Horsetan

7. 37-6442 GE AC4400CW, no.5615 in BNSF livery. £60 plus post 8. 37-6443 GE AC4400CW, no.5624 in BNSF livery. £60 plus post. 9. 37-6451 EMD SD70MAC Nose Headlight, no. 8802 in BNSF Heritage II livery. £60 plus post. 10. 37-6452 EMD SD70MAC Nose Headlight, no. 9959 in BNSF Heritage II livery. £60 plus post.

Replied

4. 37-6326 EMD SD40, no. 210 in I&M Rail Link livery. £55 plus post. 5. 37-6157 GE C44-9W, no.669 in Santa Fe livery. SOLD to Warbonnet 6. 37-1009 EMD NW2 Phase I, no. 2406 in Santa Fe (AT&SF) livery. £50 plus post

One UP engine available, plus two SF. There are 15 Kato engines up for grabs altogether. See separate "Even more Kato US HO Diesels...." in this "for sale" section.

Here are the first trio: 1. 37-6403 EMD SD70MAC Cab headlight, no. 9838 in BNSF Heritage II livery. £60 plus post. 2. 37-6357 EMD SD90/43MAC, no. 8038 in Union Pacific livery (slogan: "We will deliver"). £60 plus post 3. 37-6325 EMD SD40, no. 202 in I&M Rail Link colours. £55 plus post.

As referred to in NIRCLASS80's sales thread, I also have a box full of Kato HO US diesels that need new homes. A couple of you have hinted that you might be willing! There are 15 of them altogether, all in their original boxes and never run. All of them have detailing parts and instructions, untouched. All of them are DCC-ready. I have got them down from the loft now, and will be listing and photographing each one, with asking prices. First come, first served. Remember postage costs must be added on - these are heavyweight models. I also have other US diesels by Atlas, Stewart Hobby, Genesis and Proto2000, if anyone's interested. As has been done before, you could consider cannibalising the motors, drivetrains and bogies in order to help get your Irish-outline diesel kits running......

Happy New Year. Anything that advances the cause of Irish finescale - and 4mm/21 in particular - has to be worth pursuing.

Very deep now.

That's the variation I'll be interested in.

"A child has become stuck in the Tunnel of Goats, and a nurse is requested to attend....." Happy Birthday.

Noted.

Kato engines generally come with at least one (or more) large plastic sprues filled with all sorts of detailing parts - including handrails, grab irons, brackets, light fittings and a good many other things. You won't necessarily need to use every single one, but rather just pick off the parts appropriate to your chosen prototype. All the ones I have for sale are DCC-ready, just like NIRCLASS80's.

There are various liveries, but I think there is only one UP-branded one remaining. The last time I got the archive box out, most of the liveries were either SF/BNSF or BN. If I get a chance today, I'll climb up to the loft and do a list.

That's true enough. There is an entire archive box full of them, so I'll take some photos of each one, and see how things go.

In that case, I'll put them on eBay.

As it happens, I also have a quantity of Kato US diesels to liquidate. All as new and unused, with detailing packs untouched. They certainly look well-engineered.

With the help of a 2mm axle, the reverse curves were formed. Everything below that transition curve must now be straightened. I'm repeating the photo posted earlier to show what the smokebox wrapper should look like: I'm wondering whether I should solder it on to the shell now, which should allow me to line up the front frames, or wait until I've sorted the positioning of other parts. I'm not, mainly because I need to part-build the basic frames and leave room for the inside motion, motion brackets, etc. Although I've marked out for the CSB suspension, the front mounting point is missing because it's some way above the chassis top-line.....which means I have to solder in a bracket for it that was never there in real life The bogie will also be assembled differently from the instructions, as I want it to help bear the wieght of the front end. I'm wondering if I should start work on the tender in order to create more thinking time......?

You might be right on that one. Engines did slip the net on changes of ownership - I'm thinking of Great Western 58xx no.s 5802, 5813 and 5814 which, after nationalisation in 1948, somehow kept their original livery and "GWR" lettering on the side tanks for years after the GW had ceased to exist - so long in fact that the livery was still extant when the engines were withdrawn! The County Donegal did this to a limited extent with the 5A class 2-6-4Ts - originally numbered 1A, 2A and 3A because they were duplicate numbers for earlier engines, the "A" was chiselled off when the engines were renumbered.

Possibly because CIE took over?

Sure ye wouldn't want to be trying that now

OT, but does the SSM J15 kit also cater for the superheated boiler plus Belpaire firebox version (186)?

The next bit is the smokebox wrapper. In the pre-"Weshty" days, and certainly in my sample, the wrapper was supplied partly-rolled - or rather, it was curved into a wide arc, and that's yer lot. The rest was up to the builder. To roll it even further to match the curvature of the smokebox shell is not easy, but you can use either one of two methods: 1. Get a 1/2 inch brass or steel bar / tube, put the wrapper strip under it, and roll it like a rolling pin on your thigh, or possibly even the carpet; or 2. If you have a proper rolling mill, you can form the right curves very quickly. Rolling mills, though expensive to buy, mean you can roll all sorts of smokeboxes and boilers (parallel or tapered). I bought mine years ago from GW Models, and it has been incredibly convenient. That said, the "S" smokebox wrapper was first rolled from a bare arc to a tight cylinder, matching the radius of the smokebox shell front and rear. You then have to mark out points at which the smokebox wrapper has to be reverse-rolled to represent the vertical sides. The fixed point is at the top dead centre, where the lamp bracket has a half-etched mark on both the smokebox shell front overlay, and the wrapper itself. Using a scriber point, I more-or-less worked out that the reverse curve would have to be around the fourth or fifth rivet position from the base. This photo shows the scriber pointing to the relevant (front) line of rivets, and you should be able to see a mark I made about four rivets above that - that's where the reverse curve will be: I also scribed a straight line at this point from the rear of the wrapper to the front. This line MUST be parallel with the base. It needs to be done for the other side of the wrapper as well: Self-explanatory is the whole point. Feel free to use the photos to develop your instruction sheets, or possibly put them on an explanatory photo CD for buyers of the kit.

It all helps. Thanks. As it happens, I have another 4-4-0 kit with inside motion - the ex-Great Central/LNE D11. This is an old Perseverance kit, and the inside motion frets for it were designed by Peter K Dawson. Some of the smaller links appear broadly similar to the "S", so some duplication might be possible.....

Link didn't work for me on I-Pad, but I'll try that again....

These are very useful shots of Claremorris - especially the zoom-in towards the parting of the Westport Line and the Burma Road. Does anyone know where track plans and drawings of Claremorris could be obtained from? I think I might just have had an idea......