Mayner

I am not sure if any wagons fitted with the Morton handbrake in Ireland most of the unfitted wagons had a single brake shoe on each side operated by a long lever, a small number mainly CIE Pallet Vans, GNR Bagged Cement and Private Owner Tank wagons had independent either side brakes similar to the RCH type Most of the more modern fitted wagons had a parallel motion arrangement for transmitting the motion from the brake lever to the cross shaft similar to BR wagons of the same era.

Rchie I am not sure whether your some Bluesky thinking is for producing some models for yourself or an attempt to undcut Dapol and corner the market Irish Wagon chassis kits. Whatever Popeye probably had the best answer make up a set of plasticard patterns and cast the chassis in resin http://irishrailwaymodeller.com/showthread.php/2508-Popeye-s-Workbench. RTV silicone is a lot better than maula should get 15-20 castings per mould, some wonderful solvent fumes and a lot of work cleaning up, but not as monotonus as cutting out 15-20 sets of parts from styrene. If you want the couplers to look the part why not try out a set of Smiths 3 link or Instanters wont drive you bugs coupling/uncoupling if you run fixed rakes.

Richie. Quick maybe but nothing dirty about it. We seem to have been thinking on much the same lines. Originally started out as a chequer plate floor, stanchions and bit for upgrading a Prestwin, fold up chassis on the left added after taking a closer look. Whole thing fits together with slots and tabs. Not sure of the unit price yet but a skeletal would be cheaper as it uses less material. Rocking W Irons don't really work on a skeletal, there is enough potential interest for a sprung version from the S4 modellers in the UK.

Riche Funnily enough inspired by Patrick's 27101 conversion I looked at a brass floor, buffer beams a brake gear to convert a Prestwin into a 20' flat, I came to much the same conclusion/confusion and the artwork for a brass 25436 flat is with the engravers. The aim was to produce a relatively straight forward kit designed to run on 21mm gauge, a chassis fabricated from brass is probably a better option for a flat as you haven't got the warping and shrinkage problems with casting in either whitemetal or resin. I drew this a few years ago but gave up as the 3D Printer & CAD packages don't want to talk to each other so I concentrate on etched brass and traditional pattern making. If you have mastered 3D solid modelling a 3D printed wax master for lost wax casting or a brass pattern may be a viable option for pattern making for whitemetal or resin casting, but you need to make allowance for shrinkage or expansion of the finished casting. The wax master would need cleaning up to remove ridges from the printing, which is really no different from machining and finishing a metal pattern

Really impressive rake, I think the look far better reasonably clean than heavily weathered,

Just noticed Hibernia engraved? in the splasher marvellous stuff. Modelling the early railways may be becoming fashionable there was a recent thread in RM Web about the build of a OO gauge mode of a Liverpool and Manchester 0-4-0 with a motor in the tender with a carden shaft drive to the loco. Very smooth running but looked odd shunting BR steam era rolling stock.

Looking at the cut stone work below the cabin it look like the GSR or CIE plonked one of its standard hipped roofed cabins on the base of an older box. I wonder how the signal man got the electric train staff for the Athlone Branch ain crews? A basket arrangement on a rope was for Navan Branch trains at Drogheda South cabin. Portarlington got very busy when main line train frequecies were increased and Galway & Westport services were diverted over the branch in the early 70s. The signal man would have needed an assistant to do the walking and climbing between the station and cabin, or possibly a subsidiary staff instrument in the station building to allow a staff to be remotely released while the signal man remained in the box. With greatly increased train frequencies and the Athlone Branch a main line the signal an would have been worn out waking up and down the stairs and crews no longer time for cup of tea and a natter between branch linearrivals and departures, In GSWR days Portarlington probably had East & West Cabins, the GSR& CIE re-signalled several of the larger stations like Athenry, Bray, Claremorris, Dun Laoire replacing a number of cabins with a large standard hipped roof box. I wonder are there any photos of the original?

Happy St Patrick's Day. We had a 12 hour start on everyone bit bizzare sitting in a pub on a Monday morning with the other half having brunch, hardly anyone in the place, drinking Guinness & watching Ireland beat France. The downside was that Tuesday Morning came 12 hours earlier

Inspirational stuff David although the larger scales are easier to work in, detailing takes 2-3 longer than 4mm because there is so much more that can be seen/modelled.

I had fun and game trying to get an acceptable finish with the silver initially tried an automotive aerosol before trying a Tayiama flat silver enamel with much better results. Starting to look the part luggage van. SSM did a custom sheet of red numerals and letters for the silver vans. Flotilla of black & tan vans nearly ready for launch. Finishing these though a lot longer than expected mainly due to extremely humid conditions, in the evenings masking tape would not remain stuck to the model let alone paint . Decided on a SSM Inspection Car for a quick an simple project I could complete, also had a 35mm Blackbeetle out of a G Class. Swapped around the Lomac wheels for the 3' wheels supplied with the bogie. Could not resist the idea of a detailed interior with those deck chair seats, for a jaunt to size up the state of the track. Not sure if it was my Beetle the bogie was not symmetrical had to trim off a piece of the end of the gearbox at one end and cut off the pivot pin and raised boss in the centre. Its important to do a trial fit with the floor and power bogie to get the model to sit at the right height. As a late Christmas present I treated myself to a portable spray booth does a great job. To reduce paint build up inside the booth I line the base and sides with kraft paper,.

The great Dunleer cigarette robbery. Dunleer was briefly re-opened to freight for a couple of hours in the 90s when a gang literally hjacked a 40' container of cigarettes off the afternoon Dundalk-North Wall Liner. Duneer station was a secluded spot, robbers used a mobile crane to do the lift empty container found a couple of days later. The Great Train Robbery video I interesting just before the BR corporate image era, the train appears to have been placed on the Aylesbury branch at Cheddington next station south for examination after the robbery hence weed grown trackwork

Wow! Martello Towers and Hibernia 11/10 for originality!

Personally I think using a Spud presumably to keep the cost down really lets down the model. The Spud is a nice bogie for running around at high speed, a Black Beetle particulary the 25:1 would have been a better option for a shunter.

Mike Edge prepared the master for the DC Kits G Class, I am not sure if the Silver Fox G is basically a rtr version of the DC Kits loco. Going back to the B101s the engine room windows were clear I spent half an hour inside the engine room of 106 sheltering from a downpour during an IRRS visit to Inchacore Works The Birmingham Sulzers had spacious engine rooms there was room for about 10 people around the engine and generator.

My Honda CRV is just about eligible to vote, 200k on the clock and still going strong.

Might be worth listing the items on E-Bay or the RM Web classified, there still seems to be a lot of interest in old whitemetal kits in the UK. http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/70333-what-have-you-done-with-your-keyser-kit/page-9 The steam tram, panniers and trams should be snapped up. Airfix body and Kemilway Chassis is probably for the Standard Class 4 2-6-0 may be more difficult to shift as Bachmann have released a nice rtr version of this loco.

Funnily enough the group that built the Malahide & Dromin Junction layout in the late 60s whittled down oversized broom handles for their cement bubbles. Eamonn I like your drive for the inspection car, not sure if its still available Branchlines did very nice compact gearbox that would take the hassle out of meshing the gears and wear would be less critical on those un-brushed bearings. Setting up power pickups would be fairly difficult so a Blackbeetle may be the best solution

Originally each province was more or less a law onto itself until the Colonial Government intervened in the 1870s, most of the early lines were in the South Island linking the local port with the hinterland. I think the first line was in Southland Standard Gauge weird Crampton locos and wooden rails. The Canterbury Provincial Government built North and South from Christchurch and built about 80 miles of 5'3" before the Provincial Goverments were abolished in the1870s. The track was re-gauged and locos and stock exported to South Australia. A couple of years ago I came across a siding laid in the old Canterbury Provincial Government double headed rail & chairs a p.w. mans equivalent of finding the lost arc The frugal Scottish settlers in Otago went for the new 3'6" gauge with Fairlie loco, one class were 0-6-4 back tanks complete with Inchacore style cab, bunker and outside framed trailing bogie.

Nothing compared with yer-man who turned up in Anasaul during the Emergency and asked the local Garda "ven is der next train to Dralee?

I'didnt do nuttin Mister! Got to hand it to Richie bringing the North Inner City to life. All you need is an RTE camera crew interviewing the local "community activists"or the late great Tony Gregory

Great looking uncluttered railway room & viaduct Interestingly the Lyttleton-Christchurch line was originally built to the Irish 5'3" gauge. I suppose you could end up with pairs of 141s working the coalies to an from t ort while the DXBs are serviced and re-fuelled at Middleton Yard.

Used to be one of my favourite spots watching a B141 and a couple of laminates threading its way across from Glanmire Road onto the old Cork & Youghal formation. Really captures the atmosphere of the area.

The W&H was a bit like Walthers in the States both a manufacturer and distributor the catalogue listed most of the kits and bits available in the UK. The catalogue used to be available from both Southern Model Railways & Monch Place. Kieran McGowan used to get a bit of free advertising by stamping everything sold from Monch Place

Looks suspiciously like Mallow beet factory sidings.

Id say the sergeant is a Roscommon man held back from promotion for 30 years after summoning the Commissioner & Minister of Justiceor after hours drinking. By right should also have an Inspector from the HSA & someone from the RSC and a gaggle of Senior Civil Servants arguing over Jurisdiction. Always happens in cases like this