Mayner

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.

On 18/8/2022 at 5:29 AM, David Holman said:

Stock should not be a problem with EM standards, but always worth ensuring wheels are all in contact with the track on locos, especially small ones where good luck up is vital.

The majority of my 21mm gauge steam (EM profile wheels and running clearances) outline locos (mainly 0-6-0 and 4-4-0) incorporate some form of compensation or springing and some (3-4) have operated successfully in exhibition conditions, the main advantage is improved pick up by keeping all wheels in contact with the rail head.

The SSM MGWR E Class chassis incorporates beam suspension so there is no need to fit separate hornblocks or to use a hornblock alignment jig.

I currently use High Level Hornblocks as they are easier to assemble and fit than other manufacturers hornblocks and a set of Markits alignment jigs

11 hours ago, Lambeg man said:

Surely the ground discs would have been sufficient indication to a driver that he was clear to carry out any such "Shunt" either way between the Main Line and the Branch? As outer homes were provided, I agree with you that another train could have been accepted into the BLOCK while such a "Shunt" was taking place. Hence no need for separate Main to Branch & Branch to Main signals?

I was thinking in terms of a hand signal for a movement that was not controlled by a running signal or a disc.

On some railways no fixed signal was provided to control a movement from a running line to a goods loop, an arriving train had to be brought to a halt at the Home signal (held at danger), before the signal man set the road and hand signaled the train into the loop or siding.

18 hours ago, Lambeg man said:

Many thanks to BSGSV for providing a full answer to this one. The down line was provided with a distant, then an outer home, then an inner home that was sited outside the 'Long Siding' for sighting purposes. The up starter was around the bend from the platform and there was an advanced starter further on. The same arrangement applied for the up line, the double armed repeater up starter being on the down platform. At the north end of the up platform was a starter for the branch bay only. A single branch home was situated beyond the bridge.

The two trailing crossovers between the up and down main lines, the lead into the branch and the access to the 'Long Siding' were all provided with shunting disc ground signals.

BSGSV states "I don't see any discs acting as running signals, just for shunt moves. I'm surprised that the branch was as self-contained as it was. There's no running signals to get passenger trains to the branch from the main line, or vice versa. Compared to the main line part of the layout, shunt discs on the branch and its run-round are quite sparse. It's just a layout for a branch train shuttling to and from the bay platform.   

The GNR (I) had a reputation of being 'economic" when it came to signalling  known for its shorter than usual signal arms and telegraph poles for posts

There would have been no requirement for signals to control run round movements at Scarva if the branch was operated on the 'One engine" system.

Presumably movements to an from the branch were controlled by hand signals from the signal man, the outer homes would have allowed Scarva to accept a train from Portadown or Pontzypass while a train was a shunting move was taking place in the station or a passenger movement between the main line and branch or vice versa.

I have used 3D printing for resin printing and lost wax casting in brass.

I used 3D printed models as patterns for bass castings before realising my supplier can produce a pattern and mould from a 3D file https://morrisandwatson.com/casting/about-casting

The big question is whether the designer goes down (1) the Shapeways or i Materialise route to sell their products, (2) use a commercial bureau in the Ireland or the UK to print their models, (3) invest up to $100k in setting up their own print shop or (4) release their designs on a commercial (royalty basis) or (5) open source for people to print their own models.

Stanley Beeson's was considered to the the Rolls Royce of British professional model makers in Gauge O and the larger scale

Guy William's who built most of the Pendon locos holds a similar position in 4mm scale .

Massed produced OO locos and stock are relatively cheap I sometimes pay the best part of £2,500 for a used large Scale (45mm gauge) American narrow gauge loco and around £150 for new plastic freight cars.

https://www.accucraftestore.com/ng-c25

New Accuracraft  locos are generally around $5k plus excluding import charges

I don't buy or have the money to buy every new model introduced by Accuracraft though 

2 hours ago, Broithe said:

Over time, as the 70s moved into the chaos of the 80s, they became used for more and more things, as it became impossible to get agreement to spend any money on the actual job. As things failed, they were slowly replaced by, essentially, home-made things. 

When my father retired in the late 70s he started doing shutdown maintenance work for an engineering contract shop.

One of his last jobs (in the Clondalkin Paper Mill) was inspecting/dismantling plant then servicing and re-assembling the plant without replacing worn parts as there was no money in the budget to replace worn/broken parts.

Dad didn't mind he had basically seen it all before and the pay rates with the contract shop were good

Test running and final detailing including cab interior, fitting smokebox door and vacuum pipe under running board on drivers side.

Earlier photo, did not notice buffers were pointing upwards! Tender springs and tool boxes later removed for painting.

The model is based on a 1939 photo of No59 at Tullow including twin whistles, I have prepared a set of matching numberplates. The 52 Class appear to have been the regular locos on the Kingsbridge-Tullow passenger trains in GSR days possibly up to the end of scheduled passenger (and goods) services in 1947.

The loco is for a customer in the UK hence NEM coupler pockets on the loco. Didn't realise the GSR used knuckle couplers 

The challenges of fitting a cab interior to a OO gauge Irish Broad Gauge loco.

Test run  following some "final' adjustments.  Reasonably happy with speed range following light oiling of gear train, axle bearings and crankpins.

Back to loco building this time a GSWR 52 Class.

I used a Mashima 10X24 motor and 53:1 Branchlines Multibox rather than the High Level 35:1 gearbox and coreless motor I used in earlier builds of this class.

High Level were furloughed (unable to obtain components from suppliers covid supply chain problems) when I ordered the parts in 2021, but fortunately Branchlines had a stock of gearboxes and motors.

I selected the 53:1 box to achieve improved slow speed running and a more realistic top speed, the builds with 35:1 gearboxes turned out to be racers!

I build/assemble 2-4-0s and 4-4-0s with weighted tenders and rigid drawbars to improve traction. The leading and center tender wheelsets are floating free to move up and down in slots lightly sprung to maintain contact with the railhead/power pick up.

I used self adhesive tyre weights for the tender and cast woods metal weights in the loco chassis and boiler.

Loco and tender wheels are Markits with 'live axle" pick up, the loco is DC the only wiring are leads from the loco and tender chassis to the motor brush terminals, a lot less hassle than wiring a kit or scratchbuilt loco for DCC.

The chassis weight was cast in a rubber mould, the loco literally poured into the boiler.

First load test 14 wagons no hint of slipping.

Even with the 53:1 box and motor of similar rated speed to the earlier builds this loco also turned out to be a fast runner.

Next job is to dismantle the loco for painting.

4 hours ago, Lambeg man said:

Right, let me throw my tuppence worth in on this...

When I was a wee lad we had 'Hallowen' in Ireland on the 31st October. We let off fireworks (until 1970 in the North when the security situation forced  ban), we dunked for apples and had sweets provided by our parents. We had apple pie with thrupenny and sixpence coins hidden in it. We did NOT go 'Trick or Treating'.

 

   

Growing up in Dublin in the 1960s Halloween (really Samhain) was a major event as kids we went door to door in the neighbourhood calling "Help the Halloween Party" collecting sweets and fruit for the party

In practice we were trick or treating in Ireland before the term became common in mainland UK.

Fireworks (banned in the Republic) were available under the counter from the Dealers (stall holders) in Moore Street and other markets or smuggled in from the North.

"Bangers" seem to have been the most popular firework, older people used to stuff their letter boxes with newspaper to stop gougers/scumbags posting lighted banger through their letter box.

In a way the more things change the more they stay the same.

I generally use ply or stripwood framing for open top baseboard construction of where the railway is on an embankment.

These days I cut the ply strips on a bench saw and use  a jig saw for profile cutting and fascias

My current dock layout uses similar baseboard construction

The EE shunter is an excellent example of what can be achieved by scratchbuilding in plasticard.

GN Hoppers, cut-down open wagons and bogie bolster really capture the neglected run-down nature of NIR engineers stock during the 70s and 80s.

Any chance of an MPD railcar for light shunting/off peak passenger services.

We achieved a minor milestone in July with 200 JM Design wagons sold to date, with brake vans our largest selling item at 85 vans sold to date and remaining sales evenly split between Covered and Open Wagons with the balance made up with a small number of Grain Wagons.

A very small number of rtr Brake Vans are currently available in grey with 1960 CIE roundel https://jmdesignmodelrailways.com/products/copy-of-cie-20t-brake-van-light-grey-23580

I am not planning to produce further rtr wagons (as its basically too time consuming & not worth while financially), its planned to continue producing the Brake Vans and other wagons to order in CKD form.

While sales for these models has been less than expected the 3D printed wagons have allowed me fill out my wagon fleet a lot more quickly than going down the scratch building route, the majority of the wagons produced have been on my to-do list since I started Irish modelling during the 1970s.

On 15/8/2022 at 8:46 AM, Branchline121 said:

I think I recall Hornby making a HO Avelia Liberty model too — It seems the Hornby-Bachmann rivalry extends out of GB.

It probably goes a bit deeper than simple rivalry Kadar (Bachmann parent company) have a pattern of taking over established but financially weak companies with strong brand names including Bachmann Bros, Williams Trains, Graham Farish, Liliput, Trix which would make Hornby Hobbies with its wide product portfolio target for takeover.

Kadar took over Sanda Kan the company that manufactured model trains for Hornby and several European and American brands before shutting down OEM manufacture for these companies https://jnsforum.com/community/topic/2747-sanda-kan-shake-up-affects-model-trains/.

Sanda Kan pioneered the current generation of highly detailed Chinese rtr models during the 1990s with the Proto-2000 range of HO locos for Lifelike which were groundbreaking both in terms of running quality, fine detail and finish in a similar manner to current IRM, Accurascale models. 

5 hours ago, jhb171achill said:

Any of these overlays left, I wonder?

Two sets of Second/Standard Open sides in stock @ $32.00 each plus shipping

Coach side frets are available to order 6-8 week lead time direct from our supplier in the UK

Buffet Car---------------1 set coach sides

Side Corridor------------2 Sets coach sides

BSGV--------------------3 Sets coach sides

Brake Second/Standard--3 sets

Standard Open-----------3 Sets

The majority of Shapeway Modellers select "white versatile plastic" as a default option because of the materials strength, flexibility and low cost.

Has anyone asked Simon Dawson (Recreation 21) for a quote for any of his Irish 1:76 scale locos, coaches or wagons in one of Shapeways SLA resins?

https://www.shapeways.com/materials/sla-accura-xtreme

The main risks with printing a coach like a MGWR 6 wheeler in one piece like the Recreation 21 model in a SLA resin is parts like buffers, axleguards and footboards breaking off because of the brittle nature of SLA resins and defects/flaws on one side of the model due to the limitations of the printing process.

Doing an exercise using Shapeways on-line quoting system Shapeways resin prints worked out between 3-6 times more expensive for the same model printed in 'white versatile plastic"

Most likely Bachmann Europe attempting to re-gain market share lost to Accurascale, and retail commissions, the Deltic and Class 37 were important models in Bachmann UK  'Modern Outline" locomotive range.

It will be interesting to see if Bachmann/Kader will adjust their Class 37 pricing to compete with Accurascale on price.

20 hours ago, Fiacra said:

 

Scaleway also do an EM version of their flexitrack, and I think this is what I will go with. As David Holman pointed out above, the difference in gauge can be subtle, and a lot depends on the angle at which the track is being viewed, but I'm thinking EM is probably the best compromise for my purposes. Which leads to my next question; is there anybody out there modelling Irish railways in EM?

Thanks again to all.

EM appears to be a reasonable compromise for Irish broad gauge and would allow Irish and British outline models to run on the same layout!

I know at least one (UK based) modeller who has an EM (18.2mm) gauge MGWR 2-4-0

Modelling Irish railways in EM is a similar compromise to modelling British outline in OO and reduces the "narrow gauge" appearance of Irish steam locos and stock when viewed head on, the main advantage in using EM over 21mm is that it considerably simplifies loco/rolling stock conversion with EM loco and rolling stock wheel sets available from the trade and EM gauge society and eliminates the requirement to widen/replace bogies and rolling stock chassis to accept 21mm wheel sets. A significant issue in converting Irish rtr (and some kits) coaches and wagons to 21mm gauge before the introduction of IRMs bogie freight stock.

Martyn Wynne's (Templot) choice of 20.2mm for "Irish EM" appears similar to the EM gauge society choice of 18.2mm as opposed to the more accurate 18.83mm for British outline standard gauge and may be related to concerns with achieving sufficient running clearances for EM profile wheels in broad gauge loco chassis.

Having built several steam outline 21mm gauge locos I would be tempted to try EM if I was starting over again.

Studio Scale Models 30T Brake Van kit http://www.studio-scale-models.com › Brake30 is a reasonably inexpensive option at for modelling one of these vans. The kit is relatively simple to assemble and includes a Dapol Prestwin chassis complete with wheels and couplings, body folds up from one piece of brass and can be assembled by gluing, no soldering required.

Received the August Newsletter today which includes a 'goldmine" of information on Dublin's North Wall freight operations including an excellent collection of black and white and colour photos of the yards and transfer freight from the late 1940s to the 1990s including photos of Inchacore's pioneering Mirrless & Sulzer diesel locos in operation including 1968 and 1971 photos of a smartly turned out  B114 working Heuston-North Wall freights.

Well worth the subscription

On 2/8/2022 at 5:26 AM, jhb171achill said:

Loose coupled goods (thus with brake vans) were largely gone by 1976, though a few goods transfers up from North Wall had them a short time longer. For trains "down the country", they were commonplace up to 1975, but in that year four lines, two of them trunk routes, were closed (North Kerry, Burma Road, Loughrea and Ardee). All four used these vans. The following year the Castleisland branch closed and services became fewer on the Limerick - Claremorris line. There were less vans after that.

A note on the livery above. Seemingly like most modelsa, the "stripy" bit needs correction - a black marker pen will do this easily! The FLAT part of the bodyside immediately above and below the protruding "stripy" ducket should be black, whether the van is in 1973-70 grey, or 1970-onwards brown. On the above, the patch below it is brown, and the patch above it is stripy. The brown on the wagons is accurate - on the van it's a bit reddish. Wagon brown started to becomne a little more reddish around 1990.

Nice little van, all the same - good luck with it!

30T Goods Brakes were used in revenue service on sugar beet trains until the ending of loose coupled operation following the introduction of the Beet Double wagons in 1985.

Dublin-Tralee was the last long distance main line goods train to go over to Liner Operation after a coupling broke on a Heuston Goods-Tralee goods while climbing the Gullet to Inchacore and the train ran back into the passenger station and was wrecked.

Loose coupled Cross Border (Dundalk-Adelaide) goods trains (with modern wagons & 30T Brakes continued to operate for some years after CIEs goods services went over to Liner Train operation.

The duckets on the 20T & 30T Brake vans were different in profile and warning stripe arrangement.

The 20T vans originally had vertical planked duckets, some were later covered in metal sheeting and some replaced with pressed metal duckets.

On some 20T vans the vertical body planking was replaced by plywood, some balconies appear to to have been sheeted in ply others retained the vertical planking. 

The ducket and markings on the 30T Brakes appear to be quite different to the sheet metal duckets used on 20T Brakes

The Guardian is currently running a series on rail travel (mainly local slow trains) in Europe focusing on the more interesting scenic train rides, including Finland, Norway, and the Oder-Neisse line through the Czech Republic, Germany and Poland 

Todays article is on Irelands most scenic lines featuring Rosslare-Dublin, Cork Cobh, Longford-Sligo, Dublin-Belfast, the WRC and Derry to Coleraine

https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2022/aug/03/6-best-railway-train-trips-in-ireland-dublin-belfast-rosslare-cork-sligo

7 hours ago, jhb171achill said:

There were two sent to the C & L. One was substantially altered by having the open balcony end enclosed with conventional guards' doors either side. The one shown above at least, and possibly both, had a conventional wagon-type end.  The other - I think - had at one stage at least a small window fitted in the middle panel on the end.  but with a small window in the middle panel. Planked ends as on the sides. Internally would have been a short bench seat for the guard, probably close to where the stove was at one corner internally.

The above is in original condition.

 

There is a 1956 photo of 190L in the PJ Flannigan Collection (a must for C&L fans!) on the IRRS Flickr site https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/50163963961/in/album-72157715275322482/

The van which seems to be out of us by 1956 has a set of double outward opening doors with droplights at the balcony end, there is a Des Coakham photo of the van in less run down condition in Cavan & Leitrim Railway the Last Decde pictorial album  Tom Ferris and Patrick Flanagan  Midland Publishing 1997.

Its possible that the 190L may have been used at some stage as a passenger brake, according to Flanagan the "vans were very well though of at first, but were not long in use as they got "shaky". One was used in emergencies, both survived to the end in bad condition."

23 minutes ago, Westcorkrailway said:

Does anyone know what the story is with 10L’s livery in the early 1950s. I seen it on the latest round of digital uploads to the railway records society 

 

it appears to be in a jet black colour with number plates picked out in ted. Not something similar to the GSR or CIE liveries at the time….why was this livery put on this loco?  

https://flic.kr/p/2nBiQUt

 

Possibly because black was the only suitable paint available when 10L received its last re-paint/running overhaul.

10L and 6t also appear to have been painted black during their final years working on the C&L.

There is a 1956 black and white photo of what appears to be a black 10L under overhaul in Ballinamore in the Pan Paperback edition of P J Flannigan's Cavan and Leitrim Book and a colour photo of a Black 6t almost ex-works taking water at Drunshanbo in 1957 in "Irish Railways in Colour" Tom Ferris (Midland Publishing 1992). Both 6t and the two surviving ex-CBPR 2-4-2T were in a grimy run down state with paint burnt off the chimneys and smokeboxes when the line closed in March 1959.