Mayner

Engineers pegs put in place for alignment or re-laying work. The man standing under the bridge may be a Lookout Man for a track gang working on the line. Track in the photos of the station and cutting is jointed track laid on a mixture of wooden and concrete sleepers which were extensively used on the GNR during the late 50s-early 60s

Clogherhead seems to be a reasonably important fishing port, possibly a 4w or bogie luggage van on the 'early morning" Dublin commuter train with fresh fish for the Dublin Fish Market, the N1 Road north from Dublin was pretty horrendous until upgraded to motorway standards during the 1990s. Cheap land and a commuter connection to Dublin would have been attractive to house builders during the 70s and 80s, companies that built in North Dublin in the 60s started buying relatively cheap building land in the Drogheda area during the 70s. I am a bit conflicted by the neglect and dereliction of Clogherhead, quite different to my memories of stations on CIE branch and secondary lines during the 70s which tended to be maintained to a reasonable standard. CIE only seem to have cut back on building maintenance from the late 70s onwards, stations on lines that lost their regular passenger traffic during the 1960s were often fitted with 'modern' electric platform lighting and buildings painted in the 1960s corporate grey and white colour scheme. I guess the local CIE Area Manager decided the money was better spent on maintaining mainline stations than a branch line.

The most interesting aspect of Mail Train operation was the way trains divided at junctions like Athlone, Mullingar and Mallow almost until the end of Mail Train operation. The Galway Night Mails would set out with portions for Sligo and Westport which would be divided at the junctions on the out bound run to the provinces and re-combined on the return run to Dublin. The portions might include one or more 4w or bogie Luggage Vans, a TPO and a single coach when the Sligo and Westport Night Mails carried passengers. Up to the late early 70s it wasn't feasible to take a day trip from Dublin to Westport and spend some meaningful time at the destination without taking the 'Night Mail' to get home due to the sparse nature of CIE passenger services. An other train for Noel to model would be the short lived Newspaper Trains from Dublin to the Provinces that operated in the early 70s often a Bo Bo and a single Luggage Van. The Wexford Newspaper train usually worked down during the early hours of the morning with a B141 and a Luggage van, before taking up summer season Wexford-Rosslare passenger services, before returning Loco and empty Luggage Van to Dublin. For a short time before the withdrawl of the Wexford Newspaper train in the late 70s CIE operated a late evening Wexford-Dublin passenger train using the Wexford-Rosslare Harbour set returning as a newspaper and empty passenger service during the early morning.

There was a lot of detail variation among early CIE coaching stock, 1st batch Coaches were 60' long on GSR bogies and welded version of the GSR underframe, length increased to 61'6" for second and subsequent batches of coaches, Bullied triangulated underframe under coaches introduced 54-55. 1954 Side Corridor Standard Bulleid underframe and Commonwealth Bogies GSRPS Tralee 1992-3 1463 "Laminate" 1958 Open Standard Mullingar 1983 Laminate (Aluminium-insulation-ply panels) body re-skinned with aluminium on timber framing late 1980s. The main spotting difference between the 51-53/5 stock and the Laminates was the shape of the toilet windows and the end profile. The toilet compartments on some Bredin and 51-53 stock were placed at the centre rather than the end of the carriages.

The coach sides are available to order 6-8 week lead time. I need to quote for each individual order as they are shipped direct from our supplier in the UK rather than a stock item I recently supplied GSSGV sides and detail overlays for £40 plus shipping

BNM used sectional track with metal sleepers (not unlike tinplate model railway track) for both its permanent and temporary lines. The steel sleepers were used for strength and lighter weight to allow track to be put down, lifted and relocated easily as opposed to rot or insect attack. Similar systems were/are used on sugar plantations and once used in civil engineering works.

I have dabbled in modelling Irish Railways in OO, N during the late 70s/early 80s, before attempting to model 5'3" on 21mm and 3' on 12mm, I have a couple of Large Scale Irish 3' gauge items 15mm Scale on 45mm (G/Gauge 1 track. I have also dabbled in American outline N (1:160) and British Outline EM, my main interest is in model making rather than running or collecting rtr and not really interested in how. Ironically the shift to N in the late 70s was driven mainly with frustration with my attempts to model Irish railways in OO and thought that I would be less tempted to attempt modelling Irish railways in N, but ended up with a reasonably realistic Irish outline layout using repainted/modified rtr and scratchbuilt buildings and structures. I don't get hung up on the designation of my Irish Broad and Narrow gauge locos and stock, they are simply 4mm Scale that run on 12mm or 21mm gauge track with wheel profiles and running clearance based on EM Gauge Society clearances, the chances of being invited to run on another 21mm or 21mm gauge layout are fairly slim.

A preserved loco is the most likely candidate given IRMs focus on accuracy and practice of "measuring up" existing locos and stock when producing a model. Designing and manufacturing a model of a MGWR or GSWR design to the same standard would be challenging involving a lot of guesswork as available drawings and information is somewhat sketchy in nature. Also the RPSI had their loco fleet digitally scanned about 10-15 years ago apparrently for modelling purposes.

The cabin appears to date from GSR/CIE re-signalling of Cork station and was similar in general styling to other large GSR cabins (e.g. Athenry, Dunlaoire, Claremorris) Listed with 110 levers the largest mechanical lever frame in Ireland in Railway Lines of CIE & NIR 1985, its likely that the interior of the cabin would have been modified/working levers reduced as the track layout was modified and colour light signalling introduced from the late 80s onwards. As Jhb states the cabin was substantially "modernised" from its original form in the IE era substantially changing the appearance of the building the original timber window frames replaced with aluminium (tnted?) glazing and external window cleaning walkways added. https://www.flickr.com/photos/86202570@N02/15549327157

Quite a break through today when I found a set of loco driving wheels I mislaid over a year ago while assembling a 52 Class 4-4-0. The collection of unfinished projects gets temproariily ? larger before it gets smaller 1-52 Class waits its driving wheels, 4 part built 650 Class 2-4-0, 3 J15/101 Class. I thought the best option was to pause work on the MGWR 2-4-0 and fit No 93s wheels and return the loco to working order before I mislay/loose the parts again. Interestingly I packed the 4-4-0 wheel sets in a drawer labeled "Gibson 6'7" wheelsets when I mislaid the parts in 2022! 1st job is to degrease the wheelsets, before masking the tyres before priming and painting the parts before re-assembling the loco, decided at the same time to fit buffer heads and number plates to a J15 as the final touches in completing a J15 started about 20 years ago!

I hadn't time to do anything in the Workshop since June as a result of family commitments, but managed to make some time for myself in recent weeks including dusting off some long unfinished projects. First up is completing a OO Gauge 650 Class for a customer to be followed by some 21mm locos for myself. The 650 class was designed to be assembled in OO or 21mm gauge with a "fold up" OO gauge chassis to speed up assembly. I used a tapered broach to open up the axle holes for the bearings before folding up the chassis. Basic chassis folded up and wheels fitted before test fitting the body to check running clearances. The body is from a 2017 test build of the loco, I am not sure what happened to the original n/s boiler/smokebox assembly. OO Gauge Chassis with non-working inside valve gear fitted, Alan Edgar a modeller in the UK assembled a 650 Class with working valve gear in 21mm gauge apparently using some of the valve gear parts. I temporarily fitted the wheels at this stage to check brake gear fit and clearances. Loco chassis assembled with brake gear fitted. The brake gear is a separate removable sub assembly which helps simply painting and assembly. Tender Chassis before folding to shape! Basic tender assembly the tender is designed with a fixed trailing and floating leading and centre axles to transfer weight from the front of the tender to the rear of the loco important on locos like 2-4-0s and 4-4-0s Completed loco and tender chassis ready for clean-up and painting. I need to locate the remainder of that 2015 test build or assemble a replacement! I have at least four MGWR 2-4-0-650 Class test builds to complete for myself (all different variations) which should keep me busy for a couple of years without starting any new projects. I may complete some as static models rather than motorise as the majority of the locos I built over that past 30 years have ended up in display cases and seldom run on a layout.

J M Design and Leslies sales in terms of the numbers of individual wagons sold are likely to be insignificant in terms of IRM sales of individual wagons. Going back to the CIE Palvan in the absence of a rtr model, a reasonable representation can be constructed from the Parkside Dundas kit and some plasticard. The prototype vans used a version of the Bulleid Triangulated underframe but with running and break gear similar to the Parkside model.

Personally I was not surprised by IRMs announcement of the Bulleid Opens. I knew for some time that IRM was planning to introduce models of CIE stock dating from the mid-1950 hence the focus on high quality 3D printed models of older or more obscure wagons that were unlikely to be viable to produce as injection moulded plastic model. The JM Design Open is a model of the traditional Irish Standard wooden bodied open introduced up to the mid 1950s as opposed to the new IRM Bulleid Open. At this stage its difficult to gauge how the introduction of new IRM wagons will impact on sales of existing JM Design models, a high proportion of our repeat customers appear to be collectors who buy 1-2 of each type of wagon when released, rather than building a rake of wagons Although a number of Irish manufacturers (kit and rtr) ceased operating during during the past 20 years the availability of high quality rtr models and kits of Irish locos and stock is at its highest largely through the efforts of MM and IRM. Before the arrival of MM 201 and B141 modellers were dependent on kitbuding, modified rtr or scratchbuilding to produce models of Irish locos and stock. the high quality rtr models produced by IRM in recent years would have been undreamed of 10 years earlier. I believe that there is likely to continue to be a place for kit and scratchbuilding despite the arrival of current high quality rtr, its unlikely to be viable to produce models of all the "glaring gaps" in rolling stock due to the relatively small size of market (low demand) and sheer variety of locos and stock that ran on the Irish railways up to the early 2000s. MM and IRM focus on stock were customers are likely to buy a rake of coaches/wagons rather than individual items like a Goods Brake Van, Passenger Brake. One of the limiting factors on demand is that many modellers are content to run re-painted models models of British wagons and "cannot see the point" in paying a premium for more accurate models of Irish stock. One UK customer to he credit replaces his UK open wagon chassis with the JM Design IRCH Open chassis. For me the main benefit of the JM Design 3D printed wagons is that it allowed me to fill out my wagon fleet quicker than by scratch or kit building adding a number of wagons I had been planning to build for the past 40 years with minimal effort.

Those DSER/DWWR 2-4-0T and 2-4-2T locos were really distinctive powerful looking locos with their relatively high pitched large diameter boiler contrasting significantly with other "Southern" tank locos. Although the ex-DSER 2-4-0T and 2-4-2T were considered to be obsolete by the GSR they appeared to be capable locos working South Eastern Suburban passenger services until replaced by diesels. The original DWWR 2-4-2T were rebuilds of the 2-4-0T, its a pity the GSR did not re-build the remaining 3 2-4-0T as 2-4-2T bringing them into line with the rest of the fleet allowing all ex-DSER suburban tanks to work through to Bray and Greystones, the small bunkers apparrently restricted the 2-4-0T to Amiens St-Dunlaoire workings and Pier Trains

Important point the large B only appeared on these wagons from 1977 onwards on wagons retained for sugar beet traffic. There wasn't a green and grey era with the Bulleid Opens as such the wagons ran with unpainted galvanised bodies on grey mild steel underframes from their introduction in 1956 to their withdrawl from general traffic in the mid 70s, though the galvanised bodywork on a brand new wagon would have been a lot shinier than one that was in service for close to 20 years. CIE continued to use wooden bodied opens to carry traditional style British Rail type A & B containers or farm machinery into the mid 70s The brown on the underframe likely to be spray primer rust protection to the chassis following inspection/overhaul. 12319 was part pf a group corrugated open dumped at Liffey Junction after being used a spoil wagons by the PW Department in connection with the DART project

001 Class loco 20 laden wagons 20T Brake van or 28 with 30T Brake on South Wexford Line east of Campile 001 Class loco 40 Laden wagons 20 or 30T Brake Van Campile-Thurles or Mallow Beet factories Campile basically functioned as a small marshalling yard during the annual Beet Campaign due to load restrictions on Taylorstown Bank. Trains were restricted to 380T with 20T Brake and 550 with 30T Brake between Campile and Wellington Bridge and were allowed to load to 780 tons between Campile and Thurles or Mallow.

Finally made some time to repair the decayed section of track base on the High Line and run the first train on the Jackson County in six months! . I used a piece of treated 6X2 that was stored outside for the past 17 years for the repair, original splice piece had rotted right through. I basically clamped the replacement piece to the track base with a large G clamp and nailed new piece in place with 4' Paslode nails with a 20oz hammer, the charger for the Paslode gun dies since it was last used about 4 years ago. Interesting little sign of similar decay in the track bases or supports on the High-Line section of the railroad. Full size trestles and bridges have been know to collapse suddenly as a result of the lack of maintenance, so the Jackson County is in similar company 463 eases her way across with a train of laden stock cars and empty box cars for ore loading, typical of RGS operation in its final years. The train has made it to Utah Junction without further incident, the moss that covered much of this area during the past six months is now starting to die off and due a genera tidy up, and take the coal/ore tipple and Depot building out of storage. The tunnel was originally inspired by the Welsh Highland Railway in the Aberglasslyn pass, trains sometimes stall on the the grade and curved section of track between Utah Junction, but 463 just made it round. The trackbase on the curve is supported on slabs of concrete disturbed by the roots of the large tree in the backgound, the tunnel has also sunk relative to the trackbases over the past 16-17 years 12' to 1' civl engineering challenges on a 1:20.3 scale railway! Train is running under caution on this section as a result of track defects from damage in last January's Cyclone and clean up, a tree (full size) fell on the track base in this area. There is a kink in the left hand rail in front of the loco which as narrowed the gauge, but loco stayed on at very slow speed. More storm damage, loco made it across without de-railing , but lost traction because of the dip. This problem was corrected by lifting and packing the track on the low spot with a timber packer and restoring 'level top" by carefully removing the dip with my trusty 20oz clawhammer. Train eventually reached Jackson City without further incident apart from slipping on the grade through the yard, 1:20.3 scale equivalent of poor traction as a result of the lack of use (grass, rust,lack of sand.) Decided to return home around the other side of the circle and splitting the train due to the poor state of the track in the tunnel area. Forts moved the stock cars and a gondola to Arboles, firewood recovered from the tunnel area. The track in this area becomes engulfed in moss during the winter months which has now died off. 463 collects the boxcars from Jackson City having first having gone through the ritual of taking the stock cars to Arboles and returning with the caboose before running round and coupling to her train/ 463 now adds the stock cars and gondolas to her train, stock cars usually appear coupled next to the loco in mixed freights during the final years of RGS operation. 463 and the stock cars have uncoupled from the gondola and box cars and reverses her train on the tail track of the wye at Utah Junction, the wye is probably one to the most useful features of the railway. 463 and the stock cars have now turned on the wye and are running forward to collect the caboose before departing up the High Line 1:20.3 scale de-railments are more realistic! 463 managed to split the points while departing up the high line with her train and had gone a bit far to 'steam her" back on to the rails needing a helping had to get her back on the rails! This sort of thing usually happens just before tea time or when I am in a hurry to put my trains away after an operating session. Cannot identify an immediate cause of the de-railment as the switch rail is fitting snuggly against the stock rail after I pushed 463 back on, though may not have been fully home beforehand. 463 successfully mad it round the curve onto the High Line without slipping, her normal maximum load is 8 cars and a caboose, but it tends to stuff things up requiring additional switching at the staging.

Lithium-ion battery device fires (bikes, phones, laptops, tools) rather than cars has become a significant issue in recent years las Li devices have become more prevelant https://www.fireandemergency.nz/home-fire-safety/home-fire-hazards/lithium-ion-battery-safety/. NZ fire service have been running a number of 'controlled burns" to show how quickly a Li fire can consume a typical NZ timber frame house. For us the potential killer is the phone or laptop on charge in a bedroom, Li powered garden and power tools are in the workshop. Don't know if we will get around to changing to an electric car or hybrid, we hope to get at least 10 years out of our current car a 10 year old Japanese import same as we did with out last car.

Although they may have lost their "CEMENT ONLY' "RETURN TO DROGHEDA lettering ex-GN vans are likely to have continued to carry bagged cement (along with CIEs H Vans) until the traffic was palletised in 1976. The Cement Bubbles were built to carry an entirely new traffic originally to Cork, Belfast and Dublin, with little expansion until the Mid 70s with the opening of depots at Athenry, Tullamore, Sligo, Westport, ironically Drogeda-Athy bulk cement traffic was transported in a hopper version of the GN bagged cement wagon In the overall scheme of things the 138 ex-GNR (54-56)wagons were relatively insignificant in numbers to transport the Boyne Road plant traffic, the GN 200 12t "Standard Covered Wagons" for cement traffic from the late 30s onwards. The GNR wagons were double sheeted (internally) and 3" thick floor boards to stand up to carrying bagged cement, hard on both the wagons and the men that loaded-unloaded the wagons. The ex-GN wooden wagons would have gone by the late 60s. The number of ex-GN wagons available for cement traffic would have been insignificant in comparison with the approx. 2700 H Vans built by CIE from the mid 1940s to late 1950s

Did Fry produce models of any of the private operators that were absorbed into the GSR or ceased to operate following the 1934 Transport Act? My father who lived near Brittas County Dublin in the 1930s spoke fondly of the "Paragon Bus Company" that operated a direct Dublin-New Ross Bus service and of the DBST running converted Model T busses and not a railway enthusiast he also spoke of Model Ts operating on the Clogher Valley. An friend of my father lived beside the DBST at Crooksling spoke about borrowing a p.w. trolley (which had a damaged wheel) for evening/nightime joy-rides as young adults to-Brittas.

Its challenging forming details like quoins from embossed plasticard or Wills Scenic Materials due to the thickness of the sheet, there days I usually model quoins, window frames and building details in etched brass rather than plasticard, but seldom get round to actually assembling the buildings. Some fine scale modellers 4mm modellers clad their buildings 'one-brick at a time" using individual paper "bricks" from punched cards once used to programme computers and CNC machinery back in the day. https://www.rmweb.co.uk/topic/110534-computer-chad-bricks/ Laying individual computer bricks was said to be slow, but calming and therapeutic and practiced by famous building/structure modellers including Alan Downes , Bow Barlow and Iain Rice

Back to an October 2020 Bush Tramway Operating Day after the 1st round of Covid restrictions were lifted General view carriage shed and workshop The rail truck on the right is a restored "Bush Jigger" converted from a 1940 White truck to transport workers and equipment on a Bush Tramway (forestry railway in the Rotorua area and now used to give "jigger rides" between trains! Jigger Rides using self propelled rail trollies is a popular feature on some New Zealand heritage railways The Jigger has a built in turntable to avoid running backwards Sole operating steam loco a Peckett 0-6-0T once owned by the Pukemiro Coal Company which connected with the Main Line at this location The steam train currently operates between the station and the bottom end of the line, coach was once used on local coal miners trains, one coach is about the limit with this loco because of the grades. Busy time at Pukemiro Junction with trains connecting. Currently the top end of the line is worked by a 2 coach set topped and tailed by small Drewry diesels basically an 0-4-0 150hp version of the British Drewry 204hp 0-6-0 diesels (04 Class) Steam train arriving as diesels wait with connection. Typical NZR coach interior Diesel waits to depart vintage car enthusiasts on day out Jigger returning with passengers Another recently restored Jigger in the workshop Typical New Zealand level crossing, ridge in background is an earthwork screening a large open cast coal mine F Class 0-6-0ST once the mainstay of the line currently out of service requiring major boiler work Class B Climax currently undergoing major overhaul

Going totally off topic the 80 Class sets were borrowed (leased/hired) by IE in response to an acute coaching stock shortage in the mid/late 1980s, under the Government's 'Building on Reality Programme" there was to be no further investment in the railways after IE completed the Cork Line re-signalling and the MK3 Main Line Coach order. As far as I recall one 80 Class set was used to work the Bray-Greystones shuttle, a second to work Cork-Cobh and a third to cover maintenance as sets were rotated between Bray and Cork as it would have been extremely challenging to keep three sets in operation simultaneously. The Bray-Greystones shuttle were replaced by a bus service when the 80 Class sets were returned to NIR in the mid 90s, suburban train services not restored until the DART was extended to Bray in the early 2000s I don't thing 80 Class regularly worked Maynooth suburban trains the original service was worked by a AEC Push-pull set with the Connolly-Sligo and Connolly-Rosslare sets working early morning Maynooth-Connolly services before taking up their main-line diagrams. Maynooth trains were mainly hauled stock until replaced by diesel railcars in the mid-late 90s. A 2 Coach MK3 Push Pull set haulled by a 141 with the loco running round regularly operated a Saturday afternoon Connolly-Maynooth service in the Mid 90s. Born out of an Albert Reynolds election promise Maynooth was the poor relation of Dublin Suburban services.

Facing up to reality really, I get most of my enjoyment out of buiding models and tend to loose interest once I complete the main assembly, ending up with a lot ofpart completed models. I get a great kick out of knowing that some of my kits/models are running on other peoples layouts. I had no plans for further loco kits after I completed the 52 Class, but am tempted to produce a set of parts for a 60 Class and a Midland "Standard Goods". My most successful layouts mainly N tended to be layouts that were interesting to operate rather than scenically complete, with a couple of stations or yards with a sense that trains were going and arriving from somewhere, I struggle to keep interest in a small or cameo layout running short trains even if it operates 100% reliably.

One 80 Class set was used on Bray-Greystones shuttles, a second on Cork-Cobh suburban trains. The third a maintenance spare rotating between the Greystones and Cobh sets, one of its more unusual workings was a Sunday morning Dunlaoire-Heuston 'Boat-Train rather than the usual Dublin City Services bus transfer between Dunlaoire and Connolly. Its possible an 80 Class set was rotated between Dublin and Cork on a weekly basis for maintenance purposes, though I don't know if the transfer working was a revenue or ECS working. Passengers were regularly carried in Mitsui 2600 railcar sets on Cork-Dublin transfer working during the 1990s a long slow uncomfortable journey compared with a MK3 set. Another oddity was that IE advertised a Sunday afternoon/evening Mayo-Waterford passenger service reversing at Kildare following the arrival of the 2700 railcar sets in the late 90s most likely aimed at Waterford College of Technology students. Checked out Kildare Station on the appointed date to find a long 80 Class set (Most likely 10 car) waiting in the platform, but no signs of a 70 Class set. The 80 Class was actually on a NIR Curragh Race Special. IE stopped advertising its Mayo-Waterford Sunday evening service, the 2700s were eventually introduced into service on Pearse-Drogheda trains after a very long commissioning period apparently as a result of design and manufacturing defects.