josefstadt

Now 98 days. Get the wish lists in quick!

Hi BosKonay, The two sections of rail in the centre of each track in the foreground are at expansion joints in the CWR. They provide strength and stability to the joint. In the background are what look like impedance bonds which have something to do with the DART power supply system. I think they connect the track to the earth wire of the overhead supply system. I'm not sure how they work exactly, but they are only found in the DART area. So, if you are modelling a non-DART area or a pre-DART time then you can ignore these.

Hi BosKonay. That's a superb layout. Am loving watching the progress you are making. The CAWS signals are transmitted through coded track circuits and are picked up by aerials mounted on locomotives, railcars and EMUs ( the driving vehicles only - not the intermediates). You can see the aerials on the DARTs under the driver's cabs. On the GMs they are also under the cabs but are a bit harder to see as they are behind the loco's skirts. There is no track mounted equipment in the same way as the TPWS has the grids. The only lineside equipment woul;d be the red/brown coloured location cases. For pictures of axle counter equipment you would have to visit one of the lines / station areas recently resignalled or new lines - eg Greystones-Rosslare, Clonsilla-M3 Parkway or Portarlington.

BosKonay, is the layout based on IÉ or NIR practice? If its the former then you won't need the TPWS / AWS equipment. IÉ uses CAWS, based on track circuits, or axle counters. Using the former will mean you wouldn't have to model track-mounted equipment, but if you were to model modern practice then you would have to include the axle counter equipment at ther end of each section, turnout, level crossing etc.

Sorry about missing the more recent Journal with the article about Cahir - I only looked up the index for volumes 1 to 9! I have a spare copy of Journal 97 Fitz. If you pm me with your details I'll send it on to you.

Both the pictures in the IRRS Journal were supplied by the Evening Herald. In those days the Society, due to the high cost and complexity of producing photographic printing blocks, used blocks loaned by various newspapers and other publications to reproduce newsworthy pictures. I don't know if it would be worth contacting the Evening Herald directly to see if they have any pictures of these incidents. Normally there would be many more pictures taken of incidents such as the two in question than were actually published and these may be available as prints or scans. If the EH has disposed of its archival material then they should be able to tell you where it has gone - possibly the National Photographic Archive in Temple Bar.

The tram was re-railed and was then pushed by 3018 to the Red Cow depot.

There are reports about both accidents and one picture of each in the IRRS Journal No. 18 - Spring 1956. Unfortunately I don't have scans of either of the pics. The following edition of the Journal, No. 19 - Autumn 1956, has details of the report of the Public Inquiry into the Cahir accident.

Thanks Kirley. I was afraid you might say that - it looks like its back to the drawing board!!

The accident occurred on 21 December 1955. The train concerned was a 32-wagon laden beet special from Waterford to Thurles via Limerick Junction headed by 2-6-0 locomotive No. 375. At the time of the accident the Up platform (the station building side) was occupied by a mail train. The beet train was routed into the loop but, as the rear of the mail train was fouling the crossover at the Limerick end of the station it was not possible to let the beet back out on to the main line. Instead the points were set for the short siding which ended just before the bridge. The beet train ran through the buffers at the end of the siding at about 30 - 35 mph and the locomotive and 22 wagons crashed through the floor of the first span of the bridge into the River Suir below. Sadly the driver and fireman died in the accident. The beet seems to have got out of control on the bank coming down to Cahir. The Inspecting Officer at the inquiry considered that this was likely to be due to efforts to stop the train not being made in time for them to be effective, though he was unable to put forward a theory as to why this might have been the case. Interestingly, just 25 minutes after the Cahir accident another, less serious, one occurred in Mallow. The 20:10 Kingsbridge-Cork goods, headed by A14, failed to stop in Mallow and crashed into the rear of the 20:00 mail train from Kingsbridge. The last four vehicles on the mail train and several of the goods train’s wagons were destroyed and both lines were blocked, but fortunately no one was injured.

Absolutely superb Kirley. It must be great to see something running again. To expand on David's question, have you run a steam loco on the helix and if so what loads can it pull?

As Hunslet 102 writes the paint job certainly captures the feel of the GNR(I) railcars. However, did the 600s ever run as a 5-car set - i.e. two power cars with three trailers? I only remember them with a max of two trailer intermediates. Given that each power car was only rated at 250 h.p. (2 x 125 h.p. engines) hauling three intermediates would have given a very poor power/weight ratio. The picture below was taken in Amiens Street in 1962 and shows two 600-class power cars with two ex-GNRB coaches in the Howth Bay (later platform 4). I can't swear if the railcars were coupled up to the coaches, but if they were then the train was not headed for Howth as the power cars could not have run around the coaches. The variety of colour schemes would make an interesting model on a layout of the early 1960s period.

Why would anyone laugh? It looks like a great start - keep up the good work. I hope that SWMBO hasn't discovered that her mat is being put to a better use! Is that an old Tri-Ang rocket launcher wagon in the last photo? Looking forward to the next installment.

A Brazillian company called Frateschi does a model of the A1A-A1A version of the GM-built G12 locomotive, as NZR 322. This seems to be the only NZ item in their catologur at present though I'm fairly certain that they did a model of another type of locomotive previously and indeed some shops in Australia and New Zealand do stock a greater selection of models than the catologue lists! Google 'frateschi nzr' for some shops doing these models.

As a result of the failure of the 16:50, the 20:10 service from Belfast was worked by C3K set 3005. Also as a result of the failure, plus a signalling problem at Grand Canal Dock services on the DART were still in a heap at 23:00 tonight.

How about an 071 in the CIÉ livery originally carried by the 141s, or possibly in the 121s grey livery with yellow stripes - could be numbered A71 - A88. Then again a 201 in the green livery carried by the A class in the 1950s.

The ammonia trains generally ran in three 6-wagon rakes. Sometimes, as wiggy points out, some rakes would be shorter than normal, possibly due to wagons being out of service for maintenance. For a period the trains ran in two 9-wagon rakes, but this was short lived due to the time taken loading / unloading the wagons impacting on the trains' timetable. Occasionally when a wagon was being sent for maintenance it would be attached to the rear of an empty train out of Shelton Abbey and would be detached at Inchicore. The wagon would be coupled outside the rear water tanker and would have cover on the end of the pressure tank removed by NET / IFI staff to ensure the tank was fully empty of gas.

In late 1999 IÉ received approval for a limited refurbishment of the Mk IId fleet. Standard class coach 5225 was selected as the prototype and entered Inchicore Works in early 2000. Further Standards 5209, 5213, 5216, 5232, 5233 and 5235, along with Restaurant Standard 5411 and EGV 5601 were refurbished during 2000 and early 2001. Seven of the vehicles re-entered traffic in May 2001, the other two 5209 and 5232 being completed in September. All were treated for bodywork corrosion and were rewired, while the Standards and 5411 also received new carpets, seats, curtains, tables, toilet fittings and interior ceiling panels. A new exterior colour scheme, a modified version of the 201 livery, was applied and at the doors large markings indicated the vehicle class, no smoking and seat numbers, in a similar fashion to those used throughout Europe. The cost of the refurbishment of the nine vehicles was put at approximately €1 million. The vehicles initially worked in mixed sets with unrefurbished stock. They were then put together into a dedicated set for the Galway line, hence the description ‘Galway Livery’, for use on the 05:20 Galway-Dublin, 11:00 Dublin-Galway, 15:10 Galway-Dublin and 19:05 Dublin-Galway. The refurbished set was launched by the then Minister for Public Enterprise, Mary O’Rourke TD, on 23 July 2001 in conjunction with the 150th anniversary of the MGWR reaching Galway. The Minister travelled on a special train formed of 5601, 5411, 5213, 5216, 5225, 5233 and 5235 and which was hauled by 210, itself recently repainted. There is a good photo of a re-liveried coach in the carriage shop at Inchicore in IRRS Journal No. 146, Page 176.

Spot on Rich. The IE logo is oversize - it shouldn't overlap the white lines. As you say the bottom of the cab side window frames should be black not orange. On 071 and 086 shouldn't the bodyside grill be black with a thin orange line separating it from the black band - as in http://www.railfaneurope.net/pix/ie/diesel/071/cie077_st003815a.jpg. And I still think that the orange is too orangy and should be more 'golden brown'.

Woops. I should read every word of the post!! Sorry Rich.

If the logo is too large it is only marginally so. See this picture of 073 at Pearse from the 'Railfaneurope.net' site: http://www.railfaneurope.net/pix/ie/diesel/071/dublin09.jpg. It could also be argued that the red stripe across the buffers is set marginally too high. But these are only quibbles when one considers the overall quality of the model.

The upper white line between the orange and black colours shouldn't go below the headlight. It should come down to the bottom corner of the headlight fitting on both sides. A touch of black paint would cure the problem.

Love the shot of the train crossing the Royal Canal outside Liffey Junction. And not a scumbag in sight!

Great progress Kirley, its looking really good . You have great clearance between the hidden sidings and the level above them. About 9 inches? I assume that your helix has about three complete turns with approx 3 inches of clearance between the levels.

Coming along nicely Vincent! Keep up the good work. Looking forward to more pics.