David Holman

A new direction My 1950s fiddle yard has been full for some time. There are seven tracks, which if you include the railcar and railbus separately means eight trains. A few photos of these will appear in the Layouts section shortly. However, to extend interest in stock building, Belmullet will also feature an early 1900s period, so that is what I am moving towards now. First up is a train for my 101 [J15] 0-6-0. The loco was built last year, but still needs its tender pickups wired to the loco, plus some weight to improve its haulage ability. Its train is deemed to be a 'private special', comprising a six wheel first [for the wealthy] and a brake third for the servants and luggage. Two horse boxes bring up the rear. The first and horse boxes have been around for a while so thought that the brake third would be a good idea to complete the consist. The coach in question is based on the GS&WR one which graces the cover of Desmond Coakham's book on broad gauge coaches. It is being made from plastic sheet. The most difficult bit has been the marking out and subsequent cutting out of the panelling. This was done on a sheet of 10 thou. The worst part was filing all the rounded corners of the panelling - the MGWR makes life so much easier by having square corners meaning you can just use micro strip. This lattice/doilly was then stuck to a piece of 20thou to form each side and in turn, these were further built up to create a space for glazing to be added after painting. The two sides took about a week in all to do, but progress since then has been fairly quick, adding ends, floor, partitions and seating, along with the usual flexible six wheel under frame and springs/axle boxes. Ordered some Markits buffers from Roxey Mouldings this afternoon. Photos hopefully show progress thus far.

Neat work and the models are YOURS, not simply taken from a box - though there are many wonderful and worthy things out there. Making your own does help broaden horizons if the right thing isn't available and can be very satisfying.

Got to be pleased with all of these. Fine work indeed!

Don't forget to check out the Bantry Town 1950s thread in the layouts section, currently on page two. They haven't posted much recently, but there is plenty to inspire there.

A stunner, but then considering who are behind it, not surprised! A delight to see a big Irish engine in 7mm scale.

Works for me. Matches those colour photos really well.

Ex works locos are one thing, but careful weathering like this brings them alive for me. A lily is gilded...

After a couple of days drying out, finally dared to pose the turf vans on the layout, though before doing so, added a wash of dilute 'track colour' to the loads to tone them down a little and make them less black. Let me know if more needs doing in this department, please. The vans are currently paired up with the H van and ex GSWR brake, though may swap the H for something different later. However, with the J26 up front, it makes for a neat little train. The idea is that the vans will be shunted by my Deutz 'G' class diesel down the harbour siding to the distillery, swapping with some sheeted opens. Am now close to completing the stock requirements for my 1950s phase of Belmullet, so hopefully attention will turn to something rather more colourful [and cleaner!] in future, as work turns towards building up a fleet for early 1900s operation.

Already been scribbling! However, not Irish this time, but as a means of using my Wantage tank. Scratch built from the MRJ articles several years ago, it would be nice to give it something to run on.

The new, November Railway Modeller has a fascinating article on the above. For £9.99, you buy a downloadable set of printouts which enable a delightful canalside/warehouse scene which fits in a foolscap boxfile. Backing card, cork sheet and a small amount of track, including a Y point, also need to be bought, but the article shows that a really convincing scene can be created as an ideal backdrop for any of the small industrial locos now available. Could also be done with 009 or 00n3 and likewise given an Irish flavour too. Never say you don't have room for a model railway!

The latest Railway Modeller has a review of the above. Based on the RCH 1907 10'6 wheelbase prototype, it seems to fit the bill for an Irish tank wagon very nicely. Will need a repaint, but £22 seems a decent price for what is quite a complex model. If you work in 16.5mm gauge, it could be a fine alternative to the usual vans, opens and semis.

Wagon tarpaulins in Britain usually had the company name and some sort of identifying marks on them, to ensure they got sent back to their owners and probably for accounting purposes too. Was this also the case in Ireland? If so, did markings change from pre-grouping, through GSR and CIE? Needless to say, have some open wagons I'd like to cover. Thanks.

The mark two version is certainly on the money. Had similar issues when I did Sir Henry - the inner faces of the side tanks are fully (if not prettily) riveted as I made a mess of the first effort. Great work!

The turf vans have progressed through the paint and weathering process and now await final detailing. Started with a coat of grey primer, then the wheels and under frames were treated to the standard weathering mix. For the body work, am guessing that as emergency conversions, any new woodwork would not have been painted. Hence both inner and outer planking was done with a mix of Humbrol 110, 64 and matt black. The main body colour has been described as 'faded maroon', so delved into my collection of tinlets and found a Precision BR Coach Maroon and Wagon Grey. Mixing these together in the ration of 3:1 seemed to give a reasonable effect, so two [thinned] coats were brush painted on and left to dry. After, the same weathering mix [heavily diluted this time] was washed on to the sides & then weathering powders were dusted on - rust around the under frames and a mix of grey and brown tones for the bodywork. For the load, decided that matchsticks, suitably chopped up, might work. Got a bag of 2000 of these many years ago, which have gradually been used for fence posts and the like, but several fistfuls have now been laboriously chopped into short pieces with strong scissors. A somewhat mindless task, but gave me the opportunity to think about how I might fix them in place. As can be seen from the photos, a false inner floor has been fitted to each van from black 60thou plastic sheet. This was initially covered with PVA and a layer of matchstick pieces sprinkled on top. Once this had dried, the rest were carefully piled in place & then a diluted mixture of PVA, black acrylic paint and a couple of drops of washing up liquid was dribbled all over using an eye dropper - same as ballasting or adding coal to a tender. The colour isn't right yet, but I figured that this way it stood a better chance of soaking into the wood. Standing the vans on newspaper proved to be a good idea, as, inevitably, some of the glue/paint mix worked its was through the bodywork and out the bottom. Suspect I'd better leave things as they are for a couple of days, to fully dry out before I attempt anything else. The weathered colours are not as dark as they appear in the photos, because there is more shadow on the workbench and I daren't risk moving them at the moment, having already made a puddle!

Remarkable. The windows are pretty darned good too, as is all the gingerbread stonework. Modern technology has certainly revolutionised our hobby, but when put in the hands of a modeller like warb, it just moves things to another level.

That looks very close indeed! Many thanks, I feel an order to Slater's coming on!

Moulded in - the master has a flat 40 thou inner side, then there's a second piece of 40thou half the height of the side, full length, at the top. The outer skin goes on this and when pressed down on the inner, you get the tumblehome. A David Jenkinson trick.

Yep, a real beauty.

Below is a picture of a Slaters 7mm scale tank wagon, for 'standard' gauge. Ignore the lettering, which is not Irish, but was wondering if this type of tank wagon made it over the water? Unfortunately, it will not be possible to adapt it to 36.75mm gauge, but this wagon is a very nice kit that I should be able to adapt if starting again. Ideas and thoughts welcome!

A few pictures showing how the turf vans are progressing. Most of the work has been around cleaning up the resin castings and enabling the corners where the ends and sides meet to lock together nicely. Just occasionally I do actually plan ahead a little to help myself! The bodies, once assembled sit on a sheet of 40thou plastic, with everything held in place with Rocket super glue - the most liquid type, which I'm still getting off my fingers. Everything was going well until I realised I'd put one side in upside down, which was a bit of a bummer to say the least - and I did say a lot more that is best not shared in polite society. The under frames came next, with 80 thou plastic used for the buffer beams and sole bars. Before the axle box castings [JPL Models] were added to the latter, I soldered up and fitted Alphagraphic 'Cleminson' type etched axle holders. These include brake gear and are simply bolted to the floor, once made up. Wheels are Slaters, that I got from the Richard Chown estate a couple of years ago. Was surprised to find that the back to backs are set to 35mm, rather than the 33.98mm recommended by Slaters themselves. The Castle Rackrent system had curves down to 4'6, I believe, but am guessing that Richard used a tighter back to back to improve running through points and crossings. Maybe someone can enlighten? Found what I hope are some suitable cast white metal buffers in my stores and have added a door handle each side. These vans are purporting to represent brake coaches, with the guard's van doors left in place to help with unloading. Plenty of work still to do, especially in terms of painting & weathering, but getting there.

http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/13696482 Guess somebody had to eventually, but won't be part of my modelling any time soon! Clever though.

Brings a fine model to life. Top job.

Suspect that if you removed the trains, the photos would still look good, such is the quality of the ballasting, trackwork and scenics. Sets off these wonderful trains so well.

And now for something completely different. Those of you who follow my ramblings will know that I have been interested in 'turf wagons' for some time. Considered building a couple for Arigna Town, but being next to a coal mine that didn't really work. However, Belmullet is not far from two major peat deposits that have been exploited since the middle of the last century and my 'Black Sod Bay Distillery' is deemed to have been peat fuelled since the start of the Emergency. Now, in the chosen 1950s period, turf is still brought to the distillery in a couple of the last remaining converted six wheel coaches. Well, that's the theory, anyway. After the endless bits and pieces that went into the MGW & GS&W vans, I decided to go back to doing some resin casting. At the moment, I'm only planning on building two vans, but such is the amount of panelling on these vehicles, it seems easier to just produce one side and one end [as opposed to four or each]. The first stage is to produce a couple of masters. The end is simple enough, just a suitably shaped piece of 60thou plastic sheet, with some micro strip to provide the panel lines. The side though, is more complex and follows the guidelines in David Jenkinson's book: 'Carriage Modelling Made Easy' - another one of those seminal tomes that is increasingly well thumbed over the years. First up, you make a simple inner side out of 20thou plastic, with just the window cut outs made. Not all of them are necessary, as these converted coaches have extra panelling on the outside, covering the some of the windows. However, the tricky bit comes next - a lattice cut out of 10thou plastic, which represents all of the original panelling. The GS&WR, annoyingly had panels with curved edges, so these are much more complicated [and tedious] to cut out than the Midland, who had mainly square edged panelling. Anyway, this takes quite a while to draw out and even longer to cut out, because all the curves need filing out with a rat tailed file - and there are lots of them. This is where making just single master helps, because you can concentrate on getting things right, safe in the knowledge that you don't have another one/three/five/etc of the damned things to do as well. Once completed, this lattice is then welded to the 20thou piece - carefully lining up the window openings. These vans were all boarded up on the inside, so a sheet of 40thou, suitably scribed with planking is welded to the first two sheets. finally a few extra planked boards are added to the outside. This is what is covered in the first three pictures. The next two photos show what I use for the moulding and casting. I get my stuff from 'Easy Composites', who are quickly found on an internet search and provide a next day service. What looks like a paint tin is the silicon moulding material. The little bottle next to it is the setting agent, which you add in the ratio of 5:100. A cheap set of measuring cups and paper cups from the local pound/euro shop come in very handy for mixing. The picture with the two bottles is of the resin casting material, which you mix 50/50. The latter sets in around half an hour, but the silicon mould takes 24 hours to cure. To make the mould, I fix the master to a piece of 80th plastic sheet and then build a wall round it with plastic strip. Obviously, it pays to make sure the master is as good [and clean] as possible, because any imperfections will show up on the castings. So, the silicon mould mix is well stirred and then poured onto the walled up master, then left for 24 hours to set. Over the years, have found this material has improved in quality, especially in terms of how easily any air bubbles float up to the surface. Once set the mould can be peeled away from the master. If there is any 'flash' [same as on plastic kits, but rubbery], this can be pulled off with your fingers, otherwise, the mould is now ready for use. The casting resin is mixed together and poured in. Half an hour later the casting is ready to have the mould peeled from it and you can start on another immediately. The last few photos show the results thus far. There are a few bits of flash to clean off, while the backs of the castings will need sanding down so there are all the same thickness. After such a lot of preparation time, it really is very satisfying to be able to produce multiple copies at will in fairly short order.

What a difference! Really brings out the quality of the mouldings.