Mayner

On 27/9/2022 at 9:56 PM, Irishswissernie said:

Inchicore 130 ends its days somewhat 'butchered' early 1960's.

 

 

 

 

An interesting feature is the way 130s frames have been patched/reinforced around the driving hornblock.

According to Locomotives of the GSR 130 was built in 1902 and received a Superheated boiler in 1947 but retained her original frames unlike some superheated J15s including 186 that were re-built with new heavier frames between the 1920s and early 40s.

The reinforced hornblock arrangement is not unlike the arrangement on the SSM J15 kit where the dummy frames (modelled as part of the superstructure) between the front buffer beam sit outside and slightly overlap the (functional) loco main frames. This allows the kit chassis to be assembled to OO or 21mm gauge, while retaining the cosmetic dummy frames in the correct position with the cylinder covers visible in the space between the bufferbeam and smokebox front a distinctive feature of the Class.

According the Irish Metro-vick Diesels B234 was re-built with a Maybach engine in Dec 1965 which is likely to date the photo in 66/67. 

There is a 1969 photo of B233 (rebuilt in May 66) in Black with a yellow warning panel a double heading the 10:00 with B192 Sunday Connolly-Limerick, its possible B233 with its commonwealth bogies was steadier/more comfortable at speed than the Baby GMs.

Some activity in the Carriage Shops completing some unfinished projects Tin Vans started between 2012 and 2020.

Fitting Kadee No36 couplers to a Heating and Luggage Van, the best way to achieve close coupling with the JMD 4W vans.

The van is the original test build with 3D printed gangways assembled in 2012.

The vans were designed with a coupling mount for a No 36 coupler, no messing about with NEM pockets!

The coupling mount, Kadee draft gear box and securing nut and washer is completely concealed within the fuel tanks on these vans

The orange peel paint effect is less obvious at normal viewing distance!

Retro-fitting the battery boxes and footsteps to the test build of the  MK2 version of the Luggage Van.

I made an error in the battery box CAD work for the MK2 version, the main reason for a test build before producing the production version.

I am not sure whether its a better option to try and make good or strip the existing paintwork and start again!

4 hours ago, jhb171achill said:

Yes, indeed.

Given that it has a B Lowke pressure gauge, I'm going to contact them.

All of the "leading lights" in the model engineering world here - which is so small it makes us modellers look like the population of China - are unfamiliar with it so far, though I await word from a couple of people I've got in contact with.

Best option may be to post your question on the origin of the model on Model Engineer Forum https://www.model-engineer.co.uk/forums/, 

Bassett Lowke is currently Hornby Hobbies brand name for its steampunk range, the original Northampton based company was dissolved during the 1960s, Corgi used the brand name for the Chinese 'replica" BL O Gauge mogul released in the early 2000s

23 hours ago, MOGUL said:

Marino point is going to be redeveloped as a JV with Gouldings fertilisers, and the plans include a rail link for distribution of fertilisers.. But whether the rail part actually happens or if it is just to secure planning remains to be seen

Internationally rail freight terminal facilities (& sometimes rolling stock) are usually provided and funded  by the shipper (customer) rather than the railway operator or funded by Government. 

Locally Hamilton (similar population to Cork) has two operational and two planned (one under construction) railfreight terminals.

One terminal opened in 2005 basically operates as a warehousing facility and distribution hub for the Upper North Island dairy industry together with handling general freight traffic handles in excess of 800,000 tonnes of freight annually https://www.waikatoregion.govt.nz/assets/PageFiles/19549/EWDOCS_n2044488_v1_Fuel_Efficiency_Impacts_of_Fonterra_s_Crawford_St_Dairy_Freight_Hub.pdf.

The second operational terminal serves a Mainfreight distribution depot with siding capacity for 16 bogie wagons.

The third terminal under construction will serve a new Inland Port the Ruakura Superhub a development by Tainui Group Holdings the commercial arm of the Waikato Tainui Iwi (Nation) https://www.ruakura.co.nz/

The fourth terminal proposed terminal with siding agreement to serve the Northgate Business Park The Open Country Dairy plant and Port of Auckland Hub. https://www.northgatepark.co.nz/location/

Its difficult to see similar developments occurring in Ireland mainly as a result of the nature of Ireland's industrial development and shorter distance between industrial centers and the ports.

Its difficult to imagine Kerry Group or Glanbia establishing a rail based distributions system to export cheese or milk power by the trainload from its processing plants to Dublin, Cork or Waterford Ports, despite Brexit its likely to be more cost effective to serve UK customers by road and Ro Ro ferries than by rail.

10 hours ago, murphaph said:

When I send parcels to Ireland from Germany using the normal post they usually take 1 week or slightly less to arrive. I sent a parcel to a forum member on Tuesday and it got there yesterday (Friday). That's the fastest I've ever had a parcel arrive from here it has to be said. That's only a day more than I'd expect it to take within Germany!

Transit times to Ireland and An Post customs clearance appear to have improved significantly since this thread 1st opened.

We recently shipped an item (from New Zealand) to a customer in Ireland in exactly 7 days including Customs clearance.

While some of the larger UK retailers such as Hatton's export items to the EU Vat paid, its not a viable option unless a business has a high volume/value of export trade to the EU.

Some of the smaller specialist UK suppliers are not registered for UK Vat because of low business turnover.

As a small retailer I looked at the option of offering a DTP (delivery and tax paid) >$150 & IOSS (import one stop ship) <€150.00 service to customers in the EU and UK, but it actually worked out cheaper for the customer to pay the An Post (or Royal Mail) fee and Vat upon arrival than up front in the purchase price, as a result of higher admin costs. 

23 hours ago, jhb171achill said:

No - rounded ends, continental-looking. Fry’s model was built “off-plan”; I’ll get pics of it when I’m in the museum later on. He very possibly got the plans from my grandfather, who was involved in the bodywork design!

Train C Fry Model Locomotives of the GSR Clements and Mc Mahon.

Train D  Locomotives of the GSR Clements and Murray.

Rounded cab ends appear to be a common styling feature on pre-War 'Streamlined" railcars in both Europe and America including the LMS Articulated Diesel Train https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:LMS_Diesel_Multiple_Unit_80000–80002.jpg, the Flying Hamberburger and American Car and Foundry "Motor-Railers.http://www.northeast.railfan.net/images/nysw1006.jpg

I wonder whether the original streamlined design of Train C and D was intended for a  prestigious Tourist Train?, CIEs included a luxury diesel railcar "Tourist Train" as a priority in their original dieselisation proposal (1946).

Train A or B successfully completed a VIP special from Amiens's St to Gorey and retrun in the early 30s, so its possible the concept could have been extended to longer distance such as Kingsbridge-Killarney with charging and top up points en-route.

5 hours ago, Patrick Davey said:

It's a very happy day at Brookhall Mill, or is it....

Mr. Weaver's only daughter, Millie, is getting married.  Now, in more enlightened times, this would be a cause for unrestricted joy and unlimited merriment but this is rural 1950s Ulster, and as it happens, Millie Weaver's new husband is from 'the other side'.  Mr. Weaver was horrified when he found out and did everything in his power to derail the relationship, and he was particularly incensed when he found out that the two had met through the columns of the dating magazine for steam locomotive enthusiasts, called 'Tender'.  

Mr. Weaver earnestly tried to dissuade Millie from proceeding with such a foolhardy enterprise....even going to the extent of using his considerable local influence to convince all local clergymen to decline any invitations to officiate at the nuptials.  

But it was nothing to do with religion - Millie's fiancee was, wait for it, an NCC man.  Oh, the shame of it at Brookhall.

His name was Malcolm Bowman and his family were from Drumsurn ("Never heard of it..." sneered Mr. W) and when later asked for his opinion of his prospective son-in-law, Mr. W's educated response was 'Well he's obviously not wise...."

Anyway Millie was adamant and it was only after threatening to have a BCDR fireman act as best man that Mr. Weaver reluctantly gave his consent.  He even allowed the marriage to take place at the oratory at Brookhall and arranged for the mill chaplain Fr. Flax to officiate.

Inter-Company rivalry was a serious matter and loyalty to the old companies survived amalgamations and nationalisation.

There is a great story in one of the 1970s/80s RPSI Journals about the "Great Race" between  GSWR & DWWR Waterford-North Wall cattle specials shortly after the opening of the DWWR Waterford Extension in the early 1900s. The two trains were made and apparently departed  Waterford Yard (simultaneously) in different directions, the GSWR special hauled by 101 Class (Standard Goods) 184 , the DWWR train hauled one of the companies recently introduced "Standard Goods" possibly No 13 (Waterford) or 14 (Limerick).

The GSWR special arrived at the North Wall before the DWWR special (not really surprising given the longer more heavily graded DWWR route and two reversals to reach its destination). The GSWR & DWWR drivers did not depart on exactly good terms threatening violence if they ever met again.

Twenty or so years following the GSR amalgamation with Waterford and Grand Canal Street sheds in the same promotional area the former GSWR Waterford driver and DSER rival met and put their differences aside as a result of an invitation from a son or daughter to meet the parents.

It might selling as a whole particularly if it operates reliably, the basic scenery and trackwork looks good

The styling and track plan looks like a classical compact American "Wild West" layout scheme like John Allen's original Gorre & Daphetid https://www.trains.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/first_g-d_line.pdf

Would look great with American Western style buildings and trains, Rio Grande and Santa Fe are spot on for the scenery

Setting the scene North Wharf 1953-73?

I still haven't gotten around to doing anything further with structures and detailing, but with 59 complete I might actually get round to doing something, so I though it would be fun to ring the changes during the last two decades of North Wharf's operation.

Fine tuning No 59 after painting and final assembly particularly balancing the loco to take a reasonable load took longer than expected, the train in the video is the longest that will fit in the Fiddle yard/hidden staging.

Late 1950s/early 1950s shot of 59 arriving at North Wharf with a trip working most of the wagons in GSR/early CIE dark grey. Most likely a suitable tank loco or J15 was not available on the day or Inchacore or the loco is on a 'running-in" turn after attention at Inchacore.

Mid 1950s with 553 providing the motive power, bit more variety in wagon livery with light and dark grey "company' vehicles and red Ranks Hopper.

CIE demonstrated its sense of economy by re-branding 16404 with a Flying Snail and painting out the GS initials which "grinned" through after a few years service, model is based on a mid 1959s photo of the actual wagon.

Shades of the Midland though the train should be a lot longer as 378 enters the yard at North Wharf.

I bought the Woolwich on e-bay from a seller/dealer in the States about 15 years ago, the loco was supplied unlettered from Bachmann's "Irish passenger train set produced for the US market.

I numbered the loco with HMRS (Historic Model Railway Society) Sheet 4a LNER Yellow Locomotive and coach lettering, the yellow loco numbers appear close to that used by CIE during the 1950s.

Final days? B125 arriving with a trip working late 1960s, with a near monopoly in surface transport CIE closed many of its smaller yards and private sidings during the late 1960s essentially using rail for line haul work between major railheads and the Boards road services for local deliveries.

I looked at a Liner Train scenario with North Wharf handling container traffic, but gave up the fiddle yard staging was only capable of handling a loco and 2 42' 9" flat wagons.

A 70s might have been had a small GSWR 4-4-0 survived in working order into preservation. 3-4 Coaches was likely to be the practical limit for these locos which were less powerful than the all-round J15 with smaller boilers and cylinders.

I like the use of different building materials from different periods, though my first thoughts were of the Welsh Narrow gauge places like Corris and Pendre Works on the Talyllyn very compact but a lot less uniform.

I like the simple self-contained? passenger line in the background in contrast to the more complicated shunting/shuffling movements around to loco shed and stone loading building.

I once operated a UK industrial Ironstone layout and sent out 'real stone' loads (Woodlands Scenic large ballast), challenging but great fun to operate at home and exhibitions

3 hours ago, David Holman said:

Just be careful with the con rods on the S class, because they are outside the front drivers. On the real thing, clearance could be pretty tight, which on a model often equates to fag paper thickness. The good news is that, with a semi freelance model, nobody is going to notice of you move the cylinders out a bit. The other modelling dodge is to bore the cylinders slightly off centre to create more room.

Achieving sufficient clearance between the coupling (grey) and connecting (red) rods outside the leading driving wheels may be challenging, on the prototype both coupling and connecting rods appeared to be the same or a similar length.

This may be less of a problem with a narrow gauge loco using a rtr OO gauge chassis than a scratchbuild chassis with closer to scale running clearances.

OO Gauge RTR chassis are designed with increased running clearance to reduce the risk of valve gear binding and run round small radius concerns

The best option would be check whether its feasible to move the existing cylinder assembly closer to the driving wheels, before carrying out any modifications to the chassis.

The 2-4-2Ts were 2 cylinder compounds the cylinder on the right hand side of the (going forward) loco were substantially larger than the cylinder on the opposite side., the Hornby Adams cylinders can be disguised/covered up with plasticard wrappers to look closer to the prototype.

If your really adventurous the Hornby Fowler 2-6-4T valve gear looks very close https://www.petersspares.com/hornby-x1283-2-6-4-fowler-tank-valve-gear-left-hand.ir to the S Class gear, the Hornby Fowler gear and cylinders may be an option if you can locate a 'dead" Hornby Fowler or source the spare parts, Peter's only appear to have th LH valve gear in stock!

47 minutes ago, Galteemore said:

Excellent. Nice sense of place and time - can really see Larne Harbour in that last pic. Being from 14 miles up the road, I did need Google Translate…..

The characters and the Ulster-Scots really gives the layout a sense of place. I got the gist of Beccy picking up the Ulster-Scots language from the p.w. gang and being able to twist her Da around her little finger like most daughters.

Could be time for West Cork/Kerry accents mixed in with a Munster Irish on JHBs Dugort Harbour. . 

On 29/6/2022 at 10:57 PM, Northroader said:

Then there was the day a Peak got stolen at Derby Works, but it didn’t get so far..

https://www.macearchive.org/films/midlands-news-22111962-diesel-train-stolen-derby

Not exactly stealing Clonsilla 1991 a bit more recent and closer to home when someone boarded 191 at the North Wall and sent her off at Notch 8 to de-rail at Clonsilla https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2056685307/locomotive-191-joyriding-incident

18 hours ago, Galteemore said:

Have you considered 5.5mm scale though? You will get the correct scale/gauge ratio, but still with access to lots of handy chassis etc. Although I can see 7mm has a lot of advantages!

16 hours ago, Patrick Davey said:

Thanks GM - sounds interesting, the straining eyesight made 7mm seem the best option for scratchbuilding/modifying a loco but your point about the scale/ratio makes it worth looking into!  Where would I find more information?  Thanks again

Well that would make that bit a lot easier!!  Thanks for that comprehensive diagram JB and I take your point about the track, there are definitely going to be trade-offs but it's still early stages so if I decide to do Capecastle again for example I might just buy the proper track - it's a very simple layout after all with just one siding with headshunt so just two turnouts.

Patrick.

5.5mm-1 foot or 1:55 on OO Gauge track was basically the standard scale for modelling Irish 3' narrow gauge up to the introduction of OOn3 on TT gauge track in the 1960s.

Sam Carse's layout of the  County Donegal system and George Hannan's Killybegs layout were both in 5.5mm scale.

I think the Killybegs layout and Sam Carse's locos on stock are on display in the Donegal Railway Heritage Centre.

The scale also appears to be popular for modelling the Welsh 2'-2'6" Narrow gauge with an association & handbook http://www.55ng.co.uk/pdf/55Handbook2019.pdf

It should be simple enough to build the loco and rolling stock bodies in plasticard and possibly persuade Worsley Works to produce the corridor coach sides to order in 5.5mm.

Scaling up a OO chassis to a larger scale may be challenging, it may be a better option to start with an older Hornby Pug or "Nellie" 0-4-0T chassis rather than using a current 'state of the art" model such as a Hornby Pecket or Adams radial.

The older UK assembled Hornby/Triang chassis while relatively basic are robust and suitable for upgrading with spare parts available from businesses like Peter's Spares or Hornby Triang Spare parts

5 hours ago, Leyny said:

Thanks to both of you for that clarification. 

At the risk of labouring the point on the MM Yanks, that does leave a significant gap (1972 - 1982/3ish) for which they don't have a Supertrain liveried variant. Odd because they've 2 with the S (the only differentiator as far as I can see being the 'Suitable for Air Braked Trains' stenciling) to represent a period that probably only covered about 7 years before that was replaced with the IR white stripe livery. 

 

An interesting point with Irish RTR manufacturers focusing on the post 1980-pre 2000 most likely because of a higher level of demand than earlier or later era's.

It should be feasible to remove the s suffix without damage to the paintwork using T-Cut applied with a cotton bud.

Before the introduction of MM & IRM highly detailed rtr locos during the past 15 years anyone wanting a model of an Irish Diesel either had to scratchbuild or assemble a MIR kits.

Almost a GSWR/GSR passenger train! 59 with JMD MGWR Horsebox and SSM GSWR 6 wheel coaches

I managed to close the gap that opened up the running board and valence at the leading driving splasher and disguised the skull duggery with a minor paint touch up. 

14 hours ago, murphaph said:

When was the meat factory on the Grand Canal in Dublin closed? That would have probably been rail served as well one would imagine. If I'm not mistaken it was built on the former DSER carriage works site.

The International Meat Packers? plant was on the site of the DSER Grand Canal Street Works and was demolished and re-developed for apartments during the early 2000s.

The plant was rail served up to the mid 1970s with a very short loop off the Boston Yard, remember seeing a couple of cattle wagons in the loop at some stage during the late 60s/early 70s

The cattle pens only appeared long enough to unload 1-2 wagons at a time, IMP also had a Leixlip plant that received cattle from Hazlehatch and Leixlip stations during the same era. The Leixlip plant was demolished and re-developed as a Hewlett-Packard computer plant during the 1990s, the Irish meat industry building modern processing plants nearer the "growing areas".

I expect that cattle to the meat plants would have arrived as individual or small cuts of wagons in scheduled goods trains rather than a train of cattle wagons like Fair or Shipping Specials that transported cattle 'on the hoof" to the ports.

The cover photo in Barry Carse's Irish Metro-Vick Diesels  features a 1973-4 colour photo of a very clean A20r dropping a cut of 6 cattle wagons off the 22:55 Cork-Kingsbridge goods in the cattle bank siding at Hazlehatch.

2 hours ago, Lambeg man said:

While the GNR(B) ran the 'Enniskillen Shipper' on a daily basis up to the 1957 line closures, there is little photographic evidence of similar LENGTHY cattle specials in the succeeding years. By 1958 refrigeration was beginning to kick in, reducing the need for the mass movement of live beasts, Post 1957 the goodly cattle dealers operating in the West of Ireland would have consigned their cattle to Dublin rather than Belfast (if they used rail at all). I think I may be correct to say that no photographs of post 1958 cross-border goods trains show any cattle wagons in their consist. Neither do any 1960's photographers appear to have ever captured any lengthy cattle specials operating over UTA lines. I would be very pleased to be corrected on either statement!

 

The point about refrigeration is an interesting one with a shift from exporting cattle 'on the hoof" to exporting frozen and chilled meat often by rail instead of cattle wagons meat was often transported in British Railways meat containers in open wagons, Oliver Doyle wrote about CIE operating special weekend goods trains to transport meat from the Clover Meats Waterford Plant to Rosslare Harbour, during weekdays the traffic was conveyed on British Railways Waterford-South Wales cargo services.

Although some long distance cattle traffic remained into the 70s, Loughrea, Cork and Tralee to meat works in the Dublin area and Roscrea live stock traffic on the CIE system declined significantly during the 1960s, with 115 cattle wagons built in 1953 converted into Ballast Wagons in 1964 

CIE appears to have captured the majority of the former SLNCR cattle traffic introduced a daily Sligo-North Wall shipper which also transported traffic from the Dromod meat processing plant. The UTA attempted to capture West of Ireland-Belfast traffic following the closure of the  SLNCR by sending cattle lorries to cattle fairs, there is a story of a UTA goods agent fumbling in his pocket and pulling out a set of rosary beads while negotiating with some West of Ireland cattle dealers who were probably more interested in 'luck shilling' to quench the deal rather than the UTA agents religious persuasion.

The MGWR WTT allowed 'cattle specials running through to be made up to 25 wagons including van. This would have been based on the 14' wagons the standard length for cattle wagons used by most Irish railways including the GNR(I) and MGWR.

2 hours ago, Leyny said:

I'd need to make it presentable first! I'll probably post it over on the layouts thread whenever I do to avoid dragging this thread any further off topic. 

Will bear that in mind whenever I take the job on. I've seen photos of the silver from the early 60s where you'd actually think the loco had been originally painted white (or maybe light grey) and then got filthy, though that may be due (at least to some degree) to degradation of the film/photo over time. See the below shot as an example. Yes, I know this is a Sulzer but it was the same paint job and if anything the Crossleys would have been even filthier as their leaky engines spewed out much more oil than the Sulzers did. 

I use Tamiya AS-12 "Bare metal silver" aerosol for painting models in silver scheme.

I found that the Tamiya aerosol resulted in a superior more durable finish compared to attempts with metallic aerosols.

I usually apply the silver on a grey or white car auto primer.

I am not really into weathering!

 Trying to fine tune the operation one of the main limitations is short train length as the traverser is only capable of holding a Bo Bo and 4 wagons. 

I have increased maximum train length to 6 wagons including a Brake Van by staging the loco in the hidden area behind the tower building.

The longer train improves operational potential with 4 potential destinations for wagons including the siding that trails back under the overbridge onto the traverser.

Todays trip includes a BR container for the Wharf Road, a H Van for the back siding, an LMA for Mill Traffic and two laden Grain Wagons for unloading.

The Digitrax radio receiver recently failed so I am using Infrared wireless control with an ancient UR80 receiver (2002?)

First step is to uncouple the first two wagons (for the trailing sidings) from the rest of the train before propelling the rear of the train out of the yard.

Kadee magnets.

First shunt is to swap the container wagons, leaving the van on the "main line" before shunting the back road.

Second shunt is collecting two vans from the "back road"  before setting out the H van.

the rear of the train is on the second traverser track!

Probably the 1st train/cut of wagons off the 'back road"

Second shunt complete train re-combined

Shunts 3 & 4 I snookered myself at this stage as the combined 7 wagon train was longer than the run round loop!  I left the Brake Van on the main line before running round the 6 wagons and shunting them clear pf the running road, before placing the Van in the loop and running round.  In practice brake vans were often left on the main line or on a siding clear of the shunting operations so the Guard could do his paperwork with minimal disturbance.

Shunt 5 outbound traffic from Shunts 1 & 2 coupled to the van, LMA to be shunted to the Mill loading area.

Shunt 6 LMA has been placed at the Mill for loading 2 laden Grain Wagons placed on the main line before B125 pulls out 2 empty (MTY) grain wagons before placing the laden wagons for unloading.

Shunt 7 complete 2 laden Grain placed for unloading 2 MTY collected

Outbound train made up and ready to depart.

B125 is fitted with a MM sound decoder at default CV settings, usually ramp up to 20% using a Digitrax DT400 throttle with very extremely reliable slow speed operation even with Peco dead frog points.

I still have to finalise the buildings for the mill area currently looking at a similar style to the elevator at Westport Quay 

1 hour ago, jhb171achill said:

Not sure I've seen an "M" suffix on a plate either. I would say that in GSR days there should have been a few, but there was a pogrom of MGWR wagons in the fifties, so probably few - if any at all - CIE, and as you suggest any few GSR ones long gone.

10 tons would presumably have been a goods van.

P O'Cuimin's "MGWR Wagon Stock" Feb 1970 IRRS Journal is the main published source on MGWR wagons, but does not contain a stock list as such.

The Standard Covered Wagon (soft topped livestock & goods) was the largest numerical group of wagon 1613 out of a total stock of 3319 in service in 1924 (Open (crib) cattle next numerous no total given (until 1912) against a total of 430 Covered Cattle wagons.

Its possible 3319 may be a Bogie rail wagon bought from Leeds Forge following WW1 which remained in service into the early-mid 1970.

The hopper wagons bought following WW1  for the North Wall-Broadstone coal train were numbered 3078-3094.

Its possible 1319m and 1428m may have been IRCH 10 Ton Standard Open wagons introduced in 1919 or IRCH 10 Ton Standard Covered Wagons introduced during the same period, the GSR and CIE continued to build open wagons to the IRCH Spec up to the introduction of the Bullied Corrugated Opens in the Mid 1950s

Interestingly Bogie Well Wagon 3409m the highest numbered ex-MGWR wagon appears to have lost its m suffix following re-building as the cable plough wagon including the fitting of modern roller bearing bogies

Tony I am not sure your question is whether its feasible to convert OO Gauge locos and Dapol wagons to

1. EM gauge (18.2mm) or 

 2.  21mm Gauge by adapting EM track and wheel standards.

On the face of it EM 18.2 offers an improved appearance over OO with a lot less effort compared to 21mm gauge. EM flexible track and points (Peco) available through the EM Gauge society and EM gauge wheelsets available from the society and UK model trade.

1. EM Gauge 

(a) OO Works Locos

If you are thinking of converting to EM gauge the first step would be to check whether there is sufficient clearance within the body of an the OO Works GNR locos to fit EM gauge wheel sets.

The main areas to check  1.-------EM gauge wheel sets within the splashers ---------22 mm plus running clearance of a Markits driving wheels on EM axles.

                                           2.------Whether there is sufficient clearance for coupling rods behind valence and under running board.

                                           3. ------EM wheel sets within tender frames.

OO Works appear to use Markits wheels on their locos, Markits supply EM gauge loco driving axles, you would need to replace the existing OO gauge tender and bogie wheels with EM wheel sets available from Markits or replace the existing axles with 26mm -2mm dia steel axles

(b) Dapol wagons.

EM gauge wagon wheels should fit the existing Dapol wagon chassis

2. 21mm gauge.

Would involve significantly more work than OO or EM regardless of whether you adapt EM or S4/Proto4 track and wheel standards

I don't think its a practical proposition to convert a OO Works GNR loco to 21mm gauge  as it likely that you would need to replace the running board, splashers and possibly tender frames,  it would be simpler to build a loco from scratch in brass or nickel silver or use a Worsley Works set of parts.

13 hours ago, Niles said:

Whether it will come to pass or not is quite another thing, but the 2040 Freight Strategy refers to hybrid locos being sought to replace the 071s towards the end of the decade.

I'm calling it now, 5'3 gauge Vectrons... 

Possibly a variant of the Stadler Eurodual https://www.stadlerrail.com/en/products/detail-all/eurodual/40/, though whether the Irish Government would be prepared to fund electrifying the lines that actually or could potentially carry freight traffic and generate the electricity from a renewable source is another question.

After looking at a number of options including sourcing locos from China and the United States Kiwi Rail recently (2021) placed an order with Stadler for 57 main line diesels (with Caterpillar (EMD) engines) to replace the South Island fleet. https://www.railjournal.com/locomotives/kiwirail-awards-stadler-locomotive-framework-agreement/ The Kiwirail order is based on the AsiaLight model with similar axle load limits to current IE locos.

4 hours ago, WRENNEIRE said:

I know a man......
I think the scale is 1:144 similar to these 2
They were presented to members of the teams that were involved in the ordering and purchasing of the originals

 

 

1:144 is not far off British N Scale at 1:148

I  wonder whether the Huyandi-Rotem IC railcar samples are to 1:144 or an established model railway scale.