David Holman

Managed to fit in a bit of work on the railcar this week & and giving it to Mark before I go any further, so he can look at creating a chassis. Nothing to fancy in the construction. The sides are being built around 1mm clear acrylic sheet, overlaid both inside and out with 20thou plasticard. A fair bit of car body filler will be needed to create some of the curves and to deal with where my over enthusiastic use of MEK solvent has caused blemishes. One additional thing I'm doing for Mark is building a short piece of 21mm gauge test track. This is just a piece of plywood with two three foot radius reverse curves. If the railcar can negotiate these, it should be fine on my layout. Needless to say, this item is not finished yet!

Have you realised you are still not a year into this project yet? Amazing progress.

So, double track main line coming in from the left. Single track line entering from the right. Will platforms one and two be just up and down separate, or will you want them both signalled for each direction? Potential for a multiple doll gantry across the three tracks where you have written "long sidings", with arms controlling entry to the quay and platforms 1-3 in one direction, plus starters from the quay and all the platforms in the other. That's before adding shunt signals to the long sidings. Could be positively bristling, but a serious job to build, let alone make work. Something simpler with several, separate posts probably better. Another question - will they be hand operated, remotely controlled or just decorative? Either way looks an interesting project.

Thanks folks and love the LTSR dodge, Andy! Saw that pencilled in date on the underside - also that the model appears to be three rail, which I hadn't considered, but makes sense I suppose.

Thanks folks - useful to see how the pony truck connects to the front end, plus the lumps of lead there too. Square section fuel tank on the left, I see. There are anomalies in both the 0n16.5 drawings and the large scale set. The former has a much steeper ridge to the bonnet too (clearly not the case in photos), while the latter has the windscreen with a V profile. Fry's model looks like 'original' condition, with the big front overhang of the roof and no front coupler, or the sheeted/plated between body and bonnet front. What a stunning model though, especially for its day.

Followers of my Workshop thread will have seen I'm starting to build one of these railcars in 7mm scale. I've got some drawings and several photos, both in books and last year's Donegal Society calendar - as per the fine model above. One or two questions have arisen since I started making the basic shell of the model and any help with these will be most welcome: The area around the engine/bonnet always seems very dark in photos, so any info on both the front end and the lower edge of the bonnet will be useful Likewise the front pony truck and front coupling What colour were the seats? The fuel tank, which I think should be on the right hand side: is it round or square? The top picture shows an interesting cowl/cover linking the front of the body with the bonnet. Guess I'm probably going to represent this with filler, filed to shape, but what was it on the prototype? Tarpaulin, beaten metal, or something else? Precision Paints do the correct Donegal colours, but does anyone know of a good match car rattle can by any chance? What colours should I paint the driver? Are there any commercial transfers available for the Donegal in 7mm scale? Many thanks.

Can't delete! The other thread is the one I want

Suggest you provide a sketch plan of the layout. Need to know which are the running lines and which are just sidings. Is the station a terminus, or part of a continuous run? From this it should be possible to work out what signals are needed and where.

6mm birch ply by the look of it? Nice. Very nice!

We wish!

The builders plates finally arrived for the Barclay tank, so have now been glued in place. Slightly disappointed with them as they are not legible, but they only cost me a fiver, whereas the set I commissioned for Wolf Dog came to over forty quid. You pays your money... So. while there are unfinished projects with both Swilly and Donegal wagons, decided it was time to start looking into a brand new project, namely Donegal Railcar number 7. Part of my Swilly-Donegal makeover for Fintonagh involves repainting Clogher Valley Railcar No 1 and likewise making Phoenix out over the Atkinson-Walker tractor. However, I want at least one more railcar and it will need to be one of the earlier models as none of the later, four coupled ones will fit on my turntable. So, number 7 it is, or indeed number 8. They were historic vehicles, being the first ever diesel railcars, certainly in these islands and maybe anywhere. They could haul up to four wagons and often worked in tandem with other railcars. Photos are available & I have a couple of decent drawings, plus there is a useful section in Roger Cromblehome's County Donegal Companion. So should be straightforward then? Well, not exactly it seems. The main issue is the chassis, with a scale 14 feet between the rear bogie and the front pony truck. The latter is pivoted just under the driving position on the prototype, but Roger suggests this will not work well on tight curves in model form. The bogie itself is 5'6" wheelbase, which if trying to adapt a 4mm scale one means 38.5mm and so far, have not been able to find anything suitable. However Mark Clark's 'Locos & Stuff' website offers a host of 3D printed options and with Mark being a Chatham Club member, this seems the way to go. Mark is also one of life's genuinely clever people who has taught himself 3D printing, in the process learning how these machines actually work. He also understands way more about mechanical things than me & agrees with Roger's description on making the railcar's chassis. The photo above shows the basic principles, while those below show my lash up, in plasticard, which I did this morning in an effort to understand how it works myself. The wheels are just held in place with tape [they are too big anyway], but despite my doubts, the idea does indeed seem to work. What fuddled my brain most was the single fixing point to the chassis plate [at the front pivot]. The front pony truck swings on this while the motor bogie will pivot from a second point further back. What wasn't clear [to me anyway] in Roger's drawing is that the main chassis plate [which is fixed to the bodywork] rests on the rear of the motor bogie giving all important weight to this and therefore aiding traction. Anyway, am leaving this to Mark as [like one or two folk on this forum] actually finds this stuff fun! So, watch this space. Am sure it will not be a quick build and in any case will need to fit round other stuff. However, discovered something that Mayner is no doubt familiar with the other day, in the form of a fine set of large scale drawings for a 1:14.4 [64mm gauge] drawings of the railcars. Scroll down far enough in a Google search and you'll eventually come across them. They appear to be made for what looks like a laser cut wooden kit, but certainly offer a lot of interesting detail.

Nobody should think 21mm gauge requires P4 standards. 00/EM finescale (ie existing wheels) should be fine. However, do not expect to use sharp radius curves or points - they will need to be at least 3 foot radius, unless you are using short wheelbase stock and even then two feet will be pushing it. Also, while modern diesels seem easy enough to convert, steam outline models are not.

No great links to the Irish scene, but they are closing after 50 years of making some very fine kits. Fortunstely, Squires are taking over. Meanwhile the Warley Club are going to run a new exhibition next year at Statfold Barn with its rather splendid collection of narrow gauge locos. The above from the latest edition of Railway Modeller.

May be wrong, but my impression was you can't do much with these Mamod engines other than run them round a circle of track, so once the initial novelty wears off, suspect most will have sat on shelves/gone back in their boxes. Apart from the general lack of controlability, as already outlined, they work via the cylinders rocking up and down like a see saw, as per other Mamod products, so not exactly prototypical either. That said, as a project for a tinkerer, there is scope to get them running nicely, but not for the faint hearted.

Looks another fine model. Who is going to be first in giving them some serious weathering? Looking forward to seeing the results.

Great news Paul - and about time! If I had mine again (and knowing what I know now), S would be very tempting. Lovely scale, lovely size and that rather enigmatic, imperial track gauge too. Sixty three sixty fourths of an inch for those who didn't know. Looking forward to reports as the project develops and what a jewel Elf is too.

After the delights of a week touring the south of Spain, the return to Blighty seems to have coincided with a series of soft days to rival anything from over the water. A good time to get back to a bit of modelling... Am afraid the Barclay has gone through another livery change, though only minor this time. Decided that my Swilly logo attempt wasn't good enough [far too big to my eyes], so it was out with the meths to remove it. Swilly locos varied in having the lozenge, lettering, or even nothing at all, so on the basis that if I can't [yet] get the first two right, then nothing at all is the best option for now. Currently on the workbench are two Donegal sliding door vans. These are scratch built, plasticard bodies on Alphagraphix white metal chassis, with Slater's wheels. Plenty of detailing still needed.

Had the "Emergency" turned out differently, such things might just have happened...

As long as nothing is getting hot, would hope all is well.

Fantastic bit of work. Love it when simple ingredients come together like this - and the paint job is superb. Not just the wood but that lovely dark rust on the ironwork

Another 'Oh my!' from me Ken. The loco looks great and am sure the detailing will gild the lily, as it were.

Excellent! Though credit must go to Alan and Ken for the idea in the first place. Personally, I'm waiting for the woodwork muse before I begin mine...

For Ian Rathbone's book on painting and lining and he does the same. Reading about it not quite the same as doing it though!

Stuff! The bandof our lives, JB - we all have way too much of it. Be ruthless? Easier said than done. Reorganize? As above Dig down? Expand upwards or outwards? All down to money... Don't envy you.

Thanks again folks, but am starting to think my time would be better spent working on my hand lettering skills. That said, fine white marker pens are hard to find, so looks like I need to practice more with my lining pens!