Mayner

Sometimes I run the train when I get home in the evening after work. Last night I suddenly realised the train was still out in the garden and it was getting dark:rolleyes:

The MGWR Ks-GSR/CIE 650 Class is a step nearer to introduction Jeremy has completed the pattern making and the wait was well worth it. The patterns include parts for building the loco in MGWR or GSR/CIE condition. Release date is likely to be (Northern) Autumn 2017, I need to locate a source of suitable motors now that Mashima have ceased production and revise some aspects of the design for customers that do not have a rivet press or rolling mill. I am looking at the option of lost wax brass castings as an alternative to whitemetal particularly if demand is limited. On a positive note I should be able to produce a MGWR Standard Goods, Heavy Shunting Tank or Achill Bogie a lot quicker as they shared many standard parts with the Ks/650 Class

The Festiniog Railway S&T engineer or the Welsh Highland Railway Society http://www.whrsoc.org.uk/ may be able to help. IE donated 15 instruments & spares to the FR, they have plans to install remotely operated W&T instruments on the Welsh Highland, with encrypted internet rather than copper connection

Nice find I have HMRS photos of three of these tank cars23855,25002 & 25018 on standard gauge transporter wagons in the UK .23855 has the thin shell plackard for the dockers slinging the wagons at the port. The steam coils are inside the tank, heat is only applied during unloading. CIE & the County Councils built boiler houses at the unloading points.

CIE bitumen tank wagon Galway Irish Shell pole fields Point Yard Most of the older CIE & private owner tank wagons were stored near the Sherriff St level crossing for the best part of 30 years until the yard was cleared out around 2002.

Some of the Bitumen tank wagons were built by CIE incl 23826 which had the Irish brake gear others ncl 23855, 25002 & 25018 by Charles Roberts Rotherham with brake gear similar to the new Bachmann anchor mounted tank wagon. ESSO seem to have imported some more modern bitumen tank wagons along with its BRMK1 Class A & B tank wagons in the late 60s some were stored OOU in the Dardanelles until the yard was re-built around 2003. The MK1 bitumen tank wagons were similar to the Dapol tank wagon with a slightly larger diameter barrel & coned ends. The are likely to be photos of the originals somewhere on Paul Bartells web site

We had a bit of a flood on Friday night flooding most of the garden. A bit wet for running trains but a excellent opportunity to operate an Inland Waterway service like the Grand Canal Company in the old days. The tug boat made it through the shallows while the Cruise Ship kept to deeper water. Most of the flooding had receded by mid afternoon ready for the next rain storm! We are on a silt soil on top of a layer of ash from the Taupo Eruption which does not drain well, the main reason for building the railway on a raised timber foundation than earthworks.

The reliability and ease of maintenance of the 2 stroke EMD 567 & 645 power units is legendary and superior to most 4 stroke engines, there are a lot of 40+ year old General Motors locos in use Internationally. Funnily enough Kiwirails DC Class an upgraded version of a 1960s standard export G12 has better reliability figures and more economic to maintain than the two generations of more powerful locos built to replace them. Still going well after 50 years DC returning to Te Rapa Hamilton on a trip working from Morrinsville

Most effort since Christmas has been spent on finishing projects and repairs on American Stock. Not sure if its the size but it seems to take about the same time as to overhaul/repair a full size loco or coach. One of my RGS short cabooses lost a balcony rail/ladder at one end so I soldered up a replacement using KS round bar. I marked up the profile of the end on a block of wood as a jig and pinned the bar to the wood using drawing pins, and soldered using a 25watt Antex iron 145 solder and my own 'homebrew" phosphoric flux diluted 50% from Killrust rust convertor (24% phosphoric) Finished article awaiting priming. I used the railings/ladder from the other end as a pattern. I spray painted both rails with a Tayima white spray enamel and a semi gloss clear. One end of the caboose got a bump so I have to repair the roof walkway before it returns to service. The RGS was about as broke as you could get but the FRA & the Railroad Brotherhoods (Unions)seems to have been strict around the painting of caboose steps and grab irons

They have done pretty well compared to the older classes with none written off as a result of collision damage.

To put things in perspective mass produced injected models like the MM Cravens are incredibly cheap because they sell in 1000s rather than the 50 + units required to break even with hand finished resin cast model. A professionally assembled brass SSM or Worsley Works coach is likey to set the buyer back a min £250-300 the parts alone to build a brass coach will set you back around £70. The IFM rtr coaches are reasonably priced for what they are and ideal for a layout such as Noel's where the emphasis is on action, but totally unsuitable for a fine scale layout such as Advavoyle or Valencia Harbour where models are viewed up close.

The West Cork s an excellent project for a model, unfortunately for 4mm modeller there is far more suitable locos and stock available in O Gauge tanks to Alphagraix & Tyronnell models. Should be a good opportunity for scratchbuilding and kit bashing with such a variety of locos and stock. Someone will need to tackle an ex-DSER 2-4-2T the regular Drimleague_Bantry passenger loco up to the arrival of the AEC railcars. The Triang-Hornby GWR clearstory should be a good basis for kitbashing CBSCR shortie bogie coaches

Large scale and American modellers tend to visit each others railways this month with some interesting results with Fn3 & Gauge 1 trains running across Ribblehead Viaduct and past Rossendale Abbey DRGW K27 464 crossing Ribblehead Viaduct Northern Pacific North Coast Limited passing Rossendale Abbey Roundhouse Sandy River & Rangley Lakes (2' Gauge) No24 stands in the steaming bay A contrast in size DRGWR K27 2-8-2 464 & C19 2-8-0 346 line up at the station

The West Cork an interesting choice for a club in deepest Linconshire. Is MikeC building some locos & stock to run on it?

Very nice Tony the goods shed and over-bridge nicely frame the layout like something out of one of an Iain Rice railway planning book.

It could be worse, I almost destroyed the body of a large scale diesel with paint stripper. I used one of the modern citrus based strippers to remove paint from the long hood of an American diesel was kit bashing into something else and managed to dissolve most of the detail from the doors. In our case the Rocky Horror Show analogy is particularly apt, Richard O'Brien lived in our house when his family lived in Hamilton during the 1960s

Cutting plasticard with a laser cutter is likely to release hydrochloric acid and chlorine gas both highly toxic and corrosive. https://www.eurolaser.com/en/materials/polyvinyl-chloride-pvc/ Metal or acrylic sheet would be a safer option. If you have a water jet cutter its just about capable of cutting anything.

Basically means the railway could cram another 16 passengers into the coach when the armrests were raised. Interesting that the GNR was still building more expensive side corridor coaches more than 12 years after building the much cheaper to build K15 open stock

Interesting photo Dave looks like Drogheda before the centre road and sidings at the viaduct were removed the 121 on the MK3 threw me as I thought the sidings had gone in the 70s re-signalling The wagon is an interesting one of a small batch of rail carrying wagons built on redundant coach underframes in the early 80s. The cradle could be used for carrying steel slab or possibly point components

BR retrofitted the MK2 cars used with the Glasgow-Edinburgh push pull sets with heavy steel cow catchers similar to those used by CIE/IE on the Park Royal & MK3 push pull control cars. Some of the Irish MK3 push pull sets were used in Intercity services when the sets were displaced from Pearse-Drogheda services following the arrival of the 2700 Class railcars. Push-pull control cars used on Intercity services were retrofitted with standard MK 3 bogies with a max permitted speed of 90mph hauled and 70mph propelled. An 071 hauled set was used on the Sunday afternoon Longford-Connolly service, the train was hauled in both directions as the 141/181 & 071 class were not fitted with door controls. The construction of the MK3s was the end of an era in Ireland & the UK when government owned railways were expected to train engineering apprentices for private sector industry. All this changed in the 1990 with the shift to overseas manufacture and the railways focusing on running passenger trains & property development.

Omagh goods shed is what the Americans call a signature structure that immediately identifies the model as Omagh One thing that intrigues me is the disappearance of the high cathedral like gable end of the shed between Niel Spinks photo from 1954 & later photos. Omagh North 1954 LQG shunting morning goods from Enniskillen photo © Niel Spinks

Very impressive Kieran. How did you do the engines/gearboxes etc?

IE originally planned to build a fleet of MK3 diesel-electric railcars for use on suburban and secondary lines in addition to the 124 MK3 main line coaches currenty authorised. The MK3 push-pull sets were designed to replace the Park Royal coaches on Northern Suburban services and the MK3 main line fleet capped at 99? coaches when the Government refused to authorise the building of the railcars or additional coaches beyond the 5 Driving Cars. Interestingly the driving cars were designed to be retrofitted with a generator set and 3 phase traction motors hence the fitting of EMU bogies. IE had an acute loco shortage at the time, the 121s fitted with 645 engines from scrapped B201 class fitted the bill, though a 6 coach push pull set was pushing it. At the time (late 80s) IE may have hoped to get funding for additional railcars, the situation had changed by the early 90s when manufacturing jobs was less of an issue and Government procurement was opened up to meet EU requirements.

Not a bad model of CIE/GSR J8 444. A similar models of 444 and a 321 Class 4-4-0 both on Tri-ang chassis ran on the Malahide & Dromin Junction layout in the early 1970s. What other scratchbuilt locos have you in your treasure trove Dave?

The GSWR/GSR built similar 14' cattle wagons that lasted into the late 1950s the main spotting difference was the GSWR/GSR wagons had different end detail and nearly flat sheet steel or iron roofs. The final MGWR convertible wagons built after WW1 were a soft topped version of the Irish Standard covered wagon produced by Provincial wagons rather than the traditional 14' round roofed convertible wagon http://www.studio-scale-models.com/img/k14.jpg