Horsetan

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Slight problem with either the date or the engine. 802 Tailte was withdrawn in 1955 and was supposed to have been cut-up by 1957 (only her tender still existed, and Bulleid reportedly wanted it for his turf-burning experiments).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the few photos of her from that period (and after) show her looking relatively unweathered, and anyway she was not withdrawn until 1961 - although after that she was missing her plates and the cab windows prior to being set aside for preservation -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

Strict EM profile is supposed to be slightly different to "standard" (whatever that means) OO, I think. Then there's EMF which is not far off P4 (virtually same tyre thickness) but has deeper flanges. I've only ever gone with the P4 profile for 18.83 and 21mm, so not using the looser TOM.

Wheel diameter comes out at 12.7mm (measured over the tyre treads) according to my digital calipers, so it is a question of obtaining P4 profile disc wheels of similar diameter for regauging to 21mm. Plastic-centred wheels (such as Gibson or Ultrascale) means insulation is already taken care of but, if you're using solid metal wheels such as those available from Branchlines, then they must have insulating bushes for the axles. Anyone with a lathe and a profile tool can turn down the IRM wheels to the P4 profile anyway. Some means of extending the pickups to reach further out to touch the regauged wheels will also be necessary.

I'm just waiting for the JM models "Z" boiler conversion for the J15, suitable to update the Studio Scale Models kit. That's a much better prospect for me. One day, hopefully, it may get done.