leslie10646

Folks Young Jonathan asked me to check the longevity of a couple of his favourite "101s" and I had to tell him that both had received the Z Class Belpaire-fireboxed boiler - NOT this model! So, be aware: 00 Works will provide 109 131 162 and 196, but take note that 196 received a Z Class boiler in 1953 and I bet none of us is modelling quite that early?) the others keeping their round-topped boilers (as per model) until their respective demises - 1964, 1963, 1963 and 1961 respectively.

No, George, it was a West Country "Clovelly" in that Southern green that so suited the Pacifics, but with BR numbers - as she would have been in early 1948. I travelled behind her in 1967, for the final time on the penultimate day of steam when she did 84mph on a journey up the Portsmouth Direct Line. A more perfect buy would have been in Southern livery, but they seem harder to come by. I have a few other locos in the "Sunshine" livery - but in a glass cabinet. Sometime, I should switch the wires upstairs and run Portadown Jct as Analogue! Earlier this year, I was sorely tempted by a TMC model (nearly two hundred quid) of 34034 Honition - my Engine of Engines - she gave me my ever fastest "service train" run. In a sentence - 80mph at Hampton Court Junction, checked nearly to Woking then tore up the big bank near here to top Milepost 31 at 75mph, did 91 before Basingstoke on the flat and a mile at 97mph through Winchester Junction, stopping in Winchester in 62 minutes for the 66 miles from Waterloo - TWENTY minutes early. It simply doesn't get better! I was twenty then, little did I think that I would spend nearly a half century living within a mile of that exploit.

As Patrick says above, there are other pictures in the Gallery section of the 00 Works website of No.162. There is a photo of 162 on Page 96 of Steaming in Three Centuries and the model looks just like the real thing. Little did I realise when I decided to include that photo in the book that I could one day own a model of the loco and produce the wagons behind her - two H vans!!!! And you know where to get those? My money was transferred to the Bruce account a few moments ago, but someone else will have to put a photo of theirs up - mine is off to be chipped! Expensive weekend, as I bought an unrebuilt Bulleid Pacific at Warley as well. Just as well that Deltics are not my thing?

Mayner said: There was a paper on The Athenry & Tuam Railway in one of the IRRS Journals in the late 70s-80s and included details of the locos (mainly J15) allocated to Tuam for working goods trains to Limerick & Sligo in GSR & CIE days. Maybe Leslie may have a copy? Your every wish, John. Quick look at my index, then to the bound set in the study - I'm in the dining room on the laptop surrounded by various leftover jobs from Warley. Volume 17, February 1989: A 16 page article by the late John O'Meara: tells us that locomotives 101, 106, 109, 119, 125, 161, 163, 188, 190, 191 and 229 were in use from Tuam - all J15s, or "101"s I believe - I haven't checked absolutely. You'll have to reference the table in Steaming in Three Centuries to see if any of those survived with 4ft4in boilers.

Yeah, makes you jealous! And Fran doesn't even wear glasses. With the current state of my eyes, Patrick would have been blurred at that range, never mind the Smartphone! I was in the crowd to the left of the pics - good to see the interest the announcement drew and it was obviously well received. As with the multi-variant A Class announcement at Raheny, the option to have your Deltic in different liveries and with different numbers is clearly a hit. My IRRS mate Richard promptly went off to the stand to order two different Deltics which he used to photograph on the ECML when he was doing his Masters at Durham. Serious diesels - one of my fellow timers has timed one at 117mph - did they really need the HST? Good luck with the project, gents.

Good news, Andy. Southampton is usually a "must attend" Show, now it's doubly so. Had e a Constructive Christmas!

Right, now let's turn to David's wonderful Arigna Town - photographs do it no justice - you have to see it and have the Station Master point out some of the delights. David has a series of informative notices along the front explaining the background to the layout and how things were done - excellent. First a view of the station area - The railbus arrives at Arigna. What a clever design this "bus" was - note the entrance with steps from rail level to the doors - no need for platforms (or stations!). This method of boarding the train is repeated on the other side. Note, too the shunting signal. David pointed out the group on the platform. Folk en route to weeping exile in America, perhaps;? The local priest is seeing off a couple of his young ladies! Well, I'll put it that way, David had a more amusing tale which I couldn't repeat here! The railbus was then turned on the turntable. Now you can see how the boarding arrangements were repeated on the other side. Finally, David's piece de la resistance - the washing line with clothes blowing in the wind! Yes, the sheets really DID blow - everyone asked him how it was done! No clever DCC feature - the sheets are tissue and there was a draught in the NEC - I can vouch for that - the IRRS stand was in primes position to get the full benefit.

Patrick - your every wish ........ Here is the Great Man himself supervising the arrival of a beet special at Courtmacsherry. No need to tell you whose wagons they are? Andy did a lovely job of converting my Provincial Wagons Bulleid Corrugated opens to 21mm, as you can see Never being one to make demands, but I insisted on getting steam haulage - so with Andy's MGWR tank. St Molaga takes her turn on the beet and finally, last but not least ..... Argadeen takes a bow. This little engine was a great favourite of my late friend Lance King, who donated her nameplate to the RPSI's museum -the one from the other side is in the IRRS's HQ. Needless to say, the brake van was the inspiration for my latest wagon - the 10 ton GSWR brake. I clean forgot to show Andy my version - he's cursing my existence, as now people think his fine scratch-built van is my kit! Finally, a view of the harbour at Courtmacsherry - Another terrific layout from Andy. He says it's "incomplete", but this looks just great to me! Note the close supervision of the photographer by Andy - maybe he thought I had my eye on those lovely wagons - a mix of scratch built, John Mayne's kits etc. We spent time on Saturday night so that we could load up a display of Lance King's slides of Courtmacsherry and the CB&SCR and were able to display them on our monitor on the IRRS stand on Sunday - the wonders of modern technology! Arigna pics in the morning - I'm knackered after a weekend on my feet!

Impressive modular construction - they were putting it up at 7pm when I called by to say "Hi" to the lads. It obviously goes together very well! Good luck with the launch tomorrow - I must try and get along to swell the crowd! I promise you Stand C65 is VERY simple - our Chairman won't let us have a flashy presence.

Folks I'll have no less that three new books for sale on the IRRS Stand at Warley at the weekend - profits to support Irish railway preservation. Irish Railway Memories - a Decade of Change 1984 - 1994: an album of photographs by Paul Haywood - until I looked through this, I hadn't really realised just how dirty diesels could get - ammo for the weathering men? £10.95 Railways in Ireland Part One: is a new edition of Martin Barstow's first of five volumes on Irish railways. This one covers the GNR, SLNCR, and the five narrow gauge lines in their hinterland. Many new photographs have been added - I haven't done a page by page comparison, but can assure you that it's beautifully reproduced with fine sharp b;ack and white illustrations. For an Englishman writing about Irish Railways, Martin does a commendable job and found interesting photographs by fellow countrymen who put their camera to good use in the Emerald Isle. £17.95 Finally, for the people with a narrower view of life: Narrow Gauge Album1950-1965 In Colour by Michael Whitehouse, son of a famous father PB ("Pat") Whitehouse of Railway Roundabout fame. "From the wilds of the west of Ireland, through the mountains of North Wales to the rolling countryside of the east of England ironstone fields, the narrow gauge railway provided an invaluable service for around a hundred years." I have yet to see the book, which just arrived in Lightmoor Press's warehouse yesterday, but I'll be picking up a supply on Saturday. Black Dwarf Lightmoor are the top railway publisher these days, in my not humble opinion - their books cover their topics thoroughly and the reproduction of images would take some beating. No one line captions for them - the norm is a meaty description of the scene, doing credit to the scene depicted. £25.00, but mention my nickname on this site and i'll give you a couple of quid off. Come to Stand C65 at Warley and have a look! Leslie(10646)

The wait is nearly over! My Informed Sources tell me that the driving wheels are due early next week, so the first locos should be completed pretty soon after that! Just in time to run Christmas extras!

Aw, Andy, ye're no fun at all - I thought you were going to do the whole of Strabane and was looking forward to selling you a load of GN wagon kits!

Ah, David, I always ask to be at least close to any Irish layout. This time Chris, the Societies man for the Warley MRC, has really come up trumps. One year we were actually in line with two MRSI layouts - one of which, very deservedly, won a Cup! There was never a moment when there wasn't a crowd in front of it. It was a brilliant crowd-pleaser for an exhibition.

As I'm just packing up stuff for Warley, I'm checking through the papers which the Club sends us. I was looking to see just where they'd put us and, Bless 'Em they've put us back to back with Andy and David - so we have a nice little Irish corner. So, after you've ogled the layouts remember to pop round the corner and say "hi" to us at the IRRS Stand C65. I hope to see lots of you at the weekend. Leslie (and Richard) PS Wow, I've just noticed that The Lads have a whole Island to themselves at B31a!

Now, "back to business". I won't be overtly selling Provincial Wagons at Warley, but I'll happily DELIVER pre-orders there. Please let me know what you want, either by the e-mail address on my website, or by PM here. Obviously, having had to miss Raheny, I've plenty of stocks of most wagons, especially my new GSWR 10 ton brake van - intended Raheny prices will apply. You'll find Richard McLachlan and I on Stand C65 - the Irish Railway Record Society, London Area, so drop by and say "Hi". We'll be displaying (and selling) digitised drawings from the Society archive - locomotives, coaches, wagons, buildings, signalling diagrams - you name it! Come and see the superb drawings of the Dundalk Newry and Greenore line - a work of beauty. I'll be selling a selection of recently published Irish railway books and some out of print works. We look forward to seeing you - never a better year to come with two superb Irish layouts, the IRM guys and us! Leslie

First, Andy, my condolences on the loss of your Mum. I'm not surprised to see the effusive praise on another thread for Castlederg - an advantage with being in "Weeping Exile" is that you can see Andy and David's layouts without having to go too far, for exhibition managers here in England know a good thing when they see it. Castlederg is seriously wonderful modelling - as Andy knows - one of my first homes - I went to school there at the age of four - my Dad was a Sergeant in the RUC there - unhappily fifteen years after the tramway closed. My first train set was delivered to our home in Castlederg by a fat man with a beard at Christmas 1950.

Good luck with your interesting project - The Locomotive that Never Was - it could be a film? Henry Forbes, in true style, made quite a success of the little tractor after ten months of surgery at Dundalk. I always assumed that it was simply the Strabane shunter, but when scanning Lance King's photos, I realised that successive photos of Phoenix were at Strabane and Stranorlar! I was tempted to get a model made of another loco which never made it off the drawing board - Ron Pocklington's single ended Turf Burner! I could replace my G Class with one?

NO trade - believe me, I've tried every time it has run. Apparently the Museum does not want any there, so the only stand you're likely to see is the fellow who sells books at IRRSA meetings in Dublin - he has "Grandfather" rights! Now, he does turn up the odd bit of interesting railway paperwork, but otherwise, Andy, you'll have a cheap weekend! Enjoy it nonetheless! As others have said - an amazing place to have a model exhibition.

Hi Joe Well, if we're into blowing trumpets, Provincial Wagons do the CIE 1970 four wheel flat - designed for 20ft containers as a kit for £20. If you need several, I'll knock a bit off as I save postage. See http://www.provincialwagons.com/--7/ I've just noticed that I don't mention the Flat price - must update the website!

Noel See a reply of mine on another thread. In the 1960s CIE had a Pilot Engine at many main stations to deal with sundry shunting and rescuing trains whose unreliable A Class had failed. So you chose your shortest, least useful, siding and bung one of them there as your station pilot?

Tony From watching your videos, the layout looks as if it could be circuit, but you seem to be saying it's end to end? If, like me, you like to watch trains going by and what's nicer than a blue GN loco passing by - then can you adjust the layout to be an oval? As for the bit about putting scenery up, don't give up. I'll start a thread on Portadown Junction - 21x 17 oval (of sorts) and you can see that after FIVE YEARS not only is there not a blade of grass of scenery, but I can watch No.207 plod round with The Enterprise (it needs the weight treatment mentioned above by David White); or my little U Class with four bogies, which it's pretty happy with four bogies (without any treatment). My UG romps away with ten bogies! I've avoided showing anyone what's in the loft as it would destroy any reputation I have, but I'll do it in the hope that it will encourage you to carry on. You're miles ahead of me - I'm laying Portadown Goods Yard, during my enforced absence from Raheny! KEEP IT UP! Leslie

along with random failures built into the chip to force rescue by modeller operators.. Spot on Robert! I'm afraid that until they put a good american diesel engine in them, these locos were not too good. As a result, most significant stations had "Pilot Locomotives" (there were pages in the WTT of the hours when they were on duty and where). What today is referred to as a Thunderbird Loco. So, I've found a use for the older As in my collection - "standing pilot". Thanks, Robert!

Somebody has to ask the question: will there be space to fit a smoke unit to the original Crossley engined versions.............. Nothing daft about that question, Glover, the real things were notorious smoke producers. But it would need to be a very high quality unit which blasted out more, depending on the torque the loco was producing at the time - Maybe not......... Add a hundred Euros to the price!

Glover, young boy - give up the fags - then you can afford every livery you can imagine! I only ever puffed cigars and now I can't walk up hills because of my COPD. You want to have decades more to run trains through your famous station (remember my house is named "Pettigo Fair" - the Fair was on the day (established from the GNR Weekly Notices in the IRRS Archive) on which The Boss was born, hence the name. The loco is sure to be a winner - almost as many variants as the J15s!

Great choice, lads. All the very best with the production! Lord, I'll be 73 when you get it to me. Will A1 be the only one you'll do in silver, or do I have to wait until I'm 74 (if God grants...). (Now what do I do with the two I've got already - I know, a diesel scrap line behind my steam shed .....) Only kidding, a really great choice and you'll get my order soon - even if the Blessed Oliver never wanted to "Buy British". Have a great show - I bet it has caused lots of excitement and rightly too. If I'd been there, I'd be along with €50 right now. Leslie