Mayner

This was the 1st reasonably dry weekend we had in several weeks, so I started work on the benchwork roadbed for the east leg of the wye. I decided to construct this section in situ and install the piles rather than pre-fab the roadbed on the deck, there was also the little matter of marrying in with the existing roadbed at either end! Stringers are 4x2 fencing rail I had over from a job, piles are offcuts of fenceposts, Rapidset also surplus from a job so in a way the Pacic Extension is being built from revenue like the Ballina Branch of the Great Northern and Western in the 1860s. This form of construction with heavier section timber was basically the standard for house construction in New Zealand from Colonial days until relevatively recent times, quite a shock for someone with a construction background from Ireland There was also some Monteiths Black for refreshments. The right of way had to be planned to avoid the Kauri and a Feijoa tree. which produces a lot of fruit in late Summer and Autumn. It has been difficult fitting the eastern leg of the wye into the space available, ending up with a 5' minimum radius curve rather than the preferred 6' minimum, I temporarily pinned down a section of track at 5' radius to check if there were any problems. The crew of 464 agreed to run over the temporary tracks while on their way to pick up some empty cars further up the line. I once heard a Canadian Pacific track gang asking the crew of a short line freight in Minnesota if the had time to spare to divert their train to run over a newly re-laid diamond a couple of times to check that everything was ok. It was getting late in the evening and the next CP train was not scheduled for several hours and the track gang wanted to go home after a long day! The test was a success so installed the road bed for the eastern leg of the wye. The wye is under the drip line of a number of large trees and is a popular place for visitors to congregate on hot days, which could make the wye a very popular place indeed. Th end of the wye is supported temporarily on blocks, for the present I will extend the tail of the wye about 6' long enough for a couple of locos to clear the switch. Rail for the wye will come from a re-lay job on the main line, where I am planning to swap out about 20' of AMS track with bleached out ties (sleepers) laid in 2007 with new material during August-September. The wye will be laid with the old rail AMS on new Sunset Valley ties which should be good for another 10-20 years.

Difficult to give an answer for OO gauge as my coach is set up for 21mm gauge. These coaches should be able to go round relatively sharp curves in OO on account of the 1½ bogie arrangement and the increased sideplay between wheelsets and underframe as a result of using the narrower gauge. John

The Pacific Extension! Many railroads in the west called themselves the Somewhere,Somewhere & Pacific but got nowhere near the Ocean or across the nearest State Line so it was only appropriate the Jackson County would make a start on a Pacific Extension. The starting point for the extension or at least a Wye for turning locos is on the inside of a gradual curve on the 2% grade from the junction from the lowest point on the railroad and Jackson City. The branch leaves the main line on a 5'6" radius curve the minimum for the Bachmann K27 2-8-2 loco the largest on the line. Cut the rails with a junior hacksaw and tidied up the ends with a needle file, I grease the railjoiners with graphite which is both good for electrical continuity and allows the rails to expand and contract preventing the joiner siezing to the rail. Switch installed and west leg of wye connected. K27 loco drag beam and tender almost touching on inside of curve. Roadbed 6X2 on 4X2 treated pine all connections with galvanised screws. I first checked that the K27 would go round a 5'6" curve by temporarily laying the track on the deck. The East leg of the wye will re-join the main line between the gondola and tank. The train is made up to 12 cars with the K27 cut in between the stock cars and general freight. The real RGS often cut in the helper mid train on trains of this length or longer. The extension is currently supported on temporary blocking, in this area I used short timber piles on paving slabs or shallow concrete pads on account of shallow tree roots. The tree to the right of the junction is juvenile kauri a shallow rooted conifer which can potentially grow to 70m in height and live 600 years The wye will mainly be used for turning locos working the 4% grade between this point on the railroad and the storage sidings in the garden shed. I may gradually extend the Pacific Extension as a logging or mine branch like the majority of branches on the RGS & DRGW narrow gauge lines

Interior partitions and floor are in plasticard with moulded plastic seats. I generally build coach interiors as a sub assembly that can be painted and finished separately from the coach. This arrangement is not feasible with the SSM GSWR coaches (with the top and bottom flange) unless you assemble the coach with one or both of the ends removable. The partitions locate between slots in the top and bottom flanges. I used a NWSL duplicutter to cut the partitions to a uniform height and width then cut the tabs with a craft knife. I am planning to paint and fix the partitions, floor and seats as separate components and add the odd passenger once I have painted the coach body. Partitions were sometimes matchboarded, which could be done using Evergreen embossed styrene though I am not sure if this would be noticable on a completed coach on a layout. The partitions break up the open look of the coach interior

The last 12-18 months has been extremely busy with work and other commitments that I had very little time available for model railways including releasing the kit for the 650 Class and a number of other projects. I have been able to re-balance this year with more time available for model railways and other interests. I expect to release the 650 Class at some stage in 2018, the final version of the artwork for the loco (with inside valve gear (non working)) is currently with the engravers and I am currently looking at a number of options for wheels gears and motors. At this stage I have not made a decision on developing or producing further kits.

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/209-representing-cornish-stonework-in-4mm-scale/page-2 Some useful material on modelling stone buildings in 4mm scale. Scribed modelling clay has been a reasonably popular technique at least since the early 1970s. While it involves a lot of patience and determination its feasible to accurately model the random coursed stonework commonly used to build retaining walls, goods and loco sheds by scribing the stonework on plasticard or in clay. Neither the Wills Sheets or Slaters Embossed stonework come close to the random coursed masonry used by the Irish railway companies to build major structures and buildings.

Soldering/hot work nearly completed, fitted compartment drop lights (leaving some part open) and detail castings. Forgot to add the rainstrips to the roof! Gas cylinders and buffers added. I st pre-tinned the brass in the area the whitemetal casting is fitted with 145° solder, then soldered the casting in place with 100° solder using a temperature controlled iron/soldering station set at a lower temperature. Low temperature solders traditionally used for soldering whitemetal such as Carrs 70° solder (highly toxic) did not form a reliable bond with sheetmetal. Pre-tinning with 100° solder was more of an insurance policy although the characteristics of the solder appear to be quite different. The roofs of GSWR (&BCDR) coaches were quite distinctive from railways that used electric lighting like the GNR and MGWR bogie stock, with prominent ventilators and light fittings. The GSWR used coal gas for coach lighting, with gas lit stock remaining in service up to the early 60s. The gas was manufactured in Inchacore and distributed around the railway system in twin tank wagons. Gas and oil lit coaches usually had steps and grabrails at each end for maintaining the lamps, though the MGWR used ladders for accessing the roofs on oil lit coaches. The GSR/CIE downgraded a lot of GSWR 1st and 2nd Class 6 wheel coaches to 3rds and converted many of the 3rds to carry turf during the Emergency, the brake 3rd is to be joined by a downgraded 4 compartment 1st which should provide more legroom and comfort for passengers compared to the GSWR 6 compartment 3rds with wooden seating

I had something of a disaster about 2 weeks ago when a large scale brass 2-8-0 fell about 3' from the "High Line" that links the garden railway to the storage tracks/fiddle yard in the garden shed. 348 basically landed on her nose bending the pilot beam up about 90° calling for quite significant repairs, fortunately she did not land on the smokebox or funnel. I used the wreck as an opportunity to carry out a some cosmetic repairs to the loco. 348 after her wreck, pilot beam in the blacksmiths shop for repair. Track panels on left and turnouts on right are for a relaying job disrupted by a months rain! Repaired pilot beam with pilot attached. I basically had to dismantle the beam down to its component parts, straighten and re-solder, some of the soldered joints had sheared off on impact. Everything bolts together with m2 hex headed nuts and bolts. Pilot painted and ready to be re-attached to loco, The whole sub assembly was given a coat of semi-gloss clear before bolting to loco. Pilot attached to loco. I masked the smokebox and stainless steel fittings, before giving the completed assembly a light coat of satin black and 2 coats of sealer to complete. I bought the loco second hand about two years ago, the air receiver pipework was missing on one side of the tender, the pipework fabricated from KS brass, fixing cleats from brass strip. Pipework is still incomplete I am waiting for some valves to arrive from the States. I blackened the brasswork with Carrs Metal Black before painting to reduce the risk of paint flaking off. 1st a dip in Metal Surface Conditioner followed by a rinse in hot water to help form a key. Combination of dipping in Metal Black and application by rubbing with a cotton bud, followed by rinsing in hot water and allowing to dry. These chemicals are relatively toxic avoid contact with skin. The brown residue in the container appears to be a result of the reaction between the metal and blackening agent. Brackets coupling lift bar touched up/blackened with a cotton bud. Brown stains are from the surface conditioner. Pipework & cleats pre-painted then fitted. I then masked out the tender body/re-railer and trucks and gave the tender solebar and one of the grab rails a quick coat of black and clear sealer. Did not notice the chipped paint on the air receiver will need to touch up. Engine and tender back together, tested ok

The GSWR and SLNCR interchanged traffic in pre-amalgamtaion days, the Southern Goods yard was basically laid out as a small marshalling yard for exchanging traffic with the SLNCR, the only thing missing being a turntable. Its just about possible that the junction was used for turning locos off trains that terminated at Colloney GSWR, it would have been quicker than running light engine to Sligo to turn and avoided paying fees to the MGWR for running powers over their line from Carrignat Junction to Sligo.

I wonder whether the junction with the Cork-Limerick Direct line was re-named in GSR days? The triangular junction appears to have been removed at some stage after the takeover of the WLWR when through Kingsbridge-Limerick goods trains were routed to the Limerick Junction-Limerick line. There was also another (short lived) triangular junction on a GSWR worked line.

Its difficult to see a successful community rail movement getting off the ground in Ireland, government decision making is much more centralised than in the UK with decisions on funding for public infrastructure and services made at Central Government level in Dublin rather than at Regional or Local authority level. Since the 1970s Councils and Regional Authorities in the UK have subsidised/funded local/regional rail services and had 1st refusal on buying redundant railway lines from BR & Network Rail. Funding of public transport in Ireland is considered to be a central government matter for the Department of Transport administered through the National Transport Authority (NTA) which is basically mode neutral, the NTA considered closing the Dublin-Wexford-Rosslare line south of Gorey and other lines in a 2016 review of value for money for its funding of IEs rail services Although CIE & IE have an obligation to make a profit on its operations, CIE has retained ownership of the right of way of the majority of railway lines closed/abandoned since the mid 70s and there appears to be a growing movement to convert abandoned lines to Greenways under local authority management such as the Limerick portion of the North Kerry and Waterford-Ballinacourty line. IE came to an agreement with the NZTA to put the South Wexford on a care and maintenance basis until major re-sleepering would be required between 5-10 years after regular p.w. maintenance ceased, which is basically similar to what happened when the Burma Road, North Kerry and the majority of lines closed since the mid 1970s. This seasons weed spray is likely to be the last unless the NTA or Wexford, Kilkenny and Waterford County Councils provide funding for a track maintenance/re-sleepering programme. Its unclear whether the NTA provides funding to IE to cover the financial and legal liabilities arising from maintaining the South Wexford or other non-operational railway lines or Government have considered transferring responsibiliy from CIE to the Councils or Community as in the UK.

Very sorry to hear about Jim lovely guy great ambassador for the hobby, good company, great sense of humour.

Getting RGS No 20 back to service after she failed in service with a broken axle has been high on the to-do list and became even more urgent when DRGWR 348 was wrecked this week falling nose first from the high line smashing her pilot beam and bending the frames ahead of her lead truck. Bachmann use a stub axle arrangement and plastic muff for the bogie wheelsets on the Large Scale 4-6-0 locomotive, on inspection there were cracks in the plastic muffs on both axles and Bachmann no longer supply the wheelsets or bogie as spare parts. I decided to replace the plastic muff with a brass sleeve, the live wheelset is not an issue as I no longer use track power and I had some round brass bar of suitable diameter. 1st step was to cut two sections of brass bar slightly overlength for the sleeves then face off the ends in the Unimat and start to bore out for the stub axle using a center drill set up in the tail stock. The Unimat is probably older than I am, I bought it about 5 years ago complete with battle scars. I use a piece of silver steel to line up the head and tail stocks before boring out the axle sleeves Sleeve bored out with a 2.5mm HSS drill then opened up to full size with a 3mm drill bit. I check the overall length once the sleeves are bored out then finish to final length in the unimat. Wheel set ready for re-assembly Re assembled wheelset stub axles are secured in place with Loctite Retainer or Studlock. Wheelsets re-assembled in leading bogie. The slot arrangement appears to be effective as these locos successfully go round large scale No1 radius curves .

I managed to find the skylight after a thorough search of the workbench (which turned out to be in a good thing in a way as its more organised). The base (rectangular shaped piece with large cut out) basically sits on the roof and is held in place by the sides which fold up into a U shape & the skylight fits on top. I used an 18watt Antrex iron with very very little solder on the tip for soldering on fine detail. The roof assembly is removable and is screwed in place on top of the body. The grills in the bottom right hand corner are for a dog box that seem to have been filled in in CIE days, I am in two minds about keeping this feature though I have filled in the grills and holes and grills on the opposite side with solder. I have been dunking the completed brass sub-assemblies tin boiling water to neutralise the flux residue after soldering which seems to be keeping the model very clean, basically eliminating problems with salts and verdigriss that arise after rinsing with warm water and detergent, the only downside is that parts glued with super glue fall off, and is totally unsuitable for whitemetal parts/kits assembled with low melt solder. Next job is to fix the window droplights and whitemetal detail parts, before tackling the interior

I went through a similar phase of soul searching when I was modelling British Railways steam Bachmann or Hornby would introduce a rtr model shortly after I would complete assembling a loco kit. The chief consolation was that I got a lot of enjoyment out of the build and I ended up with a loco that would out last and out haul the rtr version, no problems with mazac cancer and split gears with a loco with brass frames and a metal gear train. In a way I probably decided to wind back the clock to early CIE/GSR days because its difficult to see someone commissioning a mass produced rtr models from that particular era. I suppose I have hedged my bets by going up to 1:20.3 narrow gauge in the garden so that I can both see and run my models (though its !!!!!!!! expensive) while I still potter around trying to build workable models in 4mm scale when its too wet cold or dark to work in the garden. John

One of the downsides of the increasing availability of reasonably priced rtr models is that a higher proportion of people are prepared to wait for a commissioner or manufacturer to introduce a rtr model than attempt to assemble a kit or scratch build where a kit is not available. The introduction of the MM rtr diesels probably contributed to Ian McNally's decision to cease producing loco kits and the eventual demise of the MIR range of wagon kits. There have been very few articles on this thread on building 121 locomotive since MM announcement several years ago that they intended to introduce a model of that loco. There appears to be a similar pattern in the UK both with the decrease in the number of model railway shops and decline in kit/component manufacturer. I had fairly clear objectives in the early 80s that I was going to scratch build ex-MGWR locos and stock for a 21mm gauge layout, instead I ended up building less relevant models as kits of GSWR & GNR locos and stock were released by TMD and SSM and later bitten by the American railroad bug and an interest in British minor/industrial railways. During the past year or so my objectives have become clearer American narrow gauge using rtr locos and stock in the garden with kit and scratchbuilt structures and Irish Broad and narrow gauge in 4mm GSR/early CIE chiefly kit and scratchbuilt locos, stock and structures with little place for the rtr models that I have collected in recent years. John

Received my copy of the May edition today. My 8 year old daughter was particularly taken by Patrick Davy's article on modelling GNR(I) signal cabin and waiting shelter and demanded that I build a copy of the cabin in the article rather than a Midland or GSWR cabin.

Tony Great to see such progress on the layout, starting to look like a railway the good shed certainly looks impressive and should give your railway a lot of its character. I too am a fan of the Wills Scenic sheets though they are challenging to use on a large structure. John

Now to put a roof on it! The roof is supplied flat and can be formed by forming/rolling back and forth with a suitably sized dowel, piece piece of metalrod or broom handle on a resilient surface, towels , or even foam camping mat/track underlay or rolling bars if you are into metalwork. I got these for forming roofs for the tin vans, also use them for rolling loco boilers and anything curved. Test for fit, the secret is to form the curve gradually and test as you go, I use a special bending jig in conjunction with the rollers for forming roofs on modernish stock with compound curves. The birdcage look out and skylight in the luggage area gives these vans a lot of character, the outline of the skylight is half etched on the roof and the designer has thoughtfully provided holes in the corners for starting a saw cut. The piercing saw with a fine toothed blade is one of the traditional tools used in scratchbuilding locos and rolling stock. I use a piece of MDF to support my work and cut on the upstroke while using a piercing saw, I use a fine toothed blade for cutting thin material like etched or sheet brass to minimise the risk of the material snagging on the blade. Good practice is to cut inside the line then finish off with a fine file, but I do not always have the patience Cut out formed in roof now to tidy up with a file. The rectangular piece of brass forms the base for the birdcage and hides the cut edge of the opening Assembly of the birdcage is simple slot and tab construction everything fits together accurately, I use plenty of flux and the minimum of solder between the base and birdcage frame, the stainless steel clamp is to hold the frame in position while soldering. Starting to look like a coach, I started the skylight in the same discussion the disaster struck with these tiny pieces of brass capatulting across the room when I tried to solder the skylight frame together, but that's another days work

Heating Van, Second or Standard Class coach (oldish), TPO string of H Vans or container wagons mid-1970s onwards. I have a 10/6/1964 HC Casserley photo of what looks like the up-Sligo-Mullingar Night Main approaching Ballysodare B149 Black & Tan 4w hot water bottle, late 50s green GSR/GSWR side corridor bogie coach, GSWR bogie luggage van & 3 H Vans, no goods brake!

One of my 2017 New Year resolutions was to complete what had been the study model/test build for the CIE 4w TPO, SSM prepared a set of suitable decals around the time I released the kit. I painted the van about 12 months ago along with a brace of ex-MGWR vans in CIE green, GSR Maroon & Purple Lake but could not find the decals. I finally unearthed the decals when I started work on the GSWR 6w coaches, including a set for a silver van! Its tricky masking around those recessed doors but at least the 4 wheelers did not have mail bag pick up and set out gear like the bogie & 6w TPOs. The P & T emblem and lpost box instructions were on plates fixed to the coach sides presumably supplied by the Department rather than lettering applied by CIE staff. Des did an excellent job on the bi-lingual instructions which are fully legible, the van is a bit schizoid on one side numbered 2965 & 2566. I am planning to add an interior to the TPO and the other 4 w vans, David Malone a pioneering S4 21mm gauge modeller built a heating van & a luggage van with detailed interiors from my kits so the challenge is set. One of my ambitions is to build 1960s and steam era mail/goods trains, though the steam era train will probably be made up of pre-amalgamation stock with an ex MGWR 6w TPO The break through of the week was rescuing a MGWR van & a CVR horsebox after 12 months from a brake fluid bath. Apart from an accident with hi-build primer the MGWR van is ok, the horsebox was an early exercise in soldering and basically needs a complete strip down and re-build.

With the majority of the soldering complete I neutralised any flux residue by dunking the kit sub assemblies in boiling water, dried off with a lint free cloth then cleaned off the majority of the tarnish with a combination of a fine abrasive block and a fibre glass brush Body mounted on chassis although the majority of the components are soldered in place the vents over the doors & springs are fixed with Medium Zap (CA glue) 1½ Bogie Chassis from below, I need to replace the 28mm pin point axles with plain 26mm axles to allow the bogies to articulate fully Chassis from above on 3' radius curved track Body sub-assemblies. The middle hole in the top plate is for bolting the completed body assembly to the chassis Sides and ends bolted together with 12BA bolts ¾ view of coach very little cleaning up of solder required with steps, hinges slotted through from inside the coach. Possible mid-late 1950s passenger train, 4w luggage vans were regularly used with 6w stock on branch line and secondary workings.

I used to visit the Rathfarnham shop regularly in the 70s both when I was going to secondary school and after I had started working. I don't remember seeing any Irish models in the shop before the Lima models came out, at the time several modellers in the Dublin area had built quite presentable A Class locos in plasticard on Rivorassi and scratchbuilt chassis and Supertrain sets using heavily modified Hornby MK2 coaches as basis. The locos and stock used on Carlow and the CIE dioramas were scale length and built to a reasonable standard Declan Lonergan a former MRSI club secretary used to help out in the model railway department on Saturdays a very knowledgable modeller on day he brought along a OO gauge kit built model of a LNWR "Jumbo" 2-4-0 and sometimes his own American N gauge locos and stock. I got hooked on N after buying a pair of Wrenn-Lima BR vans in the Rathfarnham shop and cleared out most of their stock of Graham-Farish wagons and Peco flexible track shortly before the shop closed and John Byrne opened the Sackville Place model shop where the model railway department was on a 1st floor mezzine. Not sure how long the Sackville Place shop lasted.

John Byrne who managed a chain of toy/model shops and was later the Irish Hornby rep seems to have been the catalyst in getting the Lima Irish and possibly the Hornby Irish re-paints commissioned. He managed the model shop at the Rathfarnham Shopping Centre and later operated a large model shop on the ground floor of the then new office block at the rear of Cleary's on Sackville Place He was an active railway modeller and was commissioned by CIE to build models of a number of the stations and yards that were re-modelled as part of the Railplan 8O programme, his OO Carlow layout was a regular feature on the Irish exhibition scene during the 70s & early 80s with scratch built and modified rtr rolling stock. Lexie Tynan may have used John Byrnes rolling stock in the initial publicity photos for the new Lima Irish train set as the loco was a lot closer to an Metrovick than a Class 33. John