Mayner

I like the Ford Thames tipper truck on the beet, fairly typical Irish truck from the early 60s

Green snail with yellow numerals, while most locos were painted overall gray, Cork is supposed to have re-painted a few locos including a Woolwich with grey used more or less as an livery colour with smokebox, running plate, cab roof painted in black

They would have been dark grey in GSR days, re-painted into drak green in early CIE days, a few that were overhauled in the mid 50s may have been re-painted in grey. I usually use Howes "Weathered Black" with a flat varnish to get the flat grey effect of a loco that has been in service for a while, or satin for a newly overhauled loco, the effect of the different vaarnishes are remarkibly different

Most of the Dublin Suburban Tank locos including 850 were re-painted in lined green in a similar style to the Woolwich by CIE in the late 1940s. There are black and white photos in various books but I am not sure if there are any colour photos about. It might be worth looking at Drew Donaldson's models in the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum to get the general style.

The 25" plan is from GSWR days before the coaling tower was erected in the 1930s, its interesting to see how compact the works is compared to later years with everything concentrated into a relatively compact area around the original works buildings. There are plans of the Works dating from the 1860s & 1880s in Greg Ryan's book of the same name, the structure marked LK appears to be a limekiln. This general area always seems to have been used for fueling with the coal stage and later coaling tower built on the site of the old coke ovens form before the 1860s. The present day running shed and wagon shops appear to be on the site of the carriage and wagon shops and smithy which later beacme the main steam running shed. Diesel No1 the present day erecting shop is on the site of the sleeper banks and Diesel No 2 the Ramps once used for load testing diesel locos, one time tender shops was the original locomotive erecting shop. Its interesting to think that most of Inchacores output in terms of loco and carriage building up to the 1930s including substantial numbers of the larger classes like the Woolwich Moguls and 400 Class 4-6-0s was achieved inside the old cramped works, with only a handfull of steam locos built in the new erecting shop The strangest part is the area around the running shed remains basically unchanged despite demolition of the coaling tower and building of the new running shed and wagon shops in the late 60s-70s.

I am not able to give a firm date at the moment but would expect Mid 2013 for both the Heating & Luggage and Lugage Brake. I received a lot of information since completing the original test builds and have still to finalise some of the detail.

I love the photo of the new Austin being delivered on an unfitted flat, cars, vans and farm machinery were often delivered by rail in those days. Although most of the wagons shown were built in the 50s its interesting to see a few GSWR & GNR types still in use Although it looks pretty ancient this particular type which seem to be doube sheeted insulated vans for preishible traffic seem to have lasted quite long Weshty: Yes I saw the tin vans they seem to mutate and do all sorts of strange things in Sligo At one stage there were at least 3 different variations of the luggage version alone. P.S. The demountable tanks may have been for Industrial Alcohol from Cooley, Ballina or Donegal.

Get well soon time for some modelling therapy.

To spring or not to spring, compensated or rigid probably one of the most controversial subjects among kit and scratch builders, both are equally valid in OO or EM but some form of suspension is strongly recommended for S4 members. This type of W Iron assembly has been common from the late 60s either as separate components or included in kits. It folds up into a U shape with the axle running in top hat bearings which gives very free running. Brake V hangers folded into position and cross shaft fitted, to assemble the chassis as rigid its simply a matter of folding up all four W Irons and fitting the bearings. For a compensated chassis the W Irons are folded up at the end opposite to the pivot tabs. Solder in the top hat bearings making sure the bearing cup is on the same side as the fold line! Its often necessary to open out the bearing hole with a tapered reamer as the diameter of the hole may vary with the etching process. Voila ready for final assembly Rocking W Iron fixed in position on .7mm dia wire pivot. While this type of arrangement is considered dated it minimises the number of separate components that have to be assembled. I have assembled the van in this example without brake pull rods, but here is one complete with rods that I built earlier . The rods look pretty but its not really visible from the line side and something I missed earlier its nearly impossible to remove the wheels without removing the rods! Zurcon sprue cutting gizzmo I could not find yesterday. The brake hangers fit into slots set for 21mm or OO gauges. Soldering the hangers, there is a difference of opinion on how to get the solder to flow into the joint. Theoretically the workpiece should be clamped solid in a jig, flux applied to the joint, then the hot iron and solder last of all as the flux boils away. In practice some people place a small dab of solder on the tip and carry it to the work otheers place a small piece of solder beside the joint and apply heat, I tend to use a mixture of all three. Generally carrying the solder on the iron to tack something in position, then running in a seam of solder to the heated joint when everything is lined up. Re-attaching a footstep to a steam loco, the loco body is on the ceramic mat and securred in position with a piece of stripwood pinned down on the opposite side, the step is brought up against the loco and held in position with a craftknife as I solder the joint, this has to be done quickly otherwise I could un solder the middle step:confused: The final stage of the assembly of the van is probably best done with cyno soldering the beading in place around the panels was devlish and the clean up even worse, plus there are distinctive MGWR style door hinges, latches and angle strappings to be attached. Then again most of the detail is not visible from 2' the most important thing is to put something behind the louvres so you cant see through the van. MGWR Meat Van at Sligo in CIE days © F Shuttleworth The van has had a number of modifications is probably reaching the end of its days but still in use on the Sligo-Mullingar Night Mail in all probability carrying fish or other preishible traffic for the Dublin Markets. Francis Shuttleworths photo of the mail that night shows an interesting mixture of new tin vans, a MGWR 6w TPO dating from the 1870s and a meat van dating from the 1890s, the train seems to have been made up by a MGWR 2-4-0,but its hard to know if an A or C Class took over for the run to Mullingar that night in 1957 or 58

The next stage is to solder up the ends, form the solebars and basic underframe. Maybe I should have read the instructions first and careful not to contaminate the flux with beer or vice versa. This is similar to the Carrs sheet metal solder flows nicely and not as blobby as the 145 detail solder usually recommended, the flux is organic and does not appear to be as noxious as phosphoric flux often used, not supposed to leave a residue. The important thing is not to handle food without thouroughly washing hand and keep the hands well away form the rim of the glass or bottle neck. The ends are built up in two layers as while the vans were basically flush sided the outside framing was visible on the ends, I have yet to produce masters for the distinctive end posts on these vehicles. Asbestos finger time:) While its usually recommended to secure the work in place before soldering. Is sometimes difficult to clamp everything in place so sometimes its easier to tack solder a part in place check the alignment before soldering the seam. Inner layer now soldered in place. A bit of metal forming the inner solebars are formed into an L shape and the tabs fit into slots in the floor. The fold line needs to be slightly wider than the metal thickness otherwise its impossible to form a 90o fold, there is a similar problem with slots which may be too narrow to accept a tab. I generally clamp the narrow section in the vice then use a steel rule or an engineers square to fold over the wider section, I have a fancy American etch bending tool which generally lives on a shelf gathering dust. The jaws are not quite level so reverse the work and press down again. Starting to look like a van solebars folded and ready to fit, the van headstock (bufferbeams) ends have been folded over into position. Solebar slotted and tacked into position. I should have folded up the axleguard first before fixing the solebar. Inner solebars tinned to accept cosmetic half etched oveerlays. The solebars are formed in two sections with an L shaped structural section and a cosmetic overlay with both detail and support bracket for the handbrake brackets.

I though a simple blow by blow on working with etched kits might help to dispel some of the myths of whats involved and even encourage people to have a go. I am starting with the test build of one of my many "works in progress" a MGWR van. All ready to kit, tools and light refreshment on workbench. Very much like the old Superquick building kits except in metal The main tools at this stage are a piece of hardboard or self healing mat and a craft knife for cutting away the tabs that attach the parts to the sprue. A square and vice to act as a press brake for bending, a London Road Models Riveting Tool (thing with cork on the end), miniature drills and a pin vice, the white slab is a heat resistant ceramic pad for soldering. Sorry about the quailty of the photo, the sides are designed to fold up around the floor and the W & V Irons fold down to form parts of the running and brake gear. The chassis can be assembled with a rigid or compensated chassis where on axle is supported on a separate rocking W Iron unit The photos is from the back showing the half etched holes for forming bolt or rivet heads. One of the limitations of the process is that normally its only possible to etch half way through the metal so sometimes detail has to be built up in layers. The rivet tool in use place the punch in one of the half etched holes and drop the little weight which acts as a hammer, alternatively the pionted end of a scriber or centre punch can be used. Section of one side and floor showing punched bolt heads. Its usually necessary to drill or ream out holes as its difficult to etch out a hole to a specific diameter due to certain chaaracteristics of the process. Drilling out one of the underframe compensation brackets with a 0.75mm drill in a pin vice. Drilling and punching complete we now get to the metal bending phase of the project. The sides are designed to fold up around the floor, the side is bent up with one hand while holding the floor down against the mat using a block of wood or the square, then checking Repeat for the other side.

Inchacore seems to have been in the area between the running shed and works, seems to have been demolished in the 60s there is a photo of the coaling tower surrounded by scaffold in the Inchacore 150 book, not sure of Adelaide also had a coaling tower probably worth a trip to the IRRS Library.

Patrick I am not sure about the rail the bullhead is probably C&L or SMP (Markway Models Sheffield) the FB may be Altas Code 82 or Peco Code 75 stripped from HO flexitrack. I think both C&L and Peco supply a code 75 FB & BH rail for 4mm use.

The track plan struck me as very American in principal then realised that your living in States, its interesting to see that Frank in Tasmania is also building with operation in mind. I like the idea of the station and the viaduct very much part of the distinctive character of the Waterford-Dungarvan line thoughif anything a direct line from Youghal to Dungravan would have been even more spectacular. Patrick it funny you mentioned Ardfert and Abbeydorney I did my first bit on serious gricing one day in 78 shortly after servicees ceased cycling around Fenit, Spa, Ardfert and Abbeydorney with a brand new Kodak Instamatic camera and no map. I arrived back in the guesthouse in Tralee tired but satisfied with my achievement, the following day it rained. I have much the same idea in mind layout wise single track round the wall end to end one medium one small station both Block Posts possibly multi level.

Amazingly clean looking locos compared with more recent times, very little work for the weathering pen.

I knocked up a couple of sample panels of track to try out different techniques for the new layout whenever I get round to starting it. The layout will probably be based on the Burma Road in the 1950s & 60s secondary main lines have a certain appeal with fairly compact stations and laid back operation. The line was basically a Southern incursion into Midland territory in steam days operation was centred on Limerick and Tuam mainly worked by J15s and small ex-GSWR 4-4-0s Track was mainly jointed flatbottom but some sections were laid in bullhead I wanted to capture this mixture plus the distinctive centre-cess drainage once common in many parts of Ireland. Two samples were made up one in Bullhead using C&L plastic chairs and sleepers the other using flatbottom rail and copper clad sleepers. I decided to try the American style split track underlay which simplifies setting out, simply line up the edge of the underlay with the track centre line than fix the other piece. Cork and rubber versions are available locally. The second side bevelled to represent the centre cess. Underlay glued in place using a French PVA that is reputed tobe good at sticking anything to anything 10 minutes later ballasted section of centre cessed track, the cess acted as a drain so might need a touch of varnish or Ez-Water. The sleepers are a deeper section than standard for handlaid track used to represent unballasted track and situations like this. Flatbottom laid in pva awaiting ballast. Voila ballast sprinkled in place, surplus removed and not quite 3 year old ganger inspecting bullhead panel in background. I am not sure how this will work out in practice, the chaired bullhead is generally assembled by fixing the sleepers in place on a printed template, threading the chairs onto the rails, gluing down one rail the gauging and gluing the second rail in place. Copperclad is usually laid by soldering one rail down to the sleepers in a jig then transferring the half track to the baseboard, then gauging and soldering the second rail in position. The chaired track involves a lot more work threading the chairs onto the rails then gluing everything in place, the whole assembly tends to be quite fragile until assembly is complete. Anyway it should be interesting if I can keep my sanity threading on my current stock of 500 chairs enough for roughly 2 metres of plain track

I would be wary about buying a printer at this stage its probably better to have a go with one of the freebie programmes and try using a bureau or rapid prototyping company to do the printing. Besides the bureaus like Shapeways and I materialise there may be some commercial companies in Ireland and the UK that will do 3D printing can also be used to prepare wax masters for lost wax casting and to produce moulds for resin casting. 3D Printed CIE Coach Buffer in acrylic plastic (Shapeways frosted detail) The main problem is mastering the design technique and the limitations of the material

Brilliant shot the urban scene certainly cries out to be modelled, the area around the back of Cork station is/was very interesting the wrought iron trusses in the foreground may be part of the original GSWR Station. The flats look like 60' rail wagons, the cranes may be hand operated for lifting and lowering rail to the line side, there is a photo of rails being swapped out on the Burma Road in JHBs & Barry Carse's book Rails Through The West with the same cranes mounted on ex MGWR rail wagons dating from the 1920s

Thats one of the cable wagons from the train, love the wire safety rail

The train was used from the early 70s mainly for cable laying in connection with the signal and electrical department without incident until someone panicked. The train normally seemed to live on the siding off the CTC Loop in Sallins, but may have been working for Esat when photographed at Enfield in the late 90s. There was a lot of contraversy at the time it looks like there was pressure at high level to complete the work for Esat without regard to IEs requirements, the Mini CTC was a design and build contract with a French company. Apart from cost over-runs, the trial interlocking at Knockcrokery on the Mayo Line was unreliable, IE basically kicked out the contractor and basically installed a superior system to its own design at a lower cost. I was not really interested in the cable train but the photos will give a general idea, basically the train was made up of wagons carrying cable drums, the plough and a van to supply power light and somewhere for the crew to have a midnight snack.

I wonder what their power consumption is like? I had some point motors powered off the track supply but it would probably be better to have a separate power supply or booster powering the signals. Its fairly simple to convert points to computer control using JMRI or some of the other programmes, but there is a lot of additional hardware and wiring converting signals to automatic operation.

Its a nicely observed typical small station with a GNR main line feel to it with that signal box and railcars. The station building is pretty close in style to Balbriggan or some on the Midland, a couple of vans in the goods yard was pretty typical of the black and tan area.

Ah Richie you can almost smell the atmosphere from here;) I worked down that area for a while before it was gentrified, great atmosphere we would go to some of a the early houses for a fry up for breakfast as the regulars were getting into a session. Hope you have a go at the old LNWR station, woolstore and hotel.

Most of the B101s were repainted into the Supertrain scheme with a few early withdrawls remaining in black or one of the black and tan schemes. I am not sure if it was a cheap paint job or underlying rust but most of the repainted locos faded to various shades of pink on the Inchacore sound barrier while the black and black and tan locos were the least faded.

Frank S Good to see that you are developing a healthy interest in Midland engines I have one of the Standard Goods and an Achill Bogie on the to do list probably as a set of scratchbuilders parts for use with SSM E Class boiler fittings rather than a fully fledged kits. The Bachmann 3F would be nice but too long for the Midland & most Irish 0-6-0s a DSER engine like 461 or one of J8 0-6-0 would probably be the best compromise for a 3 or 4F Chassis The Hornby Dean Goods is probably closest in size to the J15 and Midland standard goods and Bachmann/Mainline J72 and has been used as a basis for the Midland E CIE/GSR J26 an extremly usefull little engine, that did good work on the Midland, Waterford and Tramore, West Cork and around Tralee. I will pass on 4mm drawings of 90 & 184 which would be good to compare with a Terrier and 184