Horsetan

Funny, though, that all three types were touched, in one way or another, by lack of money. The B1a: coal shortages, then dieselisation and lack of work The VS: the GNRI was insolvent by 1958 The BP 0-6-4T: designed for a railway that couldn't afford to take it on Now, here's a Flickr view of some of those forked rods: In particular, note the way the radius rod divides into two to pass through the 3-layer expansion link. Combining lever, crosshead drop link, and small end of the eccentric rod are all forked. The valve spindle has its own rectangular mini-crosshead which itself is driven via a short forked link from the combining lever. You do wonder if the kit design will tolerate the addition of these refinements without jamming up.....but they're impossible not to see. Wheel construction is another source of fascination: see how the tyres are retained by setscrews between the spokes. There's a glimpse of the leading crankpin and I can see how close its position is relative to the axle centre, meaning that the crank throw is quite short - so that might mean my suggested King Arthur wheel might not work properly as that one has a longer crank throw (the pin is further away from the axle centre) which would cause the crossheads to travel further. There is a possible alternative wheel which could fit the bill: the LSWR T9; same diameter, same number of spokes, but a much shorter throw. I think we need to have a look....

This giant undertaking appeared on a notorious auction site a week or so back. Although I've admired @Weshty's magnum opus since he launched it a while ago (is it really 13 years!???), it wasn't a priority and, anyway, there have been loads of other distractions that were more urgent. When this one popped up, the description "Model Locomotive Kit" - that's all it said, I kid you not - was less than prepossessing. Only the auction photos made it clear what it was, and I started thinking that Maedb might be possible one day..... After a dying seconds bid, it fell to me, coming in at about 80 Euros less than new. For anyone thinking about having a stab at the last word in Irish steam, this is what you get for the money: - loco and chassis etches: - quite a lot of castings, turnings, a resin mould, and many sundries including more than a few types and diameter of wire.... For some bizarre reason there were also enough parts to make 2 sets (8, in other words) of sprung buffers - - another two etches for the tender: ....and to cap it all, you get 20 A4 pages of densely-typed, illustrated instructions and parts lists. I've turned all that into a PDF so I'll not be stuck for a copy. You also get numberplates, but not the elaborate nameplates. All three class members' plate sets are available, ready-painted, from 247 Developments. It should be clear from the preview photos that this is not, and can never be, a beginner's kit. There's just too much of it for that. You can see where @Weshtyput in the hard graft and quite likely burnt the candle at both ends to get his artwork just so. That said, he wasn't mad enough to go overboard, so some of the valve gear has been simplified - there are no forked joints or forked rods at all, whereas comparison with the real thing in Cultra will show loads of them. It will be my job to put as many of those forks back in as I dare... Likewise, the expansion links are a 2-layer box, instead of the triple box they should be. Helpfully, there are a number of very useful close-up photos of Maedb on Flickr which show exactly how all the motion lines up and where each forked rod and joint is. The instructions, by the way, don't tell you what wheels you should obtain. It is assumed that either you have bought a "OO" wheel pack from SSM or, if you're going the full 21mm gauge, that you already know what wheels to use. For the record, the engine portion uses 3ft 9-spoke plain bogie wheels, and 6'7" 22-spoke drivers with the crankpin in line with the spoke. The spokes are quite heavily-flared into the hub. I haven't been able to determine what the correct crank throw measurement is for a B1a - the few drawings that I've seen don't hint at this at all. The nearest finescale P4 driver is Alan Gibson's N15/King Arthur wheel which is listed as being 6'6" but which otherwise seems to have 22 spokes and the crankpin in the right place. And we'll need axles for 21mm gauge anyway, so that means a special order going to Ultrascale and a potential 8 month wait. The question you have to ask yourself is: "Do I feel lucky?" ....Well, do ya....?

I wonder what the GSR / CIE standard sleeper dimension was? 8ft 6in or 9ft?

If only there was a way of harnessing the wind generated by politicians....

I wonder if the 08 could be re-engineered to Euro6 standards

That's likely to be Tailte's tender if the date is correct. The engine portion was long gone, but the tender did hang around for quite a long time after.

I'll make a note. It's really Maedb's valve gear that fascinates me. It's Walschaerts' but with quite a few extra links thrown in, and only some of those are for the lubricator drive.

If it's any consolation, some branches of W.H Smith seem to think that Model Railway Journal is a top-shelf publication

That's just after triggering a memory of: "The town of Naas Is a terrible place; Kilcock was just as bad, But of all the towns I was ever in, **** me, Kinnegad....."

Useful. I'd have liked to have seen a better resolution of the official side view, in order to read the measurements properly. The wheelbase, etc. is of particular interest.

Grand. The SSM kit arrived a couple of days ago, so am looking at the feasibility of working inside motion. Ken's drawings with measurements would be a massive help.

It's looking like several winters' worth of work. Definitely not a beginner's kit, but on the good side has 21mm gauge provided for, and there seems to be enough allowance for sprung suspension. If @KMCEis able to get his 800 class drawings scanned, there might even be room to squeeze in a working inside cylinder driven from the leading axle. For now, I'm reading the instructions several times over.

I did. It's the SSM kit for the Class 800, to build Maedb. Was going relatively cheap, about 80 Euro less than new, so I had to have it.

Slight problem with either the date or the engine. 802 Tailte was withdrawn in 1955 and was supposed to have been cut-up by 1957 (only her tender still existed, and Bulleid reportedly wanted it for his turf-burning experiments). If this is correct, the engine in the photo either cannot be 802, or the given date of Jan. 1961 is wrong. If it's 1961, my guess is that it's more likely to be 801 Macha which did linger around for a while after withdrawal. It may not be 800 Maedb, since the few photos of her from that period (and after) show her looking relatively unweathered, and anyway she was not withdrawn until 1961 - although after that she was missing her plates and the cab windows prior to being set aside for preservation -

Yes, that does look like stationary boiler service - the engine is well hemmed-in against the stop block and clearly isn't going anywhere. There aren't any other markings on it, so did 711 survive to the end in 1963 or was it withdrawn from service before that? I'd have thought they would take the steam supply from the dome rather than a pipe from the drawbar area, but maybe Inchicore did things differently.

This view shows a marked change since I last visited this place in December 2001. There are many more cars present. The buildings fronting the main road in the background had not long been converted into holiday flats and were all empty - after all, not many people tended to holiday in Westport in the depths of winter, so I had the place to myself. The red building wasn't painted red back then, and the parts painted cream in the photo hadn't been painted either. The old structures in the foreground of the photo were of course still there. I could sort of pinpoint where the goods platform at the Quay station had been - it was more or less adjacent to the spot latterly used for turning buses round - but there was little else to suggest that a railway had ever been there.

That's very good. As there are traditional chairs on your sample track, will you be modifying their design to include keys?

Note also the freehand use of the mini-drill. No pillar vice to hold it at 90 degrees! The miniature engineering fraternity would have nightmares! Actually, there's loads of techniques in here that scratchbuilders commonly use, but very few have time, patience or inclination to film an entire YouTube video showing how they do it....

Did your drawings ever get scanned in the end? I'm about to take delivery of the SSM "800" class, and did wonder if your drawings set had become available....

Continuing to wait this end for the Z boiler conversion for the J15 - hopefully it'll happen one day