Old Blarney

John, I have sent you a Private Message. Old Blarney.

Please be assured the RECALL NOTICE issued by DAPOL has been issued for a very good reason. DO NOT INSTALL THE "WATER TOWER" on your Model Railway. Please return any of these products to the retailer from whom you purchased this product.

I looked through "youtube", but cannot find anything there on our Sultzer locomotives. Lots of still images on various sites. Somewhere at the back-of-my-mind there is an image of a 101 travelling between Waterford and Dungarvan. I'll continue my hunt for moving images.

The Drumm as I remember them! Batteries removed and driving windows plated over. Returning to the Drumm Trains and their carrying The Flying Snail, I believe I'm correct in stating C or D did so. I have seen a colour photograph of one of these two sets stabled in Foxrock sidings. A certain individual, may read this, and post his picture of the set! Here's hoping! Who might the young lad be? For a second or two, I believed it is I!

Where is this location?

Might there be a Beaumont amongst these? Multiple photographs of Drumm Train A. Images from Gettyimages. https://www.gettyimages.ae/photos/archival-photos-drumm-train?family=editorial&phrase=archival photos Drumm Train&sort=best#license

Many thanks for this information. I was basing my remarks on the PRONI Maps and something that was at the back-of-my-mind which related to single line working from Scarva for special trains travelling in the down direction. Again, my apology for having provided inaccurate information.

I apologise. Can you scan the layout please! Thank you.

"The tank engine having brought this special from say Newry is running around to take the now empty stock back to Goraghwood(?) for berthing until the return evening working?" There were no cross-over facilities to the immediate South of Scarva Station. The engines exhaust and smoke direction is a puzzle too. It would appear to indicate the light engine is travelling toward the photographer, yet the up signal is clear! I'm off to search for the nearest crossover to the South of Scarva Station. Poyntz Pass?

Scarva. PRONI Map - OSNI Historical Third Edition (1900 - 1907) - This map image gives every indication the train in the picture is at Scarva. Why, Bridge, signal posts, footbridge, track curvature, bay platform in relation to footbridge and waiting shelter on up-platform and, yes and King Billy. His hat is viable - Third carriage from left, and to immediate left of telegraph pole at the end of said carriage.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EMD_GL8 http://www.trainweb.org/emdloco/gl8.htm Additional information on this subject with photographs. Text includes our fifteen Class 121.

John, Thank you for clarifying this situation. I have re-read my post, on doing so, I apologise if my tone appeared to be somewhat discourteous. It was not intended to be so." The "headline" issue was the idea of taking livestock by PLANE! I suspect it may have been conducted as an experiment of some sort." Just as well it was Cattle and not Pigs then! I would dearly like to know the make of the Tractor Unit? Was this the one designed by your Father? Hope you and your Team are keeping safe in these times which are extremely challenging for many people. Thank you for Fishing out the Magazine, David.

SECOND PICTURE - I very much doubt this picture was taken at the RDS! If my ageing old eyed are functioning , there is an aircraft in this picture and it is behind the lorry! To my knowledge no aircraft landing facilities existed anywhere close to the RDS Sidings, Ballsbridge.

All information is copied from "The Story of the Drumm Battery Train" Technical specifications for the Drumm cells were: all MS steel construction except that, apart from the early models, the containers were made from Firths ' Staybrite' steel sheet; Positive plates: as described for the Edison cell, nickel oxide (NO), Negative plates: prior to the first charge , MS frame or grids supporting thin sheets of pure nickel. After charge, metallic zinc deposit (ZN) covering the nickel sheet; Eloctrolyte: potassium hydroxide solution containing zinc forming a soluble potassium zincate. During the first charge given to the cells, the action of the current caused the zinc to be deposited on the negative plates to form the solid metallic zinc coating. Subsequent discharge reversed the reaction, with the zinc returning to liquid state in the electrolyte. ' The high-rate direct current required for activating the Edison positive plates was obtained from a large motor generator set especially installed for the purpose. It was capable of charging twelve groups at a time, at a rate of 400 amps for about four hours. The amount of hard work that went into these operations can be judged from the fact that well over 1000 gallons of the Drumm special electrolyte was required for the 272 cells comprising the train battery, each of them something over one hundred pounds in weight. 'After creating and installation on the train the cells were connected together in electrical "series" to form the 500 volts plus 13.5 tons battery which was to provide the motive power for Drumm Battery Train A' (Looking at photographs of the four sets, A,B, C,D, it is my assumption that each set had four, 13.5 ton batteries) The two separate coaches were articulated together over the central bogie which was also the power unit, with its two 300hp 600V DC motors, and the battery instrument panel, with its ampere hour and voltmeter providing information about the battery condition, was situated in a small guards compartment. It also contained a switch which caused a conductor 'trolley' on the coach roof to elevate into contact with recharging points at the terminus platforms, allowing current to flow from electrical sub-station to battery. I hope this helps to answer your question - Did they run on massive banks of lead acid batteries?

Apologies but I don't see what is 'belittling' about the above post. I suggest you re-read your post. It is, in my opinion, a matter of tone as much as comment. It's a simple observation, the game has moved on, the bar has been raised, what modellers were content with 10-20 years ago doesn't quite cut the mustard these days. With the exception of the words,"It's a simple observation", and the way in which you expressed your opinion, in your original post, I cannot disagree with these sentiments. Yes I get all that about the old days when Irish rolling stock was not available, but it is now. BY way of illustration, SF resin A classes have been superseded by IRM A class, MIR 121/141/071 resin kits were superseded by Murphy Models, IFM Ballast wagons and bubbles were superseded by vastly superior IRM wagons. There was a lot of resin in the old days, but things have moved on. The 'cottage industry' manufacturers were of their time and had their day fulfilling a niche demand back then. Some fab stuff was built by very skilled modellers, even bags of white metal Q-kits. Had you expressed you original opinion in this way, and thus, made clear your point, I would not have raised any objection to your tone or its content. Why is it some sort of modellers blasphemy to dare to suggest or request IRM start to produce stuff that was previously the preserve of only cottage kits suppliers? Might this, in hindsight be your opinion of your wording! Most in the market don't want kits anymore, many don't have the time to skill up or interest, they want to open a box and run a quality model that both looks stunningly detailed and runs prototypically like a swiss watch. Surely your argument fails on this very point as there are those who are prepared to invest their capital, their time, and their efforts in providing that which is as yet unavailable, from a Factory producing Ready to Run products! Open beet wagons and CIE vans seem a gaping hole in to days RTR market, just expressing a wish to see an RTR version of same from IRM. That's not a slight on kit vendors, just a customer request for obvious reasons. People used to make their own cloths in the old days, now everything is off the peg and higher quality. As one who was spent many years in a Family Textile Business, I strongly disagree with you on this point. We now live in a throw-away society. I have suits that are in excess of thirty years of age in my wardrobe That's not belittling people who used to knit their own stuff many decades ago. Many people are knitting in 2020. Time has moved on. Indeed it has, and I hope it shall continue to do so for both our sakes. Unfortunately, consideration, good manners, discipline, and the respect for others stated opinion, presented in a coherent and polite manner have been lost by many inarticulate individuals. Thank you for clarifying your opinion, and taking the time and trouble to express it in the manner you chose. Kindest regards, David White.

Noel, "Much of what IRM have produced so far had previously been available as kits before they entered the market and 'blew the bloody doors off' setting new standards for scale precision and levels of detail we had not seen before." Your comment is extremely belittling of those who gave their time, money, and effort, to provide us with models of Irish railways rolling stock that was previously unavailable to us. I am extremely grateful to the Cottage Industry Manufacturers who have made sterling efforts to provide rolling stock that enhances my model railways, as are many other modellers of Irish Railways. It is unfair, unjust and ignorant to make the comment you have posted. Anyone with half-a-brain is fully aware the standards of household produced products and those achievable with modern industrial manufacturing processes cannot be compared in any fair or favourable way! I, and many other users of Household Cottage Manufacturer models and those produced by their industrious counterparts can recognise the benefits of both and complement each. Nothing like stating the obvious! "Quality RTR CIE open bulleids and vans should sell like hot cakes braking all sales records. The A class may have seemed unlikely 5 years ago but here we are, anything is possible."

Whoops! Apologies to Des for my not having included his products too.

Still available - from PROVINCIAL WAGONS "I think a brake van would be more useful than a beet wagon plus a I find a kit is way more fun to build than buying a model and just putting it on the track." Now there, your prayers have been answered! Ex-GSWR 10 ton Goods Brake Van We've introduced this kit as a perfect partner to the 00 Works Class J15 0-6-0 (still available, by the way). Built from about 1890 onwards, these modest brake vans were to be seen all over the Great Southern and Western Railway system, continuing into Great Southern days and finally CIE until the early 1960s! They were almost as long-lived as the locomotives which pulled them. A perfect partner for your 00 Works J15? I have photographs in my possession of this type still in use on branch lines in the late 1950s, early 1960s - incuding one on a goods train hauled by a little G Class diesel! Available as a kit with GSWR transfers and optional CIE Flying Snails (CIE appear to have crudely painted out the GSWR and applied the famous snail on the guard's lookout ducket. Kit £33 or €37 Post Paid

PROVINCIAL WAGONS If your confined to Barracks at present, and you also wish to have Bulleid's Wagons on your model railway, the solution may be available to you. Contact:- PROVINCIAL WAGONS http://www.provincialwagons.com/ Bulleid Corrugated-sided Wagon OUR BEST SELLING WAGON EVER! Little wonder I have sold hundreds of these, as Michael Rayner has faithfully reproduced those corrugations in miniature and found a neat soluiton to the spindly brake gear - a super kit for a wagon seen everywhere in Ireland. The illustration is of the prototype wagon which clearly shows the unusual triangulated chassis, patented by Oliver Bulleid and his chief draughtsman at the Southern Railway - Lionel Lynes. Corrugations in and outside, plus a plated floor as in the real thing. Count the bolt heads!! Note the Builder's Plate and the representation of a consignment clip. The wagon was introduced in 1956 in this form and was built to the tune of over two thousand wagons, of which 1,000 were still in use by the end of the 1970s. They were used on all manner of traffic, but latterly extensively as Beet wagons for the annual Beet Campaign. Apart from the brake gear (PARTLY formed of a re-bent staple (supplied, of course!), this should be a very easy kit to build as body and triangulated chassis will be a single casting! NO transfers are supplied as the original wagons merely had a stencilled number on the left hand triangulation and it would be so small as to be unreadable. In any event, in real life it quickly disappeared under a coating of muck, oil etc!! Number series was 11817 to 14672. Kit £24 or €28.50 post paid While building a small supply of ready to run wagons for me, Nelson Jackson answered a request from a customer to produce an opening door verison of this iconic wagon. He wasn't the first, as Kieran Lagan had previously produced an open door version of my cattle van for a little scene on his famous layout. It shows how my kits can be seen a merely a starter for your imagination!

Ah, Stepaside! Is this not something one asks another individual to do when - they disobey the guidelines on - Social Distancing! I expect we could always quote the Rolling Stones! " Hey you. Get off, of my Cloud. Alternatively. Hey you! Get on a 44 Bus! What good will that do? It will help you to Stepaside!! Perhaps that route is no longer the 44 to Enniskerry. It was when I went to Powerscourt with the 27th Dublin Scouts - now that was Social Distancing.

We live in worrying times for many individuals and families, and so, I wish each reader well in these troubling and uncertain times. Regarding our interests in Modelling Railways, I can only wish each of the businesses supporting our hobby my best wishes, and where and when possible, I shall purchase goods and services from them. Assuming we have supplies, and money available, there is an enforced opportunity to decide what to do with our time! Perhaps, start work on a new railway layout, or make that long postponed start on a refurbishment or alteration to our railway. When the Exhibition Circuit reopens, and I look forward to that day, I wonder how many of the new exhibition railways shall have a name that reflects the present situation?l Lough Down - Loch Doom - Lockdeway - Lockedinn - Nogin Junction - Ottatonik Works - and so-on, and on it way go! A light-hearted thought, in these troubling times. To each of you - keep safe and good luck. The restrictions on our movements will, I hope, save many lives. David White.

TOILET PAPER SHORTAGE - I'm old enough to remember when we had to use cut-up Newspaper, hanging from string, for wiping our rear. Not the best, but better than nothing. Don't flush it down your Toilet, put it in a tin or box and then dispose of it. Open fire, wood burner, or a Garden Bonfire. Have a look for these products BRONCO - IZAL. They are available on-line. Hand Disinfectants - An alternative! Remember the days when we used MILTON? A disinfectant we used when our child was born. I noticed there were ample supplies of this in TESCO - but, none of the new fancy stuff - plenty of MILTON. Available in the BABY SECTION of the store.

Look to the North in this Four Courts image. You will see "Broadstone" as she was. You will see the bridge that carried the Canal to Broadstone, albeit, infilled. https://britainfromabove.org.uk/en/image/XAW027117

Interested in Proper Trams? Find the buses! Dublin as she was. https://britainfromabove.org.uk/en/image/XAW009777 Use the expansion feature to massively enlarge these images. Your mind and memory will appreciate the intricate detail of each image.