Mayner

Battery trains returning to Dublin suburban services 93 years after Drumm Battery trains A&B entered regular service between Dublin & Bray in 1932

Haven't had time to do anything on the flats during the past few weeks, but planning to review and update the artwork during the next four weeks. On the plus side Ivan has provided info on the Dave Bradwell springing units and I located one of the original test etches useful in checking the fit of some of the parts. My initial thoughts is to half etch a section of the W Iron assembly which can be removed (filed away) to allow vertical movement for those that chose a sprung rather than a rigid chassis, but will probably produce a test etch to prove that the concept works before producing a production version. Once I have tested the concept it will become clear whether both a rigid and sprung can be produced from the same photo tool or separate toolings will be necessary.

In one of his letters' magazine articles in the early 70s Drew wrote about a friend who modelled the GNR Main Line in the 50s and used BCDR locos to represent Railcar workings. Drew's view was that nobody was interested in watching railcars. Is it possible that Fred Graham the modeller that Drew was referring to are there any BCDR locos in the collection?

If a rail service is required for the Ryder Cup Cup, the promotors could pay for the necessary rail upgrade and charter a MK4 Set or possibly Intercity Railcars to transport VIPs and spectators to the cup. As far as I understand the Limerick-Foynes upgrade is paid for by the Port Company possibly to secure the output form the Pallas Green ore body and stave off potential competition from Cork or Waterford Ports. Difficult to imagine Foynes becoming a Container Port unless a major shipping line decides to serve Ireland directly through Foynes from the Far East or America rather than feeder services from UK or European Ports to Cork, Waterford, Dublin and Belfast ports. Railfreight just about works in New Zealand because its not practicable to export heavy bulky commodities by Ro Ro ferry to customers in Australia let alone, China, Europe and US the major markets for our dairy and meat products. The bulk of Irelands manufacturing industry tends to be high value in nature and located near ports, high value items often exported in accompanied trailer from the factory or warehouse in Ireland sometimes with satellite tracking to its destination in Europe, not something to chance shipping by rail.

In my experience airline services within the United States make UK & Irish rail services appear the picture of punctuality. In 2023 we ended up having to take a bus for the final 235 miles to reach our destination after a series of cancelled and delayed flights by American Airlines between Heuston Texas & Fargo ND. Our initial flight from Heuston was delayed 8hrs by a delayed incoming flight from Chicago (possibly a defect), our connecting flight from Chicago to Fargo had departed when we finally arrived in Chicago and the next flight was not until 3 days later, when we were due to depart for North Carolina. The one American Airlines customer service person on duty (when we arrived around mid night) managed to sort us out with an early morning flight to Minneapolis & I managed to book seats on the daily Greyhound bus as the wife did not want me hiring a car and driving long distance jetlagged. Our customers service person was an ex-military combat medic who told us he found working customer service for an airline stressful compared with his duties with the military.

A bit like middle aged and older men buying high powered motorcycles and sports cars for many people logic just does not come into it when it comes to buying locos. Hence manufacturers producing models of alpha locos such as the Leader, LMS Twins, "Hush Hush" and lots of Pacifics. I went through a phase of buying expensive large scale American Brass locos during my late 50s though cured of the affliction now that I am on a fixed income and retirement savings almost gone. A successful manufacturer/commissioner will only produce models that will sell well, probably main reason Hornby Dublo and Hornby focused on large express steam locos, with a handful of tank and mixed traffic locos in their ranges. Although I was mighty tempted by a Hunslet and a rake of coaches in the original livery it was pass go, though just might be tempted by 207 Boyne in Blue and a rake of matching GNR coaches the first 'express train" I ever saw though completely outside my areas of modelling interest and having run out of storage space

Interesting to see a photo of "The Ranch" (terrace houses in background) when it was still out in the country, before the building of the Ballyfermot housing estate in the 1940s

Select an Irish company in the Company menu in the Shopping Options. Looking through the Irish companies in the HMRSI drawing register should give you an idea of the sheer volume of "Irish" drawings & photos held in their collection For example there are 15 drawings in the HMRS Coras Iompair Eireann collection, some drawings can be viewed on line or purchased in digital or hard copy format. The drawing of the Craven coach in the HMRS collection appears to be a UK manufacturers drawing, other drawings appear to have beenbased on 'official drawings" drawn by B (Barry?) Heaven often in 4mm Scale and intended for modellers. Barry's drawings were sometimes available in model railway shops when I was growing up in the early 70s

The O'Dea Collection photo indicates that there was once an island platform on the seaward side of the main & bay platform. https://catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000305132 Some idea of the level of seaside excursion traffic Youghal once capable of handling 3 full length passenger trains. When I first visited the station in the late 70s all the buildings on the seaward side of the station had been removed possibly replaced by a new sea wall/coastal defence work, the station retained a long bay platform that appeared to be seldom used.

"Self" Praise and honours for the non-participants reminds me of when I was managing the construction of a large steel framed workshop on a UK Heritage Railway in North Wales about 30 years ago. The prep-work(earthworks and foundations) for the 'big day" of erecting the structural steelwork was carried out over several months by a small group of regular volunteers and like Jim Morrison's prophecy in Waynes World 2 or was it Costner Field of Dreams "book them and they will come" I announced in the Society Journal that we had booked a mobile crane to erect the steelwork on Easter Sunday. The 'they will come" part was fulfilled when a group (of steel erectors) from Holycombe Museum met us in the pub on the Saturday evening and volunteered their services, completing the steelwork element in two days. The self praise and honours for the non-participants took place on the Sunday morning when the crane set up with about 100 people wearing hard hats appeared (many I had not seen before or since) and posed for the "group' publicity photo for our Journal and Railway Press, before immediately returning to their cars and driving away never to be seen again. I would hope that at least some had donated to the appeal that paid for the shed. The steel erectors and crane driver simply got on with it, the regular volunteers installed the purlins (timber) and roofing iron during the following week and we never saw the VIPs again, so everyone was happy.

The changes at Youghal between the 1960s and closure are quite striking. The buildings (hotels and guest-houses) damaged/destroyed as a result of Storm struck Youghal in 1962. At one stage there were several long platforms for seaside excursion trains on the seaward side of the platform, reduced to a single long platform following the storm https://www.rte.ie/archives/exhibitions/1916-amateur-films/651943-storm-damage-youghal-1962/

Come to think of it I had similar problems with clearances while assembling 4mm Tralee & Dingle 2-6-0Ts & C&L 4-4-0Ts about 30 years ago An article in Narrow Gauge and Industrial Review during the 90s flagged the clearance problems with the Branchlines Tralee & Dingle 2-6-0T loco kits when using wider than P4 profile wheels. Along with the very tight clearance between slidebars/crossheads and coupling rods, it was necessary to move the cylinders outwards with the cyinder covers outside rather than inside the valences as the hub of the Ultrascale wheels originally commissioned for the kit was wider than expected. I used Sharman B profile wheels for 3T & 6T which were narrower in width than the Ultrascale wheels, but cylinder covers placed outside the valences. Sharman wheels were supplied with an integral 14BA steel crankpin, with the top hat crankpin bush secured by a 14BA nut. On outside cylinder locos I normally use an inverted 14BA threaded crankpin bush. If I cannot source a threaded bush, I simply fill with solder and tap. No 3T & 6T were assembled about 30 years ago and still see occasional use! The other bit of skulduggery was performed on a pair of Backwoods C&L 4-4-0T assembled a couple of years earlier, where I cranked the connecting rods on locos fitted with Markits wheels supplied with the kit. I suppose the moral is that it may be necessary to move out the cylinders & valve gear or some other form of distortion on an Irish 3' or 5'3" model assembled with wider than prototypical width wheels. Would be interesting to test the compromises necessary to assemble a 7 or 4mm---5'3" gauge model of an outside cylinder loco like an 800 or Compound with the same or similar wheel profiles to the current generation of rtr models.

Josh. your potentially setting yourself a major research project as apart from information/drawings published in books & held by the IRRS al ot of the information is held by individuals, and specialist groups and museums/histporical societies in the UK. The majority of steam locos and stock used on the GSR & CIE systems were built in Ireland by the GSWR at Inchacore and MGWR at Broadstone rather than imported from English & Scottish builders. New Irish Lines published twice a year by Alan O'Rourke in Sheffield https://newirishlines.org/archive/ regualarly publishes drawings and published a Register of GSR locomotive diagrams between 2014-2016 to compliment Jeremy Clements & Michael McMahons book "Locomotives off the GSR'. Upon formation in 1924 the GSR acquired 587 Steam Locomotives divided into 114 Classes! The Historical Model Railway Society https://hmrs.org.uk/drawings.html collection includes drawings and photos of stock supplied to Irish railways. During the 70s & 80ss and number of model railway magazines published drawings of Irish lcos and stock, may be covered in index in NIL on-line archive At one stage a number of major museums in the UK supplied drawings and photos of locos and stock supplied to Irish companies e.g. Manchester Beyer Peacock locomotove GAs (major supplier to GNR and companies in Ulster, Glasgow photos oof locos supplied by NBL to GSWR, MGWR & others.

Carriage Sheds appear to have had corrugated iron roofs, but the GSR removed the sheds to reduce their Rates Bills during the 1930s I think Schull on the Schull & Skibereen retained its Carriage Shed to the end. The majority of buildings on the Valencia and Kenmare branches including station buildings, goods shed and carriage sheds were in corrugated iron though Cahirciveen engine shed was timber. Westport Quay Goods shed was corrugated iron though the station building was stone. The buildings in the NLI Cahirciveen photo are similar to Kenmare & the goods shed similar to that at Westport Quay https://catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000318850 The Ratio OO Carriage Shed is similar in styling and construction to carriage sheds used at Irish branch line terminals, though usually single track. I usually use Wills Coarse Stone (actually stone laid in regular courses as opposed to random rubble) for buildings buildings like railway goods shed and Wills Corrugated Asbestos for corrugated iron because corrugated iron sheets were usually longer in length and fixed in a more regular manner than the Wills iron sheets.

With laser cutting you can omit the intermediate stage of using an overlay by engraving brick-stonework directly onto the laser cut shell. I produce my own drawings and have used businesses like York Model Making and a local business to do the laser cutting. The GSWR Signal box incl stairs and windows was laser cut by York Model Making, I mitred the corners of the wall panels to minimise joint thickness, roof and ridge tiles are Will Materials. The laser cut windows were basically an expirement, I prefer to use etched window frames on foreground buildings. Westport Mill was laser cut in Ply by a local business, the exposed concrete frame on one layer, the infill panels on another, windows laser cut in plastic. Building painted using "Match Pots" from a home decor shop matched to photos of the original.

Ironically for many year NZ Customs used to charge 5% duty plus GST (VAT) + processing + Bio-Security fees on model railway items with a value in excess of $850US. The duty mainly affected high value items imported from the United States (mainly e-Bay and Accuacraft). I challenged duty being charged on model railway items, being exempt in UK and Europe but chargable in this part of the World. NZ Customs tended to focus on collecting their duties, taxes and fees and not get too hung up on the technicalities of the declaration. Its possible US Customs simply may not have the capability (staff or technology) to process low value parcels following the change in policy. The Irish Customs/An Post and most other countries spent two/three years preparing to implement the 2023 changes to Global Customs Clearance requirements.

Well my intention to spend a hour/half hour in the workshop every evening lasted about two days before being disrupted by a series of family crisis that blew up in both New Zealand and the States last Tuesday. I finally managed to find some time for myself this afternoon and evening. Giving the re-trucked Bachmann Tank Car a test run and working on some projects in the Workshop. Tank car had a shakedown run on a Way Freight while I sat in a chair on our deck looking at alternative options for our kids education, probabably the first time I made the time and sit down and simply watch trains go by in about a year. Tank car ran steadily without the wobbe and occasional de-railments with the origonal cars. Back in the workshop things did no go so well but managed to fit the replacement balcony rails and ladders to the damaged end. Attempts to fit the replacement footsteps by drilling into the existing solebars and tapping 10BA were unsuccessful as the solebars/under frame members turned out to be hollow and incapable of holding a thread when tapped. I got a 2 part filler product capable of heing tapped from the local hobby shop, but the activator was well past its sell-by date with a consistency like treakle. Some success of the small-scale loco front finally finshed E421 to OO a Shapeways (B Lancer) body on a Bull Ant chassis and fitted a DCC "stay alive" decoder salvaged form one of my Large Scale railtrucks, runs find on analogue with an interesting "momentum" effect, but programming function on DCC system bought over 20 years ago no longer appears to work and manufacturer no longer supports particular command station or throttle, so I will probably revert to DC, just need to add some section switches. G617 which has a worm and layshaft drived cobbled up from a pair of Hi Level RoadRunner+ and a TenderRiser sounds like a coffee grinder and stalls all over the place, probably replace the current wheels with wheels salvaged Bachmann diesel bogie wheels to see if it improves pick up.

Interestingly the original version of the WW G (cabsides wrong orientation) was supplied with a simple fold up 21mm N/S chassis complete with 2 nylon worm & gear sets! Even more interestingly Jeremy Fletcher talks about a fold up 21mm gauge gear box supplied with the parts on his article on building the loco on the WW website https://www.worsleyworks.co.uk/Image-Pages/Image_4mm_Deutz-3.htm Photos of Mike Edge (possible pattern for DC G Class) & Jeremy's G Class indicate that at one stage the WW G was supplied with plastic spring and axlebox castings. I still have the original 21mm gauge fold up chassis supplied with my G Class, perhaps some day get around to motorising it with my own drive based on a High Level QuadDriver or more likely a drive designed by Paul. I used a scratchbuilt chassis to power the loco while running in OO, basically two plain strips of brass and commercial turned frame spacers possibly supplied with an SSM J15!

It looks like a friend in the States has agreed to adopt James, big challenge if he survived the flight and quarantine would have been James challenging our other four male cats for the Alpha position. CIE Cattle wagons all appear to have been on the traditional Irish timber underframe like Leslie's model, none that I know of on the Triangulated Underframe

The 'coach' in the 1st photo looks like the passenger portion of an ex-West Clare Walker Railcar the second coach some form of railcar conversion with open end balconies. One of the ex-West Clare conversions was used as the Coach on the Bellacorick bog train hauled by a Ruston diesel modified with a hydraulic transmission similar to the second generation Hunslet Wagonmaster. Does anyone know whether the two Clonmacnoise & West Offaly coaches or the ex-West Clare railcar conversions have survived? The biggest challenge of modelling the BNM Peat Energy Division was the sheer scale of the operation on most systems and lack of operating interest basically 15 wagon Merry Go Round trains between the loading points and power stations. The older sod peat systems like Allenwood and Portarlington were a bit more interesting on a smaller scaleand actual shunting taking place at the Power Stations and BNM locos doing the 'main line work" with ESB locos shunting the power stations where individual wagons were unloaded by lifting from their bodies to the top of the power station bunker using overhead gantries. Some of the Horticultural peat systems were more modellable in nature and smaller in scale with wagons (sometimes 4w) unloaded by an end tipper or rotary tipple.

Say no more: there is no one forcing anyone to pay an inflated price. Just wait for the wagons to show up on the second hand market, swapmeets or deceased estate sales. As an old work mate used to say there was no barbed wire on the door forcing a guy to spend all his wages in the pub.

My attempt to carve out ½/1 hr daily (modelling) time for myself is largely as a result of a family crisis that arose 18 months ago that left our family split between the States and New Zealand as a result of caring commitments, which left me and the wife on opposite sides of the Pacific with very little free time to pursue our own personal interests and the situation is likey to continue for some time. The only advice I can offer in my late 60s is to make the best of the present time because none of us have a guarantee that things will go as planned, best laid plans of mice and man etc.

The Worsley Works G builds into a nice model and is supplied with a 21mm gauge chassis. Des SSM produced a very nice waterslid transfer set for this loco including legible Duetz makers plates, unfortunately the origonal cabside transfers wore off with handling when I attempted to convert the loco to OO several years ago Although originally motorised with a "Black Beetle" motor bogie re-gauged to 21mm, G611 currently runs on a scratchbuilt chassis powered by a Coreless motor driving a pair of Hi-Level Roadrunner+ gearboxes using a layshaft with a Tender-Riser steo down gearbox. Like my other locos with can or coreless motors and Hi Level gearboxes could never get this loco to reliably operate on DCC, in this case driving each axle with a separate gearbox may have resulted in increased friction and current consumption. Long term plans are to power the 21mm gauge version of this loco with a customised "Quad-driver" arrangement similar to Pauls E401 Class

Started a routine of having a hour/half hour in the workshop after 10 most nights once days duties are done Catching up on large sacle repairs & locating parts to complete other projects. Repairing balcony rails and ladder RGS Caboose 401. Originally bought this 1:20.2 Scale Caboose when I started large scale modelling in 2007 then sold to a local Garden Railway modeller when I realised that Bachmann 1:22 is scale "Big Haulier" stock was more affordable, then bought back in 2017 after the narrow gauge lines in Colorado and realising the massive nature of the locos and stock. One end of 401 had been through the wars and this is the second attempt at repairing the balcony rails and ladder, hopefully she will be good for another few repairs. Last tie round I made a jig for repairing/replacing the ladder, this time I used the ladder and rails from the opposite end to mark out the position of the rungs on a piece of ply, soldered the top and bottpm rungs to one stile, before fixing to the opposite stile and doing a test fit before soldering in the intermediate rungs. Test fit. The roof walkway was also damaged at the same end about 2008 or 9 and repaired with plasticard which has held fairly well requiring some minor repairs. Intermediate rungs are the only new parts soldering took about 15 minutes, phosphoric acid flux and 120degree solder using a soldering station with temp set at max. Everything primed with a grey self etch primer followed by a coat of "Appliance White" aerosol form the local big box DIY store. I'll finish with an aerosol 'clear coat' laquer tommorow and allow the paint to cure for 3-4 days before fitting to 401. Been digging through my stock of J15 spares and found some of the missing parts for the Superheated J15 including the worm for the High Level Load Haulier gear box, but a pair of Sharman Type B profile wheels suitable for a J15, but no 3rd wheelset and an assembled set of J15 mainframes. I bought 2 J15 kits form Paul Greene in 2007-8 with the intention of using one of the locos to replace my original TMD J15 bought in 1986, one of my first attempts at assembling an etched kit, retaining 191 a J15 I assembled about 30 years ago together with the 2 new locomotives and a part built J15 I bought at Expo-EM about 20 years ago. The plan changed over time to build one of the 'new" J15s as a superheated loco with heavier GSR replacement frames, which freed up a set of replacement frames for the original 1986 loco which has Sharman wheels! An early effort it could do with some minor body repairs, but what to do with 5 J15s in the display case particular someone that set out to model the Midland 40 odd years ago? A bit more prosaic a pair of anchor mount tanks on IRCH "Standard" wagon underframe. The tanks are from the IRM "WeedkillerTrain" pack, the chassis my own from LMA wagon chassis. I originally bought the train pack intending to produce an etched Triangulated chassis, but decided to shift to 3D printing after success with the 20T Brake Van prototype. CIE used this form of tank and underframe for Bitumen wagons, but adding the insulated cladding not really worth the challenge.

More a larger box than needed for the other much smaller species of grasshopper, apart from the minor technicality of exporting a legally protected species, ensuring it survived the trip and made it through bio-security on arrival. Or maybe I am just talking through my hat as I get older My 15 year old is currently agonising about bringing one of our cats "James" home from the States (16 hrs flights-6 months quarantine) when the other half returns later this year, chances of someone adapting James are slim, not sure he would remember us after the flights and quarantine, or integrate him with our other cats, but difficult to leave a good mouser behind. Going more and more off topic by the moment, though should have some IRM/Accuracraft Grain Wagons on the way in the not too distant future.