Mayner

Keeps taking me back to when I last worked in Dublin around 2002 our offices were at the corner of Grand Canal Street & Harmony Row. The staff canteen was on the 2nd floor overlooking the line between the Boston Yard and Pearse Station, explored the area around the Pearse Station and the Dock during lunch time. Amazingly our relatively new 1990s? brick clad office building which was in keeping with the existing street scape appears to have been demolished and replaced with a more modern open plan office block with curtain wall cladding. Interesting times 201s and MK3 Push Pull stock replaced the 2700 railcars on Northern Outer suburban services were stored during off peak periods on the running loops between Pearse and Grand Canal Dock, the occasional single 141 working Connolly-Rosslare passenger services if an 071 was not available. On weekends the Platin-Cork Bulk cement train regularly ran to the Boston to run round as the North Wall freight yards were normally closed Saturday afternoons and Sundays. Happy Times!

The Laminates & the Tin Vans were of modular pre-fabricated construction that could be assembled quicker and required less skill compared to the timber framed coaches built by CIE between 1951 &55. The introduction of the Park Royals & Laminates allowed CIE to speed up its carriage building construction during the mid-late 50s introducing a greater number of coaches more quickly that could be achieved with traditional carriage building techniques and the available pool of labour. Ironically Inchacore returned to traditional timber frame carriage construction in the early 1960s for the final batch of coaches designed and built by CIE shortly before the introduction of the Craven Coaches. Apparently it was intended to re-body the Laminates after 15-20 years (use due to the limited design life of the composite aluminium insulation body panels) but the concept of re-bodying the coaches became obsolete with the introduction of the stress skinned MK2 coaches from the 1960s onwards. Interestingly some Laminate coaches were re-skinned with new sides and windows in the early 80s presumably as a stop gap measure to keep sufficient coaches in services until enough MK3 were in services to allow Cravens & Park Royals to be cascaded to suburban and secondary services. I was quite surprised to see several Laminate coaches stripped down to underframes, ends and roof during a visit to Inchacore in the early-mid 80s, the coaches looked distinctly odd with the sides and interior removed and roof supported by the ends and underframe.

The owner of Markits has been in contact to advise that he is currently manufacturing axles for OO & EM and would be prepared to manufacture axles to suit the Irish Broad Gauge. This brings up few questions in considering if the idea is worth pursuing 1. Track & Wheel Standards. 21mm to OO standards or a reduce the gauge to 20.2 as advocated by Martyn Wynne or even 20mm to allow the wheel sets fit without having to within having to widen the body on the majority of Irish inside cylindered steam locos or move out the cylinders and outside valve gear on more modern locomotives Reducing the gauge to 20.2mm or possibly 20mm and adapting OO gauge standards would also allow increased sideplay (slop) between wheels and chassis. This would remove one of the major barriers to Irish Broad gauge modelling fitting a continuous run layout into the average Irish bedroom or garden shed. 2. Demand. Is there sufficient demand for a Markits "Irish OO" gauge axle to commission an order of 500-1000 driving axles? 3. Take up of broad gauge modelling. Is the lack of a Markits "Irish Broad Gauge axle a significant barrier to people modelling the wider gauge. 3. Potential level of interest in an Irish OO gauge. Would more people be interested in taking up broad gauge modelling if a continuous run layout could be fitted into the same or slightly large space than a similar OO gauge layout? Running clearances Markits wheelsets and some loco kits. A high proportion of 21mm gauge modelers work to EMF or P4 wheel and track standards. Markits wheels are designed for OO gauge use and are wider than the 2.28 maximum recommended for EMF. This leads to essentially the same problem that lead to the adaptation of British N, TT and OO gauge due to limited/negative clearances between wheels and splashers or valve gear on outside cylinder locos even when the back to back is set to 19mm to allow OO gauge clearances. Track gauge 21mm 21mm 20.3mm (Martyn Wynne Irish EM) 20.3 mm(Irish OO?) Standard OO EMF EMF OO Back to Back 19 19.3 18.6 18.3 Markits wheel width 2.5 5 5 5 5 Overall width wheelset 24 24.3 23.6 23.3 Loco Width between splashers Clearance Clearance Clearance TMD/SSM J15 24.3 0.3 0 0.7 1 TMD/SSM S 28 5 3.7 4.4 4.7 SSM GG/SG2 25.3 1.3 1 0.7 2 JMD 650/Ks 26 2 1.7 2.4 2.7

I am planning a limited release of the kits in May-June 2019. I am looking at a minimum run of 4 of each type in order to re-release the kits. Cost likely to be $150NZ per van + $30 shipping. Kits are etched brass, with whitemetal, brass or resin castings, designed for OO or 21mm gauge. OO Gauge NMRA110 wheels included I will consider a supplementary fret to cover some of the detail variations between vans including blanked out windows, recessed doors on heating and luggage vans. Please advise me if you are interested. 1. 2. 3. Tin Van Wallpaper

The ballast pit at Lisgoole Town on the late Richard Chowns Castle Rackrent system is a good example, simple siding into a shallow gravel pit dug into the side of an Esker or dry river bed where gravel accumulated. Wagons would be 1-2 plank dropside wagons rather than hoppers, loading most likely by hand from the face. Some pits may have had a small steam driven crusher, screens and washing plant feeding a small overhead bunker. https://highlandmiscellany.com/tag/castle-rackrent/ Pretty much a pre-amalgamation thing as the larger companies line the GNR, GSWR,MGWR & possibly DSER used crushed stone ballast from large quarries like Goraghwood, Lisduff and Lecarrow from the early 1900s. The GSR & CIE used the Newbridge ballast pit as a dump for spent ballast and general rubbish apparently up to the 1970s.

We are caught in a pincer movement with the Government trying to get a return on the $1b+ of taxpayers money pumped into funding fibre networks throughout the country, the network companies trying to get us to convert to wireless or cable in order to abandon its copper networks. Broadband is reasonable we don't use our monthly quota, we try to minimise our 9 year old daughters "screen time" IT exposure, we hate to throw anything out so analogue TVs hooked up to Freeview digital receivers, wife records kids TV programmes and wierd continental movies and gets huge enjoyment trying to manager her ever growing collection of recordings on different media. Personally I prefer to just play trains

We are being constantly being bombarded with apparently mouth watering offers to transfer from copper to fiber or wireless. The ulterior motive is that our telephone network providers want to abandon its legacy copper based systems Being Luddites our existing plan is more than sufficient for our needs and we want to retain a copper land line for international phone calls or as a back up in an emergency especially if wireless networks are off line as a result of power cuts or natural disaster

I have ran out of castings for the handbrake wheels, but no shortage of end castings. It might be worth e-mailing enquiries@dartcastings.co.uk as they may have a stock of handbrake castings in search of a potential market. The MGWR van parts including axleboxes, springs, roof vents, handbrake wheels and end castings were likely to be cast from the same mould

Great selection of layouts, interesting to see several models of the Woodhead Route.

Gilligan's at Ballywillan on the MGWR Cavan Branch pretty much in the middle of nowhere like most intermediate stations on the branch. The station had a long cattle bank served by a loop opposite the station building, the goods yard and shed was further up the bohereen past the station. Possibly Gilligan's got some business in connection with cattle and general goods traffic (bacon?) or more likely a refuge for passengers on the up Night Mail while the train shunted the yard, passenger traffic was not exactly high priority on the Midland. Some examples of urban and rural modelling New Zealand style Typical hotel/guest house run down part of town Ministry of Works standard concrete bridge in the background. "One Trak Minds" modular group riverside scene cabbage trees, flax and bird life, old open wagons dumped into river to prevent scouring. Typical river crossing using standard NZR timber bridge components. This form of construction was still common on secondary lines until recent years.

I visited my 1st exhibition in about two years today one of the most striking things was the contrast between the realistic modelling of scenery (sometimes animals!) buildings and structures on models of New Zealand prototypes compared with an almost generic standard of scenic modelling on British models. On club "layout" was quite novel incorporating separate NZR and British Rail layouts on a common baseboard. The contrast was interesting everything was either scratch or kit built on the NZR side and everything fresh out of the box rtr on the BR side. The NZR side was bascially completed to a high standard while the British Modelers had completed tracklaying and wiring but had not started the scenic work. Most Irish layouts with a few notable exceptions tend to be indistinct in their scenery, buildings and structures and could be anywhere in the UK with the possible exception of Ireland. Has anyone thought about modelling the distinct regional variety between different parts of Ireland such as the GNR, County Down, C&L & SLNCR Drumlin Country of County Down and the Border & Midlands Region, the MGWR & GNR branch lines ines in the rich lands wooded lands of County Meath with their ancient monuments. The MGWR main line & GSWR Athlone Branch a caravan trail across the bog of Allen. The GSWR in the fertile river valleys of Munster. The GSWR on its dramatic traverse of the hill country between the Blackwater and Lee valleys with its dramatic viaducts and steep gradients and oddly placed Rathpeacon marshalling yard The Fuscia lined West Cork branches and small harbours. The Government Extension lines through the wildest most uninhabited parts of Connemara, Mayo & Donegal? I tried to capture some of the atmosphere of the ridge of the Arigna mountains and the Lough Allen area in my Keadue narrow gauge layout. Thought are divided between open stone wall country of central Mayo-Roscommon or the Drumlin Country of Cavan with its hills and lakes for a 4mm broad gauge layout. Anyone have similar ideas or aspirations?

I made a couple of display cases using ripped down shelving material with doors and shelves from a local galzing merchant, we managed between us to double up on the overlap for the sliding doors. We also picked up a very nice hardwood display case on a local on-line auction site. The only remotely challenging bit was routing the panels for the sliding doors with a very cheap plunge router.

IFM have an on-line store linked to their Facebook page. https://www.facebook.com/Irish-Freight-Models-1252098201500518/app/251458316228/?ref=page_internal Silver fox list the Open Standard and Buffet Car bodies my be vinyl or printed plastic of the Dapol body shell rather than a resin casting, roofs, gangways and ends appear to be pure Dapol. http://silverfoxmodels.co.uk/ir-ie-buffet-car/

I normally assemble the brake gear as a removable sub assembly, so that I can assemble the wheel sets, test and paint a loco before final assembly. Basically I solder all the lower connections between brake rods, hangers and stretchers but leave the top connections free so that I can remove the gear. I omitted the inner pull rods on 191 and installed a central rull rod to strengthen the whole assembly as the brake gear is practically invisible beneath the loco in 4mm.

Silver Fox have a reputation of producing reasonably well finished but not particularly accurate models of Irish locos and stock. The Silver Fox "Laminates" appear to be based on "Bredin" coaches built by CIE in the early 1950s (using traditional coach building techniques) rather than the Laminate Coaches built in the late 1950s, Laminates has been used as a catch all description by some enthusiasts for CIE coaches built during the 1950s although there are significant differences in construction and visual appearance between CIE Bredin & Laminate Stock. The coaches appear to be based on the Dapol Stanier 60' coach most likely using a cast resin body in conjunction with Dapol bogies, underframe and roof and may be shorter and narrower than scale. The traditional steel underframe and LMS/GSR style bogies are reasonably correct for coaches built up to 1953-4, most of these early coaches were relegated to suburban use/withdrawn by 1982-3. These coaches ran in mixed rakes with other stock including Craven, Park Royal and Laminate Coaches The Silver Fox Laminates are probably a reasonable layout coach, but may not compare with kit and rtr Irish coaches by other manufacturers. Irish Freight Models produce Laminate & Park Royal Coaches in kit and RTR form