Mayner

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.

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