Mayner

Climate in the Waikato is not a lot different to Ireland or the UK slightly warmer all year round and similar level of rainfall to the West which leads to everything left outside being covered in moss and mould which does not look right for a railroad set in semi desert country. There are plenty of garden railways in parts of the UK that enjoy extremes of heat and cold including Scotland and the North East, garden railway modelers tend to be a hardy lot, the limiting factor is more being able to afford and maintain a house with a largish garden. While the investment in track and rolling stock is very high in comparison to building an indoor layout, building a purpose built layout room and workshop would probably have cost as much.

We had what will probably be the last of our local groups running days at the beginning of December mainly as a result of a combination of fewer people able to host meetings and outside pressures. Summer arrived early despite a cold wet spring one week I was literally wading through mud the next week the ground cracking up! One hardy soul turned up and helped to operate trains along with my daughter, while I acted as dispatcher/trouble shooter! We started out with two short steam (battery RC!) controlled freights and an IP Engineering Tralee & Dingle Inspection Railcar Raynor & Skye crossing a general freight and a stock train on the oldest section of the railway laid in October-November 2007 DRGW 348 crossing the T&D inspection car Arranging meets could be tricky as the railcar was basically running uncontrolled and superior over the freights. In typical Rio Grande Southern fashion we had a break down with a wheel literally falling off RGS loco 20. This happened on a few occasions with the Galloping Goose railcars, steam locos were more likely to de-rail their tenders. In reality the insulated muffs on the wheel sets split and failed after 7-8 years service in main line use. We managed a Goose Fest for the railfans though the Bachmann Railtruck No1 is a non-runner with a failed final drive and works goose No6 the re-incarnation of RGS No 1 track power only while No 4 holds down the mail contract which just about keeps the line out of the scrappers hands. No 20s failure turned out to be an opportunity to call out DRGW K27 Mudhen 464 to haul the combined freight and stock train home in double quick time without having to "double the hill" on the high line to get all the stock back to the shed.

Great work Patrick nice to see prototypical operation. The signal men at Glenmore and Grange did'nt get much time for fishing or training greyhounds during the beet season. There is an interesting photo in Rails Through North Kerry of a Tralee-Listowel goods making a facing shunt at Lixnaw propelling a tank wagon from the station to the County Council siding not sure if you would get away with it around the curve from Grange to the beet siding.

I once had a copy of the Weekly Notice that had the operating instructions for loading/unloading these wagons. The wagons were originally built with vertical balanced doors operated by a chain and pulley arrangement as modern freight curtains had not been invented. The big wheels were part of a hand operated chain and pulley system for opening the doors. The big wheels were chain operated by a Depotman from ground level in a similar way to a block and tackle hoist or a roller shutter door. The big wheels transferred motion to the pulley drive shafts on top of the wagon and simultaneously raised and lowered to top and bottom sections of the door. The chains at the operators end was draped around the big wheel and hung loosely below solebar level. The handwheel and lever arrangement through the bulkhead at the opposite end of the wagon was part of the load restraint system. These wagons would be a nice challenge to IRM especially if they had working doors

The structural alterations to the coaches were carried out by British Rail possibly at Derby and delivered by train ferry to The North Wall in grey primerfor fitting out by CIE. Well done to Noel for the conversion. I never mastered the art of cutting and splicing plastic coach sides, I will probably go for the option of Bill Bedford etched sides in combination with Comet MK 1 parts if I ever get round to building a van to run with my MM Craven coaches.

Building track with copper clad sleepers is probably the quickest and most economic approach in 21mm gauge. The S4 Society /Jeremy Suter produced a 3 point track gauge that's suitable for building trackwork and points to either EM or S4 standards. The 3 point gauge provides gauge widening for curved track, I use a piece of bullhead rail or a sleeper as a spacer for setting up the check rails around the crossing nose. Code 75 flatbottom rail on copper clad sleepers is a fair representation of the 85-95lb flatbottom track used on a large part of the CIE network and parts of the GNR up to the wide spread introduction of CWR on concrete sleepers from the mid 1990s only. Chaired bullhead track was mainly used by GNR, NCC, BCDR, GSWR & DSER on their main lines. Both the S4 & EM gauge societies have useful manuals on building trackwork, filing up crossings (frogs) and point blades a lot more economic than buying ready made switches and crossings. I basically enlarged EM point and plain track templates to 21mm gauge on the home printer/scanner. Both Hollywood Foundry & Steam Era Models in Australia will produce a rtr chassis or motor bogie in 21mm gauge to EM or S4 Standards. I have an AEC railcar set which runs on Steam Era Models Black Beetle bogies and an E Class on a Hollywood Foundary Bull Ant chassis.

The best approach would be to ask ssm to prepare some N Scale CIE logos, coach and loco numbers, though I am not convinced wagons or coach numbers let alone smaller lettering would be visible for the normal 2' viewing distance. I re-painted and lettered several American locos about 20 years ago as many locos were not available in the road names por colour schemes I wanted Lettering of American locos using Microscale Decals. The nose striping and road name are applied in one piece, the numerals separately. The transfer film is barely visible once applied on a gloss finish. then finished off with a semi-matt clear cote. I used Microscale decal setting solutions as wetting agents to get the decals to bed in to the surface of the locos. My fleet of GP38-2s including 323 were traded in for some Atlas C628s the reverse of what actually happened on the D&H & the C424s including 453 is still available for service though I haven't operated the N gauge in about 10 years.

Serious questions Popeye. Hopefully some of the proceeds of the sale will find their way into the model railway slush fund to keep JM Design in business and some more stock for the garden railway. The garden railway at our own place took over 10 years and $20k investment in track and rolling stock to get to its current unfinished state. I have a very understanding and supportitive family . The renovation is basically part of a transition from my current day job towards retirement. John

Fingers crossed it looks like I will have a bit more time available for modelling in 2018 now that my current restoration project a 1924 California Bungalow/Bay Villa cross is nearing completion. Last week I finally had a chance to fettle the lost wax castings that will form the patterns for the castings for the MGWR locos kits. I expect to have the 650 Class, the coach sides and van kits available in Mid 2018, with the option of personal delivery in Ireland & the UK in June/July if we can charter an Antonov Myria for the family and the kits. Of course the bungalow could always morph into a Scale laser ply building kit for American, Australian & NZR modellers Just waiting complete the final touches including interior re-decoration and landscaping. The bungalow was constructed in native hardwoods, retaining its 1920s interior joinery and fittings. We have replaced the roof, repaired exterior wall cladding, re-wiring, modernised kitchen and bathroom. Not bad after more than 90 years.

Blackham Transfers did/may still do weathered & un-weathered CIE dry-print transfers including solid and stencil snails, Bell & B&I container lettering http://www.blackham.co/quickorder.html. SSM produce water slide decals, each type have their own advantages and disadvantages. Dry transfers are similar to letraset with little or no margin for error in fitting. Water slide transfers or decals are on a carrier film and are more user friendly to fit rather than dry print. The surface need to be finished with a gloss varnish before the decals are fixed in place then sealed in place with a varnish or clear coat. Its tricky to accurately align wagon and coach numbers, tare information etc so its better to order a custom sheet of lettering with wagon or coach numbers from Blackham or SSM. Des produced a custom sheet of decals for lettering my fleet of Cavan & Leitrim narrow gauge coal wagons. The decals on the coal wagons were sealed with Testors Dull-Cote and the wagons weathered with an air brush.

A pin chuck is probably the best tool for drilling whitemetal or brass for handrail knobs. Drilling whitemetal can be tricky Titanium coated drill bits are less likely to break than uncoated HSS. The Expo Tools a 0.3-1.6mm drill set contains a good range of sizes for work on 4mm locos and stock https://www.expotools.com/cgi-bin/sh000001.pl?WD=titanium drill coated set&PN=20pc-HSS-Titanium-Coated-Twist-Drill-Set-11533.html#SID=109

Interesting one Minister. Judging by the slight radius at the end 684 could be a roofed rather than an open topped cattle wagon. Wonder what they were carrying, the tarps would have given very little ventilation for sheep or pigs. Cattle wagons seem to have been often used for empty keg traffic, there is a great photo of the lower yard in the Guinness Brewery in CIE days full of GSWR & GNR cattle wagons

Building a small layout in 21mm gauge certainly won't melt the wallet, especially if you go for handlaid track. Its more a question of investment in time in acquiring and developing new skills with potentially a greater sense of achievement in building a unique model rather than going out and buying a mass produced rtr model regardless of the quality. The biggest decision would be in whether to work to S4 or the coarser OO/EM standard. The S4 Society have an established set of standards for laying trackwork including pointwork and setting up wheelsets for 21mm gauge where a modeller is largely left to their own devices if they work to the coarser OO/EM standard where different modellers use differing back to back and check gauge standards. SSM loco and coach kits including the GSWR 6 wheelers can be assembled to 21mm gauge, 28mm coach and wagon axles suitable for 21mm gauge can be sourced from the S4 society or Northyard in New Zealand, alternatively a standard OO gauge axle can be extended out to 28mm by cutting and sleeving with 2mm inside dia brass tube from Eileens Emphorium. Converting the majority of rtr coaches and wagons is a greater challenge as the chassis/bogies will need to be replace, but not to significant a factor on a small layout with a small amount of rolling stock. Steam locos are more of a challenge than diesels, but apart from a handful of types most Irish steam locos have to be scratchbuilt or built from kits anyway. The simplest approach would be to build a test track using soldered construction with copper clad sleepers available from SMP/Marcway in Sheffield, re-gauge a Murphy Models diesel and some IRM ballast or cement wagons to get a fell for the gauge and the work involved. Ardfert or Spa would make a nice simple test track/diorama to test the concept. SSM produce a very nice GSWR/GSR/CIE whitemetal open & a 30t van which would go nicely with a black and tan B141 or 181 on a North Kerry beet train John

While Murphy Models, Provincial Wagons and IRM rtr models have opened up modelling Irish Railways particularly CIE/IE from the 70s onwards, the number of modelers willing to experiment with a wider gauge and finer standards than OO is a very small subset of the Irish Modelling community, just like the EM & S4 modellers of British outline. While I admire David and Andy's ability to build interesting broad and narrow gauge layouts in double quick time, it does take much much longer and a lot of determination to build a layout where everything including the trackwork has to be assembled by hand or re-gauged compared to ready to lay track. I guess on of the options would be to build for eye level viewing in OO where the deception with the narrower gauge and tighter curves than possible in 21mm becomes less noticeable. Maybe time to try a mock up with Peco bullhead track or Code 75 flatbottom for an Irish eye level layout and see how it compares to Peco Code 100 Steramline.

I got hooked on industrial locos while I was living in the UK and explored many of the smaller rail served sites in the South East and Midlands before BR gave up on less than train load traffic in the early 1990s and even built a small shunting yard layout based on an Iain Rice scheme. The layout could be set up quickly and operated self contained or linked to a larger layout. The Industrials went off the boil when I sold the layout before moving to New Zealand, I have a 3/4 complete High Level 0-6-0St sitting in a box for most of the past 15 years.. Hopefully I will get to complete it some day

Wrenn You would be better off holding on to those unbuilt Impetus industrials as an investment that trying to butcher them into Irish locos. Impetus kits were very well though of at the time they were introduced and go for astronomical prices on E-Bay. The Hunslet 15" & Bagnall 15" (I would be tempted to make you an offer for the Bagnall) are quite unlike Harvey and the Guinness & Courtards 0-4-0s. If anyone is interested in modelling Irish Industrials. Agenoria (7mm)/CPS (4mm) http://cspmodels.com/abante/index.php?rt=product/category&path=65 produce kits that can be assembled as reasonably accurate models of the Irish steam Industrials. Judith Edge produce a Ruston & Hornsby 165DS the same type as the CSE Tuam Loco. Impetus used to produce the smaller Ruston & Hornsby DS88 type used at the other sugar factories. I am not sure if anyone has produced a kit for the Guinness Hudswell Clarke 0-4-0 diesel although Impetus produced the larger 0-6-0 version. The Hornby W4 Peckett is probably the closest to an Irish RTR industrial loco. The ex-Allman Distillery Peckett Paddy was re-numbered 495 and retained her/his lined green livery with red frames until withdrawn by CIE in 1949 https://www.hornby.com/uk-en/news/the-engine-shed/peckett-w4-0-4-0st-the-story-so-far/

Hi John The biggest challenge with the Worsley Works Park Royal and Laminates is in forming the roof as they are scale width and length and not really suitable for a British rtr chassis My article on building these coaches will give you an idea of whats involved. http://www.worsleyworks.co.uk/NG/NG_NIL_Art1.htm Alternatively we might be able to arrange a swap for a set of 1904 "Bredin" sides and a Dapol Stanier donor coach . John

David I had to re-read your post before I realised you re-built the Worsley Works kit into a G601. Chain drive for these locos is quite prototypical. How did you cut out the windows in the new cab front and rear plates? There are probably few people on this forum who would be familiar with the techniques for cutting windows and other openings in metal.

Nothing to stop a group to commission the Chinese to produce a rtr injection moulded or brass Dutch Van or anything else for that matter there is sufficient demand 2-3000 units injected moulded plastic 2-300 units @ $50-60 ready to run in brass at about $500 a throw. An other alternative would be to engage a professional model maker like Mike Edge to produce a master to the required specification and produce a rtr model in polyurethane resin volume would reduce to around 50 units @ $100-150 for a complete ready to run model. John

Hi Richard. Small point it looks like GSWR saloon 353 which survived in service until 1964. Looks a nice model interesting to see that you have incorporated NEM pockets in the bogie design.

Kingsbridge/Heuston had two platforms and several carriage sidings in between under the overall roof until the island platform 3&4 was added in the early 70s. Platform 1 "The Military Platform" seems to have been mainly used for non-passenger traffic, Platform 2 for departures Platform 3 the later Platform 5 for arrivals. Connolly/Amiens St had a similar arrangement with the Howth Bay form local passenger traffic, main departure and arrival platforms with carriage sidings in between and the short Platform 1 used for non-passenger traffic and railcar maintenance. In steam days a pilot loco would draw out the coaches of an arriving train to release the main line loco in stations such as Kingsbridge, Amiens Street and Broadstone. The pilot might re-marshal the train before positioning it in the departure platform as the majority of passenger trains ran in loose formation and often carried tail traffic, such as carriage trucks, horse boxes and vans for perishable traffic & mail traffic rather like the AMTRAK passenger trains of the 1990s which carried considerable van traffic

Harcourt Street 1900 runaway train 1900 , Cannon Street 1991 https://www.railmagazine.com/trains/specifications/lessons-learned-from-cannon-street-crash are good examples of buffer stop collisions. I think the loco in the photo may be a GSWR 0-4-4 back tank with a local train to Kingsbridge. In steam days larger terminal stations like Kingsbridge, Amiens Street and Sligo had separate main-line departure and arrival platforms. The arrival platforms usually had hydraulic buffer stops similar to the classic Hornby model https://www.mightyape.co.nz/product/hydraulic-buffer/25031703?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIgOyOs_vW1wIVgR0rCh0_mg0SEAYYASABEgKPKvD_BwE with plain buffer stops on the departure side. The LNWR North Wall Station seems to have become something of a white elephant with the opening of the Loop Line in the 1890s and the growing importance of the Holyhead-Dunlaoire route. The North Wall passenger station closed and the mail trains diverted to Carlisle Pier when the LNWR Dunlaoire-Holyhead steamer service won the Mail contract in the 1920s

Excellent work!

Dapol https://www.dapol.co.uk/shop/n-gauge/diesel-locomotives-n-gauge and Graham Farish (Bachmann/Kader) http://www.bachmann.co.uk/prod1.php?prod_selected=farish&prod=3 are the two main suppliers/manufacturers of British rtr. The Dapol Class 33 would just about pass for a Metrovick from a distance (the old Lima OO/HO Metrovick were re-painted Class 33s. The Dapol BR MK3 and Farish BR MK2 coaches would be close enough for the Irish stock of the 80s onwards. The main draw back would be trying to achieve a decent paint finish on the locos and coaches together with spoiling some rather nice models and destroying the re-sale value. Probably better to stick to Japanese or try out American N gauge

Worsley Works sides on a rtr Graham Farish or Dapol body would appear to be the best option for producing UTA/GNR coaches Colin Flanagan has produced convincing results with rtr conversions of NCC & GNR coaches using these methods in OO The Worsley Works N scale list does not include GNR stock at this stage http://www.worsleyworks.co.uk/2mm/2mm_Irish_Standard_Gauge.htm but Alan Doherty is likely to produce the sides if you ask him. Finding a donor body may be a bit tricky Graham Farish appear to have dropped their older corridor and non-corridor coaches which may still be available second jhand on e-bay or exhibitions https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/GRAHAM-FARISH-N-GAUGE-MAINLINE-COMPOSITE-COACH-GWR-BROWN-CREAM-/292327768203 j