murrayec

Capt Bligh was also the man that stopped the Dublin chaps from building Dun Laoghaire harbour in Dalkey Sound- between the land and the Island they were going to build a wall across the sound on the Southern end so that ships could find a safe haven if they could not sail up the Liffey! Bligh pointed out the dangers of trying to sail into this design- massive rock coastal features and the Mugglands- a collection of rocks outside of the Island was a recipe for disaster! He proposed the location for the harbour where they eventually built it. He also addressed the Liffey silting up problem which could close the harbour use for months- first designing the diving bell which one can see today on the South quayside painted red, (Note;- I have since found information on the diving Bell, this is not Bligh's diving bell see further on in this thread for info March 2025), a mad contraption they floated out into the river, sank it, and then men went down into it to remove the silt. Needless to say they all got very sic and some died! He eventually came up with the Bull Walls idea- two walls extended out on both sides of the river into the bay to stop the bay sand being washed around the bay and silting up the river. He designed the structure of the walls to be movable on the sand as there was no rock to place a solid foundation. The structure was Oak blanks crossed over each other with a cannon ball housed in the crossover to allow flexibility, the structure was then filled in-between with hardcore to create the wall. Only the South wall was built like this, he left Dublin before the North wall was started, this wall was just constructed in rock dropped on the seabed and not as per Bligh's design. That wall is the reason North Bull Island exists, it's where all the sand swirling around the bay ended up after the North Wall was built.... Eoin

Nice photo wrennie, I spent many a summer day hanging out there and many nights in that shelter swigging bottles of Guinness, one thing back then was at about 11.30 or so every night the street lights were switched off- you would see Howth disappear, that switch thrown first and then the offing would walk-along to the pigeon house, Sandymount, Blackrock, behind us, and then Dun Laoghaire- darkness..... Eoin

The British Admiralty built the towers because they suspected & feared the French would use Ireland as an invasion point into England- attack on both sides. The Admiralty also harboured their ships mostly along the Irish coast to keep them away from French attack. Dublin Bay was the main harbouring point in Ireland and that is one of the main reasons for the 26 towers built on this coast- to protect Dublin and also as an early warning system to 'The French Are Coming', the Admiralty had a ship in Dublin on stand by at all times to set sail for England if the tower warnings went off, sailing across the Irish sea before the French made it up the coast to warn England 'The French Are Coming'. The first tower was at Bray Head South and with flags and fire the massage would reach Dublin in minutes allowing a quick getaway........ the system was never used- the French diden't come! The towers dotted around Ireland's other harbours and rivers were for the same reason but the warning system to Dublin was across land by horse. Eoin

@Georgeconna see back up a few posts where thumper asked the same question- build4less, don't know if they have a Cork outlet? Eoin

If the foam was orange it could have been Covid...... Eoin

Deadly stuff David Megapoints really is the business..... Eoin

A bit of filling, sticking, n scoring the Martello Tower over the weekend! I used Deluxe lightweight foam filler to fix some of the through cuts and other bits. Filling dry and sanded the next bit of detail to the parapet was added, this photo is of setting up a guide line to stick on the detail. Detail on. The corbels to the machicolation being stuck on. Steps for the roof access being cut with a card template to guide the hot wire. I decided to forgo using the styrene racer detail I cut out earlier, I reckon the foam looks better for the granite appearance, so I bent up .8mm steel wire to make the racers which will be stuck down after they are painted a rusty colour. The photo shows using the styrene parts for sizing the steel wire. The upper n lower sections of the tower were finally stuck together and set up for scoring the stone coursing, done on the setting card with centre pin to rotate the tower and then marked the coursing with a sharp pencil lead on the height gauge. Horizontals complete. Verticals done by freehand. The radial scoring was done by making stencils from the drawing to mark off the divisions, five were needed in all. Coursing detail done. And finally a coat of Foam Armour is applied before starting to paint. A few more bits of filling is required in the rooftop gun platform area which will be done after the first coat of paint. Eoin

Lovely stuff George, I like the scale and it's my preferable type of boat, it will be nice to see it running when finished.... Eoin

@Midland Man You can get them here;- https://www.railtec-models.com/catalog.php?&type=5&gauge=4mm&region=2&livery=203 Eoin

@burnthebox I reckon it's a BSA Bantam 175cc https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BSA_Bantam Eoin

Wrennie I have a Class C kit somewhere in the attic pile! Eoin

They scale 6'-9'' to 7' using the Expo Gauge OO Rule. Eoin

@2996 Victor For six wheelers, Studio Scale Models do a pretty good and comprehensive kit Another link coming on and more reading for the weekend;- Eoin

@2996 Victor A white circle indicates oil burner Here is a link to my conversion of a J72 to a CIE J10 which could also do for a J26;- Eoin

This stuff I had in stock which I bought as a job lot of various thickness off RPM who were selling off O'Sullivans Art Supply stock when they closed down a few years back, but I have used polyfoam board from Build4less, which one has to buy in a pack of several 1200x600 sheets at about €80.00 for 50mm, they do different thickness also. When compared to what O'Sullivans used to charge for one sheet of 'Art Foam' it is really good value and a lifetime supply! https://www.build4less.ie/catalogsearch/result/index/?ajaxcatalog=true&&q=Roof+insulation+board Eoin

Re-visiting the Martello Tower thing- I have a few orders for these going back a number of years, sorry guys! I recently got stuck back in and set about making them up. This is Version 1 of which this workbench's first post featured;- After constructing it and going to the trouble doing the gun n all I was disappointed that I had not considered at the foam cutting time of putting in the 3 alcoves in the parapet wall, one was for the stair access to the roof battery, the second was for throwing out hot shot from the furnace to shoot in the cannon, and the third was for access to the machicolation which guards the front door by dropping hot coals from the furnace and other things down on attackers at the door. I had a representation of them in painted styrene but no one could work out what they were, see second photo above to the left! So this time Version 2 will have the three alcoves...... Version 2. Suitable blocks of 50mm thick Polyfoam were cut out, each tower is made of two of them stacked. Note;- fumes from this stuff is deadly and I use my workshop extract system to avoid breathing it in, that's the thing at top of picture. This is the template I use for doing most of the body cutting, a piece of card with guide lines plotted on, with a centre pin for holding and rotating the foam, the card is set up on the hot wire table with the clamped angle and square to guide the card into place when doing the cutting. The first cut is the 4deg side face of the tower, the foam block are held together with double-sided tape, stuck on the pin, slid into position when the wire is hot and then rotated. This is the machicolation part being cut out again the foam is stuck on the pin and rotated, the outside cut is 90deg and the inside is 4deg to match the tower side. Machicolation part being stuck on with Deluxe Super 'Phatic glue. Corbels for the underside of the machicolation being cut out using a card template. Setting up for the parapet cut at 29deg, the cut goes into the marked line and then the tower is rotated to cut all round. Again the metal angle and squares are used to guide the template into position before doing the rotate cut. Done, parapet cut. When setting the foam into position things can get a bit dodgy and over cuts happen as you can see in the parapet a bit of a gouge, this will be filled later as there will be a few more of these! Next was to cut out and size the roof stuff comprising of 3 parts- the two racer upstands for the gun carriage to run on and the floor for the gun crew. All cut on the template by rotating the foam and then cut to appropriate height. And fitted. Next the cut for the door, done on the template which has a cut out to guide the wire. Then the cut out piece is cut to fill in the lower section, again the cuts will be filled later. The racer parts, the door and ladder are cut out of .5mm styrene on the Silhouette Cameo cutter, as the outer race part will be used as the template to cut the foam adjacent to the alcoves. Setting up the .8mm cutting wire to do the alcoves, this is designed to do two jobs- cut the alcoves and the access passage between them, this is done by inverting the tool for the second cut! The first cut is the passage, the tool is setup at the appropriate height, the tool is also held with two bits of pcb board on the non copper side to stop it going wavy and it's dimension changing when it gets hot, the foam is held in a pocket made from cardboard and a bit of the tower off-cut which has the 4deg profile, the foam is left free to rotate in the pocket to do the cut. Again guides are set up so that the foam can be pushed onto the tool, then rotated and then pulled back to complete the cut. And cut. I had to add a holder for the tool as I kept the temperature of the wire down for plunge cutting and the foam was deflecting the tool sideways. next the tool was inverted and I set up for cutting the alcoves, this was a tricky one as the alcove roof had to fall downwards in line with the parapet angle so that the tool would not cut up through the parapet - a few practice runs and all was.... OK, alcoves cut. The outside racer foam was cut using the styrene part mentioned above as the template, the cuts were refilled with the off cuts sized to suit the level of the passage way floor which is in the foreground and was cut freehand with a paper template pinned on top to guide the wire. Passage way floor installed. Racers and crew floor installed, the right hand alcove will have steps down to the passage way level 'Racers' in our language are the 'Tracks' Thats all for now Eoin

Not as good as last night's train! it was pretty random and in all directions. I did see a couple of meteors and a 747 thingie.... Here's a few non-guided 20sec wide field photos;- That glow in the first two are those unshaded bloody sodium lights on the N11 Eoin

@RobertRoche Looks like it's going to be a clear night again! I saw them travelling from West to North/East through Leo at about 11.00 onwards last night, they are scheduled to go by tonight but not sure if it will be the same path! Eoin

What's it going to be like when they have the full system up and running, there wont be a free patch of sky left to observe or photograph without streaks flying through! More light pollution or maybe sky pollution.... Eoin

@Georgeconna I was out telescoping last night and watched this going by, I counted about 25 of them but then I gave up as they were travelling through where I was trying to photograph M87 the Virgo Cluster...... Eoin

Welcome Mark Books;- Irish Broad Gauge Carriages by Desmond Coakham ISBN 1-85780-175-X Etched Loco Construction by Ian Rice ISBN 0 906867 86 X Locomotive Kit Chassis Construction in 4mm by Ian Rice ISBN 1 874103 10 0 Models;- As you have seen yourself, JM Designs, Studio Scale Models and add Worsley Works to your list - they do scratch aid kits for when you get more adventurous. Here is a link to the horse box build, it's a different scale but will give the idea;- Livery;- @jhb171achill is your man on this one - fire him the questions and he should be able to help. Track;- http://marcway.net https://www.clfinescale.co.uk/ Have supplied stuff for 21mm track to some of the chaps in the past- try them Eoin

Hi David This is a beautiful layout and has stunning locos n stock Eoin

Oh my, very sad news I know Anthony very well and is most helpful & friendly in all enquiries and friendship.... My thoughts are also with his wife and family Eoin

@Midland Man I believe we have already established that they are different models. Fry's maker plate on the CIE 800 is dated 7. 39! so this model was built just before the war and still exists today, also the value of the scrap metal in this model would equal 4 no wheel hub bolts for an artillery piece... if you know what I mean? Fry lived in Churchtown, Dundrum- Malahide is were the museum is set up. Following your train of thought on scrappage- surly if the model was to be scrapped the materials would have gone into something war related rather than another model? Eoin