Mayner

I managed to convince myself that I saw 207 Liffey at some time between first hearing “She loves me” and “Satisfaction”so definitely post 1963. A master for a resin UG should be fairly straight forward to produce. Alternatively if you can find a builder the Worsley Works UG might be a workable alternative for batch building, especially if it can be made to fit on a Bachmann SECR C Class chassis.

Definitely worth a field trip to West Cork apart from lifting the track very little seems to have changed since the track was lifted in the 1960s. http://eiretrains.com/Photo_Gallery/Railway%20Stations%20C/Courtmacsherry/IrishRailwayStations.html. There are some very atmospheric photos of the line in Ernie Shepherds CBSCR book. The branch is probably the nearest thing in Ireland to lines like the KSER, Mid Suffolk & Tanat Valley corrugated iron buildings very light construction. Courtmacsharry would make an attractive model with the main street as a backdrop, single slighty curved platform road, run round, two sidings one to pier, loco shed, small goods shed. Timoleague station curving layout squeezed in between the Abbey and town, seems to have been the operating hub of the line, cattle bank, carriage, loco shed/workshop on down side, single platform goods yard on up town side of line. The station site is now a car park. Colour photos of T&C in both editions Irish Railways in Colour Steam to Diesel Tom Ferris (Midland Publishing) incl. brand new C Class at Timoleague on excursion, J26 on beet working late 50s including a great shot of Timoleague yard full of wagons and trucks transferring beet.

I went the opposite way accidently building a MGWR 6 coach possibly I S scale from a drawing in Model Railway magazine, I only noticed something looked when I built a matching pair of coaches from a drawing in a later edition of the magazine. I transferred the dimensions directly off the drawings without checking the scale.

I though for a moment that Laurie was announcing a rtr Vs 4-4-0 http://transportsofdelight.smugmug.com/RAILWAYS/IRISH-RAILWAYS/GREAT-NORTHERN-RAILWAY-IRELAND/17846660_NWbrJP#!i=1744829757&k=ZTq6jCm. I have managed to convince myself that I saw 207 in action on the main line, my first loco a a chisler in the early 60s GLR3D Model Design seem to have mastered the art of 3D design with this van and the GNR full brake all that's needed is a couple of non-corridor coaches and a few bread vans to make up a typical Irish North passenger train. Surprisingly kits of most of the common loco classes are available in kit form from SSM, Worsley Works and GLR3D. The little GLR JT tank appears to be a reasonably simple to build model for the beginner and ideal for the Belturbet branch. The blue liveried S & U Class 4-4-0s added a splash of colour, S worked to Enniskillen on a GAA special and possibly other excursions, while the modern U class regularly worked daily the Bundoran Express through from Dundalk. The SSM PP 4-4-0 and SG and AL 0-6-0 are suitable goods engines.

Brilliant stuff Tara & Valarie seem to have found a winning formula of using a the branch line railway as a vehicle to launch a performing arts project. It will be interesting see I the evening train ride develops into a regular thing nice way to unwind after a busy day/week, a couple of drinks would go down very well with the food and conversation.

It might be worth while looking at getting a Silhouette Cutter! I would recommend preparing a template drawing for one wagon and doing a test build to check fits and minimum width/sizes for strappings and other details, to avoid repetitive errors before batch building. If you haven't gotten to deep with TurboCad it might be worth trying Draftsight its free 2D software http://www.3ds.com/products-services/draftsight/overview/. The main disadvantage is that the TurboCAD is that the file format is incompatible with the programmes used in photo etching, laser cutting and 3D printing and its necessary to export the file to a dxf. or a 3d modelling format which can result in all sorts of interesting problems.

The 071s were delivered in a slightly darker richer shade of orange to that used for other locos and coaches. They were more intensively used than other classes and tended to be look a lot darker as they were usually covered in road grim.

Good to see those old H&M controllers still going strong.

A little information on the plough wagon. 3409m bought 1924 possibly war surplus built by a Belgian company 40 ton capacity 60' long bogies 49' centres.

I read somewhere think it was IRN that its planned to permanently close central cabin and control movements to and from the platform lines from the Waterford Check Cabin. The Line to Belview appears to be worked as an extension of the goods yard. From an operational point of view modernising/rationalising the signalling at Waterford is long overdue. I suppose the big question is whether the citizens of Waterford or the rail users & the NTA pay for the preservation of the cabin,IE is basically broke.

Spudfan Any idea what's the purpose of the machine that looks like a loco with hydraulic jacks? The underframe looks very light for a loco. The yellow machine with caterpillar tracks, dozer blade and Hiab crane is used for preparing the trackbed and laying track, saw one operating at Boora in the 90s

Not your regular excursionists I love it some very cool and happening people! Could make the branch a trendy venue for cultural events and parties. IE might even get Arts & Heritage Council funding.

It seems to be more co-incidence than anything else that Tyrconnel and myself started work on a G2 luckily we work in two different scales. Though Tyrconnel range is becoming increasingly tempting as I am searching for a 14BA nut and a crankpin bush that fell on the carpet. A G2 would be a very tight fit on your turntable 47' 1½" over buffers 34' 8¼ engine and tender wheelbase. The Midland/GSR would have probably used a Standard Goods J18/19 or possibly a H Class J6 for long distance coal traffic with a J26 or possibly the ex Fenit Hunslet 0-6-0ST 299 for the Arigna Valley shunt. The GSR used J15s sometimes with the leading rods removed on sharply curved Castlecomer Branch which served Deerpark mine in the Leinster coalfield.

I just completed the test build of the horse box, need to beef up the strapping detail on the doors. The production versions of the Horsebox and Meat Van should be available before Christmas. The horse boxes and vans lasted in CIE services into the late 50s, there is a photo of a van in CIE livery with flying snail in Des Cookham's Irish Broad Gauge Carriages. The kit features fold up and slot and tab assembly, suitable for solder or glue assembly designed for 21mm or OO gauge.

Most large organisations tend to have white elephants tucked away. Guinness spent/wasted millions on product development that flopped anyone remember Guinness Light? Apart from the 500 & 800 Class 4-6-0 & the Woolwich most of the GSWR and GSR steam locos of the 1920s & 30s were flops or not as good as engines they were intended to re-place. The whole business of the Drum Battery Train puts the waste with Alstom DMUs & EMUs into the halfpenny place, the final units were withdrawn after less than 10 years service because no one was willing to fund the cost of replacement batteries. This was at time CIE was struggling to import coal while new hydro electricity and peat burning power stations were coming on line.

The Fermoy & Lismore was basically the Duke of Devonshire’s private railway, no doubt the station buildings were intended to be in keeping with his castle. The Duke seems to have been something of a railway enthusiast ,besides financing the Fermoy & Lismore and other local lines in Munster the Duke had his own private engine Dunrobin and station on the Highland Railway in Scotland. The WDLR struggled to make ends meet, building its own station in Lismore probably cost less than paying the F&L for the use of its station and share of the signalling and infrastructure costs. The diagram looks like the F&L and WDLR each had their own signal cabin controlling the signals and crossover at the approach to their stations. This would have allowed passenger or mixed trains from Tallow Road and Cappaquin to arrive in their platforms simultaneously. The F&L side of the station is basically a typical branch line terminus with single platform roof, runround loop, goods yard and loco shed. The WDLR appears to have a platform road, run round loop and loco shed. Crossover 6 in the diagram may have been hand operated at some stage and used to allow a loco to run round at train at either platform. The crossover with the diamond crossing from the loop to the engine shed is a GSWR arrangement, which allow a train to shunt from the loop to the loco shed while a train is in section from Tallow Road. The WDLR appears to have had its own loco shed but no turntable shown in the diagram. Train working at Lismore in WDLR days would have involved a lot of shunting, possibly with two passenger trains in the station at the one time, locos running round turning and servicing before re-marshalling their trains and in American terms interchange traffic between the GSWR & WDLR. The GSWR may have routed goods traffic from the South-West to Waterford over the WDLR as a friendly connection rather than over the W&L which was considered a serious competitor. Small obscure railway almost no published information, no kits or RTR sounds tempting

The engineers equipment makes an unusual model, I like the look of that drilling rig. The scrap containers were very heavily weathered to a browny black colourprobably a combination of road dirt and brake dust. It might be worth while looking through back issues of the IRRS Journal from that era for equipment used in the electrification. CIE was acutely short of coaches at the time, s mainly loose coupled corrugated opens and the odd 1/2 height container wagon used or spoil. Ready mixed concrete agitator on bogie wagon used to transport concrete to work site for signal and mast bases, short trains made up of 4w open and closed containers to transport tools and equipment, MK1 4w container flats fitted with Haib crane for erecting signal posts. I lost most of my very grainy photos from the electrification. Loose coupled train made up of unconverted beet wagons and 4w container flats with half height containers seem to used to carry spoil, most ended up dumped a Liffey Junction. Atlas "Rubber Duck" excavators widely used, CIE Priestman crane on Lomac hired in Ruston or NCK crawler cranes for lifing in point and crossing work, baby Metrovicks n engineers trains.

Not exactly the smallest station on the line some good photos of the line in the Waterford Museum collection http://www.waterfordmuseum.ie/exhibit/web/BasicImageSearch/offset/15/location/_3_25_14_/ Apart from the trice-weekly Boat Trains traffic seems to have been very light, the route was indirect compared with the road for Cork-Fermoy and Cork-Waterford traffic. Like most cross country lines CIE didn't exactly encourage traffic with a single one train a day stopping service, goods traffic over the centre section between Fermoy & Dungarvan seems to have been fairly light. Fermoy and Lismore seem to have the look of an abandoned railway about them with few wagons to be seen in photos of the yards. Possibly would have been different had the route survived into the 70s with Cork Waterford Bell Traffic and Tivoli-Ballinacourty Oil-Magnesite, possibly export container traffic from Waterford Co-Op Dungarvan to Waterford or Dublin Port. A layout based on the line would make a wonderful scenic model with its combination of mountain backdrops compact station layouts and signature viaducts including Fermoy Capaquinn , Abbeyside Causeway, Ballyvoyle, Strabally, Kilmacthomas and numerous level crossings.

Different Country indeed porter wheeling passengers luggage in backround. The Supertrain publicity from the early 70s included hostess in more contemporary dress,dig those chequer board platforms and purple orange trains

What no Cork Examiner "The Paper" on the Cork expresses boy? For he late 60s era you will need airline seating and orange mini-skirted hostesses with beehive hairdoos :oin the Superstandards.

Good to hear that you are still beavering away and exploring the world of CAD & 3D design. The real fun begins in exporting from Turbocad to the photo engraver or 3D printing formats. I would not panic too much about lead or the soldering, from an occupational health perspective our exposure from hobby use are likely to be very low and unlikely to result n harm, in terms of heath effects there is little difference between soldering, using solvents to weld plastic and spray mist from painting. Good hygiene and adequate ventilation are probably the most important, with reasonably priced spray booths and extractor fans for soldering on the market.

While Inchacore built 1st 1145 &1146 were the 1st to be fitted with double glazing, the credit for air conditioning goes to the GSR at least one of the 1937 "Bredin" Composites was fitted with "Stones air conditioning plant". Presumably the intake air was fed through a refrigeration unit to adjust the temperature & humidiiy similar in principal to a heat pump and vented through the roof & window vents

Preview 1953 Corridor 3rd shrunk drawn in late 1950s green style to provide some contrast. The 61'6" coaches shrink down nicely to fit the Dapol body shell without distorting the overall proportions as the sides of the Dapol coaches scale out marginally lower than the Irish coaches. Half etching the sides leaves hinges, doorstops, widow frames and panel joints in relief, the builder can mark the outline of the doors using a square and a scriber. I have also drawn up a jig for cutting out window openings, & drilling out for door handles and grab rails.

I am looking at finalising the brass work for the flats later this month, then its a matter of sorting out some castings probably for release in early-mid 2015. While the lead time and turn round on the etching side of things is quite rapid, lead time form pattern making to the finished castings are much longer and less predictable.

After an almost classic tailchaser with Patrickswell I looked at Fenit as a sleepy branch line terminus. I initially looked at including Spa with its beet siding and treating the Harbour Commissioners line as part of the hidden staging, but eventually decided to omit Spa and include a representation of the pier and its railway. [attachment=:name] The layout is a lot more challenging in terms of trackwork and operation compared to Patrickswell, with little in the way of structures, the footbridge and lifeboat station weer the most prominent structures on the mainland & a rather plain looking warehouse on the quay. The backscene would be a challenge a panorama including the Dingle Peninsula and Tralee Bay. The layout is essentially a scenic shunting plank, with operation mainly around shunting wagons between the station yard and the Pier. Traditionally small tank locos were used for shunting the pier, the Harbour Commissioners bought Hunslet industrial saddle tank which was passed on to the GSWR as 299, an ex MGWR J26 from the Waterford & Tramore was the last steam loco used until replaced by G & D Class diesels. The small rail mounted steam cranes used into the 70s were probably the most distinctive part of the operation and a challenge to model. Locos and stock used seems to have been mainly restricted to standard small GSWR types in steam days, there is a photo of a J15 with a train of 6 wheel coaches in a photo before passenger services were withdrawn in 1934. CIE provided seaside trains on Summer Sundays running the Sunday Tralee service through to Fenit. Traffic from the harbour mainly appears to have been spasmodic coal and timber for Tralee and presumably other destinations in Kerry. The harbour struggled financially, the Pier was closed to commercial traffic during much of the 1949s & 50s due to structural problems with the causeway which connects the pier with the main land. The final traffic on the Fenit branch and Western end of the North Kerry was sugar beet from Fenit, Spa, Ardfert and Abbeydorney to the Tuam factory during the 1977 campaign. For a modeller starting in 21mm gauge the Murphy Models B141 and DC Kits G Class with a 28:1 Blackbeetle Motor bogie would be a good option to get things running before venturing into kit or scratchbuilding.