Galteemore

Yes it’s a diverse market which is what we need. If I wanted 30 wagons I’d use one of the big firms - as I have often done in the past. By way of illustration, this invoice arrived with some bearings and couplings this am. Old school - goods supplied and you pay on receipt!!

Yes, being mainly a scratch builder these days, I tend to have to use mail order too! But there are also many small High St model shops who are now using mail order to stay alive. It’s worth supporting them if you can. I also use Eileen’s and many of the other 7mm supplier community. That’s one of the big debates in our world - how to best support trade in supplying kit and scratch build needs as RTR grows .....we really want to keep a diverse, mixed model railway economy if we can! We sometimes visit the Kent coast for fish and chips and there’s a tiny shop in Ramsgate which supplies gamers. I have bought wire and metal angle when there as it’s much easier browsing his stock than trying to look at tiny pictures of wire online....

Can’t comment on Mark’s as I haven’t lived in the Republic since 2002, and NI since 06. I currently live near two small model shops in Buckinghamshire and they are great for supplying bits at fair prices. One may pay a little more for big stuff but it’s worth it over time -for convenience (no damaged locos in the post) and no £4 postage costs on a £1.50 pot of paint !

The ‘box-shifters’ tend to to sell ‘boxes’ rather than ‘bits’ if that makes sense. So they are fine for buying big ticket items - often less helpful at supplying the miscellaneous smaller bits that modellers need. The sale of locos and other big ticket items helps smaller shops remain viable to supply those things like wire and switches and little pots of paint.

Thousands of pilgrims can’t be wrong Noel....the real Lough Derg is in Donegal/Fermanagh. What it lacks in size it makes up for in sanctity...https://www.loughderg.org/, and to keep vaguely on a railway topic, it was served by Pettigo station, with a ghastly canopy that was required to shelter all the pilgrims from grim Ulster weather.

And an Irish-American President with a publicly confessed penchant for train travel....

Late to the party here, David...but have you any experience casting vans or box wagons? Trying to work out how the vertical side and end frames would match up...

There are also other wider economic factors to bear in mind. The events of the past year have left a huge hole in public finances, which will have to be repaired by a variety of means. Public sector employment in GB for one will have a pay freeze and I suspect that discretionary disposable income may take something of a hammering for many of us.

You can see why an alternative voice actor was used. Hard to imagine the threats of Vader with a West Country burr!

More useful tips David, as this inspiring build progresses. Looking really good and I will be interested to see your solution to the running plate issue, as it is exercising my mind for a future project. Watching this build closely....

And you can inspect a more fully restored version than the Irish one at Quainton Road near Aylesbury...,

The raw material is stronger, but a lot will depend on how it’s put together. If you’re building 6w coaches I’d use plasticard - much easier to build up the panelling etc.

Depends what you want to build and in what scale. I have used both plastic and metal. Properly treated, plasticard is very robust. What are you thinking of building ?

Very nice as ever David - and a huge milestone as Ken says. It’s a lot of prep work with all the measuring and cutting — then that breathtaking moment when you push the wheeled chassis .... delightful to see and the elegance of the loco is already apparent.

Great work. I’ve built an F6 in 7mm and they are lovely - once you get past making all the curvy bits! What’s the donor loco - an L and Y 2-4-2T?

Why did I waste my time at TCD going to lectures when I could have been watching this for real ?! Brilliant stuff !

I’m planning to use Tamiya German Grey on my GSR build :TS4 is the code.

Looking good David, and four days is actually pretty fast for such work! Will be following this with interest as ever, esp with the hornblocks which I am looking at for future use. Very neat drawing too..!

Isn’t that a sight? Imagine it in colour....

A sheet of NS etches and a GW models rivet press - quality combo. Nice work. The GW press is a beautiful piece of machinery, once you get used to its little ways!

Thanks everyone- I appreciate the encouraging comments. What I’ll probably do near the end, Angus, is use a small piece or two of right angle brass to solder the ns backing plate to the footplate or frames : not sure which as yet.....I may go for the footplate idea as it will provide some lateral stiffening when I’m doing all the smokebox stuff...this image shows just how much hacking about I’m doing as I learn! I’d made the front splasher aperture too big so have had to close it off a bit. This should look ok up top when the splashers are in and some filler applied. This rear view also shows how the bolt heads and safety chain eyes are soldered in and then filed down.

Every now and then I think I’m taking this project too seriously. Tonight is one example... I really need to stop looking at photos!! A number of depictions of ‘Enniskillen’ show that she had a front buffer beam very obviously made of wood - with very obvious scars. Once seen I couldn’t unsee it. So how to replicate ? Weeks of thought later.... take an old boxwood ruler, Dremel it down to 3mm and glue a nickel silver plate on the back. Mark that out and then drill 21 holes of various sizes. Insert various .5 and 1mm brass rivets, washers and top hat bearings to replicate the iron work. Soldering these in also helps fix the wood and metal together. Attack the wood with a piercing saw and gouge in a few crevices as per the original. Job done...it’s not perfect but gives an impression....and should pass the 2’ rule. Thanks to @Irishswisserniefor 1957 pic.

I can only presume that the trip recorded in the photos took place between 1937 and 1949? The Republic is clearly recognised in the heading to Part 1 so I can only assume that the choice of words is deliberate. Intriguingly an LMS Jubilee class loco was originally named ‘Irish Free State’ and then quickly changed to ‘Eire’ after Dev’s change. It still bore that name right through to scrapping despite Costello’s declaration in 49. Mind you, mistakes do happen in these books. Colin Boocock’s lovely ‘Irish Railway Album’ includes a nice 1950s shot from inside the cab of SLNC ‘Sir Henry’ at Glenfarne heading to Sligo- but is described as ‘facing the border with Eire’ so wrong on several counts !

Many thanks JB but the plates are an Alphagraphix etch - the first and for a long time the only item I’d actually acquired for the project! Actually having a tank side to stick it on feels like a landmark though.

Lovely Patrick ! What’s the T2 source - it looks very good?!