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I can sympathise with Mol_PMB, I too was trained in the world of 2D drawing, (both hand drawing and early CAD systems) and have the ability to visualise 3D objects.  It is a steep learning curve, however, I’m following tutorials on the internet and I’m able to recreate the item in the video.  I have to rewatch the footage several times over, due to trying to keep up with the speed of the operator.     Bullet_Wanderer, your recreation of a J26 is impressive.  If you were to split it down further, consider separating the cab/bunker and probably the chimney.  It would allow different versions to be created. One question, what wall thickness have you selected? Kind regards Paul  

We had run into a period of settled sunny weather towards the end of last week, so decided to run some trains yesterday mainly to test the re-powered #464 while clearing our gardens of fallen leaves. I covered the saga of #464s recent failure & fitting of replacement batteries in a recent post on Large Scale workbench thread https://irishrailwaymodeller.com/topic/16156-large-1203-scale-workbench/page/2/#comments, so time to put #464 to work with a freight made up to 8 cars and caboose, maximum that will fit in loops. Unfortunately more lively that before #464s batteries were not fully charged and had to return to the shops for 3hrs to fully charge her batteries after which it was dark and all trains put away for the night! As sort of compensation C19 348 (actually a smaller C16) (fully charged) gave a good account of herself working a stock train over the road, working 4 cars and caboose over the High Line above her usual limit of 3+ caboose on account of good (Summer) rail conditions.   #464s crew placed the cars in the yard and placed the caboose on the departure road a fairly common arrangement, before running back light/off scene for charging. Posed RGS #20 on the table so she supposedly could work the return freight.  #20 started life as a cheap Bachmann Big Hauler 4-6-0 bought on e-Bay about 16 years ago from a discount store in the States, later modified to resemble #20 at this stage anon runner waiting a battery & ECS (electronic speed controller/heart) transplant. Once one of the mainstays of the road seen little use since the arrival of the much larger K27 2-8-2 locos in 2017 & 2020. RGS Motor #6 on p.w. duties with the last of the railroads stock of yellow cedar ties, recovered from the 'main line" about 10 or so years ago. Cedar ties had been milled specially about 17 years ago for use on some hand laid switches and plain track. The Jackson County initially used AMS (Accucraft) narrow gauge flexible track on the main line when laid 17 or so years ago and "Sunset Valley" switches, AMS narrow gauge switches were unavailable at the time. To complete the road 3 switches and some plain track was laid on cedar ties specially milled to match the AMS narrow (American 3' gauge) ties, Sunset Valley used a shorter smaller section tie probabably closer in scale to Meter gauge /G scale track. Although cedar ties & a lot of AMS ties in main line use had been replaced by AMS about 15 years ago on long swicth in the yard remained on cedar ties which have literally rotted away despite being supposodely a durable decay resistant timber. It planned to replace with 3D printed ties soonish! Most of the main line was re-laid with Sunset Valley ties after the original AMS ties began to break down with UV light about 15 years ago. Some replacement Sunset Valley ties are beginning to show signs of 'bleching out" but no sign of breakdown or railfixing failure. Yep a garden railway probabably needs as much maintenance and replacement as the full size. Ironically treated pine timber has fared better than cedar. The freight house and loco shed are clad with trellis rail (ripped down on a bandsaw)  glued to treated timber or ply substrate.  Loco shed is stored under cover at the moment but Freight House lives outside all year, roof is a piece of galvanised steel recovered from a real estate agents sign    

The next loco on the bench is this Mainline BR Class J72 0-6-0T. This one came from Adverts and was effectively thrown in with two other locos as the seller just wanted rid of it, so I got it very cheaply. It had originally been advertised as “spares or repairs”, so I didn’t have particularly high hopes. I hadn’t worked on a Mainline loco before, so I started by finding the service sheet online. A bit more research and a few YouTube videos quickly confirmed what many modelers already know — these can be troublesome little engines. First impressions weren’t great. The wheels and coupling rods clearly had issues, there appeared to be corrosion coming from the diecast chassis, and there was also a mysterious blue wire hanging around inside the cab. Overall, it was quite a mess. Once I started stripping it down, it became obvious fairly quickly that I wasn’t the first person to have a go at repairing it. The biggest issue was the wheelsets. Like many Mainline locos, this model uses wheels pressed onto plastic axle centers, and unfortunately the plastic has a habit of splitting with age. When this happens, the wheels can twist out of quartering, causing the loco to bind or stall completely. Thankfully, although this loco had split axles, the wheels still seemed to grip the plastic centers reasonably well, so I’m hoping they’ll survive for now. Electrically, these models collect current through a split diecast chassis, with each half carrying a different polarity. I found an older repair where somebody had linked one side of the chassis to the motor brush retaining plate using a blue wire. Looking at the service sheet, I could see there should originally have been a long brass screw passing through the retaining plate and into the opposite chassis half to complete the electrical path. Unfortunately, the original screw had been replaced with a larger plastic self-tapping screw, which means fitting the correct brass screw now (if i could find one) won’t be straightforward. For the time being I decided to leave the repair in place, although I did at least replace the bright blue wire with a black one so it’s less obvious when hidden inside the cab. The commutator was absolutely filthy, so that got a really thorough clean, while the remaining metal parts went into the ultrasonic bath. Once reassembled, the motor actually spun up very nicely. The drive gears looked to be in good condition too, so they were cleaned out and treated to fresh grease. Re-quartering the wheels took quite a while and involved a fair amount of blasphemy along with a much-needed tea break, but eventually everything began running smoothly again. After a quick test run on the bench, I was genuinely surprised by how well it performed considering the state it arrived in. It just goes to show that even the roughest looking locos can sometimes be brought back to life with a bit of patience.   I’m not particularly attached to this one, so once I’ve done a bit more fettling on the test track and given it a proper clean and polish, I’ll probably move it on to help fund a new project. Anyway, that’s another non-runner running! Cheers, Ben

The meaning of the mirth apparently precipitated by the appearance above of the Star Wars dude has passed me by I'm afraid.

Still working away on this project, I wonder can anyone help me? I found this TG4 Program on YouTube about Waterford, Lismore, and Tramore railways which had some rare footage of the Tramore Train at 14:20. Any idea where they might've gotten this footage from? Somewhere deep in the RTE archives?