Mayner

The CIE and GNR AEC railcars were virtually identical visually. The main difference was operational the GNR railcars could only run in multiple with 2 power cars generally running 2 or 3 coach trains while the CIE cars could run in multiple with 4 power cars with a maximum train length of 8 coaches. The GNR and CIE versions used different types of train heating boiler.

Not the typical DRS clean loco image. Possibly the Rail Head Treatment Train (RHTT) used in UK leaf fall season uses high pressure spray to clean railhead covers locos and stock with muck?

The two UTA AEC Raicars 6&7 which entered service in 1951 were built in Belfast and different in design and outline from the GNR & CIE AEC railcars. The bodies were converted from ex-NCC 1920s built coaches and the mechanical design anticipated British Rail DMU practice with the engine mounted horizontally. While 6&7 had 'open' plan seating layout and end gangways, they usually ran as a 3 cars set with an non-gangwayed compartment coach. The bodywork of 6&7 appeared dated compared with the AEC built railcars being similar to 1920s built coaches with raised panneling. Worsley-Works produce a set of parts for 6&7, Kirley who posts these days on RM web may have produced a model of 6&7. Colm Flannigan "Diesel Dawn" unreavels the UTA railcar story The terms of the GNR break up required the locos and stock to be devided evenly between CIE and UTA with each getting 10 ex-GN AEC cars and 12 BUT cars, one theory was that it would have been more efficient for UTA to acquire the entire fleet of 24 BUT cars and CIE to add the 20 AEC cars to its fleet. Main difference operationally was that the control system of the GN AEC cars could only control two power cars, while the control system of the CIE cars could control 4 power cars. Allowing the GNR to run 3-4 coach trains, CIE up to 8 coaches.

There were some signs of rot (after 16 years) to the trackbase of the recently lifted section of track, so I decided to replace an entire 4.8 meter section on the basis that the trackbase should be good for another 10-15 years, by which time we may have moved home or I may no longer be capable of playing trains or have keeled over. Turned out rot was mainly superficial on a section of board where I made the mistake of leaving the grain facing upwards. A real consolation was there was no sign of decay to vertical section of the T or L girder and the supporting piles. Replacement section with cut ends treated and ready for installation. Timber is wet pressure treated and stress graded for external use in decks, pergolas and car ports and needed to people to lift it on to the roofrack of the van at the builders merchant. Replacement section installed ready for track-laying. I will dress up the edges with some old trellis rail I have in stock, which I may eventually use to retain ballast. This section of the layout was originally loose ballasted with 6-8mm washed pebble which was washed away after several years exposure to the weather. On other sections ballast is bonded with PVA (sold in 5Ltr containers as concrete bonding agent) which has held up well in certain areas and less well in others.

It might be worth while contacting the relevant Irish Rail "Infrastructure Managers' Office https://www.irishrail.ie/en-ie/about-us/iarnrod-eireann-infrastructure/infrastructure-contact-details CIE used to be helpful to enthusiasts/modellers requests for drawings of locos, stock, buildings and structures. As far as I recall (1970s-80s) drawings for buildings and structures were held at the regional Civil Engineers (Infrastructure managers) offices and enthusiasts were allowed to view drawings by appointment, though digital copies may be available these days.

I remember reading in one of the IRRS Journals (1970-80s!) that a pair of Class were allocated to Ballina as Pilot (shunter) and Branch Passenger loco during the late 50s-early 60s, but likely to have gone by 63 when Limerick-Sligo passenger trains were diverted to Ballina and the Branch Passenger service abolished and Manulla Junction closed as a station. C Class were also used for Pilot Duty at Sligo and Galway, there is a nice 1960 photo of a (very clean) light green C229 shunting a Horse Box & 4w Post Office van at Sligo in Barry Carse Colourpoint Irish Metrovick book. Padraig O'Cuimin wrote about C Class presumably Galway or Athlone pilot loco deputising for G611 Class on Loughrea Branch Mixed Train in his book on the Loughrea and Ballinrobe Branch lines. As JHB said CIE locos were centrally rostered and with the possible exception of the B101 Class (Waterford and Southern Section main-line locos could appear almost anywhere on the system.

One of the planning conditions of the Harlequin (now Atria) Centre development in Watford during the late 80s was the restoration of a number of 'Listed Buildings" some of which dated from the 15th Century. One of the options offered by our restoration specialist was to remove and restore some of the 'Tudor era" timber framed buildings in their 'as-built' stage with the framing members plumb and level or in their 20th Century 'Listed ' state with barely a plumb or level line. English Heritage opted for the latter! Interestingly some of the historians got very excited when they found evidence of wattle and daub construction dating back to the 15th Century or possibly earlier in one of the building.

The native "Bush Cockroach" a that occasionally wander inside are not considered to be a pest in this part of the World, but so far no one has been able to explain that to the cats who hunt them down to the state that I have seldom seen one in the house dead or alive in recent years. Though funnily enough the hedgehog (an introduced species in Aotearoa (NZ) is classed as a pest as they are very good at hunting down and eating native wild life. The other half discovered that there was a 'mouse problem" in the old family home in the States when she began caring for her father last year and adapted "James the cat" who after he spent 6 months at the local animal shelter. James did an excellent job hunting down and eating 28 mice during the first 4 weeks since his adaption, and has now become a pampered house cat and much loved member of the family both in the States and Aotearoa. The challenging bit will be whether to find a new home for James in the States or to integrate him into the family (including spending 6 weeks in quarantine) with 4 other cats after my father in law moves into a care home in the States during the next 12 months.

There is a story that the Captain of the Rosslare Golf Club or some other local bigwig used to go into the loco shed and shut down the idling Rosslare Harbour C Class Pilot loco that was disturbing his sleep. Local staff were unable to re-start the loco disrupting shunting operations. Eventually an order was sent out from Inchacore to lock the door while the loco was idling in the shed overnight.

One of our guys earned his keep today, though not convinced it was Topaz who seems to be posing for his Facebook Profile picture. Not the brightest of rats we have a family of 4 rescue/stray cats who operate like a mafia 'family' a Boss (tabby)who spends most of his time sleeping, a Consigliere (Grey Burmese cross) the "brains' that organises things and patrols the neighbourhood, a respectful "Foot Soldier (possible silent assassin) (Black Burmese cross 1/2 brother of Consigliere and Topaz the young punk that occasionally challenges the Consigliere, but not the Boss. It all started out when we adapted the tabby from an animal rescue, the other 3 members of the gang showed up as strays over two-three years and were gradually adapted into the gang.

A number of British suppliers including Alan Gibson Works (AGW) http://www.alangibsonworkshop.com/and Dart Castings https://www.dartcastings.co.uk/ produce 4mm -1:76.2 scale buffers and detail parts. There may be no direct British equivalent of the buffers fitted to the CIE H Vans and Bulleid wagons. David Malone who published a number of articles on modelling Irish Railways to P4 Standards in the 80s and 90s turned his own buffer bodies (brass) and used Alan Gibson buffers heads and springs in models of the early version of the CIE H Van and the Corrugated Open Wagon. The abstracts are from RailModel Digest which was published for a short period during the mid -late 90s David notes that sagging buffer heads were often a feature of Bulleid wagons and H Vans! If you consider correctly positioned buffers important enough, one option for re-producing these buffers may be to use Gibson or Dart (MJT) buffer heads in conjunction with a brass "lost wax" body reproduced from a 3D modelling file. Some precious metal/jewellery suppliers have the capability to cast from a 3D modelling file. Some of the detail castings I use in locomotive kits are cast in brass from 3D prints or direct from a stl. file, eliminating the brittleness problem inherent in resin prints

Internationally is a lot of controversy these days about free speech and censorship people not being allowed to express their views. One of the risks is that some postings particularly if they regularly single out or criticise another individual could be getting close to cyber bullying even if that is not the intention, requiring the moderators to intervene. Although we have an excellent free (no subscription) add-free Newsgroup there are two important things to remember before posting on the group . 1. The Newsgroup is owned and controlled by Irish Railway Models, rather than being an independent group. 2. Posters are required to abide by the rules of the group in the same way as free speech is governed by the law of the land in most Western Democracies

Apparently the bogies and parts of the underframe of 7L the 'Bus Coach" were incorporated into the Stradbally toastrack. The "Bus Coach" passed to BNM after the C&L closed, but the bodywork was too far gone when the preservationists rescued the remains.

Featured on the 6pm TV News in this part of the World with widespread IT outages reported this afternoon in Australia affecting Banking, retail and service sectors. Self service checkouts out of action in supermarkets, similar problems with ATM machines.

CIE locos/stock built/bought from the early 50s (post 53?) onwards tended to be fitted with larger buffers than earlier stock, but older stock often continued to run with their original buffers. Larger buffers heads may have been introduced to allow any item of stock to run anywhere on the system and reduce the risk of bufferlock during shunting. All my wagons are based on photos and drawings of wagons built before 1953. Photo of a van sandwiched between an A Class and a flat wagon makes a good comparison of the different diameters of buffer head and vehicle width, the Brake Vans were narrower in width than most wagons. The different in size/possiblly misalignment between the buffers on the open and Brake in the 1956 Cork photo is quite noticeable.

Murphaph I wasn't getting at you or any other contributor personally, its just that the issue of buffer spacing on the IRM Bullied wagons appeared trivial in the overall scheme of things considering the sheer amount of quality stock IRM have brought to the market in recent years. I quoted you because you correctly pointed out that IRM were faced with the choice of selecting a buffer spacing that remained compatible with resprayed British models or modelling true to scale. The fact that there have been over 25 postings in the issue of buffer spacing after D G first raised the issue indicates that some people are getting "worked up" (upset/very excited) about the buffer spacing of the Bullied opens. Interestingly before IRM introduced wagons with scale buffer spacing the majority of Irish RTR models and some kits were produced with British buffer spacing and no one seems to have made a comment. Altering the buffer centres. Looking at it practically altering the buffer centres on IRM's Bullied wagons would be challenging (especially with a diecast chassis) and probably not worth the bother for the majority of modellers. A jig or fixture would probably be needed to locate and drill the new buffer holes consistently and avoid damaging the wagons.

One of the interesting points to come out during the early stages of marketing the JM Design 3D printed wagons was general feedback from Irish model railway clubs that many members 'could not see the point' of buying an accurate model or an Irish wagon if a similar UK wagon was available at a cheaper price. Another is that in over 10 years of producing and selling 21mm compatible Irish locos and stock no one has commented on the buffer spacing. While IRMs earlier production was based on the expectation that customers would buy block trains of a single type of wagon, its likely that they realised that purchasers of Bullied wagons were more likely to buy in smaller quantities and take a mix and match approach with British outline stock, possibly accounting for the smaller than normal (200 pack?) production runs and focus on less usual wagons with the Flats, Oil tankers, Grain, fitted H. In the end there seems to be little point in getting worked up over a 2.0-3 mm (1:76.2 Scale) difference in buffer centres between Irish and Standard gauge stock while working to a gauge of 4'1½" to represent the Irish 5'3" track gauge. Depending on reference Wikipedia quotes 1750 +/-10mm https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffer_(rail_transport) & 1727mm for UK and Europe https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffers_and_chain_coupler

Haven't had significant problems with wildfire damage to rail infrastructure but repairing/replacing road and rail bridges washed out/damaged as a result of cyclones and very heavy rainfall has become an on going issue in recent years. Interestingly substantial concrete piers on piled foundations were washed away (without a trace) on two major river crossings in recent years.

Its an interesting point about the "question of gauge (EM/P4/S4) becoming superfluous & Operators not noticing a lack of scenery if they are running an intensive service. Not really an issue among the majority of Irish outline modellers who seem happy enough to stick to an established gauge. I head a comment several years ago about fewer UK modellers converting to OO because of the vast improvement in the quality of OO stock and Martin Wynne's (Templot) efforts to achieve improved running for OO RTR stock by reducing the gauge and adapting EM gauge running clearances the so called EM-2mm. Nobody had much time to notice the scenery during an operating session with several operators on a single track line (layout?) with switching (shunting) at most towns (stations) arranging meets and trying to avoid blocking delaying other traffic. Kept me busy as despatcher/operator/line controller, the crews tended to want to get over the road as quickly to have a tea break-knock off duty. 17 years after starting the layout haven't got round to building/finishing the building and structures planned and probably never will get round too.

OOn3 never reached the same level of popularity among British/European modellers as OO9/HOe, I remember speaking to Pete McParlin of Branchlines many years ago sales of his Irish OOn3 kits were disappointing and he shifted focus to more profitable OO9 kits mainly Welsh prototype. While Bachmann and Heljan have introduced high quality rtr 009 models No one appears to be prepared to 'test the market" with rtr IOMR 3' gauge locos and stock, let alone an Irish prototype Suitable 12mm track and point systems have not been a problem for many years Bemo, Tilling and more recently Peco have produced HOm track and points systems which would be suitable for the Irish 3'. American 3' gauge is modelled in HO as HOn3 on 10.5mm gauge track. Colorado Narrow Gauge tends to pre-dominate locos tended to be imported brass models from Japan or Korea or recently high end DCC sound equipped die-cast models from Blackstone https://www.blackstonemodels.com/index.php Potentially looking at $4-500USD for a setam loco. In the larger scales Accuracraft UK announced a 1:20.3 scale live steam or electric model on a C&L 4-4-0T about 6 years ago but does not seem to have progressed to the manufacturing stage.

For a long time there has been talk about the demise of model trains as a hobby, yet kids continue to develop an interest in trains which sometimes continues into adulthood and even old age. Growing up in Dublin in the 1960s there was a sense that railways were a thing of the past and my parents hoped that I "would grow out" of my interest in toy trains. My father eventually 'got it' that my interest in taking pictures of trains was not unlike his hobby of fresh water fishing, a lot of time spent searching and waiting often to come home without catching a fish or a decent photo. Mum finally accepted that model railways was an acceptable hobby (in my middle age) when she realised my modelling friends were respectable (successful) people she could relate to. Not just an Irish thing American, Australian family friends who struggle not to laugh supress a snigger when wife mentions my interest in trains model and prototype. Its one of the things I have learned to cope with in life and just get on with it rather than get worked up about their ignorance or preconceptions about people who are interested in railways. Although mainly focusing on RC aeroplanes, cars and diecast the local hobby shop is still a gateway for children entering the hobby with stocks Hornby (mainly railroad) complete with small demonstration layout, though ceased to stock Bachmann or Peco. Model train customers mainly children and their parents, with established modellers buying on line from specialist suppliers or direct from the US or UK. Lego remains a significant gateway to modelling popularised by Lego Masters and 'Brick Shows" in the major centres. Our child went from running (operating) trains as a 5-6 year old with their friends on my garden railway, to significant Lego Fantasy modelling projects in their pre-teens, to producing artwork on their computer with a graphic programme in their teens. Interestingly they 'operated' the railway to transport their toys/dolls between different locations rather than simply running trains round & round, saw the railway as a tool rather than an end in itself. In the end like past generations todays kids will identify and find their own solutions to lifes problems as we have always done.

Is it feasible to fit an O-16.5 Quarry Hunslet or a Festiniog England engine with sound? For such a small loco Prince produced remarkable sound effects when hauling a long train of Slate Wagons in preparation for a gravity working.

An e-mail to all customers to advise that I required a minimum of 25 Pre-Orders by 1st Aug in order to proceed with the latest version of the Brake Van. I re-sent the message this morning as there was no record of the outgoing message or the inbox was full in the system. I apologise for any inconvenience caused

I ordered some packs of Bulleid Opens together with a single Park Royal, hopefully some day they will arrive together.

I should have stressed in my last post is that the real purpose of the 'Pre-Orders" is to establish whether there is sufficient demand to continue the manufacture of RTR wagons. I expect to make an announcement by 1st August whether or not I will be producing the latest version(s) of the brake van