Mayner

The physical and e-mail address are from New Irish Lines, if the wagons are as good as Alan O'Rourke's review the guy deserves our support.

It looks like we may have a newwagon builder in the Midlands:banana:, rtr open beet wagons & H vans are available from Model Irish Scale Rail, 2 Coneburrow Road, Edenderry. misr@eircom.net The May edition of New Irish Lines includes a favourable review by A J O'Rourke. The models are resin on a modified Dapol chassis, "the bodies are very neat. The rather complex arrangement of the corrugation in the opens is well captutured". "The paint finish excellent' The inside of the beet wagons are said to be flush and MISR (James MacKay) appears to be working on a range of wagons including the CIE 20T brake and other traditional wagons. The review includes a screenshot of a 3D model so the wagons may be resin castings produced from a virtual master, this avoids the stepping present with 3D printed models.

Somehow or other I dont think ol Neil was exactly a GSWR fan probably more Great Northern or NCC....................Sweet Home was Lynard Skynard's response to Neil Youngs "Southern Man" "Watergate does not bother me, does your conscience bother you? Tell me true"..................... despite this the Van Zants & Young remained good friends I have always been tempted to check to hook up a Lionel loco to a sound system, at one time Ol Neil bought the company and spent a lot of time and money developing a sound system, I wonder if there is much feedback

, Now the fiddly bit fitting the wheels and setting up the second solebar, the underframe ribs and ends help locate and align the solebar. Two assembled wagons, the brake gear is the most difficult part, there is nothing to positively locate the brake shoes or vacuum cylinder, while the plastic shaft that runs between the V hangers is not exactly the most practical of ideas. The wagon on the left is similar to a pair of T&D ballast wagons sent to the C&L in the 1950, while the wagon with rounded ends is supposed to be typical of West Clare Practice. On the way to the paint shop surprisingly the Parkside wagons are the same width but shorter than my C&L opens. Now for something completly different. I bought a Bachmann Large Scale 45 Ton centre cab diesel several years ago, I was not happy with the appearence or performance, she towered above the LGB stock and had a habit of blowing up decoders. The loco was converted to battery operation as an end cab unit a couple of years ago but I was still not happy with the general appearence So a trip to the shops for re-building just need the overhead gantrys to look the part The loco was stripped down to the underframe in order to "narrow it a little bit" Re-assembly in progress underframe narrowed, new cut outs in body for radiator air intake grills and outlet, old radiator grill filled in, new hood access panels, low profile GE cab. Cab fabricated from 0.75-1.5-0.75 plasticard and ABS. windows in 0.75mm material cut out with craft knife, 1.5mm with piercing saw and files. These days I generally produce a full size drawing of the part and fix it to the plasticard with spraymount, as errors usually occur in transferring dimensions from a drawing to the material for cutting. I kept the Bachmann 1:20.5 scale control stand although the driver will need to go on a diet to fit in a 1:22.5 Scale Cab its no worse that some of the NZR classes. This could be a quick re-build as the little Porter is doing most of the work at the moment, and the steamer is a long term re-build into a C25 ,shorten front frame new cab, smokebox and funnel, new tender body, new tender bogies. I will probably go for a DRGW style repaint more GSR paint with yellow trim and yellow warning stripes similar to the Georgetown Loop diesels.

The postman has been busy today two little packages arrived from the UK this morning one with loco and tender wheels the other with a pair of narrow gauge wagon kits and another package of wheels. Parkside produce a wide range of narrow and standard gauge wagon kits in most of the popular scales, including a small range of Tralee & Dingle Kits while the BR Ply sided van is a good basis for a conversion into the ex-GNR Cement Vans and with a little more work a standard CIE H Van, while the BR Palvan forms a good basis for the CIE Sliding Door Pallet Vans. These kits used to be fairly basic but they no longer fit into the cheap and cheerful category quality has improved dramatically over the past 20 years. I tried a couple of their T&D wagon chassis as a basis for some coal wagons then Parkside released a 3' Gauge Irish open wagon based on Tralee & Dingle & West Clare practice. The Tralee and Dingle was notorious for its cheap construction and poor management, but they got it right with locos and stock, with Tralee & Dingle hand me downs finding their way to the West Clare and Cavan & Leitrim. The kits are fairly typical Parkside with nice body mouldings and the chassis in black plastic, the Tralee & Dingle wagon chassis is unusual by Parkside standards having the W Irons separate from the solebars. I usually smooth the edge of the solebar by lightly rubbing it along a file, (draw filing) this takes out any ridges or moulding lines, some of the older Parkside BR chassis used to be rough in this respect. Parkside supply brass top hat bearings with their 12mm and OO Gauge kits, this and pin point axle wheel sets is one of the secret of smooth running. Gently press the bearing in with a pliers. The W Irons locate into rebates in the solebar. Check that the W Irons align before the weld cures. Although the instructions recommends assembling the chassis before the body, I decided to fit the ends first in order to keep the solebars square. The little moulding pips need to be removed as they foul the sole bars. Solebar and one end fitted

There are photos of Pullmans on P94 "Irish Railways in Colour from Steam to Diesel" Tom Ferris Midland Publishing ISBN 1-85780-000-1 and p 37 Irish Broad Gauge Carriages Des Coakham Ian Allen ISBN 1 857850-175 X The photo in Irish Railways is of a withdrawn coach in early CIE dark green livery in poor condition with the peeling revealing cream upper panels between the windows. The photo in Irish Broad Gauge carriages is of a coach at Kingsbridge in Pullman livery, the author notes that the coaches were fitted with tip up seats which were uncomfortable by the standards of the 1950s

I have a bottle of Export together with a couple of bags of Taytos in my survival pack under the desk at work. I worked in the bar trade 9in Dublin) at one stage and a number of regulars would touch nothing but a 'pint bottle of Guinness by the neck".

An interesting find, conditions were certainly cramped compared to Diesel No 1 in Inchacore. The Metrovicks were assembled in a British Railways Carriage shops in Manchester, carriages are visible in the bays on the right. At the time the choice of Metrovick may have not been so odd they had supplied most of British and South African straight electrics and Crossley had a good name as an engine builder.

At least some of the bogies survived for a long time after the coaches were scrapped. For many years after the Lisburn crash the remains of 010 sat on a pair of Pullman Bogies outside Diesel No 1 Inchacore. An A Class on Pullman Bogies with one cab cut away would make an interesting model

I havent read this thread before and frankly, gobsmacked by the time effort and money put into running the site. Considering the problems we had with earlier sites, perhaps its time for the rest of us to consider a fund raiser for the keep Stephen solvent fund?

The old railway owned container depot with its gantry crane is tending to be a thing of the past, much of todays freight generated by Logistics, Port and Shipping companies now handled in new purpose built depots in Industrial areas with good road and motorway connections like Daventry freight terminal in the UK. This has started in Ireland with the IWT traffic and the new siding into Dublin Port, Logistics companies are more likely to consider rail for line haul work between distribution depots and the ports as Irish Rail are no longer in direct competition as a door to door delivery service. Its hard to second guess what is going to happen, but businesses are begining to seriously invest in rail, currently freight in Hamilton is handled in a new depot jointly owned and operated by the railway and a major customer on the city ring road, and two major private railfreight terminals are planned and we do not have Irelands manufacturing expot base.

Might have to get John Campbell to do a live steam conversion I just might have to sell the N gauge collection and try a scale where I can actually see the models.

Probably one of the furthest travelled layouts I started these modules in Dublin about 15 years ago, they became the centre piece of a larger layout before a move to New Zealand and incorporation into another layout. The boards sat on a shelf for 5 years in our new home before dusting off for these photos. If I ever get round to it the buildings could end up in a new L shaped layout in the home office. A freight from Washington arrives in town behind LV power as a pair of D&H U30Cs wait to take over for the run to Montreal. Inspired by the D&H & EL operation in Binghampton I cherry picked various features only to find the original was not as visually interesting. A pair of Atlas LV C628 "Snowbirds" Kato D&H SD45s & U30Cs in the background. D&H power on the service tracks Atlas C628s & U23Bs ER Models (Bachmann) RF16s Stages in evolution GE U25B keeps company with Baldwin Sharknose

Great news I might have to trade the smaller stuff in for the Tralee & Dingle Kerr Stuart

More or less like towing a car mainly by feel ! The drivers may have used whistle signals before starting off, applying and releasing the brakes, but the driver on the trailing loco would mainly be dependant on the movement of the train and road knowledge when to put on steam or ease off. I once drove small diesels in the UK, it is much the same with double heading the main thing is to avoid sudden starts or snatches otherwise you can break a coupler or tear the end out of a wagon. Great video ianyone notice the NIR logo on the loco at the quarry? the most striking thing was the youth of the lads watering the loco at York Road, I wonder were they railway employees or a couple of lads helping out at the shed on a Saturday morning, things were a lot more easy going in those days!

The Irish wagons may have been a bit wider has anyone tried a BR Container inside an SSM open http://studio-scale-models.com/img/k26.jpg ? I have several but no containers

Pretty serious weathering Richie you might need to send for the boys with a gas torch or plasma cutter for those wagons . CIE used to keep service stock in reasonably good condition , UTA & NIR wagon stock was another matter.

I have to do a presentation on the Swiss Cheese Model of Accident Causation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swiss_Cheese_model and I seriously considered using Cherryville Junction as an example. There are so many variables the 071 on the Tralee-Dublin failing as a result of engine overspeed governor problems, the A class running out of fuel, lineside telephone failures, unreliable train radios, ambigious rules for stop and proceed operation, the use of 2 aspect home and distant signals rather than 3 or 4 aspect colour lights on the CTC section, (this would have given a red rather than a yellow caution aspect as the driver of the up Galway approached the Cherryville Junction up repeater signal), foggy conditions on the bog approaching Cherryville with a single oil lamp as a last line of defence for the up Tralee. It was a bad day for Irish Railways earlier that morning the Sligo-Dublin Line was closed for engineering work at Moyvalley, the locos of the Up Sligo derailed at the Junction of the Sligo and Galway Lines at Mullingar, when the engineers posession was lifted the up Esso Oil train de-railed passing through the worksite.

Looking at the demographics and the need for suitable wagons for those big diesels, the 42'9" & 47'6" flats should be a good all round seller, though special wagons like Ammonia tankers, bulk and bagged cement may be a better seller due to their distinctive appearance and more coloufull liveries. Multiple packs would be a good idea as Liner Trains run in blocks rather than made up of individual wagons. Like Rich I would like stock that is easily re-gaugable to 21mm gauge, this could be achieved by using a 28mm rather than the standard 26mm OO gauge axle.

I would imagine the traffic is likely to be imported maize from South America for cattle feed like Avonmore in the 1990s Ireland hasn't really got the dry climate or wide open spaces for growing grain. I would imagine the grain would be shipped in bulk carriers to Ireland with distribution by container. Hardly the volume to justify Glanbia or Kerry Group building shuttle loaders that typically load 100 car trains.

Its based on the maltings at Grand Canal Street built from Wills Material Sheets part of a dockside layout I started but never finished, perhaps come day.

I explored the Wharf area as a teenager on a rover ticket from Dublin in 76 or 77 out via Limerick Junction, home via Rosslare Strand. The cranes & grain loading bins were still in use for loading trucks, but rail traffic had ceased to the Wharf, the skeletons on a couple of outside framed GNR vans were parked by the buffer stops, presumably the locaals found a use for the oak planking from the bodies. A long line of covered vans were later dumped on the siding behind the cabin, some still had labels or were chalked Empty Kegs Dundalk-Kilkenny presumably one of the last loose coupled goods working over the Waterford Line. I toyed around with the idea of using scenes from Waterford as a basis for a model without actually modelling the station. The section around the Wharf Cabin between Sion Row and Redmond Bridge would be particulary good especially if the approach tracks to the Rosslare & New Ross line Platforms were modelled.

I was shocked to see that I had started a thread on unfinished projects 12 months ago, in soem cases there is been good progress and others nothing, but few items actually completed. I had converted a Large Scale Bachmann centre cab diesel into a battery electric end cab similar to Southern Pacific No1 a couple of years ago. The main problem with the loco is visual towering over over Bachmann & LGB stock, the original was a standard gauge loco on narrow gauge trucks a problem not helped by the loco being built to a larger scale than the Big Haulier Range and most LGB stock. [ATTACH=CONFIG]6764[/ATTACH] She has been out of service since Christmas since I used the batterys and electronic control gear to convert the LGB DRGW Davenport Switcher #50 to battery control. [ATTACH=CONFIG]6765[/ATTACH] No1 is currently in Diesel No 1 to be trimmed down nearer to 1:22.5 with a narrower running board and cut down GE cab similar to the 1950s General Electrics supplied to US Gypsum that morphed into the U6-10 export designs http://www.thedieselshop.us/Data%20GE%20U4-B.HTML I started work on a TMD MGWR tank about 12 months ago, I came across an unbuilt and seemingly complete kit along with 8-9 unbuilt and part built kits about 10 years ago. I was intending to complete this loco before giving 552 my first etched kit started nearly 30 years ago a long over due mechanical upgrade. The kit is based on the loco in the original pre-1912 condition, before they were rebuilt by the Midland but kept their flush riveted smokeboxes and original cast Iron chimneys until late GSR/CIE days. I though of modelling the loco in GSR condition but desided to model the loco in GSR days. The project stalled while I drew up a riveted smokebox and hunted down some missing parts plus a spare set of boiler fittings for a forthcoming project from Des. After hunting through my stock of funnels I the J15 funnel looks reasonably close, I just need to hunt down a suitable smoke box door as the beautiful Attock door supplied with the kit disappeared in the 1912 rebuild. The etched smokebox came out pretty good and I could soon end up with a surplus of steam and diesel shunting and pilot locomotives. Moving on to carriage and wagon, I have completed casting the next batch of narrow gauge wagons with plenty of seconds in the background. The mould has stood up pretty well but is getting to the end of its life showing signs of wear. I have used planked Basswood in a number of wagons including this GNR Bread Contair wagon, the deck is finished with a acrylic stain. This was built from a Jeremy Suter kit, I still need to decide on whether to finish the whitemetal containers supplied or use the Pre-finished Provincial wagons variety or go for a CIE furniture container. These NZR wagons have been lurking around for several years, lettering and kadees to complete. The low sided wagon is a composite whitemetal and polyester resin kit, the high sided whitemetal with a lost wax brass brake lever. This KN has been lurking around even longer from my last attempt at resin casting in the 1990s, there are problems with the mould and it may be easier to start anew than try and re-work the pattern. A few improvements on the S&E side at Keadue though its unlikely the C&L ever had an electrical side to its Signalling Department. The points are actuated through Blue Point hand operated point motors which also switch frog polarity and also do odd things like switching power control between controllers rather than section switches. I have finally got around to hooking up the Blue Points to pull rods on the layout fascia $2.65 a throw rather than the $7.00 for the Blue Point boden cable and knob. After years of complaint the Building Department has finally hung the engine shed doors, hopefully no one will drive into them. The doors are held in position with little brass pins or dowels drilled into the door and stonework. I need to line and whitewash the interior of the shed perhaps provide a tool bench and a light. A real Flat World Society dilema The level crossing end of the station was very much an after though how to suggest the goods yard entrance and un modelled portion without falling off the edge of the World. A single gate and ramp up to the loading bank and goods shed is modelled, the gate is glued to removable a section of rail that fits in a hole in the baseboard. A new old brake van was needed for the coal train, the existing van is getting decrepit and the receently acquired ex T&D van and coach are kept on the main line and not allowed to stray into an odd corner of County Roscommon. The van is a Backwoods Miniatures kit very nice easy to assemble model but most vans lost the distinctive pannelling and ended up as rather plain boxes on wheels in CIE days. The paint was mixed locally and is nearer the later CIE light green that the darker shade used in the early 1950s. Two staff members discussing Roscommon's chances of making it to the Connaght football finals or the pricee of a heifer at the Drumshanbo Fair

I think the 80 Class body shells are the same width as a standard BR MK2 coach the extra width is over the bogies due to the wider track gauge. Along with re-gauging the power car bogies would need to be replaced/rebuilt for use in the UK, the trailer and intermediat caar bogies could be swapped with standard BR B4s. An 80 Class set would be a very useful train either for a commercial operator or heritage line I am not sure if axleload would be an issue in the UK getting type approval, re-gauging, full mechanical overhaul, interior re-fit, fitting central door locking and retention toilets would be expensive. Is there a rumor that a set is going to Downpatrick?

For the early companies there was quite an element of the railways trying to convince the gentry that their particular company was a safe investment, with particulary showy architecture in the 1840&50 The GSWR went if for particulary showy architcture and engaged a prominent English Architect Sancton Wood to design Kingsbridge, Inchacore and most of the gothic Stations on the lines to Thurles and Carlow. The MGWRs went in for very solid plain terminals at Broadstone and Galway smaller main line stations like Athenry Killucan and Moate were designed like miniature Georgian villas. In the late 1850-60 George Wilkinson who previously designed Workhouses designed stations for several railways including the Midland Sligo & Cavan lines, DWWR main line and GSWR Clara, Athlone and Nenagh. These forbidding buildings fitted in with the Midlands general attitude to the promoters of branch lines and 3rd Class passengers. The MGWR insissted on a high standard of engineering and really solid buildings on its branch lines, while the GSWR was happy with steep grades and simple Corrugated Iron or Concrete Block buildings on lines like Valentia, or Tullow. Most of the local companies were funded by the local gentry and merchant families. The Fermoy Lismore line was financed by the Duke of Devonshire and Fermoy had a suitably imposing station complete with overall roof. Woodlawn on the Midland seeems to have been built to serve the nearby big house than Kilconnel while a private station was provided on the Sligo Road for one of the Midland Direcctors.