Mayner

The 9-10 Million quoted is for a basic re-lay with cwr recovered from the Cork line, strengthening of existing bridges and structures, no signalling as such, whether it goes ahead or not depends on whetheer Zinc mining starts at Pallas.

JHB I did not realise that the RPSI lost so many Bredins due to arson. I took a photo of one of the Bredin Suburban brakes around 2002, it was stored at the back of the carriage shops in Inchacore it had been in departmental use but still in black and tan. I wonder if it still survive. For the modeller the SSM Bredins are fairly complex but make up into a very nice model. Bogie Brake Composite

I would not bet on it Colm is an authority on Northern Ireland's diesels and built most of the railcar classes could have a very interesting mix of motive power and rolling stock. If the boys go for DCC a 70 or 80 Class with a sound chip would be a nice change to a General Motors diesel.

Ranks private siding at Clara was set up to received or dispatch bulk grain, Goodbodies used to process jute and more recently artificial fibres. Bulk grain seems to have been fairly widespread in loose coupled days with rail connected mills at Ardee, Limerick, Portarlington, Clara, Ballydosare, elevators at Dublin and Waterford Ports and traffic also originating at Ferns and possibly Enniscorthy. No serious effort seems to have been made to maintain this traffic once the decision was made to shift from individual wagon load to block train operation, besides the additional cost of road-rail transhipment at each end the forklifts provided the Wexford Line were not man enough to lift a laden grain container.

Nice to see some unusual models like the NCC turret cabbed railcar, I recognised Letterkenny from Warley years ago any information on the other layouts? The NCC Layout with the Bogie Guinness van has a very fine look to it, the seaside layout is very nicely observed nicee to see those old Matchbox models.

Just came across this on RM Web http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/63243-the-bleach-green-project/page__hl__irish#entry821272. Seems to be due to make an appearance at Cultra ambitious is not quite the word.

The building work is nearly complete I fitted a pair of windows, finished most of the internal capentry and painting the walls over a long weekend last week. There is still some external work to complete but at last we are getting into longer days drier weather. 5:37 pm 3X2 treated framing in place. 8:30 pm tracks 1&2 fixed in place 3&4 roughly in position. The Irish layout hopefully will be U shaped with the track approximatley 4' above floor level to give a partial eye level view, the big question is whether to continue in 4mm on 21mm gauge or try 7mm Scale those Tirconnell loco and coach kits are mighty tempting. I am planning to carry out trials in the next few weeks to see how my locos cope with curves and grades, 3' is probably the minimum for 21mm tender loco with bogie stock though I dont know how my kit built locos will handle grades. If its successfull I am thinking in terms of a multi level layout to get a decent length of run. John

They were for grain possibly to replace the existing GSR & CIE grain wagons. They is a short piece on them but no photograph in an article on containerisation in an IRRS Journal from the early 70s that goes into the background of the various "specials" including the Guinness flats and Back to Back Fertiliser. The general idea was to do away with individual wagon loads to goods yards and private sidings, with road delivery from the railhead to the customers premises. A small number of these containers were built for a specific customer and height restrictions in their plant dictated the use of a hopper with bottom discharge rather than a standard container on a tipper truck. The GSR built some modern looking grain wagons for Ranks and their own traffic in the 1930s while CIE built hoppers were basically standard H vans fitted with ladders walkways roof hatches and the doors welded shut! Ranks Hopper at Sligo courtesy of David Malone this was probably used for the Ferns-Ballydosare traffic discontinued in the mid 1970s

Alan Generally the only way a company can raise capital is by issuing stock shares or debentures, profit retained bay a company after tax are simply classed as Retained Profits or Reserves used to balance out the peaks and troughs in a business. The interesting thing from an accounting perspective is the different tax treatment between replacing and upgrading assetts like the GSRs superheating of the J15s in the 1930s. Judging by the scrapping of a number of 400 Class 4-6-0 and other relatievly modern locos the GSR had had more large locos than were actually need in the 1930s, but small locos were still needed for secondary services after attempts to brew an improved J15 failed, the GSR started a large scale and very succsssful programme of superheating its small goods and passenger locos. Now the intersting bit the capital cost of building an improved J15 would have been depreciated over 30-35 years, while it may have been possible to calaim a tax write off the cost of re-boilering and superheating an J15 withiin one year and yield an immediate 20 % saving in coal consumption So 186 may have paid for its rebuild within a couple of years while the unloved 700 and 710 had not paid for themselves by the time they met the scrappers at the end of steam. I think looking back that one of the main things we miss is that the GSR was a much more commerically oriented organisation, much more ruthless both in dealing with the competition and closing unprofitable lines than CIE or the GNR. The GSR wasted no time in replaccing rail with road services and by the late 30s planned to considerably trim the network closing most branch and secondary lines. David Murray's GSR book provides an excellent snapshot of this era the contrast between the GSRs modern and very distinctive road vehicles and its aged steam locos and passenger stock is striking. Against this background superheating small GSWR & MGWR steam locos may have more a matter of buying time to work through the closure process with the Transport Tribunal than anything else.

Pairs of 121s hauling Cravens with BR Heating van and 1950s built buffet cars were the signature power on the Rosslare and Sligo Lines until the MK2D stock was deployed in the late 80s. There was a certain amount of through running as the main line sets filled in on early morning suburban workings on the Maynooth Line and some train sets may have worked through from Rosslare to Sligo and vice versa.

Seamus a must do It brings back happy memories of visits to the narrow gauge railway and the local pubs afterwards:D. To be fair whatever you might think of the collection of aircraft and busses and other vehicles they did a creditable job on the narrow gauge restoration. Glenderg. Its strange that GSWR stock fared better in preservation than the Bredins, Downpatrick and the RPSI have enough to make up a very nice train. At one stage the RPSI had at least 4 Bredin steel coaches but only one appears to have survived, the GSRPS mainly had early CIE built stock about 20 which were slightly longer and had different underframes to the GSR built Bredins. If you can get your hands on it the GSRPS published a reasonably good stock book with photos of all their coaching and wagon stock.

Best of luck with the printer/cutter those GNR buildings are particulary stunning

The best thats available is an IRRS Journal paper from the early 70s on GSR coaches and a brief piece with two photographs in Irish Broad Gauge Carriages. The RPSI have several which have spent longer in preservation than in ordinaryservice with the GSR and CIE

If starting with a multi coloured livery is daunting the B101 also ran in silver, unlined green and plain black similar to the Preserved A39 at Downpatrick, Weshty might even do a set of white cheverons to go above the cab window on the black version.

CIE used large and medium sized container handling forklifts at many depots from the late 1970s, places like Tralee and Galway that handled quite heavy container traffic never had gantries. The medium sized machines were mainly used to handle sundries containers and at smaller depots like Boyle and Mullingar. The main difference between the older and current machines seems to be the location of the cab http://www.taylormachineworks.com/THDC-TXC-TETCP%20series%20Table.htm

Nice stock the corrugated opens look pretty good, a "Back to Back" train show up in Cork City Railway 1975. The fertiliser was carried on open containers in a similar manner to kegs with lift off side panels rather than purpose built wagons, the flats were later used under the beet doubles.

The ex DSER goods locos would probably be the best bet for a simple rtr or kit built "Southern" engine. The moguls and J8 Class 0-6-0s were pretty close in coupled wheelbase to the 3F & 4F, nice simple outline straight running board, large cab and reasonably large boiler to hide the motor. While mainly used on the South Eastern the moguls seem to been quite widely used on excursions and freight working towards the end of steam. http://www.steamindex.com/locotype/dser.htm

About half of them locos and stock were divided 50/50 between CIE & UTA. SSM do the SG a large main line loco basically the goods version of the S, Worsley works do a kit of parts for the UG a "modern" 1937 light mixed traffic type. The UG a nice simple outline no crankpin splashers on a Hornby Dean Goods or slightly stretched on a Bachmann 3F chassis might be a good compromise http://irishrailwaymodeller.yuku.com/reply/6672/Re-old-loco-tender. John

I would second that about 207 I have vague childhood memories of a big blue steam loco with smoke deflectors storming across the viaduct at Gormanstown with a long passenger train, 10-15 years later I was pleasently surprised to discover that I may not have been imagining things there were indeed large blue steam locos. Along with the time machine you would also need a stasis machine to keep rust and corrosion at bay, though I suppose you could keep going back in time and contracting the maintenance to Dundalk or Limerick. John

Judging by the RPSIs experience with 184, 186 and 461 compared with 171 & 85 an ex CIE loco was probably a better prospect than restoring a Barry wreck. Most preserved steam locos require heavy mechanical and boiler work every 10-12 years often amounting to a complete re-build. The main drawback was that most CIE steam locos would have been scrapped by the time the RPSI got off the ground in the 1960s and they seem to have been disappointed that 186 (MacArnolds "its only a J15") was the best that was on offer. In contrast to the more modern locos the small GSWR locos were simple, rugged and capable of high milage between repair. Build a time machine and travel back to 1954 and there was a nice choice of CBSCR, DSER, GSWR & MGWR types. Take a trip to Kerry have a word with Jackie Healy-Reays Grandfather to have a word with Dev about setting up the Kigarvan Flyer as a Tourist Train complete with native "Kerry Bogie" on the Kenmare Branch

Beautifull those small tanks certainly have a Jurrasic look about them compared to the later SLNCR tanks. The Manchester Museum of Science and Technology should have the original GAs for the big tanks & Loughs. I am sorely tempted to have a go at one of those Tyrconnel kits but just might try 9mm on G scale track in the garden

Self drive rail http://railcruising.com/

Not quite modelling or Continental in its strictest sence recent steam hauled excursion on the Midland Line

There seems three main considerations if you are planning to commercially produce the a rtr model 1. whether the market is big enough and you have the resources to comission a mass produced model like Paddy Murphy, Heljan etc, 2. whether there is enough demand to batch build rtr models in brass or resin like DK or Silver Fox, 3 produce kits of models you personally like to cross subsidise your own personal hobby. Its hard to know whether a DART would fit into category 1 maybe category 2 or 3. Rapid prototyping is often seen as the solution to all problems as apart from the designers time there is little set up or tooling cost. I have seriously looked at batch production kits resin castings using RP technology as opposed to 3D printing and it worked out considerably more expensive than conventional techniques. No doubt RP will become more economic for small runs but that day is some time off.

I have a Worsley Works G Class with an early version of the ESU Loco Pilot decoder which basically sits on top of the power bogie within the hood. I would strongly recommend a Black-Beetle with 27:1 gear ratio in prefrence to a Tenshodo Spud for a small shunting loco.