Northroader

Notice you say regional trains, a bit ago I bought a ticket, asking from A to B. The ticket office bloke gave me a ticket, and a very lengthy spiel, which went in one ear and out the other, as I dont speak German. Looking at it, no mention of the stations, anyhow did the journey, and come back from a different place, an unstaffed station. Tried to get a new ticket from the guard, and it turned out I’d been given a regional runround for the area as the cheapest option. Changed trains to get back to A, and caught an intercity, and got a frightful roasting off the ticket collector, using a regional ticket on an intercity. Luckily the next stop was the one I wanted. So just maybe this new ticket has the same drawbacks?

Just from the unused recesses of my brane, so not at all reliable, I think it was A flat / G flat. (Edit: I’m not at all musical, it was just what it said on the stores shelf)

Linking in Sharps singles and Continental modelling, there was a Dutch artist called Anton Pieck, who had a very enjoyable dated “folksy” style, with plenty going on, in nice architectural settings, and very good for a “cameo” setting, complete with a level crossing and keeper. Funnily enough none of the old Dutch railways had one of the early Sharps as shown here:

I do mine using cooking foil. Some threads are glued on the back with evostik for the tying down, and I fold the edges over to give a clean edge and add some strength. Then paint with Humbrol light grey primer, topped with Matt dark grey. The lettering is Matt white applied with a springbow pen, but you need to be careful or the pen will cut through the foil. It’s quite good for taking up natural looking sags and folds.

Reminds me of somewhere?

Going back to your opening post, for a microlayout in Irish narrow gauge, could I suggest Moyasta Junction as it currently exists operated by a preservation society, which is as basic as it gets. Here’s a sketch of the layout, and I’d suggest that the engine shed and siding which was added by the new folks, is replaced to opposite the signal cabin, making a handier operating situation. heres a link to Roger Farnworths article on the West Clare with good pictures past and present. https://rogerfarnworth.com/2019/05/09/the-west-clare-railway-part-6-moyasta-to-kilkee/

You did get the MGWR and the GNRI meeting at Cavan otherwise.

I’ve just had the one kit from Shapeways, a GER coach which came around a year ago. I gather it was an improved print, with a whitish dusty finish, and I was quite pleased with it. Maybe earlier productions weren’t as good, the first time I saw a 3D print it reminded me of a 50ply sweeping off the pavement. Resin castings? I’ve tried them, but the problem with me is having a flexible mould to free them always led to some distortion. There must be ways of getting round this, as when I buy them commercially, they’re nice and square.

On the coaching stock side, you could have a look at the 3D prints on Shapeways/Recreation 21 site.

The second loco I fancied was the MGWR “L” 0-6-0 standard goods, which does have a varied history, with alphabetical suffixes for variations, and becoming two classes in GSR days. I hadn’t built up enough competency to build it entirely by myself, I needed a machined chassis, and as luck would have it, the wheel sizes and wheelbase are very close to a GWR 2251 class, just the Swindon loco has more overhang at the back end. At the time, there was a long established firm, CCW, doing kits for chassis and bodies of quite a wide range of popular prototypes. The chassis were very similar to the Leinster Models kits, with 1/16” frame plates and spacers, axle bushes, and the coupling rods were very nice milled to profile in nickel silver. They were reasonably priced, so I sent for it, and some Slaters wheels, buffers, pickups, and a motor/gearbox from Premier. Then it was just trim a foot or so of the back end and reposition the rear spacer holes, and mark and drill for the pickups. Everything fitted very nicely, and I became a CCW fan. They had a great catalogue, with an extensive range of products, a good stand at the Gauge 0 Guild meetings, and I started to pick out what I fancied next. Then they stopped trading! Just like that, there one minute, gone the next. On to the body, I did this myself from .018” brass sheet, tinsnips, hacksaw and filing. Anybody remember Micromodels? They were neat little printed card sheets in a pack, very small scale, and I used to cut them out and stick them together when I was a kid, and they did have the virtue of showing how you could form the shape of a loco from a flat sheet, so useful training. You can still pick them up on eBay, and there are folks still producing the same idea as downloads. Here’s a sample if you haven’t come across them. http://worldofmicromodels.nl/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Set-NS-V-Justin-Olson.pdf Using this principle, plus some commercial castings for a dome, the superstructure was formed. The tender is made with the outside frames as dummies hanging down from the body, and the wheelsets run in a detachable inside frame. You’ll see it has a PCB fixed on carrying phosphor bronze whiskers (wire from Slaters) acting on the wheel flanges for pickups Then the body gets done from brass sheet in a similar manner to the loco. And there you have it, I really did fancy the unique look for the MGWR “flyaway”cab.

Global warming in action, and the layout arrangement looks good.

I think when you’ve got a small layout, the water tank/signalbox situation is either/or, both together is going emphasise a cramped look. The same thing happened on my line.

I’m surprised reading the article that there’s little mention of the historic and picturesque nature of the place as a tourist attraction?

I fancy the Guvvinment put the money up and the MGWR were very helpful in spending it, contrast the “tin sheds” on the GSWR with the tasteful brick builds on the MGWR.

The BR container is loaded crosswise instead of lengthwise. Maybe there’s two on the open?

https://www.steamtrainsireland.com/rpsi-collection/52/504-guinness-grain-van I fancy these wouldn’t stray off the GNR, ( mind, they’d have to get to the brewery over the GSWR ) but it’s an interesting prototype.

So, early on in ‘96, once the Christmas expenses were out of the way, I sent off to Dublin for an 0 gauge kit of the one Irish loco the McGowans did. They called it a “Bat”, I couldn’t say why, as that wasn’t the first named in the class, otherwise known as a MGWR “E”, or a GSR/CIE “J26” 0-6-0T. it was the first loco I tried building, and the way it was done has coloured my approach ever since. The chassis was simplicity itself, two 1/16” brass strips for the main frames, four machined brass spacers to set it up, a set of brass axle bushes, and two plain steel strips with the pilot holes drilled in for the coupling rods. You'll see there is no compensation, and I’m of a mind that if you get all the tips of the wheel flanges touching down on a glass plate with no rocking, compensation is an extra complication. The bit of extra depth in finescale wheel flanges should be adequate enough to cover track irregularities, if the loco keeps derailing, look at your track. I added some L shaped brass strips fore and aft to give a place for the screws to attach the superstructure, but you can find spacers with a central vertical hole drilled through. The Mashima motor and gears ride on the back axle, and I made a strap to go round the motor and screw on to a spacer to support the motor. Since I built this loco my fitting skills have improved, the crankpin holes had to be drilled out oversize before it would give me free running with the coupling rods on, and larger washers were needed. The rods, of course, needed a lot of filing to go from a plain steel bar to a decent profile, and something I discovered was they do need sideways clearance allowance on the bushes for when the wheels track round a curve. With the wheels in place, I marked out and drilled for a set of Slaters plunger pickups. They’re dear, but they do give reliability when handled right. I’ve since worked out the best way to fit these is to tin the little tag first off, then assemble them as a unit away from the frame, so that you can screw the plunger nuts really tight. The motor leads, also tinned, with some spare length, are fed out through the frame holes and soldered to the tags with a quick in and out dab of the soldering iron. The pickups can then be fed through the frame holes into position. This way you’ve got the tag nuts really tight, and the soldering iron heat has had less of a chance to run down the plunger and start melting the spring into the plastic top hat bush. The superstructure was quite simple, the main platework was done with tinplate punchings, with a prerolled boiler, and with a few castings to add. It’s the only tinplate job I’ve come across, and I found it lovely to solder. Of course, I did the sequence wrong, opened the kit, got it all out, then ordered the wheels from Slaters. While I was waiting for those, all fired up, I thought I’d push on with the body. Wrong! Always get a working chassis made before you start on the top. I had to re do the front splashers to get the proper clearance when I had finally made the chassis and fitted it to the top. There were castings for smokebox door, chimney, dome, safety valve bonnet and springs. The rest of the detail I did myself, adding buffers, drawgear, vac pipes, handrails, tank fillers, sandboxes, and whistle. Did you spot there’s no brakework? nobody looks under the footplate anyway. Numbers and nameplate are homemade lashups. Well, there’s a kit from thirty years ago, these days it’s all 500 pieces out of .018” brass etched sheet. I used a can of Humbrol emerald green to handbrush it, then lining out with black and white paint, using a spring bow pen, apart form the boiler bands, which are from the HMRS LNER sheet.

The layout is looking really good, and that train just fits in nicely. Regarding the puffer, if you had a mast and Derrick in front and behind the hatch, would that help it look more like a coasting vessel? Drawing off an old IoMSP boat here, a bit larger.

The Railway Signalling Co did a lot of work for the GS&WR and the MGWR following the Regulation of the Railways Act. The Alphagaphix kit for Foynes signal box would make a nice base to work from.

A good example of two companies meeting face to face was at Cavan, with the MGWR and the GNRI. (Lifted from Arnold’s “Golden Years of the GNR, vol.2”) The MGWR was there first with their terminus, then the GNR arrived and added their own yard. As the plan stands, the GNR would need the MGWR turntable, and the MGWR would need the GNR runaround. (A case of “you scratch my back...”?) Having the two yards end to end would make for a very long model, so what if you ditched the GNR yard, and added a little bit to the MGWR station. Remove the “bridge” to island platform, and add a foot overbridge or foot crossing at the platform end, which would take care of the runaround problem, make the cattle beach line into a loop, and put an extra siding in the goods yard for mileage traffic?

Pope John Paul visited Ireland in 1979? was it, the first papal visit to Ireland, and the practice of giving a colour wash to houses was initiated as a welcoming gesture. In any case, there was very little colour outdoor washes available much before then, anyhow, the practice was justly popular and has become firmly based since then. if you’re looking at the 1900s, there was just white limewash, no other colours, and otherwise plain brick/ stone finish or cement rendering.

Well, your man said “show us yer locos”, so first a short introduction. In September, 1995, I went to the Gauge 0 guild show in Telford, and on one of the stands I met these two really charming gentlemen, as lovely people as you’d ever wish to meet. They were Ciaran and Gerry McGowan, and they were trading as Leinster Models. Their long established model shop at Phibsboro in Dublin had closed, I gather, in 1992, but they kept the model kits production going a bit longer, and I think that was the last time they came to Telford. From the bit I’ve heard the shop was the place to go in Dublin, both as a treasure house and somewhere to meet like minded people. Their kits were mainly British outline, I fancy as they sold more of these, but anyway having had a chat and a look at what they were doing, I really fancied one of their kits, and once the following Christmas outgoings were through, I sent off to their address for the one Irish one they did. (Mind, one good selling point for what they were doing was it was a decent price and good value.)

Oh dear! Edit:checking the Facebook page it just a quick shutdown for “data maintenance”. I thought for one horrible minute. ...

My wife always insists with any flower arranging that an odd number of flowers are placed in the vase, never an even number.

If you visit his site you’ll find there are sections for what he does in 4mm as well.