Mayner

The fit out of the railway room/workshop is going well with most of the trackwork complete to the G Scale storage sidings and the 21mm test track. The 21mm test track is basically a section of double track with a crossover and a short section of track with a reverse curve to detect buffer/gangway locking locos and bogie coaches. The curved track varies between 2'6" & 3' and the crossover is an A5 (approx 3' radius) which would generally only be used where space is tight. The test of the pudding pushing a rake of wagons through the crossover The track is a mixture of Atlas Code 82 and Peco Code 75 flatbottom rail soldered to copper clad sleepers. Next stage wire up the crossover and try out with a loco hopefully everything stays on. The wagons are a mixture of scratch and modified Parkside kits Standard CIE covered H Van (red oxide) and ex-GNR Bagged Cement (dark grey) both from the Parkside BR Plywood sided van kit. The CIE van is supposed to be a fitted van hence clasp brake shoes and should have handwheels to apply the hand brakes. The CIE van body were subtly different to the BR version with plywood ends, different strapping and self contained buffers (MJT). Not my best efforts scratchbuit CIE 20T brake and KN long cattle both overdue for replacement. The brake is mainly plasticard with whitemetal Kenline strapping which is alas no longer available. I am getting to the layout planning phase I am looking more at the Burma Road than the T&C both because of greater variety of stock and operation and I probably have enough suitable locos and stock to model both steam and diesel operation, though I need to add some Midland locos. The stations tend to be more compact with less sprawl and simpler buildings and structures than the Midland, I am thinking in terms of fitting in two stations possibly based on Kiltimagh and Charlestown with end to end or continuous run operation, but I need to do some thorough testing of locos and stock first. John

Looks good nice to see the models mixed in with the full sized locos, I had been following the Bleach Green thread on RM Web, its great to see a signature model of an Irish prototype on an epic scale like Ambergate or Tebay, perhaps its time for other groups to get together model such classics as Westland Row to Grand Canal Street or Rathpeacon to Kilbarry Tunnel

I did one years ago on a Triang-Hornby Jinty chassis plasticard body, boiler from brass tube, scratchbuilt tender, few evenings work but scrapped the loco cause I wasnt happy with the motor sticking out the back of the cab. Going forward with David's idea it would be fairly simple to do a set of scratchbuilders parts for a brass body with a nickle silver chassis if you wanted something that runs better with the drive on the loco. The main snag and cost/time involvedin sourcing/producing parts like boiler fittings, axleguards & buffers, parts like wheels gears motors, bearings are readily available from the UK.

Not sure about green much prefer black or GSR grey for freight locos. 461 would be an excellent beginners scratch-building project either in plasticard or metal on the old Triang 3F or Airfix/Hornby 4F chassis. Drawing© Alan Roone 1971 the drawing is from a set of 4 including No90, 184 & A39r but do not include a section or plan view. We would need someone to take some measurements and photos.

Bell containers were common at the Willesden Freightliner/Channel Tunnel container terminal in North London in the 90s, used to pass it most days on the daily commute into the big smoke. I am not sure whether they arrived on services through the Chunnel or the South West as they rarely appeared on the WCML. At one time Bell traffic was conveyed on both scheduled and company trains in the UK and on the Continent, one of the more unusual traffics carried was spagetti from McDonalds of Drogheda to Italy

The Bachmann 3F may be a goer for a body line kit for 461 the overall coupled wheelbase is not far off 8'+8'6" against 7'3'+8'10" for 461, an etched brass nickle silver chassis would be easy enough to prepare for 21mm or those needing something more accurate There is a 4mm drawing but no section, then again 461 still exissts and the GAs should be available from the Manchester Museum of technology. The general outline is fairly simple without those killer curved running plates found on GSWR & Midland locos so a resin body from a handcrafted or a 3D printed master may be a starter

Beautiful used to see those tractor and trailer units as a chissler going up and down to the quays to the Miranda Guinness docked at Sir John Rogerson Quay just beyond the Loop Line Bridge. The export Draft Bottled Guinness is good stuff, I have a bottle in my Emergency Pack under the desk at work in case of Earthquake, Tsunami or Taupo re-erupting.

I am not sure if it was Scaletric or other hobbies and pastimes but model railways seem to have almost disappeared off the radar in Dublin in the early 70s. Apart from Monck Place and Southern Model Railways most Department Stores many bicycle/TV and electrical shops had a Traing agency and stocked Triang-Hornby train sets and sometimes track and accessories. I used to look at the sets in the window of Lamberts TV shop in Crumlin village on the way to and from school, especially the break down train with its Jinty, crane and interesting looking bottles of oil. A few years later it was only Terry's Toy shop in Henry Street and the two specialist model railway shops. My first set was the oddly named "South African Goods" the recently released M7 and four wagons. Unlike Seamus Princess the M7 did not last very long was traded in for a diesel shunter and I started my long tradition of cutting, carving and bashing. The attitude to model railways was different then and it wasnt a done thing for a teenager let alone a grown man to be seen playing with trains. These days our 3 year old daughter has her own set and has mastered the remote controi, and I might actually have space for a permanent layout.

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