Mayner

David Jenkinson of the NRM prepared a glowingly positive report as part of the feasibility study for Mullingar, and at the time described the opportunity as unique in these islands a large country junction station complete with mechanical signalling and other steam age infrastructure. While CIE were originally supportive, Mary O'Rourke as minister responsible for transport and Westmeath TD (Athlone) seems to have opposed the scheme from the begining pulled the rug out from underneath CIE & a local comittee after making disparaging remarks about railway enthuiasts and train spotters and wanting a proper museum. The feasibility project for the "proper museum" blew the cost of setting up the project out to around £5m there was no prospect of public funding with Mary apparently supporting a rival scheme in Athlone, so in the end nothing happened.

In the 90s there were quite concrete plans for a National Transport Museum in Mullingar but it rapidly fell apart when it was realsied a lot of public money was involved and Mary O'Rourke wanted the money to go to Athlone. One has to take one hat off to the Council and people of Belfast for setting up a transport museum at a time the Northern Ireland Government thought railways were a complete waste of time and public money.

Hi Gareth I seem to be having a good run of modelling at the moment with a lot of progress on differnet fronts, holding back on starting the layout until I have finished a lot of unfinished projects has been a great motivator. Polyurethane resins are much of a muchness, looking at the data sheets Barnes Easy Cast has similar characteristics to Easi Flo 6 but slightly longer pot life. The main drawback with polyurethane are the air bubbles and brittleness, I am looking at using a liquid epoxy the nexxt time I have a go.

Nice and subtle just brake dust and road dirt. Is the Class 25 the Hornby model?

About 10 years ago a guy managed to blow himself up working on a truck with a concealed fuel tank at a garage somewhere in Monaghan. The truck was a beaver tail transporter with a full length tank under the transporter body, it looks like the victim was welding and didnt bother to purge the tank beforehand, everyone involved disappeared into the background, or knew nothing about the tank. The HSA and Gardai investigated it was not counted as a workplace death as there no ILO Code for criminal activity

I think the camera man may have had the shakes . Bogies the roughest running was as he powed up on the newly laid CWR for the climb out of Headford Junction. A light weight freight bogie was used under the Bo Bos and Yanks to keep within the axle load down, there is a story of the driver of a 121 on the up Enterprise in the early 60s having to make an emergency brake application approaching Malahide. The loco was swaying so badly as he crossed the Broadmeaows he thought that the cab might strike the rather tight bridge at the Dublin end of the station.

It was mainly down to a few far sighted people in Belfast Corporation who set up the Ulster Tramsport Museum in an East Belfast Tram Shed. It was probably a natural step for Belfast Corporation as it had been involved in running trams and busses, but at the time there probably would have been an outcry from ratepayers in Dublin had the Corporation leased a tram shed or the Broadstone Roundhouse from CIE and started filling it with old trams busses and dirty steam trains. At the time the railways were very supportive donating a lot of the locos and stock that got the ball rolling including GNR 91, 800, 186 and the DKR carriages. In the South everyone made a song and dance about heritage but no one was prepared to pay, while the Ulsterman put his money where his mouth was and gots on with it setting up the Belfast Transport Museum, RPSI and Downpatrick.

I cannot run anything straight out of the box so much the same applies to my American as Irish models. I have a G Gauge layout in the garden mainly using Bachmann & LGB American outline stock. The main problem is the lack of a steam or diesel loco that right in proportion to the rolling stock There is an odd scale gauge thing with four different scales and one gauge rather than the OO, EM, S4 business in OO. Most of the better quality Bachmann steameers are to a larger scale and dwarf most of the rolling stock. I am modifying Bachmanns rather odd looking 2-8-0 to look like a DRGW narrow gaugee loco. Basically new funnel, cab, modified tender running plates to narrow the loco by about 1/2", also moved the headlight on top of the smokebox. Cab and tender detail a lot easier than N or 4mm . patch smokebox following removal of original funnel. The diesel has been a bit more drastic convert a modernish centre cabbed GE into an early 1950s end cabbed design. More plastic surgery new cab, narrow footplate 3/4" either side fabricate new valence, join two sections of bonnet into one, cut outs for radiator grills, block off original end grills. Both locos will be converted to on board battery Radio Control, DCC has been problematic in the garden.

Coal trains are about to start running with 10 wagons painted lettered and most fitted with couplers and work in progress on coal loads with real coal. Weshty produced a sheet of custom decals for solid snails and lettering used on the C&L section. The station also got a carriage shed to balance the loco shed at the country end of the station. The shed is framed in box seection brass, the corrugated roof from a Wills Timber Yard kit and the wall cladding Evergreen planked styrene. The building was spray painted with a cheap car primer with a nice weathered look. This one neeeds some serious weathering, the GSR removed all the C&L carriage sheds in the 30s as an economy measure and the carriages gradually fell to pieces stored outside in the Leitrim weather. Somehow or other the shed at Keadue was forgotten, but there is no money in the maintenance budget to repaint a shed that does not exist. Ceramic soldering pad a very usefull tool from Micro-Mark, no its not asbestos.

The 20' containers with side doors and half heights were sometimes marshalled in loose coupled trains and used in the same manner as H vans and open wagons and ran to places such as Athy and Youghal. CIE used to operate a warehousing and distribution service for Murray Kitchens from their factory in Youghal to building sites in Dublin, and its possible that containers were loaded in the Yard in Youghal before North Esk was comissioned. Distribution in Dublin was by a 2 axle Bedford TK with 20' flat bed or skeletal body, from memory the truck had a white cab and Murray logo and the drivers name was Richie.

The Wexford boys have been really good in capturing the character of the South East with several excellent layouts since the early 1980s. Johnnie Walker was one of the first to model a railway in a distinctively Irish landscape complete with scratchbuilt buildings and Waterford area steam locos and rolling stock mainly in plasticard on Airfix (GMR) & Hornby chassis.

Nearly did one of my best mates was from Sneem had to interprate for him and a Meath man in a Dunlaoire chipper. Reminds me of years later I was on official business investigating safety complaints in the Kingdom which took me to Kenmare . I went into the post office to ask for directions the post master in typical Kerry fashion answered my question with another question "Arruu from Tralee?" He broke down on hearing I was from Dublin and started volunteering information about accidents left right and centre. This was in mid-winter I had taken "herself" along the we did the Ring of Kerry and could not see a thing between the fog and the dark, griced the remains remains of the Valentia line the following morning, the Reeks had a dusting of snow before doing something vaguely related to work in Killorglin. Happy days;)

My first holiday away from home on my own so to speak and long distance rail journey was on a crowded Heuston Tralee joiney by a very talkative Kerryman just off the Mailboat on holidays from over beyont and a rather attractive girl and a friend who joined at Thurles. The craic was mighty our friend from the Kingdom got off at Killarney and arrangements made to meet up with the girls later in Anascaul, but I got caught up gricing thee North Kerry and missed my chance. It was another year before I got to Anascaul and the girl and her friend had gone:(. The nearest to JHBs experience with the Gaeltori was in an elderly Southern Region EMU on the North Kent from Chatham to London Bridge a group of girls singing their hearts out in a very tunefull way.

Princess is in Dublin as a FR marketing exercise, she has already been on tour in the UK and was on display a Paddington Station and possibly the NRM.

I caught the sound bug about 10 years ago first with a Shay and later with a pair of rod engines and a Baldwin diesel Switcher for an interchange with a logging line/coal mine, the main advantage was that using sound on a switching layout forced me to slow down operation to a prototypical pace. The layout never got beyond a test track above the work bench and I sold the sound equipped locos when I started building a garden railway. Apart from designing and building models I am mainly interested in pick up goods or way freight operation, I found sound unnecessary in the garden as it takes nearly as long to shunt as the real thing especially having to walk several metres to change a switch or uncouple a car

to paraphrase the Pistols is DCC a rip off. I went down much the same road as Warbonnet with sound equipped locos (steam and diesel) before coming to the conclusion F8 (sound off) was the most useful button. The tipping point for me was having to leave a club room due to the high pitched drone of a consist of a friends SD70s bouncing off the walls of the layout room giving me a headache. I think Alan O'Rourke putting the whole DCC thing in context in the most recent edition of New Irish Lines where modellers seem to be becoming more obsessed about being able to turn a loco's cab lights on and off (something thats rarely done in practice) and forgetting the principal purpose of a loco is to haul trains. Cost is another factor like lost things to do with electronics, DCC chips are said to be good for about 10 years, why pay more than twice the price of a chip and sound system for a loco. I have two control systems one DC powered off a 30 year old H&M Safety Minor and one DCC where I have spent a fortune upgrading and adding additional trottles andd functions, yet I can still only run one train at a time.

Looks good those modern liveries are tricky.

There are a few pre-assembled vans awaiting replacement roofs and buffers, which should be available from September. Specially for Richie I will need to leave it outside dunked in diesel over the Southern Winter to weather. Standard black and tan era hot water bottle. never mind the length feel the width

I thought I had better do an update thanks to prompting by Mr Bracken on RM Web. The delay has mainly been due to having to replace all the 3D printed parts mainly with brass and obtaining a great big rolling mill from the UK to roll boilers and pre-form coach roofs and sides. The mill finally arrived thanks to a machinery broker from Clare and the workshop is beginning to look like the inside of a sheetmetal works. Thanks Des! I am planning to do a final test build of the vans with the new metal roofs in July finalise buffers and axleguards and release both versions of the tin vans before Christmas. Heating van with revised brass roof Meanwhile a patternmaker has been busy beavering away in the UK and castings for the MGWR van are currently on order and should be available for those of a historic bent in September. Luggage Van (plastic roof to be replaced with brass) Once the castings and roofs are sorted out I will be able to confirm price for a kit or assembled version. The 650 Class 2-4-0 is making good progress I hope to do a test build in August and will post photos to give an idea of the various options and whats involved in building.

There is an Irish connection with the Festiniog in the 1830s original railway was promoted and financed by Dublin business interests and was very profitable with a monopoly on the slate traffic out of Bleanau until LNWR and GWR built lines into the area, Princess is pretty much in the same condition as when she last ran in the 1940s some bits may date back to 1860, the England locos were fairly standardised and parts swapped around within the class. The Festiniog is basically a small gauge main line railway and locos are basically worked flat out the England locos may be small but have a nicee exhaust [video=youtube;FYQlez-SVmU]

During the past few weeks I have mainly been catching up on a backlog of other projects mainly loco work in various scales before starting work on the layout as such. Keeping to a Midland or GSWR secondary line theme a dozen yards of Code 70 fb rail, wooden sleepers and spikes arrived, followed by a session of pretend cresoting using Carr's sleeper stain before reaslising an acrylic wood stain would be more effective and economic. The sleepers are 1.8mm stripwood rather than ply which should give an interesting full depth sleeper effect, I am planning to follow American practice and spike down the fb rails rather than solder and printed circuit board, bullhead will be on Carrs chairs of course. I also framed the baseboard on the opposite side of the workshop which gives me a u shaped area approximately 17'X11' for the railway. The shed is a converted garage with a roller shutter door at one end which I hope to replace with a wall and doorway when fund allow hopefully at some stage next year. I have actually managed to do some work on the layout building a traverser for a fiddle yard at one end using plywood and drawer sliders from the local DIY shop. I am starting to re-use track from a 21mm gauge layout I started a couple of years ago for the traverser and hidden trackage with the fancy stuff on the visible sections. I am looking at two single lines one in bullhead the other in fb running from the traverser into a station to give the impression of a junction between two separate companies as an excuse to mix GNR and CIE locos and stock.

Although I have vague early childhood memories of a big blue steam loco with smoke deflectors 207? and dark green railcars on seaside trips in our Fiat Topilino to Gormanstown my first longish rail journey was on a day trip to Butlins in an AEC railcar as a teenager in the early 70s. We took our usual position immediately behind the driver, I am not sure if the Drogheda and Dundalk trains started from the Main Line or Loop Line platforms, CIE had only recently introduced large scale through running between Bray & Howth following alterations at East Road, previously there was only a single line North facing connection from the Loop Line to the Down Belfast line immediately past the end of the platforms. Crossing Spencer Dock the sidings on the South side of the dock were still in place but out of use, this siding once lead to coal yards and cattle docks in the Mayor Street area now occupied by banks and the Dockland College. The Midland yard was still a traditional goods yard chock full of wagons, at East Wall Junction the line from the North Wall trailed in on the Up side, GNR signals were perculiar with short arms and some posts were telegraph poles. The area past the Roadstone ready-mix plant at East Wall Road was still tidal slobland, no sign of landfill or industrial development. Access to the plant was interesting with a Bailey bridge across the Tolka. Clontarf Railcar depot was unchanged since GNR days with 3 roads through the shed and a loop alongside the main line, signals change from semaphore to 3? aspect colour light the first sign of modern infrastructure from Clontarf Road to Howth Junction. Some outer-suburban trains ran semi-fast I am not sure if we stopped at Killester or Harmonstown, Raheny was still pretty much a country station with housing development concentrated along the Howth Road. At the time Howth Junction was quite rural a couple of railway houses and Palm Trees on the platform between the main Line and Howth Branch. The journey settled down into a steady pattern, with a few people getting on or off at intermediate stations, most were still handling good traffic with wagons in the yards at Portmarnock, Rush and Lusk, Skerries, Balbriggan and even Gormanstown. The driver saluted the drivers of approaching trains and acknowledged station staff and track workers. In those days a ganger raising his right arm was a signal to the driver that he was aware of the train and everyone in the clear, no high vis jackets or radio communication. The rides at Butlins were brilliant for 14-15 year olds in the days before theme parks, there were a few anxious moments on the train back to Dublin in an ex GNR corridor coach behind a black and tan B141 we had never been on an express before and wernt sure if we werre going to end up in Belfast, Dublin or Cork or maybe wishfull thinking, we were brought back to reality when the train as checked for about 5 minutes at East Wall Junction nothing ever changes. Around the same time we explored the Howth branch which at the time did not have the attractions of Bray, Bayside was under construction Sutton and Howth full of GNR atmosphere. The Hill of Howth car shed still in existance and the yard still in use, Howth had a single platform with run round loop and a siding by the sea wall sleepers covered in sand. The stub of the Hill of Howth Tramway was in use as a private siding into Parsons steel work with a Bulleid open full of swarf and waste steel. A few years later possibly 1976 I went on an IRRS special behind a 001 Class to Kingscourt, Drogheda was really modellable in those days, natural tree lined backdrop between the station and Buckleys yard, North and South signal cabins, loco depot Buckleys siding, two goods yards and a reversing move to access the Navan Branch. There was no facing connection from the Down Belfast line to the branch, trains from the South had to set back past the South Signal Cabin over a trailing crossover onto the Up Main before moving forward onto the branch, presumably a single slip formed one leg of the crossover, the Oldcastle trains used to start either from the main line platforms or the present day bay platform. Another oddity was that the staff for the branch was raised and lowered in a basket from the very tall cabin, the yards were cramped and most shunting moves would have fouled the main lines, the middle road seem to be used to store wagons placed by the yard shunter or pilot loco awaiting pick up by main line trains. The contrast between the GNR line to Navan and MGWR to Kingscourt was striking, the GNR line had a more main line atmosphere with bullhead rail on chairs and impressive station buildings, Duleek and Beauparc had closed at that stage, though the wooden railcar halt at Lougher was still in existance. Business at Navan looked healthy with about 20 H vans and a pair of Guinness Keg flats in the yard. Navan had a 16t fixed gantry similar to Tralee, Dromad and other stations, presumably as a railhead for Kells, Oldcastle and possibly Cavan. The site of Navan Junction was all but obliterated but preparation work had started on the siding to Tara Mines. At the time the Kingscourt line was still laid with MGWR FB rail spiked directly to sleepers, ballast was not too plentiful, while the line from Clonsilla Junction to Navan was built to main line standards without a single public level crossing, the Kingscourt line is quite the opposite, stations were modest built from the local brick. All intermediate stations were closed and sidings lifted these stations followed a common platform with a single platform and goods loop serving a loading bank, Nobber and Kilmainham Wood had separate store road. Kingscourt was pretty much intact with the track layout pretty much as in Midland days with two sidings on the down side in the area now occupied by the Gypsum store. These were connected to the main line by a trailing crossover near the platform end, yard side of the crossover was pure Midland with a double slip similar to Edenderry. Gypsum was loaded by a turntable arrangement at the North end of the yard sited between the headshunt for the loco release and the one time caattle bank siding. Although the turntable was still in existance the loco shed ws demolished. Although hopper wagons were normally in use, gypsum for Platin appears to have been loaded out in Bulleid Opens the yard was full of empty and laden wagons. One oddity survived at Kingscourt an ex-GNR 6w ballast wagon which may have been used to carry sleepers. At one stage bricks from the local factory was an important source of traffic with a loading bank and crane by the running line rather than a separate siding.

Early 70s I was probably 14 possibly 15 listened to Radio Luxenburg & Thin Lizzy but hadn't yet progressed to the purple flares and afro hairstyle. During the school holidays a cousin who was an apprentice barman used to take me and his younger sister by train on day trips to the seaside, on his day off probably a Wendesday. Bray was the normal destination but we had one trip to Bultins. We lived in Crumlin and would normally catch the train at Tara Street a brisk walk from the Bus Terminus in Fleet Street or else a long walk to Amiens St for the train to Mosney. AEC railcars seemed to be the norm for off peak working in those years though my first trip by train was in a GSR or possibly GSWR non-corridor from Killiney to Tara St possibly behind a black C or A Class. My mother and her sisters took us on a summer weekday outing by bus to Dalkey and a walk towards Killiney wheer the train seemed the only means of getting home. The best thing about the railcars was the view ahead sitting in the row behind the driver, sometimes in 1st Class seating though these sets normally seem to terminate at Pearse possibly outer suburban workings from Drogheda. At the time there was a lot of interest the Amiens Street-Dun Laoire section was particulary interesting still with its GSR power signalling system, 1930s style signal cabins at Amiens St and the overtrack cabin south of Westland Row, manned crossing boxes between Landsdown Road and Merrion Gates, Mailvans at Westland Row, The Boston carriage sidings and Grand Canal Street Shed still a diesel depot responsible for supplying power for Galway and West of Ireland workings, light engine movements of 121 Class for turning between Westland Row and Amiens Street. Very little freight on this section a few cattle wagons at cattle bank at IMP Grand Canal Street, horse boxes and cattle wagons stored at the RDS sidings, mainly used for stabling and turning IRFU specials to Landsdown Road. Freight had all but ceased at Dun Laoire with the odd wagon to Irish Lights. Parcel traffic seemed busy often with a Sulzer and a parcel train in the original D&K station. In those days we would only see a mail train when meeting visitors off the Mail Boat or a Thursday evening buying freshly caught fish at Crofton Road bridge. The railcars were getting on a bit and as BR, CIE, NZR and UTA found out British Leyland had little or no interest in supplying spares to the railways. As the engines and transmissions became more work the railcars struggled with the long climb to the Vico Road tunnel, on one day we were treated to a sauna as the interior of the leading car filled with steam on the climb from Sandycove to Dalkey, once over the top the rest of the journey was uneventfull. Dalkey was in a way the first country station on the line, it acted as a terminus for some peak hour cross-city working, North Bound trains could depart from the down platform. Occasionally a couple of open wagons presumably with briquettes for the signal mans fire would be left in the goods yard, which later beacme a temporary home for the 3 Sugar Puff locos. Killiney though normally switched out was another station that was signalled for reversible working. The approach to Bray was interesting the course of the original coastal line between Ballybrack and Bray was visible in many places, the base of the signal cabin at the Junction of the Harcourt St line was in use as a platelayer hut and the trackbed was clear towards Shankill. The magnificent lattice signal gantries dominated the Northern approach to Bray the harbour and sea front briefly came into view before being obscurred by Victorian and Edwardian hotels and guest houses. Most trains crossover onto the up line and the main station platform, the layout was unchanged from GSR days the cattle bank siding at the North end was mainly used by the engineers, the carriage siding on the down side was once used for charging Drumm units leaving the station we would run down the alleyway buying ice creams and large bottles of lemonade as we planned our day. Usually a dip in the sea, followed by climbing Bray Head, then the ammusement arcades (mainly the dodgems) before going to the chipper and the train home to Dublin. If we had time or I was let I would check out the railways side of things, the goods yard was still in use with a couple of H vans outside the goods shed, probably sending out Solus light bulbs from the local factory, there always seems to have been a Solus van in the yard, a couple of open wagons of briquettes for the station and signal box fires. The loco shed was still roofed and in use as a loco depot though the 3 long carriage sidings on the up-side at the south end of the yard were out of use and partially lifted. These were later brought back into use as storage for new container wagons and and later DART units. In those days services south of Bray seems to have been very scarce, apart from the Rosslare trains, services were aimed mainly at commuters with a daily service from Wicklow to Dublin and return and a slightly more frequent service from Greystone. A couple of incidents stick in my mind from that period or slightly later (a) A heated discussion with a family member at Bray that there was no way CIE would paintthe side of a railway carriage black, it had to be dark blue. (b) A family grumbling about having to pay a return fare between Greystones and Connolly during the CIE "Great Train Robbery" half fare on "Main Line Trains" promotion. Did CIE think Greystones was "bog railway"? or words to that effect. For me the myth exploded a few years later, Bray was no longer a place spend a summer afternoon or the railway the most pleasent way of getting there. DART seemed to bring some of the pride in the job back, the journey around the head either in a railcar or a proper train one of the Worlds greatest short train journies, but nothing compared to sitting up behind the driver for the first time apart from taking control of the throttle and brake.

Nostalgia is a funny thing I have similar stories from about 20 years ago communting on Network South East and Scotrail and once even fell asleep and missed my stop after a few after work drinks with friends. While I have vague memories of trips in AEC railcars to Bray and Mosney, BR Class 158 Super Sprinters in Scotland and 321 EMUs bring back the fondest memories.

The LNER & Eastern Region had a great tradition of high speed, the region went for the Deltics in the early 60s as the only diesels that could match the streaks for power and speed. John