Mol_PMB

Hi Leslie, Do you know how long these Y5 ventilated vans lasted in service, and whether they operated beyond the boundaries of the GNR? There's a good photo of Y5 No.764 in 'Irish Broad Gauge Carriages' (Coakham) on both pages 14 and 64; this matches your model with external sliding doors and panelled sides. I've been looking for other photos and struggling. 'Irish Railways in Pictures No.1 GNR' (IRRS London) page 31 has a great photo of similar vehicles No.766 and 758, but with detail differences. 766 has internal sliding doors and matchboard lower sides, while 758 has panelled sides but hinged doors. I'm not sure if these also count as Y5 or if they were classified differently. But those photos are all from 1953 which is a bit early for me. There's also a good photo of Y2 No.752 as UTA N641 in 'Irish Broad Gauge Carriages' (Coakham) on page 63; this is broadly similar, with hinged doors but it doesn't have the louvres in the sides. And 'The Great Northern Railway (Ireland)' (Patterson) has a photo of Y3 No.283 on page 160, which looks very similar to Y2 No.252. This photo of Ernie's shows another like 766 with internal sliding doors and matchboarding, in UTA days: Another photo of Ernie's dated 1963 shows one in CIE green livery, with another combination of details: panelled ends, matchboarded sides and hinged doors: The impression I'm getting is that a few lasted into the early 1960s, but had been re-panelled or fitted with different types of doors. Is that right? Also, they all seem to be prohibited from working in goods trains, which is interesting. I wonder why?

Much better now with a floor and some internal braces. This will help support the roof too. The first ‘modelling’ I’ve done in ages…

Well done! You'll soon forget the pain and be glad you did it.

Not much time recently, or modelling mojo. But I have started a tidy-up to make some space (and ensure that I can’t find anything when I next need it!) Anyway, a few months ago Rob kindly printed some containers for me, and as a freebie did an MGWR van body too. The containers were 5-sided boxes with internal bracing, and have remained true to shape. I’ve just found the van body, which I had painted with primer when it arrived, then stored it in a box. Perfectly square when it arrived, it now looks like this: An interesting example of how prints can distort over time. It’s flexible enough that I think I can square it up with some internal bracing - I should probably have done that when it first arrived!

Pandora's box, stable door, can of worms? Whichever, it's a bit late now to try and force it closed again! Anyway, wasn't one of them named after a coach tour operator?

Very nice work! I look forward to seeing more.

I suspect one of the issues is dimensional stability, which you allude to. Many 3D prints can warp in one way or another, they might work to start with and later seize up. The technology of home 3D printing is too recent for us to know how these perform when 5-10 years old. It could be another ‘Zinc Pest’ waiting to happen.

That photo illustrates just how mixed the express trains of the era were. If all your model carriages match, you’ve got it wrong! There’s a mix of GSWR, MGWR, GSR and CIE stock in that train, plus a former Pullman car. Almost all gangwayed bogie stock though there could be a 6-wheel van or two on the back.

The important thing is to do what you enjoy - and you’re very good at it too!

I'd say that LMS gangwayed stock would be a better starting point - much more similar in style to the GSR coaches. Airfix/Dapol available cheaply secondhand or new.

Most early pics seem to show plain spokes but some are split spoke:

New traction has been announced for this tour as 171 is out of action for repairs. Instead it is planned to use a pair of 071s in multiple, and ideally those in heritage livery. Multiple-working with 071s is quite a rare event. A pity it couldn't be a pair of baby GMs but I'll take a pair of big ones.

For those of us without a car, it looks like it is served by several bus routes from Busaras/Connolly: 14, 15 and 27 at least.

Hi Sara, That's great, and many thanks for your reply. Those 14mm wheels might suit GSWR wagons of the period - many had 3'7.5" wheels. Paul

I've sent you a PM - hope that's OK Mol

Sounds like an ideal name for a shunting puzzle layout set in an industrial bakery? Nice to see you have been able to place the layout in the bigger picture and work out some plausible operating scenarios.

Second time lucky! The badger has migrated to Scotland:

Excellent - I look forward to seeing your progress and it’s nice to have another forum member doing 21mm gauge! The IRRS archives have some excellent MGWR rolling stock drawings, and I may be able to help with those.

Brand new models of the more recent release can still be bought for less than £180, so that’s an upper bound. (See Rails of Sheffield; Kernow had them reduced even further recently but sold most of their stock) The older release (which this is) doesn’t have provision for dcc sound but some people consider they run more smoothly. £150 or thereabouts if it’s in as-new condition ?

Understood - and the loco certainly has a similar character so it's a good starting point. And depending on which livery you have, it might even have the right letters on the side!

The postie has just been and I have some more reading matter relevant to this topic:

Not such a long shot, the N2 is a bit bigger all round but not way out. The biggest discrepancies would be driving wheel diameter and the pitch of the boiler. Depending on the nature of the mechanism inside, those may be tricky to change.

We've got that one already. It's the black and silver with yellow ends that's missing.

I'd love to do the Tralee diesel trip but I've already booked to be in Dublin the following weekend for the model railway exhibition and IRRS events including the steam trip to Thurles. My life is too busy to go to Ireland twice in a month, and my fond memories of diesel traction to Tralee are this shape (my pic): I sometimes stay at the Marine Hotel in Sutton, which is good and can be cheap out of season. The DART station may be a bit of a trek for you but the buses stop closer. Or if I want to be close to Heuston, Phoenix Park hotel can be a good option. I've ended up in a couple of terrible, overpriced dives in Dublin in the past. It's not a cheap place to visit!

The class 37 is a bit too long everywhere then. 13'6" bogie wheelbase, equally divided, and the overall wheelbase 50'8". There aren't many better options in 4mm scale, the shorter bogies tend to be either A1A (with smaller middle wheelset) or unequal axle spacing, owing to the constraints of traction motor positioning on the prototype. But a class 31 has a longer bogie wheelbase than a class 37! The ex-Lima class 50/55/37 bogies were in HO scale, but they work out too short for CC1 in 4mm scale (11'9"). Possibly something else in HO might work (but wheels would certainly be far too small).