Mayner

Not in the Irish or British sense. Basically a boarded area at track level at the front of the depot, similar to the existing decking. The replica Dolores depot is a mirror image of Orphir, it was built as a starter project by the local community (pop 900) before they took on the restoration of RGS Motor 5 and a short demonstration track. Unfortunately we were running late on the day and did not get a chance to check out the museum, I will have to go back sometime and spend more time in the area.

After a brief spurt of activity preparing for a garden railway convention in 2011 the Jackson County has been pretty neglectful about providing covered accommodation at Jackson City for its staff and the very odd passenger that might want to ride the line. After toying with the idea of a NZR style building, I settled on Ophir Depot on the RGS as a potential depot/company head office. A rating valuation elevation and floor plan are available on line, a reasonable start for designing a mock-up to see if it would fit/not over dominate the scene. The real Ophir Depot was on the inside of an almost 180° curve, Jackson City Depot will be on the outside of a 90° curve. I planned the mock-up/shell of the building in 12mm treated ply, buying 2 1200X600 panels from a local DIY warehouse, funnily enough 2X600X1200 panels were $6 cheaper than a single 1200X1200 panel, be interesting to see how a full 1200X2400 sheet works out. Plywood is manufactured from locally grown Radiata Pine which is fast growing and tends to twist all over the place, even when bonded into a sheet of ply. I cut out the basic outline of the platform elevation with a battery powered skilsaw and cut out the window opes with a drill and a jigsaw. I was a bit worried that a 1:20.3 scale building might over-dominate the scene, so did a mock up with the basic elevation and depot floor, before cutting out the door and window openings. The ground floor of the building was clad with a combination of horizontal and vertical weatherboard, the roof and upper storey in shingles. The weatherboard is a Midwest Scale basswood product, the lower panel edge is rebated to disguise horizontal joints the top strip overwidth to compensate. I cut out the window and door openings using a sharp craft knife, openings will be trimmed with L shaped strip to form the timber flashings used round doors and windows with this form of construction. The weatherboard is temporarily fixed in place with double sided tape. The section below window level was clad in vertical weather board with a dado rail between the two cladding systems, the large opening between the doorways is for a bay window which incorporated the telegraph operators office. I am looking at the option of laser cutting for forming doors and windows, fixing individual shingles to the roof and upper story would be time consuming but could be very therapeutic depending on your outlook Ophir Depot like most on the RGS was a combined depot and freight house for LCL traffic and seems to be reasonably in proportion for the site without reducing to 1:22.5 or 1:24 Scale

It looks like an attempt to secure the future of the EM gauge society. The Society have commissioned Peco to manufacture the track, which will be sold to members through the Society store and to the general public at the Societies Expos. Its possible that the society is faced with falling membership as a result of the improvement in the standard of OO gauge rtr models over the past 20 years. A leading British wheel manufacturer recently told me that demand for EM wheel sets and axles had fallen considerably and was planning to discontinue supply once stocks were exhausted, rather encouragingly overall demand for wheels and detail parts remains buoyant and he has recently invested in new machinery It may be that people are content to stick with OO because of the improved running because of improved mechanisms and near universal of NMRA RP25 110 wheel sets compared with what was produced in the 70s & 80s, people who are more concerned about more accurate track and wheel standards are selecting S4 rather than EM. I am not sure on the merits of a 21mm Gauge Society, I think an overall society/lobby group similar to the National Model Railroad Association to represent Irish Modellers broad and narrow in all scales, both to advise on standards and provide a repository for information and potentially models and layouts of historic modelling significance.

November operating session Tidied up the loco shed after 5-6 years exposed to the Waikato weather. Repaired/replaced window surrounds that had fallen off, re-painted cut checks in door heads so larger locos can fit inside! RGS Motor 6 sits on the turntable. The RGS converted old cars into railcars and an open rail truck in the 1930s, interestingly most if not all of these vehicles survive in working order in the States. The turntable works and is basically a piece of decking board that pivots around a coach screw on some plate washers and has given very little trouble in 8-10 years service. Busy west end of the yard 464 on the main line with a westbound stock special, 463 waits to follow with a way freight while caboose 401 on the end of an eastbound freight waits for her loco to back on once the stock special has departed. Stock special [asses gondolas under the hopper at Utah Junction. Live steam 278 waits to back on to her train once the stock special has departed and the main line clear for running. Slightly scorched smokebox door, these engines were the Rio Grande equivalent in size and power to the J15, the larger 2-8-2s were introduced from the early 1900s onwards to reduce freight train running costs and probably helped keep the remaining narrow gauge lines open into the 1960s. The nearest to conventional baseboard construction, this section of track is supported on 3/4 construction ply on 4X2 treated timber framing and slopes in one direction to help drainage and avoid puddling. Pond lining is glued to the ply with contact adhesive in a similar manner to membrane roofing ballast and ground cover (8mm to dust screenings) is glued to the membrane with a PVA concrete bonding agent, moss is starting to die off with warmer drier spring weather. I am extending the siding on the right out over a dwarf wall which include what look something like coke ovens. This area is normally shaded with sun only in late afternoon during spring,summer, autumn months. 463 has added tonnage to her train since her last stop and has just picked up two gondolas from the hopper and is probably 2-3 carsover her weight limit for the 3-4% gradient to the covered storage tracks in the shed.

Standard design of open wagon and vans introduced by the Irish Railway Clearing House during WW1. Naturally the MGWR had a "convertible" type of the van in addition to the hard topped variety. The IRCH open was the standard Irish open wagon up to the introduction of the corrugated opens by CIE in the 1950s The IRCH covered wagon was the standard on the GNR until the boards assets were divided between CIE & the UTA in the 1950s.

Used for goods and livestock traffic the standard MGWR covered wagon up to the introduction of the Irish Railway Clearing House vans during WW1. Some lasted into the mid-late 1950s

Introduced in the early 1920s on imported steel underframes these were the MGWRs final design of goods brake some survived into the late 1950s

Interesting similar in general appearance to the H Class except for the cab profile and smaller driving wheels without crankpin splashers. The H Class 2-4-0s were the 1st GNR passenger engine and supposed to be based on an older Dublin and Belfast Junction Railway design. The Ulster, Irish North Western and Dublin and Drogheda were also likely to have used 2-4-0s for passenger work, so the origin of the G Class might take some digging/research The GNR would have used the best of the pre-amalgamation types until there was a need to replace them with more modern locos. Interestingly the GNR introduced the 1st batch of 5 U Class 4-4-0s for secondary work in 1915 possibly replacing the G Class locos on the Irish North Western Line and other secondary routes.

MGWR 6w coach kits are on the to do list, I need a couple of trains for my own use. I released kits for the 1889 Horsebox and Meat/Fish Van 3-4 years. The frets for the Horsebox and Meat Van are available to order, most of the castings are available from Dart Castings in their MJT range. Drawings of the MGWR brake 3rd, 4 compartment composite and 5 compartment 3rd appeared in Tim Cramer's series in Model Railways magazine in the mid 70s the composite & 3rd were drawn to 4mm scale but the brake 3rd appeared to be closer to S Scale! I will post a "Broadstone Collection " drawing of the brake 3rd in the resources section, the MGWR was fond of goods brakes with raised lookouts until the introduction of the more conventional 20T goods brake with end verandas in the early 1920s

MGWR Drawing

Padraig O'Cuimin "Broadstone Series" drawing. These coaches were re-classified as 1sts in 1914 and re-numbered as 40, 15 & 42

The late Padraig O'Cuimin was the recognised authority on the Midland Great Western and published papers on MGWR coaching and wagon stock in the IRRS Journal in the early 1970s. The paper on wagon stock goes into considerable depth on the evolution of both the "standard Irish convertible wagon that carried both livestock and general goods and the evolution of the Irish Cattle wagon. Basically the railways were forced by the Government to increase the length of convertible and cattle wagons to 14' in the late 19th Century which remained the Irish standard until CIE introduced the longer KN wagon in the 1950s. The GSWR & GNR had large fleets of 14' cattle wagons. The MGWR was a thrifty railway and had a relatively small fleet of cattle wagons, relying on the convertible wagons to handle traffic peaks from the big cattle fairs in the West of Ireland, rather than a large fleet of cattle wagons that were only used occasionally. Unfortunately I don't have the full collection, I will scan and post the drawing marked with a √ to the resources section of this site. 1993 prices quoted by Padraig! The Broadstone Series drawings were AO sized, unscaled, highly detailed and a work of art.

Peco are a long way behind other manufacturers in terms of EM track and pointwork. Reasonably priced EM gauge bullhead flexible track has been available from a number of manufacturers for the last 20-30 years, the lack of ready assembled points are less of an issue in EM & S4 for bullhead track as the railway and modelers tend to build custom built formations to fit the available space. Its difficult to see the 10-20 people in the world who work in 21mm having the same level of influence on manufacturers as the EM or S4 Societies. For the average 21mm gauge modeler building/assembling locos and stock and laying track is funner than sitting on a standards committee🙂, which is why nearly every one of us works to their own personal track and wheel standard.