Mayner

David's comments about the railways Common Carrier obligations were the railways & possibly CIE & UTA road services were obliged to accept and transport all goods at a fixed Published rate is an interesting one. Internationally the ending of the railways 'Common Carrier' obligations (CIE 1958?) and the later de-regulation/liberalisation of road transport were significant turning points in the large scale shift from rail to road transportation and the shift of rail from a retail customer faced operation to a wholesale business that transport very large Volumes/Tonnages of freight for a small number of large customers. The railways lobbied to be relieved of their common carrier obligations which like David's example of the lady that manufactured 'posh hats" obliged a common carrier to accept all traffic offered at the published rate even if it was loss making, the flip side of the coin was that the railways were prohibited from offering discounted or reduced rates to high volume customers. Although CIE largely retained its steam era railway with a large number of small stations following the ending of its common carrier status CIE largely focused on attracting and retaining high volume customers by offering discounted rates for large customers such as Irish Cement, NET, Guinness and shipping companies like Bell who used CIE as its Irish distribution system. The shift to Block train operation ended the days of wagon load where a farmer or a merchant would buy a wagon load of fertiliser or cement to unload at the local station at his own leisure, largely ending that connection between the customer and local staff. There was the story of the local station Agent in New Zealand phoning customers to let them know their goods had arrived at the station, then later delivering and collecting sundries traffic from local homes and businesses for shipping for overnight delivery the next day. Phone and telex but all admin was paper based. Irish Rail probably managed to hold on to its relatively extensive railfreight network for so long because of CIEs almost monopoly position with surface transport and very strict licensing of road transport. Because of the difficulty in registering a Licensed Haulage business, many Irish companies and Multinationals operating in Ireland owned their own transport fleets and were internationally renowned for their efficiency. The final nail in the coffin of Irish Railfreight was the de-regulation/opening up of the Irish Road haulage industry making it attractive for multi-national and Irish owned transport and logistics businesses such as TNT, Irish Express Cargo to enter the industry quickly wiping out Irish Rails Sundries and Individual Container services. the remaining large shippers such as Guinness and Cement Limited shifted to road apparently as a result of a significant increase in freight rates when their existing (long term?) contracts came due for renewal in the mid 2000s.

Love the station and railway cottages a seldom modelled feature but common in real life

I managed the construction of a large Warehousing and Distribution Centre in North Dublin about 25 years ago. At the time the warehouse was the largest in Ireland over 12,000Sq Ft & we ended up constructing a 4,000Sq Ft ware house on the second phase to store the output of one of the American PC (personal computer) manufacturing plants, total project was over I£12m in value built over 18 months The warehousing side stored the output of various Irish manufacturing plants high value goods (mainly electronic & IT), before being distributed (exported) to various destination in the UK and Europe approx. 30-40' containers arriving and departing every night. One of the more interesting aspects was the level of security with Satellite tracking of trucks (usually accompanied trailers) from the Distribution Centre to their destination in the Uk or Europe. In the control office I was once allowed to track a truck in real time delivering freight to a destination in the Netherlands. Historically rails had a poor reputation around security and timeliness/reliability of delivery, fine for heavy bulky freight such as coal, mineral traffic or train loads of grain, milk powder or other products from New Zealand's dairy plants, but not really suitable for the high value exports from Irelands Pharma or IT manufacturing plants. With Brexit its more convenient to send Ireland's high value exports by direct RoRo ferry from Dublin or Rosslare to Cherbourg or Le Harve avoiding the problem of 'landbridging' across the UK. The less valuable exports by container ship from Dublin, Waterford or Cork to ports such as Rotterdam Locally the dairy industry is set up to use rail with a small number of very large processing plants controlled by one dominant processor, in some cases bulk milk is transported (by the trainload 12 Bogies 1000T train ) from a small number of collection points in intensive dairying areas to a centralised processing plant or in the case of the Waikato dairy products are transported by feeder services (typically 8-10 bogie flats 16-20 TEU wagons) from a number of medium sized processing plants to a large warehousing complex for consolidation and storage before eventual transport again by the train load 30-50 Bogies--60-100TEU trains. Irish dairy industry has been set up for many years to export its output by road using Ro Ro ferry to the UK and the Continent. Avonmore's daliance with rail during the 90s was based on importing cattle feed (Mollasses & Grain) through Foynes, Waterford and later Dublin ports with minimal capital investment by Irish Rail attempting to transport freight at marginal cost using low capacity fully or almost fully depreciated rolling stock.

I remember reading somewhere that Coca Cola use rail rather than road for its Ballina Beverages operations in order to claim Carbon Credits which can be used to offset some of the Emission Costs on its global operations. It appears that there was little difference in cost of shipping by road or rail from Ballina to Dublin or Waterford Ports. The Ballina liners typically load to 18 bogies 36 TEU (20' equivalent load) in this part of the World 30 Bogie 60TEU is considered the minimum required to break even. In the past the Irish Government/CIE offered reduced freight rates to encourage business like Asahi to locate in an area remote from a deep sea port like Ballina. CIE operated at a loss loosing money on most of its rail services, for a long time the Government was resistant to providing an above the line subsidy to rail, instead there seems to have been an understanding that the Government would make up CIEs losses up to a certain level. Rail freight was expected to operate commercially from the early 2000s after the Government (possibly forced by EU) began to pay above the line subsidies to public transport services rail and road. One of the excuses by a Transport Minister (early 2000s) for not subsidising Rail Freight was that the Government subsidising IE to transport railfreight breached EU competition regulations, it was claimed that subsidising IE (a State body) to compete with private sector hauliers was illegal. In the UK Track Access Grants (a subsidy) were paid to Private Sector railfreight operators avoiding potential claims of unfair State competition from the road transport industry.

There is a serious risk of ending up in a diminishing returns even loss making situation tooling up to manufacture 4 physical variations of a relatively obscure steam loco with several livery variations in a considerably smaller market than for British outline. Based on population alone demand for model railways in England alone is likely to be 11 times higher than Ireland, hence the founders of IRM shift in focus from Irish to British Outline models. The popularity of the LNER and GER (with its own historic society alone) would have driven demand for ex-GER Locos including the Hornby Claude J15 and Accurascale Buck in all its variations. My experience with the JM Design MGWR 2-4-0 kit, I produced the kit in three of the four main variations 1) late MGWR/GSR condition with round topped boiler and a choice or canopy or Inchacore Cabs 2) late GSR/CIE condition with roundtopped boiler, Inchacore cab and slotted valences, 3 late GSR/CIE condition with Y Belpair superheated boiler. Interestingly while I received orders for equal numbers of the two roundtopped boiler versions of the loco, demand for the Y Boiler version was significantly lower. Although I considered producing the original Flyway Cab version of the loco, I did not receive a single enquiry request for the loco in its original condition. My experiences with the JM Design rtr 20T Goods Brake were relatively similar while demand for the original as built version Planked & Aluminium sheeted duckets in 4 livery variations was quite good, demand for the 1960s upgraded version with modernised duckets in particular the ply bodied version were lower than expected. Interestingly the upgraded versions of the Brake Van would have been more appropriate for the Black and Tan and early Supertrain diesels than my earlier versions of the Brake Van. I suppose the WT is the most logical choice for a tank loco, no apparent requirement for costly major tooling variations, large 'go anywhere tank loco (in preservation anyway), loco still exists, apparently digitally scanned by RPSI (though scanning technology likely to have moved on) suitable rolling stock not really an issue.

I produced some etched brass Irish farm gates many years ago, the main expense is the one off 'set up' or photo tool cost for a min 290mm X 135mm brass sheet, I use 0.4mm for the majority of applications incl. locos, rolling stock and architectural features. To minimise cost of producing the gates and make the best use of the sheet of brass, the gates were added to a window, door and quoin set for a station building. The section drawn black retains the full thickness of brass, red 1/2 thickness in this case etched from the front, in more complex models blue is used for half etching from the rear and the white area etched through completely. I use PPD in Scotland for my photo engraving for 15 years, they are geared up for doing small custom jobs as well as large contracts and can also laser cut in metal. In any form of production system you have to allow for material and process tolerances, in some processes its necessary to draw a part larger than scale because of these tolerances. Generally in photo etching a solid object such as a rectangle or a circle is smaller than drawn and openings in the object larger that the opening because of a process tollerance called etched factor, not dissimilar to kerf (or blade width) when cutting an item with a saw. The PPD https://ppdltd.com/artwork-guide.html website has guidance on producing artwork (drawings) I have been using a drawing/3D modelling programme I first used about 25 years ago mainly because I am familiar with the user interface, though other programmes may be easier to use.

The closest I got to seeing Thin Lizzy live was around 1980 when a work colleague told me he met Phil Lynott at a family wedding. At the time I kind of modelled myself as a pale Phil with an almost Afro hairstyle and a whispy moustache and clothes from Peter France in Capel St. These days I am starting to look like a younger version of Robert Plant long whiteish hair and beard still can't sing or play an instrument though my kid sometimes says I look like an aged Rock Star. When I pass away my wife has promised to dress me in my 20 + year old faded black ragged Lynard Skynard tee shirt, worn jeans and work boots, still making up for lost time from a protective childhood. The Gamers World is an interesting one different members of a group collaborating to build digital models of a railway system and its rolling stock not a lot different to physical or 3D model making and they don't need DCC or analog to run their trains. Gaming thread has been hijacked by the dynosaurs

On the Midland the 'small tanks' appear to have been mainly restricted to shunting and pilot work (Galway, Liffey Junction, possibly Mullingar and Athlone in CIE days. The three surviving branch lines with mixed train service (Loughrea, Ballinrobe and Ballaghadreen) were worked by tender engines mixture of (Midland) Standard Goods, 650 Class 2-4-0 and 533 the last servicable Achill Bogie, the remaining short branches were closed to regular service by 1947. Effectively looking 4 different versions of the Class to cover Midland, GSR & CIE eras, 1. Original as introduced version with tall chimney, flush smokebox, ornate smokebox door and front vaccum pipe looped around the smokebox front, 2. Post 1912 MGWR/GSR re-boilered version flush smokebox with tall chimney, dished smokebox door with handwheel, ross pop safety valves and front vacuum pipe in conventional location, some locos operated in this condition up to and possibly into the Emergency. 3. Post 1930s GSR/CIE version flush smokebox, tall chimney and dished smokebox door with handwheel replaced by Inchacore 'style" riveted smokebox, built up chimney, conventional smokebox door with solid hand wheel. Waterford & Tramore version with enclosed bunker inset cab steps version 2 or 3 smokebox. Lot of variation in a simple almost 'standard" small tank loco. Resource wise MGWR/GSR weight diagrams exist (similar level of info to drawings published in model railway mags, Padraig O'Cuimin prepared a nice large outline drawing of the loco (no dimensions) as part of his Broadstone Series drawings (more suitable for display in a picture frame than a working drawing, its possible the original Sharp Stewart GA drawings may exist in some museum in the UK.

No offence taken or intended, I am under a lot of pressure at the moment with a teenager that has mental health problems and probably oversensitive to what I perceive as intolerance not specifically at your meme. JHB never got to see Thin Lizzy perform I had over protective family environment, instead I compensated by spending my 'Misspent Youth' in my thirties hanging out (carousing) with railway volunteers in the UK and only started going to rock concerts in my 40s although I got to see Lynard Skynard (& Deep Purple) at the Point, Joe Cocker, The Stones, Bob Dylan and Simon & Garfunkel in Auckland. My mother in law in her 90s who can do a very good aged rocker particularly impression particularly Keith Richards headscarf, sunglasses (at night) wrinkled face and long dark coat accompanied us at the last two concerts.

I made the suggestion quite tongue in cheek as I am quite unlikely to buy a rtr model of 299, more likely to enjoy assembling the Alphagraphix kit version of the loco if I ever move up to O Scale. I don't think the relative obscurity or the actual use of the prototype has any real effect on the potential volume of sales to an 'average modeller" who wants to buy an "Irish Steam" loco particularly if the price is kept at an affordable level by leveraging off an existing British Outline model as witnessed by Hornby "Irish" Trainset GWR 0-4-0T, Hornby & Bachmann UTA & NCC Jinties, OO & O Gauge 'Woolwich' Southern Moguls. Interestingly the OO Works West Cork Saddle Tanks were a variant of their existing LSWR 330 Class Beyer Peacock saddle tanks a popular loco among British Outline locos in addition to the LSWR and Southern an number of these locos were used on the Kent and East Sussex and East Kent Light Railways and also into industrial usage. Producing a model of a specific small/medium tank/tender loco is likely to be a significant risk to a manufacture due to the large number of small classes leveraging off an existing British model largely eliminates this risk. While the 12 ex-Midland Small Tanks were somewhat spread around in GSR/CIE days with examples eventually working on the Waterford & Tramore, Shillelagh Branch (closed 47?) West Cork system and Tralee & Fenit (redundant from Waterford & Tramore late 50s) they were practically unknown on the southern where the J11 was the dominant Shunting Banking loco. Although the GSR built a prototype suburban/mixed traffic 2-6-2T 850 this loco remained unique, South Eastern suburban services were worked mainly by ex-DSER 4-4-2T and 2-4-2T and 5 GSR 0-6-2Ts to the end of steam, while Cork-Cobh services relied on GSWR 4-4-2T and 2-4-2T. While not working suburban services as such Limerick retained a variety of ex-WLWR 2-4-2T, 4-4-2T and 0-4-4T locos for branch line and local services some of the ex-WLWR locos migrated to the West Cork. I suppose the West Cork 4-6-0s 6 surviving towards the end of steam could be considered a 'standard' Class, apart from their work in West Cork one was allocated almost continuously to Dublin-Bray suburban services from 1929-56, different members of the Class rotating on these services incl 466.468,469 & 470. A GER Buck or a LNER J72 in grey as a 'generic' GSR/CIE tank loco anyone? Anyone for an Accurascale 'Buck' in grey with yellow numerals as a fictious CIE loco?

The Accurascale/IRM 800 appears to be primarily aimed at modellers who are primarily interested in buying a prestigious express locomotive, not unlike Hornby Dublo's post WW11 focus on express passenger locos of the Big 4 and British Trix late 60-70s production of Gresley Pacifics, Western Diesel & AL1 25Kv Electric. The 800 also fits in with Accurascale production of the Brush Class 89 a prestigious one off prototype. A GNR Compound would appear to have a similar appeal to an 800 and a potential popular choice with the GN having a strong following among enthusiasts and modellers in the North East of Ireland. The RPSI also carried out a digital scan of their loco fleet (10-15 years ago) to encourage manufactures to produce a model/models of locos in their care. Where would this potentially leave use with a potential model of a less prestigious tank locomotive that would also appeal to British outline modellers in order to minimise development/tooling costs with Hornby and Bachmann already producing a Jinty how about an Industrial steam loco that was used in both Ireland and the British "Mainland" Curiously Fenit Harbour Commissioners Hunslet "Shamrock" later GSWR/GSR/CIE 299 just might fit the bill particularly if Accurascale were to bring out an O Gauge version . The loco was basically a standard Hunslet design used by industry and civil construction in the UK. The GSWR also inherited a similar though slightly larger loco 'Erin" from the Waterford & Wexford Railway which was allocated but never carried the GSWR No 300 I declare an interest because I have been toying for the past 10 years with the idea of replacing my 4mm stuff with a simple O gauge layout with 1-2 locos a couple of coaches and about a dozen wagons.

My teenager and their friends mainly use discord each generation develops their own views outlook on life. Although a Boomer (68) I disagree strongly with intolerant views expressed by my own and other generations both in person and on social media. Some of the opinions expressed at social gatherings among so called 'railway friends" were as intolerant and entrenced (less well off, race, sexism) as what appears on un-moderated social media, maybe I am one of those aging liberals an idealist to young to be a Hippy and to old to become a Punk Rocker so I settled for Thin Lizzy to express my teenage angst. If the gamers in the model railway space find alternate platforms such as Discord where they feel safe to express their opinions without out down or ridicule and outlet for their youthful energy well and good

The B101 may be on a Heuston-Dunlaoire Pier working. My first memories of the B101s were in the bay platform at Dunlaoire on parcel or passenger trains during the late 60s in my early teens, at the time I noticed the B and that the locos had 6 wheel bogies. Some Southern Section passenger trains worked through to Dunlaiore Pier until the connection was severed around 1980s in connection with the the DART works and Busses substituted. Its possible B101s may have been used between Island Bridge Junction & Dunlaoire Pier allowing the train engine a pair of Baby GMs or an A Class off an incomming train to run to Inchacore for servicing.

Car Turntables are sometimes a planning planning condition for new homes/renovations in fashionable (expensive) suburbs in some of New Zealand's cities. https://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/homed/latest/105333242/car-turntables-and-car-stackers-in-hot-demand-in-crowded-cities We have also built the odd rotating house and resturant. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/feb/20/new-zealand-rotating-house-sale-auckland-maraeta-hillside-valuation-pictures. While the traditional urban New Zealand home was a (3-4 bed bungalow on a 1/4acre section (site), there has been a growing move towards intensification in recent years with town houses on small sites in major cities together with a tendency to build large architecturally designed homes on very small sections in the most expensive suburbs. Another New Zealand oddity is the high proportion of private funicular railways/cable cars used to access homes on Wellington's hillsides. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/nov/19/city-of-cable-cars-the-ups-and-downs-of-life-with-wellingtons-private-incline-lifts

Quite a contraption and its interesting that the 'Diving Bell" was apparently in use into the 1950s Strictly speaking the bell appears to be a "Pneumatic Cassion" https://fendermarine.com/what-is-a-pneumatic-caisson/ a technology that's still used for underwater excavation work. Technology 1st seems to have been used for bridge pier foundations near Rochester Kent in 1851 so proven technology by the 1860s The cassion is open at the bottom and basically operates as an inverted cup of air that provides a working chamber for the divers and keeps the water out. The workers entering and leaving the cassion through a double air lock in the shaft. The cassion appears to have been used for 'levelling up' the seabed rather than excavating foundations or other heavy hand excavation work. Dublin Port info https://www.dublinport.ie/about-dublin-port/a-city-port/ talks about the 'excavated soil (muck) being stashed in trays inside the bell and brought up when lifted. Interestingly workers classed as "miners" excavated shafts and tunnels by hand sometimes in compressed air on drainage and civil engineering projects in our cities at least into the 1990s. Like occupational diving, mining was considered high skilled, high paid specialist work usually carried out in Ireland and the Uk by people from Donegal. I worked on a couple of projects in the UK where 'miners' sunk shafts and drove headings for sewer connections, in one case being treated to a ride on bogie on the 18" gauge rail line used to remove the muck and access the working face in a tunnel about 30' under Watford High Street, it was necessary to crawl or lie on your belly to pass through the tunnel, unlike the Dublin Port diving bell the atmosphere was nice and cool in the chalk beneath Watford and no water to keep out or need for compressed air.

In the larger scales Battery Radio Control is often used to control both live steam and electric locos, I originally used a model aircraft transmitter before graduating to a model railway transmitter which is capable of controlling both live steam and electric locos together with a number of functions Contemporary receivers/controllers for electric models are not unlike DCC Chips, while the regulator and reverser on a live steam loco are operated by separate servos. For a clockwork loco possibly looking at at separate servos to control the on/off and reversing controls. Possibly worth chatting to RC model aircraft people for info on suitable transmitters and receivers that may be suitable for clockwork.

Colour shades vary over time depending on a lot of variables. The 'Tan" on the 101 Class Sulzers laid up on the Inchacore sound barrier during the late 70s varied in shade from golden brown to pink although they were all likely to have been re-painted around the same time., Ironically the B101s still in Black and Tan appeared to be the least faded although possibly the 1st withdrawn. I guess it really depends on what suits your personal tastes attempting to capture the variety of shades that existed on the prototype or a more pragmatic uniform approach most of my 'green' stock is painted in an approximation of the late 50s light green scheme custom mixed at a local auto paint supplier. I forget if the paint was originally matched with a photo or a 90s repaint of a Hornby Stanier. These days I retain a sample of each custom colour on a piece of MDF or Plasticard, though the shade tends to vary between others although colour 'matched' with the original sample, not drastically though.

I remember reading somewhere that the West Cork railcar set was serviced weekly (at Cork) and a steam working substituted on the day (a GSWR 2-4-2T?) Its possible that railcar maintenance was centralised at Inchacore? as sufficient railcars became available to work all regular diagrams, in a similar manner to the way the Cobh 2600 set was swapped around on Sundays using a return Cork main line working. There was some odd C Class diagramming for maintenance rotation purposes on the West Cork system, the one of the Up goods trains was apparently scheduled to swap locos at Clonakilty Junction with the loco of the Up Branch train. The loco off the Up goods presumably working the Branch for several days while the Branch loco continued to Cork for service/maintenance. Presumably swapping the loco of the goods with the Branch train avoided a light engine movement from Cork to Clonakilty Jnt With the C Class reputation of poor reliability its possible that a lot of swapping about was required to keep sufficient locos in operation to operate the two daily goods trains & the Baltimore and Clonakilty mixed. Dan Renehan in his article on the Metrovick diesels in the IRRS Journal wrote about the amount of 'swapping' around that was necessary to operate the schedule using the A Class diesels, main line passenger and goods workings were diagrammed to the locos in the best mechanical condition and lubricating oil regularly monitored to assess condition and locos rotated to less ardous passenger and finally goods workings as the condition of the lubricant deteriorated. He wrote of fitters travelling in the engine compartment of A Class on Knock Specials attending to leaks and faults as they developed while the train was running. There was a story of Radio Technicians boarding a loco in white overalls which quickly turned grey while trialling radio telephones on the A Class during the 60

Being young and ambitious I was recruited a couple of times in the late 80s into DOGE style management teams on London area construction projects that were in or getting into trouble. (Usually over budget, behind schedule and sometimes serious quality problems. Interestingly the recruiter and interviewers kept very quiet about the trouble shooting nature of the role or being recruited into a new team to replace existing staff. The first on a major Wapping residential development (opposite the Prospect of Whitby) by an old established Building Company from the South Coast was one of my most enjoyable and frustrating roles in 30 years working in construction. I was hired by the London director (a GWR enthusiast) and got on well with my Boss a Londoner of Scottish extraction who was brought in to turn the project round and the Commercial Manager (Snr Quantity Surveyor) going out for a meal and drinks on Thursday evenings, the job paid well with salary review and pay increase almost every time the deputy GM visited London, the car was the best perk the company ran its own fleet and I got the Managing Director's David cars (a Ford enthusiast) as he traded up starting with an Escort XR3 and later a Sierra Saphire (XR4) pretty good with unrestricted private use holidays and weekends. The frustrating bit wasn't that the project had fallen behind schedule, over budget and there were serious quality problems/repetitive errors, but there were serious problems at Head Office level that the Trouble Shooter, Peter (a Scott) brought in to re-organise the company was unable to influence. The business was basically a family firm controlled by three brothers divided into a Building Division (income from external clients) run by the MD, with a Plant Hire division (Brother 2) and Joinery Divisions (Brother 3) as preferred suppliers to the Building Division. Dealing with the Plant Hire division was almost Dickensian there was a minimum 2 week lead time on all orders regardless of urgency (fax & paper original) anything from a small power tool to a Site Office faxed & internal mail to the South Coast although often cross-hired from a Docklands Plant yard. The last straw for the Commercial Manager was when the Plant Division supplied some WW1 or possibly Crimean War huts as office accommodation for our Client and then got into trouble for ordering some modern Portacabins. My last straw when finally given 'my own" project a project for a Hackney Housing Association that was at an advanced stage of construction (beautiful Facade tiny apartments/town houses, was to find that I had 20 almost complete two storey town houses with no staircases, the Joinery Division were unable to provide a projected delivery date. Peter (the Troubleshooter) and I resigned around the same time. Peter had to go as the MD David was not prepared to have the hard words with his brothers, the Brothers eventually managed to sell the business which ceased trading after 2000, though its now almost 40 years since I worked at Shadwell Basin. The next job was with a building company that pioneered "Fee Contracting" in the retail sector which morphed into a form of Partnership Contracting for major commercial and retail projects in the 1990s and again found myself recruited into a new management team on a major retail project in Watford. After the nice pleasant interview and induction & given a company car at Head Office, my first inkling that something was amiss was when I was greeted with 'who the fuck are you" when I reported to the "Site Superintendant" on my first day on site. I was quickly taken under the wing of Tony the Superintendant (company tended to use different job descriptions for the same job to most other UK contractors) on Phase 2 of the project which was complex and kept me busy for about 4 years. During the re-organisation the company dropped all reference to "Site" and usual industry roles from its job descriptions A Site Manager became a Construction Manager, a Quantity Surveyor a Commercial Manager. Although originally pioneering the organisation became outdated and complacent and was not up to managing the large complex projects that emerged in the "Big Bang" era, the entire senior management team (above line manager) on the project was replaced during my first year on site, some of the senior management people did not realise what was happening until they received their severence. In certain respects the old school of senior management was more line Grace Brothers than what you'd expect on a then £100m project. David the "Superintendant" that greeted me on site had a site clerk more a military "Batman" Tom to keep the office organised, both were Scot's received lodgings and travelled home once monthly. Tom assumed that my overcoat was 'company issue" and asked me to sign a chit for my own coat. Tony's and my Senior Manager seldom if ever appeared on site (Project Office) had to be specially summoned to the Project Office to return his company car & receive his severance pay. Project was great fun for me identifying and offering solutions to problems, in one case we had to install a 12m temporary bridge to cross a basement excavation, after the local council a project client would not allow concrete trucks to cross a bus lane, in another the Clients Project Manager was not exactly pleased that I identified design issues that added £100k to the project cost. Client had imposed a 'design freeze" on the project before the completion of the architectural and engineering design was complete omitting a series of 'plant room" doors. Like the little boy pointing out that the King was wearing no clothes, I asked the Project Architect why there were no door openings or doors to a large no-of rooms and he was unable to answer. We had a good social life for several years on the project once the new management team settled down, though they increasingly became leaving does as the project would down with little emerging work in the pipeline I had that meeting with HR with generous redundancy terms and I got to keep my company car.

Thanks everyone for their support during the last week, my kid seems to be determined to keep me on the straight and narrow, and make sure I don't over-do things.

Interesting the Tralee & Dingle acquired a bogie van from the "Tubular Frame Wagon Co" in 1892 the long horizontal framing member looks tubular in section in the Alamy photo where you would usually expect to see a steel channel or rectangular section solebar. The underframe bracing and archbar trucks (bogies) appear very light in section for a goods wagon. There is a photo and a drawing of the T&D Tubular Frame Bogie Van No40(t) in David Rowand's Tralee & Dingle album (Bradford Barton 1977) Perhaps a sales rep trying to sell 'modern' high capacity wagons visited Tralee around the same time as the Harbor Commissioners fell out with the W&L. Some railway companies including the BNCR experimented with 'high capacity" wagons around the turn of the Century and wagon builders like Lancashire C&W would have been building high capacity wagons for the 'Colonies" The Lancashire wagon is quite different from American practice where Gondola's steel or timber framed usually have fixed sides and ends

Original Tralee & Fenit Harbor Commissioners loco which may not have passed to the GSWR. Recall seeing a photo somewhere an 0-6-0WT with outside cylinders and outside Stephensons valve gear

Featured on TV this evening the clip included a railway wagon, derlict Stockyard (Cattle market) public toilet complete with authentically modelled grafitti. Some mind blowing building and structure modelling (warts and all) buildings lost in 2011 earthquake by Mike Beer. https://www.artscentre.org.nz/whats-on/ghosts-on-every-corner/ https://www.instagram.com/ghostcat_mb/reel/DHXg5_CS5D2/

Can't hold a drill steady myself but a slitting disc in a Dremel seems to have been the preferred cutting tool of the guy that scratchbuilt many of the locos on the OO9 County Gate layout. Scratchbuit OO9 locos were watchmaking compared to OO or the so-called finer scales.

Here is one I assembled earlier (years ago!) & a set of instructions. Mixture of whitemetal castings, plasticard and brass w-Irons. The instructions recommends quick setting glue such as 5minute epoxy or superglue. Challenging bit may be sourcing suitable axles as the W Irons are designed for 21mm gauge which uses an axle that 2mm longer than standard for OO gauge, though I can sort you out with suitable wheels and axles if you decide to go ahead. The brass W Iron arrangement with one axle rocking (compensated) was a fairly common arrangement with scratch and kit built wagon. I generally solder whitemetal kits using a special 'temperature controlled" soldering iron (expensive) with 100º solder & phosphoric acid flux not really practical or wroth while for assembling one kit. Age experience and skill. I first tried my hand at scratchbuilding using plasticard when I was around 14-15 and later moved on to tin scrounged from food tins, usually on second hand Triang chassis none of these early efforts were exactly successful. I started my first reasonably successful efforts at model making in my late teens after I began working after finishing secondary school including a reasonably successful "Irish' N gauge layout before returning to 4mm and attempting to model in 21mm gauge in my Mid-20s. I assembled my first Etched Brass loco kit a TMD/SSM Midland Tank in the Mid-80s but it took me approx 8 years to become reasonably proficient in kit/scratch building. Like training for a profession or "serving your time" as a trade its takes time to become reasonably proficient in model making.