Mayner

I managed to complete the wiring this afternoon and carried out some testing. Mill baseboard. The green circuit board is a Digitrax Radio/Infrared receiver, white phone/data cable Loconet comms cable between receiver and command station. I had fun and games with the Lenx LS110 stationary decoders that power the points, but managed to find to with most of the outputs still working after 20 years! I forgot to drill holes in the baseboard ends for the various cables that cross the Baseboard joints but managed to drill the holes today using s speed bit without causing too much damage. I used a 4 way automotive jointer to take the track/DCC and point power bus across the baseboard joint. The Loconet cable and receiver power lead were fed in from the fiddle yard end of the layout. I assembled the fiddleyard board as a tray for with either a sector plate or traverser fiddleyard to fit on top. The tray is a tad shallow for the command station and transformer, which may end up going on a shelf above the fiddle yard. Set up is very temporary to test the layout and prove that everything works. B125 shuffling around, the RC/IR function is handy for walk around operation. Point control works nicely with a nice soft motion, the main thing to remember is that you have to re-select the loco when you change the throttle from Switch (change points) to loco mode. Some interesting 'snags' popped up, I could not get the loco to respond to the throttle/change points while working in RC/IR mode possibly a problem with the throttle/receiver or its power supply. Next step is to test with another RC/IR throttle and change the receiver if that does not work. The current set up is the original Digitrax simplex radio system from the mid-2000s which I last used about 5-6m years ago to control a large scale garden railway and have several spare throttles and some IR receivers. the IR was originally used on an N gauge attic layout in Dublin about 20 years ago! I also have a throttle and receiver for the current Duplex RC system, I cannot select 3 on the Throttle a big problem for selecting locos and points and I am unsure of Digitrax still provides support for that particular throttle, though its nice to be getting some return for my investment in the system. Time to move on with the scenics starting with the dock wall and overbridge at the fiddle yard end of the yard, while I make a final decision on the yard.

The original B121 scheme is very close to the Clinchfield 800 https://www.csx.com/index.cfm/about-us/legacy-locomotives/clinchfield-800-legacy-locomotive/ Coal hauling railroads in the Southern States such as the Louisville and Nashville, Clinchfield and even todays CSX were partial to grey locos, the big Alcos and GEs used on the heavy coal trains were famous for their black smoky exhaust https://www.flickr.com/photos/wrongmain/8917589648 Going back to the 201s, the green and grey scheme had appeared by July 2005

Marking their territory in the same way as dogs & tom cats spray. no doubt Phd's have been written on the subject in the sociology and crimonology fields. I nearly cracked up when our community policeman opened up his catalogue of tag signatures at a neighbourhood watch meeting and was ale to identify the individual taggers, their gang affiliations and de-cypher individual tags.

There is no need to order direct from the States, Digitrax has a network of EU and UK Dealers Buying from a EU supplier should avoid the problems with An Post and customs clearance buying from the UK or United States

I have been using Digitrax DCC for over 20 years, still using the original Empire Builder II Command Station from 1998-2000 https://www.digitrax.com/products/retired/starter-sets/eb/. The DCS52 looks like a good starter set, the main advantage is that its expandable you can add additional throttles and compatible with other Digitrax and 3rd party products that use Digitrax. Loconet system. I have successfully used Digitrax in N, OO, HO and G Scale and I am currently playing around with a sound equipped Murphy Models 121. Getting started in DCC can be pricey compared with staying with DC particularly adding sound decoders to locos, Gaugemaster produce some excellent DC controllers including an inexpensive hand held controller with plug in transformer for starter layouts https://www.gaugemasterretail.com/magento/model-railways/gaugemaster-controls-brand5/gaugemaster-gmc-combi.html.

Not a lot to report in recent weeks, I managed to complete the wiring on one of the baseboards and test the point control system on the weekend. Droppers and wiring from the Lenz SL110 stationary decoder connected to the bus wiring using connector blocks cut ends of all wires tinned. Nice and simple black and red DCC track power, brown and orange point and accessory power. Close up of one of the terminals this will connect to a jumper cable to the second board. I originally tried to power the points from the DCC track power but not up to powering the points. Points are controlled by the switch function on a DCC RC Throttle so no need for a separate control panel or lever frame to control the points.

My father was a fitter turner by trade and picked up annual shutdown maintenance work with a contract shop following his retirement. One of his last jobs was an August Holiday shutdown at the Clondalkin Paper Mills, which was quite well paid not too physically demanding for a 70 year old but turned out quite frustrating Typically he spent the first week of the Shutdown dismantling sections of plant and sending in requisitions for parts which required replacement. He spent the second week re-assembling the plant without replacing the majority of the worn parts as few of his requisitions were approved.

In a past life I prepared accident investigation reports (not rail), the reports were highly technical, the lawyers job was to prepare a Summary of Facts that was simple enough that a Judge or a member of a Jury could understand, the same applies to strategic planning reports that set out broad objectives especially for investment that is dependent on public money. If Irish railfreight was profitable IE would not have cut back its operations 20 years ago and open access operators would have entered the market by now under the EU open access directive, transporting freight by rail in order to claim carbon credits to offset emissions from high polluting industries is a modern day equivalent of the medieval practice of selling plenary indulgences. Personally I don't see Rosslare as a viable container port with a relatively underutilised container port with excellent rail connections 30 miles away in Belview as the crow flies. Pallas Green appears to be far down Glencore Resources priority list in terms of Zinc mining https://www.glencore.com/dam/jcr:3c05a365-e6ae-4c1a-9439-960249a42e35/GLEN_2020_Resources_reserves_report.pdf, probably worth more keeping the ore locked up underground to prop up international ore prices and share value than actually mine the minerals in the Irish ore bodies.

Pass on my best wishes to your dad! An order of wagons should be heading in your direction soon. I was sorely tempted by recent Bachmann OO9 WW1 Alco and the forthcoming Kato/Peco England locos but already over committed with Irish and American modelling

There seems to be several alternatives all of which work the snap connectors seem to have a following in the United States and seem to have been featured in more recent work (less than 25 years ago!) The most important thing is to twist, tin and solder the ends of the cables whatever type of connector you use. I use a mixture of screw terminals and tag strips, though I could not get tag strip on a recent visit to the local electronic parts store. I used terminal blocks on a recent N Gauge but had forgotten what I had used. Black and red is for DCC Track Power, Blue and Brown DCC Point power, apart from the wire and terminal blocks everything is salvaged from a layout built over 20 years ago in Ireland. Point control is Tri-ang passing contact point switches connected to a terminal block. The Lenz LS 110 Stationary Decoders are due to be removed and points wired direct to the Tri-ang levers as the LS110s are not man enough for working Seep Point motors particularly in pairs in crossovers. I will use the LS110s with Peco point motors on South Dock with DCC radio remote control through the Throttle, I better finish the wiring on East Dock the layout is falling behind Tony and David

The apparent difference in size between the Irish and BR Palvans appears to be mainly due to to a difference in roof profile arising from the use of pressed steel ends on the CIE 26000 series wagons in a similar manner to the apparent difference in height between the ex-GNR Bagged Cement Wagons and the 'standard' GSWR/GSR/CIE covered wagon. The actual body height and width of the 3 wagons are very close the Irish Covered Wagon and Parkside model appear to have similar roof profiles The Parkside model appears to be based on the early BR Palvans with plywood ends introduced in the early 1950s https://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/brpalvan The bodywork of the CIE wagons appear ton have more in common with the later "Palshock" some of which were fitted with a sliding door arrangement not dissimilar to the CIE wagons. https://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/brpalshocvan. The CIE pallet wagons would be challenging to model 3 different end profiles were used within a relatively small class of wagons running on Bulleid triangulated underframe spring dampers and British style independent either side brakes similar to the ex-GNR vans and private owner tank wagons. It might while trying a mix and match between a Parkside Palvan and BR standard van, it might be worth contacting Peco at one time Parkside supplied sides and ends from kits separately at shows and exhibitions.

I needed a simple background for displaying the models and had the stone retaining wall in stock from an earlier attempt at a dock/urban layout, I have since highlighted the mortar joints in white which reduces the plastic effect of the Wills materials sheets in the wall. Short Mail train, with Luggage, PO and H&LV The majority of the 4w van kits are sold out with a very small number of Luggage & Po Vans available from the Shopify site. https://jmdesignmodelrailways.com/ The Luggage Van was painted with Tamiya AS-12 Bare Metal Silver aerosol which avoids the 'flake: effect with other brands of metallic aerosol. The kits include custom SSM transfer packs in red, green and white lettering schemes and OO gauge wheelsets. PO Van "window side" Po Van plain side

The Tram looks impressive, should be an interesting challenge in OO A thing to watch out for if you use Hornby (coated steel) rather than Peco (nickel silver) railjoiners. Peco railjoiners were un-available and I use Hornby fishplates on East Dock. I had to sand/file the bottom of the fishplates to remove the coating and use phosphoric flux to solder the droppers to the fishplates as I could not solder directly to the coated steel. I have installed all the droppers and now need to install the point decoders and the track and point power bus wiring.

The D301 Class were basically a "Standard" British shunter with a 485 hp Mirrless engine and Brush traction motors rather than EE equipment https://locomotive.fandom.com/wiki/CIÉ_301(D)_Class The main complaint appears to have been cold drafty cabs, two stored by 1960 most likely to provide spares for the remining members of the class. The E401 & E421 locos were considered to be successful, the medium speed engines and hydraulic transmissions probably gave the E401s an edge over the D Class and conventional British shunters for working the heavy Kingsbridge-North Wall transfer freights until replaced with main line locos in the early 70s. Interestingly the load rating for a single E 401 between Kingsbridge and the North Wall was heavier than the B141 class that replaced them on some transfer duties. Ireland developed links with German and Continental manufacturers from the 1920s with the Shannon Scheme, The Sugar Factories and Peat harvesting which laid the foundation for large scale Industrialisation during the 1960s, the relationships with German manufacturers lead to companies like Krupp and Leibherr setting up and remaining in Ireland since the mid 1960s, CIE buying German technology would have been consistent with this policy and its possible it may have been possible to build the E Class cheaper than commissioning EE to build a fleet of standard shunters for CIE as Germany was anxious to re-build its economy following the War.

Peak use of asbestos was between the 50s and the early 80s when the manufacture and new installation of the Ampiboles (Blue and Brown) asbestos was banned in the UK. The peak in asbestos related deaths has been forecast to take place in five years since 2000 though the expected peak keeps getting pushed back as the disease and death rate continues to increase. Asbestos related cancers have a long latency period approx. 40 years since the date of exposure, tends to show up in people in their 70s and 80s so numbers likely to increase as life expectancy improved in most Western countries between the 1950s and 2010. Earlier generations of asbestos workers would have died off of other causes before the cancers appeared, a Shri Lankan colleague said that there was always a queue of people waiting outside the local asbestos factory on a Monday morning to replace the people that died the previous week. Its basically worked its way way through the people that worked mining, manufacturing or installing asbestos up to the 70s, but some of the more hazardous forms are still about in buildings and structures with secondary exposures appearing among people who work in buildings that contain offices such as schools, hospitals, officeblocks, department stores built up to the mid 1980s. I make a reasonable living surveying and locating the stuff in 2021 having my first involvement in managing the stuff 30 years ago!

The blue is considered to be the most dangerous form of asbestos established cause of certain cancers and lung disease among asbestos, construction and railway engineering workers. Widely used as a sprayed on insulation in streel framed buildings and railway locos and rolling stock during the 50s & 60s. BRCW Sulzers, Metrovicks, Park Royal and Laminates insulated with blue asbestos. Came across it in churches, schools and department stores in Ireland, UK and NZ , straightforward but very expensive to remove on account of the level of control needed.

That takes me back I had a brief fling with BR 'modern image" modelling during the early 1980s and converted a second hand Triang 37 into a Scotrail with split headcode boxes (Crownline) and yellow nose. I have a green Jouef Class 40 somewhere with Crownline detailing, last oepend the box about 20 years ago

Apparently a lot of NCB (National Coal Board) locos, stock and track remain entombed underground following mine closures during the 1980s(I had some friends from the industry). Pumps were turned off, shafts capped and mines allowed to flood, there was no further use for the equipment and recovery would have cost more than the scrap value of the metal and the government wanted shut of the NCB and the miners.

A bit like a more modern elegant version of the Dutch style engines designed by William Adams (who else) for the North London Railway in 1868. https://picclick.co.uk/North-London-Railway-Adams-4-4-0T-Tank-Locomotive-164702035379.html

Both Loughrea and Balinrobe had 42' turntables & two road sheds to a standard MGWR design 60'X29'4" (Baronial Lines, Padraic O'Cuimin 1972). London Road Models and possibly Midland Railway Centre (Metalsmiths) produce 45' deck turntables https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/blogs/entry/17974-building-a-london-road-models-50-turntable/ similar to those used in Ireland. Ballaghadereen is unusual the track layout is not typical of MGWR branch line terminals as it was planned as a through station by the Sligo & Ballaghadereen Railway, at one stage there were plans to extend the line to Ballyhaunis to feed cattle traffic from County Roscommon and County Galway as an all Midland route to Sligo & Collonney in an attempt to keep the WLWR & GSWR out of Sligo and Mayo. There was no signal cabin the crossover from the main running line to the loop at the Kilfree end of the station was controlled by an open lever frame, the remaining points are hand operated. The most unusual feature is that the short headshunt to the cattle bank which made shunting difficult at the big fairs, the cattle bank could accommodate 24 wagons only 8 wagons could be released at a time due to the short headshunt. It looks like there was a carriage shed on the continuation of the running line beside the Goods Shed, this is likely to have been removed to reduce property rates in GSR days.

Is she 15" rather than 7½" gauge? Colour does not bother me the owner paid the money and made his or her choice. Sounds (chuff) like a full sized rather than a miniature loco, would probably need a transporter to carry it rather than a car trailer, generous curves and adequate roadbed with decent ballast and track to run on.

Try a motor aerosol primer and satin black rub down the surface with fine wet and dry before spraying, you will achieve a similar finish to a rtr loco. My biggest step in modelling was when I stopped brush painting locos and carriages about 40 years ago took a lot of practice both modelling and painting but I never looked back.

There is little new to report this month. We are currently fulfilling orders for the 1960s and 70s versions of the CIE Brake van and open wagon in etch primer and all three versions of the CIE 4w passenger rated vans. The majority of the 4w vans are pre-sold with one Luggage and on PO Van kit available at $150nz excluding shipping. I have finalised the graphics for the ready to run GSR/CIE IRCH Open wagon and 17012-17211 series Covered Wagon, I expect to complete decorated samples of these wagons Jan/February 2022 (Like the Chinese New Year everything in New Zealand shuts down from Christmas until late January) I have ceased accepting orders for the decorated versions of the grain, open and covered wagon until I am satisfied with the decorated samples of these wagons, in the interim the wagons are available in un-decorated or etched primer finish. I expect the decorated versions of the models to be available on the website from February 2022 with delivery expected April-May 2022. The etch primer is intended to protect the model from UV light, highlight excess support material during clean up and provide a key for painting the model, we use an proprietary adhesion promoter to ensure that the etch primer adheres to the resin model. The business that printed our prototype models has agreed to carry out our production printing, which has reduced the lead time for the manufacture and delivery of undecorated and primed models which should flow through to the manufacture of decorated models. These wagons are printed in a resin with ABS properties in a full size 'bottom up" printer, the resin is resilient less brittle than models printed in conventional modelling or in "tough" resins. Undecorated Grain Ladder Side Undecorated grain discharge side. The wagon is printed in 4 pieces. Ladder, roof, hopper body, one piece chassis including hopper discharge gear, brake gear and NEM coupler mounting brackets. All parts are designed to interlock, the hopper body literally fits into a rebate/socket in the wagon chassis and can be secured in place with super glue or 5min. epoxy during final assembly after painting. Unpainted GSR/IRCH Standard Open. One piece Body and One piece Chassis assembly as Grain wagon. 17012-17211 series Covered Wagon undecorated or etch primer. Roof, One piece Body, one piece Chassis

I finally caught up with the backlog of gardening and property maintenance after the winter and spring growth and had time for an operating session of the garden railway using Train Manifests I created using JMRI Operations in 2019! The first task was to position some stock on the layout so there was the outgoing trains did not return with the same freight cars!. K27 463 & RM 4 on shed stock cars positioned on Track 3. 463 had worked a freight from the staging to Jackson City with stock cars and General Manifest (Boxcars, Gondolas and a Tank Car the latter are positioned in the yard hidden behind the Engine House. No 4 worked an empty Mail/Passenger and will return with the next days scheduled train. Caboose parked on Track 3 opposite the Depot. 1:20.3 stock has a lot of (easily damaged) detail Manifest for Freight PL-JC4 The train number/designation follows American and New Zealand practice. Even numbered trains are usually South or East Bound Placerville is a real place on the Rio Grande Southern, most Railroads in Colorado planned to reach the Pacific or at least cross the state line into Utah, Jackson has a family connection and the first person to occupy our house almost 100 years ago was a Jackson, hence Jackson County & Jackson City. Train made up and ready to go, its easy to read the individual car numbers in 1:20.3! 348 is working the train as 461 is un-available & 464 is waiting for a new set of batteries PL-JC4 arriving at Jackson City the train is approaching the summit of on a 2% grade which can be challenging with slipping by both 2-8-0 and 2-8-2 locos in greasy rail conditions. The yard in the background is level, the boxcars are due to be spotted outside the Freight House (Goods shed) for loading with ore (silver or possibly uranium) Silver ore was transported loose in box cars (to avoid freezing) on the narrow gauge, the last box car may be transporting beer and other essential supplies for the local inhabitants. Beer tended to be transported in Reefers or refrigerated cars to avoid freezing in winter and over heating in summer the Colorado Rockies have a rather extreme climate! 348 pushing her train into the yard having already dropped her caboose on Track 3 Boxcars spotted for loading, American Railroads used removable gangway/bridges for loading boxcars on parallel lines. 781 is a drop bottom gondola (hopper) originally used to transport coke to the Durnago smelter but later used for transporting ash and ballast, while the DRGW modernised it steam motive power during the 1920s & 30s it continued to use wooden cars for coal and mineral traffic to the end of narrow gauge freight operations during the mid 1960s. The next scheduled freight working is a "Turn" (an out and back run) worked by 348 that will collect a Box Car and Gondola from Utah Junction and work then to Arboles the next town (station) along the line before running to Utah Junction to turn on the Wye collect a Box & a Stock Car for Arboles before working back to Jackson City. The JMRI programme is not bothered by a train working its way around a circle or reversing direction en route. Rail Motor 4 waits passengers, like the County Donegal the RGS turned to internal combustion in order to continue its mail and passenger services during the 1930s, being essentially bust the RGS turned to second hand car dealers and wreckers rather than building new. Passenger traffic was extremely light half a dozen passengers seems to have been a good load. Beeb and Clegg describe a ride on in an RGS Goose in Mixed Train Daily, a couple of enthusiasts, a Native American family outing and a decrepit ol timer going to Telluride for a shot or two of bourbon to break the monotony of a lone existence. Some day I got to model that Native American family with the Women and in their Sunday finest and a stoic Brave escorting the party. Moving the stock out to the garden gave me a chance to change 464s batteries as after 4 years the batteries were no longer holding a charge and the loco was unable to haul a 8-10 car train up the 4% grade to the staging. All locos use pairs of 7.2v RC car batteries the majority 3000mAh capacity. There is no real equivalent of NMRA DCC plug and play in large scale battery RC, the nearest was a standard interface used by Bachmann on its K27 all my brass locos are hard wired. The object on top of the Bachmann board is a power regulator/speed and direction controller. The purple yellow brown and white leads connect to a Phoenix sound decoder hidden below the tank filler. The small "decoder" with the red antenna and the untidy leads is the actual radio receiver.

Irish Steel had a similar operation at the Haulbowline between the 1970s and the closure of the mill during the 1990s. The system was 4'8½" gauge and use second hand flat cars and gondolas imported from the United States and a Unilok tractor possibly built in Galway! https://www.unilok.ie/ A good excuse to model an Irish railway in HO with rtr American stock and an Irish shunting tractor.