Horsetan

Scrapping of Irish engines seems to have had a lot less photographic coverage than in Britain. There are, I'm sure, many reasons for this: 1. Ireland was, on the whole, a lot less sentimental about disposing of its old / obsolete stock; 2. UTA in particular was very much the plaything of the roads lobby, and a lot of railway infrastructure went by the board in order to protect or promote roads. 3. It didn't have the same widespread tradition of railway enthusiasm, so there weren't roving bands of enthusiasts taking photos of everything; 4. In economic terms, there wasn't the money around for Irish enthusiasts to save stock from the cutting torch. By the time that there was, steam was long long gone. 5. Record-keeping of engines scrapped may not have been quite as exhaustive as it was in Britain.

You'll have to ask the Garda and the Revenue - perhaps they think they have better things to be going on with?

In some of the GNRI/NCC loco guides that I bought recently, these mention that some of the engines were auctioned off after being withdrawn from service; presumably private scrap contractors then moved in to start cutting work, but the guides don't say which contractors were involved. I think CIE were different, and - being a State body - kept almost all scrapping work "in house", although I have read in some cases that the Hammond Lane Metal company in Dublin did dispose of some railway items, including the former Glenties line bridge at Stranorlar. In the case of the CDRJC, stock was auctioned off to private bidders (including scrap dealers) after closure. What is interesting is what happened to no.4 Erne, left at Letterkenny after being used to lift the S&L line into there. Like much other stock, Dr. Cox successfully bid for her but had no money to cover the shipping to the US. Erne is written down as having been cut up "surreptitiously" either in 1967 or 1969, but the question is: who did it?

Woodhams at Barry scrapped comparatively few engines after the mid-1960s, preferring to work on cutting up and processing wagons. The engines acted as a sort of reserve in case of hard times. A couple of engines were cut up in 1974, including a BR Standard 4 mogul, plus two in 1980 (GW 4156, and BR 92085, one of only two-surviving single-chimney 9Fs). Other engines cut up there in 1980 were some early BR diesels - again the last survivors of their kind. Contrast this with Cashmore's of Newport, where scrap locomotives sat around for maybe a few months at most before being cut up. Buttigieg's were also a major scrap processor in Newport and accounted for a great many steam engines, though not quite on the scale and speed of Cashmore. In 1969 Cashmore cut up BR 73069, an engine which had been involved in hauling a few of the last steam-hauled services on the BR network in August 1968. I think that was Cashmore's last mainline steam victim. There are loads of photos of Cashmore's victims on Google: click here

Would she let you scratch hers if she scratches yours?

I specifically wanted something that would give me a 16mm spacer width. It was truly the "Luck of the Irish" that I realised the hex spacers, when glued together, would do the job. I adopted the step-by-step photo approach with notes, so everyone can see how I work and - if they choose - adapt those methods for themselves. Think of it as a nod to the exploded "eejit diagrams" designed by Airfix, Revell, Tamiya and so many other international plastic kit producers. Scratch that itch

The cab and bunker arrangement of the "Small Tank" is highly reminiscent of the LSWR Adams Radial, even though the two are (probably) not related.

After acquiring replacement drill bits, I had a think about how to set up the frames. The instructions refer to using the rectangular brass screw-in spacers, but they weren't what I wanted. My own P4 frame assembly jigs are set at around 14.8mm wide for British standard gauge; too narrow for Irish 5'3". Thinking laterally about the problem, and having a trawl around a local electronics shop, some nylon hex spacers and screw-in spacer caps were discovered: The hex spacers are 8mm wide and superglueing a pair together makes a spacer 16mm wide - perfect: The screw-in caps will help keep the frames in place whilst the proper nickel-silver spacers are soldered in:

Thanks. I was however referring to the 4-light ground /shunting signal, which has never been used on British railways. I've only ever seen photos of it on the Irish network.

BTW, Weshty, when we click the links on your individual signal kits, they don't actually link to anything..... I'm familiar with the 3-light ground signal (or GPL), as it's the same as on the British system. I'd only seen the 4-light version in a few photos - what do its individual indications mean?

....but not the UK.

You'll find the Swiss are just as punctual.

Skanger sports?

One thing I should point out is that I'm building from an existing kit, on which a great deal of research and design was done over two decades ago. The game has moved on even from that: hence, upgraded suspension and a few other tweaks. The LHB Dart stock, despite its apparently simple shape, presents a fair degree of challenge. Will you try to produce a ready-to-go model, or break it down into kit form for us to assemble? How will the moulding be done, e.g. 3D printing or traditional expensive injection moulding? Will you cater only for 00/16.5 gauge, or will there be allowance for 21mm people like me? There are costs incurred at every stage. And people do expect to see inside the models, so windows must be transparent, which means getting your frames right, plus a representation of the seats and sliding doors. As you're discovering, the whole thing's not as easy as it looks!

Managed to break 0.35 and 0.4mm drill bits AARRGGHH

Most would expect either a good basic resin shell, to which detail (turned/cast/etched) can be added, or a fully-etched kit that you can solder together. And there are still the gauge options to cater for as well.

If that's for 4mm scale, then hopefully they can be re-wheeled for 21mm gauge.....

Why do I detect an element of wishful thinking in respect of what they think IR should do? Why do people assume the Chinese will be the universal panacea to all (self-inflicted) economic ills? What makes others think that IR would simply turn over an entire route for 10 Euro?