar to, possibly modified from, the 3 plank. The chain on the end door latch is clearly visible. Also the IRRS has No 201 in a Robin Clements view that I can't link to at the moment because the Flickr site seems to be down The IRRS Drawing Compendium has the Manorhamilton GA of these vehicles. Edit:- this differs from the drawing. Drawing has only 1 side post, this (and possibly 201) has 2. 6w P Way Nos 5, 25 No 5 illustrated in the Spinks history book and else where. The IRRS Drawing Compendium has the Manorhamilton GA of these vehicles. That's it for now. Please feel free to add anything else you can and please don't hold your breath for the next installment because vans and cattle seem to be a lot more complicated. Rob

Thanks as always Jason

The grey one behind the green “A” is indeed grey. I have seen other pics which suggest at least some were grey (ends included, as per wagon livery). I have no idea how long ago that started.

I have one here that I'd sell. I haven't a clue how much they're selling for though.....

Just seen this on ebay, maybe of interest to someone, though one of the coaches is a TGS! Looks like repainted Lima. Currently £1.13 at time of posting .https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/116986510039?_skw=lima+mk3+sleeper&itmmeta=01KF6WQF5MVMA3NP3MZP028A4P&hash=item1b3cf07ad7:g:AJ8AAeSwVoRpajMW&itmprp=enc%3AAQALAAAA8O7PUuNWmJ%2B%2BUShgI9tQz%2FqJ6PjwFUYhuEY96s8plN%2Fv7jahNO9L1yOrEeyMXTzKAD8XvJogZjLfG3q6H1TO%2FZJ6boMTzS0ueyaT7pXXVCpQs3TjMg1Z1iAxEsG91qk4P3gR8w9p8oUbJo27RCkXeKqZ55k%2BgXseU%2FpHwudeECHnrziAqq0m8E9uNcFx%2BZYo50n%2B6Kvs3KuYTGLR72oTq54Xe7UUEyWoOrjJsKESK2WZ1HM8jbId82vA9UUjBdi8XXIRXYi9aT8XssKNNEhH7epUI5IyDEDkzfmnLPyLseIInUEHALKehXCt5%2Fpxano2JQ%3D%3D|tkp%3ABk9SR_7y3dz5Zg

Hi Folks, looking for an OO Gague Gloss Black Bachmann N Class Flying Snail for a Birthday Present. It'll have me in the good books image below, Thanks very much. Ronan.

Way earlier than that. Did a little digging, Murphy Brothers Limited changed name to Murphy & Company Limited in 1909 upon the death of one of the brothers, it seems it did not last too long more after that due to poor management. The wagons themselves may have ended up being sold off to one or more of the railways upon the demise of Murphy & Co. Ltd., most likely the GS&W, the ornate lettering disappearing under a coat of generic goods wagon grey.

Sub terrain fiddle yard opened up for access.

Wow, after that shot of Colm's at Cork, I'll expect a rush to buy my Brown van! A pigeon special? Quite a fiind, as are the shots of an E Class on the docks. Thanks @Westcorkrailway

And that's the SMALLER one? Wow. Room for all your MTK builds there, and the rest!

I'll finish off the horsebox liveries with a post on the final light grey scheme. The black and tan carriage livery was introduced in autumn 1961 and the green livery for coaching stock was abandoned. As we've seen in the previous post, a fair number of newer horseboxes continued to carry their light green paint job until withdrawal in the late 1960s. The older horseboxes had mostly been withdrawn by 1961 anyway. The black and tan scheme was partly designed to make carriages of very disparate styles look good together in a train, as the black tended to conceal differences in window layout and panelling. Although black and tan was applied to non-passenger coaching stock such as tin vans and post office vehicles, there were very few wagon-styled vehicles finished in this scheme - just a couple of the ex-GNR planked bogie vans. As far as I am aware, no horseboxes received black and tan livery. Instead, the remaining GSWR diagram 103 and similar GSR horse boxes being overhauled and repainted were finished in the light grey livery applied to wagons at this time. Unlike the wagons, they retained black underframes, as seen in these IRRS photos. However, the ends were definitely the same light grey as the sides (unlike the light green livery which had black ends). https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/53527469213 https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/53511614184/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/53570653133 Several of the horseboxes in these photos have had the groom's window boarded up or painted over. None carry any CIE logo and the lettering may just be the running numbers, though even those are not obvious in these photos. I imagine that these horseboxes were repainted in the 1962-1964 period, after the green livery and snail had been discontinued but before the roundel logo had been introduced. At this time, locos and carriages were being outshopped without any logos, and some wagons also had no logos. Where a logo was applied (usually on containers and road vehicles) it was a simple C.I.E. in block letters, but this was rarely used on rail vehicles. Post-1964 the horsebox fleet was into a terminal decline and it's hard to imagine many overhauls and repaints being completed. Two photos from this period appear in books showing long rakes of horseboxes in use: Irish Steam in the 1960s (Natzio) p108 shows a rake of about 15 vehicles in 1962, in colour but reflections off the wagon sides make it hard to tell whether they are green or grey. Rails Through North Kerry (Beaumont/Carse) p63 shows another rake of about 15 vehicles in 1969, in monochrome but they are probably in light grey livery. I haven't yet found a clear photo of a horsebox in grey carrying any logo, or even the XP lettering. It's possible that this combination did exist. As ever, when you start doing research there are a few oddballs that crop up. This super photo by Ernie is dated September 1960 when the light green livery was in vogue. C217 had been repainted earlier that year and still looks reasonably fresh. Immediately behind the loco is a diagram 103 horsebox, looking very tatty. At first glance it looks grey on both sides and ends, but I wouldn't have expected the grey livery to be introduced until early 1962, and even if it was a bit earlier the vehicle wouldn't have got so tatty by 1960. If it was light green, its paint job would only be a few years old so should still look fairly fresh, It should also have black ends which are not evident. This doesn't seem a plausible option. My best guess is that this was actually painted dark green a decade earlier, and the paint job has faded and peeled so badly that it looks tatty grey all over. Look on the left-hand side of the same photo and we see a sleeping car which may also be extremely faded dark green, looking grey. Again, I think the date is too early for this to have been painted grey. I'm open to other explanations! I'm nearly there with my horsebox diatribe now. I do plan a post on the way that horseboxes were used, but it requires a bit more research. Thanks to all who have contributed to the story and please feel free to add more photos/info/questions. I'll finish with links to a couple of IRRS photos of horseboxes that I've considered 'out of scope'... narrow gauge 1T: https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/53511708260/ north of the border UTA 199: https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/54253017991 If anyone has more knowledge of, or interest in, the narrow gauge and/or northern horse box types, feel free to add to this thread. I started this with no intention of modelling a horsebox. I might be tempted now, if a kit were to appear!

Most interesting-I do like a dockside railway scene! A couple of my own photos from my visit to Cork last year - one on each side of the river: I must plan another trip before all this disappears.

Some more from Colm’s collection Ulster transport stock Far from home some more rarely seen E 401 class action on the quays at cork. A lot of this track is still there but may not be in the medium term

Turned out very well. Nicely finished with the weathering.

Great stuff, Noel. It's always nice to see the 'Bubbles' out and about.