David Holman

Remember seeing a Dutch or Belgian layout which not only featured opening doors, but passengers getting on and off too! It was a sort of puppet theatre type layout - small/narrow, but deep. The 'train' was a single railcar, which shuttled back and forth. At the front it was large scale (hence the opening doors/animation), then it disappeared off scene, reappearing as a smaller scale model going the other way, repeating several times until it must have been N or Z at the back. The scenery complimented the gradual reduction in scales. It was wonderful to watch, being set at eye level, while hidden underneath was a plethora of electronics of course!

After the [mostly] enjoyable marathon that has been the construction of Wolf Dog, the loco has been put to one side, until the number and name plates arrive. There are a couple of finishing off jobs still to do, but I'm saving them for now. So, on to the train! By and large, I do not have drawers full of unmade kits, but I did buy two Alphagraphix/Tyrconnel six wheelers for this project, along with a couple of six wheel chassis kits from the same source. One coach kit is a birdcage brake third, the other is an all third. At the moment, I may not use the latter, as I've always liked the idea of 'non-passenger' coaching stock. In addition, the Tyrconnel six wheelers are quite heavy and though my G2 2-4-0 will pull three of them, it is a bit of a struggle and I fancy it will be the same for Wolf Dog. Hence am going to leave the all third for now and scratch build a full brake and a TPO, using plastikard bodies, which will hopefully be a bit lighter. One of the reasons for the proposed line[s] to Belmullet, was the idea of Canadian Pacific Mail Steamers calling there, with parcels and letters then being hurried forward by rail, probably gaining at least a day over the sea route. Maybe passengers might have wanted to do the same, but I suspect that would require some first class accommodation, so instead this is very much just a mail train, with just two compartments [seating up to 24] in the brake third. So it was this that I started on first and in the space of four afternoons, or about 10 hours modelling, the kit is largely complete. The model is far from finished though, because coach kits required a lot of detailing and this is no exception. I mostly just followed the instructions which in typical Alphagraphix fashion are not always conventional, but certainly work - a tribute to Roger Cromblehome's clever thinking. The first thing to me made is the birdcage compartment, after which the passenger and guard's compartments are tacked on either side. At first sight, it seems like a recipe for nothing to line up straight, but everything does, as long as it is assembled on a nice plate surface. The same goes for the chassis, where, rather than using a solid piece of brass or plastic as a floor to build the sole bars on to, instead, you make up a sort of ladder from, and then everything hangs from that. The only downside I've found is that this frame is a scale foot too short for the body, probably because this coach is 31ft long over the headstocks, as opposed to the standard 30 ft of most other Midland six wheelers. Easily sorted with a small fillet in each corner. The final part of the kit is the 'Cleminson' type chassis, which uses two lengths of 0.9mm brass wire to enable the three axle units to flex. So far, so good and it seems to roll well enough.

Thanks John. Kicking myself now, because was at all the Chatham Shows in the Dockyard, right from the start, yet have no memory of this fabulous layout. Trawl the archives folks, it would be great to learn more of this master builder and his work. A reminder too of Brian Monaghan's fantastic photography.

Just been talking to Gordon Gravett who tells me that Dave Walker died recently. Only met him once, at the St Albans show a few years back, but he was a very talented modeller who had a spell doing Irish broad gauge in the period when it was Richard Chown, Tony Miles and not many others. He subsequently moved on to other railways, but feel sure there will be folk here who will know of his work and fill in some details.

Nice one. Will certainly look forward to seeing it in situ.

Fantastic, sounds great!

Great start and an interesting prototype. One to watch.

A little gem. Continues to amaze me how plain, ugly even, buildings can make such attractive models.

Yes, absolutely! On this side of the water, there are specific wagon books for almost any railway you could choose. Not sure there is a single book of any sort simply devoted to Irish wagons. For me, there are two possible threads - modern wagons, that are increasingly well served by rtr models and the mostly four wheel types that go back to the birth of the railways. For any modeller of the 1950s or earlier, the latter would be really valuable, especially if there were portrait type photos, rather than trying to peer into the background of the usual three quarters view of trains going by. Side and end view drawings would be the icing on the cake, while adding numbering and livery details would be the cherry on top. As for what to include, much as unusual types can be interesting, the standard types from each of the main companies would be the most useful and valuable. I would definitely buy such a book.

Fine looking train in a fine looking setting!

The crest is from a Fox Transfer sheet of South Eastern and Chatham coach insignia.

A friend of mine at the Chatham Club does his own kits and is steadily broadening his portfolio. Recently asked him about the cost of producing a kit and have copied his comments below: " If I was to do a run of 20 kits to sell to whoever and was sure I could sell 20, the price per kit would be around £275 - £300. If it was more like a dozen would sell, the price would have to go up to nearer £400 and if only five, more like £700. This would be a complete kit with all but couplings included. The etchers and casters are all running way behind at the moment and quoting times like 3 to 6 months for a new etch to be processed and samples produced. It helps if there was another loco that used similar parts, or shared the tender, this is often a good way to make something viable as 2 kits can be produced with only 1 1/2 times the work. " So, the moral of the story seems to be the more you sell, the cheaper it becomes, while to risk to small volume producers can be considerable unless they are sure they can sell what they produce. Quote

A fine compliment to that well laid track!

Nearly there The last week has been spent addressing a list of 30 odd items, that to begin with actually got longer, despite ticking things off. Many were fairly short and simple, like touching up paint work, or scraping paint off handrails. Some were an hour or so, like fitting the couplings, or adding lead sheet to the insides of the ash pan, while the rest of the lining took the best part of three days. Then there was coal for the tender and wiring the tender to the loco, adding the handrails, lettering and so on and so on. The MGWR crest on the leading splasher is actually SE&CR from a Fox Transfer sheet and is passable enough from normal viewing distances. At last it was time to reassemble the loco and do some test running. At first, all was well, but when I hooked on the tender, the loco was at first unable to pull it. Wolf Dog will need to haul at least three six wheel coaches, so this was a little worrying! A bit of investigation showed that the draw bar was fouling the bottom of the frames on the loco and the fall plate was also conspiring to lift the rear drivers off the track. After some fettling, things have improved enough for the model to find its way around Belmullet, safely negotiating the points and single slip. However, I fancy it will yet need some more lead sheet over and around the drivers to increase its haulage capacity further. One of the last jobs was to make up the jack which sits on the footplate - a simple enough task now I have my little lathe. Just awaiting the name and number plates now, plus there are the three six wheelers to build of course. Such are the joys of railway modelling: always something else to do!

There's a lot to be said for smaller projects that can be completed in a fairly short space of time. You learn, gain experience, enjoy seeing something finished and have fun.

Just like Mullingar, all very believable, and very attractive.

Yup. Atmosphere - that certain something that somehow creates the believable.

Wow - love the internal detail. You're going to tell us it is 4mm scale too, I suppose? Fantastic work.

The Slater's tank wagon continues to provide a bit of light [ish] relief from the D16. With the chassis largely complete, attention turns to the tank body. This is a finely moulded affair, but far from being user friendly as the tank is split three ways longitudinally, plus the two circular ends. As a result, a lot of care is needed, both when joining the pieces together and filing the surfaces smooth - because there is a lot of rivet detail that you don't want to damage. Work still needed here. There is also a lot of exterior strapping, but that will have to wait, as the next step is to paint and letter the tank - 'Irish Shell' - which is going to be easier before it is fitted in place. If anyone knows of suitable 7mm scale transfers, please let me know, as otherwise it is going to be done by hand.

Getting there With the addition of the chimney, dome and cab roof [the latter albeit not fixed and unpainted], the little 4-4-0 is finally taking shape. The list of things still to do is still quite lengthy, but Wolf Dog is certainly starting to look the part. Thus far, it has occupied exactly 100 days, so though I haven't worked on it every one of these, it must be pushing 200 hours of my time. Indeed, the dome and chimney have taken the best part of a week to turn on my little lathe, along with what seems endless filing to get them to sit on the boiler. The whistle is piece of 2mm brass rod, turned up in the drill, with some .8mm wire for the pipe. Nevertheless, it is really nice to get these fittings in place, because they certainly bring the loco to life. Speaking of which, it is now a runner too, with the motor gearbox fitted, together with the pick ups. This has also enabled me to add the brake blocks and secure the rigging. Today, have added the boiler band lining - a challenging process, considering I'd thought it would be pretty simple. Painted the smokebox black too, but it looked far too dense, so added some ivory white to soften it a little, while a bit of light weathering will eventually go on too. Smokeboxes were rarely clean on any loco. Stuff still to do includes the handrails, plus all the lining on the other side. Then there's the cab roof, glazing, lettering, coal in the tender rear coupling, vacuum pipe, etc, etc. No sooner do I tick something off the list, than I notice something else to do, but that's scratch building for you.

Not sure about the fast clock idea, though guess it adds an extra level of reality. However, a well known cause of late trains is other trains running late - just like the phrase 'knock on effect' in road traffic reports. For me, a sequence is the better option. You take the working timetable (real or imagined) and just run the trains in order. If shunting takes a bit longer, so be it, but you give yourself time to complete each move. Derailments, loco failures and late running can still be accommodated, while lighting controls can simulated the time of day too. However, am guessing with a computer controlled clock, you can always press the 'pause' button - something that would be handy in real life occasionally too!

Pure class.

I know a couple of people who do this stuff and seem to remember that the cost of starting a 3D print is around £800 - £1200, though I guess it very much depends on how much you want to charge per hour. What I know about CAD can be written on the back of a postage stamp with room to spare, but would think that once a file has been created, then rescaling is a simple matter. As to the cost of actually producing either an etched kit or a 3D, the former is down to the cost of the metal and the etching process and I believe is not that high, probably under £100 per unit. As to 3D printing, much will depend on the equipment used, though time is also a factor. It would certainly be interesting to know what it would cost Murphy's to turn out say a B class in 7mm scale, or N gauge for that matter. However, suspect that while an injection moulded/3D printed model would cost very little, a working chassis is another matter entirely. For example, a 7mm scale rtr wagon costs about £40. Scratch build it and wheels cost £10, couplings a fiver, buffers the same or double that, depending on type and brake gear another five to ten as well. Hence the big bit, then body is worth three fifths of five eighths of not very much! On another front, was doing a buildings demo at a show and a gent asked me if I did commissions. I told him no, but when I mentioned the locoshed on my display had taken me somewhere in the region of 80 to 100 hours, it didn't take him long to work out how much it would cost - even at minimum wage. Ten quids worth of materials, but who knows how much in terms of paid time. Quite how Dapol can churn out 7mm rtr locos at under £200 is beyond me, but guess a J26 or similar will remain the stuff of dreams for a while yet.

Fantastic pictures, thank you both! First met Kilbrandon at Allypally, towards the end of its exhibition life and only wish I'd seen it earlier and more often. Drew's engines really are something. A D19 is certainly on my wishlist, but so is Sprite and its pay coach, along with one of the early SLNCR 0-6-2Ts, a C class diesel and the Castlederg 2-6-2 on the CVR. Don't suppose anyone is likely to do a kit, let alone rtr of one of these soon!

Yes, need to do a small repaint on my three Sligo locos! The photos of the railcar and railbus were stunning too - was amazed how smart the paintwork was. Equally, one of my favourite pictures was of the cattle fair, with all those folk in long brown overcoats. For me it is stuff like this which can help us bring our modelling scenes to life. As another aside, I must put in an early vote for these meetings to continue on Zoom, once things get back to normal. For me, it would be a three hour round trip to get to the London venue and the others would require an overnight stay! The quality of the presentations has been excellent and If love to see them continue.