Mol_PMB

Excellent- thanks John. I’d like etches for a luggage van and a heating van, plus a roof for each. I would also be interested in the 3D printed detail parts for these if you do produce them.

Ah, that’s very good news, thank you. Panic over! For some reason I’m not getting these emails from 4D.

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

Thank you!

Something to do with depot facilities? Is the train too long for the pit roads, and has to be inspected one way round to do one end, then turned to get the other end over a pit?

The fixing screws are modern, so it probably doesn't belong to that gate originally. Perhaps it is attempting to acquire provenance?

Some of the former Enterprise Mk2 coaches and a driving trailer were repurposed into 80 class trailers to replace damaged vehicles. For a while, one set comprised ex-Enterprise intermediate and driving trailers, basically types already made by IRM. All you would need is the power car and a repaint of the coaches. That wasn't a typical set though. Jonathan Allen has quite a few photos of 80s hauling parcels vans of various types (including converted AEC / MED cars and NCC brown vans), in their early days: https://www.flickr.com/photos/152343870@N07/25652512517 https://www.flickr.com/photos/152343870@N07/38515339670 https://www.flickr.com/photos/152343870@N07/52858373472 https://www.flickr.com/photos/152343870@N07/52859340950 https://www.flickr.com/photos/152343870@N07/52140511098 https://www.flickr.com/photos/152343870@N07/26651868158 I've also seen photos of 80s dragging 1 class shunters: https://www.flickr.com/photos/152343870@N07/51784934903 And here's an 80 with a short PW train: https://www.flickr.com/photos/152343870@N07/52140730349 I confess these are not in the same league as the 70s antics on freight and mixed trains: https://www.flickr.com/photos/152343870@N07/25591673517 https://www.flickr.com/photos/152343870@N07/40247664354

Nice work!

I suppose it's ultimately down to what the promoters want and/or have committed to in their planning application, business plan etc. Well done to all concerned for what has been achieved so far, not just a working narrow-gauge line but saving some interesting and unique standard-gauge stock too. My gut feel is that now there's a (smallish) functioning railway with locos, carriages, track and signalling, it would be a good idea to focus resources on buildings and infrastructure. It can be a wild part of the country in bad weather, and being so isolated also means that security may be challenging. After the storm damage, repairing/restoring the existing structures to a more robust standard would be a good priority, possibly extensions/alterations to the existing factory buildings to provide more secure covered storage and/or workshop facilities. If the 5'3" is the long-term goal then at least one shed large enough for a complete 5'3" gauge vehicle would be a necessity, and such a shed would have plenty of other uses in the meantime, even if the line were to remain 3' gauge. Sheds aren't actually that expensive compared to the cost of deterioration and damage to equipment left out in the open.

I stumbled across this webpage today, which gives details of Bulleid's prototype plywood coach, built in 1946 when he was still at the Southern Railway: https://sremg.org.uk/coach/bulleid.shtml "The design has been likened to an inverted ship's hull with the keep plate or ridge rail running along the centre of the roof like the keel of an upsode-down ship. Pre-formed sections 9ft 5ins wide made of 9/16ths in nine-ply birch were bolted to the ridge rail and underframe and resin-bonded to the saloon framework which was of similar ply construction. " This form of construction sounds like the prototype of the 'laminate' construction that he later introduced for CIE. They had the further refinement of an aluminium outer skin on the ply, of course. Someone has built a model of it, here: Bulleid’s on Display at Taunton, and also something for the sleepy film buffs… - General - Muz's modelling mastications - RMweb Just thought this might be of interest as I hadn't heard of it before. Like triangulated underframes and the bogie steam locos, it's another example of Bulleid's innovations that were initiated on the Southern but found their final development in Ireland.

Interesting, many thanks for asking, and certainly makes things easier for bullhead track. Are there suppliers that will 3D-print the turnout bases from Templot geometry? I'm still getting to grips with Templot myself, but I can see the possibilities it opens up.