Galteemore

Fascinating. Often thought the Victorians missed a great opportunity to build a ‘Grand Union’ terminal in Belfast. Growing up, and commuting to school on the NCC, it always struck me how cut off York Road in particular seemed from the rest of the city. By the 1970s, bombing (aerial and ground), road ‘improvements’ and urban blight had left a no-man’s-land between the station and the city. It was hard to believe what a thriving artery York Street had once been, all the way up to Royal Avenue. Even so, a traveller from Larne heading to Dublin or Downpatrick faced quite a schlepp by foot or tram. The opening of the link bridge in the 1990s was a wonderful moment - just a pity it took so long. Hopefully the fully integrated transport system that NI needs is finally beginning to shape up. What a fantastic model such a union station could make - Moguls, Compounds, and BCDR No 6 side by side!

On Met line at Chorleywood yesterday and passed this. Met Rlwy and SLNC both used Saxby and Farmer for signal cabins. This one needs painted green!

Generic google image Stephen! The electricity post in the background looks continental though. Possibly somewhere in Germany. Which is G class country anyway

Agreed - looks a bit daft. On the other hand, it’s well cared for and much more feasible to preserve properly in future. And beats looking like this:

The source is Des Coakham, JHB. Dark green with yellow lettering. It’s in his Broad Gauge Carriages book. In defence of Alphagraphix, most of the card kits are actually pretty accurate. The livery on his painted brass models can be less so. This is I suspect for 2 reasons. Firstly - painted with whatever shades and transfers he had in stock. Second - these display models are mostly seen in UK venues (past tense probably as I don’t think he does shows now) and the coaches were purchased by generic light railway modellers, rather than purist Irish modellers. Roger is a skilled graphic designer with a very good knowledge of Irish railways - and has published in the field - so it’s not that he makes careless mistakes on this. And as for Roger’s green CIE locos, I wonder if anyone ever took Drew Donaldson to task over his unprototypical green paint. If so, I’d have bought tickets to that encounter !

The parcels vans were maroon as they originally formed part of the 1921 mail train. The horse box, AFAIK, was green.

This is a fabulous set of photos Ernie - that photographer racked up some miles in June 57.

My seconds will wait upon you in the course of the morning, Mr Holman. Swords or pistols? In all seriousness, delightful to see these. Roger C has provided a wonderful resource in these kits and the fold up chassis is very clever indeed. His half etched rivets make for a lovely smokebox. As you’ve shown, a bit of detailing makes the locos even more effective and attractive. Having built 3 of his loco kits now myself, they go together very well, although the 5’3” builder does need to keep a watchful eye on splasher clearances etc.

Johnson and O’Rourke’s book on Irish modelling contains a number of photos on pages 74-75. They are exquisite- including 800 Maedb in proper GS green, and GSWR/GN locos in their respective greens. The complex liveries look spot on. He also, I know, has an SLNC Lissadell from the North Star kit, painted plain black and seen below, from the New Irish Line archive. It has the correct plain black buffer shanks. At least some of his models are to 36.75mm gauge.

Thanks for sharing this personal story which brings the bare statistics to life. 10th Hussars eventually merged to become King’s Royal Hussars. Now armed with Challenger tanks, they still rely on rail transport on occasion. Photo crown copyright, Cpl Mark Webster.

I unwittingly walked past Iain Rice at Railex a few years ago, when he was drifting around the show unaccompanied. What an opportunity. But on balance, it was probably best for both of us. I suspect he’d have been channeling BA Baracus by the end of the encounter.

Alan - that’s simply spectacular. Anyone would think that’s a well-made etched kit. The crispness of the work shows a very high level of scratch building skill. Whatever livery inaccuracies you think are there are not at all obvious - it really looks like the prototype to me.

There are several Model Railway Journal references, Colin, esp 127, 202 and 234

A bit more on Tony Miles……

Somewhere in the back issues of the RPSI mag ‘Five Foot Three’ is an obit of Drew, whilst the Gauge O Guild online archive has a series of his articles. In his inimitable style….see screengrab below. As you see, he even manages a pop at the legendary John van Riemsdijk, a highly influential figure - and manufacturer - in large scale modelling whose day job was a highly senior position at the Science Museum and later National Railway Museum! During the war, JvR was an engineer with Special Operations Executive, devising all kinds of 007 style gadgets. He was also one of the duo behind the Aster live steam brand. So no lightweight. But Drew still thought he had got clockwork wrong! There is a lovely account in a recent IRRS journal on Bob Clements’ 1940s activities, which namechecks Drew. The Gardai got very suspicious of RNC travelling around during the ‘Emergency’ recording railway movements, which was of course classic spy activity, and hauled him in. The Guards found correspondence between him and Drew on the subject which looked extremely dubious to them. The argot of timers looks suspiciously like a secret code….. Apologies for blue font which has appeared after cutting and pasting Mr v R’s name! I have very dim memories of Drew, (he died when I was about 6), but he was a visitor to our home when I was young, and I did see his layout working. I think that’s when the 7mm bug bit….. Tony Miles has some nice tributes here: https://www.rmweb.co.uk/topic/71940-tony-miles-rip/#comment-1228251 Here’s a sample from Martin Wynne, a core member of the Adavoyle team: Those who know the layout will know that we used P.O. type relays as point motors. At one time these were a standard fitting on many a model railway. But by the mid 1980s they were becoming hard to find. We had a few, but needed many more. Tony and his wife were in the habit of lunching at a pub in a nearby village. Returning one day pleasantly refreshed he noticed a truck parked outside the village telephone exchange. Tony being Tony he stopped to find out what was happening. A lone telephone engineer was carrying out racks of equipment and throwing them into the back of the truck for scrapping. Seeing that they contained the very relays we needed, Tony asked if he could have them. The engineer replied "No chance, I have to take them back to the depot". But Tony worked his spell and the engineer added "of course, while I'm inside I can't see what's happening out here". So every time the engineer went into the building for the next one, Tony "rescued" the last one from the truck and placed it in the back of his car. The engineer soon saw what was happening, and started placing the racks carefully on the ground by Tony's car: "these things are heavy, I'll chuck it in the truck in a minute". He later found that a £5 note had got caught under the windscreen wiper.

All sold off. @David Holmandefinitely knows something about it, and has posted here on the subject. Kicking myself, as I lived in Edinburgh from 1989-93 and could easily have seen the line working. Another opportunity missed!

Mrs Galteemore is a bit of a polymath in the crafting arena. She has identified this machine as a most useful way of cutting carriage sides etc…https://createandcraft.com/product/332561/brother-scanncut-sdx900-machine-with-2-x-look-learn-craft-usbs-best-of-cutting-craftorium-svg-usb/0?utm_campaign=campaign: Mon BAU 30%2F01%2F23 (63d3d58b17a2d100209e4129)&utm_medium=email&utm_source=omnisend&omnisendContactID=6214c4da4d841c001dbac99e

Thanks David. I’ll be interested to see how it goes. I still haven’t committed to a coupling system. The fret of Dinghams I bought remains a fret…..and I sold the Lincs ones I’d acquired.

Pains me to say it but the WLWR box looks better in red than SLNC green …;)

Inspiring stuff David. Would Flippems work any better / see link? I’d fancy AJs but not sure I have the precision fitting skills…. https://pregroupingrailways.com/2022/01/15/an-introduction-to-the-new-flippem-coupling/

Interesting colour pic of the C and L bogie. Shows what happens to maroon paint over many years if left untouched. The GSR branding, although much faded, is still visible. Up in north Leitrim, coaches with a similar faded maroon finish were also to be seen - see post of a few days ago.

Looks a good start. I do like the thought process you are exemplifying here - not giving up but finding an alternative route.

Lol - I was there 83-89! Wasn’t buses for me though - I got to commute by 70 and 80 class….I well remember the n Belfast roads though from games buses to the fields at Ben Madigan

Thought so. I went to school at Belfast Royal Academy so used to pass lots of houses like that round the N Circular Road…….

Fantastic. Where’s the Belfast house? I’m getting an upper Antrim Road or upper Newtownards Road look but can’t guess exactly. I could be completely wrong and it’s Malone!