Galteemore

Lovely stuff. The life size F3 was a bit of a bodge job anyway. Everyone knows that the real Tornado is a GR1 - or even better, GR4…..

Dundalk finally shut down by the very early 60s. An ex GNRI Q class was a bit of an occasional wanderer on CIE metals IIRC so you could certainly justify that.

Excellent. There’s lots of good stuff out there these days - especially in colour. The research is fascinating to do in its own right - even if, paradoxically, the more you learn, the more you end up realising how little you actually know! One of my lecturers thirty years ago said this was the sign of a true scholar so I live in hope….

Be very careful, Phil - this is arguably the most interesting epoch in Irish railway history and it will lure you in…an excellent place to build an overall awareness is Colin Boocock’s ‘Irish Railway Album’, a collection of photos taken from the late 50s to mid 60s. Published in 1968, it’s available quite reasonably https://www.abebooks.co.uk/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=30990910698&cm_sp=snippet-_-srp1-_-tile1&searchurl=ds%3D10%26kn%3DBoocock%2BIrish%2Brailway%2Balbum%26sortby%3D17

Would need to trawl the photo archives but wouldn’t be surprised eg Curragh trains

Just inertia really. It was not uncommon in these days for various mixes and matches to be seen. Quite apart from the GNR liveries, CIE was also changing its livery around this time. So it took a long time to achieve uniformity. The railways were also shrinking in size at this time - which would result in a long term need for less stock. So older and less useful vehicles which were likely to be culled would probably not be candidates for repainting. The blue and cream livery would also indicate that this GN coach had probably been repainted fairly recently anyway.

That’s the delight of it, JB - it’s designed to go up or down within two minutes….each baseboard can be lifted with one finger….

What I did in my Christmas holidays…..taking the proceeds of Rosses Point, I visited a local timber merchant and purchased a large quantity of ply, timber and Kingspan. Throw it all together and we get this….lightweight baseboards on folding trestles. Basic idea is a 50mm slab of Kingspan which sits on 2 girders of 4mm ply/12 by 33 timber. The girders were made by clamping/gluing a strip of 4mm ply to a length of 12 by 33 overnight. 4mm ply ends, braced with more 12 by 33 mounting blocks for the split hinges. Trestles are 21 by 44 with butt hinges. The centre board will have the cameo style proscenium arch eventually. A few more tweaks yet, such as adjustable feet and chains on the trestles. But so far it all seems to work…not the most exciting stuff to be doing but get this wrong and you’re just storing up trouble…...

Back in the day when PW crews had allocated lengths of track to maintain, originally a mile or two, but probably higher in sparsely trafficked areas, an annual prize was awarded for the best maintained length of track in the area.

Prototype for almost anything. S class locos weren’t meant to run to Enniskillen but photographs clearly indicate that they occasionally did so….

Bone question but are the wheels clean? Quick rub with cotton bud and IPA can reveal a lot….

If you mean electrical testing, Tony, a simple track tester like this is ideal….https://www.rkeducation.co.uk/rktt1-oo-gauge-track-testing-module-for-model-railway---constructed-2610-p.asp if it’s running testing you want, then arguably the U and UG are your best critics! One of the modern diesels like a 121 or an A class might be a good option for the days you want to just run trains.

Nice portrait of a Large Tank. The cleanliness of the WC loco, the lighting, and sparse surroundings have a real retro feel of a turn of the century Lawrence or Welch photo!

There’s definitely a family likeness to the big HC tank and tender locos. Almost as if HC took one of their Manchester Ship Canal loco designs and boil washed it to 3’ gauge size https://www.flickriver.com/photos/14581588@N05/48641741222/

https://www.world-railways.co.uk/general-photo-063 Could well be! I’m not an SME…

Nice to see a Ludmilla appearing here !

That looks wonderful. Real Swilly feel about it.

That’s lovely but don’t forget Marklin trains run on a different electric system to all other HO/OO trains so you can’t easily incorporate other makes. For reliability and quality it would be brilliant.

And never ever stick lead with pva in a sealed space…https://www.modelrailforum.com/threads/dangers-of-pva.23653/

Tyre balance weights can be good. This thread may help with advice too….https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/116587-what-is-the-ideal-weight-for-oo-gauge-wagons-and-coaches/

It looks as if some significant track work is indeed going on - the signal cabin is also being reconstructed (or built) and another small structure in process of building on the platform.

Had Triang not won the war with Dublo in the 60s, we might all have been using the less obtrusive Dublo hook….

Cheers Ernie. Lived near it for three years so should have got that. Although in fairness it was demolished by then!

We had all kinds of ancient model railway stuff pass through our house to be tested and sorted for RPSI sales. I still recall as a very small child the ancient Hornby O gauge we had for a few days. That was great fun - even with broken springs in the locos. A little older and Hornby Dublo taught me lots about track geometry and wiring - and the noise on a hard floor was brilliant. The key thing was that all of it fired my imagination about trains going places and carrying things - sprawling track layouts took over the house whenever possible.

Loads of options then. What I wouldn’t do is give him a Hornby 12v standard train set - you know the sort of thing with a tank engine and a few wagons. It’s just too awkward for that age to work with. Something like Brio or LGB would be my best bet. Brio has loads of play value and LGB is big and chunky.