David Holman

Came across this Corgi Classic model in a local collectibles shop recently & being priced at just ten quid, I couldn't resist! Underneath, it says it is an AEC Regal and though it is probably 1:48 [or even !:50], am thinking it might be appropriate for my Swilly/Donegal makeover of Fintonagh. Steve Flanders Irish Railway Pictorial of the Swilly notes that AECs were among a 'motley collection of buses' run by the company in the '30s & '40s, so am hoping I can make this model presentable. Swilly buses all seem to have had roof racks/boxes fitted, so a bit of filling may be needed on the Corgi model, which has a sliding 'sunshine' roof. New numberplates & destination blinds will be needed, while I find it is always nice to angle the front wheels slightly and file flats on the bottom of the tyres so the model sits better. However, what about livery and lettering? Are there any suitable Swilly decals available? Something that might require more work is that Swilly buses seem to have their passenger doors behind the rear axle, while the Corgi model has its at the front. Any thoughts and ideas welcome, please!

While awaiting a verdict on the crane shuttle unit, have continued to work on layout presentation: lighting, pelmets, display notes & so on. Indeed, an opportunity has arisen for a trial run in two weeks time as it is the 1940s weekend at Chatham Historic Dockyard, so have volunteered to show NPQ on the Sunday [10th September] & have been given a space in the main cafe. Given that this is not a model railway show, hopefully that means a bit less pressure in terms of a public debut. Hopefully, it will also be a chance for a couple of my operators to experience the new AJ couplings, while a bit of practice in loading up the car, setting up and so on will not go amiss either. If the shuttle unit can't deliver, then I'll wire the crane track to the main controller, so a bit of trundling back and forth should still be possible. Hopefully the 'to do' list afterwards won't be too long & there will still be a month to go before Uckfield. Was wondering whether to take the 1950s or 1900s stock with me, but given it is a 1940s weekend, then the former seems more appropriate. Below is Railcar 2b - very much from that era. For those not familiar with Arigna Town, I used the Alphagraphix card kit as a template to scratchbuild the model in plasticard on a nickel silver chassis. The 'Howden-Meredith' patent wheels are simply Slater's wagon wheels with a slice from the tyres of a Corgi Liptons Tea Van.

Tasty. Very tasty indeed! Apart from the obvious fine modelling, it is the colour that does it for me, because it just looks so right. The view through the bridge to the row of shops is sublime.

An absolute joy - the delights of 7mmNG personified!

I believe it was Iain Rice who coined the phrase 'Bitsa Stations', avoiding the need for long platforms to enable operationally more interesting siding space. And very good it looks too.

Real atmosphere is developing here.

It's been a while, but welcome back. Certainly all sounds very interesting!

Love it when ordinary things are repurposed into something truly elegant. Love the vision to see the possibility in the first place too. It was said that Michaelangelo saw a statue waiting to emerge from every block of stone, but bet he never saw a chimney in a brass woodscrew!

Easy to spend a small fortune on custom stock boxes - and understandable given how much we spend on our models! Have found A4 box files work well for wagons and coaches, while containers from The Really Useful Box Co are ideal for locos, once sectionalised with card or foamboard as you have done.

Immediately wondered about that when I saw the pictures and probably the only way when you think about it. Lovely model! As for Drew's article, can see I need to investigate the Guild archive. Easy to see why he is held in such high esteem. What some of these guys achieved with spring drive is just amazing.

So, apart from the cab, tender, belpaire boiler, sand boxes, etc, almost the same!. Until I saw the article on the GSW 2-6-0, I thought the Irish Ks were pretty much unique, which was very naive of me given how railways developed over the years!

Came across this in the latest Gauge 0 Guild Magazine - a new kit being developed by Taff Vale models and the G&SWR Society. The reason for this posting is that it appears to be similar to the Irish inside cylinder 2-6-0s. How similar, I have no idea, but thought it might be on interest to some of our learned brethren. Designed by Peter Drummond and introduced in 1915 and mainly used on freight traffic, they wandered all over Scotland & also ventured on to the Settle & Carlisle line. A superheated version of the 279 class 0-6-0s, the pony wheel was added to cope with the extra weight. The last one was scrapped in 1947. No idea whether there are any dimensional similarities & suspect there is little chance of the kit converting into one of the Irish 2-6-0s, but thought in interesting enough to share here. Comments welcome!

Things remain far from ideal with the shuttle unit I bought for my crane. I returned it to the maker, with explanation of the problem & it came back a few days later, with my note, but no explanation. Reconnecting it to the [isolated] crane track, things clearly still weren't right, although after doing a 'factory reset', things did start to work. However, in fine tuning the shuttle to my short length of track, it suddenly stopped working again, with the same problem - just 0.5 volts output, which of course is no use whatsoever. Maybe it is me, but the instructions have been carefully followed and, on a one metre piece of straight track, unconnected to the rest of the layout & with its own, separate 12v feed it is fair to say I am disappointed... Have given the shuttle unit to our club electronics guru, who knows plenty about these things, so will await his findings. At the moment, I'm not inclined to mess about with it & the crane may well revert to manual control. Meanwhile, and completely separate from the issues with the shuttle unit, I discovered that the axles I'd used on the crane were not giving the correct 34mm back to back. I think they were from some wheels I got from the late Richard Chown's estate. Not sure why the B2Bs are about a millimetre too wide, but in trying to replace them, came close to knackering the High Level gearbox - causing the gears to bind when the multistage box flexes in one direction. Think I've managed to fix it by glueing two small squares of plasticard to the underside of the frame, in effect stopping it from flexing, but then found the gearbox was dragging along the ground. Not good... My solution has been to replace the Lomac wheels with ones of a larger diameter and, for now, all seems well and the crane runs with its wheels on the rails, not its flanges! You might also see that that I've added a piece of wire, which bears on the unpowered axle, giving simple three point compensation & [much] improved pick up and smoother running.

Thanks Adrian!

Uckfield - 20th and 21st October, Leslie. I believe you may have some 36.75mm gauge items and visiting stock, which lets face it is pretty rare, will always be welcome.

Love the IoM railways, but less than two hours from Calais is the Baie de la Somme Railway. Spent a couple of days down there recently & it certainly seems to be thriving. Three trains in action, two steam, one diesel with the steamers in charge of no less than nine, fully loaded bogie coaches, doing six trips each day. The line is metre gauge. The first loco is an 0-6-2T, the other is a 2-6-0T Very well cared for too, as these pictures show.

Back to testing on NPQ - or in other words, playing trains. And why not, though it is a very important part of getting a layout ready for exhibiting. By and large, things are working well, though the Alex Jackson couplings still need practice. I've been concentrating on the early 1900s trains & have found a few changes have been needed. Losing the right hand [pier] fiddle yard has meant cutting down the GSWR goods. The train itself remains three wagons and a brake, but instead of swapping these for three different ones from the pier, instead, just a single van is dropped off/picked up in the right hand siding. My F6 2-4-2T [Alphagraphix kit] replaces the 101 0-6-0, because the latter doesn't like shunting into that siding and so is now with the two coach passenger. The photos show the moves involved - after arriving, the loco uncouples, runs into the headshunt, runs round and picks up the brake and rear van from the train. The van goes in the siding and the brake in the headshunt. After, the loco runs round again, pushing the remaining two wagons back to the brake, ready for departure. All uncoupling is remote and is about 90% successful at the moment - so still a bit of work to do. Losing the right hand fiddle yard has meant there were several nice wagons going spare, so have made up a 'horse special' comprising WLW and MGW horse boxes sandwiched between Dublin & Meath and WLW brake vans. Sligo Leitrim 0-6-4T 'Fermanagh' will haul this train, though at the moment several couplings need changing for it to work.

And, as others have said, quite a few years out too...

They look pretty good to me. Presume the last picture is of an Alphagraphix-Tyconnel 'Argadeen' 2-6-0T - really pretty little engine. If you don't fancy tinkering with the plunger pick up, it might be worth replacing them with wire. 0.5mm works fine.

Looks like witchcraft to me...

Oops!

A former member of the Chatham Model Railway Club was in the Royal Engineers and during the troubles found himself posted to Stranolar for a while. Back in the day, he did us a slide show, with some taken simply by holding his camera above the defences and hoping it didn't get shot at. He also went to Falkland to do reconstruction work after that war, so we got pictures from there too and even the whaling station railway on South Georgia. Seem to remember there were more penguins than trains though!

Whisper it quietly, but a joint line from Letterkenny to Ramelton is very much part of my plan to do a makeover of Fintonagh. I believe Ramelton was on the alternative route to Burtonport, so not that implausible. Much of my Clogher Valley stock could find a home, with the Railcar, Unit and Phoenix going to the Donegal, along with a fair few wagons. The Swilly took some wagons as well. Whether they would have taken on the steam trams and balcony coaches is debatable, as they were pretty worn out by the time the CVR closed, but who knows? What I am hoping to do is build a couple of the smaller Donegal railcars and a Swilly 4-6-0T and 4-6-2T, plus some coaches and wagons. That way, Ramelton could be served by both companies.

Shades of Roland Emmet, methinks. And none the worse for it.

Hope the unpacking doesn't take too long, so you can start getting creative again!