Mayner

There are several photos of J15 hauled North Wexford passenger trains iin the early 60s in the Irish Railways in Colour series, the usual consist seems to have been a late GSWR corridor coach sandwiched between a pair of 4 w (tarnished silver) luggage vans. The only change seems to the consist seems to have been substituting one of the luggage vans with a heating van when the service was dieselised shorty before closure in 1963. There is also a picture of a North Wexford passenger train made up of a large J9 Class 0-6-0 and a solitary Rosslare 12 w brake comp. This would have had room for 1st and2nd class passengers and mail/parcel traffic. The line limit over the North Wexford appears to have been 50 for passengers and 35 for goods trains. The passenger services on the Waterford-Mallow line was restricted to a daily Cork-Waterford passenger train and the Cork-Rosslare express appears to have run trice weekly (TTS) for most of the year and daily during the summer peak. Although there was no scheduled mail service over the line a luggage van on the goods would have been useful for parcel and newspaper (The Cork Examiner?) traffic on a line with such a sparse passenger service.

The Waterford-Macmine Junction line closed shortly after the 1st film was made in 1963 with Bo-Bos taking over from J15s on passenger services. I have a copy of the 1960 WTT the general line limit of 50mph for the North Wexford line applied crossing the Barrow bridge, though there was a speed restriction on trains descending the grade from Rathgarogue through the tunnel to the bridge. The B101 apparently double heading with a C is an interesting one. Through goods traffic on the central section of the Waterford-Mallow Line between Dungarvan and Fermoy was quite light, the heaviest traffic was concentrated on the section between Waterford & Dungarvan and to a lesser extent between Mallow & Fermoy. Goods traffic was carried by a daily return Waterford-Mallow goods and an afternoon Waterford-Dungarvan return trip working. The B101 appear to have taken over from the Woolwich on the Rosslare Express & J15s on goods trains when the line was dieselised in the 1950s up to the arrival of the BoBos. The B101s would have been more sure footed than a B121 or B141 with a heavy loose coupled goods on the steeply graded Waterford-Dungarvan line. The double headed train was a westbound filmed between Durrow Viaduct and Ballyvole, the luggage van next to the brake van adds another dimension to the train. Was the operating department simply using the train to transfer the C Class and the luggage van to the Cork area or was one of the locos to be used to work a Dungarvan-Waterford goods with van? I was luck enough to see the level crossings in Dungarvan before the line closed in 67 and walk through Durrow Tunnel and over Ballyvoyle Viaduct before the track was lifted and even tried to cross the the DSER line Barrow viaduct before chickening out in crossing the opening span with the burnt out timbers. Plenty of modelling material with both lines

British Leyland discontinuing the supply of engine and transmission parts was one of the main factors in the demise of the AEC railcars. During Leyland did not seem to understand the long lived nature of railway assets and a business model based on the supply of spare parts. New Zealand railways had to re-engine its DSC heavy shunting locos (52) with Cummins engines in the early 70s after Leyland discontinued to supply parts for the Leyland UE902 engines shorty after the last of the locos entered service.

The Jackson County like the Rio Grande Southern seems to hire locos and freight cars from the DRGW to move heavy seasonal freight traffic. This was our 1st weekend of winter, and we ran our 1st freight train in about a month after a lot of leaf sweeping/blowing/shredding and a new radio transmitter from RCS in Australia. Jackson City DRGW K27 #464 arrives with stock cars and box cars from Placerville #464 was regularly hired to the RGS during the late 1940s early 50s traffic ore in boxcars from local mines and sheep during the fall stock rush. Sometimes up to 3 locos were needed to move heavy stock or ore trains. Busy day at Jackson City RGS Motor #4 arrives with the trice weekly mail and express. The RGS Geese were converted from late 1920s Pierce Arrow Limousines and more or less kept the railroad running into the late 1940s. Surprisingly most of the fleet survive and several are runners! Motor #4 is an Accucraft model bought second hand from the UK and is fitted with RCS battery radio remote control system and a Phoenix sound system. In classical RGS/County Donegal fashion the radio control system was salvaged from a scrapped loco

Some small scale stuff for a change more unfinished projects. Ex-MGWR non-passenger stock going through the paint shop. 3L & 8T in the background waiting overhaul. Like Inchacore after the Emergency finishing anything takes a long long time. I started painting the vans in Jan and they are still not complete. Two vans are supposed to be in GSR livery the others are now in a representation of the early CIE green I have once again dusted off Keadue nearly 14 years after starting to build the layout as a minimum space quickie! I added a sleeper built buffer stop to the store road and found the ground frame I mislaid in 2012. Some posters of CIEs new diesel trains and luxury coach tours to tease the unfortunate passengers on the daily mixed. No 8L poses at the new coal stage outside the loco shed. The stage is built from individual wooden sleepers.

850 seems to have been intended as a prototype for a light modern go almost anywhere passenger/mixed traffic tank. The Wall Street Crash put paid to building further new locos for 6 years when the GSR designed a passenger version of the "Improved" J15 with the 5 670 class 0-6-2Ts. 850 managed to briefly escape Amiens St-Greystones and was tried on Waterford-Limerick trains during the 1930s.

Yes. Small scale plans of most of the 1st generation of railcars and a lot of useful information and photos.

http://irishrailwaymodeller.com/entry.php/107-850-Nearly-there!

The time available and whether you prefer building models or running models are probably the biggest factors in deciding to work in 21mm gauge or OO. I have been working in 21mm to the slightly coarser EM standard for about 30 years but still have not had the time of space to build a layout P4 is probably a better option than EM standards for steam locos like GNR 4-4-0s on account of tight clearances between wheels, though its nearly as difficult to get these engines to run satisfactorily in OO, much simpler to keep to diesels. It would be worth while contacting the South Dublin Model Railway Club to get an idea of whats involved in building in 21mm gauge to P4 standards. They built a model of Beltubet to P4 standards and are the custodians of Tony Mills Adavadoyle a P4 GNR Main Line layout featuring a large junction station.

It will be interesting to see how the re-launched MIR wagon kits fare especially with the Tara's & Ammonia tank wagons duplicated by IRM and SSM. The hobby is shifting more from kit and scratchbuilding to rtr with the availability of small runs of highly detailed rtr models from China. The loco kits were dropped and the wagons re-tooled as resin kits about 10-15 years ago.

It might be worth while contacting the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum in Cultra GNR, NCC & BCDR carriage and wagon drawings are available from Cultra, so its possible drawings for GNR assets in Northern Ireland went to the UFTM rather than the IRRS

Alan Edgar (RM Web De Seby) as built some excellent S4 models of NCC & GNR locos including a scratch built NCC Whippet and a Mogul built using a set of Worsley Works parts http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/80681-an-ncc-whippet/page-2 It looks like the BNCR tender underframe was wide enough for a standard LMS tender tank.

I wonder if China is offering to build a TGV to establish a presence for CNR in Europe?

The kit can be assembled in either late MGWR or GSR/CIE condition with round topped superheated boiler. The kit can be assembled with the late MGWR GNR style curved canopy cab, or the later Inchacore style of cab with either circular or rectangular spectacle plates. The GSR & CIE cut slots in the valences of most MGWR from the mid1930s onwards, the odd engine escaped including one of the Achill Bogie 4-4-0s I originally designed the kit with solid valences with the option of the builder forming the slots by drilling out and filing half etched sections of the valence. I will look at releasing the kit with the option of solid or slotted valences as most of the demand is for the locos in late GSR/CIE condition. The design of the kit is influenced by North Eastern Kits Tennant 2-4-0. The RM Web article will give an idea of what's involved in building the 650 Class though I have added non-working inside valve gear. http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/58520-ner-tennant-2-4-0/ I have completed what I hope are the final ammendments to the drawings for the photo engraver and send the patterns on the 1st stage of the mould making and casting process next week.

I normally use the Kadee No36 long coupler for Irish stock, https://kadee.com/htmbord/page36.htm Using the No 5 the draft gear box has to be packed out past the buffer beams, not sure if a long shank coupler is available that will work with the 232 gearbox

As JHB says it probably easier and more satisfying to scratch build an Irish Station building, the style of architecture and building materials were quite different to England and Wales. The nearest you will get to a generic Irish design are Mill's brick station buildings on the GNR such as Malahide, George Wilkinson's buildings on the MGWR Sligo & Cavan Branches and the DWWR Dublin-Wexford line between Harcourt St & Enniscorthy and Nenagh on the GSWR After building Workhouses George Wilkinson the Architect went on to build equally forboding railway stations http://eiretrains.com/Photo_Gallery/Railway%20Stations%20D/Dromod/IrishRailwayStations.html#Dromod_20100816_012_CC_JA.jpg The Waterford Limerick and Western had a nice cottage style of station building for smaller stations on the Limerick-Sligo and Thurles_Clonmel line http://eiretrains.com/Photo_Gallery/Railway%20Stations%20K/Kiltimagh/IrishRailwayStations.html#Kiltimagh_20040703_005_CC_JA.jpg

Possibly the Liverpool factory. The whole set up has a post WW1 trading estate feel to it like Park Royal in London or Trafford Park Manchester. The gantry is similar to the gantry built to service the MGWR track re-laying train in Mullingar during the early 1920s The van on the left has a Lancashire & Yorkshire look to it. It looks like Jacobs was a progressive company to see the advantages of containers in the early 1920s or did they go shopping for war surplus equipment like the MGWR?

Jeremy Suter produced a number of high quality whitemetal kits of Irish wagons about 20 years ago including GNR & NCC flat wagons with bread containers, a UTA version of a GNR Bread Van, MGWR Loco Coal Wagon and GNR Standard Van. The kits were suitable for OO, EM or 21mm gauge. As far as I know no more were produced once the initial batch sold out. Jeremy was the Scale4 Society Sales Officer and also supplied track and back to back gauges for 21mm gauge

Most of the main lines had scheduled mail services, though TPOs only ran on certain routes, principally Dublin-Cork and Dublin-Galway. For many years Mayo mails were carried on a Night Mail train that connected with the Galway Mail at Athlone, Sligo-Limerick and later Ballina-Limerick trains carried mail in the guards compartment. CIE also had bogie TPOs similar in general outline to the Hornby model and even picked up and dropped mail bags at speed on the Cork line into the 1970s

To get back to Tony's original post came across a colour photo of a Jacobs container in a photo of Phoenix shunting at Strabane in 1959 in Irish Railways in Colour a Second Glance Midland Publishing 1995. . Phoenix is shunting a cut of wagons that includes an open wagon loaded with a Jacobs Container, a CDR or S&LR van and a dropside wagon loaded with what looks like a BR Type A container. Former GNR U Class Lough Melvin has been re-numbered as UTA 65

Apparently the CVR General Manager and some of the Aughnacloy Works staff built a scale model of a Caledonian 4-4-0 in the evenings after work

They would have mainly come on the BR Irish Sea sailings though Belfast Dublin, Rosslare & Waterford Ports. Most traffic from points in Northern Ireland to the South would have been carried in conventional wagon loads, the Donegal was they exception containers were used to overcome the transhipment problem with the break of gauge and to allow Donegal traffic to travel under bond from Dundalk to destinations in Donegal. A lot of the Irish Sea container traffic would have been meat from plants in Munster and the West to the London market and would have had to have been handled smartly by both CIE & BR. Oliver Doyle wrote about weekend specials of meat in containers from the Clover Meats factory in Waterford to Rosslare. Normally the traffic was carried on BR Waterford-Milford Haven service which did not run on Sundays.

It would take a highly skilled pattern maker or 3D modeller to design a pattern or tooling for a large complex loco like a WT. Its possible to produce a wax master for investment casting in metal or a mould for resin casting using 3D printing techniques. http://marksmodelworks.weebly.com/scratchbuilding-aids.html

I look the little touches like the beet loading ramp and small container gantry typical of the era and each an individual wagon load. Looks like things could get a bit hectic during the beet season crossing trains with short loops and no lay-by or headshunt to shunt a train clear of the main line or running loop typical of most secondary main lines!

You could always pretend CIE re-bogied 233 with a spare set of 141 bogies, there is a parallel with the Chicago Rock Island and Pacific which re-built some of its Alco FA units with power units and trucks (bogies) salvaged from scrapped wartime General Motors FT locomotives