Mayner

The fret The parts are designed to fold to shape with the engraved fold lines on the inside of the bend. The tipper sub frames fold up into a U shape its best to clamp the section to be folded in a vice. Modifications to Base Toys Leyland Comet Chassis. The overhang at the rear of the flat bed chassis needs to be reduced for a tipper. Cut back with a junior hacksaw or a razor saw and tidy up the cut edge with a needle file.

The CIE built grain wagons appear to have been built in two batches 23901-23950 12t 16'11" over headstocks built 1955 & 25021-250140 converted from H vans. The wagon nearest the camera in the photo of Polloxfen's mill in "Rails to the West" does not have side doors, the next pair of wagons have side doors. The GNR bulk cement wagons were similar in design to the H van and BR vans of the period though the body was in steel and the shape of the hopper visible. I remember reading somewhere that the doors on the H van conversions were welded shut. The sidings at Ranks Mill Clara were set up for unloading grain from hopper wagons. The roof detail is taken from a photo of wagons in the Dardanelles sidings of the Point Yard the slatted walkways appear to be 3X2 battens on bearers. MGWR 1924 Comp MGWR 1924 3rd The 1924 coaches were supposed to be the most comfortable 3rd Class coaches on the GSR, I haven't seen a decent photo of the corridor side, the compartment coaches appear to have had similar continuous footboards to the GSWR stock. It just might be doable to kitbash one our of a Farish OO Corridor coach with microstrip to represent the panel beading. The Midland did not build matching bogie brakes although some new 6 wheel brakes complete with oil lamps were built around the same time possibly to replace stock damaged in the Civil War

The Railway Procurement Agency (RPA) is probably as confused itself, the RPA was separated from CIE supposedly because of Government lack of confidence in the companys ability to deliver the LUAS on time and within budget and the small matter of negotiating a new labour agreement with a 10 year no strike clause & excluding the more militant CIE unions The original Metro North proposal morphed out of CIEs original proposal for a cross city LUAS line from Stillorgan to Ballymun. The northern section of the line was 1st put on hold to minimise traffic disruption during the construction of the Port Tunnel, then morphed into a "metro" to overcome objections to street running through the city centre. The 2005 Metro proposal was basically LUAS underground rather than heavy rail.

Driver seems to be a Balkan war veteran suffering from PTSD, I don't think the muppets who abandoned a transit van on a level crossing outside Kilkenny about 10 years ago were ever brought to justice. Going back to GPS at work we had an electronic route planner that would direct you to turn off a flyover onto a railway line or road below if there was no slip road or junction.

Probably more to do with management thinking from the Dick Fearn era that running excursion trains (and freight) was outside IEs core business of running scheduled Intercity and Commuter trains rather than an actual lack of demand. The Executive Train was an integral part of IEs operations in the early 90s and was regularly chartered by clients such as Guinness and IT companies for entertaining guests & visits to manufacturing plants. It will be interesting to see if IE or a private operator is willing to test the market to establish if there is demand for something between an Intercity and Belmond level of service.5 Perhaps a 4-5 coach MK4 set or an Intercity Railcar set refitted to a high standard accommodating a maximum of 100 passengers with a kitchen car and meals prepared by a celebrity chef 200Eu all in for a days outing to Killarney, Connemara, Armagh or The Giants Causeway

There is a 19773 photo of a B181 hauled Radio Train on the North Dublin Loop Line in David Murray's "Rails Around Dublin" (Iain Allen Publishing) The loco is complete with Radio Train lightening bolt headboard, the train appears to be made up of "standard" CIE coaching stock of the era with a 4w luggage van and the 1935 Bredin dining car leading the consist, the next coach appears to be a 64 seat open. Its likely that older stock would have been used rather than Cravens in later days. Cravens would have been allocated to main-line and later Intercity links and in the 1960s had a reputation rougher running compared to older stock. The Killarney Radio trains appear to have been worked by 400 Class 4-6-0s in the early 50, there is a published photo of a Radio Train leaving Mallow for Killarney junction, possibly with an ex GSWR leading. In the early days coaches would have been a mixture of GSWR/GSR wooden bodies and Bredin corridor stock, the most important vehicle would have been the catering vehicles, a kitchen or restaurant car complete with kitchen and waiting staff would have been essential to cater to 2-300 people on one of these trains.

Does anyone know if there are photographs of the Camping Coaches while they were in use. The majority appear to have been converted from GSWR 50' coaches from the early 1900s. The coaches were unusual by the standards of the time with the seating arranged in one or two saloons rather than the more common side corridor arrangement and either one or two sets of external doors which would have made loading difficult. 818 & 832 were originally had clerestory roofs, I wonder did they retain this arrangement as Camping Coaches

The turntable at Athlone loco depot fouled the running line on the Mayo line and interlocked with the signalling system, the problem may have arisen when the table was extended to turn the Woolwich Moguls. Athlone was a major depot in steam days Henry Fayle recorded 11 locos on shed at "new" loco depot and 4 locos at the old shed on a Wednesday afternoon in September 1937. Funnily enough we have the same problem at Keadue with the table fouling the main line, the table is supposed to be protected by the home and starting signals at the Boyle end of the station, though we have been waiting 5 years for the S&E engineers from Sligo to connect them up.

Visited Westport with an IRRS group in June 83 the visit was by service train with a bus transfer to Sligo with a visit to Ballina, I was lucky enough to get a cab ride on a 001 from Collonney to Ballymote on the evening Sligo-Dublin passenger, we were later blocked at Mullingar & Hill of Down by a 14 coach Knock special hauled by a pair of 141s Westport shed was still in use with a 001 Class possibly stabled off a bagged cement special a single 22'6" flat with a pair of Uniload containers was parked on the stub of the quay line just past the fueling point. Before Railplan 80 the goods yard had a single long siding serving the goods shed, with the stub of the Achill line retained to serve a small container gantry

Nice shot at Cabra Bank probably late 60s still in use for cattle traffic, platform on the left was probably for washing cattle wagons, villas on thee Cabra Road in the distance

Very impressive. Did you use a one or two part mould?

A bit of Hi-de-Hi on the railway

The wagon in the Derry photo may have been from the original batch of Bubbles, the chassis with the handbrake wheels is most likely to have evolved from an earlier design as opposed to a donor chassis from a 20' Flat. The coach style brake gear with handbrake wheel is similar to that used by CIE on fitted flat wagons, H Vans and cattle wagons up to the introduction of the mid 1960s. While the flat wagon chassis was similar it had a shorter wheelbase than the bubble, friction boxes and was only rated to carry 20 Ton tps://www.flickr.com/photos/holycorner/7080093371/in/photostream/ and passed into p.w. use rather than being uprated following the introduction of the 20ton flats in the mid 60s. Its possible that 4 shoe wagon style brake gear with handlevers was retrofitted to wagons like that in the Derry photo as wagons were overhauled in the 70s & 80s. Wagons were fitted with coach style brake gear as up to the mid 60s urgent goods traffic was carried as tail traffic on passenger trains running at up to 60mph rather than the 50mph max later allowed with Liner Trains.

The old Triang-Hornby clerestory coaches would be useful donor vehicle http://www.gwr.org.uk/protriang.html for older GSWR, WLWR & West Cork non-corridor stock of the 1890s. The biggest job would be replacing the clerestory with a simple arch roof with gas light fittings, the WLWR coaches had tucked in ends like the GWR coaches, the GSWR & CBSCR had plain ends. The newer Hornby clerestory coaches in GWR livery might pass for GSWR Rosslare stock in GSR days, not sure if anyone does a suitable 6 wheel bogie. The main drawback is the printed panel beading which makes it difficult to re-produce for early of late GSR era or CIE green. http://www.hornby.com/uk-en/gwr-clerestory-third-class-coach.html

I have a couple of CIE diagrams of cement bubbles DRG 45600/2 is an undated (post 73) outline drawing with imperial dimensions though tank capacity is specified as 21 cubic metres Painting surface areas are specified as: Tank 440sq/ft colour Manila BS 381C 367 U/frame 150 Sq, Ft approx. Colour Black. No information is given on lettering or logos. DRG 47400/1 (a) is a 1988 revision of 1987 metric standard general arrangement drawing, the revision relates to pipework alterations including a list of components The wagon is drawn with the Irish Cement logo although no other livery detail is provided.

[quote name=minister_for_hardship;88258 An attempt to copy what BR were doing in around the same time' date=' not sure if it was all that successful. Iirc saw a pic of a number of them at the then recently closed Tramore station, maybe they were stabled at other seaside type locations as well? Youghal maybe?[/quote] I wonder if the camping coaches were aimed at visitors from the UK, with through booking including train and ferry between stations in the UK & Ireland. This would have been appealing in the days before ro ro ferries and nearly every family having a car. Dungarvan seems to have had one or two camping coaches, not sure if there were any at seaside stations on the South Eastern and the Northern Line between Malahide & Laytown which would have been ideal for the purpose.

Marine version?

Incidents involving excavators and other hi-rail vehicles is a major issue on railways where routine maintenance like rail-distressing and sleeper replacement is carried out between trains. In recent years Kiwirail had a number of serious near misses and an incident where a digger was struck by a freight and the digger driver seriously injured. http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/72133343/kiwirail-ordered-to-pay-110000-to-man-hit-by-train Poor planning and control of possessions and Dispatcher (CTC signaller) work load appeared to be a common thread with protection removed and trains signalled through worksites before the line was clear or incidents where the dispatcher mistook the location of the train or hi-rail vehicle (usually SUV or light commercial vehicle with rail wheels used as gangers trolley for track or signal inspections) IE does not seem to be immune to this sort of thing and was investigated by the RAIU for 4 possession breaches in one week in 2012 fortunately without injury http://www.raiu.ie/download/pdf/trend_investigation_possession_incidents.pdf

A sure sign of autumn a weta (Maori "god of ugly things") took up residence in the workshop. now safely re-located to the garden where there is a better chance of survival with plenty of leaf cover & something to eat.

The original brass frames are quite flimsy compared to the nickel silver chassis but have stood up well to 30 years use. I upgraded the chassis during the 1990s rebuild by bending strips of brass sprue into a U shape (horn guide) to prevent the axle brushes from rotating and adding a compensation beam to allow the 2 leading axles to rock up and down, the horn guides on the rear rigid axle are set to the correct ride height. Pick ups are simply short strips of phosphor bronze wire fixed to short strips of copper clad and hard wired back to the motor. I am unlikely to modify any of these locos to DCC. TMD/SSM Nickle Silver Chassis The replacement nickel silver chassis is unusual as it is designed to be assembled as a compensated chassis with integral compensating beams rather than the usual arrangement of a rigid chassis with compensation or springing as an option. NS chassis with equalising or compensating beams on the leading axles. The holes for the leading and middle axle are slotted rather than round to allow the axles to move up an down. The top hat axle bearings are pushed through the axle holes then soldered to the compensating beams which are supported by a central pivot. The rim of the top hat brushes supplied with the kit were too small and it was necessary to use a washer to stop the bearings pushing through. Close up of compensating beam and pivot The chassis for the new loco is kind of 90s state of the art with Alan Gibson wheels (Sharman no longer available) Branchlines 50:1 Multi-box gear box noisy but really good low speed torque for a shunter and a Mashima 12X24 motor smaller than the DS10 without the drawbacks. During the final stages of assembly I managed to ring the end off one of the coupling rods. The rods are not interchangeable between the brass and NS chassis due to a difference in axle centres. I have designed a replacement set of rods closer in profile to the prototype, Attock 6 coupled locos had a plain one piece coupling rod similar to the brass chassis. I am experimenting with phosphor bronze strip partially hidden behind the wheels rather than wire for pick up on this loco. Riveted smoke box my own design etched in brass, though these days I would make the part from sheet brass for a one off I am not satisfied with the funnel does not quite look the part. Must remember to add the boiler bands (paper) before painting I am not sure of the number at this stage most likely to be a loco that worked on the Midland during the 1950s

Two versions of the same loco built nearly 30 years apart more of a long running saga than a workbench. The TMD (Terry McDermott) MGWR E introduced 1983? was the first brass kit for an Irish steam loco. The kit like the J15 was originally designed with a chassis in 0.40" brass which is considered a bit flimsy for a chassis, a stronger nickel silver chassis has been supplied with kits produced from the late 80s. The original kit was a must for someone who modelled the Midland though a tender loco would have been a lot more useful, I had no real need or intention of building another of these locos until I found an unbuilt MGWR tank among a job lot of part built TMD & SSM kits at Expo EM about 15 years ago. I finally got round to building the loco in GSR/CIE condition a couple of years ago. A pair of 551 Class tanks at Keadue possibly the GSR has re-gauged the line in the face of competition from the SLNCR at Arigna Town. The tanks were less powerful than a tender engine but may have been easier on the curves. The first loco was originally assembled in MGWR condition in Dublin about 30 years ago, before a rebuilt into 553 in CIE condition while living in the UK in 1993, the riveted smoke box is an overlay from an SSM J15 not sure where the funnel came from. The original (brush painted) paint work was stripped down and finished in Howes "Dirty Black" with an airbrush with a satin finish using an air brush. The loco got a misting with some form of Floquil weathered black and a coating of satin about two years ago. 553 need a new cab roof/cab interior and vacuum pipes to match the ne 55w loco. 553 still has its original brass chassis & 1980s state of the art Sharman wheels, 40:1 gearbox and Anchorage DS10 motor. Mike Sharman & Iain Rice popularised the idea of compensated or flexible chassis, Mike producing an excellent range of wheels and enclosed gearbox. M.G. Sharp of Sheffield imported the "Anchorage" range of small powerful 5 pole motors. The DS10 designed for American N gauge was one of the smallest available was happiest at very high speed and bearings not up to the end trust with a typical British single stage worm/gear transmission The loco has a slight rear end waddle otherwise a smooth and reliable runner with a good turn of speed. 553 was assembled with a compensated chassis by simply letting the bearing float in the axle cut outs in the chassis. I made a keeper plat from brass rod and wire to represent the brake pull rods and to prevent the wheels falling out

Removing the wiper on the fireman's side was probably an economy measure during the Todd Andrews era. The Metro Vicks seem to have been introduced with a full sets of wipers there is photo of a newly introduced A3, C232 in the Irish Metrovick book. The majority of Metrovicks seem to have lost their second pair of wipers by 1959, they seem to have been replaced by 1968. The Irish Metrovick book has a good collection of colour and black and white photos of Metrovicks with one or two sets of wipers.

This does not appear to be the case when services like cleaning, catering and maintenance are "contracted out' in the public service hence my comment that little seemed to be gained in paying a foreign multi-national to employ workers on the minimum wage. Privatisation in Australia and New Zealand in the 1990s did not lead to an improved standard of service or pay and conditions for workers. The experience in the UK was somewhat different with a growing market and staff shortage leading for passenger and freight operators competing for staff, but the Irish does not have the critical mass in terms of population and freight tonnage to support competition between rail operators. UK operators carry about 100m/tm a year Kiwirail 18m/tm IE<1m/tm freight

You would probably end up with Transdev (Veolia) operating the DART, & Cork Commuter Services with Stagecoach and First Group carving up Intercity, Bus-Eireann and Dublin Bus between them rather than any actual competition on a paricular route I can't see any advantages in contracting out services to a Multi-National operator as the Irish Government would still be responsible for providing and maintaining the trains, busses, rail and road infrastructure and making up the operating losses, the operator basically paying staff a minimum wage and clipping the ticket.

Most probably a break up of CIE in a similar manner to the UTA into separate state owned railway, bus companies and road freight companies. Abandonment of secondary main lines would have allowed Government to focus investment to improve service quality on the remaining lines, perhaps introducing Blue Pullmans or IC125s on the Cork & Belfast lines in the Mid-1970s