Mol_PMB

The brakes and sanding pipes would need to be realigned but it would be an easy fix. The wheel hubs are fairly chunky, but you may be right that there wouldn't be much of them still in contact with the axles if they were moved out. Would you like me to take some more measurements? If you like, I could take the cover plate off the drivetrain and send you some photos of what it looks like inside.

G.I.B. !!

There was an earlier batch a few years back, and I think this EFE lot are an attempt to squeeze a bit more return out of the tooling. But a Class 15 is a rather niche loco, short-lived and geographically limited, and I suspect most people who wanted one got theirs in the first batch. They ran in the area where I was born and brought up, but had all been withdrawn long before I was born.

Wow, that is cheap! Many years ago before they were produced, I bought a kit for an O gauge class 15. It's still in its box, in one of the cupboards of shame. I do like them, but hard to justify buying one because I really have no need for an O gauge class 15 in my current plans. It would just go in the same cupboard as the kit one.

My new kits arrived this morning, so here's a photo of what you get in the box. Basically the 3D printed parts are a body, two rocking W-iron assemblies, four buffers and two brake block assemblies. There are also some etched bits for brake levers and guides, and some wire. The detail on the 3D printed parts is superb inside and out, and there is no need for any cleaning up on the visible faces. This shows how the W-iron units fit; these ones suit 21mm gauge with 28mm axles but alternatives can be supplied for 16.5mm gauge: As you may have noticed, I can't bear to build anything as intended so I have added extra details, replaced some parts with alternatives, and modified some of the parts too. But that's not actually necessary - it's just my desire for something individual. I'm hoping that @Bob49 will be able to expand his Irish range; variants of these early 1920s IRCH open wagon and van designs were used by the GNR, GSWR, MGWR, CBSCR, GSR, and CIE, and some lasted into the 1970s so they potentially have a wide appeal. John and Leslie have covered some of these in the past but by no means all, and most of their kits are no longer available. This photo from Roger Joanes on Flickr shows one of these 6-plank wagons loaded with containers. You can see that the wooden bodied wagon is wider than the adjacent corrugated wagons, and this is also true of the models. What this means is that you can put RTR containers into these wagons without having to hack details off them (we know they don't fit in the IRM corrugated opens or the wooden-bodied open wagons based on UK models). You can even put two A containers together in a wagon, as shown in Roger's photo above. On the left, two Bachmann A containers. On the right, a Triang B container (awaiting a repaint into CIE livery).

Some more CSE Rustons from the IRRS archives: https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/53510219532 https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/53511296226 https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/53511727975 And a handful of other 5'3" gauge industrials: https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/53447021843 https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/53446888671 https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/53447303790 https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/53447205704 https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/53509025928 https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/53509178074 https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/53508861296

I've just had a quick measure of mine. There is some sideplay in the wheelsets, but with the wheelset in a central position there's about 1.5mm clearance each side between the wheel hub and the back of the axlebox. However, the axlebox shape would allow you to remove up to another 1.5mm from the back of it without any visible effect, which would get you enough space for 36.75mm gauge.

Great, thanks Marc, I look forward to them arriving. The next two are going to be former GN wagons, one in tatty GN livery with CiE stencil, and the other freshly repainted and clean in CIE paler grey. That will be enough high-sided open wagons for now, unless you produce the steel framed version (GSWR/CBSCR) in future - I’ll collate some more photos of those just in case …

One of these would be a great starting-point! Add a weatherboard, modify the smokebox and bufferbeam, add a few little details and you would have a good representation.

Indeed, the birth of Irish 3' gauge was at Ballycastle around 1740, later extended in 1750. Another early one was the Drumglass colliery railway opened in 1754. I think both these used horses and wooden rails. The Kingstown harbour developments in 1816 used a railway which may have been the first in Ireland to use iron rails, though still animal power. Part of the trackbed is still the present railway alignment between Dun Laoghaire and Dalkey.

Lovely! Apparently one of two locos used on that scheme, though there are no surviving details of the other one. Later, another scheme run by the Fergus Reclamation Syndicate used a 1'11 5/8" gauge railway nearby. They had a smaller 0-4-0ST built by Andrew Barclay 703/1893.

Progress on the open wagons is slow, work is getting in the way. But I have some transfers on now, and ready for the next stage in weathering. The snails are Railtec. The white one is the smaller 4mm scale size, and with a fine brush and some grey paint I have made it look more like a stencilled one. It’s a bit big. The white numbers are HMRS. The green snails and numbers are Railtec N scale eau-de-nil, using the larger size snail from the wrong scale. It’s actually a better size for a wagon snail than the 4mm scale version. The numbers aren’t quite the right style but they’ll do. More weathering to do once the varnish has dried - these are going to be a disreputable pair of trucks!

It's worth noting that the IRRS Flickr Archive contains other industrial images that aren't in the industrial album. Here are some of the 88DS locos: TMW_CSE_X_Thurles_BFS_13_Nov_1976 (2) | [Photographer: Tom W… | Flickr TAD_CSE_X_Thurles_31_Dec_1970 | [Photographer: Tom A Davitt]… | Flickr TMW_CSE_X_Thurles_BFS_13_Nov_1976 | [Photographer: Tom Wall]… | Flickr TAD_CSE_1_Mallow_12_Dec_1970 | [Photographer: Tom A Davitt] … | Flickr SoB_CSE_1_Mallow_BFS_c1960s | [Photographer: Seán O’Brien] T… | Flickr NMA_CSE_2_Mallow_BFS_16_Nov_1962 (3) | [Photographer: Norman… | Flickr Of course, Accurascale have an 88DS in their range, but...

The Rustons are listed as (works numbers, dates and locations from the Irish industrial locos book, types checked in the Ruston locos tome): 88DS 252843 of 1948 (Carlow) 88DS 305322 of 1951 (Mallow) 88DS 312424 of 1951 (Thurles) 88DS 312425 of 1951 (Tuam, later Mallow) 88DS 382827 of 1955 (Carlow) 165DS 395302 of 1956 (Tuam) Incidentally, the IRRS industrial photo album is here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/albums/72157686685255922 And Ernie's equivalent is here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishswissernie/albums/72157628618688939

Indeed - some good thoughts there. CSE Carlow initially used 3 Cockerill vertical boiler locos, later two Ruston diesels. Two of the O&Ks were transferred there in the 1950s but it's noted they only worked as stationary boilers. CSE Tuam had 3 O&Ks and later two Ruston diesels. CSE Thurles had 3 O&Ks and later one Ruston diesel. CSE Mallow had 3 O&Ks, also one Cockerill transferred from Carlow, and a couple of Rustons. There was some swapping of locos between sites. Of course CSE later bought most of the G611 class but that was after the little book was published.

Here are some of the books I have dedicated to Irish Industrial railways: Many of the more general Irish railway books have a section on industrial lines.

This little booklet was published in 1962. It comprises 48 pages including 16 photos. Most of the content is a list of the locations of industrial railways and the locos that they used. There are over 100 locations, I haven't counted them all! Some more snippets and photos can be found online here: INDUSTRIAL LOCOMOTIVES OVERSEAS (3) Ireland Regarding the British Aluminium Co in Larne, as shown in Ernie's recently uploaded photos, the listing shows that they had 4 3' gauge locos - the 3 Pecketts and a Hibberd diesel: 1 0-4-0T Peckett 1026 / 1904 2 0-4-0T Peckett 1097 / 1906 3 0-4-0T Peckett 1357 / 1914 12/2 4wD Hibberd 2087 (acquired secondhand from Kinlochleven in 1953) Over time I'll try to pick out some photos and info on some other lines.

This is a very interesting topic worthy of further discussion. So we don't trample all over Ernie's photo thread I've created a fresh topic here:

Over on Ernie's photo thread there has been a brief discussion on Irish industrial railways. I've created this thread to continue a more general discussion on the topic rather than trample all over Ernie's thread. Perhaps some of the better-known examples were: Bord na Mona - many extensive networks, mostly 3' gauge but some 2' gauge Guinness Brewery - an interesting 1'10" gauge system mostly within the confines of the Dublin brewery British Aluminium Co Larne - a 3' gauge internal system There were also several ports and harbours with their own railway systems, often connected to the main lines. But that's only scratching the surface and there were many, many more lesser-known industrial and contractors' lines in Ireland. For those who are interested, let's collate some info, photos and references here.

Wasn't the first railway in Ulster a narrow-gauge industrial line? That's a snippet from memory, hope I'm not wildly wrong. Guinness as well of course, and later the vast BnM networks which grew up around the time that the common carriers were closing. Lesser-known were the lines associated with major construction schemes and sometimes remaining in use later, such as Ardnacrusha PS and Marconi Clifden. I'm sure there were many more.

I once built a 121 class and Mk3 driving trailer out of Lego, using a scale of 1 block to the foot. The carriage was about 2 feet long and needed a huge quantity of orange bricks!

I appreciate the issues with rail profile and hand-building pointwork - the parts available are mostly BH and it's easier to align and build in BH rail because the gauge point on the head is the widest point of the rail, and it's easier to profile switch blades, stock rails and crossing noses. Building 21mm gauge pointwork in FB rail is something I've been putting off but I need to do it sometime! Further to John's comprehensive reply, I'd agree that many secondary lines and sidings in Ireland were laid in lightweight flat-bottom rail spiked direct to sleepers, and remained like that for their entire life. The example I've been studying is Fenit which seems to have retained its original trackform for the entire life of the branch, though the sleepers were no doubt replaced. This photo is 1960s but the track was unchanged when I visited in the 1990s: Winding the clock back to around 1900, it is interesting to note that the track is uniformly gravelled over the sleepers, and only the top half of the rail is visible. I think this is the same light FB rail, but it's hard to be sure in these photos. But if this style of ballasting was done on the model, it would also be hard to tell what the rail section was. You could get away with BH if the rail foot and fastenings were hidden. For plain track, code 75 rail and 3D printed bases are ideal for representing this lightweight FB track, as discussed in this thread:

Grey and yellow B135, black and tan carriages, silver 4w TPO: https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/53446885371/ I still haven't found a picture of a CIE-built TPO in green, other than in preservation. Undoubtedly some of the older TPOs carried green.

Here's another one of those old bogie flat wagons, also ex-MGWR I think, seen in 1971 but there's a similar one in the 1980s photo of the weedkiller train. https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/53570896890/in/album-72177720315253667/ Note that the number quoted in the caption, 2618M, is the number of the ancient goods van adjacent, not the bogie flat. https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/53570657363/in/album-72177720315253667 Another view of the big 12-wheeler, was this the GSR transformer truck or something else? (not the turf burner chassis, not the Bretland tracklayer chassis) https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/53570895655 And another view of the bogie well wagon, in revenue service: https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/53570769984 I think most of the older ballast hoppers disappeared in the 1970s replaced by the CIE vac-braked ones introduced that decade - here's a GNR example and its matching plough van: https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/53569593052 https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/53570450071

This one is still in use as a TPO in 1968: https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/53570446741 Whereas this one in 1971 seems to have been 'borrowed' for other purposes: https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/53570644023 I think the latter was a marketing initiative; I vaguely recall seeing some IRRS footage of it at Youghal.