Galteemore

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’.

That was my thought, Jim. Just ready to sweep across Bleach Green. In my youth I thought the NCC was simply the best, having seen photos like that. That view was educated out of me at home, where blue and and teak were the colours of choice...

It does give a nice impression of speed ! Can just picture that gleaming red

Nice tutorial Noel

Should be well pleased George - I find styrene hard enough to score and snap in straight lines !

And indeed it almost looked like that in the days before the closure, when serious consideration was given to keeping EKN to Omagh open as a long siding for cattle trains.....

Great work David - nice example of the ‘Jenkinson technique’ in practice

Nice work George - what material is gun tub made out of ?

Because it was thrashed. The 1951 IRRS journal shows that SLNC engines took an absolute hammering from operating over such an undulating and curved PW, not to mention other issues such as water. Immense strain was put on loco underpinnings and the gradients meant that boiler water could be surging all over the place - the gauge glasses were not always comforting to look at ! A careful examination of SLNC photos towards the end shows that the locos, once sparkling clean, were filthy - even on the ceremonial ‘last train’. IE there was little spare capacity available to do anything more than maintain the basics as the line ran down. Between 1951 and 1957 the three ‘large tanks’ all went to Dundalk for overhaul, leaving the 2 Loughs in almost constant use. The UTA doesn’t seem to have done much to them - they don’t even seem to have been cleaned before being put into use. 27 was beautifully painted up in the late 60s as seen here but I don’t think much mechanical work was done. The SLNC’s best loco at the end (which worked the very last steam empty stock positioning run in Oct 1957)was apparently ‘Enniskillen’ which was overhauled in 56 - although you wouldn’t think it from her external state at the end. 27 pics from David Cooke on Flickr.

Yes - I get a few bits from them via eBay. Not as easy to search as Graham’s site was.