Mol_PMB

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.

We could go back to the days of the (EXPERI) MENTAL TURF BURNER

Given IE's present shortage of rolling stock I'm looking forward to the re-appearance of the RPSI Cravens on some Friday evening extras.

At least the trains haven't run out of fuel ... yet!

It looks like the bogie sideframes are green too, though not the springs. The bufferbeam has a black line to separate red and green, as seen on one or two B101s. Green locos - some definitely had green rooves, others definitely had black painted rooves, but on many the only colour photos show the rooves so filthy you just can't tell. Green carriages and railcars - I am building a pool of evidence to show that some, new-build in the first half of the 1950s, had green rooves. Most had black, and I think black rooves were always used with the light green post-1955. And then we get to green ends, which certainly existed on some Park Royals and AEC railcars, possibly others. More research needed...

I seem to have ordered (and paid for) these in dribs and drabs so it was a bit of a surprise to receive 5 emails all at once for my total of 10 coaches. It didn't seem that many at the time, honest! I suspect that few of them will remain in the as-delivered condition!

Looks like they are still 6 weeks away, but at least they’re heading in the right direction.

They are the Brassmasters type of bogie - with springy wires across the headstocks. https://www.brassmasters.co.uk/bogie_CUs.htm

It has turned out to be a good choice of prototype - with three main variants in normal service all across the GSR/CIE, a couple of different departmental examples and two vehicles preserved. At least one was through-wired as a railcar intermediate and another was converted to a camping coach - which was placed on the W&T so even a modeller of that isolated system could justify one!

That is the intention. It should be buildable as the basic third, the lavatory third or the tea car. I thought it would be up your street!

Oops... Where on earth did that chair come from?

I think I've now completed the artwork for the underframe and bogies, which also incorporates some parts for the seating and some more optional bits for the tea car variant. I've also made a couple of tweaks to the roof on the body etch to faciliate the tea car variant: I think these are now ready to be sent for etching. However, I'll give it a day or two and do a final check as I often find that's wise.

White metal kit for a 141 class including wheels, gears, maybe motor, maybe spare bogie assemblies. Could be a bargain for someone: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/389876006028

Jack O’Neill has this to say on the J4 class: