Colonel

Thanks folks. Don't know whether the Swilly tanks are now nicely run in, after two days of successful operation, or half an hour from failure! Hopefully the former... Swillybegs is next due out at Aldershot in October, when am hoping Donegal railcard 7 or 8 will join the roster. Northport Quay at Tonbridge on 21st Feb.

Andy Cundick did Valentia a few years ago and it still goes out occasionally. Helped operate it at a show once and, despite the very simple track plan, has plenty of interest.

A handsome engine well on the way to becoming a lovely model.

Remember this [see above]? Well done if you do, because I barely can! March 24th 2024, when I last reported on Donegal Railcar Number 7 [or 8], so nearly two years ago. Well, on Tuesday evening, finally got my 3D printed motor bogie, so can at last get back to it. The bogie is certainly a neat job, though the less said about the bodywork the better as much of the plastic had delaminated, so very much a case of having to start again. So, have spent the last couple afternoons revisiting Roger Cromblehome's suggestions for building the rest of the chassis. Could have used something like a press stud to mount the bogie to the body and then pivot the front pony, but the body overhangs rather a lot at both ends, so Roger's idea of building it a bit like a six wheeled coach seems to make sense. So, what I currently have is a bit like a dragster! Blocks pf plasticard have been added to each end of the bogie, with at the front a mounting for a strip of brass which has section of brass tube at the end to take the front pony wheels. The plate at the back serves as a mounting point for the bodywork. A similar hole can be seen on the front block for the same purpose. The base for the body is seen below. The hole near the front of this takes the bolt for the second pivot. Overall, this means that both the bogie and pony can wiggle/pivot separately, with the overall movement being less that half the amount the pony would move on its own. So, now need to start the body again and then work out how to weight and balance the whole thing. At least it goes through the points ok at the moment, but time will tell.

Sometimes, less is more, plus there is the 'two foot' rule as well. The prototype rivets are very small...

Won that bet with myself! Well done chaps. Bought two similar books, one on the railways of Palestine and the other on the Hedjaz Railway for just a fiver and very interesting they are too.

Here's an interesting one I found the other day. Clearly a Deutz, but certainly not a G Class. So, where is it? The loco is apparently still with us, having been preserved in its new homeland. Might this be an occasional new thread for mystery pictures? Feel free to add. I assume there are folk out there who will know, but if not, will provide the answer in a day or two. David

Wonder what all that scrap was from in those open wagons?

Southampton Show Had a very decent weekend at this show, which was very good quality and likewise well organised. The latter included the hotel accommodation, in my case two nights in the new Holiday Inn: excellent rooms, restaurant & staff. It was also encouraging that Swillybegs ran pretty well too. Special mentions must go to both Swilly tanks, which performed admirably throughout the weekend, with no derailments [operator errors excepted!] and smooth running throughout. The Kerr Stuart 4-6-2T seemed very happy with its fish train, showing [at last] its rear pony truck can cope with the run round points. Meanwhile, the Barclay 4-6-0T worked well with a short mixed train, comprised of a bogie brake third and an ex Clogher Valley butter van. The above combo was rather forced on me, as discovered that several vans are going to need compensated chassis because [either through bad workmanship or warping] all those shown below do not sit square on the rails... Donegal Railcar 10 also deserves a special mention, as once paired with an ex CVR 'red' open was faultless all weekend. Indeed in all cases mentioned so far, the DG couplings proved pretty reliable too, which is very satisfying, especially when you can find the magnets first time. The West Donegal tram also worked well, once on the layout, but it proved impossible to drive off the fiddle yard cassette without at least one of the coaches derailing - so much so that there was no Sunday service at all. Will need to have a careful look at its cassette before the next show. Less successful was the goods train. Phoenix and the Unit ran well enough, but the DG couplings proved more problematic and I was unable to find a combination of wagons that worked well with each other. Sometimes everything was ok, but as wagons got swapped around problems kept appearing, so work needed for next time. Everybody I spoke with [& it was many] liked all the scenic side of the layout, with lots of compliments about the overall composition - something I thought long and hard about during both construction and refurbishment. Indeed, I even wondered if I might be in with a shout of best layout. Then again, the show was one of those where, if there was a 'worst layout' award, you still wouldn't mind, because as I said earlier standards were high throughout.

Visiting Tunbridge Wells the other day, the camera shop (yes proper cameras, not phones) had a Rollieflex in the window, for a mere £999. Fabulous looking lenses, but no digital processor, of course.

A Pox upon spell checkers!

Before Christmas, my local football club's forum (non league), suddenly started getting posts from Temu. Started slowly, but within a week, every section was completely swamped with new posts appearing 10-20 times an hour, from multiple users seemingly all round the world. The moderators had been lax in getting new applicants and once in, they just took over and for about ten days the Forum was unusable until these posters were cleared out. Seems that Temu are happy to pay people to do this and if so, sounds like a good reason not to buy their stuff.

Interesting stuff, though it is the height of the Alphagraphix wagon kit that I now wonder about, as it seems low compared to any photos in the Sprinks album.

Yes both, but thanks nonetheless. Have actually made a start on the coach section, for which I seem to have enough bits in store. However, it may turn out to be a bit of a hybrid - partly because I didn't fancy doing the rounded beading (so have just used microstrip instead), while Sister's do not have correct pattern drivers it seems. Size ok, but not enough spokes. Given there were noticeable differences between Sprite and Fairy - cab opening, driving wheel diameter and tank height to name but three - am hoping I can get away with an 'approximation'. Did also consider doing a MGWR version using the Alphagraphix single wheeler tank engine kit. Not sure the prototype would have been up to the 1.2 million miles that Sprite covered though! Am thinking that the second photo shows a toilet compartment at the loco end - or maybe this was a 'strong room', where they kept the money for staff wages? Would have been a very tempting target, especially in the early 1900s...

Have long wondered about Sligo cattle wagons because I built mine using Alphagraphix card kits as drawings. Made several as a batch build, but they've always seemed very small compared to similar types like box vans. Studying photos in the Sprinks book, there only seems to be one size, but maybe the AlphaG one is the six ton version, which seemed to disappear earlier?

Looks like Harry Potter flew in on that first photo

SLNCR wagons all seem to have lots of chunky details. Remember using a lot of 60 and 80 thou microstrip when building mine (in 7mm scale)

Lovely stuff, again! Horseboxes definitely fit into the parcels/npcrs for me = nice and varied train make ups. In amongst all the info, realised that my comment about the Sligo Leitrim WL&WR horsebox with a dog box at one end is wrong. 'Tis of course a MGW one I was thinking about. Noticed my error when both were out on Northport Quay at Canterbury on Saturday.

Nettles When time permits, I'm quite enjoying dabbling with this new layout. Not exactly following the conventional route of doing things like all the ballasting and basic ground cover first, but instead working a small scene at the time up to reasonable completion. So here is a small corner of scenery next to the ground frame cabin. It is all fairly conventional stuff, in particular as outlined by gordon Gravett in his book on scenery. The ground cover is the usual polyfilla, covered with PVA and chinchilla dust, after which various passes with the static grass machine & manual puffer bottle add fibres. Various colours of fine crumb add further foliage and flowers, along with Woodlands Scenic fibre matting teased out for dog roses and larger shrubs. The final detail is to add nettles. This is a somewhat laborious process where strands of hogs hair brush material are dipped in PVA and then in fine, dark green crumb. Once dry, each strand is then 'planted' in the thicker foliage. Only about 10cm square in area, but it makes a nice little scene, I think. You'll see a board crossing has been added for the signalman to get to the cabin from his house, while the longer boarding is a simple cheat, to cover the facing point lock mechanism.

Great piece of research. The SLNCR had at least one horsebox that was an ancient WLW model, complete with dog box at one end - another interesting feature.

There are some lovely models of tiny engines now, but always think it is a shame when you see them with tension lock couplings that, as with the one above add nearly 50% to the length of the loco. Similar issues in N gauge too, with the likes of Terrier, 03 and other small models. Needs must, I suppose...

Model Rail has an article on building and weathering Irish vans

Splendid! C class in 7mm scale, anyone?

Food for thought 're small shunting layouts, even 7mm scale possible - though not by me!