Mayner

Picked this up on RM Web sudden Chinese factory closure affecting supply of Atlas locos and rolling stock https://shop.atlasrr.com/b-atlas-rolling-stock-and-locomotive-factory-closure.aspx combined with rumours on US news groups of Hornby shifting production to Hungary. Apparently Intermountain and Trainworx also affected Apparently the factory closed as a result of the owners ill health .

Working doors, forklift (battery rc)and choice of pallets with 50kg bags or 50okg bulk bags?

The bogie fertiliser wagons were originally rated at 40 ton capacity and appear to have been uprated to 48tons at some stage during the IE era. Would be interesting to find out whether the product was getting denser, additional pallets were being loaded, or simply the capacity was increased by 8 tons to reflect what was actually being loaded. Fertiliser traffic started to run down during the 1990s one possibly two rakes of fertiliser wagons were converted into 42'9" container flats by 1996-97. Due to load limits on the steeply graded New-Ross branch laden fertiliser trains from Albatros Fertilisers were worked in two trips to Waterford before being combined into one train for the journey to the final destination,.

Think there are/were similar murals (including a steam train) on the flats near where the North Strand Rd crosses over the Royal Canal and railway.

As a kit builder (& manufacturer) and some time scratch builder I believe that SSM/TMD kits are certainly worth it in terms of ease of build and satisfaction with the end product and I personally find it easier to build a kit or scratchbuild a model than attempt to kitbash a rtr model into something else. It depends pretty much on personal preferences some modelers are content to kit bash rtr models into a caricature of an Irish model which looks reasonable from a distance, others prefer to build a model that's closer to the prototype. De Selby (Alan Edgar) RM Web threads on kit and scratchbuilding GNR & NCC locos will give you an idea of what can be achieved with this approach. http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/98951-gnr-ireland-vs-class-4-4-0-a-skritchbuild-in-4mm/. The GNR has a great advantage over other Irish railways in that the majority of the steam classes that ran on the main lines and on secondary services, a lot of coaching and wagon stock is available in kit form from SSM & Worsley Works and the OO Works locos & Provincial wagons are a quick way of getting started if you work in OO. The kits can be assembled to run in OO or 21mm if you are up to the challenge, building 4-4-0 & 4-4-2T locomotives to run round small radius curves can be challenging and best avoided for the sake of realism. A coach is probably a better option than a loco or even the GNR goods brake for a 1st build in brass as they are basically designed to bolt together with the minimum amount of soldering.

There is more than one way to skin a cat, the Dapol Stanier coaches are reasonably priced and passable "layout coach" that would pass for steel sided UTA or CIE Bredin stock, while you are looking for something a bit more accurate , these coaches were originally manufactured by Airfix and GMR during the late 70s early 80s. Different modelers have produced reasonably convincing GNR coaches using different techniques, Colm Flanagan http://www.worsleyworks.co.uk/Image-Pages/Image_4mm_GNR-I-K15.htm has produced convincing UTA & GNR coaches with Worsley Works sides on Airfix/GMR/Dapol Stanier coach bodies for his own layout and the Bleach Green layout, Kirley has used a combination of plastic & brass body shells http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/93496-kirleys-workbench/page-3, Glover has converted old Triang Hornby stock into reasonably convincing GNR k15s and CIE Laminates for his Pettigo layout

Hi Ken Send me a P.M. should be able to sort you out with both types. John

Pioneering Irish modellers like Cyril Fry & Drew Donaldson did not get too hung up in the correct scale gauge ratio. The effect of modelling Irish Broad Gauge in 7mm on 32mm gauge track is not as noticeable as in OO, as British O gauge is reasonably close to standard gauge while OO is considerably under gauge. The original C J Fry's Irish International Railway & Tramway was an International system with Irish and Continental models sharing the same tracks. Going back to JHBs original query, does anyone remember the working Dublin & Blessington diorama that was in the Dublin Tourism O'Connell Street office in the 1990s? The layout was a simple oval with a street scene probably based on Tallagh with a D&BST double cabbed steam loco and a double decker tramcar.

From the early 1900 up to the introduction of the Britannia Pacifics in the early 1950s 3-4 cylinders was basically the standard for large British express steam locos due to the improved balance of 3-4 cylinder layout and reduced damage to the track. The trade off was increased build and maintenance cost compared with a 2 cylinder machine. The 10 GSWR 400 Class 4-6-0s were introduced in preference to building more large inside cylinder Class 341 Class 4-4-0s as the 4 cylinder layout of the 4-6-0s was considered to be easier on the track than the 341 Class. The GSR eventually rebuilt 8 of the 400s to a 2 cylinder layout and scrapped the un-rebuilt locos to improve reliability and reduce maintenance costs. In the early 1920s the LSWR N15/GSWR 500 Class/GWR Hall/LMS Black 5 basically set the UK & Irish standard for the modern 2 cylinder mixed traffic 4-6-0 capable of express passenger and goods work, BR appears to have adapted the 2 cylinder layout for the Class 7 Britannia pacifics as they were considered to be mixed traffic rather than an express design, the solitary BR Class 8 Pacific the Duke of Gloucester which had a 3 cylinder layout similar to the 800 & Vs Class rather than the 4 cylinder layout used in the LMS Class 7 & 8 pacifics and GWR Star/Castle/King Class 4-6-0s

CIE had a habit of leaving un-economic bus routes in rural areas to private enterprise. CIE carefully avoided running a staged service to Castletownbere and Glendalough and quickly gave up on Thurles-Clonmel once it abandoned its rail passenger services. Fuel oil to the Dugort Harbour fishing fleet rather than the occasional internal user tank wagon, would probably be a more likely traffic and tie in with the original purpose of a railway built to stimulate the fishing industry in the West of Ireland. To quote Eoin there appeared to be 45gal oil drums or barrels every where at Valencia Harbour in CIE days, the barrels may have been for use on the island before the opening of the bridge in the 1970s rather than fuel for fishing boats. The County Donegal used scaled down tank wagons to service the Killybegs fishing fleet, the Swilly also had tank wagons ,so ESSO or Irish Shell Class A tank wagon with silver tank barrel and red solebars would make a nice contrast to CIEs grey and green rolling stock. Bachmann produce passable models of these older cradle mounted tank wagons which survived in traffic into the early 70s. https://www.track-shack.com/acatalog/Bachmann-37-684A-OO-Gauge-14-Ton-Tank-Wagon-ESSO-Bachmann-37-684A.html. Most branch terminals (including Cahirciveen) and some through stations had small oil depots since the 1930s. Some had vertical like Bantry others horizontal tanks. Ratio produce a passable fuel depot https://www.track-shack.com/acatalog/Peco-Ratio-529-OO-Scale-Oil-Depot-Peco-Ratio-RT-529.html The other common wagon at Valencia Harbour was the ventilated version of the outside framed Irish Railway Clearing House & GSWR van most likely used for fish traffic on the afternoon "Perishable" to Farranfore which connected into the Up Tralee-Mallow & Cork-Dublin Night Mail trains to arrive in time for the Dublin Fish Market. The simplest solution might be to replace these with green CIE H vans no doubt introduced to replace the pre-amalgamation vans used for perishible traffic, or modify a few Provincial Wagons GNR standard vans with plasticard louvers to resemble the older vans. L

The balance weight on the leading drivers would most likely compensate for the loading from the coupling rods, the inside crank for the cylinder I would be interesting to work out the relative positions of the driving cranks on a 3 cylinder loco like 800 or a Royal Scot, perhaps a visit to Cultra to solve the mystery?

Very impressive model and structure. Generally with a building of this nature 1-2 floor levels of composite steel decking are installed before the concrete topping is laid, depending on type of decking and span the decking may or may not require propping. These days edge protection and safety netting would be installed to a floor level before the composite decking is installed on a level. The steel decking acts as a crash deck for workers (typically steelfixers & concrete layers) working below the structural steel erectors. Floor design and construction loadings with composite slabs is critical, I had one near miss on a project I was managing about 20 years ago and investigated a couple of composite floor collapses, in two cases the decks were supposedly designed to be self supporting. Service installation/interior fit out can take place on the lower levels once slab meets minimum required strength, it gets a bit more complicated where propping is required as it may be necessary to back prop to lower levels of the building. Generally the planner/project manager would avoid installing cladding to an elevation until structural steelwork and concrete works are complete to the full height of a building to eliminate the risk of damage to the (very expensive) cladding.

Hi Warb. Nice to see a model of a Composite floor system. Are you modelling the building under construction? Combination of building elements, shuttering, cranes and other plant would make an interesting and very different model.

Similar timetable and operating methods to Glasgow-Forth William & Mallaig line 3-4 Albert Quay-Bantry & Baltimore trains worked by pairs of 2700 railcars (with gangways) splitting and combining at Drimoleague, possibly a single car Sparrow if the Clonakilty branch survived. It would have been interesting to see how passenger figures would have worked out if CIE had introduced railcars on the West Cork branch lines and operated a more frequent service with better rolling stock on the branches. The main line was worked by a single 3 car AEC set and goods and branch line services by a trio of C Class. Two of the locos worked the two daily main line goods trains and the Baltimore-Skibereen branch connections, the third loco was more or less captive to the Clonakilty branch. There was no connection to Clonakilty out of the morning Cork-Bantry railcar after the Courtmacsharry branch was diesilised. as the morning mixed from Clonakilty to the Junction returned as a goods in order to work an as required trip to Timoleague and Courtmacsharry.

Hi Eoin What make/model of cnc profile milling machine are you using?

Those of use over a certain age tend to see the railways of the past through rose tinted glasses. Passenger traffic was in decline from after WW1 up to the mid-late 1960s when BR & CIE started to concentrate on what we now call Intercity services, mainly because more people could afford to travel on account of the 60s boom and growth in 3rd level education. Freight traffic remained more or less static and CIEs road and rail monopoly a sitting duck once road transport was liberalised in the early 1990s. I certain respects Ireland's railways North & South have never been in a better condition with relatively frequent passenger service on the main routes with modern rolling stock and adequately maintained infrastructure, no place for the run-down railway of most of the pre-2000 era with infrequent services, worn out infrastructure and rolling stock. Most of freight traffic on Ireland's railways was based around exporting livestock or manufactured. Ireland has developed a highly successful agri -business based on exporting high value goods by road direct from the factory to the UK or European Market rather than cattle on the hoof through The North Wall, Belfast or Waterford. Manufacturing has moved in a similar way with most IT, Pharmaceutical & Chemical Manufacturing clustered around Cork and Dublin Ports and the Shannon Estuary. Coca Cola in Ballina is something of an exception and no doubt a hangover from subsidising the transport costs of businesses in the west. Internationally railfreight is moving away from the railway goods yard to new purpose built terminals often owned and financed by the railfreight customer, its telling that this has only recently happened in Dublin Port and DFDS struggled to fill the spaces on their very short Ballina-Waterford liner. Distances in Ireland appear shorty and traffic too light for rail to take on the Line Haul between posts and distribution centers for logistics and shipping companies, 18 wagon 36TEU container trains are unlikely to compete on cost and time with road freight. The continuation of railfreight in Ireland up to 2007 was largely supported by dominant/monopoly manufacture of beer cement & fertiliser. Craft breweries are giving Diagio a run for their money, Irish Cement has long ceased to have a monopoly of cement manufacture, IFI is history farmers are moving away from urea and nitrogen fertilisers on account of cost and environmental issues. Perhaps there is a case for Tipperary & Waterford County Councils to come to the party and finance a more frequent Limerick Junction-Waterford passenger service and a Waterford Line platform at Limerick Junction

Track layout looks suspiciously like Loughrea without the carriage siding road, its unlikely that the loco release turnout at an Irish branch line terminus would be controlled from the signal cabin or ground frame unless the passenger platform extended to the buffer stops. Movements from the main line to run round loop or down siding is more likely to be controlled by hand signal from the cabin than a signal arm or disc. The Home signal would be held at danger and an approaching train brought to a stand, before the signal man would change the points for the diverging road and flag the train into the siding or loop. Discs were usually provided to control movements from a loop or siding to a main line, I am not sure whether a cattle special would depart directly from the cattle bank or set back onto the platform road to attach the guards van. Levers controlling signals facing point locks and turnouts are usually numbered sequentially in direction in a lever frame in this example 1-5 control movements along the main line in the down direction, 6&7 are spare & 8-10 control movements in the up direction. Signalling likely to be a fixed distant, (1) Home Signal (2) Facing Point Lock Main to Down Siding (3), Turnout & Trap Point Main to Down Siding. (4) facing point lock Crossover Main to Loop (5), Crossover Main to Loop. (6,7) spare (8) Up Starting Signal, (9) Disc Loop to Main Line, (10) Down Siding to Main Line. From a signalling point of view it does not matter whether a turnout is single or tandem (3 way) The Fixed Distant could be moved out and an Outer Home signal provided approx 1/2 mile out from the home to allow shunting to take place on the main line when a second train is approaching the station, Loughrea had an Outer Home signal though Ballinrobe a station handling a similar level traffic had a simpler signalling layout without an Outer Home

Looks like a D&M Models 2600 Arrow Railcar set. Will be interesting to see what it fetches

The initial shipments of ore from Tara were exported through Foynes in Byrtes wagons as the Tara Mines Terminal at Gouldings wharf was blacked by former Goulding Fertiliser workers holding out for better redundancy terms. I don't know the background around the Tara Ore exports through Arklow. Arklow appears to have been trying to compete with Dublin Port for bulk cargo around the same time when Cawoods coal was imported in containers and was transported by rail to destinations on the IE & NIR networks. The main drawback was the absence of a rail connection to the port, which ironically removed in the 1850s when the DWWR extended its line to Arklow and diverted ore traffic from the Avoca Copper mines to DunLaoire rather than upgrade the existing ore tramway to Arklow Harbour.

De Selby's RM Web GNR (I) Vs Class loco building thread contains a lot of information on assembling the SSM "Merlin" kit. http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/98951-gnr-ireland-vs-class-4-4-0-a-skritchbuild-in-4mm/ De Selby used the SSM V Class as a basis for scratch building the more modern Vs 4-4-0 which had a lot in common with Merlin and includes a useful step by step on assembling, bolier chassis and cab.

I like the way you are modelling the station and overall roof off scene, saves more room to model the yard and approach tracks. Several goods sheds including Tuam, Gort, Claremorris were converted to cement stores with access for forklifts when the pallet cement wagons were introduced around 1978. Goods sheds were no longer required for sundries/general goods traffic with the introduction of the 10' & 20' Uniload Containers & Bedford trucks with tail lifts for local deliveries. H vans were retained for a while for trainload movements of empty kegs to Guinness breweries for example Dundalk to Kilkenny

Its been an enjoyable build everything fits together so well, my only reservation is the thickness of brass is a bit whippy for the inside bearing under frame parts, I may assemble the 1st with putside bearings and a hollow middle axle to go round curves. Same problem with verdigris with the Saphire 'no clean flux" on brass, dipping the model in boiling or hot water seems to do the trick, without the need for detergent.

Went a little off the rail recently adding more locos and stock. The excuse was that another Mudhen was needed to handle the traffic and as insurance against the day 464 breaks her frames or the motion falls apart with metal fatigue, more freight cars were needed to cope with the stock rush and mine traffic just like the old RGS. 463 an early Accucraft model brass construction with stainless steel motion and tyres, should outlast 464 though motor may need replacement at some stage. Loco is currently track power will convert to on board battery r.c., loco is fitted with a Phoenix sound system similar to 464. 464 brings in her train, the "new" stock cars and box cars appear to have been sprayed with Testors Dull Cote or some form of flat finish to tone down the factory satin finish. 463 waits on the siding to be cut into the train as helper as 464 runs past on the main with a cut of stock cars. 463 now cut into the train as mid-train helper. The RGS depended on hired DRGW Mudhens to move its heaviest trains from the late 1930s onwards, even in its final season of operation mid train helpers were needed to handle the Autumn stock rush and final ore trains. The loco shed is due to be replaced with a brick roundhouse more typical of the area and a timber coaling tower, some day I might even get round to building a depot

Final installment at least for the moment! I added the rainstrip using 0.45mm straight handrail wire rather than from the coil of phosphor bronze wire supplied with the kit as it is easier to curve the straight wire than straighten something thats in a coil. I was planning to use a paper template for the curve but it was easier to simply let the wire form the curve clamping in place at each end for soldering using Micro-Mark mini clamps https://www.micromark.com/Micro-Clamps-Ss-Smooth-6. I first fluxed the joint with a citrus based flux, then ran the soldering iron along the joint, feeding DCC Concepts easy flow 145°detailing solder into the joint. The DCC Concepts detailing solder is easy to control for this type of work as its in a very fine wire form. I cleaned up any excess solder with a fine scraper and a fibre glass brush after first neutralising by submerging the roof in hot but not boiling! water. I will probably paint this coach once I have completed the 4 compt. 1st. I will fit ducket roofs and guards lamps once I have painted and glazed the coach. Other jobs include replacing the 28mm pin point axles with 26mm plain axles (available locally), making good around the dog boxes, replacing the window ventilators and fitting handles and grab irons once the coaches are painted. I will probably fit these coaches with B&B or Dingham couplings rather than Kadee or Tension Lock, both types are reasonably priced, unobtrusive, relatively simple to fit, can be set up for magnetic delayed un-coupling and above all no need for an NEM Coupler pocket

Could be a long time before I get around to painting, toying with the idea of GSR crimson or purple lake as a change from CIE green, just need to organise some decals. I missed doing a section on the roof, SSM use a captive nut and bolt system for securing carriage roofs, which allows the roof and body to be separated for adding detail and painting. Coach body and roof, transoms with 10BA captive bolts slot into top flange of body, wing shaped profiles with 10BA nuts soldered to roof. Basically the transoms and roof profiles are 1st bolted together and the nuts soldered in place. small drop of gear oil on the bolt thread prevents soldering the nut and bolt solid! Roof secured temporarily in place with masking tape or fine wire until the profiles are soldered to the roof. On most coaches the roof can be removed (using a long screwdriver from below) without separating the body from the underframe, the 6w Bk3rd is an exception as the body and underframe have to be separated before removing the roof if you want to keep the area below the luggage compartment skylight clear.