leslie10646

Patrick, as always it's a treat to see your railway. Watching a few of the videos what struck me was your excellent lighting - you probably told us how somewhere earlier, but maybe you share the info again? Thanks to the lighting, the triangulated chassis on the Bullied opens shows up to advantage. You're one of the few people to have my little Ballast flat and using it as they did - AS A CAR CARRIER. Keep well and prosper Leslie

I've just had an e-mail from Andy Cundick telling me that Courtmacsherry is featured in the latest edition. His reason for telling me is that his layout has a few of my (Michael's) corrugated opens on it.

Oh dear, did I forget to put them in?

Hi LH (and Mr Holman, who is also called David), While I am into running trains and NOT the sorts of Works of Art which he produces - I have to say that enforced "modelling" during the lock-down has been an education AND very satisfying. Great Rail Journeys, my part time employer has the By-line - "The Journey is just the Start of the Adventure". The cabin looks great.

David said - Thought it was probably time to tidy up the workbench a bit this afternoon as I was starting to lose tools and materials! No doubt, within a few minutes of starting again, it will be just as messy, but at least I know where things are again. You should see my dining room table - at least you are losing your tools and bits in a bigger space. One end is "Workbench" - the other end (for the days I fancy working on them) is the Mac Air surrounded by correspondence, logbooks etc. Ireland in 1964, before you ask - I'm meant to be doing China (1996 - 2002). Every time some good soul orders kits, the logbooks etc get moved to check the kit, pack it etc ...... No wonder I've not really completed anything! You may wonder at the various tubs - holding bits or for carrying things up to the loft to check they fit. The platform is the final part of Richhill's Down platform under construction. The important tool is the yellow-handled job - the Olfa knife which I use to cut Plastiicard - what a wondrous invention (Well - it works for me!). Not today's paper, by the way - it's stopping me gluing the platform to the cutting mat! Now David is certainly getting there with his L Class (or was she a Lm?). Brass locos look terrific during construction - keep it up David. I hope we are all spared to see her running at an exhibition!

Whaaaaat!!! It's even got the fire extinguisher INSIDE THE DRIVER'S CAB!!!!!!! Actually, I resume that that works too? Plenty of stories that they caught fire regularly. I have this abiding memory of seeing them in 1958 on our hols to Bray making at lrast as much smoke as the steam locos they shared the work with. Amazing detail - very well done, gents. Now, do you guys know anything about vaccines? I know a guy who'll buy a few million from you if you can crack that one too.

Very nice, Dave, but I wanna a grey ' un, wi' yella stripes 'n' thon Snail thing ........

The bugger is that I like some of the repeats, your Chopping and Changing post sounded like one of the cryptic crossword clues I do with a friend by phone every day ........

I think that some of you know that I retired aged fifty and three months from a well-known British communications firm. Like Gavin, I was in IT. You got Brownie Points if you participated in outsourcing to India. Having spent years making profitable work for people, I spent the last few "working" years retiring people or bribing them to leave. The moment I could, I did the same thing and breathed a sigh of relief to get away from the accountants. So now we have this dyed blonde in London telling us that he'll make Britain great and sell our products overseas - what products? Can't even ORDER things properly from suppliers overseas, never mind making them. However, as we celebrate eighty years from Dunkirk (I have VERY good reason to be thankful for that - it's a long story ....) maybe this new "Dunkirk" moment will wake the country up before Ireland loses a major customer forever. Oh, I haven't stopped working either. After the two years working in Hong Kong, I've worked twenty one years in a well-known travel company, albeit part time. Now, where's me bricks and mortar - got to lay the Up Platform at Richhill.........

Hi Wex70 At the risk of sounding like David, the instructions were in the Post - now go to Layouts - Portadown Jct and all will be revealed, sort of .......

Yes, it's an amusing thought that the Midland had locos which could run upside down! John, now you're awake, I can thank you more personally. I hope to try her again today at the Richhill end of the railway - where she can have a longer run. At the moment, with platform building, ballasting, grass sowing etc, there are a lot of things over the track! Enyoy your evening.

Tony I have an idea that a UG went for over £300 about six months or so ago. Sorry you had an issue with eBay - that's an absolute pain. Keep well Leslie

So, specially for Mr Mayne - Thanks by the way - he's probably asleep as I post this - First Steps in the Northern Hemisphere - much more exciting than that on the Moon (Yep, saw that) or getting Americans to the ISS the other day (saw that too). Here she runs even under the dubious gravity of Surrey - apologies that I haven't got David's skills with a video camera! By the way, turn the sound up - REAL steam sounds - actually it's the fan, as it's sweltering up there today! Aurora first Northern steps.m4v As Mr Ahrons said of the Midland - "The Most Irish of Railways". Hmm, now I need some six wheelers .... Great stuff Mayner - thanks a Million.

Fast forward twenty minutes, climb three flights of stairs, gently ease her out of the foam ...... Take note that Portadown Jct has now grown some grass, you could see it but for the loco...... All the way from Kiwiland and about to take its first wheelturn in the Northern Hemisphere

Now, that box ..... Sort of a clue here? Eh? Ah, so that's what it is!

That box .....Yep, that's my "Workbench"! Now go to Layouts - Portadown Jct - this thread is for Paddy's eagerly awaited little diesel - just too late for my 74th birthday......

Very nice, David. I received a loco by courier today, after paying £105 VAT on it. You can all start guessing! I'll post photos shortly, when I've got into the armour-plating it was surrounded by; then spraying the place with disinfectant

Thank you all for the lesson in wagon classification. At least I'm a lot wiser now on the various types.

Actually, it's a photograph I regularly show as part of my "First Fifty x Years of the RPSI". The Best Man at my wedding was the Miniature Morton who is in front of me, while the my Groom's Man, the late John McGuigan is just to the left of Tim in the photo. In time, they became younger son's Godfathers and a good job they did, too!

Well spotted, Mike. I'm quite surprised that none of the hundred-plus "H" van kits I've sold has been given the Grain treatment. Back to Ernie's picture - WHY would there be grain wagons in MONAGHAN? (I expect I missed an explanation posted by one of you wise young men?). Re Flange's comment - I sell my "H" Van kit as the 1953 van, as that's the date of the first ones, I understand. Why were they called H Vans? The GN Van isn't an H Van as such but part of a run of 150 wagons built at Dundalk by the GNR in 1954 - 5 for the Drogheda bagged cement traffic - they all went to CIE at the dissolution of the GNR. They are the spitting image of the Dapol Banana Van so I've done them as GNR vans (two different numbers) and as a CIE wagon with a Flying Snail. It's so close to the GNR wagon and sold so well in the past, that I've wondered about doing it again in CIE colours, still lettered up for cement.

Dead on, David, Noel's weathered container looks just like the ones I measured and photographed before we made the original kit. So, fifty years in ninety minutes - almost Faster than Light travel (if you're a SciFi type like me!).

Super job, Noel, thanks for sharing it. I presume showing the effects of forty years ageing, but achieved in as many minutes? Please forgive a correction - the four wheel flat isn't a Provincial Wagons one. I do such a kit, but in resin and sell either that separately, or with the container. Very pleased that my (earlier) version of the 20ft container fits nicely on The Boys' super 42ft flat.

Thanks for posting this, Ernie. Monaghan isn't far from Portadown, so maybe I need MORE of these hoppers? An interesting photo of the period after the GNR had finished and CIE ran a service over the stub of the Irish North within the State. I saw one on the Lisburn Road, Mr Lambeg. In model form. In Drew's workshop...... Ah, maybe that doesn't count?

At the risk of being thrown out of the IRRS, attached is a Lance King slide which shows the Clara elevators. Lance took this shot during the Society's Clara Branch railtour. No.151 at Clara (GSWR) in 1962. The grain elevators which John refers to can be clearly seen. Copyright Irish Railway Record Society.

Ah, David, the air was Electric Blue in Drew's workshop when he was building the Ranks wagon - that probably persuaded me NOT to get Michael to do one of these as a kit after the Spoil wagon (which is probably harder to model. John's news is terrific and I've just spent a theoretical £500 or so on Survey Monkey. All I have to do is live long enough - I'll be 75 when the Opens appear, if God grants. Now, now, George - Noel, like me, likes running his trains, but if he wants a wagon enough, he puts a lot of skill into building (my) kits - see his Workbench. Of course the price is high, sorry, chaps (and chapesses?) but if you're modelling 1950s/60s, you are in a minority within what is already a minority (but growing thanks to The Lads) modelling the railways of a Small Island. Good luck with the project, John.