Mol_PMB

One for the Donegal enthusiasts? https://ebay.us/m/UnD7yy Interesting so see railcar 20’s fancy front end paint job featured.

They're a model of the same prototype as the old Hornby ones, but a much newer, finer model. The Bachmann FGAs have buffer beams at one end, which could also be added at the other and then the body would pass for a CIE 62' wagon. Not quite identical framing etc, but not bad. The bogies are wrong, but you could do a bogie swap with the IRM 42' flats, which would potentially improve both types! I don't know whether the bogie interface on the models is similar; this might be more difficult than it sounds. The early Freightliner containers would be good for Ireland in roughly the 1968-1975 period.

Very sad indeed, and unexpected. i have emailed them to see if I can get hold of the tooling for my etch projects including the E401. Not sure whether I’ll get it, or if it could be used by other manufacturers, but worth an ask.

Not always. I have had a couple of short delays and the dreaded schienenersatzvehrkehr on two occasions. My recent experiences of Ireland have been equally reliable and punctual. I cannot say the same of GB…

A couple of examples I’ve visited this weekend in Switzerland, a country with a population broadly comparable with Ireland but more densely populated. ‘La Traction’ operates steam trains over the metre gauge lines in Jura Canton. Typical of many historic groups operating steam over the rural metre-gauge lines (most of which survived in Switzerland, unlike the Irish 3’ lines). One of their Mallets in steam yesterday being prepared for the day: And in the cities, most of the tramways have an associated museum/preservation group operating tours over the city routes at weekends. Today I am in Bern and this 1940s tram is running on one of the routes all day, for a supplementary fare payable on board:

Wonderful stuff! Having been brought up in Essex and familiar with Chappel and the Sudbury branch as well as other local branch lines like Braintree and (former) Maldon, I think you have captured the atmosphere very well. And Shannon looks superb!

Very nice Krokodil! I am in their native country this weekend, though at the other end of it. Another rare species I’ve seen today is the transporter wagon, seen here carrying standard-gauge ballast hoppers dropping ballast on a metre-gauge line. Fun to watch. I don’t think any of the Irish narrow gauge lines used transporter wagons? They were once common in mainland Europe but rare now.

I have bought a few tiny milling cutters with a view to making some track gauges of the flat type. I just haven’t got round to doing it yet! Unusually, I have a mill but not a lathe - this goes back many years when a friend and I bought one of each with a plan to share resources, and then ended up moving a long way away from each other! I guess I could also make jigs for milling switch blades, given time

Great news! The CIE vans - which variants are you offering? My preference would be one luggage van and one heating van.

Germany is quite strong on heritage railways, and a decade ago I would have said Austria too. There is also a great deal of interest in railway heritage in Switzerland but the operating model is different - almost all the independent metre gauge lines have a heritage operator as well as the regular one. More like lots of mini-RPSIs, but most now have operating licenses in their own right rather than relying on the host railway for drivers etc. Switzerland probably has more heritage operations per capita than the UK, but they operate less frequently.

I’m learning Templot and selecting 21mm gauge is easy, as is setting your preferred checkrail clearances etc. Some other aspects have a bit of a learning curve but I’m getting there. Personally I don’t have printing capability. Also a lot of the standard templates are for bullhead rail whereas my preferred prototype is flat-bottom. But it’s all getting closer…

That is a good example of the challenge. It doesn’t just need a vast amount of money and commitment to create in the first place, it also needs an ongoing commitment from many other people to keep it going long term.

It’s worth noting though that the ‘running costs’ of a large old building can be very high, especially if it’s past its best and you’re trying to keep the internal environment suitable for the conservation of historic artefacts (e.g. moderately stable temperature and humidity) Most museums don’t make money, even NRM York has become more of a food court than a museum in an attempt to cover its costs. To achieve an income with any hope of covering the costs you would need the museum to be open most days. A few special events per year won’t cut it.

I’m glad someone here has picked those up. I was briefly tempted by them but they don’t really suit my plans. I now have a lot of work ahead of me to regauge and backdate 9 grey bubbles. I’m not far off finishing the batch of 7 H vans so perhaps the bubbles will be next. My imaginary Fenit Pier layout is going to need an imaginary model Vigan to handle the cement traffic!

Green A46: https://ebay.us/m/Tdp9Rp