Mayner

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

More like a department store, probably the last of the large specialist model railway shops. I have bought on line from Caboose Hobbies both in Ireland and New Zealand and it looks like I got there just in time spending an afternoon in the shop in May

Like the Donegal the Rio Grande Southern turned to internal combustion railcars for passenger and mail traffic in the 1930s including a nice little maintenance of way & switching railtruck Motor #6 Jackson County Crew check out Motor # 6 RGS Motors #1 & #6 outside the Jackson City Roundhouse The photo kind of dispels a rumour that RGS Motor #1 was scrapped in the early 1930s and parts used to build #6. # 6 was a brass RTR model produced by Berlyn Locomotive Works in 1999 & seems to have been bought for an investment and never run. #1 is a 10 year old Bachmann Spectrum model converted to DCC with a Lenz keep alive decoder, unfortunately the bevel gear in the back axle split about 12 months ago and spares are out of stock.

Amazing scientific research into something farmers and people work with animals have know about for aeons. Cattle have a quite rigid social structure that governs an individual animals position in a herd, their position in relation to the matriarch and no doubt who gets to eat the tastiest grass and herbs. A bit like ourselves they have to follow and keep a respectful distance from their leader or there will be serious trouble

Model 4-4-0s are nose heavy & notoriously difficult to balance, One trick is to transfer weight from the front end of the tender to the loco. This system was used by Mike Sharman a famous and controversial English modeller for small Victorian locos in the 1960s and an integral part of the design in Studio Scale Models tender locomotive kits. Personally I prefer the "American" system of power pick up through the axle to wiper pick ups which are difficult to set up and adjust on a hand built loco. DCC Decoder capacitance and settings may be an issue, the loco may run better on 14 rather than 28 or 128 speed step settings, I had similar problems with a Kato RS2 with twin flywheel drive and all wheel pick up

An interactive section with Lego or a Wooden railway and working models demonstrating the inner working of a loco (like in the Science Museum London) would be a big hit for families with small children and school groups. My daughter made a bee line for the Thomas & Chuggington wooden railways at museums and heritage railways visited in the United States while the adults perused full sized exhibits, layouts and dioramas. Like most museums commercial success depends on the café and gift shop.

I think a larger more modern GSW locos such as the 321 & 257 class would be a better option than a J15 for a rtr resin & die cast loco. Its challenging to fit a reasonably powerful motor inside a J15 boiler and find enough space to add weight and a decoder, it will be interesting to see how Hornby? will motorise the new Dean Goods. Although he has a good head start I seem to be going through the same phase as Leslie explaining large packages containing steam locos arriving from the United States

It looks like the problem is solvable parts are available from Bachmann & Ultrascale have offered to manufacture replacement gears if necessary. A replacement gearbox and parts to re-condition the existing gear box are on order, so a spare is available the next time a gear train wears out.

Very attractive model & good value for money when you consider a professional build of the Worsley Works U or the SSM S or PPs

Nine years after I started building the railway I am gradually shifting from G Scale to 1:20.3 or Fn3 for American locos and stock. The modified Bachmann Connie 2-8-0 & Big Haulier 4-6-0 look reasonably close with the scale stock, but a used Bachmann Rio Grande K27 or Mudhen looked too good an opportunity to miss. These locos were produced about 7-8 years ago by Bachmann and are now discontinued. Track power was out so I quickly converted the loco to battery control to test clearances and see what she could pull K27 #464 backs onto the turntable before working an Eastbound freight Just about fits on the turntable don't need to build a wye or turning triangle yet. The snow plough needs adjustment tending to stick in point frogs and check rails and lineside structures. #464 preformed faultlessly with a heavy train for about an hour before refusing to run forward thanks to a tooth breaking off a brass gear in the gear box. Sent an e-mail to Bachmann to see if replacement gears are available, but more likely will need to commission a new gear set from Ultrascale or a local machine shop with the capability

There are a series of wonderfully evocative photos and I am sure a video of a U Class hauling a 5 coach westbound Bundoran Express up the bank across the peat bog out of Bundoran Junction sanding furiously to keep traction shortly before closure! I'll scan and post a copy when I get a chance. The Express usually seems to have loaded to 4 coaches, while most Irish North passenger trains seem to have been made up with two coaches, bogie or 6 wheel van and a long string of bread containers

I had a very interesting weekend well Saturday anyway touring layouts at an informal American Railroaders convention in Auckland. We visited four layouts including our hosts N gauge. Second: A double and treble deck GNR layout in a converted double garage. The government owned NZR was very slow in completing rail links in Northland ferry sailings on Kaipara Harbour ceasing in the late 1940s when Dargaville was finally connected to the national network. Finally: How many modellers can fit into an isle on a classical multi-level American layout? [attachment=:name] Built on the ground floor of a split level house it almost qualifies as the classical American basement empire, while scenery is reasonably complete in the main area, the layout has extended into an adjoining workshop and into the area underneath a raised deck. Track is mainly handlaid. Smoothness of running without lurching through pointwork without hesitation or lurching was the most noticeable contrast between the two HO and the NZR layout thanks to matched NMRA track and wheel standards, in contrast to the Peco Universal points and wheels made to different manufacturers standards. The tour gave me a lot to think about including whether to build an American N gauge or Irish Narrow gauge layout in the garden shed as the space available is tight for a realistic Irish broad gauge layout in 21mm or 00.