Mayner

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

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.