leslie10646

Hi Hunslet Fear not, the spoil wagon KIT is due to be next up! Leslie

Yes, that one appeared on my radar when I found myself looking at a "preserved" one dumped behind the loco shed at Whitehead. So, at least there is a proto Leslie

Folks Rails of Sheffield have put a price on Paddy's latest 071s up today, plus the new coaches, including the Galway ones. Still a few items on their obsolete list. Leslie

Folks The system has just rejected a long reply, which took me half an hour to write, so this will be short. The above trio suggested by Kirley and many others, are probably high on my list. However, top marks to the guys who suggested the ubiquitous "H" Vans - now why hadn't I thought of those? So keep the ideas rolling in, please. There'll be something else I would never have thought of! I'll see what I can do about the three pack idea, which I used with my cattle wagons until the price of the larger boxes rocketed - I do save postage and I DO pass it on! Very many thanks for the simply terrific response. Leslie

Folks While chatting to Paddy Murphy, he asked me to produce wagons for his immaculate diesels (to encourage sales, of course) - but what? I plan a skeleton container flat to take a 20ft container, like the lovely Bell one which is available, the Bulleid corrugated wagon (single and double height, both of which were used for the beet traffic) and possibly a cement bubble. Votes for these and further ideas appreciated by PM, e-mail or reply to string. Prices? Flat around £20 sterling, Bubble might get within £30 sterling, corrugated wagon in the £20 league. All in resin, as my handmade wagons are, painted and lettered. No comments, no wagons - it's very simple, but I have tried my best for Paddy! Thanks again for great Bangor support. Leslie

Like 201bhoy, I thought Wellingtonbheag was very clever and deserving of it's award. Thanks to those who visited Provincial Wagons (not illustrated above - I must bribe the photographer better next time!) who cleared me out of some wagons forever and bought most of my new beer skeletons and loco coal wagons. Never fear - more on the way! Now, and I'll start a thread on this, Paddy M asked me to produce wagons for his immaculate diesels - but what? I plan a container flat to take a 20ft container, like the lovely Bell one which is available, the Bulleid corrugated wagon (single and double height) and possibly a cement bubble. Votes for these and further ideas appreciated by PM, e-mail or reply to string. Prices? Flat around £20 sterling, Bubble might get within £30 sterling, corrugated wagon in the £20 league. All in resin, as my handmade wagons are, painted and lettered. No comments, no wagons - it's very simple, but I have tried my best for Paddy! Thanks again for great Bangor support. Leslie

When I priced this new wagon, I misunderstood the new UK postal rates - they changed all the (blank) sizes! Now, that I've got the right figure in my calculations the correct prices for this wagon are - UK, including postage £21 for skeleton only; £32 with TWO beer tubs (as shown in the initial posting). Europe, also including postage €26 for skeleton only; €38 with two beer tubs, as above If you're coming to Bangor, you will save roughly a quid, or a Euro on these prices by buying over the counter AND another quid or a Euro, if you don't need couplings! Further saving I realise that lots of folk don't use Dapol-type couplings, so I am happy to remove the "hook" bit, leaving the NEM pocket for you to snap in your own preferred coupling. It saves me a quid a wagon, so I'll pass that on. Hope that's clear! If it's not e-mail me, please, via the address on my website! Regards Leslie

Folks As you know, I have produced and sold over two thousand wagons and I assure you that any livery I have used, I had photographic evidence for! The GNR(I) used grey for unfitted and bauxite for fitted wagons - plenty of evidence of that and it is also what is stated in the railway's history. No open wagons were fitted, so all were grey, with white lettering. However, there were examples of the ironwork being picked out. My Provincial Wagons No.5558 has the ironwork picked out in black in the photo which I have and that was taken as late as June 1957 and it's not the only example of this which I have to hand. John is correct that the underframe was the same colour as the body. If you have my Dapol-produced wagons, they have, of course, got black underframes. Dapol insisted that the plastic used couldn't be painted! Try Halford's grey undercoat - it works! The LMSNCC generally used grey, regardless, but the imported LMS vans (PW has made two of these) WERE an orangey brown and survived to appear in lots of 1960s colour photos. I suspect that you guys are more interested in the CIE situation and as others have stated, the practice was variable. My advice is - get the books out and do some research - there are plenty of colour images of CIE wagons in the two volumes of Irish Railways in Colour. Another good source are the DVDs made of Irish railways - watch them with your finger on the pause button! Hope that this helps a little. Leslie

Folks More goodies listed today - the Irish stuff is dotted about and includes 201s, Cravens by the dozen, it seems, even RPSI coaches. Beware, though their price for the genny van is bizarre -£99.50 - an error, surely. See - https://railsofsheffield.com/obsolete/ Regards Leslie

At last, this wagon has come on stream. It represents a CIE wagon produced about 1961/2 to transport the famous beer in the distinctive tubs from Dublin to Belfast. They may have been used elsewhere, but I haven't seen photographic evidence. They replaced a rather crude GNR conflat built for the purpose. The tubs have been available for some time on one of my Dapol conflats, numbered in the appropriate GNR series. If you've got one of those, you can use the conflat to cary other containers (like my bread ones) and switch the tubs to this wagon instead? Unlike my other handmade wagons, this is not a true scale item, but a close representation. We have used a standard Dapol chassis and inserted a specially made resin floor with lugs to hold the tubs. The whole is painted overall in bauxite and numbered. These wagons appear to have only carried numbers, nothing to signify their CIE ownership. Mind you by the time they came on stream, the UTA had all but ceased running freight. As usual, several different numbers are available for those of you who want to have a short rake of these. Naturally, the tubs come with a variety of numbers, so you need not have duplicates on your trains. Price: £22 or €27 for the skeleton wagon only or £34 or €40 for the skeleton wagon with two lettered tubs, as shown The tubs are still available on their own for £7 or €8.25 each. All prices are inclusive of postage and packing. I do, however, give you discount on postage saved on multiple orders. Such is the UK postal system that it is nearly as cheap to send 2/3 wagons as one! Obviously, I'll have these wagons at Bangor, but pre-orders help me to judge how many to bring! Thanks for looking Leslie

To get this thread back onto Irish model railways ..... Another e-mail arrived today highlighting more for you modern chaps (Oops, I nearly called you diesel freaks!). I didn't go through it all, but noted a 201 in orange for a bargain price, restaurant car, Cravens, Generator. Worth having a look? Leslie

Well done Seamus with the link. Some of the prices are good, others a bit steep. Some of you guys will know that I fundraise for the RPSI here in England (only 40 years so far). Mainly through selling books - we have over a thousand titles, I think. We are the John Lewis of railway bookselling - few people are more reasonable. They include everything in print on Ireland and a lot of out of print titles. e-mail me with your wants and we'll see what we can do. All monies raised go to the 171 Appeal - about five grand (sterling) to date from us. I'm at lesliemcallister@aol.com Thanks for reading this! Leslie

Glad to be of service! They have republished the list today and there are now only four double-ended yankies in the list, so you're not the only one to have been taking advantage! Mind you, there are some strange items to be deemed "obsolete" there - like the Heljan railbus, which I thought was only out last year. No matter, as long as more Irish locos end up in Irish hands! Leslie

Sorry, I jumped the gun posting the last item. Also available, if you page on through the obsolete list are - IE 156, 184, 187 IR 146, 177, 181, 183, 192 Supertrain 142, 161, 182 and 190 (weatehered) Black and Tan 141, 165, 181 Hope I've got that right! There must something here for someone! Leslie

Folks In case any of you want one of these for £89.50, see - https://railsofsheffield.com/obsolete/JJP2-JJM0-JJS0-JJC0.aspx#skip_to_list Sorry if I've stuck this thread in the wrong place! It's not the 4-4-0, by the way! Hope this helps someone! Leslie

Good thinking - there's the wife's iPad, my son's one too and even HIS work pc!

Naturally, I have given Paddy my vote, but don't tell Ben I've never even seen one of the model 071s! Thanks for prompting me, as it allowed me to vote for the exquisite C Class (Steam!!!!) and the Thompson coaches - they could nearly have been running on God's Northern Railway! As for the original Brighton Belle - superb, wish I could think of a reason for having it running through Portadown and Richhill!

Hhmmm, Kieran, from the scene at your "cattle" dock - I see you need GNR double decker sheep wagons AND from the bulls being loaded, you need a Prize Cattle wagon? - we'll get to work on them - they looked fairly like the standard cattle. The opening door is great - I must try and do the same for one of my 9 ton vans! Just terrific all round. Well done. Leslie

Off you go - this is Charlie's thread! Get back to HIM!!!! However, as you say, the designer of the HST got a knighthood - he designed lots of things which every Brit knows as the citation relates - Kenneth Grange CBE Kenneth Grange is one of the UK’s leading industrial designers, responsible for Britain’s first parking meter, the Intercity 125 high speed train, Adshel bus shelters, the Kodak Instamatic camera, the rural post box and the London taxi.

Some of you will have heard that Charles Friel - for decades the "official photographer" of the RPSI and organiser of their Belfast meetings - has been awarded the British Empire Medal in the UK New Year's Honours List. Charlie has been a tireless worker for the RPSI for over forty years and is generous with the help he has given many modellers. Several of my Provincial Wagons have been based on photographs from his extensive collection. Well done! Leslie

Mayner is quite correct about the suburban tanks. No.850 was painted green when she had her last overhaul in 1948. Source: the late David Murray's article in IRRS Journal Vol 9 p239. Leslie

The IRRS (London Area) is Stand F16 where you will find a display of Irish models and sales of IRRS publications. Also a "Join Today" bargain rate, complete with free Journal and one of our booklets. The 171 Appeal stand is next door - much the same guys, in truth. Provincial Wagons will be on sale off that stand, as will be lots of good books at excellent prices. Even if you don't want to buy, come and say Hello! Leslie Reply quoting this post MultiQuote Edit

Friends I copy below an e-mail from my friend Jonathan Allen - master phot'er - oh yes, he REALLY is good! For you poor souls who have to put up with them, for Smiths, read Easons (I can barely type that, as the bxxxxxs wouldn't stock my 101 Book!). Leslie "Warm greetings from Oban. After four years and two changes of Editor, Traction have now published my article on railways around Cork & Kerry. It’s in the local W H Smiths – and looks very good – so should be in your local Smiths as well. Tell your friends – tell them to tell their friends. Post on appropriate web sites if you can. If there is a clear upturn in magazine sales in Ireland and the Editor receives some positive feedback, it MAY lead to further articles. Not necessarily by me as I really don’t have the enthusiasm any more, but it could open a door for others. Best regards. Jonathan"

As I said on another thread - I can't recommend this too highly - I've seen much later pics and it's amazing - I remember cycling along the path you see in the foreground! Those of you who were born too late to enjoy steam will be relieved to know that Colm is the man for railcars - especially as he wrote the Book! Leslie

Folks I'm having to bend to family pressure and stay in "sunny" Surrey this weekend, rather than be at Cultra. So, I'm sorry if any of you hoped to see Provincial Wagons there! I will put a notice on my website as soon as Norton will let me have access to my own site! Fxxxing computers - or I should say software! Normal service available by post, of course and I have good stocks of everything you can see on the site. If you live in Ireland - GO - if only to see Bleach Green - I've had a sneak preview through a set of photos. brilliant doesn't start to describe it! Enjoy yourselves! Leslie