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This is O gauge and analogue 12Volt dc. I have 2 Gaugemaster controllers. One for main line running and one for the goods yard. So it is possible, in theory, to shunt a goods train in the yard while a train is on the main line. Last year the main line controller developed a fault and was only producing about 3 volts. I have had it about 20 years and the literature said there was a ' Lifetime' guarantee, so I sent it off and they repaired it free of charge, not even postage! Since these photos were taken, I had to replace the baseboard under the station and took the opportunity convert the loop platform to an island platform. I also got some Leinster Models LMS body shells to make into something like CIE 1950s coaches. Up to now no AEC railcars or A Class, C Class or B Class diesel electric locos have run on the line as it is a little out of the way. Tony Ragg is the CME DSERetc

Jhb171achill Many thanks. Please do not look too closely at the goods wagons. Or else just above the waist. I will post photographs when I get the the running gear repainted. DSERetc Jhb171.

The idea for a garden railway came while watching Mark Found's TV programme, The Garden Railway. My brother said 'We could put one in the back garden.' It started off as just a single line circle. Then as he had an interest in Irish films, he mentioned The Quiet Man. We made a basic model of Ballyglunan station house and got some Slaters Clayton six wheel coaches and painted them like CIE coaches. I also got what was supposed to be a GNR PP 4-4-0 and an A 0-6-0. Please do not look too closly!! At least it is a 4-4-0. I also got a kit for a SE&CR N class which Tony Ragg built as a Woolwich 2-6-0. I got some Lima LMS coaches which I painted in an approximate early CIE livery. I put in a crossing loop and a small goods yard. I pictured the layout to be a crossing station on single track main line with main line trains crossing local trains, with some goods traffic. The time is between 1958 and 1963 after the breakup of the GNRB, when CIE got about half of the GN engines. You may be able to see CIE on the buffer beam of the 0-6-0 in the head shunt. I have made bridges similar to the Boyne and Thomastown Viaducts and the Egyptian Arch also tunnel mouths similar to some at Bray Head. Completely unlike the prototype, the signals are worked automatically by memory or muscle wire by current from the track to which the points are set and the direction of travel. DSERetc

The frustration of winter. Which is better a large garden railway or a small indoor railway?

The joy of Autumn in the garden.

Your photo is of Drum train D being recharged in the 'Tower' siding, beside the Martello tower. An inspection pit was also constructed there. There were at least 2 charging points there. There were also one on the up platform (the near side) under the footbridge, on the down platform (the far side) under the footbridge, and two attached to the down platform roof and one at the siding between the turntable and the up platform. It seems in later years most of the charging and inspection was done in the Tower siding. The transformer was in a house on the down platform beside the foot bridge. I do not know if all the charging points survived until the end of the Drumm trains. The picture is from 'The Story of the Drumm Battery Train by Roddy Ring., Ps. As a child I thought they were called 'DRUM' trains because there was no chu chu sound only dum dum -- dum dum -- dum dum. Later I learned this noise was from the jointed rail. DESEetc

May I suggest a safety feature. I have used it on a bridge on a garden railway which has been opened sometimes while a train was running, by someone coming into the garden. It is a single line but trains run in both directions. Using 2 insulating joiners and 2 phosphor bronze strip contacts. Place one insulating joiner on one rail at the joint before the gap. Remove the feed wire from that rail between the joint and the gap. Place an insulating joiner on the other rail at the joint before the hinge and remove the feed from that section of rail between the joint and the hinge. Solder the phosphor bronze contacts to the copper clad circuit board on the movable bridge section, one to each side of the track, so as to make contact with the other piece of copper clad circuit board when the bridge is closed. W hen the bridge is open, one one rail is insulated from the insulated joiner to the gap and the other from the insulated joiner to the hinge and on to the gap. --------x--------------l l------------------l------------------feed. feed ----------------l l------------------l------------------x---------- X insulated joint l l gap with phosphor bronze contacts. l. Hinge During 20 years, I have had no trains diving through the gap. Some have been stopped by this safety feature.!! DSERetc

Sorry. Drumm train from Harcourt Street to Bray. I sat in what had been the driver's cab. The partition had been removed but so bad the glass in the windows. A semi -circular seat had been put in so you sat facing down the train. I cannot not remember if we were pulled by a steam engine or a new A class diesel. It was the end and the beginning of an era.

One morning in the late 1940s, I was Bray station to go in to Dublin. Drumm train C or D was 'on the other side' as we called the down platform, being recharged at the charging point under the foot bridge. Departure time arrived, but we were told there would be a delay. I cannot remember now how long the delay was, perhaps 15 or 20 minutes. However we reached Dublin without any more trouble. Perhaps the longer charging time was a sign that the batteries were coming to the end of their useful lives. Unlike the AEC railcars, there was a solid partition behind the driver so passengers could not see out ahead. I have no memory of A or B, the flat fronted trains but I thought C & D were very modern and similar to the Southern Railway's electric Brighton Belle. Again unlike the DART and A E C units the layout of the 2 cars were different as there was only 1st class in one. In the early 1950s I remember travelling in a de-batteried to

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