Galteemore

The Union Mills engines are fairly robust things Tony and should run well. I used them a lot when modelling in N. What are you cleaning with ?

Lovely period piece. Hierarchy of hats in evidence. Flat caps working on the loco - bowler hat watching !

IPA - the industrial stuff, not the beer - is great for getting crud off. Amazing how much dirt it will get off, even from wheels and track you thought were ‘clean’!

This is wonderful. Model railways can be evocative in a number of ways - such as echoing the railway we know or can remember, and many of us choose to do that in our modelling. What you are doing is another dimension entirely - bringing to life and colour a world that no one can now remember. This is just glorious - the railway that Yeats, Wilde, Pearse, Carson and Synge knew.

Nice to see the CBSC tank earning its coal. Nice Beyer cab windows - can see something of a family likeness to the Welshpool and Llanfair locos here

I asked another question and here’s his answer.....there was a side exit to pier past harbour masters office and I expect that the hordes went through that my own early memories do not recall being brought through front door. I seem to remember being brought in from the Commons which was and is a public area twixt old harbour and Millisle Road halt.

Asked my dad who had his first experience of steam standing on footplate of a Co Down loco there....The space twixt the platform end and street entrance consisted of a very small concourse with booking office on right ladies and gents facilities on left. There was an Easons bookstall on the platform which was covered in only a short way towards island platform. Street entrance looked little different from a domestic house, top storey removed in the 30,s

Very nice. Looks like a Hawthorne Leslie?

Nice. Shades of Connolly in some ways

The SLNC style spoked bogie wheels suggest that a badly weathered ‘ancient west of Ireland maroon’ version may be inbound. ...

Looks really good! Any differences in font etc will disappear under a gentle dusting of weathering powders...

Thanks everyone. She moves, and here’s video proof of her prepping the 7:20 mixed ! Bit of fine tuning needed but no shorts or binding apparent so it’s hopefully minor tweaking.....the motor is still free floating and not all pickups are live so that will smooth things out...the track and wheels aren’t gleamingly clean either. Quite how she is moving at all is a mystery - if you look in the cab the reverser is firmly in mid-gear with regulator shut ! Loads to do yet but this was pathetically pleasing

If only there was some reliable textbook on the subject of Rails to Achill...

Nice to see it stars Michael Trubshawe, who had recently played a very sympathetic Railway Inspectorate official in ‘The Titfield Thunderbolt’.

An interesting photo in its own right. Looks like one of the WC locos as painted for a movie contract. Colin Boocock’s Irish Railway Album pictures the same loco at Inchicore in 57 in the same paintwork rather the worse for wear. Note the scroll decoration on the cab roof.

I think there’s also the spoke issue. The Irish locos had conventional spokes whereas the English ones had standard LNW ‘H’ style spokes.

Looks fine to me ! Very nice.

Gorgeous. Like something off an F Moore postcard.

Very interesting. There’s a vague WT-ishness about it in places.

They are such iconic things, those GSR signs, that just shout Free State/Eire at you. Like a green pillar box, they somehow symbolise something of our complex history...why is Mise Eire playing in my head now ?

That’s looking most promising. Such impressive locos - classic BP lines. As for the SSM chassis, there are a few jigs you can get which will help in assembly. Eg http://217.199.187.193/poppyswoodtech.co.uk/tools.html As long as the axle holes and coupling rod holes are aligned, the chassis will roll. That’s the most critical thing. Everything else is just fiddling about, and a bit of patience.

Great stuff. Looking really good. My memory of them is dark brown.

It’s 1956 and Dundalk Works have outshopped ‘Enniskillen’ in full SLNC livery - including the red coupling rods which quickly dirtied in service. The livery has been comprehensively researched using SLNC sources, and colour pics/film, which overturned some of my own conceptions - such as the black/red nameplates rather than the red/shiny brass that I’d expected. Mr Egan, the SLNC CME, described the large tanks as ‘splendid engines’. 9 months of frustration and burnt fingers later, I still agree. When I was about 14, I found a picture of Sir Henry in our attic and had it framed as I just thought this was the perfect SLNC loco. Like Goldilocks and her porridge, the Large Tanks are just right - not too spindly and not too bulbous. That picture is still on my office wall today....see below. We are more or less done now I think - just a bit more detail painting (such as cab and rear buffer beam) and general fettling to do. Lots of bits are only on loose for now - such as cab roof and coupling rods. It’s been a frantic few months since I last posted - lots of fettling bits and taking off/replacing bits that were irking me! Also took some time to workout techniques to replicate signature features such as the water balancing pipes under the cab (solution was a brass D-ring for handbags, squeezed in a vice). In her later life, ‘Enniskillen’ had a GNRI chimney, replicated here by an NER one with a brass ring soldered on top for the capuchon. It’s not perfect, and some significant compromises have been made. Hopefully it captures the look more or less. And it’s my first ever scratch build, so I can’t expect too much! She will be gently weathered in time but for now she is pristine as a tribute to GF Egan and Gerry Lambe of Manorhamilton works, and the men and women of the SLNC who kept the wheels turning to the end. Seeing her posed at Rosses Point (which is of course simply a terminus version of Dromahair) in front of the scales that my grandfather’s salmon were weighed on makes all the burns, cuts and frustration worth it. Thanks to all on the forum who have helped with photos, postings and saying nice things... Anyway, here’s a few snaps....my other 2 kit-built locos are included - a nice MGW/GSW cameo!

Not my era Noel either but that’s nice. Good sound effects.

Agreed - excellent volumes for the modeller esp showing weathering and other details. One even shows the elusive SLNC red coupling rods which don’t often feature in colour shots - they must have been cleaned that day! Another excellent one is Derek Huntriss’s ‘Irish Traction in Colour’.