Mol_PMB

Sorry, that should have been Pantry. I’m not sure they had the facilities to be considered a Kitchen.

Many thanks John, that’s most helpful. Even with the new book things aren’t entirely clear. 655 and some others of the class latterly had tenders with the back end of the tank flush with the headstock, and with slightly rounded back corners. These features are not apparent on the diagrams for type R, V or Z tenders. However, there is a photo of an earlier Beyer Peacock tender which appears to be a closer match in this area. Clearly all the tender types were modified to some extent at the front of the sides, and photos show much variety in shape here that may reflect individual rebuilds rather than a type R / V / Z characteristic. I shall need to spend more time looking at photos and working it out.

An excellent talk, mix of old and new. I look forward to travelling on the branch in the future.

I think the point is that it represents an earlier era before the larger marker lights were fitted, and that reduces its 'desirability'.

On @Westcorkrailway's recommendation I have increased my collection of obsolete media formats by purchasing some DVDs from Clonakilty! Why, well there are some shots of 841, as a tea car, in the railcar set on the last day of services on the West Cork lines. There's lots of other nice footage too including colour film of 559, the J26 I'm building, and a C class on the rails just 3 miles from my house in Manchester! But back to the GSWR coach theme, as ever the old film wasn't such good quality as one might hope, but there is something to be seen in the footage that adds to the image of the train at Crossbarry that I posted above. As a reminder, the link below is the only good photo I have found showing one of these tea cars (in this case 843), but the diagram of 841 and 843 (available from the IRRS) definitely helps too. https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/53509172565 So what do the rather rubbish screen captures from the DVD tell us? Well it looks like the normal roof vents are only over one of the two saloons in the coach, but the roof furniture in the middle of the roof is busy all along, and there seems to be a central water tank at the other end of the roof. Some of those features match what we can see on the photo of 843 (style and location of roof tank) and 843 also had extra 'Flettner' rotating vents on the centreline of the roof which are marked on the diagram and probably present on 841 too (especially with the normal vents being removed). The photo of 843 also shows extra vents on the sides above the windows at the pantty end, but none of the photos of 841 are clear enough to show whether these were fitted. All I've done to the etch to enable this is to make adjustments to the holes in the roof, with more of them half-etched than holes right through. I hope that by the time I have got the etches made, I might have found some better photos of 841! I'm wondering whether to wait until after my trip to the IRRS archives at the end of the month, before getting the etches made. It would be frustrating to find new information just too late to change the artwork.

As per attached spreadsheet. CSB_calcs.xlsx

Having a closer look at the section on tenders over lunch break. Tenders were routinely swapped between locos so to check the correct type of tender for your loco requires study of photos of the correct period. There are 126 tenders listed as passing to the GSR, which are of the following types (R and V are different but not distinguishable from the archive data): Q 2 R or V 36 S 21 T 14 W 23 YA 11 Z 18 # 1 Now I'm interested in the type attached to 655 in later life, which is what I had previously considered an MGWR 'standard', as shown in Ernie's photo here: However, now I have the new book I realise that tender types R, V and Z all look like this, but they are not the same... Type R has a 5'6"+5'6" wheelbase, 17'11" over headstocks, 1600 gallon tank. Type V has a 6'0"+6'0" wheelbase, 18'8" over headstocks, 1600 gallon tank. Type Z has a 6'0"+6'0" wheelbase, 18'8" over headstocks, 2000 gallon tank. So now I need to work out which variant is coupled to 655, and which variant is provided in the kit!

Mine has just arrived, I've only had a very quick look through but it seems well detailed and illustrated. It's helpful for my current modelling project as it has a good photo of 559 in 1959. And when I get round to building 655 there's some information on tenders that looks like it will be useful.

True. And Ryanair know all about how to add extras to the fare at the last minute.

Super weathering! I didn't realise Bus Eireann operated third class buses.

And on those sparse branch passenger services, Park Royals were surprisingly common, right from the mid 1950s through to the 1990s. There are plenty of photos of them running in AEC railcar sets in the late 1950s and 1960s, on the West Cork, Western Rail Corridor, and other secondary/branch lines. The summer Sunday excursions to Fenit in the 1960s and 1970 (otherwise a freight-only branch) often included a Park Royal or two in the set. And of course they were a staple of the local services around Limerick in the 1980s and 1990s. So you can surely justify one, two, or more...

I think I'll line Michael O'Leary's pockets instead...

As far as I’m aware, Dick was a mare, and therefore the details of the coupling equipment on the chassis would have been different.

I believe that the chassis details were inappropriate for a horse of that name?

When it reaches Connolly it will get 'borrowed' for your next Enterprise...

082 seems quite popular too, but not seen for sale very often: https://ebay.us/m/hvJdSl

I saw this original slide for sale on eBay and I think I must have had a couple of pints of ale inside me when I paid rather more for it than I had intended. Oops. Still, it's a lovely photo and shows several items of rolling stock that I would like to model. The photographer was Ken Cooper and the date was 9th June 1957. The location is obvious from the station nameboard. 655 appears to be arriving with a rake of elderly MGWR 6-wheelers - a lavatory first, lavatory second, and two seconds. Behind them is what looks like a bogie corridor second. The second coach is in plain green without waist line or class digits, whereas the others have the lining and class digits (second class, post-1956, rather than third). The shade of green looks identical though. My impression is that the 6-wheelers are all in light green, but the distant bogie coach may be a darker shade. It's a very sunny day though, which can make even the dark green look bright. The track is a mixture of bullhead and flatbottom rail, with some points controlled from the box (just visible in the distance) and others with manual levers on the ground. I have a kit in the stash for this class of loco, with round-top firebox as seen here, and 655 is my preferred prototype. The weathering pattern is quite typical of these locos in later years - the tender almost entirely brown with brake dust while the loco is an oily near-black (I think this was one of the locos actually painted black). I've also got a couple of MGWR 6-wheelers on order from Alphagraphix, which together with my GSWR 6-wheelers could build up a similar-looking train. Just visible on the right is an AEC railcar, what a contrast to the 6-wheelers! I'm still hoping that IRM will produce one of these eventually.

The horn guides have a tiny hole etched at the top for positioning. I drilled matching holes in the side frames using the coupling rods as a jig. Then I used fine wire through the holes in the frames and hornguides to align the holes before soldering the hornguides in position. At present, the hornguides are soldered only at the top, but there is still scope to slightly tweak the sides of them if needed to get free running. Also of course I can enlarge the hornguide clearance slightly if needed. (though that will increase the slop). Fingers crossed I can get it running smoothly! When I did my E401 class I found that the extra width of 21mm gauge gave me options for suspension and gearboxes that would have been almost impossible to achieve in 16.5mm gauge. There are some benefits of wearing the hair shirt!

Some more progress on the J26 today; I’ve been working on the chassis and suspension. Firstly I prepared the High Level hornguides and hornblocks. I did the CSB calcs, then marked and drilled the holes for the pivots. Then I separated the main frames and cleaned them up. Also I prepared the frame stretchers, including modifying them with space for the CSB wire to pass through. Then I put the whole lot together, with a fair bit of fettling and fitting. I expect there will be some more needed when I try to fit wheelsets and coupling rods! At present I’m just using some normal wire as a placeholder instead of the proper CSB springy wire. The next step will be to assemble the gearbox and motor, and make sure it fits. I still need to find some time on my friend’s lathe to do the axle machining.

Very true. And with many sources of parts and kits rapidly disappearing, I have an element of FOMO to the extent that I've just ordered some wheels from Scale Link suitable for a loco that I will probably never build. But just in case...

I'm waiting for the next IRM announcement, hoping it's a C class or AEC railcar. Saving up already...

Get it bought!

One that never gets finished?

My understanding is that there are differences in the locos’ circuits, particularly the function wiring such as lighting. The ‘wrong’ chip could no doubt be re-programmed to suit the loco if you have a lokprogrammer.

The Laidlaw-Drew system previously used on the Ffestiniog and the Vale of Rheidol was usually very clean. I believe at least one GNR loco and one GSR loco was fitted with the same Laidlaw-Drew system, but the weir burner system seems to have been preferred in Ireland.