David Holman

Got my Sir Henry drawing from Manchester Museum of Science and Industry. Comes on a CD and is very much of the general arrangement type. The museum holds many BP drawings, though the site can be difficult to search - or was when I used it. A telephone call was very helpful.

Works for me! Another one added to the list. The revolution gathers pace!

Vacuum powered turntables fairly common this side of the water, especially at depots where big engines were involved. Notice the brake pipe on the Pacific is connected to the table, in effect sucking itself round. Another type involved cranking a handle on a box at one end of the table. A bit like opening sluice gates on a lock. Speaking of Lough's (spot the Segway here), BBC four repeated a lovely series last week, featuring Lough Erne through the seasons. Sadly, no mention of locomotives of that name...

Thanks Ken, and everyone. Have done hand lettering for a while now . Started with a white gel pen, but soon graduated to an old fashioned dipping pen and white acrylic ink. Looks ok, provided you don't get too close, though recent use of transfers has shown I am not as neat as I'd like! At least most lettering on Irish railways is fairly simple - just a shame you can't get Letraset anymore. Used it in my first Sligo vans and it was ideal.

Alphagraphix do card kits of many of the Sligo coaches. Ok, they are in 7mm scale, but easily reduced on a printer. At four quid each, they make a good basis for scratchbuilding in plastic.

Mixed Fish When I started the J19 back at the end of May, it was always with the aim of giving it a train to haul. Hence, the addition of the MGWR 'hearse' van [for fish] and the glasshouse brake to offer limited passenger accommodation. The ensemble will be completed with three 'semis', which are the next project, but for now train is made up with a couple of Sligo and one GNRI van. At the moment, while the J19 has a Dingham hook coupling, the other vehicles have three links. Ideally, would like use Dinghams on the rest, but have yet to sort out how to make the sequence work. The problem is that Dinghams are handed, with a hook at one end and a loop at the other. Because the whole train is turned in the fiddle yard and the loco is turned on the turntable, am not sure if Dinghams are possible - hence three links for now.

The glasshouse brake is almost finished now. Over the last couple of days have added the glazing & then the main & lookout roofs, followed by a coat of grime for the underframe. The latter is the usual mix of matt black, bauxite [133] and gunmetal [53]. This was also used as part of the weathering process for the body. Martyn Welch's bible on the the subject gives a highly detailed stage by stage approach, but takes several days and is best used if you have several vehicles to weather. When I'm doing just a single van, I use the following: apply a thinned coat of the weathering mix, starting at the sole bars and thinned even more going up the body After, while the paint is still wet, use a new, dry brush and stipple the paint until it is pretty much dry, wiping the brush on paper towel front time to time. This helps to avoid the staining marks you get from just using 'dirty thinners' The ends were dry brushes with weathering mix to simulate the spray marks from the wheels Leave for an hour and then get to work with weathering powders. I use a bauxite powder for the chassis, particularly around the springs and brake shoes, with various shades of grey elsewhere The roof was given two coats of Precision 'roof dirt' and then dusted with more weathering powders to soften it a little So, there we are, another brake added to the roster. Will post some pictures of how it fits in the overall scene on the Belmullet thread.

Some good ideas there. Think it is always worthwhile to consider operational potential of any layout, especially if it is going to be more than a simple diorama. If siding space is limited, my favourite dodge is to have a line going off scene. It might be a kickback to the fiddle yard, or a small cassette at the terminus end. Either way, wagons shunted off scene can be deemed to serve a whole variety of places, from factories to oil depots, military bases etc. Allows great variety wagons, trains and indeed shunting, which is of course what small layouts are mainly about.

The latest RM has a full review of the new Hornby 'Rocket' set. Somehow, they have fitted a motor gear box into the tiny body, with enough traction to haul three coaches.

Fitting a motor and gears could require imagination!

Sounds more promising every day!

Is the chassis twisted? If so, might be able to tweak it a little, otherwise, consider adding a rocking axle (compensation unit) that end.

Beautifully made. All those complex roof lines will have needed some serious geometry to cut out, while the fit is pretty much perfect. Top job.

Another issue in these challenging times would be the B word. If any part of the SLNCR were to be restored, then inevitably it could only be in N Ireland, or the Republic, but not cross the border, you'd think. Another thought - what about a Suir Valley type project? A miniature version on 2' gauge, with scaled down locos and stock. Dare I say a far better plaything for multi-millionaires than blowing six figure sums annually on lower league football clubs as seems to happen over here. However, ain't going to happen.

More witchcraft - and a model to grace Bolton's Siding any day. Go on Rich, you know you want to and plenty here want you to as well! Salivating already.

Easy (ish) to do in 7mm scale. The Alphagraphix catalogue has card kits of coaches, wagons and buildings that are cheap enough to use as drawings, plus whitemetal wagon chassis and brass underframes for the 6w coaches. The SSM kit of the small tanks is an absolute gem, being designed by Adrian Rowlands of Northstar Models. However, with two SLNCR layouts in 7mm scale, maybe the subject is close to being overdone? A lovely railway, with plenty more options yet, methinks!

Yup, always well ahead of themselves .

Features in this month's RM. Also a nice review of those iconic beer keg wagons. Get mine on line these days, but in the shops from Thursday. The magazine, not the beer kegs... Irish railways featuring more often in the model press at the moment, which can only be a good thing.

The 5p coin does it every time - though the wagons have far more detail.

2mmFS always welcome in my book, whatever the gauge, even if a rare mix of watch making and witchcraft! Bet there aren't many 5'3 layouts in this scale - trust you have seen the latest MRJ?

After a month or so, have been able to get back to the MGWR 'Glasshouse' brake van. With a 12'6 chassis, it seemed appropriate to make it compensated on the model. Digging through my spares boxes, I was pleased to find what appeared to be several units, though one of them turned out to be for a 6w coach: I think they came from Richard Chown's estate. Either way, it was a simple job to set them up, though the 3'1 wagon wheels seem rather small, albeit correct. The rest of the chassis proved quite challenging: My spares box proved fruitless in terms of W-irons with suitably sized springs, so I had to cobble them together by chopping off the springs from some standard white metal castings and substituting springs made from plastic. Sadly, they don't have individual leaves on them, but hopefully this will eventually not notice under a coat of grime. I also needed to make up 8 spring hangers from wire and plastic rod/strip. A bit crude, but the previous comments apply here too. Then there was the brake gear! No problem re brake shoes, which I fixed to some 60 thou square strip, but the linkage proved interesting and it took a while to work it out from the drawing I had. Once again, it is mostly representational and certainly more chunky than the prototype, but will be partially hidden behind the footboards, so hopefully passes muster with the obligatory heavy weathering. Buffers are white metal castings and then it was time for the paint shop. Halfords rattle can primer is the base colour, then hand lettered using a dipping pen and white ink. However, whether the prototype ever wore GSR livery is debatable. Mr jhbachill thinks these vans would not have survived for long after the closure of the western branch lines they were built for. However, my Belmullet branch is assumed to have lasted into the 1950s, so at least one might have been kept for this line. Hence, the dark MGWR livery has been replaced with grey, though is now at least 15-20 years since a repaint, so will get a fair bit of weathering.

Remarkable!

This edition edited by Jerry Clifford, so no surprise that there is a 2mm scale bias. All very interesting of course, but highlight has to be an article by Mick Rawlings (of Ballyconnell Road). Titled Kitchen Table Modelling, he takes us through how he built his 3mmFS U class 4-4-0, complete with working inside valve gear. Had the great pleasure of operating BR last year with Mick and while he insists his locos are essentially quite simple, like all such things, they are actually on a higher plane, both in looks and operation. MRJ rarely ventures outside Great Britain, so good to see Mick's work included. And quite right too.

Still think it is alchemy!

As 'ongoing thingy' stuff goes, it certainly needs adding to the list!