Mayner

A company that does laser cutting for sheetmetal work, or graphics or architectural models may be able to help. http://www.cncgroup.ie/technology.html http://www.snowlaserstudio.com

Travelling through Cherry Orchard was running the gauntlet for passenger on evening trains into Heuston in the 70s & 80s. CIE & the Gardaí did not seem to be too bothered about attacks on trains. While the Mk 2s & MK3 coaches were fairly safe passengers were sometimes injured by flying glass in older rolling stock.

I think the change from Grey to Orange bubbles was tied with CIE using up its stock of grey paint in the late 60s rather than an attempt to colour code wagons with different brake gear. The grey wagons in the Cabra Bank photo appear to have the later type of brake gear with 4 brake shoes rather than the earlier style with 8 shoe coach style brakes and hand brake wheel. The prime purpose of the paint is to prevent corrosion, the paint job on a newly built wagon should be good for at least 10 years before a repaint, this could result in considerable overlap between livery styles with a class of wagons built in small batches between 1964 & 72. Its just about possible that grey, orange and vanilla wagons may have ran at the one time The grey and orange wagons in the earlier photos certainly look cleaner than the later vanilla scheme. Was it something to do with the loading process at Platin, or was it simply that there was nothing to be gained for Irish Cement or CIE by keeping the wagons clean? An owner or road fleet bulk tanker driver by contrast would be quite religious about keeping his or her truck shining as the cleanliness of the truck is pretty much a reflection of how they run their business.

There were a number of design variations between the 1955 & 1959-60 batches of tin vans, plus in service variations among the Tin & Hooded Vans. The Tin Vans were originally introduced with full depth outward opening doors, the doors seem to have been shortened at an early stage most likely to avoid striking the edge of the floor and difficulty in closing. The final batches were fitted with recessed inward opening doors similar to the hooded vans. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4U5MWhTpnM In later years windows on both tin and hooded vans were replaced with solid panels on an add-hoc basis, possibly to replaced damage panels. some tin vans lost most of their small windows apart from a single window in the guards compartment, in some cases the large boiler compartment window was replaced by a solid panels or possibly double doors. The vans were culled from main line service in the early 70s following the introduction of the Dutch Vans and CIEs programme of rebuilding Bredin and early CIE coaches into heating and luggage vans. A small no of the 4w heating vas were retained for suburban and branch line duties. There are photos of 4w TPOs in use on the Sligo Line in the early 70s and may have been used on Ballina-Limerick passenger trains. Some of the hooded vans lost their gangways and were repainted in an all over orange colour scheme similar to the Van Hool & Atlantean busses. These vans were used on Connolly-Dunlaoire mail trains until replaced by 20' ISO containers on 4 w flats. The underframes from the hooded vans had one last fling on the main line in 77 or 78 with Sean Connery & Donald Sunderland as coaches in the 1st Great Train Robbery!

Has anyone a copy of a CIE GA or Weight/Painting diagram of the 6w Heating Vans? I will consider producing a set of etched brass parts for the van including chassis and roof, if I get a minimum of 10 expressions of interest and a copy of the all important drawing.

The assembly of the vans seems to be a lot quicker than modifying the Dapol coaches, ties in with the view that its quicker to assemble a brass kit than modify a plastic rtr model. Paint prep is basically neutralising flux residue by dipping overnight in a mildly alkaline solution followed by a wash in warm water, breaking up any salts & verdigrass around soldered joints with a tootpick and scrubbing with a old tooth brush. The model is dried and the surface of the brass lightly burnished with fine wet & dry paper or a fibre glass brush. I try to avoid getting solder on the surface of a model, but it is relatively easy to remove with the blade of a screwdriver, scraper and clean up with a fibre glass wet and dry. Into the booth! During the cooler months I keep the workshop warm overnight with an electric heater and use a cheap Chinese spray booth which vents through the window. This basically eliminates any problems with paint smells and overspray in the work room. I hope to get a metal booth big enough for my large scale stuff, either through Mirco-Mark or have one made up in one of the local sheet metal shops. Freshly primed TPO I use VHT automotive etch and surfacing primers on models 1st warning the can on the heater and store the model in a warm place. Although round 15C black aerosol was drying with a greyish tinge this morning. Flotilla of vans primed stored overnight before painting 1st coat 12 hours later! The vans have been painted with a combination of Tamiya spray enamels and Humbrol enamel using the trust airbrush. The silver van is basically ready for a clear finish and decals, the others at the 1st stage of painting, though the UTA painted a few coaches in an eau de nil colour in the early 60s. After a lot of trials and tribulations I now use Tamiya AS12 "Bare Metal Silver" for silver and aluminium coaches, as it avoids the surface finish problems with metallic paints. I will leave these coaches for 3-4 days to allow the paint to harden before masking and applying further coats.

Eoin I like our clamping arrangement for holding small parts during soldering, is it part of a resistance set up or something you made yourself?

Don't know if its the rose-tinted glasses but the orange bubbles seem to have been cleaner, possibly some change in the loading process when production was shifted from Boyne Road to Platin in the mid-70s.

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.