Galteemore

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….

https://www.flickr.com/photos/36034969@N08/5634800408

Certainly happened at the Glenfarne timber railway in N Leitrim c1919. 2’ gauge including an ex WD HC well tank once used to construct Tallaght aerodrome outside Dublin. Picture credit….http://www.leedsengine.info/leeds/histhc.asp.

Very atmospheric. Hope the kettle’s on in the back office - looks a nice refuge on a winter’s night!

Great stuff. Loco shed has shades of Thurles…

Beautiful Leslie. LNWR and SECR late 19th century liveries are hard to beat!

Given that the RPSI’s initial aim (even before preserving an S class which was the main objective c1964) was simply to preserve a GNR railbus, they have actually been fairly open to the internal combustion engine….the RPSI’s perennial problem is balancing the costs of a hugely expensive motive power fleet with running enough fare paying and revenue generating efforts to cover it. The enthusiasts have always been subsidised by the general public stumping up cash. Having spent much of my childhood in muddy traction engine rally fields flogging RPSI merchandise I know how hard that exercise is. Had the purist hard core of Derry Road nostalgics really won over the levers of power in the early 70s, the organisation would have ceased to exist c1980…….any comments @jhb171achill or @leslie10646? As far as I know, the RPSI is generating very little revenue in NI right now and is largely held above the waterline by packed Dublin family trains, not all of which are steam.

Although I thought poetry was more in metres…..I’ll get my coat

Got to be narrow gauge. Cue lots of discussion as to whether it’s a small railway or a far away one.

Fabulous work Patrick. Pure GNRI in all its faded glory. To quote Thomas Moore…. Let Fate do her worst, there are relics of joy, Bright dreams of the past, which she cannot destroy; Which come in the night-time of sorrow and care, And bring back the features that joy used to wear. Long, long be my heart with such memories fill'd! Like the vase, in which roses have once been distill'd -- You may break, you may shatter the vase, if you will, But the scent of the roses will hang round it still.

Coming on really well - great work!