Mol_PMB

A couple more candidates for this thread, from the GNR. The first isn't a railcar but a push-pull or 'motor train': The second is a true railcar, with a driving trailer as well:

Superb!

I can imagine myself developing a sudden but brief interest in golf around September next year...

Thanks for setting me right, JHB. There's some great photos on that Flickr site but we obviously need to interpret the captions with more caution than I had done.

While laser-cutting can engrave, it can't provide smooth areas of half-thickness etch that we make much use of in etched kits. Hobby desktop laser cutters like my Creality Falcon 22W machine won't cut even the thinnest metal, they are the wrong wavelength and not sufficiently powerful. You would need a professional machine. In the past when I had access to a water jet cutter I managed to get that to cut 10 thou brass quite neatly. It could also cut 2" thick steel on the same machine! But again, no equivalent of the half-etch. In my view, etching is the right technology. It can be done at home with a hobby setup though I prefer to pay a professional to do it.

Another gem from Trainiac on Flickr on that theme. From the same source, this one is almost as stubby as the Triang-Hornby 4-wheeler:

Here's the real GSWR No.1, photo on Flickr from Trainiac:

Like this? (Flickr image by Trainiac)

Tunnocks are absolutely the right thing, and tasty too. Here's my 1920s MGWR soft-top (kitbashed from one of Leslie's GNR kits) with a Tunnocks tarp:

Locos might be a 101 piloting a 321 class? Just a guess - happy to be corrected.

Anyone fancy a bottle of something? https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/318258641165

Nice old postcard on eBay at present - a timeless viewpoint but this looks like a fairly early image. Impressive telegraph poles! Can it be dated by the electrified tram lines and the loco classes? There's a sailing ship at the quay in the background too. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/168355382108

A phone photo of an MGWR 7 ton van diagram in IRRS archive. It's not actually the same one that's in the book although the main dimensions are the same - it seems there were several variants of bracing and vents. Note that this isn't a square-on image so please don't measure and scale off it! I hope to convince Richard McLachan to do his proper photography process on the wagon diagrams so they can be published and shared - there are lots of them.

Sent you a PM with the email address

Also 75 years of AEC railcars, briefly the Enterprise traction.

Still going up! At least the blue one is in new condition, as well as being a rarer livery.

Thanks for the info. It's sad to hear about Allen's health. About a year ago I ordered a G class kit and he delivered it to my door himself rather than post it (I'm only about 5 miles away from Worsley). He seemed fine at the time.

Definitely not one for the bargains thread; quite a hefty price for this light blue 111: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/147293908471

On that subject, the RCTS photo archive is another good source of images, such as this: RCTS Library & Archive If you go to the search, then choose 'Irish Railways (CIE)' in the 'subject' heading and you can then also filter by colour images, date etc. RCTS Library & Archive

Lovely, and many thanks for the pointer. Another source for me to trawl and reproduce on my various diatribes! Note that AEC 2630 is in the early BnT livery, though fitted with a driver's door in the normal BnT livery which nicely illustrates the difference in the depth of the orange band. And when I make some more progress on my CIE green livery thread and you all start thinking I'm crazy when I talk about green roofs, those West Clare railcars are a fine example.

My preference would be for fine details (e.g. door handles, brake gear) and potentially fragile parts (e.g. buffers) to be separate. They aren't very robust as printed components, more likely to cause a high reject rate and be easily broken when the model is handled. If I was building the wagon I'd replace them with metal parts anyway. Incidentally I found the original MGWR wagon diagram for these vans in the IRRS archive, along with diagrams for many other wagons.

There are a lot of practical considerations too. I don't see any electrical fit-out in your image, but you will need plenty of power sockets and good lighting, but preferably not direct sunlight. Effective layout lighting may not be the same as normal room lighting, also consider will you be working in your own shadow. How will the temperature and humidity in the building be controlled? If you include space for a workbench and power tools, they may have additional utility needs, for example a fume extractor for a paint booth, soldering station etc. Do you want to be able to walk into and around the space without ducking under anything? That may depend on your age and flexibility now, and also what it might be like in 20 years time.

Resurrecting an old thread I know, but there's a wagon diagram for these 12 mineral wagons in the IRRS archives. Drawing no. 14245, diagram no. 64. Noted on the diagram is that they were built by Hurst Nelson and were purchased from Messrs Murphy, Waterford, in 1909. The drawing bears a later CIE stamp dated 1946. Sadly CIE numbers are not given but it may be possible to find some in photos. The dimensions do not seem to quite match any of the (GB) RCH standards and these wagons may have pre-dated their publication. Note that the top two planks are continuous along the length of the wagon, and the side door comprises the lower 5 planks only, so these were true 'mineral' wagons rather than open goods wagons. They were quite rare in Ireland, due to the lack of mineral traffic, though there were some others used for loco coal.

Hopefully this thread isn't entirely the wrong place for a tank wagon snippet from the archives. This relates to a batch constructed by CIE using second-hand tanks from the UK mounted on second-hand CIE 20' flat underframes. It's another one of those things I wasn't really looking for, but stumbled across and thought might be vaguely interesting to someone. I assume these would have become some of tank wagons 26636-26652, 26730-26750, 606A-637A.

When I wrote the previous post I thought I had come across some information on carriage overhauls in the IRRS Archives last week. I've been gradually cataloguing all the documents I photographed on that frenzied Tuesday evening, and I have found several documents with relevant information. In July 1950, in a discussion about conversion of carriages from electric to gas lighting, J.J.Johnston (assistant CME) stated that 94 carriages had received a general repair (G.R.) between 1/1/1949 and 28/2/1950, which equates to 80.5 per year. In 1950 there were 815 coaches in the fleet so this would indicate an average 10-year interval for general repairs, which is quite long but may be indicative of the shortage of money and materials at this time. One would expect that that a carriage would be repainted at G.R., but additional vehicles may have been repainted without receiving a G.R. and this would shorten the average interval of repainting. In January 1961, a budgetary control statement gives details of the quantity of general repairs budgeted for, and those actually carried out: Adding together the different types of coaching stock listed, the budget was for 90 vehicles and the actual number receiving general repairs and repaints was 101. I assume this is for 12 months, but it's possible that the heading 'programme to date' indicates the financial year, starting on 1st April 1960 and in that case the figures quoted in January 1961 represent 9 months. In the latter case, the equivalent annual total would be 135. In 1961 there were 824 coaches so the repair interval would be 8 years or 6 years depending on whether the report covers 12 or 9 months. Fourteen buffet cars were introduced in 1953/54, with four more in 1956. Thirteen of them received general repairs in 1960/61 when the majority would have been 7 years old. So I think this evidence tends to support carriages receiving a General Repair interval of about 7 years. I'm sure the vehicles would have been repainted at G.R. but in some cases additional repaints might have been carried out between G.R. especially when new liveries were being introduced. The influence of new-build stock should also be considered - this would appear in the new livery without being in the maintenance records, replacing older coaches withdrawn probably without a recent repaint. One other snippet from the article 'Modern CIE Coaching Stock' by G. Kennedy, published in IRRS Journal 37, 1965: "Drab the bottle green may have been, but as late as 1957 some of the 1951 compos were observed looking little the worse for their long absence from the paint-shop." In other words, the new stock introduced in 1951 was still carrying its original paint job 6 years later. Going back to the budgetary control statement, the railcars were mostly delivered in 1953/54, and it's notable that 26 of these received body general repairs, with a further two receiving a 'paint and trim' repair. Again, these would have been 7 years old in 1960/61. However, I should also note that the railcars had more frequent repairs to their engines, transmission and bogies. In the archives there are some quite detailed records from the 1950s of which railcars received mechanical / general repairs, when and why. Poor availability for service seems to have encouraged this detailed assessment. The railcars also had more than their fair share of collisions and fire damage which required bodywork repairs and a full or partial repaint. I have not yet fully analysed this data and I may need to revisit that file in the archives. Sorry, I'm on still on statistics and haven't got to paint shades yet! But this stuff is important when we start to look at the livery changes and how long old liveries may have persisted in service after they had been superseded in the paint shop.