Mayner

John I would tend to stick with conventional control in 009, unless the locos were supplied DCC ready I would be wary about trying to convert Liliput or Roco/Minitrains 009 locos to DCC. Its likely to involve a lot of work in milling out a space for a decoder, modifying the wiring and de-value the loco in the process. It is difficult to achieve reliable running in DCC with a small loco with only 4 or 6 wheel pick up, I had to remove the decoders from my T&D locos and I am having fun and games acheiving reliable running with a with a G Class. Wiring for live frog points is not as difficult as its made out to be its mainly a matter of feeding power from the toe end of the points and installing insulated joiners at the back of the crossing Vee, http://www.mrol.com.au/Articles/Electrical/LivefrogWiring.aspx

Happy Christmas Lads & Ladesses. Christmas comes a little earlier in these parts, no pressies as such but some good modelling time before and after lunch setting up the DCC system once again for the garden railway & wiring up the 21mm test track. The DXs are impressive looking locos until you see the driver having to crouch down to get in or out of the cab scaled down is very much the word. Frateschi are a bit like LGB and tend to vary the scale depending on whether the model is Narrow or South American Broad gauge.

Hi John I have not come across that variation, finding information on the tin vans and their variations has been a mission, in comparison finding drawings and informatphotographs MGWR stock has been a doddle.

Google Street view is a great thing went for a jaunt from Youghal to Dungarvan this morning ;. No large settlements along the main road, what looks like the remains of a small creamery at Grange otherwise the odd cross roads pub.

Patrick Its looking very good great to see an Irish layout that is more like a railway that runs from one place to another than the usual tail chaser. I especially like the idea of putting in the backscene and lighting valence at this stage, the fact that an operator cannot see the other station or end of the line should make life interesting. It will be interesting to see how operation evolves, will you follow American practice with a dispatcher controlling train movements by radio and the operators walking around driving a train from one end of the line to the other, or follow Irish practice based around a signal man at each block post controlling train movements.

The Tara traffic has basically been carried in the same purpose built covered bogie tippler wagons since traffic started in the late 70s, the Shale wagons were an air braked open topped development of the original Tara design. The Shale traffic never lived up to expectations in terms of tonnage or revenue and a number of surplus Shale wagons were modified for Tara traffic in the early 1990s. The initial ore shipments went out through Foynes as redundant Goulding Fertiliser workers placed a picket on the Alexaandra Road Ore Terminal (Gouldings Wharf), the shipments through Arlkow in the 90s may have been a negotiating ploy with Dublin Port or possibly to overcomee a short term capacity problem. At the time the 4w container wagons were under-utilised and the open containers allowed short term contracts to be negotiated for traffic like grain, coal at marginal cost without major investment in new rolling stock or terminal facilities. Paul Shannons Irish Railfreight video covers most freight workings in the early 1990s including the loading at Tara and unloading operation at Alexandra Road. Tara sends out both lead and zinc concentrates which are toxic hence the covered wagons and enclosed loading and discharge facilities. A a

I think the B101s may have been slightly wider than the Metrovicks and GMs some BRCW built BR Type 2 diesels used in Scotland also had similar recesses.

I don't think they had snatchers mainly being Southern engines there was no need, apart possibly from Rosslare-Mallow most ex-GSWR single lines did not have staff exchange apparatus until after the B101s were bumped from Top Link duties. Snatcher operation was introduced on the Cherryville-Waterford line in the early 70s for the short lived Deisceach Express and Rosslare-Limerick (jnt) in connection of the diversion of the Cork Rosslare Boat Trains via Clonmel and Limerick Junction.

Ah Patrick you forgot to mention that she normally ran in reverse the Irish equivalent of a Southern Pacific cab forward:banana: http://www.tyronetimes.co.uk/news/local/lost_rails_across_the_clogher_valley_brought_back_to_life_1_3409571

I might have got it the opposite way round with the locos being serviced inside the shed with part of the train poking outside. The trains seem to have been turned when Fairview Raicar sheds were closed for re-building for the new electric trains.

Facing South all right classic 1970s Dublin Suburban http://www.geograph.ie/photo/2363096 black and tan B201 at Dun Laoire.

It will be interesting to see if the Sentinel opens up much of an interest in Industrial Railways, be nice if they do the version with outside cranks Widely used across industry (cement, motor industry, scrap yards, steelmaking, quarries, oil, Military Railways) both with traditional wagons and modern air braked stock, I wonder are any still in service?

Opposite side of TPO © D Malone The TPO is almost a definite just need a decent A Class to pull the mails The train seems to have been made up of a combination of luggage vans for mail storage and a heating van for the Guard presumably there was a long stops at the more important stations to transfer mail bags to outlying Post Offices. Luggage © D Malone In GSR days there was a problem with speeding by the up Sligo mail whatever time it departed Sligo it always arrived just before closing time in Mullingar. I hope to release the heating and luggage mid 2013, I have to sort out a number of patterns over the holidays.

Possibly to reduce the build up of diesel fumes inside Connolly Shed, at one stage the sets were serviced at Connolly and the locos always weem to have been outside the shed. Also at one stage all the PR sets were turned on the triangle at Limerick junction, it may have been something to do with moving the servicing to Connolly from the Fairview Railcar Depot as part of the DART up-grade.

Thanks for the positive feedback lads, the project has gone through some major changes since originally planned. The original idea was to use a 3D printed or resin core with brass overlays for ease of assembly, but the technology is not quite up to it at the moment Yes Garfield the TPO is on the wish list once I sort out the container wagon into a more user friendly form. TPO at Sligo © David Malone A number of sources claim that the TPOs are narrower than the other vans which makes little sense as CIE seem to have stuck with 10"3" for Inchacore built stock in the late 50s early 60s. Apart from the glorified wagon underframes the most striking thing is the sheer variety and variations between what are supposed to be standard vehicles, with variations in door and window arrangements between relatively small batches of vehicles.

Anto Sorry to hear of your loss.

I have basically finalised the design of the Heating/Luggage (Hot water bottle) and Luggage vans. I still have to finalise one or two details but the model is getting nearer to the production stage. The original concept was for a simple to assemble model using "plug in" 3d printed detail parts for ease of assembly but the model has morphed back into a traditional brass kit. Sligo Mail 1958? the kits were inspired one of Francis Shuttleworth's photographs all thats needed is a MGWR TPO dating from the 1870s and a silver A Class Revised Heating Luggage Correct pattern W Irons all brass battery box and roof and gangway connections. Tin van Roof Luggage Brake Revised W Irons the interior is a separate 1 piece fold up with window bars, the roof is to be revised in brass. Bulleid Triangulated Underframe Solebars and W irons fit into slots in the floor. Bending up the typical Inchacore Buffer beams is the trickiest bit. I need to prepare the artwork and a bending jig for the roof and axle guard patterns but would hope to have some samples available for the North Down Exhibition.

We pretty much the same experience with Deep Purple at the Point about 10 years ago you felt the pressure waves rather than heard the music.

I always preferred the maroon livery, the blue and grey just looked so bland. The new train was a total surprise the first time I took a look inside Amiens Street some time around 1970, 7-8 years later I used to watch the 17:30 to Belfast climbing through Killester while waiting on the bus home from work.

I would not get too bogged down on what engine was painted a particuar livery. Drew Donaldson who built a large clockwork powered O Gauge layout based on the South Western Section (Dublin to Cork and branches!) painted most of his scratch built fleet in the lined green livery. It was his railway and he obviously prefered lined green to dark grey. Another timetable and operational modeller from the same era who modelled the GNR did not like diesel railcars, built several BCDR locos to work the links normally operated by railcars!

Ah Sloopies for the really sophisticated urbanites, the National Ballroom for country people and the Television Club for teeny-boppers, final year in secondary school trying to look older and get into the Pembroke Inn or O'Dwyers on a Saturday night places so noisey you could not hear the music.

Worser still! Is getting serious scary when Garfield and Seamus start citing Scripture

For OO gauge the Bachmann coaches would be reasonably close in general outline to late GSWR early GSR stock. The main challenge in modelling CIE in the steam period is capturing the sheer variety of coaching stock the DSER, GSWR and MGWR each had their own distinctive styling, the GSWR was a bit like the LNWR and went through a number of distinctive phases with its main line bogie stock, well worth a visit to Downpatrick or at the RPSI preserved State Coach.

Services ended this afternoon with the last trip working on the western half of the line, the Gisborne end was severed by a series of winter wash-outs and slips. The video of the weekly-trice weekly freight includes switching the industry sidings at the Gisborne end of the line and some spectacular viaducts

I am not sure if it was more to do with the Soviet version of jobs for the boys or the planned economy, each state or region seems to have gotten its own major heavy industry. Apparently East Germany got the monopoly of producing model railways for the entire Soviet Block. Tito in Ugoslavia was a bit of an irritant to Stalin assembling GM locos in Belgard and exporting Model Power trains from Slovenia Faur in Roumania seems to have been a significant builder licensed to build Sulzer & Maybach products and held the Voith license including over 1000 locos with a Sulzer 6LDA power unit similar to our B Class and the BR Type 2 family. http://www.derbysulzers.com/faur125.html Although their most famous export was the BR Class 56 a consortium of WHR members imported 3 Roumanian built Maybach engined 350hp LDY2 Polish narrow gauge locos into the UK for potential use in Wales. While the Roumanian built Class 56 had a reputation of poor build quality and reliability, the Polish diesels have stood up very well to long term storage and intermittant use. Although Faur could find no record of supplying the locos to the UK . the factory in Roumania has supplied like replacement cylinder liners and radiator elements of the correct pattern without difficulty.