Mol_PMB

Many thanks for the advice, John. It's good to know of the pitfalls with certain makes of wheel. I've had a look at Ultrascale, but their website is currently down and there doesn't even seem to be a way of getting on the waiting list. Even the GW quartering jig is only available on back-order with a considerable lead time! Fortunately, quartering a 4-coupled loco is easier than a 6-coupled one. Phoenix do seem to have the right sizes, which is a good start. That seems to be the best available option. Having spent 20 years modelling in 7mm scale, with the ready availability of Slaters wheels having all those advantages, I have been really surprised to find that in the much more popular 4mm scale, getting hold of decent wheels is such a challenge. I see that Scale Link are retiring in March 2026 and their range of Romford/Markits types is also being run down with many sizes unavailable. The wheel/rail standards I'm working with are 21.0mm gauge, 19.2mm back-to-back, 19mm across checkrail faces. On the wagons and loco I've built so far, I'm using EM profile wheels with a 2.3mm tyre width (compared to 2.8mm on the IRM wagon wheels). This seems to work. With a steam loco I've got the old challenge of the overscale tyre width in the splashers. When looking at the wheels available online it's often unclear what the tyre width is. But it looks like the Sharman ones are reasonably fine. Thanks to all for your advice. I'll get there eventually!

That's an old one! The horizontal metal tiebars would suggest around 1900, I think.

Very nice. You’re getting much better at the dark arts!

Back to Quartertown Mill, I've been playing with the CAD and laser-cutter to rough out a platform and mill building shape. I was delighted to find that a local stationers stocks good quality 1.5mm card for a few quid per A1 sheet, which is ideal material for this sort of exercise. This is truly a job for the lazy man's scalpel! I'll do similar rough mockups of the other buildings to get a feel for how they look, and if the layout seems balanced. At present I've just estimated dimensions from maps and photos, so there is certainly scope for some tweaks. Once I'm happy I can use the rough CAD as a basis for the more detailed and robust structures.

Excellent progress! I will be playing catch-up with some similar projects.

A CMDR wagon might be the sort of thing @Bob49 would consider doing? Though I think he has a bit of a list of ideas to work through already. The availability of decent drawings is a big step in the right direction. Although they can't have been very numerous, it looks like a few survived into CIE days.

But a layout that size would only progress at a crawl. (unless it was Darius!)

The blueprint wagon is interesting - it is vacuum piped, but not apparently vacuum braked. However, its handbrake arrangement is more GB than Irish. As for the body, the drawing is confusing in places because each view is a composite of an elevation on one side and a cross-section on the other side. There seem to be hinged covers over the vents in the upper and lower sides, to allow it to be used as either an enclosed goods van or a cattle wagon. It's not identical to either of these, but there's a close resemblance to the first one: RNC_CMDR_105R_Kingsbridge_13_Oct_1947 | [Photographer: Robin… | Flickr PJF_CMDR_103R_Birr_11_April_1955 | [Photographer: Patrick J … | Flickr

Here's 663, the cladding doesn't look too bad on this side but it still looks like it's been dented by some fat fingers and clumsy handling: But these IRRS photos of the other side show that a whole cladding sheet has come loose and seems to be flapping about: RNC_MGWR_663_Castlerea_6_Sept_1957 | [Photographer: Robin N … | Flickr RNC_MGWR_663_Castlerea_6_Sept_1957 (2) | [Photographer: Robi… | Flickr The loco is still in steam and in use. A few months later it was withdrawn and sat on the scrap line in Athlone with that cladding even more bent out of shape: AEB_MGWR_663_582_Athlone_16_June_1958 | [Photographer: Antho… | Flickr What a wreck! Note that 663 above carried a round-top boiler but had the larger diameter, waisted smokebox normally seen on the Belpaire boilered locos. It's quite a different shape to the almost flat-sided smokeboxes on 654 and 655:

...and they are many of the best ones. You need to join the IRRS!

I put this list together mainly of photos of 560 on the Fenit branch, and then I added some more photos of it elsewhere. It's surely not complete but there is a good selection of photos here and about half of them are in colour: https://www.flickr.com/photos/72213853@N03/14896588730 https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/53467653382 https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/53468560926 https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/53468878174 https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/53468979775 https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/53498929093 https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/53499079334 https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/53509201430 https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/53509204144 https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/53511776674 https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/53527642129 https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/54252114857 https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/54418652517 https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/54419707054 https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/54419902095 https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/54419902890 https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/54419902915 https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishswissernie/48994726936 https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishswissernie/48994924552 https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishswissernie/49062872833 https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishswissernie/49729502773 https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishswissernie/49730367857 https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishswissernie/50273990822 https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishswissernie/50430679707 https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishswissernie/50522322148 https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishswissernie/52885061272 https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishswissernie/53112598486 https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishswissernie/54093269572 https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishswissernie/5961274843 https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishswissernie/5961797016 IRRS journal 179p179 North Kerry Line p248 Rails Through North Kerry p108 WLWR book p66 Keith Pirt Colour Portfolio p44 The last book reference is a very useful colour shot of 560 on the turntable at Fenit, taken from the footbridge. It's well-lit, very clearly showing grey livery, and because it's from a high viewpoint it shows details of the cab roof and tank tops etc that are not visible in most photos. The whole book is full of wonderful photos - well worth getting.

Many thanks for the clarification, John. It's version (b) of the kit I've acquired, which happily suits me quite well. A Belpaire kit would also have been fine. Mine will be 21mm gauge but I think life is too short to tackle the working valve gear! It's an inspiration to see it done though. I'm still working on sourcing wheels - I've found some driving wheels but the leading wheelset (and perhaps the tender wheelsets) may need to be secondhand off ebay. And then I need longer square-ended axles; I have some ideas how to do this but need to make a jig first.

Oh yes, 655 looked a bit of a wreck at the end. Don’t worry if you’ve made a hash of rolling the boiler… But one of the others was much worse, with the boiler cladding hanging off and the safety valve bonnet not even remotely fitting. I’ll find the pics tomorrow - with the loco still in steam and in use.

@Horsetan, would you like me to send you a list of links/refs to photos of 560? It'll take me a little while to sort it out - I have them all but they're scattered in different places. Would be interested to hear of how you get on with the kit. I have an SSM one to build too, also 21mm gauge, and also as 560. Continuing with Midland kettle matters, Evri left my parcel on the front doorstep in full view of the road at lunchtime. Fortunately it was still there when I got home - perhaps there were no fences in Manchester that wanted an etched kit of an obscure Irish steam loco? An initial review of the contents and the instructions has identified that this version of the kit doesn't do the Belpaire 'Y' boiler version - I think John produced a different variant of the kit for this, but I wasn't sure which version I'd bought. That limits me to the round-top firebox options (unless I'm going to make major changes) but that's fine - 2 of the 3 preferred prototypes I had identified are round-top. Of the late survivors, my options are now 654 or 655. I've found around 30 photos of each in their final condition, including many in colour. They were both railtour celebrities. They were not identical and either would require some minor modifications to the kit - 655 would need the cab front changing while 654 would need modifications to the tender side sheets. I also need to review the dome and chimney heights to see how the model castings compare to those fitted to the two locos. All this feels possible, and although an MGWR 2-4-0 doesn't really fit my layout theme they are very nice locos and I could imagine a filthy one wheezing around the sidings at Quartertown Mill with a few trucks, as well as turning up with a railtour. A superbly detailed shot of 655 from the NLI collection on Flickr: Zooming out a bit and going back a couple of years, here's a more complete view of 655, from Ernie: 655 had previously carried a Belpaire boiler and retained the tall thin spectacles from that period, whereas 654 had much squarer spectacles. 655 had a squat dome whereas 654's was taller than both the chimney and the cab, giving it a 'camel' appearance. 654 for comparison, Ernie photo: These photos also show the difference in the shape of the platework at the upper front of the tender between the two locos. Another area to modify the kit. On both locos, note the plate sticking up behind the volute springs for the leading wheelset - this was one of the mounts for the original leaf springs. Some locos retained these after the springs had been replaced. A detail I shall add. Perhaps this will be a Christmas project?

I like the idea of Garret's works, how many lowmac wagons have you got for their products? I'm not sure that East Anglia has the right climate for growing dates I do like your approach of roughly mocking up the buildings to get a feel for the size and proportions. I need to do that for Quartertown Mill. My version will probably be to draw something rough on CAD and laser it into cheap cardboard. Then I can develop the CAD into a final version. I've got lazy with the scalpel since I bought the laser!

Is this one bigger? Or just closer?

It’s nearly Panto season, so “Oh no it isn’t”… I have collated lots of photo refs for this loco, including about a dozen colour ones. Mostly on the Fenit branch.

It hauled a railtour to Fenit in June 1961 and was well photographed then, for example this one from Ernie: I have a feeling it wasn’t fully replaced on the Fenit branch until the G611 class arrived the following summer. Then it languished at Cork for a bit.

Many thanks Enda. I'll send you a message later and hopefully can get a couple of 21mm-friendly versions from you. I've built one of John's kits and was very pleased with it, so really I'd be after something as similar as possible to that. I appreciate that you're using a different printer so there may have been some changes enforced by the manufacturing process. Cheers, Paul

Here's another view of the same loco on the same occasion, but from a different angle. Comparing to the van behind, it's definitely grey rather than black, but if you saw the loco on its own it might be harder to tell. I tend to model locos and rolling stock in working condition rather than pristine, and the weathering can have a big influence on the look of the colour. Partly because it overlays the colour of the paint underneath, but also it provides some contrasting shades adjacent to the main colour. Colours can look very different depending on the other colours they are next to. The issue of colour scaling and the influence of lighting is probably something for another thread!

Hi Leslie, Do you have a list of what you still have in stock from your own range of kits? I know you were running things down but did restock a few types. Is the website up-to-date for availability? How does Enda's Ranks wagon compare to John's? Is it still a kit and can it still be built for 21mm gauge? Will you be stocking them? Thanks, Paul

I guess there’s no room for this?

If I had to pick a green engine from Cultra, I think maybe B113? Given the choice you have, I’d pick the tram too! If it is to be a Queen, hasn’t someone done a 3D print that could be rescaled?

I’d pick the green one Isn’t the tram narrow gauge?

Ah, that’s brilliant, many thanks for the info. I hadn’t realised that black had been the ‘standard’ for a while, though in a time when few steam locos were being painted. I thought 655 looked quite black too, but as you say it’s often hard to tell. Good to know that it was actually black. 560 is another loco I plan to model and when it hauled a railtour to Fenit, the better-lit photos show that it was indeed a cleaned dark grey.