leslie10646

Glenderg asked - Were turntables not "IKEA" kits of their time - 60'. 70' and so on? Nope, Richie, they weren't. The GNR had them from 42ft (Banbridge was 42ft 3in!!!) to 60ft (Pordy-down, Omagh and Derry). Amazingly, the Amiens Street one was just 50ft in 1930 - memory is that it was made larger later, probably when the compounds came?

THURSDAY 15 MARCH 2018 IRRS London Area Meeting “Further Tales of Irish Railway Travel in the mid-1950s” by Michael Davies Michael Davies has made over 125 visits to Ireland. Tonight, he returns to recount further his early travels in Ireland, portraying just what it was like to be a young enthusiast in an unfamiliar land. He will dwell on his discovery of the SL&NCR in 1952 and his visits to the railways of Cork from 1956-62. This will be followed by reflections on his long fascination with the Cavan & Leitrim Railway, including reminiscences from some of its great characters. In Function Room, Calthorpe Arms, 252 Gray’s Inn Road, LONDON WC1X 8JR starting at 7pm sharp. Food is available in the pub from about 5.45pm.

Richie I plan to post our Irish Booklist on the London Area website in due course - on the To Do list - behind - motorise more points at Portadown Jct, build the platforms at Richhill so that your buildings look "at home", work out why No.53 won't even MOVE after chipping (the perils of DCC), look after the speaker at the next London Area meeting on Thursday (see next post) etc etc. But seriously, it's an important job and high on the list.

CELEBRATE SAINT PATRICK'S DAY IN LONDON The IRRS London runs an annual collectors' market at Chiswick Town Hall on 17 March 2018, starting at 11am. Mainly railway, but a fair bit of buses and London Transport. An excellent place to pick up photographs, postcards, DVDs and tickets. You'll find me on the Stage of the Main Hall selling books - we trade as The Syndicate (!) and specialise in books, both in and out of print. We like to think that we have almost everything published on Irish Railways. I also stock new books by Lightmoor, plus Pen and Sword - come and have a look. A colleague sells all manner of transport ephemera like old (British) working timetables, maps, transport leaflets etc etc. Our profits go to Irish Railway Preservation. This year's market happens to land on the National Saint's day, so if you haven't got a ticket for The Boys tackling The English up the road at Twickers, why not come along? In fact, you could pop in before the match? The event is open 11am to 3pm. Admission £3 (£1 after 1.30pm). Light refreshments available and we have a continuously running DVD Show to add to the entertainment. The wearing of something Green (I'll be in my Northern Ireland footie shirt!) is optional. The Town Hall is on Heathfield Terrace, W4 4JN. Nearest tube is Chiswick Park, or Gunnerbury. Buses 27, 237, 267, 391, 440 and H91 stop on Chiswick High Road - across the Green from the Town Hall. If you're in London, come along and support the local Area of Ireland's national railway society! Hope to see a few of you there - be sure to say "Hi" - I'll be wearing a badge, but you can usually hear my Belfast (via Surrey) accent at 100 metres! Leslie

Andy, the reason that you have 20% of the proper gauge railways is that you're the only one of us without a TV! The other man who does wonders with proper 5ft3in gets HIS modelling done while his Better Half watches the Soaps! What date for Romsey? - I hope it's the 2nd or 9th June, otherwise I'm away working. By the way, my comment about the schooners is equally proper to you - A Dennis Murray owned a Rhyl-built 99 ton schooner called Harry Herbert - mind you, built in 1860! The last mention I find of her was of her ashore (but refloated) in 1925 - so maybe a bit before your time? Keep up the great work!

Ah, Tony, the things I do for you! Omagh's turntable was 60ft in 1930 according to the Appendix to the Working Timetable. Same as Portadown, incidentally - I cheated and used a Fleischmann motorised job - I must measure it! If you need other info on Omagh, I'll happily look it up for you. Regards Leslie

Ken Your buildings look superb - no wonder the Master Builder Glenderg made his comment. Love the idea of bringing the Brits into Ireland in the form of the ROYAL National Lifeboat Institution! Incidentally - the work of the Irish boats is featured in the BBC series presntly being screen - all power to their elbow - keeping a fine tradition going. You're obviously a modeller of no small skills - how about one of the last sailing ships tied up the quay - see "Irish Sea Schooner Twilight" by Richard Scott - none of them were over a hundred tons. Keep it up - wish I had a quarter of your ability. Leslie

Hats off to you Tin Tin - what an interesting prototype to try! I was going to ask you if you were including the remains of Brunel's attempt at building the line, but then I noticed an unused tunnel, so you have? Great attention to detail. Congrats. The retaining wall for the road is a work of art. Re Bray station - using old points can be a headache (I've got boxes full of them). Make sure they work before you lay them! Sometimes biting the bullet and buying a new one is a better tactic. Are you going to electrify it? Shall we see one of Eoin's DARTs going through it!

Have to agree. The present team is very good. I simply couldn't believe the discipline which they showed in the French game to gain the ground to give Johnnie S his pop at goal! Brilliant rugby.

Humph! MY 112 spends its life in front of twelve of your bubbles. Best toy in my box! Leslie

Hi Ken Good luck with this, which has more scenery on it than my layout which has been around at least five years! Are you a member of the Scalefour Society? If not, I can recommend it. Apart from a fine magazine, they have their own "Stores" which offers loads of stuff for the modeller going the extra mile. Leslie

No need to do that, Barl, just put the wagons at the top of your wedding list? Cheaper than Waterford glasses, tumbler dryers, microwaves .........

Hi Fran, If you read Mr Carter's list of stands, it appears that we're selling the same things! We ARE, except that the items are in line with our respective AGES? I never really got far beyond the early 1970s! And like you, I am HOPEFUL of having certain goodies, well - a certain goodie, long-promised. Leslie

Oops! In fact massive oops! Really got my CME's mixed up. AND it was Mr Mackintosh who designed those lovely (and rather good) "Dunalastair" Class - now THAT model would be irresistible What was I saying about age?

Oh dear, more money gone - a Scottish Drummond engine (Dugald is buried four miles from this house) will be hard to resist, especially in Caley Blue - ALMOST as nice as the livery of a certain railway running North from Dublin. Bearing in mind that with Hornby's recently announced NBR Holmes 0-6-0 tender loco, this is only the second truly Scottish RTR loco, (oops, third, I'd forgotten Caley 123) we folk on the other side of the Irish Sea are very lucky having had RTR models of our own locos (OK, mainly diesels, but absolutely Irish) for over ten years now. Is it any wonder that I am still working at 71, with all the wonderful models available?

Shush, Richie, you're giving away all my secrets. Youse boys have quite deflated my next announcement, but as it's to do with North of the Border (oh, I forgot, the Border's moved to the middle of the Irish Sea!), it won't worry anyone here! No, the cattle wagons were pre-Bullied, so "straightforward" (?) underframes. Just off to work out where to put the third layout with all this modern stuff!

Don't remind me, Dave. I have a sound fitted 071 with twelve bubbles (say six hundred sterling?) sitting alongside a rake of ten hand-made GN coaches (a thousand plus) - never mind what's around the twelve roads of the turntable - the house insurance needs reviewing!

Best wishes for this great selection of goodies, Gents. In theory, it's well outside my period, but then you go and produce the fertiliser wagons, which may prove irresistible. Why? Each one had the BR number of one of the Blessed Oliver's Merchant Navy Class pacifics. By a nice coincidence, I timed TEN of them in steam days fifty years ago - so I could have a rake of ten wagons with each of their numbers - I'll supply the list, as I'm sure others don't give a hoot which ten you do!! A lot cheaper than buying ten Hornby Merchant Navies! I hope they have the success that they deserve - the rest of you guys had better go on constant overtime to pay for it! Leslie Oh, and then Paddy might produce that 121 Class! You'll cause a run on the currency!

John A man of your ability can deal with this! One week you run the railway as 1950s / 60s, the next you run a more modern era - "Simples"! Leslie

Super buildings, Patrick. I'll post piccies of Richie's Cabin which he did for Richhill - at last the track is down, Good shed in place and the first wagons have been delivered by No.(1)49. A lot of work still to do - like platforms 'n things! Is there a layout to go with these? You've obviously got the Missus on-side! Leslie

Personally, I use Peco motors and being lazy, the above board variety. I have used the "hidden" variety in the past and found them quite a pain, as you either had to cut a hole in the baseboard to attach it directly to the point, or use the fixing plate Peco make. I note that this motor fixes directly to the underside of the board, so that you only have to drill a slot for the actuation rod - certainly better than the Peco offering. You ask about noise - they'll make a distinct crack as the solenoid acts - it has its advantages - you know that it has worked! More important is how much current it needs to actuate - Peco is notorious for needing quite a bit of electrical muscle. I know this to my cost as I've just spent the Big Freeze (and before) setting up ten points to work remotely via a Digitrax DS64 control unit - claimed to be plug and play - not nearly as simple as that - you don't get sufficient power off the Track Bus to work Peco points, so each DS64 needs its own power supply (not too expensive as Coastal DCC provided me with a neat unit for a tenner (Sterling!)). You're still not there, as you then need to connect up the Loconet from your main controller - that, honestly, proved very simple. At the end of it, I have those ten points working off my hand-held wireless controller and it's a great boon and worth the rather steep learning curve! Anyway "GNR", when you try these motors, share your experience as I've still got more than a dozen points to motorise and I'm almost out of my supply of Peco stuff! Good luck!

The big question is, do you allow me to have it haul a Provincial Wagons GNR goods van with, ehhmm, a "flying snail" on the side? John, Old Boy, as I said in the previous comment - "It's your railway", so you do what you want to with Provincial Wagons. That said, we both know that the GN vans probably didn't last that long under CIE. However, John Langford photographed a former GN open on the CBSCR - so I did that particular wagon in my "Dapol" days. As I scan the late Lance King's slides, I find all sorts of things in strange places, following the dissolution of our favourite Railway. Back to acting God and turning Richhill station right round - the way I laid it first time, there wouldn't have been room for the family cottage on a hill nearby! This weather is great for modelling, whether working on your railway, or announcing new wagons - good luck with that boys - it's an impressive spec!

Heavens John, I had to turn my Mac on its side to read this - do you think I don't get enough exercise? Personally, I used to get my weekly notices from UTA Headquarters by calling in with some cock and bull story or other. When I was about to take a runabout ticket in the sixties, I would always get one and then apply to travel on the empty carriage trains for the week, to maximise my steam mileage. By far my best coup was to persuade my parents to write to School to get me off for the last week of term before Christmas 1964, then get the UTA to issue me with a Runabout ticket out of season and several ECS Passes to get the most miles during the dying days of the Derry Road. An unrepeatable thousand miles or so of steam - almost every inch with 2-6-4Ts, apart from two short runs with No.207 and a final service run with a S Class - from Newry Edward Street to Newry Dublin Bridge - runs don't get much shorter! Happy Days! Little did I realise that fifty plus years later I'd STILL be timing tanks and a Glover Compund!

Well, if you're not going to model Irish, the Southern is the next best - think of all those Bulleid Pacifics, King Arthurs, S15s (got one at the weekend for a bargain), Q1s, T9s - almost better than "the other thing". Have you got your order in for a Kernow Bulleid Diesel? now there's an interesting loco and a superb model. Looks like I'll get one before I get one of the Blessed Oliver's Spam Cans.