Galteemore

Gorgeous. I first encountered these as a child when I saw Drew Donaldson’s clockwork ones - in the layout that dominated his house ! I’d love to build one myself if I get my current scratch loco finished, although I have struggled with Inchicore’s curved footplate before on a kit. Mr Holman may well beat me to the D19 anyway!

My dad thinks Limerick or Connolly might be candidates. Bottom pic - looks like a tamper. Note Lough Erne at far right. Apparently pilot loco would drop off at Kingsbog Junction after the formidable climb up Monkstown Bank and then run back light to Belfast.

Just finally acquired this book. Lovely little anecdote in the intro about Mr and Mrs Bredin’s housemaid, who was a bit of a spotter and was not happy to learn that GSR policy of banking trains out of Kingsbridge should apply to the 800s too. She interrupted breakfast one day in breathless excitement to report that 800 had just passed on the Cork Mail with the supposed banker frantically racing a coach length behind trying to catch up!

Look forward to whatever you produce Paul. I think the S in S scale really stands for ‘scratch building’ - it’s hard enough tracking down Irish stuff in 7mm never mind S ! It’s a fascinating scale though and your work is most inspiring. Kilbrandon brings real colour and life to those old monochrome photograph scenes we all know from Welch, Lawrence etc. Any chance of a close up of your Kerry Bogie pls? ! I have seen Arigna Town as was in the flesh and loved it. But David’s backdating process is proving most interesting and the old liveries, which are out of living memory now, are really beautiful. Ballisodare station would have been wonderful for train spotting c1905 with a veritable rainbow of colours on show!

Look forward to seeing this develop. My dad’s introduction to railways was being set on the footplate of a BCDR loco at Donaghadee c 1948. He’s never forgotten the smell of coal and hot oil. Although my railway loyalties lie to the south and west of Ulster, the BCDR has grown on me over the years. I’ve come to appreciate the high points of its history such as the 1940s renaissance of 2-4-0 no 6, and the highly impressive Comber-Belfast timings. BTW Halford’s Rover crimson spray paint is a good and cheap way to get a nice BCDR carriage colour. Here it is on a little LSWR saloon I built a few years ago....

When I have sold various collections - British N - Japanese N - UK O - I have sent a list round various traders and compared the offers. Rails of Sheffield were ok if not overly generous. Contikits may be worth a punt as they specialise in....well the name rather gives it away...

Something to do with physics of sound, coupled with Doppler effect, I understand. My brother models live steam in 16mm scale and it needs enhanced with a kind of echo chamber over the blast pipe to sound like anything convincing enough. Mind you, the 5” gauge GT3 may give a small clue what the real thing may have sounded like...and the Leader... .

Lovely work David. Loco is really coming to life. Those ‘helical’ gear boxes get good reviews in the Gauge 0 Guild forum. If it suits small 4-4-0s, I may well have a future candidate which could use one.....great progress with the lathe too!

Excellent. Making progress fast !

The northern system does have form on that kind of thing https://www.geograph.ie/photo/3481741

Done. Hope you get lots of support.

Yes that was an interesting article, which I read in an anthology years ago. Interesting mix of CIE and GN locos went across on those shipments.

Layouts like this allow us to wallow in nostalgia - keep it coming Patrick! I well remember visits to Co Leitrim in the 70s when CIE was just like this. I’ll forget about the lack of piped water, and the smell of SuperSer heaters, and just remember the nice bits like the turf fired range and my granny’s soda bread ! And dashing to catch the Sligo mail with my grandfather’s freshly caught salmon wrapped in reeds and sacking ready for the Dublin fish merchants. His fish used to travel by SLNC but in the 70s a pair of 121s was good enough for me !

One of the worst ever rail incidents involving alcohol actually involved N Kent - a BR excursion from Margate to Kentish Town. 50th anniversary next year.....https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eltham_Well_Hall_rail_crash The story makes grim reading.

Thanks Eoin - just been playing with mine this week to get the hang of it! This is really useful - much appreciated for you taking so much time. We can often get away with UK loco parts in 7mm ( LMS 4F buffers match the SLNC pattern and so on) but some parts are special. Recently I had to add a brass capuchon to an NER chimney to get the Irish look - hopefully I can now turn up whole thing in the lathe..... If I ever get the Sligo Tank done, the next scratch build is likely to be a GSWR type so will be lots of interesting bits to turn....

Lovely Noel. That’s just how I remember places like Gort from the 70s.

Thanks Eoin. How to turn basic parts like a smokebox door or a buffer housing ? I can manage simple paring down and managed to produce a basic steam manifold last night / which then flew across the room and vanished !

Great work Eoin. Just getting to grips with my lathe so a few of your excellent tutorials would be of great interest !!

Nice to see some intelligent use of a model railway by media rather than the usual banalities! Layout looked well on screen - great work !

My father has a few similar tales from UTA byways in the early 60s....and only yesterday I read about the late Billy Steenson of York Road shed who was set a challenge on his turn driving the 1740 to Ballymena. Two pints were set beside the water tower at Ballymena, and would be removed at 1810.....

Interesting subject. Speedy tablet exchange on the NCC main line to Derry was critical to the tight timetabling that this LMS component prided itself on. 60mph exchanges using tablet catchers were quite common - eyewitnesses of the operation in diesel days testify how noisy it could be at close hand! The LMS Society have some great stuff on this.http://lmssociety.org.uk/topics/singleLineWorking2.php In Northern Ireland, the LMS's Northern Counties Committee adopted the Manson system for much of its single track lines and equipped a high proportion of its front line locomotives with the catcher or 'snatcher' as it was known over there. Photographs indicate that most, if not all, of the following NCC classes of locomotive were fitted on the left hand side with the Manson style of tablet exchange equipment: 2-6-0s: W Nos. 90-93 (all); 4-4-0s: A, B, B2, B3, D, U, U1, U2 (all); and 2-4-0s: G, No. 40's being on the tender. Even J class 2-4-0ST Nos. 25 and 47 were equipped with the arm on the diminutive bunkers sides. The 2-6-4T WT class, colloquially known as 'The Jeeps', were a special case. The first example No. 5 was fitted with the apparatus on both sides in the conventional position below the rear cab window, but due to the considerable width of the cab, the arm was rather short and hence the head very low down. This meant the fireman had to lean out of the door and reach down to a similar level thereby exposing himself to some risk of danger. As a consequence, subsequent engines had the apparatus fitted to the cab door, and No. 5 in time likewise modified. Generally, to eliminate further risk of misalignment as a locomotive negotiated a curve with super-elevation, it was found desirable to locate ground tablet apparatus exchange posts on straight lengths of track. Ground apparatus was unlikely to be provided at terminal stations, due to the train being stationary prior to departure, or due to stop upon arrival, the token could easily be passed over by hand either at the platform or as the locomotive slowly passed the signal box. It was also permitted to throw off the tablet as the train passed a signal box at certain locations, including on the NCC: Larne (non-stop trains composed of corridor stock); Larne Harbour; Cookstown Jct; Macfin (non-stop Down Derry Central trains); Coleraine Jct (trains running tender first from Portrush, also trains from Portrush and Derry line at the Down platform); Portrush; and Derry (passenger trains only).

And it’s.....

Very nice indeed. Look forward to seeing her with numbers etc

http://www.trainweb.org/railwest/gen/signal/sl-intro.html See also here:,https://www.bluebell-railway.com/brps/signalling-staffs/ The rings are indeed significant. They reflect the ‘configuration’ of the staff to ensure that the crew of a train have the right staff for the section - especially significant where a line was made up of numerous consecutive single line sections. Often trains were worked by ‘staff and ticket’ and the crew might only see the staff and be given a ticket. It would be easy for staffs to get mixed up without a means of differentiating them, which is what the rings do - as well as their mechanical function in the instrument, explained well by Dhu Varren below. The crew can easily see if they have or are being shown the correct staff for the section they are entering and haven’t just been given back the staff for the section they have just left ! Assuming, of course, that they bother checking. At Abermule in 1921 they didn’t: ..https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abermule_train_collision (it was a tablet rather than staff in this instance but you get the idea). This is how the SLNC differentiated them...

Excellent stuff Eoin. Would appreciate some pics of the lathe when it’s sorted, too!