Mayner

3 cylinder locos like the 800s, Scotts and Compounds would have been easier on the track and smoother riding, than large 2 cylinder with outside cylinders like the Woolwich and rebuilt 400 Class 4-6-0. I read somewhere about a GWR Saint hitting 90 or 100 in the early 1900s, an order went out to enginemen to keep the speed down as someone realised that because of hammer-blow (vertical motion) the wheels would lift clear of the tracks at some stage of every revolution of the driving wheels.

Funnily enough a cycleway at the Tralee end out to Fenit and Listowel would probably have greater money making potential with greater tourist numbers and than West Limerick. Mind you Listowel built a bye pass on the trackbed, while the route was safeguarded through Rathkeale.

An interesting couple of weeks converting the office to a guest room served as a spur to get things sorted out on the Narrow Gauge layout and move most of the work shop items out to the work shop strange that . Some interesting things turned up long lost drill sets and other tools together with odd pieces of rolling stock. The Narrow Gauge layout originally ran across the top of a computer desk and scanner printer. Eye level is great in theory but it was difficult to work on and you could not see the trains when they passed into the cutting beside the engine shed. I dropped the layout down cutting a recess in the baseboard for the printer, replaced and painted the fascia. We might even have a C&L engine back in service soon No 8 can manage the curves on the Tramway after modifying the bogie to a swing link arrangement, she is a tad faster than the Dingle locos having the same drive but larger driving wheels. One of the next jobs is to motorise or at least get the turntable working, it started life 9 years ago as a Peco N Scale table was converted to 3' gauge then got a replacement Peco HOm deck. The signal is built from Model Signal Company then Sprat & Winkle parts bought at the Brighton exhibition after my first week working in London in 1986. [attachment=:name] Cattle special leaving town the buildings are built from Wills material packs, the shed roof is from a Ratio coal shed kit, the signal cut down SSM. I have used Micro trains N Scale couplers but I am looking at Kadee HOn3 as the operation is not reliable enough. John

Did Kerry County Council convert part of the trackbed between Listowel and the Limerick border into a cyclepath or footpath? Routes like the North Kerry are a drain on CIE no operating revenue or PSO grant and the liabilities and adverse posession claims. I have a friend that worked in BR now Network Rail whoes job is trying to pawn off libility issues on bridges and structures unspecting Councils The arrangement in the UK was much better Councils got first refusal on closed lines relieved the railway of its liabilities and either converted the lines to footpaths or leased them to Preservation Societies.

Looking good Patrick, I like the reverse curve through the station, the Dapol Booking Office is similar in general style to Rosslare Strand, Durrow and Kilmacthomas so fits in nicely with the general theme.

Diesel Dawn is a great read mainly about railcar development full of photos and line drawings to the AEC and most UTA railcars

In 1937 402 a rebuilt 400 Class 4-6-0 ran non-stop from Cork to Kingsbridge in 147 minutes and avergage speed of 67mph with the 1st American Ambassador to the Free State I think a maximum of 87mph was recorded on the section north of Limerick Junction, it would have taken a lot of skill on the part of the driver and fireman to avoid stopping for water in a run over such a distance.

Great idea Des to shorten the Dapol chassis and upgrade the detailing, I did the opposite several years ago extending the barrels of the Dapol tankers to turn them into ESSO tank wagons.

Kiltimagh December 1916 a head on collision between a goods and ballast train 6 railway employees were killed 10 injured a number seriously http://www.westontrack.com/history06.htm. This one seems to be relatively unknown possibly because only railway employees were involved and against the background of the Great War and growing political unrest in Ireland. The trains were originally were to cross at Swinford but the Limerick-Tubbercurry ballast with a 101 Class 21 laden low sided ballast wagons and 2 vans was delayed having stalled due to poor rail conditions on the climb out of Claremorris and required banking assistance. The goods a Sligo-Tuam special picking up empty caattle wagons for washing was allowed into the Swinford-Kiltimagh section. The ballast ran through the Up home and starting signals at Kiltimagh and collided head on with the goods outside the station. Those that died and most of the injured were in a brakke van at the front of the train, at the time most railwways had brake vans with passenger compartments for drovers and railway workers. An inquest was held which found that none of the staff at Kiltimagh had done anything wrong but there may have been some unspecified negiglence on the part of some GSWR Official or the Company. The Burma Road was heavily graded and Kiltimagh which was sited on a grade was considered to be a hazardous place for passing trains as there was a risk of North bound loose coupled trains over running the Up starting signal and enter the Kiltimagh-Swinford section. The Limerick based crew of the ballast do not appear to have been familiar with the line and may have missed the home signal in foggy conditions, which would have made it difficult to stop a heavy train before over-running the starter signal for the next section. In CIE days gravity shunting seemed to be the norm for North bound trains placing wagons in the yard in Kiltimagh. One of the Markle? videos on rails in the West first shows a loco arriving in the station, the points are set for one of the sidings and a cut of wagons for the station arrives by gravity a few minutes later, the road is re-set for the main line and the remainder of the train arrives and couples up to the loco.

The Wanderly Wagon looking thing is a fairly typical 1950s style Matista tamper http://www.festipedia.org.uk/wiki/Stefcomatic Although probably posed its quite a scary shot as the men working around the tamper would have have had little warning of an approaching train, tampers are damn noisey things.

Those pre WW1 excursions from the UK mainland seem to have been big business for the railways, there to have a serious effort to re-gain the buisiness in the 1920s there is a photo of the GSR tourist train with a highly polished 400 Class 4-6-0 with a uniform rake of GSWR/GSR wooden bodied corridor stock. The return leg of one of the Killarney excursions was de-railed at Lombardstown one person died and injured taken by train to Cork. The accident had shades of Buttervant in that the train entered a goods loop at speed and the track disintegrated.

One of my favourites RGS stock train with mid train helper and banker! [video=youtube_share;5EkwO8bg4TQ]

I was thinking much the same myself, all you would need are small cast numberplates on the cab or large white or yellow numbers 670 Class style on the car body;)

I am not sure about fuel more likely water, power and sewrage connections. One of the interesting things about the Heuston rebuild is that the services for watering, fueling and cleaning the trains run underground through a system of tunnels under the 6'.

Fantastic journey I kind of grew up on a diet of David Jenkinsons Garsdale Road and Little Long Drag and Ivo Peters Somewhere Along the Line with splendid shots of 9Fs on the "Long Meg" hopper trains and eventually spent a lot of my spare time exploring the area around the S&C even developing a taste forEnglish bitter and Cumberland sausage when I moved to England in the 80s. My first visit to the S&C was on a BR day excursion ticket from London to Carlisle for round $25 out via a Euston-Glasgow train on the WCML back over the S&C behind a Class 47 to Leeds and home by IC125 down the ECML to London, the highlight of the journey was passing City of Wells on an excursion at Garsdale. Even managed a stop off at Keightly and saw the US wartime 2-8-0 on thee KWVR and some time in Leeds.

Nice work, keeping the 6' at 6' is a bit tight I ran into problems with bogie coaches side-swiping on curves with the 6' set at 24mm

For sheer variety it would be hard to beat Ballysodare-Sligo 1895-1910 WLWR crimson lake, GSWR black green, MGWR green, blue & cream, SLNCR green, black. Originally I had been thinking in terms of a specific station or line, but I am thinking more and more of generic stations including elements from the North Kerry & Limerick-Sligo line.

Well done Alan great sense of achievment to get something running through your own points

I always liked the Triang clerestories apart from the roof and bowed ends fairly typical of GSWR & CBSCR stock running in the 50s. This type of coach seems to have been common with C Class haulage from Albert Street to Courtmacsharry and Timoleague Perhaps a race, seaside special behind a new silver or green C Class.

Glorified impact wrench for bolting up fishplates

The Irish Three Foot Yahoo Group might be of help http://groups.yahoo.com/group/irish_three_foot/messages/7413?l=1. The Branchlines coaches are very nice I have a pair that somehow or other found their way onto the C&L. I am not sure if they are still available Backwoods Miniatures once did a very nice CVR 0-4-2T & a covered wagon http://www.backwoodsminiatures.com/00n3kits.htm.

There were 6 Burmah tank wagons 4 with Blue Tank Barrels and 2 with Red & White painted barrels for Class A traffic (Petrol) used between Cork & Limerick. The upper half of the Class A Barrels were painted white and the bottom half red or vice-versa. I haven't come across any photos on the web, Joe St. Ledger recorded anything that moved in Cork, there are photos in one of the IRRS Journals when the traffic started around 1972-3 and a photo of a blue wagon in Locomotives & Rolling Stock of CIE & NIR by Doyle & Hirsch if you can get a hold of a copy.

The N Guage is set in the late 60s/70s period mainly Delaware & Hudson, with LV, RDG & EL power sneaking in on run through and connecting services. The railcar is based on a set of Worsley Works with Black Beetle bogies under the powered unit. The cars were built 3-4 years ago along with a couple of Laminates and a Park Royal, and never got round to testing or fitting couplers.

I had great plans to strat building baseboards and finishing various modelling projects over the holidays but ended up painting windows and making a set of doors for a shed started over a year ago. The modelling highlight was testing out some 21mm stock over the Christmas mainly adjusting Kadee couplers and getting the AEC railcar set running. Having gotten over that bit of excitement there was a major move in shifting the 4mm dock layout to the shed and moving the N Scale American from storage in the shed into its place in the office. This was intended to be a temporary set up but could make a nice layout with some tweeking, I never got to properly display the diner and filling station on the old N gauge in Ireland. Then move some of the 4mm stock into a new display case (Christmas present from wife) in the office. [attachment=:name] I am not sure how this will fit in with the idea of a small station on the borders of Mayo and Sligo, a bit too similar to the American layout, possibly a scenic fiddle yard? John

I prefer MJT castings http://www.dartcastings.co.uk/mjt.php, SSM does Irish W Irons and single lever brake gear, if you are broadly minded enough to use Des's W Irons, I can sort you out with a set of OO wheel on 28mm axles.