Galteemore

Yes, given that in 1922 every other engine in Adelaide was black (no GNRI blue or green then!) something must have stood out for Fred!

Made one of these about 30 years ago after reading ‘The Mighty Hood’ as a kid. Those etches really lift the model, as they provide real finesse. Agreed re thin line, challenging though it was to mask!

Thanks Jb, but the Small and Large Tanks have the aesthetic edge over the Loughs ! Re the DSER moguls, they were well travelled in early life- one of the few DSE classes to see north of Dublin. Arriving during the Civil War, they were sent to Adelaide for safety (the irony of this to a child of the 70s is hilarious). Fred Graham, who saw the engines in steam at Adelaide, swore they were green….

That’s fabulous David. Really captures the look of the prototype. Nice work on the turning !

Hope the recovery goes well Patrick. Lovely to see 205 looking so much at home.

Jeeps were available until mid 1971 so a new build might not even have been necessary. In retrospect it’s the biggest missed opportunity of Irish preservation, but it wasn’t so at the time. 4 cost £1275 to buy in 71. This is the equivalent of some £16,000 now, but such cash simply wasn’t available. Although you’d have to be a septuagenarian to recall the Moguls in their prime, it would at least represent one of the red Irish liveries on the main line again! A polished up W class with a suitable nameplate would look glorious. Moguls, incidentally, were found to be superior over Jeeps on the Derry Road. Not so much in pulling trains as stopping them - the extra braking power of a Mogul gave them an edge over WTs - on at least one occasion, I think, a heavy goods train almost overcame a WTs stopping power on one of the steeper downgrades. Hence WTs hardly ever appeared with any regularity on the route until the lifting began.

With any prototype, there are signature features which identify its origins. An easy way to make an ‘Irish’ loco from a generic UK 0-6-0 is to stick on a smokebox door wheel - instant win. As JHB says, livery and transfers will also take you a long way. Many designers crossed the Irish Sea in both directions so there are significant commonalities, especially in that late Victorian epoch.

Fair point, although 131 is incredibly accomplished at working current trains….but in his concluding comments in ‘Decade of Steam’, Drew Donaldson does pick out the 400 class as the cream of the CIE steam fleet.

There’s also a reason CIE effectively mothballed these locos fairly quickly. Irrespective of loading gauge, they are designed to do one thing and one thing only - haul heavy trains out of Cork and Dublin, and speed between those two places at pace. Swiss Army knife they are not. The other Irish main line express locos of the era - represented by 85 and 105 are far more versatile express locos and can get far more places = more viable for preservation. Santa trains to Maynooth and back are not 800 class diagrams….Arguably, for far less cash, a new build of a GSWR 4-4-0 classic D19 or an MGWR 2-4-0 would be a better way of getting a southern speed queen on the rails. Having said that, I understand the fascination with 800, having glimpsed her first c 1976 in Witham St Museum - so big in that space you couldn’t really sense her beauty but only her sheer mass over all the other objects crammed in there. At least in Cultra there’s space to see her properly.

Great idea. Planning similar myself. The late Richard Chown used to discipline himself for 20 minutes in workshop irrespective of how he felt. Vast majority of times he stayed for longer. Not sure if anyone else is like this but I often put off modelling for fear of failure. Once I overcome the psychological barrier of actually sitting down at the bench and doing something it’s generally ok.

All in here https://www.irishrail.ie/en-ie/about-us/iarnrod-eireann-network-statement

GJH Plant Company do them

Jools Holland is clearly a man of wisdom anyway….click on this ….https://www.trains.com/mrr/how-to/model-train-layouts/jools-holland-and-his-railway-empire/

Indeed they do Leslie - have witnessed it myself!

Thanks David. As you’ll see it fits quite well ….think it’s a 35/470 one that’s recommended. Key issue is that it’s not polarised, given that current flow will regularly reverse.

Well Happy New Year all….and as 23/24 turn over another model rolls off my workbench. Although in fairness it has been thrown off it a few times. It’s the most difficult model I have ever attempted. But now it’s more or less done. What was so hard?! Read on…… At some point every SLNC modeller has to attempt a railbus, just as they also have to make an 0-6-4T. Your railbus, however is a fiendishly difficult citizen. Add to the complexity of compound curves and planes the problem of making what in 1:1 is an exiguous bus frame robust enough to handle a working chassis with big motor/gearbox. It ‘s even harder when you don’t have a drawing! My subject of choice was Railbus A, which served the SL from 1939 to 1957, and was the last SL item to work in NI, operating lifting trains and finishing up abandoned at Belcoo c1959, having lifted the SL track within the 6 Counties up to the border. It was rebodied in 1950 at Dundalk, acquiring a body very similar to Railbus 2A, already modelled so beautifully by David Holman. But I really like the archaic style of the old 1920s bus body… Trying to work out how to make it all work took long thought and many false starts. The trailer was quite easy - based on an old Lancs and Yorks Railway railmotor bogie from Wayoh, with suitably small wheels, spokes filled in to represent the solid Sentinel wheels and side frames pushed out to 5’3”. Planking and door sizes were calculated by using Alphagraphix kit for Railbus 2A’s trailer as a template. The railbus trailer also functions as an extra set of pickups, and contains a capacitator to act as an electronic flywheel. The railbus chassis itself is a simple brass strip frame, with cosmetic springs and associated gubbins at the front. Rear axle has a set of drop outs cut in it to allow motor/gearbox to be dropped out for servicing. Front axles have some vertical slop filed in the bearings to allow the ensemble to lurch prototypically over track joints. Howden Meredith wheels replicated by taking resin castings of white metal lorry wheels and gluing to Slaters rail wheels . The railbus body is plastic and Perspex - essentially three separate Perspex boxes for saloon, door vestibule and cab, with appropriate overlays for turnunder, door frames etc. Triangular Perspex section helped form the open top lights. The cab framework is especially complex, curving through a number of planes simultaneously. Much filling, filing, sanding and shaping took place….. The roof, another compendium of curvaceousness, is a single sheet of basswood, sanded to shape with a suitably battered roof rack made up from model boat stanchions. Special bus parts such as headlight, starting handle etc from Lynx Models. Much had to be fabricated, from the destination blind handle to the lifeguards down each side. It’s not perfect by any means, but I’m pretty sure nobody else has modelled it ! And it works….. Although I think I’ll tackle something else before looking at Railcar B……..

Great stuff. Used to be our local steam line. Before that we had the Watercress on our doorstep. Now at least the Glos and Warks is within the hour……but had to be content with seeing a stuffed and mounted Manor in Swindon today! Pic from Swindon advertiser….

That’s excellent work indeed. Really convincing.

Fabulous - thanks Ernie. Quite apart from entertainment and general interest, your archive is invaluable for modellers. I refer to it almost daily. Thanks for all that you do - I know that each image uploaded represents much effort on your part. It’s not taken for granted - and I know I speak for many others here in saying that.

Closest thing we had in this regard was Lord Dunleath, heir to a linen fortune, who decided he wanted to restore a main line steam engine. At his instigation, 85 was removed from Witham st museum - still in the same condition as she had been at withdrawal. Significantly funded by Dunleath, 85 was taken to Harland and Wolff for heavy work and then Whitehead. I was on the platform when 85 ran up and down on test c1984/85, with Dunleath on the footplate. Thoroughly decent man who was far from being a snooty aristocrat! He was also a keen Church of Ireland lay preacher and a huge fan of church organs and classic cars. Pic from RPSI site. Lord O’Neill, for his part, ensured that we enjoyed the experience of the Irish roadside tramway for many years in his establishment of the Shane’s Castle Railway. As a bynote, it’s worth remarking that 85,74 and 800 were all in Witham St together at this point, so in theory any could have been chosen. 85 was clearly seen as the most realistic and useful prospect. Note the ironic pic of 85 safely travelling past a scrapyard……

Try a dark wash. Then some talc. That will blend the two elements together and minimise the look of the gapping.

Simply spectacular Ken. Iconic GSR loco wonderfully captured.

When suits you to start the heresy trial Leslie? Never did I think such words would fall from your keyboard. I’d have been thrown out of the house had I said such things at home! Was bad enough when I showed an interest in the NCC….i always thought of the GN as blue and brown but never grey Immortalised here by Tony Ragg and the late Harry Mulholland…

Fabulous views of the INW Ernie - thanks. Although those scenes of baby GMs also seem a lifetime ago now!

In the 1980s it was briefly considered sending 171 for a visit. She was quite troublesome at that time and I well recall the RPSI’s loco engineer being fairly philosophical about the risks of losing her at sea….he opined that as long as the wheels were rescued, everything else was fit for Davy Jones locker….