Mol_PMB

That must have been a real blow - it's hard to imagine. My sympathies. Best wishes for the recovery and putting your life back together.

Some IRRS pics here of A60, which appears to have also had the wing mirrors as well as deflector plates behind the tablet catchers: https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/53449371141/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/53511772714/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/54419670804/

Some super drawings and early photos of MGWR stock in the second half.

Tonight’s topic online or in a cosy central Manchester pub: February 12th : DISCOVERING THE MGWR” BY RICHARD MACLACHLAN We will welcome back our old friend, Richard Maclachlan for a talk on the Midland and Great Western Railway (MGWR), based on the extensive research carried out by Richard at the IRRS Dublin Headquarters. We do hope you will join us for a talk like no other, Richard is the expert on the MGWR. However you plan to join us, you're very welcome. Venue and Programme Details As is usual, our talks take place at the Waldorf Public House on Gore Street, Manchester. The room will be available from 18:00, the talk commencing at 18-30 hours and concluding by 21-30 hours. The Waldorf is located within a 5-minute walk of Piccadilly Railway Station, the nearest Metrolink stop is Piccadilly Gardens and the venue is served by most major bus routes commencing or terminating at Piccadilly Gardens. The weblink can be found here. At each of our speaker events, the society sales stand will be open for the sale of second-hand Irish and Non-Irish subjects. (cash only sales, please) The Waldorf now offer meals, until 8 pm and the bar has a well-stocked range of beers, lagers, ciders, wines and spirits, plus soft drinks and snacks. Non IRRS members will be made very welcome, at any of our talks or events. A charge of £3.00 applies for both IRRS Members and for non IRRS Members, please pay in cash on the door. if you are attending in person. An online payment link is here for those planning to watch online.

Yorkshire residents have it easy these days - they can even choose to have their food cooked if they wish!

'Claud'!? What were you doing with one of those tram engines from t'smoke? Tha should know all proper engines were hewn in Yorkshire!

The registration of the layers isn't quite perfect on the snail, but you can't tell with the naked eye. This snail is 8mm long.

That's coming on well. The trackplan will give plenty of operational flexibility too.

That looks like it will scrub up well with a bit of TLC. Outside-frame steam locos with cranks are always a treat to watch. Not a very common arrangement in Ireland I think, perhaps because the wider track gauge gave plenty of space for frames between the wheels. Ratio and K's did some early kits for Midland locos - possibly it is based on parts from those?

The conclusion of the Eau-de-Nil transfer project is here. I'm pleased with these. The ALPS ink layers used by Precision Decals are as follows: White ER Camel for the 'gold' outline of the snail ER Lime for the EdN areas ER Pastel White overlaying the Lime ER Pastel White overlaying the Lime (again) Note that the snail here is the middle size, used on locos and horseboxes. I have done some bigger ones to suit carriages and steam loco tenders. This will allow me to proceed with giving A42 a new identity as A11, which will also require a bit of painting but hopefully not a full repaint. I'll get my current batch of carriages finished first though.

Back to the workbench and today's project has been another 6-wheel underframe and 'bogies' from an SSM kit. This one has shortened footboards and modifications to the brake arrangements including a wheel handbrake, as it is for the sleeping car.

Very nice! Hmm, IRM are producing two of those, when will we see B113? hint: in that livery it should have a black roof not a green roof.

Ah, if I had known about the Bangor show I might have tried to fit both in, despite being at opposite ends of the island. But I’ve made all my plans and bookings now. Bangor 2027 perhaps.

Needs a model model railway in one of the rooms!

The machine alongside looks quite a beast too!

Around 3:45, some interesting footage of container traffic by road. 12:50, shunting and the MaK, followed by how not to load a wagon with sacks. 15:30, great view of the bread containers being loaded with loaves. Of particular interest to me building a layout based on a flour mill is to see how the sacks of grain, flour and meal were handled. Later on, fascinating to see the detailed footage of the MEDs in use. Interior shots of the meal and drinks service on the Enterprise - priceless! I hope the RPSI will match that at the end of Feb! 25:00 onwards, give those gangers some gloves! Overall, a wonderful view of a bygone age. Thank you!

All those discussion of grey and yellow, some day I’ll have to get my 121 out and see if I can make it work. I got it cheap secondhand from a UK seller but it doesn’t work and I fear it may have previously been one of the grey imports. But plenty more projects ahead of that in the queue. My custom etch is being made and will hopefully be with me by the weekend.

The Clinchfield was a subsidiary of the Louisville & Nashville which I mentioned previously. It's the same livery. Here it is on a roadswitcher: Or on something more 121-shaped: (pics linked from Flickr, copyright as shown)

That’s looking very smart indeed. Excellent work.

GM EMD had a ‘styling group’ that developed paint schemes for their locos, and many of the most famous American diesel liveries were actually created by EMD. I have not seen examples of the use of a ‘standard yellow and grey’ scheme and would be interested to see some other examples. There were some US railroads that adopted yellow and grey liveries, the Louisville & Nashville was one.

Indeed. I’d buy one. But I suspect they would be very niche. Here’s another pic from a 1955 CIE promotional flyer: https://ebay.us/m/ysoAOB Imagine a Metrovick or Sulzer loco in this livery!

Incidentally, was the 121 class grey/yelow livery influenced by this bus livery? When transatlantic flights between Ireland and the USA were introduced in 1958, CIE strongly marketed Irish coach tour holidays to the Americans - their only vision of CIE livery at the time might well have been the poster above.

Being contrary, I did wonder if there was an opportunity for a bus on a bogie flat wagon, but it seems that even the yellow and grey buses didn't have yellow snails - they had grey snails on a yellow background: https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/54257009599 https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/54257000213

Two emails have arrived in my inbox in the past week advertising some trips in Feb/March. I haven't seen them mentioned on here so I thought I'd just share the info. The RPSI is running a Dublin Connolly to Limerick trip on 28th February, Cravens stock with haulage as far as Thurles by 171, and then an 071 class on to Limerick: https://www.steamtrainsireland.com/whats-on/106/an-sairseal Four weeks later on 28th March, Tailte Tours is running a coach tour of the former West Cork lines with photo stops at key locations, a visit to the model railway village in Clonakilty, and the opportunity to spend all day listening to our very own @jhb171achill recount his tales: https://www.tailtetours.com/event-details/the-west-cork-wanderer-a-bus-substitution-railtour Just what I needed - something to look forward to! I'm planning to go on both trips and may see some of you there. Mol

I spent yesterday in front of the computer finishing off artwork for transfers and etches. Not very exciting. Anyway, the decals are now being printed and will be in the post tomorrow, and I expect to get a price for the new etch tomorrow too. That etch is for alternative sides for the SSM 6-wheel coach kits - a full brake and a sleeping car, plus the new ends for the horsebox kit, and a few scenic odds and sods to fill the remaining space. So today, I've avoided staring at the screen all day and I've had the soldering iron out instead. I've still got two SSM 6-wheel GSWR all-third coach kits in the stash, and today I've built the underframe and 'bogies' of the kit I bought recently from @Georgeconna. This will become the underframe for the full brake. Having studied a lot of photos it is apparent that most of these full brakes had brake blocks on all wheelsets, and the arrangement of vacuum cylinders and gas tanks was different from the passenger coaches. So I'm implementing those changes, though I haven't yet installed the gas tank. While I wait for the etches to be made, I plan to assemble the other similar underframe which will go under the sleeping car. Again this will require a few modifications to suit the prototype.