murrayec

....and here it is running with the wobbly wheels!! Eoin

WOW! David Loose End is stunning,Clogher has got to be even more so... Eoin

Hi The rolling road is now up and running and will be able to fine tune the Scot valve gear now;- This will also act as a chassis construction jig with pointed bars through the hole between the roller bearings and pinched with the brass screw on top of each roller bearing up-stand. The bars have yet to be made. On the first test run I found the Scot has two wrapped wheels so this will have to be sorted first.... Eoin

Hi These photos reveal great information on the rails within the harbour;- Two turntables installed on Carlisle Pier- one at the base and one at the end. The gates at the back of the Kingstown Railway Co Line to access the New Wharf by way of a bridge over the Revenue Stores Harbour. The Kingstown Railway Co shed roof. Eoin

Hi George A serious range of models in those photos- Eclectic! I have a Stuart live steam beam engine kit that your photo reminded me of, its somewhere in the dark recesses of the attic, it's probably hiding with the SSM 'Irish' J15 kit also! as hethinks I might get around to doing it one day... Eoin

Hi A very pleasant and well attended show yesterday, a visitor brought in a beautiful scratch built freelance tender loco he built in Gauge O, and I just could not resist posting up a few photos;- Really nice Eoin

Hi Just to remind you all, the Bray Show is on this coming Sunday Eoin

Weshty I'm looking forward to that one, though wont be starting on it for some time- the bench is full and I have no more boxes!! or room to store them..... GSR 800 It will be green, but I'm not that happy with the blue-green I've seen- decisions, decisions! Eoin

.....just thinking about it! I got that figure on parts completely wrong;- A fully loaded DART25 has 223 parts for the motor unit and 203 parts for the van- this includes all extra options, screws, connectors and wires. So a two car DART25 set has 426 parts!! Eoin

Hi Kirley I use a Keen Close Coupling plate stuck to the underside of the chassis with a four wire electrical coupler. Weshty With over 200 parts going into each set and 18 sets being worked on, there has to be some form of organisation, my workshop is smaller than most bathrooms and I spend a lot of time shoving boxes around the house!! Thanks all for looking and the great comments Eoin

Hi George No heat, just ingenuity, brute force and plenty of clamps- it takes 12 hours for the glue to set so I call it 'Cooking'!! Eoin

Hi All Here are a few photos of the current build, the chassis are now rolling with the under-frame detailing added. The glass structure, interior lights, ceiling, and roof former are complete on all sets and the printed body sheets are now being stuck on. After that the body detailing, interiors and wiring commences. A few more months to go and we will have running DARTS- all 18 sets of them! The first windowed Guinness DART just out of the wrapping jig - JHB should like this one! and another one in cooking! Eoin

Hi David Very, very nice Eoin

At last some movement, we were told over a year ago that consultants had been employed and preparing the proposal!! I had been watching the planning application list for the year..... Eoin

Hi Dave Looking good, very easy to operate, nice and clean looking Wish you the best for the launch Eoin

Next Show;-

Hi CM sent me a few photos of the layout- moody light n all, but looks great even though a lot more needs doing;- The back scene works very well, when the ground line disappears with some planting and scrub- it's going to work very well.... Eoin & CM

Hi I got a go at setting up the white metal bogie sides, made a few ladders, break lever shafts, and a bit of bogie piping n fittings;- The sides are held on with blu tack to get an idea of location and levels for tack soldering on, the motor out riggers are a bit to long and push the bogie sides out so a new set was made to tuck in under the body- don't want the ladders bashing off things. The under tank was made of black styrene, a mould will now be made from this for white metal casting. The ladders are .4mm NS wire soldered together in the same format as the real thing, small brass tube has been cut to make clevis for the break rods and fittings for the bogie pipes- soldering the ladders on is going to be fun!..... Eoin

Hi I had the parts out of the plastic bags on many an evening over the last month and got it to this point. The linkage sub assemblies ready to start fitting them up to the wheels n cylinders;- The nice little steel rivets work very nicely and give the real look;- The cylinder outer casing was epoxied on and the linkage support frame soldered to the main frames;- Many hours later the whole lot came together and ended up looking like this;- I supported the wheels off the ground and connected up the power- a slight difficulty at first but with some gentle persuasion, that main drive wheel linkage cam is a devil to get in the right position- trial and error succeeded, but because two axles are sprung, and not sitting on a track it was a bit clattery. Must set up that rolling road I have planned and it will run a lot better. Note; Some of the BA screws with the kit are not the same diameter size as the BA screws I have in stock so look out for this one if replacing the kit versions- they don't mix! There are a few points of this assembly that the instructions are a bit scarce on- so again double check everything. Eoin

Hi Dave & Dave Hope it's all going well- I'm just up and on my way to Bray Show!! Any pictures lads?? Eoin

Hi All Track is now cleaned up, new Multimause DCC controller installed, and a bit of programming done, we then set about test erecting the back scenes to see where the joins will be so we can work out masking them- it all worked perfectly the duplicate features in the back scenes line up with the bridges of the model with one requiring a large tree. We then ran trains and took a few photos;- Eoin & CM

Hi All Don't forget the Bray Show is on this coming Sunday from 10.00 till 2.00 Eoin

Hi Nelson I find it great, as I say better than the gas cooker The thermostat works and can go up to some temperature- not needed for this work. The pouring spout is very handy but its safer to use a ladle pre heated in the pot to do the pouring, no splashes. Though I do use the spout straight into the mould when I have a clen spout, it sometimes gets clogged up with dross so I made a few spikes and prods with wooden handles to clear things out- the method of doing this described in the instructions does not work very well. I like that I can work with it sitting down in the workshop and not swinging around with a pot of hot metal in the kitchen. Not an overly expensive bit of kit, if you have the dosh and want to do this stuff go for it, There are loads of youtube videos showing its use- American though so most of it is bullet making Eoin

Cool, nice little spot for the Wexford boys Hay wrennie do you remember her? Eoin