Mol_PMB

I have done the deed with the buffers, and I think it looks satisfactory. It's very hard to get buffers perfectly straight, but I take comfort from the fact that the factory-fitted ones aren't 100% perfect either! I have enough of these buffers to convert another wagon, so I might do that tomorrow or Friday. The buffers I've used are X6495 Hornby Sprung Tender Buffers for Class B1. They're not a perfect match to the CIE self-contained buffers but they're about right. Photo of the real thing from Neil Smith, showing the larger type buffers and how near they are to the outer edge of the headstock:

OK, here's a thread for the tank containers:

Some from Flickr. From Fred Dean, one of the Ammonia barrier tanks: From Jonathan Allen, a photo dated 1989 with stacks of tanks carrying different branding. Two are Shell, three are Cold Chon (Galway): A photo in Doyle&Hirsch shows two of these tank containers with similar branding panels for Cationic Road Emulsions. From Jon33040 on Flickr, here's the 'wrong' end of the coal&oil train, with the tanks just visible in the distance.

CIE had a fleet of 20x8x8 tank containers, mostly used for fuels and other oils. Latterly they were used on the Foynes to Ballina coal and oil train, and the barrier wagon tanks used on the Ammonia trains were also very similar. Here are a few detail photos that I took of dumped survivors.

Ernie included some of the stacks at Ennis in his photos, this is where I got most of my closeup pics but from different angles. Far right in this first photo is a grey one with UNILOAD branding - yet another variant!

This photo from Brian Flannigan on Flickr shows the Wexford liner in 1982. Two 10' containers are in very clean, plain tan livery with black roundel, while the most of the rest are in grubby UNILOAD. That suggests that the plain tan livery came later than UNILOAD. My impression of the earlier photos that show both gray and UNILOAD containers is that the grey ones are dirtier, so the grey livery probably came first. There's no doubt that the majority carried UNILOAD

Great, that would be wonderful. I'll definitely have 4 of the next batch, unpainted. I'll probably add a few other bits and pieces too as it looks like you have a good range of bits. Cheers, Mol

I was going to ask this question but found it had been answered already, over a decade ago. Here are two of my photos showing 155 and 158 with the modification, but at Limerick so nowhere near the border. I recall 156 having it (also seen at Limerick), and a quick search online also found pics of 154 and 159 with the modification.

On which topic, I'm looking forward to Accurascale's take on a BGSV, complete with DCC hissing sounds to accompany the inevitable steam leak effects. It might even blow off occasionally!

From Jeremy Chapter on Flickr, a busy scene at Mallow in 1979, including several Uniload containers, one on the back of a CIE Bedford truck in tan livery: The book 'Rails Through Wexford' (Beaumont & Carse) includes two photos (pages 37, 40) of the Dublin-Wexford liner in the early 1980s with plenty of these containers, in UNILOAD tan livery and in grey. Though I must confess the most impressive container photo in that book is from an earlier era, with about 40 pre-ISO containers full of bacon ready for export from Rosslare in 1959! Similarly, 'Rails Through Tipperary' (Beaumont & Carse) includes three photos (pages 26, 28, 32) of short liner trains on the Nenagh route, with UNILOAD containers. But it's interesting that these two books, ostensibly covering exactly the right era and location for the UNILOAD containers, contain so few views of them! They were introduced in 1978 to finally get rid of the unfitted goods vans, but that small-volume sundries traffic was probably dying already.

Project number 2 was an IRM corrugated open wagon. Again, it was reasonably straightforward to extract the wheelsets and tap the wheels along the axles. However, the maximum back-to-back I could achieve was 19.0mm - any more than this and the wheels rubbed on the back of the W iron mouldings. To achieve a largere BTB would require a thinner, more finescale wheel profile. On this model, the brake shoes are positioned to align with the 16.5mm gauge wheels, foul the wheel flanges when the wheels are set to 21mm gauge. However, the brake gear is very simple (as per the prototype) and I found that by levering with a tiny screwdriver I could release the brake hanger from its mounting hole in the chassis. I then used a small drill bit to slightly enlarge the tapered slot next to the hole, so I could push the brake hanger back in there. With a small tweak to the brake push rod safety loop, the brake shoe aligned with the wheel quite well: It's not perfect but it looks fine from normal viewing angles. In due course I'll apply a tiny blob of glue to hold it in the new position: I suspect that modifying the brakes on the forthcoming vac-fitted H van will be much more challenging! Next I realised that the buffer spacing looked very wrong on the broad gauge track. On this model, the buffers are set to match GB rolling stock for some reason, and they ought to be further apart for an Irish vehicle. I decided to take the plunge and try to change them. Also, I wanted to represent a wagon retro-fitted with the larger buffers, like this one: I was unable to remove the old buffers without damaging them badly. I temporarily removed the wagon body and sanded down the remains, and then re-drilled new larger holes in a better position: The buffers I had in stock looked about right until I held them up against the wagon headstock, and then they looked too big! But looking back at the prototype photo the base of the buffers is a fair bit taller than the headstock section. I'll have a think about it and see if I can find an alternative buffer if I decide these ones aren't right. Any suggestions welcome! In the meantime, here's a view of the bufferless wagon on the broad gauge track: I've ordered a couple of wagon kits which I plan to build to 21mm gauge - that may be easier than modifying RTR where suitable kits are available. My main stumbling block for the kits is the broad gauge wheelsets. I think I'll try the dodge of cutting the axle in half and sleeving it. Please tell me if there are better approaches to re-gauging, or if you have advice on back-to-back, finer wheel profiles or sourcing wheelsets - I feel I'm stumbling a bit on the path to 21mm...

Starting anew in Irish 4mm scale modelling, I'm considering the gauge question. I thought I'd do some experiments to see how easy or hard it was to regauge rolling stock to 21mm, before making a final decision. Of course it's more complicated than just the gauge. There are different wheel standards and back-to-backs to consider, which seems a bit of a minefield! For now I'm going to see what's possible by re-using the existing wheelsets. Anyway, I started at the relatively cheap end of the scale and bought some spare IRM Y33 bogies as a starting point. It was fairly easy to remove the wheelsets and I was able to tap the axles through the wheels to achieve a 19.2mm back-to-back (which is one of the dimensions I've seen quoted). Assembling the wheelsets back into the bogies was straightforward and the wheels then had a much better alignment to the axleboxes and the representation of brake gear. This photo shows before and after on my dual gauge track: I don't really have a use for these bogies at present, but they will be good for testing track as the wheel/rail interface is quite visible. I might re-gauge the other one and connect them with a strip of perspex for that purpose. I'll describe the second project in the next post.

One of my recollections of a Park Royal was a sauna. The steam heating had sprung a leak inside the carriage, with the result that the windows were all steamed up, the seats were damp and the moisture was dripping off the ceiling. You could see from one of the carriage to the other, but it was like a thick fog. We rapidly selected an alternative carriage!

I have photos of several other CIE container types, including 20' boxes, tanks and half-height open top variants. Would people be interested in seeing them too? Also I have a detail drawing of the BELL containers built in Derby.

A couple more photos of the cut-down wagons, from Jonathan Allen on Flickr: At Ballymena around 1980: MEDs 26 & 27 in Ballymena | MED 26 was last used in July 197… | Flickr At Derry in 1980, there is also another one cut down to a flat here: Londonderry Waterside - "old" station, March 1980 | Interior… | Flickr

Many thanks! It seems they were first introduced in August 1978 and they were certainly in use through the 1980s. My gut feel is that they fell out of use in the early 1990s? The number series is CIEU 160####, and normally the last digit would be a check digit, so we may be able to estimate how many there were based on the known numbers. I do intend to buy a few, although I don't presently have any flat wagons to put them on! Would you consider printing an alternative door design with vertical ribs? Not too much of an issue though, the doors are normally hidden when they're loaded onto wagons, which is why it's hard to find good photos of the doors! They actually seem quite camera-shy, or perhaps not many people are container nerds like me... Plenty here at North Wall in 1985 (Andrew Pullar photo): One on the left here, pic dated 1982 from Brian Flannigan: I don't think any were blue in service, here's a 2016 pic from Kieran Marshall: A fair number here in 1991, photo from Adrian Nicholls:

If my experiments with 21mm gauge work out OK, then I am formulating a plan to build a small shunting layout loosely based on the sidings at Lisburn, set in the late 1970s. Rolling stock would be mainly NIR engineers' stock (hence my interest in the former spoil wagons and courtaulds wagons) with an IRM Hunslet and perhaps a DH as motive power. The location allows CIE locos and rolling stock to visit. It would also be possible to include parts of Lisburn passenger station in the background, perhaps with a stationary passenger train. On the other hand, I could use the opposite viewpoint with just a grassy bank in the background, and then with a change of rolling stock it could become the goods yard at a rural CIE station somewhere else. I'm thinking of an overall size not much more than 4' x 1' to keep it manageable. However, I might come up with a different idea in due course!

From Jason on Flickr, this is a long way from the rails! From Steve Rabone: https://www.steverabone.com/RailwayPhotographs/ireland_1984.htm There are some other nice container pics in that album, including 4 different types of brew!

Here's a photo from Jonathan Allen showing 4 of them in June 1979. 3 UNILOAD and a grey one only partly visible: https://www.flickr.com/photos/152343870@N07/52048734512/

I've uploaded some of my photos showing these, a few actually in service and a load used as stores etc.

The nearest container is in plain tan with a very small black roundel. The one beyond that is in the UNILOAD scheme. Beyond that, a rusty grey one: The same row of containers seen from the other side: A closer view of the rusty grey one: This one is tan, with a medium size black roundel, and a TRANSTRACK logo vertically down the middle: The end doors of a grey one: A pair of UNILOAD: Another pair of UNILOAD, with a plain tan one behind: Closeup of the stencilled number on the end of the tan one with a small roundel: Not the best photo, but you don't see many pictures of the door end. When loaded on wagons they tended to place the doors facing each other to reduce the risk of pilferage: Latterly these ended up being used as stores all over the place: This one with its doors missing gives us a view of the interior: That's my own photos done. I'll have a search on Flickr and see if I can find some more from other people. Can anyone confirm when these were first introduced and how many there were? The number series is CIEU 160#### and nationality/type code IRL 1000.

The topic of CIE's 10' containers came up in another thread, so I thought I would scan and share some of my photos of these, in a variety of paint and lettering schemes. We'll start with this childhood memory of the container terminal at Ennis in the late 1980s, sorry for the damaged print: On the 47'6" flat, the end two containers are in the classic 'UNILOAD' livery (tan container, white band with black roundel and red UNILOAD). One of the middle two is in grey with a tan roundel (as used on traditional goods vans) while the other is plain tan with a small black roundel. In the 1968-69 edition of 'Jane's Freight Containers', the section on Ireland includes the following: Cranage: Heavy gantry cranes at Tolka Quay, Cork and Rathkeale were erected in 1968 to facilitate the use of containers. Irish Ferryways is the largest and most experienced container company in Ireland. Irish Ferryways is formed by Coras Iompair Eireann and Containerway and Roadferry Ltd, the British-based unit-load operator in Europe. Irish Ferryways handle container freight from Ireland (Dublin, Drogheda or New Ross) to Britain, and onwards to all European countries. Their new terminal at Tolka Quay, Dublin, is the most modern in Ireland. It has advanced equipment for handling all types of containers - general, refigerated, flats and bulk liquid. CIE owns 598 containers and have a few regular container trains. They also act as hauliers for large companies, like Guinness who own their own containers. Here's one of Ernie's photos showing a couple of early ISO containers at Limerick in 1969, a BR Freightliner stacked on top of what Also in 1969 at Ballybrophy, a Freightliner container visible in the background: By the 1970-71 edition, the Eire section of 'Jane's Freight Containers' filled six large pages, with B+I line and Bellferry featuring alongside Irish Ferryways and CIE. CIE now owned more than 1500 containers. The following year, the 1971-72 edition mentioned the introduction of bogie container flats in 1970, and gave a fleet list of CIE ISO containers as follows: Dry cargo 20x8x8: 200 Insulated 20x8x8: 100 Refrigerated 20x8x8: 3 Flats 20x8: 335 There were also non-ISO containers of various types, and some prototype ISO hopper containers are pictured, but no 10' containers were listed. The following year, 100 20x8x8.5 Tiltainers (i.e. curtain-sided) had been added to the fleet, but there were still no 10' boxes listed. Here's one of the Tiltainers at Limerick Junction in 1974: I then have a gap in my Janes collection until 1982. That edition does picture a pair of Uniload 10' containers on a flat wagon, and the total CIE container fleet is given as 2035 (not itemised). I was hoping that a trawl through my copies of Janes would give me an introduction date for the 10' containers and a total quantity, but sadly not! Anyway, to the photos...

Absolutely, there are several variants and they could also form the basis for 4-wheel timber wagons and 4-wheel Guinness wagons.

Ballast laid dry, carefully using a teaspoon and a flat brush to get the right profile: Then sprayed with a mist of water (with a drop of washing up liquid) to dampen the ballast, followed by applying dilute PVA with an eye-dropper: This will take a few days to set, so I'll have to be patient!

There are plenty of places in Switzerland where metre gauge lines run through the streets, sometimes with freight trains too!