Mayner

Testing out a new section of trackwork the most exciting and nerve wracking thing for model and full size railroaders:trains: When I was in the States I remember a Canadian Pacific section crew asking the Engineer on a local freight if he wouldn't mind running his train back and forth 4-5 time across a newly installed diamond to make sure it was ok. I like the way you have recessed the switch gear into the layout fascia eliminating the need for a separate control panel and turning the Tortoise point motors on their side.

Thurles was probably the closest to JT22CWs concept the loco depot was in use into the late 70s and certainly supplied locos for Thunderbird duties. I was on an up IRRS Special from Youghal that was blocked in the station while 007 ran wrong road to Templemore to rescue an Up passenger that had broken down. The depot was likely to have been used to supply locos for the Lisduff Ballast train and servicing locos on South Wexford-Thurles beet specials. Its just about possible that some depot modernisation would have been justified as a base for long distance commuter trains to Heuston and ore from the Lisheen & Galmoy zinc mines which were developed in the mid-1990 went out by rail. The 4 road loco shed was a stone building with a typical GSWR sawtooth roof profile, the GSWR, GSR & CIE had a similar love of pre-cast concrete to the Southern Region typically used precast concrete after 1900 for loco sheds, offices and messrooms.

The original idea was to produce a plastic coach that could be economic to produce as a kit or rtr form in small batches by a firm in Auckland using rapid prototyping technology as an alternative to injection moulded plastic and eventually evolved into a brass and whitemetal kit. http://lep.net.nz/processes/precision-3d-printing/http://lep.net.nz/processes/precision-3d-printing/ While resin casting from a 3D model was the preferred option tooling cost and the short life of the mould was one of the deciding factors in favour of etched brass and whitemetal.

Standard Open A flotilla of Tin vans Tin Van Sub Assemblies Stevie B is partially right, one of the ironies of better quality rtr Irish models is that more people are prepared to wait for an eternity for a new rtr model than attempt to modify a rtr model, assemble a kit or let alone a scratchbuild. While there is probably greater demand for a rtr model of one of these coaches than a kit or scratch aid, there is unlikely to be enough demand to justify commissioning a manufacture to produce a brass or plastic injection moulded model. Part of the underlying problem is the sheer variety of Pre-1964 CIE coaching stock and relatively few liveries, collectors are likely to buy a maximum of 1-2 models of a particular type and few active modellers are able to relate to the pre Supertrain era.

Applying the final touches complete decals, clear coat aerosol to body Tayima semi-gloss clear to sides, Testors dullcoat to ends roof and underframe, glazing and a few passengers. SSM produced a sheet of green and white decals for these early CIE coaches. The bodies are secured to the underframe with 2-10Ba screws at each end. BA or fine self tappers are capable of self tapping into the soft plastic used in the Dapol shells. Corridor Standard. Roof detail corridor standard. Plumbing is in .5mm straight brass wire secured in place with home made split pins. 1904-8 Brake Standard Open Buffet car galley side. BSSGV generator side

The graphite smoke box makes a real difference, really brings the loco to life!

My take on slow speed the 2-8-0 is DCC the 2-8-2 on board battery RCS RC the apparent pause by the 2-8-0 at 14 sec seems to be something to do with the optics of the camera. DCC radio control is not 100% reliable with the range involved and the signal bouncing off obstacles so CV3 acceleration rate is set to 3 CV4 deceleration rate is set to zero. The 2-8-2 is running on pure DC with an electronic speed controller with acceleration and inertia at the default settings. My locos need to be responsive to the controller stop on command to avoid cornfield meets and damage to stock while switching. There is a lot more inertia with large scale stock and need to be careful starting a train to avoid splitting facing points and avoid the Conductor and brakemen spilling their coffee or falling from the roof boards while tying down those handbrake wheels. I follow the same principal with my small scale Irish narrow gauge locos are geared at 80:1 with a can motor and single flywheel motor and run on dc to allow the motor to develop maximum torque when starting and allow reliable low speed running at full throttle.

I don't know if its different in Ireland and the UK but model railways seems to be more of a hobby for the older generation or maybe older people have more time and money for the hobby. The majority members of our local garden railway group are over 50 with similar demographics among American modellers in Auckland. Our identity and personal interests are pretty tied up with our experiences in our formative years and like our parents its difficult for a Baby Boomer to relate Alpha or Generation Z culture, tastes in music, fashion and ralways. In the 50s and 60s many people thought the change from steam to diesel and large scale line closures would kill the hobby, today Ireland's railways are probably in a better way than they ever were in terms of sheer intensity of service and the physical condition of rolling stock and infrastructure. Modelling a section of the contempory Cork or Belfast line would be more challenging than the 70s and 80s as apart from the 071 & 201 Class locos practically all the rolling stock would have to be custom built or built from scratch

Rate of acceleration depends a lot on the weight of the train, the nature of the service and power of the loco. Auckland Transport's push-pull sets reminded me of the Baby Metrovicks on pre-DART suburban services with slightly better rolling stock.

Interesting the number wooden bodies (Irish Railway Clearing House) opens and vans that appear in both videos. The westbound double headed good headed by a B101& C201 Class with a luggage van cut in in front of the guards van is an interesting one. Goods traffic was heaviest between Waterford & Dungarvan with an out and back trip working from Waterford in addition to the daily through goods train. Perhaps the C Class dropped off to shunt the yard at Dungarvan and work a train back to Waterford while the B101 continued on to Fermoy and Mallow. It would be interesting to see if there is enough demand to crowd fund an injection moulded KN cattle wagon or a 20T CIE brake van potentially the largest gaps in Irish loose coupled goods stock. Provincial Wagons produce reasonably good resin models of the corrugated open, IRCH standard van, IRCH short cattle wagon and have plans to produce a H Van. Good quality kits are available from SSM for the 30t brake and IRCH standard open, while its reasonably simple to kit bash a GNR 16T Cement Van, a H Van or a Pallet Van from the Parkside-Dundas kits. The CIE standard KN cattle wagon looks totally different from the British rtr or kit wagons

I think few people under the age of 50 would have much of a re-collection of pick up goods operation or loose formation passenger trains with the majority of Irish modellers seem to focus on the 80s &90s era judging by the locos and stock produced by MM and the workshop projects that appears on this board. The exception appears to be the GNR maybe because the railway had a much more positive image or maybe railway modelling was a more established hobby in Northern Ireland than the South, certainly GNR locos and stock appears to be a popular subject for modelling projects among Northern modellers. Provincial Wagons have built on this support with a good collection of high quality custom built and re-livered Dapol wagons, including the all important IRCH cattle & standard covered wagon the GNR equivalent of the CIE/GSR K & H and the distinctive GNR goods brake. Another factor is that Irish & UK modellers seem to be less interested in operation than our American cousins Ironically my first exposure to shunting at an MRSI exhibition in the early 70s where the late Harry Connaughton was shunting a collection of esquisite scratchbuilt O Gauge passenger and goods stock with a pair of T2 locomotives. Tellingly I seemed to be the only person that was interested most people were focused on the big club tail layout.

More or less standard practice at the majority single line passing places with bi-directional signalling on CIE. Seems to have started when mechanical staff exchange was introduced on the Midland Mallow-Rosslare & NCC main lines to allow non-stop running through single line crossing places. Both roads are signalled for two way running, one road is aligned for high speed running and the other road treated as a loop. Most crossing places on CIE were signalled for two way running, scheduled trains usually brought in on the main platform road to do station work. On the Mayo Line Roscommon was the exception where normal up and down running continued through the platform roads after the Athlone-Roscommon was signalled in the early 1930s. At other stations Up and down trains usually called at the platform with the main station building, though Ballyhaunis could be an exception with through trains signalled along the down loop when the cabin was switched out.

Finescale 3mm layouts are fairly rare, British TT/3mm became pretty much a minority interest when Triang withdrew their TT range in the early 1960s. Popular in parts of Europe Tillig produce RTR TT at mouth watering prices https://www.tillig.com/

Commuter services are very expensive to operate with a huge amount of rolling stock and labour tied up for most of the day to cope with the morning and evening rush hour and tends to be less profitable than the long haul intercity services which are out on the line all day long earning revenue. Governments have largely taken the financial risk out it for the TOC by providing the train and infrastructure and underwriting operating losses so a profit is basically guaranteed.

I think if anything some of the London Suburban lines were more decrepit in the 1980s before the Chris Green Network South East era. A determined effort was made to improve the overall standard of the network and reliability of service, financed mainly by selling air-rights above the big City terminals. BR tended to treat inner suburban services as a poor relation with elderly rolling stock and quite run down stations, the North London Line & the Euston DC lines was something of a study in dereliction. Investment in the 80s was focused mainly on electrifying the long haul outer suburban routes out Kings Cross, St Pancras and Liverpool Street, while infrastructure and stock on the most congested parts of the Southern became increasingly worn out. Re-organisation in the run up to privatisation resulted in instability staffing shortages as vacancies were left un-filled and changes in management structure. A lot of experienced managers and staff took redundancy or simply left the railway in the run up to privatisation (not being considered to have a business skill set for the private sector, many were later involved in successful management buy outs or head hunted by Virgin and other TOCs as they knew how to run a railway. A friend Dennis Lovett worked on the PR side for LMR seemed to be working for a different BR business group nearly every week as his role was re-organised in the early 90s before being snapped up by Virgin West Coast and later Bachmann UK

I like the distinctive Irish gates

Accucraft C16 posing as C19 348 Probably my last new large scale loco for a while, I picked up 348 as a non-runner with some minor damage from the United States, at a bargain y Accucraft prices. It turned out the decoder was wired in correctly, loco tested & damaged parts repaired within 8 hours of arrival and running without a hitch for most of this afternoon. Loco is brass with stainless steel tyres and motion, which should last a lifetime. It will need weight in the boiler as she tends to slip with more than 4 cars on my grades.

Some weight in the tender coal space should improve power pick up and traction. I use the same drawbar arrangement and American style pick up system as OO Works on steam locos and its effective.

Railway preservation is a bit like owning a race horse without the chance of big prize money. Most restoration work is funded by private and public donation, fare box and charter revenue usually just about covers running costs.

Replacement motor and drive train arrived for the Mudhen last week, now on running in duty hopefully the engine should be good for another 8-10 years! Besides the broken tooth there was also considerable wear in the bore of the gear, its amazing she ran so well before the gera dropped a tooth. Not so lazy Sunny Afternoon I thought the black and white effects added to the atmosphere #464 waiting at the switch stand for orders to depart! I will have to add sound to this lokie! Passing the flats not much sign of business Weed growth seems to be slowing down in this area after our 1st week of dry weather after 39 days of rain. #464 climbing the 2% grade out of the flats I will probably have to replace the radio receiver/speed controller with a high amp unit, the thermal cut out with the present 3amp RSC tends to cut in when the K27 is running upgrade with a heavy train.

Its quite a while since I posted on this thread as I had very little that was of direct relevance to the Irish scene. I have been mainly finishing off existing projects some started a long-long time ago. One was to finish off a batch of early CIE coaches, using modified Dapol LMS Stanier coaches with brass overlay sides. Work was mainly tidying up and fitting new roof and end detail, using brass wire and MJT & Comet castings, interiors and replacing the plastic Dapol wheels with 14mm Hornby metal wheels. Finishing had dragged on as it was basically impossible to paint during the cold damp winter months. I completed most of the painting last week, today was warm enough to fit the decals outside on the deck. Two done on one side another three to go. Brake Second 1904 The green is a laquer colour matched from on of my older coaches, the eau-de-nil was mixed from a concoction of Humbrol & Tayima enamel. The body was originally spayed in eau-de-nil turning out not unlike the short lived UTA scheme of the 60s before masking the line, which turned out a wee bit fuzzy. Interior is built using a Comet Interior "kit" with some additional plasticard for the luggage & guards compartment and pure guesswork. The whole lot is screwed to the underframe with a pair of 10BA nuts and bolts. There was no room to fit the weight above the floor, I added additional weight and bolted the whole lot to the underframe The Unimat came in useful for shaping and drilling the weights Corridor 2nd one of the original coaches This was one of the original guinea pig coaches, I ended up replacing the Dapol body shell and re-using the sides as I prefer to glue the roof to the shell before cutting a slot for the windows and removing most of the floor. BSSGV The BSSGVs were converted from corridor seconds/standards most if not all early CIE coaches ran in the black and tan scheme for most of their operating lives, the light green with snail and single line was a late 50s scheme

£250k for the mechanical overhaul of a small narrow gauge tank locomotive, plus some new platework & new wheel centres http://www.whr.co.uk/appeals/russell-rebuild. More machining and specialist work tends to be contracted out these days, volunteers are getting older and scarcer.

I just don't understand why a manufacturer is introducing a train set style of control counsel controller in an age most serious users use hand helds. The major DCC manufacturers like Digitrax, Lenz and NCC work on an entirely different business model to the Apples & Micrsofts of this world. Based on product support and customer loyalty as opposed to planned obsolescence which forces a customer to replace their hardware and learn to understand a new user interface every 3-5 years as the IT industry ceases to provide support for existing products and upgrades software. Personally programming CVs does not bother me, the only one I ever change is a locomotive address, I have had 16 years excellent service from my Digitrax system while we count ourselves lucky to get 3-5 years out of a laptop and even less from an I Phone or Galaxy. Its possible to interface DCC with a WiFi system, but I prefer a throttle with physical controls that click when I am running a locomotive than looking at a screen

I originally produced a 3d printed roof for the tin van kits, but ended up using a formed bass roof for the production version as the 3D printed roof tended to distort, taking on a banana shape

Large scale is more geared towards the narrow than the Irish Broad Gauge. If you have the money Accucraft do some very nice IOM rtr locos and stock which is reasonably close to the Antrim Narrow gauge, John Armstrong has produced live steam Irish 3'gauge locos I don't know if anyone has done Irish broad gauge on Gauge 1 or G Gauge track Worsley Works would probably be prepared to blow up their Irish locos and coaching stock to run on G Scale track but building a loco would be nearer to miniature engineering than kitbuilding or rtr conversions which is why I stick to American narrow gauge