Mol_PMB

For completeness, the early 1950s carriages had bodies similar in construction to the Bredins. Mostly wooden, steel skin. The first few batches used a welded steel underframe of conventional type, the welded truss instead of a turnbuckle rod are the most consistent difference from the 1930s coaches. They continued with GSR type leaf sprung bogies. Those built around the 1954/55 period had the same body type but the triangulated underframe and commonwealth bogies. In the early 1960s there was a reversion to the same wooden frame, steel skin body construction with triangulated underframe and this time with heavier-duty commonwealth bogies, for a few small batches of coaches. There isn’t a commonly-used descriptive name for these, they’re not really Bredins, laminates or Park Royals. Then there was a technology shift with the Cravens, monocoque bodies and B4 bogies.

Park Royals are the most distinctive. The saloon part of the body is wide and has longitudinal reinforcing ribs below the windows. The ends of the body are narrower and flat. The body is made of steel and they were built 1954-1956. They have a steel ‘triangulated’ underframe on commonwealth bogies, this underframe was also used on other types of coach. Laminates came after Park Royals, around 1956 to 1960. Same underframe and bogies, completely different body construction. Body frame and skin made of laminated panels, the skin was laminated from aluminium, plywood and insulation layers, with the aluminium on the outside. Body full width all along. Bredins are much older, 1930s. Wooden framed body with flush steel skin similar to contemporary LMS coaches. Steel underframe with turnbuckle truss rods. Several batches, with two different body cross-sections. There were other types too, plenty of coaches built 1950-1955 and some in the early 1960s that don’t fall into those three classifications though they were broadly similar in appearance.

I’d be very interested in a Bredin composite if you have one.

Very good, all ran like clockwork, we were half an hour early into Limerick, and on time back into Dublin. 171 and 088 performed well. The bar and buffet cars seemed to be doing a good trade. The weather was dry and mostly sunshine and blue skies. A most enjoyable trip.

171 is performing superbly today. Just eating up the miles at 70-75 mph. Apart from the clouds racing past the window you wouldn’t know there’s a 113 year old kettle up front.

If they’re that desperate, there’s an S class inbound ready for the next one!

See you in Wesht Caark next month?

Today’s entertainment As usual the steam heating is mostly going straight to atmosphere!

I’m staying in Sutton but thought I’d take an endurance trip on the DART. By the time I got to Bray I was in need of a drink: Lots of trains through the ages on the station walls, but I’m not sure @jhb171achill would approve of the 1930s livery?

Ireland’s probably a bit far south for him? Mind you, scope for confusion of the emerald isle with Iceland or Greenland? But it looks like the IRRS are laying out the red (green?) carpet: https://flic.kr/p/2rYhg68

I love those wagons! Excellent work on the weathering.

Also, after being delivered in green the G611s were painted black and tan first. A few were later just black with white trim.

No G class carried a snail in CIE service. As far as I can tell, only one was green in service.

It'll have to be a pretty huge carrier to operate the Irish squadron! I can only begin to contemplate the extras that could be charged for on board.

The end artwork was more tricky because the end elevations and cross-sections on the original drawing were badly damaged. However, to fill the gaps I've been able to make use of other drawings from similar carriages, as well as dimensions from the plan view of the one I'm actually modelling. As far as possible I'm using labelled dimensions, only scaling when there's no other option. I've finished the basic end now, there are some more parts yet to draw for the gangway, footsteps etc. Also I need to add the flanges and brackets that connect the sides, ends, underframe and roof. There won't be more progress on this until later next week as I'm heading to Dublin tomorrow morning.

Modded, I'd say. It's a bit after my period of interest so I'm not sure. They're simpler to model too. Some NLI and IRRS links to pics in original condition: https://catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000307992 https://catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000307993 https://catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000307510 https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/53509009601 https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/54403834689

Originally, for barytes traffic, they were designed so the sides dropped down flat and the load was pushed sideways out of the wagon by a JCB or similar. When the barytes traffic stopped, they were used by the PWD for spoil and also for rock armour on coastal sections of line. Initially they remained unmodified (as my pic of a rusty one branded PWD LKJ) Later it seems that the doors were sealed up and the operating mechanism and balance weights were removed. They got a coat of red paint on the body. @BosKonay's thread (in the resources section that I linked above) includes a drawing in original condition, and a load of photos of the later modified type. My photos in the post above show unmodified wagons. Strictly, there were two subtly different variants as-built, but I think those differences would not be obvious on a modified wagon.

Some of my pics of them before modification:

Good tip. Is his name pronounced more like Jones or Johannes? I've heard both.

From Roger Joanes, another photo of Camping Coach No.8 (previously GSWR 837, later 530A) at Tramore. This is the one now at Whitehead.

Many possible approaches depending on your preferred material and your budget!. The cheap option for the chassis would be a Dapol Prestwin kit; a more accurate but more expensive version could use an IRM chassis from a magnesite / ballast / bubble etc. JM design has also produced an etch for this type of chassis in the past, and Enda has done a 3D printed chassis that may be suitable. The body could be a simple plastikard box with some details added from microstrip, or it could be 3D printed. I'm pretty sure there's a drawing available for the barytes wagons somewhere. The modifications for spoil seem to have been removing bits and welding up the doors.

More details and examples of the early variant here. As JHB says, the depth of the colour bands was changed, generally with more tan and less white, photos indicate that change was implemented from May 1962 and then the livery stayed pretty consistent until the late 1980s.

My understanding is that the BnT livery was specifically designed to make a disparate rake of carriages look uniform. The black helped to conceal the style and size of windows and whether the coaches were panelled or flush-sided. The original specification had the split line between the black and the tan defined at a consistent height above rail for all stock, so they all seemed to line up and looked consistent. Then after a few months they decided to change the height of that split! The tan ('golden brown' on the original drawing) was also well-chosen so that a bit of weathering and brake dust didn't look obvious.

Following on from the previous post, I found a couple more photos of brake third 860 in the IRRS archive, at Inchicore in 1954. The catch is that these images are flipped left/right - the carriage number is legible (backwards) in the first photo: KAM_DKR_X_Inchicore_12_June_1954 | [Photographer: Kevin A Mu… | Flickr KAM_DKR_GSR_98_X_Inchicore_12_June_1954 | [Photographer: Kev… | Flickr The livery here looks like plain dark green, no lining or class designations.

That's superb! lovely work.