Mayner

Delaware and Hudson American N Gauge folded 8 layout Dublin 2000-2004. I lived and worked in London and the Home Counties from the Mid-80s to the Mid 90s and seldom lived in the one place long enough or had the space to build a medium size layout. I converted the attic of our house to a layout room following my return to Ireland and finally got around to building a layout during the late 90s initially a folded 8 test track to run my collection of American outline locos and stock and eventually got around to building a 'permanent layout" around 2000. Although I was mainly interested in modelling Irish railways, I got hooked on American N gauge and the Delaware and Hudson after a couple of visits to Victors model shop and browsing Charring Cross Road bookshops and soon amassed a collection of American locos and stock, which I occasionally ran on a circle of track while living in a shared house or later in my own apartment. At the time American N scale was especially attractive Atlas had outsourced loco manufacture from Roco and Rivarossi in Europe to Kato in Japan and the quality of the models and running quality improved significantly with fine detail, die-cast chassis, centrally mounted skew wound motor driving all axles and later twin flywheels and low friction bogies/trucks. I choose the Delaware and Hudson because of the attractive livery/appearance of the Atlas RS3 model and discovered that a D&H would be an intersting railroad to model a small Class 1 (Large Railroad) that had an interesting loco fleet and carried heavy freight traffic on scenic and heavily graded routes in Upstate New York and Pennsylvania. The test track was to get things up and running quickly and test the running of long freight trains. The baseboards were scrap material, ripped down veneered chipboard panels from old fitted wardrobes topped with insulation board from old attic lining. Trains ran well proving it was just about possible to run a 50 car freight using stock retrofitted with Microtrains trucks and or couplings (N Gauge Kadees), attempts to run longer trains were not too successful couplings separating with a loud bang but no physical damage to the coupling or cars. Decided to replace the test track with permanent running tracks on conventional (timber frame and chipboard) baseboards fixed above purlin level around the attic with removable scenic sections on ply baseboards which connected to the permanent staging/hidden trackage. Earlier I had built a 7'6" X 1' N gauge modular layout on the One Track principal to fit in our box bedroom, future modules were 4X1 wired for DCC operation in accordance with N Trak recommendations. The scenic section of the layout is based on the D&H Susquehanna Subdivision that carries heavy traffic between the North East (Canada, New England), the East and South East (New Jersey, Pennsylvania & Virginia) and the West (Buffalo and Chicago) on a scenic heavily graded route through Up State New York. The principal feature of the layout is a model based on the downtown area and old D&H yard in Binghampton NY with its industries, and yard. An important interchange point for freight traffic between the North East, West and East South where motive power was changed, trains reversed or re-marshalled. The remainder of the scenic section represents the single track D&H Main Line with the 'Helper Section" from Binghampton Yard to Belden Hill Tunnel, a typical Susquehanna Division steel trestle and a small Town with Passing Track or siding. The scenic section baseboards are 3/8" wbp plywood the original downtown/loco yard module conventional ply baseboard top, the remaining sections featured open top baseboard framing with ply track base. Control was DCC using a Digitrax Empire Builder (2000) with "walk around" wireless control using infrared capable throttles and receivers, an additional Empire was added, used as a booster, the railroad divided into 'Blocks' protected by digital circuit breakers to prevent a short shutting down the entire system. Switches/Points in the Binghampton Downtown/Loco Yard area controlled by a bank of Triang Black (passing contact) Levers to represent an area controlled by a Mechanical Interlocking/Cabin, Switches at the 'North End" of Binghampton Yard, the Passing Track and Staging were operated by Lenz Stationary decoders controlled by the Throttle to represent CTC or hand operated switches. I used Seep Point Motors to power the switches in the downtown/loco yard area, Peco Point Motors on the remainder of the layout. I developed a sequence for operating the layout based on D&H Train symbols during the mid 1970s with a selection of general merchandise and intermodal (piggy back trains). Through freights were generally operated by 3 Co Co diesels or 4-5 Bo Bos, I sometimes used a Pusher (Baldwin Sharknose) to assist trains from the yard to the Passing Track before returning. In practice running the main-line through freights and turning-remarshalling trains kept me busy, seldom having time to switch the downtown industry tracks or the industry at the Passing Track. We had a few operating sessions with 2-3 visiting operators, who generally preferred to run-trains around as fast as possible Scaletric style! Dismantled the layout when we moved to New Zealand in 2004, shipping and re-erecting the yard and downtown section in the garage of our new home in Auckland planning to incorporate the modules into a larger layout with central peninsula before a move to Hamilton a house on a ¼ acre section and a smaller garage, resulting in a shift from N to Garden Railway modelling. West Bound freight in the Yard wooded hillside acts as a view blocker for the hidden staging. North bound freight departing yard. Trains arriving and departing the Downtown area. Elevator and loco staging area Open baseboard framing trestle area Northbound freight with Autoracks & Auto Parts boxcars crossing trestle, cement hoppers for local industry on spur in background. Freight passing "Dorothys House" on advantage of American N is the availability of a good selection of kit and 'made up" typical buildings in this case a typical early 1900s farm or suburban house.

There is an old saying that the only constant thing is change. Forecasts of the demise of the hobby with clubs struggling to host exhibitions in large expensive venues, retailers and manufacturers going out of business is nothing new and has been a feature of the hobby for at least the past 50-60 years I was a member of clubs in Ireland and the UK that had to switch from large expensive venues like the RDS to smaller venues as a result of falling visitor numbers and fatigue during the 1980s and 90s. Prominent UK model railway retailers like W&H and Model Railway Manufacturing (Kings Cross) went out of business during the 90s, Beatties a major UK chain of Model/Hobby shops failed during the early 2000s. The history of the large toy companies that dominated British RTR model railway manufacture up to the early 2000s is like a soap opera of bankrupcies, takeovers and mergers. A sector once dominated by Hornby-Triang-Hornby vastly expanded following Kader (Bachmann UK) entry to the market during the early 90s and increased competition from newly emerging 'Commissioners and specialist Model Railway manufacturers like IRM, Accurascale with the emerging of Chinese OEM manufacturers prepared to undertake smaller production runs that the big toy Chinese companies. Irish Railways had a poor image and a thing of the past while I was growing up in Dublin during the 60s and my parents hoped that 'I would grow out" of my interest in toy trains as a teenager, but I remained undeterred. In New Zealand the hobby tends to be organised more around conventions were modellers get together to play trains, host and attend workshops and visit local exhibitions rather than exhibitions which tend to be more low key and smaller in scale than the UK. Conventions rotate between cities so although there is a lot of work involved in the organisation there is usually a break of several years before a convention returns to a city or town. http://www.nzamrc.org.nz/

There is no guarantee that IRM or Murphy Models will be around in 10-20 years to provide warranty support. The history with the big toy makers and warranty support is not great Airfix went bust within 4 years of launching its Airfix Model Railways later GMR range in 1976, Palitoy dropped it Mainline Model Railway range in 1985 after the parent company General Mills pulled out of the European toy market. Hornby/Triang/Hornby had a history of bankrupcies/takeovers and management buy outs from the 1960s to 90s. The other issue is with todays short low volume production runs its unlikely that the 'manufacturer' will hold a stock of spare parts after its settled its 12 month warranty claims. I have had to manufacture replacement parts for a number of high value ($1-3000 (US)) large scale locos as the manufacturers have exhausted their stock of spare parts. Mazac rot is a well known problem with Hornby and Heljan locos. Bachmann's "lifetime limited warranty" applies to motorised units only and allows Bachmann to repair or replace a unit at their discretion. "Items less than a year old are fully covered and will be serviced or replaced at no charge when accompanied by a warranty card or proof of purchase" A service charge applies for repairs or replacement of items more than 1 year old.

The containers may have been a low cost alternative to replacing the 'Brown Vans' once used for York-Road parcel traffic with more modern vehicles. Similarly CIE sometimes used its side door containers as vans during the transition from loose coupled to Liner Train operation during the late 70s. It looks like the NIR containers were only used in Northern Ireland, with Red Star parcels conveyed in BR Passenger and Parcel trains between Stranraer-Glasgow and points on the Mainland. Interestingly BR transhipped Railfreight traffic to Northern Ireland from rail to road at Stranraer Stockton Haulage depot. https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/stranraer-freight-traffic.162202/

Over the years I built several layouts some were successful and some not so successful. What's makes a successful layout is pretty much a personal thing, for me it seems to be the ability to get something up and running reasonably quickly, operate reliably and maintain the illusion of realistic operation with trains going and coming from somewhere. Two of my most successful layouts were in N, the a large scale (1.20.3) garden layout, a few 4mm end to end terminal to fiddle yard layouts were marginally successful although they operated reasonably reliably in never completed the scenic or detail works as I had basically lost interest. Duncormic N gauge end to end 1979-1982. Probably one of my best and most complete layouts, built in my bedroom while living in my parents house in my early 20s the layout was dismantled following a house move and never re-erected. I changed to N gauge out of frustration with my attempts to build a OO gauge layout in the box room of our home and to build Irish steam and diesel locos on rtr chassis. Inspired by Brian McCann's Bagnalstown layout and Chiltern Green the reasoning was that it would be easier to build a layout that met my requirements in N than OO and that I would be less tempted to attempt to attempt to scratchbuild/kitbash or modify N Gauge locos and stock to resemble Irish locos and stock. The first part was true in that I found it easier to build a more realistic looking (to me) layout in N than I could achieve in a similar space in OO, the second part was false as it wasn't long before I began modifying British and American rtr locos to look like Irish locos and re-painting/kitbashing stock. After a false start with a single track continuous run layout on an 8X2' folding baseboard based on Kilmessan Junction, I shifted to a U shaped end to end shelf layout around the walls of my bedroom with a medium sized terminus and a small junction station inspired by buildings at Foynes and Ardfert on the North Kerry line transported to County Galway. The terminus and fiddle yard were capable of handling a double headed 5 coach passenger train or a 15 wagon goods on a 5' baseboard something that would be difficult if not impossible to achieve in OO. Duncormic was supported on the bedroom fireplace mantle piece, , Inch and the fiddle yard on aluminium shelving brackets, the curving section supported by the timber cleats fixed to the fireplace recess. the viaduct section was removable (across the window) supported by the Inch and Duncormic scenic board. Baseboards were chipboard with a 2X1 fixed flat to the outer edge, not sure if I got around to fixing fascias. Track and points were Peco Streamline fixed to cork underlay and loosed ballasted Woodlands scenics fine ballast, rails may have been misted with rust using a cheap aerosol airbrush. Points were powered by H&M point motors operated by passing contact switches mounted on a control panel together with section isolating switches. Scenic profiles were on a cardboard framework with 2mm sheet expanded foam to form the ground contours, dyed medical lint ground cover/grass with Peco lineside fencing and Woodland scenics foliage as bushes and hedging. Building were based on drawings and sketches of the stations and one of Patrick Shaffery's Irish Building books. Background buildings at Duncormic were based on commercials buildings from Sligo. Constructed mainly in plasticard, stone buildings with embossed plasticard overlays, the good shed originally from Kilmessan overlayed with plasticard. Windows were clear plasticard with glazing bars and framing drawn in black ink using a drafting pen. I usually operated the layout on Sunday mornings before lunch with a sequence of a pair of 121 Class on 2-3 daily Intercity trains to Dublin, a 141 going in and out with Day and Night Mail connections and a 001 on the goods. Modelling the transition era I had enough wagons to model the loose coupled or Liner Train era, to add variety Inch handled Beet during the season and the branch to Port Magee occasional Beet Trains not unlike Fenit. I had enough shortened Lima Freight Liner wagons to run a Liner, a train of Peco 35T Tank wagons for a 3 a twice weekly Oil Train and 6 Bagged Cement (plasticard bodies on Farish chassis). When running Liner trains the area around the loco shed sidings were used for storing redundant H Vans typical area. Locos and stock were a mixture of Irish and British outline including 121s modified from Atlas SW1500, 141 plasticard body on SW1500, A Class plastciard body on Arnold GP30 chassis (with Lima Brush Type 2 bogie side frames) Cravens coaches re-painted Minitrix (complete with B4 Bogies looked the part when viewed from the compartment side) BR Van and Bogie Brake modified Lima (smaller profile than Minitrix coaches). Misc wagons modified Farish and Lima 4w Container Wagons, Guinness Flats, Bagged Cement, Farish BR wagons re-skinned with plastciard and microstrip as H vans and timber bodied vans. General view Duncormick. Early 70s era 4 coach Black & Tan passenger set at platform. Wagons positioned for loading/unloading in yard. Controller is a H&M "Executive" unit powered by the 15V a/c output of a Safety Minor at the next station. Remarkable resemblance in the positioning of buildings to my 4mm Keadue narrow gauge layout built over 30 years later! Late 70s era. Pair of 121s on Dublin Passenger, B141 on a Liner. Redundant wagons stored out of use in loco yard. Camera was a Kodak Instamatic Was thoroughly enjoyable when it lasted.

In a way North Dakota is home away from home the wife's father still lives in the family home. At one stage we had planned to stay a year, though appears less likely as we all grow older. Today was trip to a hardware store and for groceries. Once South East North Dakota was crisscrossed by railroads with the SOO Line and Great Northern running parallel to each other for about 40 miles serving the same towns until the GN abandoned its line in a trackage rights agreement during the 1950s that now allows RRVW/BNSF to serve towns on the CPKC (Soo Line). Fairmount a small town close to the Minnesota Border was served by four railrailroads with 4 depots east-west GN & SOO Line, north-south Milwaukee Rd Otronville-Fargo Line and shortline Fairmount and Velben. These days the CPKC line and part of the Fairmount and Veblen survive as successor of SOO Line, the Milwaukee Line abandoned during the 1980s a short section survives to serve a fertiliser and fuel depot. Classical wooden elevators at Tyler once served by the Milwaukee Rd Fargo Branchline. The elevators were later clad in sheet steel but retain tar shingle roofs. The modern grain bins and drying plant are likely to have been added after the railroad was torn-up. Grain likely to have been loaded into boxcars through the side doors fitted with paper 'Grain Doors" when the railroad was in operation "moving grain 40' at a time" Timber battens/boards exposed in area of damaged wall cladding. Timber elevators were usually clad in timber weatherboard. It looks like sawn timber battens/boards were used as a substrate for fixing the sheet metal cladding when elevators were-re-clad. Pair of GP20-C rebuilds and an SD70 outside the Yard Office loco repair shop at Beckenridge. The GP20-C are based on 1980s rebuilds of GP20 locomotives introduced approx 64 years ago, the SD70 is about to perform an interesting duty. GP 38-2s 2015 and 4001 about to depart with a westbound freight. The SD70 in the previous photos has taxied 2015s Crew to their train, crew buses or taxis are often used to transport US train crews from the depot or sign-on point to their train. Coil car in consist most likely for the Bobcat plant at Gwinner. A pleasant surprise was several ex-Delaware and Hudson grain cars in the train. The D&H a Canadian Pacific 'fallen flag" a North-Eastern road had a small fleet of red grain cars which eventually found their way to the RRVW and appear to be used for traffic between elevators and terminals on the RRVW system. There ware at least 4 ex-D&H cars in the train including some with intact shield and logo 34 years after the D&H was absorbed by the CP.

I am looking for photographs and running numbers of 20T Brake Vans rebuilt with plywood body cladding and steel duckets or an updated version of the JM Design Van I have photos and running numbers of a number of vans which retained their vertical planking when re-built with steel duckets. These vans should cover the period from the late 1960s until the replacement of loose coupled goods trains with fully fitted Liner Trains during the late 70s, a number of 30T Vans were retained for seasonal beet and engineers trains into the 1980s.

Unfortunately no photos, Containers on York Road-Larne parcel trains were basically used as vans loaded and unloaded through a door on one side at least from the early 1980s. There may be photos of parcel trains at Larne in the IRRS Flickr collection, Jonathan Allen's excellent collection of photos of Northern Irelands railway no longer appears to be accessible on line.

I replaced the Black Beetle power bogie wheels with smaller Lowmac wheels. I don't know if Steam Era models still manufacture Black Beetle power bogies. Tenshodo appear to produce a 24.5mm wb bogie with 10.5mm dia wheels (approx. 2'7") which should be suitable for a small inspection car. https://www.scalelink.co.uk/acatalog/Sundries---Motor-bogies.html

Its just about possible that B121s hauled green ex-GSWR 6 wheeler. B121s apparently worked Galway-Tuam trains between turns on Dublin (Westland Row)-Galway passenger (Mail?) trains during their 1st year of operation, for a short time crews apparently turned the locos to run 'long hood' forward. (IRRS Dublin meeting early 1980s) Galway-Tuam trains appears to have been worked by ex-GSWR 6w stock up to and during the early CIE era, mix of 6w and bogie stock during the 50s. From mid-50s Tuam trains appear to have been a couple of Bredin or earlier Bogies and pair 6w vans. Its just about possible a depot like Cork could put a rake of green 6wheelers together for a seaside excursion to Youghal. The B121s were initially introduced on less demanding duties such as mail, slow passenger and goods and only rostered to more demanding Top Link duties such as the Enterprise after they had proven their reliability and capability in service. Apparently it was once considered allocating the 121s to the K rather than B power classification as they had a lower power output and tractive effort than the B101 Class.

Studio Scale Models produced a more modern version of the Drewry Inspection car that fits on a Tenshodo or Black Beetle motor bogie

Had to go to Whapeton (nearest large town) yesterday, checked out the RRVWR yard at Beckenridge and followed the BNSF & CP lines home in case there was rail traffic, Although mild (temperatures hovering around freezing) we are now in a cold snap with day time temperatures around 1°F -17C plus windchill so stay indoors and give railfanning a break unless we get heavy snow! Pair of SD70s on Beckenridge Yard Lead, consists of BNSF ES44ACs on previous visits departed. Yard less congested than last 2 days. Cut of Gondolas (opens cars) likely to be used for steel traffic to Gwinner ND, tank cars oil or ethanol. BNSF ET44C4 3999 & 6879 coupling up to an empty Ethanol Train at Campbell MD. All is not quite as it seems I saw a long train of tank cars (grain car barrier) parked on the passing track as I approached Campbell MN and a pair of BNSF locos backing down to couple on to the train. Crossing the tracks I got a couple of photos and a chat with the Travelling Brakeman who was doing the coupling up and brake test. The train turned out to be a Red River Valley and Western train bound for the Hankinson ND ethanol plant using borrowed BNSF motive power. The BNSF and RRVWR interchanging the cars on the passing track at Campbell probably provided a quicker turnround for a Unit Train than interchanging at Beckenridge each car had a gross laden weight of 110 (American) Tons or 11,000 tons for a 100 car laden train. Interesting prototype for anything interchanging traffic between two railroads at a passing track (crossing loop) in a small city (pop 164) in the middle of the prairie, Campbell also has an elevator that occasionally dispatches grain by rail. Train coupled up and ready to depart as brakeman returns to his pick-up truck and meet the train at Aberdeen Line Junction. Travelling shunters perform a similar role in New Zealand travelling by Ute (pick up truck) between small yards and private sidings. There is a grain car at each end of the train as a barrier vehicle for highly flammable ethanol (grain alcohol). I had hoped to take a photo of the RRVWR ethanol train on the CP line west of Aberdeen Line Junction but it was getting late and the CP line busy with eastbound trafic. CP ES44AC east of Aberdeen Line Junction. The train is travelling under "advance approach" (flashing yellow) as it follows another train. Flashing yellow means the next signal is at yellow and the following signal red. The SOO line is easily graded and the CP generally uses a single large GE on grain and intermodal trains on the SOO Line across ND and MN. The westbound signals were red and the RRVW brakeman was waiting in his truck as I passed Aberdeen Line Junction and the headlights of an eastbound CP train appeared as I approached Tenney MN. Although topped and tailed by BNSF motive power the train was made up of CP and CP 'fallen flag" grain cars., its possible that CPKC may have leased BNSF power to help out or the train is bound for a BNSF destination, although American railroads compete with each other for traffic and fiercely guard their territory they co-operate with each other on operational matters to keep traffic moving.

Fixed gantries for loading containers and 'Lancashire Flats" began to appear during the early 60s there appear to have been two type a light 5T gantry similar to that at Youghal https://www.thebeachguide.co.uk/photos/youghal-front-strand-3166144.htm and a more substantial 16T gantry used for handling container traffic at Dromad, Navan, Rathkeale, Roscrea, and the North Kerry Yard Tralee http://www.industrialheritageireland.info/Gazetteer/Images/Railways/DR03830.jpg . A large dairy or meat factory would be a good source of container traffic, the gantries at Dromad, Rathkeale and Roscrea would have been installed to handle traffic from the nearby factories. CIE would have used its own Aluminium bodies containers on purpose built flat wagon (there is a Kevin A Murray photo of one of these containers on an early version of the CIE 20' Flat Wagon in the Wagon Collection on the IRRS Flickr site) 20T container wagons began to appear from the mid-1960s and ISO containers in the late 60s (68-69). The gantry at Glenmore on Patricks Layout is a good example of a model of this type of gantry Location of gantries could vary usually towards the middle of a siding, though the gantries at Roscrea were close to the buffer stops, usually on a siding with easy vehicle access like the siding a Dugort, though sometimes on a loading bank like Cleremorris or the North Kerry Yard. Apart from a suitable source of traffic Gaeltacht Advance Factory or Fish Processing factory at Dugort, the main challenge is the absence of a model of the CIE Aluminium container and early CIE container flats, Leslie's skeletal container wagon and ISO containers are really only suitable for a post 1970s layout.

Checked out Hankinson interchange with the CP and regional/shortline Dakota Missouri Valley and Western in the hope of seeing CP,DMVW or RRVW power. The DMVR interchange and an Ethanol plant are the main sources of originating and terminating traffic at Hankinson. CP GP38-2 4406 switching at the East end of Hankinson yard. Switch crew member operating hand operated switch using a classical vertical switch stand. Ethanol plant in the background receives grain by road and rail and dispatches ethanol mainly used in motor gasoline (petrol) with its own switch locomotives. 4406 coupled up to a cut of cars in Hankinson Yard. Recently re-sited Hankinson Depot . The Depot was re-located from its original location to a public park in 2003 and recently relocated to its downtown location top help bring life back to the main street. https://www.wahpetondailynews.com/news_monitor/news/soo-line-depot-returns-to-downtown-hankinson/article_1ca557c4-35b8-11ec-b20c-378a40a9b509.html CP GE ES44AC (Evolution Series) leads an eastbound bound (105) car grain train through Hankinson. The west end of Hankinson is a challenging place to compose a picture as the line curves from an east-west to a north west direction. Although mainly CP some interesting 'fallen flag' cars in the train as a result of acquisitions. DME (Dakota Missouri and Eastern) was a short line acquired by the CP during the early 2000s to reach the Powder River Coal Field in Wyoming. Kansas City Southern at first glance surprising. Canadian Pacific Railway and Kansas City Southern became Canadian Pacific Kansas City or CPKC following the recent merger of the two companies forming a single railroad connecting Canada, the United States and Mexico. Went on to Beckenridge with a considerable number of RRVWR and BNSF locos at the motive power depot and the yard lead and a very full yard. 2-GP38-2 & 1 SD70 in the RRVWR loco service area. Line of operating and stored power 4-BNSF GE Units and 1-RRVW SD70 on the yard lead awaiting their next turn. Trackmobile positioning cars for loading Beckenridge. Traditionally harvest season/Autumn was peak time for shipping grain from the growing areas to the mills and ports. With increased storage capacity (on and off farm) growers and elevator operators have the capability to store grain and wait until the price rises! As technology changes agriculture in the mid-west became largely corporate with vast farms and few remaining family farms. As I neared home I caught sight of an approaching CPKC train. The train consist appeared familiar right down to the KCS cars, I was the same train that I saw over two hours earlier 40 miles away at Hankinson! Its possible that the train may have been held to allow more urgent traffic to overtake or cross westbound traffic at crossing places en-route.

Its just about possible IRM or Accurascale are the contract manufacturer for the Hattons 6-wheelers, Accurascale took on the Hattons Class 66 tooling in 2022 upgraded the model and incorporated it into the Accrascale range. Stephen's recent posts indicate that IRM have insider information on the state of manufacture of the Hattons coaches. If an Irish manufacturer controls the Hattons 6-w tooling their is every point in retaining and using the toolings and adding to the bottom line potentially cross-subsidising the manufacture of marginally profitable or loss making Irish models.

A Composite would be an option. Most if not all Composites (I would need to check) were re-graded as Standard Class during the late 70s/80s when CIE ended up with a shortage of MK2D Standards and a surplus of Composites when CIE decreased train frequency and increased train length following the 1st 1970s Oil Crisis. As far as I recall the Dublin-Rosslare and Dublin-Sligo trains were standard Class only and relatively short (5-6 coach length) when CIE 'cascaded" MK 2D coaches to both routes following the introduction of MK3 Coaches during the Mid-1980s. Four coaches behind a 001 or a pair of 121 Class would be a reasonable representation of a Dublin-Rosslare or Dublin-Sligo train, or the 001 worked afternoon Heuston-Waterford which was a Standard Class MK2D link during the late 80s early 90s. (I took a series of photos of the train still in the CIE Supertrain scheme near Cherryville Junction in 87-88 The CIE Enterprise and other the Heuston Coach MK2D links tended to use longer rakes.

From the land of the Ice and Snow not quite from the Midnight Sun or Hot Spring s flow. Its said that the Norsemen explored and traded in what is now Minnesota and North Dakota before their descendants settled the region with the building of the Northern Pacific and Great Northern, the Norwegians were used to extreme cold and the great plains were a lot easier to farm than their homeland. The wife is of Viking and Germanic descent so off to Beckenridge this afternoon for groceries including 'Lefse" Norwegian potato flatbread and some elevator/train spotting! No traffic on the CP line near Tenny. Busy loading and drying grain for the next rail shipment, a "high rail" excavator was working on the CP line just east of the elevator, so on to the BNSF line towards Beckenridge. Another South/East bound BNSF Unit Grain approaching Campbell. Although the signals were not illuminated at Campbell, I could see a headlight approaching slowly in the distance and had time to pull off the highway at a grade crossing of a country road. In the US colour light signals only light up as a train is approaching and normally dark. Too cold and long to bother counting the cars! Trailing loco with footprints in the snow! Beckenridge in the snow. BNSF locos likely to e waiting for RRVW to complete making up a train for departure. Crete River SW was parked outside loco shop last week, long string of freight cars also parked on BNS siding (crossing loop). Beckenridge RRVW Office Loco Shop looking East. Switch crews (human shunters) use pick up trucks to drive around yards while making up and breaking down trains, in New Zealand and Australia shunters use Utes (scaled down local version of a pick up truck!) Beckenridge Depot with mandatory stuffed and mounted caboose on right, Roundhouse on right. There appears to be plans to restore the depot as a museum, the Roundhouse is industrial use, tracks on left are used by RRVWR PW dept. Hand operated switch on BNSF siding/passing track main line on right. Red River of the North at confluence of Bois de Soiux and Otter Tail Rivers. Both Native American and Scandinavian tradition hold that the Vikings sailed down the Red River from Hudson Bay, later followed by French and British Trappers and the Soiux moved westward onto the plains later followed by European settlers mainly from Scandinavia and Northern Europe lured by the promise of fertile land and a mild climate

Just part of the contraction of retail from the high street shop to the retail park to the giant out of town "Fulfilment Centres" and direct sales from manufacturer to customer cutting out the middleman. Hattons are not the first large model railway mail order house to go to London institutions W & H (Model Railways) New Cavendish St and Model Railway Manufacturing (Kings Cross) both stocked a wider variety of rtr and kits than Hattons both went out of business during the early 90s although they traded successfully for many years. Both were regular haunts when I lived in London in the late 80s W&Hs business seemed to be mainly mail order, while the Kings Cross shop was usually crowded with customers on a Saturday. Fundamental change in the hobby during the last 30 years, British outline rtr was dominated by Hornby with Lima the primary competitor as retailers struggled to clear unsold large stocks of Mainline/Airfix/GMR locos/coaches and wagons in stock since the late 70s. Bachmann had not yet made its entry to the UK market with re-tooled Mainline locos and stock. 30 years ago Murphy Models and IRM producing accurate models of Irish locos and stock would have been considered a pipe dream, let alone several rtr manufacturers and commissioners competing for the British outline merket.

Changing times a good example of management having the foresight 'to get out while the going is good" with reduced market share as an increasing proportion of customers buy on line from the manufacturer and increased overheads (commercial rates and accounting for VAT on EU & overseas sales). The expectation for retailers to account for VAT/GST on overseas sales as a result of tax harmonisation laws intended to recover loss in VAT revenue from overseas on-line sales, may have been a greater factor than Brexit. Tax harmonisation laws rather than Brexit lead to the Irish Revenue and An Post upgrading their IT systems in order to collect VAT on relatively low value imports which previously cost more to collect than they earned in Vat, we had a similar system in New Zealand where Customs did not collect VAT/GST on items below a certain value. One of our local specialist model railway retailers used to complain bitterly about modellers buying models direct from overseas without paying tax! I seldom bought from Hattons as they were a bit too mainstream for my interest tending to by the occasional rtr item or detail parts from Rails. The closure of Hattons is more a symptom of change in the model railway hobby as a result of the greater shift to Far Eastern RTR manufacture and direct on line sales by Manufacturers and Comissioners that has largely contributed to the demise of small specialist manufacturers and the specialist 'model railway shop' Locally hobby shops only stock Hornby and Peco the majority of British outline modellers source their models direct from the UK, American outline modellers from the States. "Interesting times" as they say

Irish whitemetal kits have largely been superseded by resin (Provincial Wagons) and 3 D printing. A simple wagon kit is probably the best starting point, before tackling a complete a loco or coach. JM Design My CIE 25436-25893 series flat wagon kit (set of 3) would be a good starter for etched kit assembly, fold up construction with minimal soldering. Dart Castings/MJT can supply whitemetal buffer and axlebox castings, I can supply cast brass springs. Supplied to order from PPD in Scotland, I will need to check pricing. Studio Scale Models Website appears to be down. Produced a brass fold up kit for the CIE 30T Brake Van and very some very nice whitemetal kits for. 1. Irish Standard Open Wagon used by GSR/GNR/CIE 2-3. GSWR & MGWR 'soft top" Convertible Wagons

BosKoney (Stephen) has stated that there are two steam projects for 2025/6 which will be revealed once they have reached an advanced point when Engineering samples / prototypes (*EP's) are in hand during 2024. Based on IRMs track record for accuracy they likely to be locos that they could physically measure/scan, there is too much guess work involved to produce a model from surviving CIE/GSR diagrams, very few detail drawings of CIE steam locos survive. Interestingly the RPSI scanned their loco fleet about 15 years ago in the expectation that a rtr manufacturer would produce models of some of their locos.

I have updated the website to provide greater clarity around our Kits and RTR Wagons jmdesignmodelrailways.com. Due to the relatively low level of demand and high production costs our models are available as pre-order items as opposed to stock items. One of the advantages of 3D printing is that our suppliers have no minimal order quantity for a particular model unlike plastic injection moulding or resin casting, thus its feasible for me to include a several different types of wagons in an order to our printers at a similar unit cost to an order for one type of wagon. This basically means that our 2 Varieties of 20T Brake Van, 4 Varieties of Covered Wagon, Open Wagons will be continuously be available from stock or pre-order as long as the business continues to operate. Kits. I have finally gotten round to using the 'k' word after using CKD for a couple of years. Our wagons are closer in concept to the Triang-Hornby coaches of the 60s and 70s where everything bolted or clipped together or the American "shake the box kits" rather than conventional kits which sometimes take considerable skill and time to assemble. The CKD kits fit together with minimal cleaning up or preparation apart from moving excess supports (tiny pieces of plastic) that may be attached to the print. The design is not unlike a typical plastic injection moulded wagon, the pewter weight fits into a rebate in the floor of the chassis, the body can be secured to the chassis with a small blob of superglue near each end. Newly printed 3D parts sometimes distort during 'clean up' at the printers or handling, but will return to their normal/correct shape when immersed in hot but not boiling water. RTR wagons I expect to resume producing all available wagons in RTR form from March 2024 when our print suppliers return following the Chinese New Year. Models produced will depend on total 'numbers' (ideally 15-20 wagons) of pre-orders received as opposed to minimal orders for a particular wagon. There is no problem in slotting in 1 or 2 LMA's or GSWR Vans within a larger batch Brake Vans, Opens and CIE Vans

We have four cats one rescue and 3 strays at home in New Zealand and 2 one rescue and 1 wild Tom in North Dakota. Family had taken pity and began feeding the Tom during the winter months and now had his own door and bed in the garage.

Will need to carry out some relatively minor tweaks to the CAD work before re-releasing the Grain Hopper. Our supplier has been struggling to produce consistent prints of the hopper body with a high reject rate.

Couple of days later went to Whapeton ND to stock up on groceries and diy supplies (installing a cat door) and checked out the rail yard in the twin-town of Beckenridge MN before returning home by Tenney. Temperature had dropped a few degree and wind-chill increased so not really weather for standing around. Beckenridge the headquarters and operating base of the Red River Valley & Western. The city of Beckenridge is on the eastern bank of the Red River of the North which drains the Valley area of ND an MN. The tracks in the foreground are the BNSF main line and siding (crossing loop), the RRVW Loco Shops and Offices single storey buildings in left background. BNSF/RRVWR yard lead in the background between the loco spur and elevators. A lot of older RR infrastructure survives at Beckenridge including the former Great Northern Depot Building and Roundhouse. Looking the opposite direction East towards Aberdeen Line Junction and Minneapolis. The elevators in the distance is Red River Grain a Shuttle Elevator served by a tennis racket shaped balloon loop with a separate connection to the BNSF line https://local.echopress.com/breckenridge-mn/red-river-grain-co-218-643-3738 The RRVWR started out in the late 1980s with ex ATSF CF7 locomotives. Santa Fe re-builds of 1940s Cab Units as road switchers passed on in turn to Short Lines, some were used for switching elevators after CF7s were banned from road use when locos failed to meet cab crash worthyness requirements. For many years the mainstay of RRVWR motive power was its fleet of Caterpillar powered GP20-C locos 1980s Generation II locomotive of former BN GP20s. The Caterpillar locos produced distinctive dark clag when accelerating. A pair of 2000HP EM GP 38-2 arrive with the Hankinson Job. The train includes laden bulk power cars from a flour mill at Fairmount and tank cars from an Ethanol plant at Hankinson on the CP Line, together with grain cars. The RRVWR serves industries and towns on the CP line as a result of a 1950s trackage rights arrangement when the Great Northern abandoned 30-40 miles section of line that ran parallel to the SOO later CP line. The latest addition to RRVWR motive power are a number of former BNSF SD70 units. Useful for hauling 100+ car Unit Grain Trains from shuttle and larger elevator complexes to the BNSF interchange. Tenney. Passed Tenney on the way home, grain trucks still arriving an drier operating but not a freight car in sight. It looks like the elevator loaded and dispatched a train between Tuesday afternoon and Thursday morning!