leslie10646

Have to agree with the last post - which is why I have a dozen "ornge" ones on order - they only sent ORNGE ones up North, you know? Now, what's next from you guys after your mining wagons? Maybe I should open a book on it?

Just a line or two to say thanks to Paul and the SDMRC team for a great weekend. This exhibition was the first I attended in the "South" (two years ago) and I was more than pleased with the result and the splendid hospitality. A great place to meet loads of my customers, to put a name to a face and to hear the uses to which my kits get put. And, of course, just generally have great craic. Dun Laoghaire was splendid, as were Eoin's wonderful DARTS - I may be steam to the gills, but I have no doubt that electric trains are best for railways! Well done the IRM chaps with their bubbles - I took full advantage of their offer, now that they have decided to do them in the right colour! Still on the subject of bubbles - my felicitations to whoever it was who built the rake of orange ones running on Lucan South (another nice layout!). A nice piece of work. Finally, I've just heard from Richard that he made it safely home - we had left Holyhead at 1245am this morning and had our fastest ever run to Reading (and bed!!!!). R then went on to the flatlands of Ipswich once he'd been well res and rested. See you all at Raheny (DV) in a year's time. Leslie

Ah, Rich, that'd be telling' (but thanks for asking, I'm certainly not complaining!) - I can afford to buy some of Project Four! Great to see a lot of my regular customers - some who have been buying Provincial Wagons since the start TEN years ago! A brave few thousand wagons spread, literally Worldwide, since then. Thanks to those who came by today - I'll be at Blackrock for the rest of the weekend! Great event as always. Well done SDMRC.

Well, now that I know what Project 4 is, Christmas is sorted! Well done you guys. It really added to the fun of the day to see the queue of lads at your stand patients awaiting their bubbles! Leslie

Broithe You've solved my problem of the colour for my containers - I'll get them finished in that tartan - one of the "oranges" must be right! Leslie

And I thought I had trouble getting stuff from the Isle of Wight (60 miles away from me)! The Irish customs didn't even look at us as we steamed off the ferry this morning with a few hundred wagons in the back! They'll be Stand 14 at 11am on Saturday morning. Leslie PS Seriously, though, I'm looking froward to seeing the Bubbles - when will the ORANGE ones be ready?

You'll be very welcome to have "a few" Joe. Sound like we have a love of a particular railway in common? Just about to set off for the Holyhead boat, IF Richard ever gets here in his limousine! Leslie

The last two boxes of kits (more beets, containers and conflats) have just been delivered, so I'm about to get back to putting MORE transfers into kits (Michael makes 'em, but I provide the transfers). Then pack up the Smart car with goodies which will be transferred to Richard's car for Ireland tomorrow. Think of us on the early morning Holyhead Boat on Thursday morning. Please remember to come and give my kits a look over on Stand 14 - better still (buy some?). See you (DV) on Saturday (Sunday or Monday). Leslie

Steve at Railtec has worked overtime to produce my transfer set for this new container - sorry that my painting and transferring skills are very rusty - last practised in the 1970s! Each transfer set includes a spare of each transfer you can see. Come and see for yourself at Blackrock. Buying there will be cheaper than by post, as Her Majesty's Mail is criminally expense to non-Brexit countries (my Irish passport application is in!). Do drop along and say "Hi" even if this isn't your period. Stand 14 Leslie

Sorry to hear that you got an imperfect Journal. If you're at Blackrock next weekend, I'm sure you can swap it on the IRRS stand. I'll tip them off that you had a problem. Mine was OK - just been consuming it on a run out of Paddington, much checked by electrification work. Leslie

I have been checking up on progress back at my "factory" on a well-known off-shore island and I should have a reasonable stock of this kit available for Blackrock, but to be sure of getting yours, or indeed any of my kits, just send an e-mail to the address on my website - http://www.provincialwagons.com As I haven't been able to source the full transfer set which I require for the container (no problem with the flat), the kit price will be €34 at the exhibition. You will still get a quartet of "broken wheels" for the container, which may be quite enough for some of you? When the full set of transfers is ready, you can get them from me by post, at cost (a Euro plus postage should cover it), or over the counter at Bangor - the next time I'll be in Ireland. Leslie

Never mind, John, this one is pretty near RTR - just five parts - and I'm willing to bet they will be seen in places a good deal distant from the likes of Listowel! Leslie

Folk Replying to last two e-mails. John M is quite right that the sundries container on a flat WAS indeed used as a modern "H Van". I have read somewhere of CIE's intent to have a "no shunt railway" - I'm still scanning through old IRRS Journals for the full story - after which I'll share it. I believe that the idea was that the train containing containers on flats would pull up, a fork lift remove pallets as required and off it would go (I think!). Anyway, Michael and I decided that we would sell the combination more or less as a "van" - hence just using the double beet chassis, WITHOUT the fancy skeletal insert (which adds cost). IF you want a proper skeleton plus container, I'll oblige you, for about a couple of Euros more than the "standard" kit. To have a 26xxx flat under your container, just add a small sheet of Plasticard between the suppled chassis and the container - only trouble is, I haven't done the transfers for that yet! Now, "Junction" 's comment about the little "Uniload" containers - when my pal Anthony and I measured one in April, I'm pretty sure they were a 8ft6in cube. As I said - on the to do list. Now, where can I get the white letters for Lyons …………… Leslie

Ah, Flange, you've beaten me to it! I'll run one of these Lyons containers off when I find a suitable source of white letters. Did anyone ever see them actually in traffic? I haven't been able to decide how many of them there were either. Leslie

Hi "Mogul" It is my intention to sell it separately in time. PM me and we'll sort something out. Leslie

Thanks, Paul. I'll be able to compare it with the photos I took of the DART there around that period! Nice idea, even if "built to order". Don't think I've ever seen an Irish "Electric" layout - first time for everything! Leslie

An interesting collection of layouts, including Irish ones I didn't know existed - Dun Laoghaire? Wow - what period, chaps? By the way, Richard McLachlan will be demo-ing brass coach building and can show you how to 21mm-ise my wagon kits. If you do want any of my its, please let me know in advance and I'll reserve them for you. As always happens, despite starting to build up my stock in July, people will insist on buying the stuff, so some "lines" are in shorter supply than I'd like. Just send me a PM or send an e-mail via my website. I look forward to seeing some of you guys there - do come and say hallo, even if you're not buying - it's nice to put a face to a name! Leslie

We have again made use of our model of the double beet wagon to produce another kit. Remember that the beet was built by placing two corrugated wagon bodies onto a 26xxx series container flat. The 1970s built 27xxx series was similar, except that it had no floor, but instead the skeleton underframe was visible. This has been the subject of an earlier kit. Our new kit uses that same chassis, but WITHOUT the skeleton - you won't be able to see it anyway, UNDER A CONTAINER! So, we have modelled a 1970 period Sundries Container, of which 200 were built in an endeavour to boost freight traffic. My researches suggest that the containers were built by McArdles of Dundalk around 1970. This company built several hundred containers for CIE around this period. This container had both side double doors and end doors, as can be seen above. The colour of these containers is not easy to replicate, so the builder can have some fun. I have tried both Precision Paints "CIE Brown" and a Humbrol "orange/brown" both of which give a reasonable result - probably a bit bright. You can judge for yourself, as I'll leave the "experimental" container as is for Blackrock! There are few enough photos of the containers and, of course film colour can be deceptive; then of course, there is what we older types actually remember of the real thing! The kit will come with transfers for the flat and the container. In my illustration, I have just added the usual CIE "Broken Wheel", but the final kit will include transfers (in white) of the container number and tare details; plus a "TIR" square for the end door. Price £31 or €36.50 post paid The Euroland price is rather high due to the Royal Mail’s high charges for a “Small Parcel” to Europe; however, remember that I can post two or even threee wagons for the same cost and I will reduce the price of multiple orders accordingly. Better still, buy the kit at Blackrock in October for €35.

Tony The "new-looking" tickets which you see are referred to by ticket collectors as "Audits" and are quite real. - in simple terms, unused tickets. There must be thousands still around, as the old companies printed far more of some tickets than they could ever have needed. They are lower value to collectors than used tickets, or so my ticket collecting friends tell me! Leslie

Kevin Not surprising really, as the sloped front, double-doored version disappeared when the original locos got new boilers - the last of those appears to have been around 1921. The model has the so called 4ft 4in Boiler, first introduced in 1902 and carried by No.184 into preservation. I feel sure that WHEN this run proves a massive success, the Z Boiler-ed, Belpaire version will appear. Ivan, I've no idea how many J15 kits Des sells in a year, but the kit will continue to be attractive to those who like building, rather than running locos? Of course, the kit is a better bet for guys like you modelling in 21mm. Leslie

Thanks, John, for the livery treatise. You're absolutely right about the grey, but in a very short time, they LOOKED BLACK. As Lord White of this County famously said "It's my layout and I'll run what I like on it" - so I'll go for black. Now, I believe you missed one repaint - No.184 was repainted in 1958 and displayed at Inchicore for the Institution of Locomotive Engineers' visit that Spring. Dare I say it, nicely illustrated in "Steaming in Three Centuries", Page 98. A super photo by the late John Dewing - and pulling a transfer freight over Islandbridge Jct with, of all things, a GNR(I) 20 ton brake van at the front of the train!

Or maybe sooner? See - http://www.ooworks.co.uk/products Just the thing to pull my corrugated opens, H van etc. My next offerings planned to suit the newly available motive power! I'll have flyers at the SDMRC Exhibition in October, but you steam men will all have your order in by then? Leslie