Mayner

Some Midland 6 wheelers are on my to do list and should be able to release as complete kits in the later part of 2019. I need a couple of rakes of MGWR 6w coaches for my own layout. At this stage I am looking at a 3rd, brake 3rd, composite & TPO possibly a combination of pre and post 1900 vehicles with different roof profiles and paneling styles. Apart from coach springs suitable castings (from my patterns) are available for these coaches in Dart Castings MJT range in the UK.

The hobby has changed a lot in the last 20 years with a noticeable shift away from kit and scratchbuilding to rtr, the other factor is that the majority of people who model the railways of their childhood/formative years and there are relatively few people with memories of steam in regular operation on the CIE system or interest in the CIE black and tan era. I managed to convince myself that I saw a large blue steam locomotive with smoke deflectors leading an express across Gormanstown Viaduct on a childhood trip to the sea side in 63 or 64. Years later I learned that CIE sold Vs 207 to the UTA who used her on weekend Belfast-Dublin "Tourist Train" The other factor that has crept in is that a scratch or kit built model is somehow going to be far inferior to a ready to run model and a growing proportion of people are prepared to wait in the hope that Murphy Models or Irish Railway Models will bring out a model or their favourite loco or piece of rolling stock than assemble a kit or attempt a scratchbuild. Steam is easier to to scratchbuild than more modern power, basically rectangles and circles rather than compound curves. Hopefully Ken's excellent thread will encourage people to have a go at scratchbuilding or kit assembly

The sides on coaches with Attock panelling would have to be built up in two layers rather than the single layer used in the majority of etched kits. The additional layer would add to the cost, but could be used to provide a useful glazing rebate.

The inter relationship between TMD & SSM under Paul Green's ownership is a bit complicated. The initial range of locos and stock including a Glasgow and South Western 0-6-2T, MGWR 0-6-0T, J15 and GNR(I) S Class 4-4-0, 4-4-2T and GNR Coaches designed by the late Eamonn Kearney. Paul Green appears to have acquired the rights to the existing Irish range of kits during the late 1980s and expanded the range introducing the GNR(I) goods brake and SG 0-6-0, GSWR 6w coaches and whitemetal wagon kits. To complicate things TMD introduced the GNR (I) Compound and GSR Bredin coaches after SSM had acquired the existing range of kits. The Compound was kind of joint venture as it used an SSM S Class tender Funnily enough I convinced myself that the 7mm J15 frets were produced in nickle silver or maybe I was because the 4mm kit was produced in n/s during the later stage of Paul Greens ownership

There have been a number of serious accidents, involving passengers(including at least one involving a wheel chair) crossing the lines at suburban stations in Australia and New Zealand. The railways in Australia and New Zealand have historically operated under a less stringent regulatory environment than Ireland and the UK with no specific requirement to fence off railways or interlocked signals at level crossings. The crossing lights and barriers in Perth are likely to be operated automatically by the train, and unlike Ireland are not interlocked with the signalling system and remotely monitored and do not provide a fail safe if a person in a wheelchair or mobility scooter is on the line when the barriers come down. I am not sure how the Irish railway regulator would respond to the idea of passengers crossing the line at railway stations after over 100 years of using foot bridges. The problem with the lifts is either one of an inadequate maintenance or poor lift specification which becomes a major issue.

Ken Very impressive, a nice example of the scratchbuilders art. Could you expand a bit more on your techniques for cutting the external shape & straight lines and the use of the rivet press? Some modelers use a snips for external cuts and file to the finished line others use a razor saw or metal shear. Did you use a rivet press with an indexing table or rely on an eagle eye and steady hand while punching the rivets?

Now to assemble the boiler, firebox (wrappers anyway! and smoke box. The boiler is rolled from brass sheet and firebox formed to shape, the boiler and firebox and smoke box are designed as sub assemblies that bolt together and to the footplate. Preformed boiler and firebox wrappers. I used a strip of scrap brass to simplify joining the boiler and firebox together, a strip of brass will be provided for this purpose in the kit. Reinforcing/jointing strip soldered inside the boiler wrapper. Stainless steel clips to secure firebox wrapper while soldering to boiler. Assembled boiler & firebox wrappers. The disc at the front is used to align the boiler and smokebox wrappers. Riveted smokebox assembly for superheated boiler. The smokeboxes on the saturated locos were shorter and flush riveted with a smooth finish. The smokebox back and front fold up into a box to support the wrapper. A captive bolt is used to bolt the boiler and smokebox sub assemblies together. I used various brass tube and bar of various diameters to preform the smokebox wrapper. Wrapper is attached by working around from one side, using 17 watt soldering iron with small tip and very little solder in a similar manner to the cab roof. Smoke box front attached by sweating, cleaning the soldering iron tip before touching the riveted detail. Starting to look like a loco! I could not resist taking a picture though the chimney and dome are a bit pissed. I have started detailing the loco fitting boiler bands, leading springs and leading splashers, though I still have to sort out the cab splashers. The boiler fittings were lost wax brass castings prepared from my originals by a Morris & Watson a precious metal merchant fabricating and casting business in Auckland. The lost wax castings were also used as masters for the production pewter castings by another business in Auckland

A "National Railfans Association" has a distinctly American feel to it a railfans/gricers lobby group like the NRA to defend the gricers constitutional right to bear a camera and go where they like on railroad property.

Probably the "Thomas & Friends" franchise realising that they need to appeal to a much broader audience than small boys if the series is to survive rather than so called p.c. crap Daughter has been pretty much into the hero girls stuff starting with Dora the Explorer, through Disney Princesses to Lego Elves made it pretty clear she did not like Thomas & Friends or British made kids cartoon programmes India &China are both potentially huge markets heavily rail orientated with parents who want and are prepared to pay the very best for their childern. Interesting to see if Bachmann or Hornby bring out any of these new international characters, Bachmann's Rusty looks like a reasonable start for a BNM Ruston, apart from Frateschi in Brazil I don't know of a manufacturer that produces a reasonably priced model of the EMD GA8 export model (Noor Jian Indian Royal Train locomotive)

And now to the loco body! The fret includes parts to assemble a member of the MGWR Ks/GSR/CIE 650 Class (G2) with round topped superheated boiler post 1918. The kit includes 3 alternative cab types and smokeboxes for superheated and saturated boilers. Cab interiors suitable for OO or 21mm gauges. The MGWR had a policy of renewing or replacing locos and rolling stock at a 25 year interval and commenced rebuilding the K Class with superheated boiler and canopy cabs in 1918, although the GSR CME Bazin appears to have been opposed to superheating smaller locos the rebuild programme continued at Broadstone after the Amalgamation. Although some locos retained their "flyaway" Attock style cabs the majority were rebuilt with low wrap around GNR/Stirling style cabs which were eventually replaced by cabs similar to the J15 and other GSWR classes possibly as a result of problems with enginemen hitting their heads on the low GNR style cabs. The locos with "Inchacore" style cabs were fitted with circular spectacle plates and retained laminated springs on the leading axle with distinctive hangers, the locos received rectangular spectacle plates and volute springs were fitted to the leading axle following or possibly during the Emergency. Running board/valence/buffer beam fret. Support valences while bending up running board valence sub-assembly Starting to look like a MGWR loco with deep valences! Running board overlay half etched to dress over running board assembly. Running board overlays temporarily bolted to running board subassembly, the overlay is dressed by hand around the curves with small diameter brass rod or dowel (artist paint brush handle) clips are to check fit before final assembly. The half etched brass is reasonably soft, I worked from the front buffer beam backwards making sure everything was in line, dressing the overlay over each arch before temporarily bolting down at the end. I soldered the overlay in place by tinning the running board with 145 solder and phosphoric flux using a 25Watt soldering iron with a large tip. I then cleaned the iron and slowly worked back heating the overlay. Running board fitted, now time for cab and splasher assembly! I decided to assemble the loco in MGWR condition with a canopy cab. Cab and splashers are fitted with tabs that are intended to slot into the running board. I 1st tacked one side of the cab to the spectacle plate, checking for square, there is a half etched rebate in the cab front to assist alignment. I dressed the cab sides & roof around the spectacle plate using the spectacle plate and brass bar as a template, funnily enough the fit was good same as the initial test assembly 4 years ago! Splashers fold up with the splasher tops level with the sides, the splasher tops are slightly over long and need to be carefully filed back when fitting to the running plate. Really starting to look like a loco, excess solder to be cleaned up with a scraper on running board, splasher/cab joints. The challenges of building an Irish Broad Gauge steam loco to run on OO gauge! Scrunched up inside valve gear, main frames and wheels in the completely wrong place. Ks/650 progress so far, next stage assemble and fit smokebox, boiler and firebox! I will leave the motor and gears until I fit the boiler, firebox, smokebox subassemblies. Funnily enough wheels apart steam locos are reduced to similar sub assemblies while going through the works.

Assembled brake gear, coupling rods, fitted reverser and guard irons to complete chassis assembly. I usually assemble the brake gear as removable sub-assemblies to simplify painting. The little miniature drill holder that fits in the pin vice (miniature hand drill) came as a freebie from Micro-Mark Tools and is an invaluable piece of the tool kit for holding small drills, (0.5mm for boring out brake blocks and hangers on the fret. I used 0.45mm handrail wire to pin the brake blocks to the hanger, the work surface is ceramic fiber board supplied by micromark. Loco and tender brake hangers, I opened up the holes in the hangers with a small tapered broach to clear 0.7mm brass wire/rod. Loco chassis with brake gear, guard irons and reversing lever fitted. Loco and tender chassis and brake gear sub assemblies. Coupling rods. The test assembly picked up a number of glitches in the chassis that will be rectified in the production artwork. Coupling rods need to be beefed up, packing pieces to aid brake gear assembly, some details engraved on the wrong side of the sheet.

Apart from the NCC Jinties and Woolwich its probably easier to scratch build than attempt to modify a model of a UK mainland loco into an Irish Prototype. Even the NCC Jeeps, Moguls & Castle Class 4-4-0s were quite different from the LMS engines, the LNWR crossed the DX with its Crew Special Tanks for the Greenore line, the DSER Webb 2-4-2T that passed into GSR stock was rebuilt by the DSER with large boiler, DSER style cab and boiler fittings. The Hornby T9 with 6 wheel tender is probably about the right size for 131 or 171, but would need new cab, smokebox, boiler fittings and tender superstructure. The T9 would be an expensive option, there are also reports of problems with gear mesh and mazac rot. A Triang L1 with a plasticard scratchbuilt body would probably be a less expensive option compared with trying to carve a modern rtr 4-4-0 into an Irish model and mighty actually last longer.

There is a note on slip working in Shepherd's Midland and Great Western Railway of Ireland. Apparently in the summer 1918 timetable there was a slip at Inny Junction for the Cavan Branch. Shepherd comments that it was difficult to understand the economics of the slip in the timetable as it was necessary to send a light engine from Mullingar in advance of the Sligo passenger to pick up the Cavan coach. Slip working appears to have continued at Enfield up to 1926 into GSR days.

I managed to dig up my copy of Padriag O'Cuimin's paper on MGWR Carriage Stock. The "oul crate" was a very rare breed indeed a 6w brake composite with 1st & 2nd Class accommodation ideal for a mixed or 1 coach passenger train on a line with light passenger traffic According to MGWR Carriage Stock 36 a re-build of an earlier coach entered service in 1908 with seating for 8 1st and 24 2nd class passengers and electric lighting! The 2nds were presumably re-classified as 3rds and kept their upholstered seating when the MGWR abolished 2nd class in 1914. 36 appears to have started life as a 4 compartment 1-2nd composite and converted into a slip coach by converting one of the 2nd class compartments into a brake apartment with end and side lookouts, presumably in the absence of a luggage compartment bulky parcel and mail traffic would have been carried in a H Van or possibly one of the passenger compartments. Apparently very few passengers traveled on the mixed, there is a story of a passenger turning up at Limerick to ride the mixed. The lone passenger is escorted to the end of the platform by a porter, loco and coach arrive pipassenger and return to goods yard picks up the rest of the train, backs out past Check Cabin and departs for Foynes. H.C. Casserley photo of 36m at Adare

The oul crate of a thing was originally a "Slip Coach" used for direct Broadstone-Edenderry services. Slip coaches were uncoupled from non-stop trains (at speed!) to provide connections to branch lines and intermediate stations. The Edenderry coach would have been detatched from a train as it approached Enfield and allowed to coast to the platform where it would have been picked up by the Edenderry branch train, not sure when the practice stopped Edenderry lost its passenger service in the early 1930s. The Western Region seems to have been the last railway in the UK to use slip coaches.

The design work for the 52 Class kit is reasonably advanced with the option of building the loco with a saturated round topped boiler in GSWR/GSR or CIE condition including variations in cab and the option of large or small tenders. There was a number of major variations in boiler type within the class in GSR & CIE days. This posting is basically to canvas the level of interest in the loco with different boiler and smokebox designs. 1. raised roundtop firebox and waisted smokebox as in the photos of 1, 54 and 98 or 2. straight sided smoke box and flush round top firebox like 59 (The Tuam engine) similar in appearance to 60 Class 4-4-0 No 64. The 52 Class is likely to be challenging to build due to the small size of the loco and complex multi level running plate arrangement. At this stage I am looking at offering the kit as a set of etched parts (similar to Worsley Works) rather than a complete kit with castings, wheels gears and motor. The chassis and valences will be in 0.4mm nickle silver for strength the remainder of the loco in 0.4mm brass. No 54 GSWR/early GSR condition with type B tender No 1 GSR condition with type A tender. 98 early CIE condition with extended cab & type A tender. 98 still has GSWR style smokebox with double doors and raised round top firebox. 60 Class (D14) no 64 with straight sided smokebox and flush round topped boiler. The 60 Class were built concurrently with the 52 Class were slightly larger and more powerful and took over the principal expresses of the GSWR (Dublin-Cork& Killarney) while the 52 Class worked the secondary routes. Both classes became largely redundant following the introduction of the AEC railcars though members of both classes survived into the late 50s. The 52 appear to have worked lighter passenger trains over the ex-WLWR lines from Limerick to Waterford & Sligo, and between Kingsbridge and Waterford and branches and the North Wexford line.

I thought it would be worth-while posting what is hopefully the final test build of this loco, before I release the production version. I have made a number of amendments to the design including adding (non-working) inside valve gear since producing the initial study model in 2014 . The masters for the detail castings are currently with the casters so all going well the production version will be available in early 2019. Loco & tender chassis fret. The fret is in 0.4mm nickle silver which solders easier and is stronger & less inclined to flex than the equivalent thickness of Brass The chassis is designed to allow the alternatives of simple fold up assembly as a rigid chassis in OO gauge, or in 21mm gauge with conventional etched L frame spacers as a rigid, sprung or beam compensated chassis. Loco chassis, valve gear sub assembly and rear frame spacer. Metal oragami the sub assembly basically folds, slots and pins together and super glue could be used to lock everything together by those so inclined The valve gear is based on the Beyer peacock of the MGWR D Class 2-4-0 supplied in the 1880, available information of the 650 K Class is basically limited to a MGWR/GSR weight diagram from the 1920s. Slide bar and valve gear assembly Designing the gear to fit a OO gauge loco was challenging, I chickened out of modelling dummy let alone working cranks which opens up the possibility of a motor driving on the driving axle so to speak. The slide bars are basically fold up assemblies that slot through the rear of the cylinders and into the motion bracket, the con-rods and Stephensons gear are aligned with pins which hopefully are not to noticeable when the loco is assembled and painted. Basic loco chassis I reamed out the bearing holes with a tapered reamer before fixing brass axle brushes. Bearing holes are normally etched undersized and the holes reamed out due to manufacturing tolerances in the photo engraving process and variations in bearing diameter. Chassis assembled with Romford wheels. Brakegear to be added Basic chassis from above. It will be interesting to see if the valve gear is noticeable in the assembled loco. Tender chassis fret with OO fold-up frame spacers. The tender is designed on the Sharman Bogie principal with the leading axles floating and weight of the tender carried by the loco drawbar and tender rear axle. I used an 18Watt soldering iron with a fine tip with DCC Concepts 145 degree solder for soldering the chassis and valve gear, I use 25 & 50 Watt irons and a variety of tips & solders for heavier work. Axle brushes soldered in place and fold lines and joints soldered at rear of tender. Basic loco and tender chassis. The build picked up a few blupers mainly half etching a some fold lines from the wrong side which are easily corrected before the loco goes into production. The next phase will be to fit the brake gear, test fit motor and gearbox before assembling running board and superstructure. At this stage I have not a final cost on the kit a lot depends on whether there is sufficient demand to release the loco as a complete kit with wheels gears and motor, or buyers are prepared to source the parts directly from the manufacturers in the UK. Kits of this nature are traditionally supplied without wheels gears and motors, while it would be feasible to supply the loco as a complete kit this would be likely to involve significant additional costs, (shipping & potential VAT liability on importation ) compared with the buyer sourcing the necessary components in the UK. Potentially I would require expressions of interest/orders for 20 complete kits to release the locos with wheels gears and motors, this would absorb some of the shipping and stocking costs, but potential higher VAT liability would remain for the buyer on importation.

I bought a Chinese assembled LGB Forney (American 0-4-4T) about 10 years ago, the most trouble free and reliable loco on my large scale roster . The main difference seems to be that the Chinese assembled locos had nylon rather than metal valve gear. Funnily enough I had problems with achieving reliable running with the smaller German built LGB locos I bought second hand on e-Bay. The chrome plated wheel tyres on two locos were pitted/spark eroded from running on track power. This only appears to happen to the plain tyre on the wheel set with traction tyres.

Branchlines produced a 17:1 Miniature gearbox kit with 1.5mm input & 2mm output shaft which may be an option of you cannot get the gear set to work. The business no longer has an active web presence but continues to trade through the magazines and at UK exhibitions. PO Box 4293, Westbury, Wiltshire BA13 9AA 01373 822231 The Branchlines gear box is fully enclosed moulded in nylon with brass worm and nylon gear wheel, so meshing should not be an issue. I bought a pair several years ago to re-build the chassis on a County Donegal railcar

The red coaches were built by Brian Fennell a talented modeller who built most of the locos and stock used on the Loughrea layout. Brian to a degree pioneered the modelling of Irish locos and stock on OO gauge in the 1970s when the majority of Irish modellers were content to model British, Continental or American outline. sScratchbuilding a number of 001 Class and a Supertrain modified from Triang-Hornby MK2 coaches. The 001 Class were fully scratchbuilt apart from wheels and motors, plasticard bodies, brass chassis with central motor and drive on all axles with a rubber band drive system similar to that used by Athearn at the time. http://www.modelrailways.ie/LoughRea.html

A closer look at the new 6w 1st, a lot more leg room than 3rd class. I need to level up the buffers!, sort out interior partitions, seating and a permanent set of wheels for this coach before it reaches the paint shop. I am toying with the idea of Digham or B&B couplers for my broad gauge stock as the Kadee couplers fitted to the J15 look a bit ridiculous! I seem to have been building 101 or J15 Class locos for nearly as long as the GSWR , another 5 years or so and I might just beat the record (1866-1903) but no where close in terms of sheer numbers 5-119 locos. 197 has been around in one form or other since 1986, was rebuilt into its present form 7-8 years later, 191 was completed in 1994-5 and won a prize for best kit built loco in my then local model railway club competition, I picked up (rescued) a part built J15 kit at a swap meet at some stage around 2000 and have two un-built kits in stock for the past 10 years. The loco that started it all 197 in GSWR/GSR condition ready to leave Loughrea with a mixed. The coaches were based on the SSM GSWR 6wheelers possibly with scratchbuilt bodies to resemble Midland stock the oil rather than gas lighting was a signature of older MGWR stock. This loco has a sprung chassis and a bit of a racer with an open frame Anchorage DS10 motor & 40:1 gearing 191 arriving at Loughrea with a cattle special. This loco is more of a plodder with a Mashima can motor and 80:1 gearing ideal for goods trains. 19 is similar in detail to the majority of the class with non-superheated round topped firebox as running in CIE days, 197 although a slightly more modern loco built in 1899 is basically running in GSWR/GSR condition with double smoke box door and slope fronted smokebox a classical GSWR feature. I hope to add a few more detail variations including a superheated loco with belpair firebox like 186 when I complete the next 3 locos. I would like to standardise mechanically possibly with the motor mounted in the tender with a drive shaft to the trailing or driving axle in order to add as much weight as possible in the boiler and firebox to haul heavier/longer trains.

Reclaiming the office as a den/layout room again, some vacuuming and track cleaning 6T worked the 1st Mixed in at least a year into Keadue this afternoon, put her train away and is once again in the shed waiting to work tomorrows train to the broad gauge at Boyle, Dromod or Sligo depending on how far you stretch imagination. 6T on shed ex T&D coaches on carriage shed road. The coal stage is a new feature assembled from stripwood sleepers, I assembled it about a year ago but did not fancy its chances with Beeze living in the room. Somehow or other the carriage shed survived the GSR edict to remove all carriage sheds on the C&L perhaps, Kingsbridge did not realise that the tramway extended beyond Arigna. Keadue Ground Frame. Hopefully there are enough levers to control the points and signals at Keadue. There were similar uncovered frames at Ballinamore and Drumshanbo. The mixed has set out 4 wagons at Keadue, a covered probably sundries and an open by the goods shed and a pair of convertible wagons on the loading/cattle bank. The Leyland Comet flat bed handles local deliveries. There appear to have been serious proposals to standard gauge (5'3") the C&L in the early 1920s possbily a very late revival of the Ulster & Connaght in connection with a new(all-Red) shipping route from the United Kingdom to Canada via Greenore & Belmullet! And so it came to pass a Broad Gauge train however humble passing through Keadue . A GSWR train at Keadue?. I assembled the GSWR Lav 1st to keep the Bk3rd company, now I will have to think about a 3rd 6 wheeler. I originally assembled the J15 around 30 years ago, before re-building the loco in its current iteration about 7-8 years later, I will have to replace the missing tender spring. Going away a fairly typical pre-post amalgamation branch line or cross country passenger train. I am tempted to back date to the Mid-1920 seldom modeled railways still the dominant mode of transport, shorter more frequent trains than post 1939, larger more modern locos and stock emerging, simplified liveries compared with early 1900s. Re-working the ruins so to speak Branchlines Clogher Valley Horsebox. I made a hash of the original assembly about 25 years ago, tidy up and re-paint as part of a CVR train, I still have to build a CVR loco & 4w passenger brake van.

There is a very good wiring diagram/schematic on the Cobalt-CDU-2 owners manual https://www.dccconcepts.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/M-Owners-Manual-CDU-2.pdf The Gaugemaster PM-10 point motor appear to be based on the Peco PL10 motor with screw terminals added !

Post 9/11 some of the American railroads including BNSF & AMTRAK encourage railfans to register with their citizens safety programmes to report suspicious activity https://pass.amtrak.com/index.aspx. Railfans sometimes use their cellphones to report trains with defective equipment to train control or the dispatcher using the railroads emergency phone number, I know of at least one instance where a freight trains were stopped because of a calls from a railfan reporting running gear defects that could potentially result in derailments, that would not be noticeable to the train crew or picked up by a hot box detector.

Is the part burnt out van still at the end of the siding in the Boston Yard?