Mayner

There appears to have been approx. 320 "Fitted" H Vans with 18542-18761 built with Vacuum Brakes for running with passenger trains and 18762-18861 built in 1958 fitted with vacuum brakes in 1961/62 15 of which were fitted with sliding doors similar to the 26001 series pallet vans of 1964. The "Fitted" H Vans appear to have been restricted to a max. speed of 35mph which would have limited their usage on passenger trains, a green H van with black ends is just about visible in a John Phillips colour photo of Sambo (steam) shunting in Irish Railways in Colour a second glance Tom Ferris Midland Publishing 1975. The vacuum brake gear appears to have been isolated on most of the fitted vans in their final years, I visited Mullingar in the early 80s where a large number of H and Pallet wagons were stored waiting scrapping. The fitted H vans were all lettered (professionally) to the effect that they were hand brake only power brakes isolated, I didn't have a camera on the day but managed a pencil sketch of the sole surviving GNR Bulk Cement and a H Van.

Railtec Models finalised the transfers for the majority of our current and planned wagons in January and I completed some decorated samples of the Covered and Open Wagons. 17012-17211 Series covered wagon original 1946 dark grey scheme with green snail and lettering and black chalk board. 17012-17211 Series covered wagon light grey scheme with white snail logo and lettering. 17012-17211 Series covered wagon 1960s grey scheme with white wheel logo and lettering. 17012-17211 Series covered wagon 1970s brown scheme with white wheel logo and lettering. RCH/GSR Standard open wagon with snail logo. IRCH/GSR Standard open wagon with wheel logo. The wagons will also be available in undecorated form with a decal set with both white snail and wheel logos and 10 sets of running numbers. And now for something completely different. Following the theme of modelling the less common versions of the "Standard' CIE H Van a model of the rare LMA Wagons (Light Metal Alloy) built in the early 1950s before the introduction of the "Standard" H Van with plywood body and Bullied underframe. 16812 was the last of the 15147-16812 series 10T covered wagons built by the GSWR/GSR/CIE from 1915 onwards the remainder of the LMA wagons 17213-17221 were built in 1952 The buffers on the test print chassis had a bit of an accident and we have beefed up the buffer shanks on the LMA and "Standard" covered wagons which share a common (not quite) chassis. I was always fascinated by these wagons as although described in "Irish Railways Today" (Pender and Richards 1967 & Locomotives and Rolling Stock of CIE & NIR (Doyle and Hirsch) they were extremely photo shy I did not come across a physical example until I came across the grounded body of 16812 in use as a store on a construction site in 1982-3 and did not see a photo of a complete wagon until I saw a photo of a pair of LMA wagons awaiting scrapping on the IRRS Flickr site. I am currently fulfilling existing orders for the Open, Covered and Grain wagons with our first batch of 2022 models currently at the printers. I am planning to update the website during the next two weeks. Shipping: Currently items are taking 4-5 weeks to reach Ireland and Australia with shorter transit times to the United States, the UK and Continental Europe and is likely to remain un-predictable as Ormicron continues to its stuff.

Tri-ang Clerestories have been successfully re-built into GSWR arc roof coaches. Tim Cramer rebuilt one into a 21mm gauge GSWR 45' arc roof coach in CIE early green livery during the early 1970s, the coach along with Tim's 21mm gauge scratchbuilt models of No90, a Midland and a Bandon Tank were featured in a Railway Modeller article during the early-mid 1970s. The 4mm models were sold through The re-build was extensive basically retaining the coach sides and discarding the remainder of the Triang/Hornby body shell, with new plasticard, floor partitions, (vertical) ends and roof to produce a scale width GSWR coach and 21mm gauge bogies. It should be simple enough to convert one of these coaches to represent the 'Shortie" coaches used on the West Cork by removing a compartment and fitting an arc roof.

The Pallet/Bagged Cement wagons were introduced in the mid 1970s with ribbed sided vertically opening balanced doors, the balanced doors on some but not all wagons were replaced with curtain sides during the 1990s, both variations were in service until bagged cement traffic ceased in the early 2000.

The Bagged Cements & Beet Doubles were mounted on 25436-25982 Steel Floor flat wagons built during the mid 1960s sometimes described as "Lancashire Flats"

The best answer is probably yes and no! The Flats, Oil Tank , Hopper Wagons, Bulk Cement, Byrytes and Zinc Ore Wagons all share a CIE "Standard 20' Underframe" but there were significant differences between the individual types of wagon. The Skeletal Flats and Oil Tank Wagons had different framing to the Bulk Cement and Hopper wagons, hence Garfield's and BosKony's comments about having covered all possible variants to the Hopper & Bulk Cement Wagon chassis. The 'Standard" 20' flats break down into two groups 546 steel floored flats dating from the mid 60s which were eventually re-built into Bagged Cement and Beet Double Wagons and 200 Skeletals introduced in 1970 The 'Classic" 22'6" Flats were a new design introduced in the 1970s to carry 8'6" containers completely different in design to the CIE Standard 20' Underframe.

It looks like the wagons piled up or telescoped following a derailment and were dumped in the siding at Kilmacthomas, possibly as a result of a hot box or a broken axle on one of the wagons. The wrecked tank wagons were at Kilmac and a crippled magnesite at Ballinacourty on the final day of operation when a Quigley staff excursion and an IRRS "last train' operated over the line.

The 6 ex-LNWR 4'6" 2-4-2Ts did not last too long in their original condition on the DSER one No64 was re-built with a new boiler and cylinders in 1914, the remaining 5 were returned to the UK during WW1 mainly for industrial use. Apart from the small driving wheels and side tanks the re-built No64/427 resembled a DSER rather than a Webb loco with a high pitched boiler, DSER cab, boiler fittings. Ironically Robinson's pair of WLWR 2-4-2T 13 & 14 look similar to the LNWR 5'6" 2-4-2T, both 13 & 14 survived into the mid 1930s with relatively minor modification as 267 and 491. The GSWR sold 13 (GSWR 266) to the Cork Macroom Direct in the early 1900s, following the amalgamation the loco grouped with CMDR rather than the GSWR locos and received a different class designation (F5) to 266 Inchacore apparently forgetting that the two locos were nearly identical. GEM produced whitemetal kits of both the Webb 4'6" and 5'6" 2-4-2T the 5'6" would be a reasonable choice for a rtr model potentially available in LNWR, LMS and British Railways schemes

Personally I think you will achieve a better model and more long lasting result if you assemble the loco with the SSM chassis rather than try and use a rtr donor chassis. My first attempt at kit building a TMD Midland Tank of 1983 complete with original wheels gears and motor still looks reasonably well and is still runs reliably nearly 40 years later while all my attempts using rtr chassis ended up in the scrap bin within a fairly short time. The TMD tank was my first etched kit (and 21mm gauge loco) I knew very little about soldering, but managed to assemble the loco without major problems with a 25w iron and paste flux and the minimum of hand tools I modernised the loco into CIE condition about 10 years later with new smokebox wrapper, smokebox door, chimney and safety valves as the kit only included parts for the loco in pre-1912 MGWR condition. I later graduated to Carrs and DDC Concepts modelling solders with liquid fluxes more efficient soldering irons and gradually built up a collection of suitable tools. Markits driving and bogie wheels are basically a no-brainer in OO as they are easy to fit, a Coreless or Can Motor with a 53:1 gearbox from a supplier such as High Level Kits or Branchlines will give you a transmission with a speed range that's ideal for a mixed traffic or goods loco like a B4. Branchlines sales@branchlines.com usually stock Mashima can motors their 10X24 would be idea for a B4 the Multibox gearbox with brass gears is extremely robust and simple to assemble. Highlevel Kits https://www.highlevelkits.co.uk/ supply 12 and 13mm Coreless motors which would be suitable for a B4, their Road Runner + with a 45:1 ratio would be suitable for B4. The High Level Greaboxes with their nylon gearing have a very good reputation, but can be a bit fiddly to assemble and its easy to loos the loose grubscrew in the findal drive gear. I tended to use Multiboxes in large mainly BR steam locos and High Level Gearboxes in my more recent Irish locos. Tool wise a working surface with desk lamp, a 50watt soldering for brass work , a set of needle files, and tapered broaches for opening out bearing and pin holes are the basic tools for loco/kit assembly. Carrs or DCC concepts Detailing or 145° solder in combination with Carrs Red or DCC Concepts Sapphire solder should be adequate for chassis and loco/coach body assembly.

The most impressive aspect of the whole business was the quality and production rate of a small group of younger MRSI modellers who produced scratchbuilt models of the 201s, new railcars and masters for the resin castings, there was no waiting for a kit or rtr manufacturer to produce an accurate commercial model of an Irish prototype they just did it! As a slightly older Irish scratch builder/kit-basher seeing these high quality scratchbuilt 201s, Sparrow and Arrow railcars and other models was a revelation similar to Neil Young fist hearing the Sex Pistols----------I was blown away by the quality of the modelling and their production rate. 10 years earlier very few people were modelling Irish railways and now a small group of modellers were scratchbuilding high quality fleets of locos, coaches and rolling stock.

The AEC Railcars and coaches introduced in the 1950s appear to have had larger diameter buffers than pre-amalgamation bogie stock. The Bogie Coaches appear to have been prohibited on the Valencia branch until the restriction was eased in the mid-195. There was a note in the Valentia page of the 1960 Working Timetable that "Bogie vehicles can work between Killorglin and Valentia Harbour provided they be fitetd with Elliptical Buffers or with Round Buffers of not less than 18". "Modern" CIE coaches (4 coach rake) appear to have replaced 6 wheelers on the Morning Valencia-Tralee passenger and the afternoon return working while a solitary MGWR 6w 3rd provided passenger accommodation on the morning Killorglin-Valencia Mixed and afternoon Valencia-Tralee "Perishable", the morning "Mixed" departed Tralee complete with 6w coach as a goods but did not officially carry passengers before Killorglin. I guess most people took the bus or drove between Tralee and Killorglin

Looks very close to John Allen's Timesaver concept http://gdlines.org/GDLines/Timesaver.html. To work the headshunt or loco release at both ends needs to be long enough for a wagon and a loco. The puzzle works as a self contained layout with 5 wagons and one loco and can take over half an-hour to switch/shunt the five wagons between their starting and final positions. I added a fiddle yard to my North Wharf timesaver, the min fiddle yard is long enough for 4 w or 2 bogie wagons and a B121 Although I use 4w wagons the constraints run-round and head shunt lengths are the same as a Timesaver with bogie wagons & a small diesel

The covered hopper is a Magnesite Wagon out of use since the Ballinacourty traffic ceased in the early 1980s the second is a Zinc Ore wagons out of service for a similar length of time. Most of the Magnesite Wagons were stored at Enniscorthy, the Dolomite Hoppers were basically to the same design as the Ballast & Gypsum Hoppers and may have been used for either traffic after Ballinacourty closed.

The wagons appear to be prototype Beet Wagons using body panels salvaged from the corrugated opens on 20' flat wagons built in the Mid-1960. I have a CIE drawing of a Beet Double of similar to the wagon in the background titled "Modified Open Goods Wagon Bodies on 20Ton Flat Wagon Underframe for Beet Traffic Mark 3" The main difference from the wagons in the photos is that the corners are shown slightly rounded on the drawing. It looks like someone realised that it would be a lot cheaper and quicker to mount the existing wagon bodies with minimal modification on the 20T chassis.

The BNCR Compounds Jubilee and Parkmount looked similar to the LNWR locos before rebuilding as 4-4-0s. The two Irish locos had 7' diameter driving wheels the largest used in Ireland Apart from the Midland Railway smokebox the rebuilt version looks a bit like an LNWR Precursor Class which is supposed to be a development of the Jumbo or Precedent Class

Brassmasters 6w suspension Unit http://www.brassmasters.co.uk/cleminson_underframe.htm if you can persuade some on to assemble it. Hornby 6W van Chassis- https://www.ebay.ie/sch/Model-Railroads-Trains-/180250/i.html?_nkw=hornby+palethorpes+sausages Try removing the center axle and see if it stays on the track. If so try an source a flangeless wheel set.

Any Idea when the photo was taken or whether the tank wagons still exist. The ESSO Tank wagons were cut up (by ESSO) at the North Wall shortly after the Sligo and Claremorris oil traffic ceased.

The station scene appears to have been filmed at Craughwell Station on the Limerick-Athenry section of the WLWR line, the Ardnacrusha branch appears to have been in use up to the early 1970s with diesel hauled goods trains. Nice to see the interior of a side corridor coach after all these years.

Padraic O'Cuimin mentions the filming in his book the Baronial Lines of the MGWR, I think he mentions the replacement of the crossover from the running line to the loop in chaired bullhead track with the branch G Class assisting in slewing the new crossover into positioning and general tidying up of trackwork in the station. Apparently the branch had something of a revival in the mid-late 60s with a Station Master actively promoting cattle traffic and material for both Tynagh Mine and the "Alfred the Great" film set arriving by rail. The mine appears to have given a short lived to the branch though the ore went direct by road from the mine to Galway Port. The mine was worked out by 1982 and seems to have left a nice mess https://connachttribune.ie/tynagh-labelled-most-hazardous-mine-in-ireland/ for the Isish taxpayer to clean up. Probably the tail end of the days where the local Station Master was also the 'sales rep" for CIE with the authority to agreed rates and get things done before it went over to the "Area Manager" system long before todays "Call Center's" and "Account Managers" with little or no influence in negotiating rates or actually getting things done.

Reminds me of one one of my fathers experiences as a maintenance fitter in a chocolate factory. The company was having 'teething' problems with a new German made machine first couple of times a Technician was travel over from Germany to carry out warranty repairs but would not explain why the machine had gone out of tolerance or how he rectified the problem and the company was not exactly happy for paying for a technician to travel over from Germany every time the problem re-occurred. My father and the other fitters could not get to the bottom of the problem, so next time the problem occurred my father got his 'mate" or helper to hide on a gantry above the machine while my father chatted with the German before announcing that he was going out for a 'smoke", the German opened an inspection panel and reversed a pair of fibre cogs once my father had gone out for his smoke and the machine was back in calibration. My father could never understand how reversing the cogs re-calibrated the machine but it worked and the services of the German technician were no longer needed.

The Gypsum Wagons originally operated as a direct 3 time weekly Kingscourt-Castlemugnet train. The Limerick Gypsums were usually appeared to be attached to the rear of 201 Class hauled Platin-Cork Bulk Cement trains between Platin and Limerick Junction from the Mid-Late 1990s and worked to Limerick by a trip working. I don't know the load limits but the 201s and 071s would have allowed longer heavier trains to be run than 001s or pairs of Small GMs (121,141,181).

Possibly an ex BNCR Goods Brake Van, the looked like a standard goods van with side doors and a balcony at one end. Some photos and sketches in New Irish Lines Vol 8 No 2 2017 https://www.dropbox.com/s/xrgk5h1z95zw5go/New Irish Lines Vol. 8 No. 2 - 2017 November.pdf?dl=0 There may be another NIL article on BCDR Brake van as the 2017 article is titled "More on BNCR Brake Vans"!

The 42' flats were used to transport ISO containers & Keg container. Fertiliser was transported in Fertiliser wagons usually in train load lots (10-15) wagons direct from a factory or port to depots around the country, sometimes Fertliiser Wagons were marshalled in Liner Trains. A Liner Train was CIE/IE terminology for scheduled usually overnight freight trains made up of modern fully braked Bogie and 4 Wheel wagons that mainly carried container and keg traffic on the radial routes from Dublin to Waterford, Cork, Tralee, Limerick, Galway, Westport-Ballina, Sligo, Belfast, Derry and between Limerick and Waterford. Liner trains usually ran point to point in fixed formations of 15 bogie wagons or 20+ 4 wheel wagons usually with no shunting to add or detach wagons en-route. The Forklift loading/unloading containers on the Main Line at Nenagh is a good example of this principal. Roscrea and Ennis were served by daytime trip working or shunt from Limerick which were also called Liner Trains, the Roscrea and Ennis trains tended to be shorter than the Dublin-Limerick Liner Trains. Container and bagged cement traffic was sometimes unloaded on the running lines at smaller depots like Nenagh, Mullingar, Roscommon and Boyle. Fertiliser trains were usually unloaded on a siding or loop clear of the running lines Nenagh, Mullingar and Roscommon retained sidings for unloading fertiliser trains which were also useful if it was necessary to shunt a Liner or Bagged Cement train clear of the running line or to unload wagons. Although originally frowned on it became common the drop off Bagged Cement wagons for unloading at intermediate stations such as Nenagh while the train continued to its destination and pick up the empty wagons on the trains return.

CIE went over to fixed formation Liner Train operation in the late 1970s, with scheduled Liner Trains (mainly bogie wagons) mainly transporting container, keg traffic, tar and (non-trainload) oil traffic on the Radial Routes out of Dublin and between Limerick and Waterford, Bulk commodities such as Anhydrous Ammonia, Bagged & Bulk Cement, Fertiliser, ESSO Oil and mineral traffic were again transported in fixed formation trains in special purpose wagons. The use of corrugated wagons ended in the early 1980s with the introduction of the Beet Doubles for Wellingtonbridge-Thurles traffic, beet traffic to the Tuam, Mallow and Carlow factories having ceased. Oil was mainly transported in 4w tanks wagons, tar was mainly transported in ISO Containers on 4w flat wagons and some fuel oil was also transported in 4w container wagon. Most of the smaller yards and private sidings had gone by the mid-1970s with CIE no shunt railway principal, the remaining yards and private sidings were set up to handle fixed formation 15 Bogie/20 4W wagon trains, a number of sidings re-opened to handle bulk traffic during the 1990s including RH Hall Waterford to handle grain traffic (Open ISO containers), Sligo Quay Bitumen and a new siding at Portlaoise to handle grain traffic. Irish Rail eased the CIE fixed formation Liner/single commodity trainload policy during the 1990s, Cross-Border and Dundalk-Dublin Liners regularly conveyed Bulk Cement and Fertiliser traffic in addition to containers, Dublin-Sligo Liners regularly conveyed bagged cement and Molasses (in tank wagons) traffic in addition to normal liner traffic, sometimes detaching and attaching cuts of bagged cement or molasses traffic at intermediate stations. 001s covered the majority of freight duties, with 121,141,181 increasingly filling in as 001s were withdrawn, O71s covered the majority of main line passenger diagrams until displaced by 201s, 001s covered some passenger duties into the early 1990s including a regular Dublin-Waterford diagram, the Ballybrophy-Nenagh Branch and regularly appeared on Connolly-Rosslare and Enterprise duties. IE had an acute locomotive crisis in the early 1990s, although the 121 Class usually worked in multiple on main line duties I once saw a single 121s haul a North bound Liner out of Cork followed shortly afterwards by another single 121 on a North bound Fertiliser the Fertiliser was recessed at Rathpeacon (marshalling Yard between Cork and Mallow) and the Liner at Limerick Junction to allow the evening Cork-Dublin passenger to pass.

Maybe its ACC New Zealands no-fault accidental injury compensation scheme https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accident_Compensation_Corporation. The paperwork is pretty good for sticking things together, haven't tried it for sticking down ballast though