Mol_PMB

I wonder if the lads at Whitehead would like to get involved? They could make a somewhat bigger one!

Are you going to join Alan and myself and build a trio of them?

I've trawled through a load of photos of Broadstone and I can't match the location or buildings. I had a look at Grand Canal St which has some buildings in the right sort of style but I can't match it. To me it doesn't look right for Cork, Limerick or Inchicore. A quick look at Sallypark wasn't convincing, nor Mullingar or Thurles. That's not to say it's definitely none of those, but I haven't yet found a match to the buildings. Could it be somewhere at North Wall?

A couple of photos showing the arrangements for bolting the superstructure to the footplate. With a floor and front to the bunker this has now become a very strong and rigid structure. The tiebar between the fronts of the tanks is temporary, it will foul the boiler.

I'm looking forward to this!

I have some of those, which I bought with the wheels. I even have a spare one. But they're still 2.8mm too short, so they need cutting and shutting.

Thanks. I've no problem buying 1/8" steel and cutting to length. But the wheels at present for this loco are to suit square-ended axles with threaded spigots, and they're rather more difficult to make to custom length. I either need to cut and splice them (while maintaining the quartering) or adopt some other approach. Annoyingly the outer, round, part of the hole in the wheels (where the retaining nut goes) is moulded to a diameter slightly more than 1/8". One possibility is to bore out the wheel centres and insert a brass sleeve to fit on a plain round axle.

Thank you! I’m still not sure how I am going to extend the axles for 21mm gauge but I think most options will require a sleeved joint in the middle. Therefore the axles can’t be fed through the frames from the side and I’ll need hornblocks. I have ordered the high level hornblocks and CSB tags, I used them on my E401 class and that worked fairly well. I am also trying to decide which set of frames to use, and considering adding an extra layer to the rods. At present I’m planning to work around the parts supplied in the kit rather than design a new modern etched chassis…

Last bits done for tonight. Firstly, some extra bits for the tanks. When I trial-fitted the cab it looked like there was a small gap between it and the tank tops, if the cab was to be centred on the doorways. So I cut two short lengths of tiny brass T-section to go at the back of the tanks to fill the gap and give the impression of a reinforcing angle. Also, the inner edge of the tank has a lip on it, not quite as tall as the outer beaded edge. You can see it in Ernie's photo below. So I used some offcuts of etch fret (from a different kit, thinner brass). When soldered in place, they looked like this: I then found I had to file away some of the angle to get the cab to seat correctly! I should have used something thinner! Never mind. Here's the cab soldered in place: And from the back, with the window bars now trimmed back: There's one thing I should have done before fitting the cab, which is to solder a floor plate in the bunker bottom. I can add it later, it will just be a bit more awkward to solder. That floor plate will have a hole in it and a nut soldered above, directly above the bolt hole in the footplate. So the same bolt that holds the chassis to the footplate will also hold the bunker. I will also put some brackets inside the front of the tanks, one each side, so that I can hold them down to the footplate.

Yours is looking great too, and it works! Which is a big step ahead of mine. I've decided on 559 and so I've been working on the window bars. The excess will be trimmed off once the cab back is soldered in place. They're not perfectly straight, but no worse than the real thing! 562 is a nice one too, good choice. Seen here at Sligo:

Lovely work! I was looking at those steps earlier and wondering why the kid designer hadn't used slots and tabs - would make it a lot easier! I'll be tackling them tomorrow. I think I might make the splasher tops a bit wider, even in 21mm gauge.

Is that an SECR 0-6-0 pretending to be 184? Wonderful!

Continuing to work on the body, I next made the bunker, which was not so easy to get everything square and aligned. I also found I had to slightly reduce the width of the bunker rear, maybe by 0.5mm, to better match the upper valance and the cab width. Etched kits have come a long way since this was designed! But I succeeded: Then I added the cabside beading, which the instructions admit is fiddly! Then I could judge the correct relative spacing of the bunker and the tanks, based on the footplate and the cab doorways. Having done that, I used 1mm square brass section to connect the tanks and bunker into one unit. Again, this took a bit of adjustment to get everything square: Here's the cab loosely placed on it. The idea is that the cab, bunker and tanks will all be soldered together, but will not be soldered to the footplate or boiler which will be separate sub-assemblies. My next step is to modify the cab back to fit the window bars, before any further assembly.

Step 1, starting randomly in the middle of the instructions. Side tanks: With a bit of care to get everything square, these went together well.

If you can find more pics of 559, I'd like to see them. I found plenty of 552 and 557 in West Cork but none of 559 down there. At present I have only found three of them, the colour one above is at Fenit 0n 27 April 1960, and the IRRS image linked below is at Tralee on 22 August 1960: https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/54252113662 Plus the one without date or location, but it's a nice clear view:

A nice photo of J26 559 from 'Ingy the Wingy' on Flickr, but it's undated (probably 1950s) and has no location. Does anyone recognise the place from the background? Is that a covered coaling stage immediately behind the loco? Piles of ash in the foreground also suggest a loco depot.

Inspired by Alan's build of a J26, I have dug my kit out of the stash and I'm going to build mine too. https://irishrailwaymodeller.com/topic/13383-alans-workbench/page/20/#findComment-278367 Mine is also an old kit acquired secondhand, and may not be entirely complete. At the very least I need motor, gearbox and some extra chassis bits, as well as tube for the boiler, so I have ordered those. That means I can't start the chassis but I can build the body, if only I can make a decision on which prototype to make! My interests are Cork/Kerry around 1960, and that effectively limits me to the following locos: 552, a regular on the Timoleague and Courtmacsherry line prior to closure, and then shunted around Cork until withdrawn in 1963. 557, a regular shunting around Cork and sometimes on the T&C, withdrawn in 1959. 559, which appears in some photos around Tralee around 1960, withdrawn that year. 560, which spent much of its life on the Waterford & Tramore but moved to Tralee by 1957, also working in Cork until withdrawn in 1963. In reality they probably all moved around in the Cork/Kerry region and the number of times each was photographed at a particular place was more to do with when the railtours arrived! There are fewer photos of 559 than the other three, but there are enough good ones to confirm the details. A photo of each thanks to Ernie and 'Ingy the Wingy': As you can see from the photos, there were detail differences between all of them, including: Rear of cab and bunker: 557 and 559 standard, 552 raised bunker, 560 W&T enlarged cab Safety valve bonnet: 552 and 560 oval, 559 round, 557 absent Buffers: 552, 557, 560 standard tapered, 559 large parallel Numbers: 557 and 560 plates, 552 and 559 painted Smokebox handrails: all four locos have different arrangements Footplate valances: 560 has W&T variant, others standard Cab roof vent: on 559 only Bars protecting rear spectacles: on 559 only Rivets: a whole host of differences once you start looking closely So, which do I pick? 560 is the logical choice as it lasted the longest, and there are many photos of it in Cork and Kerry (including Fenit) but it's highly non-standard with the W&T modifications, and not as attractive as the others. I think the work-weary 559 is the most attractive, even if there are fewer photos of it. Hmmm. I'll have to make a decision early in the build as there are so many differences between them.

Found in the weekly operating notice for the week ending Saturday 15th October 1960, the official prohibition of C class locos from Fenit Pier: Of course this means that prior to 1960, they could potentially have been used on the pier. Whether it ever happened is another matter, probably not.

A few more snippets on horseboxes. Firstly, a nice print I acquired on eBay recently showing J26 561 and a matching MGWR horsebox of the later type, in 1950: I also bought a few weekly operating notices on eBay recently, dating from late 1960. Here are some details of a horsebox special to Listowel races: And a much more extensive set of special trains associated with the bloodstock sales at Ballsbridge:

These are the wheels I’ve got. They actually measure 17.8mm diameter over tread and 19.2mm over flanges.

Excellent work, good to hear you got there in the end! That last photo is very helpful - thank you. As expected the cutout in the footplate is bigger than it needs to be, though it will look quite different in 21mm gauge. Certainly that slot towards the right-hand end is unnecessary. This photo is a good broadside view looking through the cab, and my impression is that the backhead is aligned with the front of the cab doorway and is just behind the wheelset centreline. It may be necessary to tweak it back a tiny bit to conceal your gearbox position but I don't think that would be noticeable. https://www.thetransportlibrary.co.uk/-/galleries/rail/lens-of-sutton-association/lens-of-sutton-association-irish-railways-part-2/-/medias/40ebd796-82e9-4733-bd47-2682a9a71a2f-cie-560-ex-mgwr-j26-0-6-0-being-turned-at-tramore-16-4-53-jn Height-wise, I wonder whether those wheels are going to be taller than the splashers? Maybe maximum size wheel diameter plus slightly overscale flange size might cause a problem, or require the footplate to be packed up a bit relative to the frames? Have you looked at buffer height with it assembled as-is? This is another interesting photo! The dismantled loco will be light and hence high on its springs here, but the wheels hardly come above the footplate level: Also thinking about heights and clearances over the gearbox etc, many photos of the right hand side of the locos appear to show a raised floor in the cab: https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/53508698033/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/53511645263/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/53499079344/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/54419707859/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/53510472622/ But this is not so apparent on the left hand side: https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/54253010976/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/54253254994/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/53511776694/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/54253241858/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/53509091889/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/54252113662/ So maybe the raised floor was only on one side of the cab? I've spent all day staring at spreadsheets but perhaps tomorrow I'll get the soldering iron out. Or at least do some careful measuring and planning. I have some wheels in the stash somewhere which I think came from the 3mm Society. I'll have to look them out and remind myself. But my square-ended axles are the wrong gauge (maybe EM?) which will be a pain.

I'm not aware of any true right-hand running sections of double track in Ireland. I think there are some sections of double track that are bi-directionally signalled - GNR line north of Dublin? - but would normally run on the left. There are some locations where there are two parallel bi-directional single tracks which later diverge (for example west of Waterford). At Mallow, trains for Kerry run wrong line for a mile or so giving the impression of right-hand running.

Recently I have been continuing my CIE carriage research. Having already put the 1960s and 1970s carriage registers into a spreadsheet thanks to forum members on here providing copies of their documents, I am now extending the data back into the 1950s and late 1940s thanks to the IRRS records. There’s a lot to do here but I’m working through it. I curse the MGWR for their numbering policy with several different coaches having the same number! I think, with the info I’ve got, I can produce a complete all-time listing of CIE vacuum braked 5’3” gauge carriages. I will be going to the IRRS archives in Dublin later this month to fill any gaps, I hope. Bear with me…

22G1 would be a 20x8x8’6 I think. Sorry, can’t help with its location.

I think I might buy one of these, if I don’t already have something suitable in stock: https://ebay.us/m/bMeZgB