Mayner

The industrial locos tended to be off the peg standard designs, most of the industrial steam and diesel locos are available in kit form from Judith Edge and Agenoria. A number of grain mills, factories and oil depots had private siding that could have justified their own locos. Ballysodare, Clara, North City Mills and Portarington once had quite extensive sidings serving mills and other industries requiring a pilot loco for several hours daily Cold Chon used to use a converted Scammell truck for shunting bitumen wagons at Oranmore

Ah the St Albans show some superb layouts and trade stands always used to be a New Year highlight while living in the UK late 80s early 1990s. In those days I always seem to have attended a different exhibition every weekend no wonder I got so little done.

There was a paper on the plough train in one of the IRRS Journals during the mid 70s. The plough wagon was based on the last MGWR wagon in railway service, a WW1 surplus bogie well wagon bought in the 1920s, the original bogies appear to have been replaced with more modern BR style Ridemaster bogies.

Great and unusual photo most from the pre 60s era are from the Western end of the station looking eastwards. The steam loco coach and van are on the exchange sidings between the main line and the branch. Perhaps the loco is preparing to attach a through Ballina-Westland Row coach to the rear of the railcars set>

I think the first question is whether its worth the effort of modelling the narrow gauge to the correct 3' gauge, whie running Irish broad gauge models on 4'1" narrow gauge track. 9mm gauge using Roco or Liliput rtr locos and stock before moving on to kits or scratch building is probably a better option than the more correct 12mm gauge to get something running. While the public lines were built to 3'' gauge a number of 2' & 2'6" gauge industrial and forestry lines were built some of which used off the peg British and Continental locos and stock. Parkside-Dundas, Peco and other manufacturers produce OO9 loco, coach and wagon kits some of which are based on or similar to Irish locos and stock. Most of the locos are relatively simple whitemetal body kits that fit on rtr N Scale chassis There are limited rtr options or donor chassis suitable for 12mm gauge. Branchlines and Backwoods Miniatures produced a number of loco, railcar and coach kits about 20 years ago, these were fairly complex brass and whitemetal kits. Chassis assembly is best described as watchmaking. Bemo produce high quality Swiss & German HOm locos and stock best stored in a safety deposit box than under the layout.

I doubt that the DCC manufacturers would agree to a common standard for a Wi Fi interface with their control each manufacturer jealousy guards their own control interface, there is a lot of money in selling throttles. Most RC systems are based on a thottle based transmitter and a fixed or loco based receiver. The Airwire system http://www.cvpusa.com/airwire_system.php is a DCC based system that uses a radio receiver to control a DCC receiver in the loco. Visiting operators with DT 400 throttles and the large number of walk around layouts in the US with Digitrax systems is said to be the largest barrier to development of control systems. Although Digitrax developed a Palm Pilot/Loconet interface about 10 years ago this appears to have been dropped with operators apparently preferring conventional throttles. I suppose the big question whether anything is gained by interfacing RC with DCC as in the Airwire System or a simple RC system like Aristocraft or RCS is more effective.

The main line had toilets, the suburban had bench seats with their backs to windows in the vestibule compartment at each end.

The Earl's were "built" in the 1930s by sticking a Duke boiler on a Bulldog chassis to provide an engine light enough to work on the Cambrian. The first rebuild 3265 Tre Pol and Pen kept its Duke number and Cornish name, the remainder were to be named after GWR directors who were Earls but they a were not impressed and the names given to a batch of Castles instead. As JHB said the GSWR & GSR had small wheeled 4-4-0s with outside framed bogies which were used on the Cork-Rosslare & DSER main line. While it might be possible to use the Bachmann chassis block and bogie, the body would have to be scratch built, the Irish locos had larger high pitched boilers and modern canopy cabs, but the biggest challenge would be in replacing the Bachmann driving wheels and outside cranks with normal driving wheels. Hopefully Hornby or Bachmann will at some stage bring out a LNWR Precedent or Jumbo which would be a good basis for quite a few Irish 2-4-0 types

Not sure what Seamus and Richie have been drinking but it must have been good stuff to imagine kitbashing a Dukedog into an Irish loco. The best place for one is working her way along that wonderful section of north of Dovey Junction with 3-4 coaches in GWR livery or the same coaches in Carmine and Cream the Bachmann loco almost makes me want to dust off my Dean Goods and Standard Class 4 and ditch my Irish stuff. A Hornby Schools would probably be a better starting point for a 345 particulary with their Schools style chimney, the NCC had some really elegant 2-4-0 with curly outside frame that survived into the 30s (in fully lined Midland red) the Bachmann chassis would probably do but probably easiest to scratchbuild a body.

Waterford? Main platform 3-4 Bay platforms 5 & 6. Old platforms retained after Platforms 1 & 2 closed and converted to a car park http://eiretrains.com/Photo_Gallery/Railway%20Stations%20W/Waterford/IrishRailwayStations.html#Waterford_20090508_020_CC_JA.jpg

Not quite modelling but the other half is from North Dakota and I did some gricing in the area (summer time) Preliminary report of Casslleton derailment and subsequent collision http://www.ntsb.gov/doclib/reports/2014/Casselton_ND_Preliminary.pdf An axle failure on a grain car may have lead to the initial de-railment NTSB have seized a broken axle and a pair of wheels for examination. Interestingly 18 of the 21 tank cars involved in the collision were breached and the locos at the head end of the oil train destroyed BNSF 4934BNSF 5958

Nonneminstre Models produce a nice little Whitemetal kit for a Planet diesel that runs on a Spud or Black Beetle power bogie. http://www.nonneminstre.co.uk/resources/Nonneminstre%20Models%202012%20Price%20List.pdf The Bachmann 14T tank wagon is pretty close in general design to the Irish Shell wagons http://www.ehattons.com/trade/StockDetail.aspx?SID=18010

"Irish Railways in Colour" from steam to diesel 1955-67 (Midland Publishing Tom Ferris 1992) contains some colour photos of SLNCR operations. There is a photo of a round roofed van 84 in the yard at Manorhamilton with Lough Erne waiting with an Enniskillen-Sligo goods. The framing of the round roofed wagons appears similar to the MGWR "Guinness" wagons built in the 1890s, the latter were longer than the convertibles a 15'2" over headstocks, had solid roofs and ventilators. Numbed 377, 39, 516, 580, 1587, 1661, 1730, 1807, 1837 1888. Midland wagons received "m' suffix to their number in GSR & CIE days. They had letters "Guinness" in 1'3" high letters across the door and on panels fitted out from the framing. The Midland started building standard Irish Railway Clearing House style wagons similar to the GNR from 1915 onwards. Soft roofed Midland and GSWR convertible wagons remained in widespread use on the GSR & CIE into the 1950s with a few surviving into the black & tan era of the 1960s. There is a J I C Boyd photo of convertible 2592m built 1895 at Cobh Junction in 1962!

I have finally got around to fixing the detail castings to the van. It took a long time to get to the casting stage but the results were well worth the delay, the axleboxes and springs appear to have been common to a number of Irish Railway Companies including the GNR and should be available at some sage through Dart Castings.

To whet the appetite a little bit batch of rtr vans going through the paint shops. Workbench is beginning to look like a railway carriage shops.

New loco mysteriously appeared in the carriage shed at Keadue

We might be able to sort something out, I have a couple of superheated 15s on the to-do list and had test etches prepared for the extended smokebox, firebox, spectacle plate and heavier main frames.

Happy Birthday!

The layout at Claremorris was extensively re-modelled for the Knock Pilgrimage traffic in the 1940s, locomotive shed demolished and a through platform road added from the Tuam Line, East and West signal cabins an yard ground frame closed with new central cabin. Turntable from Glanmire road added to allow turning of Woolwich Moguls. The 1996 OSI ortho view should show the layout before the junction with the Tuam line was "rationaised"

Looking good, I look forward to the chassis build.

The one great advantage of working in metal over plastic is that you can nearly always rescue a model if you make a complete mess of the first build. I have a 30 year old J26 & a 27 year old J15 still going strong still on their original gears, wheels and motors. I made complete mess of the original build of the J15 and re-built both locos in the mid 1990s. Kit design has come a long way in 30 years more recent designs like the SG2, Bredin Coaches and no doubt 800 & the Bandon Tank use a lot more bolt together modular construction. After trying the steamers I found the Craftsman BR 02 & 07 diesels a good starting point, todays Judith Edge diesel shunters have a reputation of being easy to build, the RH 165DS s just right for Tuam Sugar Factory and seems to have spent most of her life in BR Blue.

I developed an interest in the Delaware & Hudson and pretty much settled on that road n the re Conrail era after buying an N Scale Atlas (Kato) RS3 around 20 years ago. I was fascinated by the number of railroads and variety of power in the North East, at the time nothing came close to the Atlas & Kato diesels in terms of detail and quality of running. I got hooked on Alco's clearing out Victors stock of FA1s and RS11 and hunting down a pair of Con-Cor PA1s. Apart from the RS3s little was available in D&H colours,. The FA1s were painted in the original CP maroon & gray scheme, the RS11s & PA1s in D&H colours. Second generation power joined the fleet when Kato introduced their U30Cs and SD45s including locos in D&H colour the early 90s, Erie Lackawanna & Reading SD45 joined the fleet both for use on run-though trains from the South and West to New England an Canada and for interchange traffic with other roads. The amount kit bashing and modification reduced and some of the less satisfactory power as replaced by newer Atlas offerings including the big Alco 628s in D&H & LV "Snowbird" colours and Kato PA1s. I haven't done anything with the N since a house move 6-7 year ago, most of the locos now live in a display case in the hall, everything else boxed away. Besides the D&H I had a brief flirtation with a Western Maryland logging/coal mining railroad in HO inspired by a late 1990s railfaning West Virginia, somehow or other I managed to resist modelling the UP & BNSF despite spending several week in the West an Mid-West I guess a day-job,4year old daughter, freelance garden railway and Irish Modelling itrests' keeps me occupied

An 800 or GNR Vs or possibly a Compound would probably sell better than the other less glamorous classes ;-). A collector would fee obliged to buy all 3 800 or 5 Vs but would probably be satisfied with one J15 or WT.

Happy Christmas everyone!

Cast iron is good in compression but is quite brittle with no tensile strength, with only single line of supporting columns it was only a matter of time of one snapping once the canopy started to flex. These 1:100 year weather events are becoming increasingly frequent, tornados seem to re-occur in much the same areas part of Auckland is developing a reputation of a tornado alley with two quite bad ones in recent years