Mayner

I Several years ago I produced an etched brass 'fold up" rigid chassis for assembling Leslie's resin GN Cattle Wagons and Vans to 21mm gauge but only got round to assembling one of each type, but never got round to fitting brake gear! An etched brass chassis or W Irons may be an option for assembling Leslie's C-K Prints GN & SLNCR 3D printed wagons to 21mm gauge, there appears to be insufficient space to produce a workable 3D printed chassis without increasing the width of the wagon/underframe. If anyone is interested I can supply the fold up underframe frets direct from my supplier in the UK. Cattle wagons are supplied in frets of 16 wagons, GN/IRCH Vans in frets of 8 wagons, I would need to check pricing.

The Byrytes wagons were regularly used by PW Dept as spoil wagons on weekends while still in use for Byrytes Traffic for several years before traffic ceased in the late 80s. During this period Byrytes traffic appeared to be down to a 5 day operation, an empty fixed formation (20wagon) train of wagons would depart Foynes after unloading on a Friday and return to Limerick/Slivermines for loading Mon morning. Wagon bodies would be a simple choice for 3D printing or scratchbuilding in plasticard using a NWSL Duplicutter https://nwsl.com/products/the-duplicutter-ii sides and floor in 0.04"/1mm plasticard & Evergreen rectangular V V strip. A Duplicutter has been one of the essentilas of my modelling tool kit for many years.

Worslet Works Park Royal roof: I would need a scan of the end of a Worsley Works Park Royal to ensure the profile is correct. JM Design coach side overlays: I have no plans to produce a 3D roof to suit the side overlays. The overlays were designed (shrunk)to fit Airfix/Dapol 60' Stanier coaches and marginally underscale for 4mm, in my opinion the overlays used in combination with a Stanier/LMS 60' body shell is a reasonable compromise particularly with a representation of CIE roof detail. I considered producing a 4mm scale length/height/width version, but there was insufficient interest to proceed. Worsley Works Laminate roof without ribs. Original design before adding the ribs! Plain Laminate roof. Please feel free to forward the stl. to Paul info@modelrailwaybuildings.ie or print the roof. Worsley Wks Laminate Roof plain.stl

The printer Paul Morris of Model Railway Buildings https://modelrailwaybuildings.ie/ has advised that while he is kept busy with the buildings "but doesn't mind running projects off for the lads" If interested please contact Paul directly info@modelrailwaybuildings.ie or 353 87 3878561 I am prepared to produce 3D model (Stl. file) roof for other Worsley Works Irish coaches from scan of 1 side & ends (Jpg.) coaches & driving end railcar

The wooden opens are my own 3D prints of the steel underframed version of the 'Standard Irish" open wagon. Studio Scale Models produced a nice cast whitemetalkit of the wooden underframed version not sure if its still available.

The repainted coaches look reasonably ok from a distance/as a complete train, ideal if you want to get something running in a reasonable time frame. Accurately modelling 1950s CIE stock involves either a considerable level of time and effort modifying or scratchbuilding stock, its really a question of how a person prefers to spend their spare/model railway time.

The shop crew were busy the last couple of days inspecting both trucks on every freight car for similar defects with some interesting results! Turned out that 5518 the Stock Car in the wreck was one of a batch of 3 cars bought new about 10 years ago with the same type of securing bolt between sideframe and bolster. At some stage the shops had replaced the bolts with 10BA the original bolts not holding! Phillips headed securing bolts replaced with 10BA slotted Curiously the other 3 Stock Cars on the road bought second hand shortly after the original batch had hex. headed securing bolts and a completly different design of pivot to the cars bought directly from Accuacraft in the States. Curiously none of the hex headed bolts showed signs of having worked loose. Interestingly the problem with Phillips bolts failing to hold appears limited to cars bought new in 2016, with no sign of Phillips headed bolts working loose/failing to hold on stock bought after 2020. So I guess the railroad will continue in operation for at least another day! Next big challenge coming up is dealing with leaf fall from mature trees for the next 8-12 weeks followed by non-urgent track maintenance, hopefully have some mid-winter steam operation.

I have designed a 3D model roof to suit the Worsley Works Laminate Coaches. An Irish supplier has produced a FDM sample print of the model which successfully captured the distinctive ribbed roof of these coaches. The purpose of this post is to gauge the potential level of demand/interest in 3D roofs and detail accessories for the Worsley Works Laminates (and other Irish width coaches). I would expect that the supplier would supply directly to customers in Ireland, EU and UK, JMD not involved commercially. Please PM or reply directly to this post with potential quantities of coaches/roofs. While I prefer resin printing in order to achieve an acceptable standard of surface finish and fine detail, FDM has its advantages in printing parts like coach roofs both in terms of speed and largely eliminating the risk of warping/distortion present with resin printing. https://3dprintingservices.co.nz/fdm-vs-resin-3d-printers/?gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=23134282514&gbraid=0AAAAApVdlQlDT00Rlf-e8eM9jxXPivV7Q&gclid=Cj0KCQiAwYrNBhDcARIsAGo3u33tOoKRcDnvUXbE_Dcuar1znBG4Ab2ceT0w0n3VCBF6oVQO6t2-ARcaAlzoEALw_wcB

Very sorry to hear about Paddy's illness and passing, wholeheartedly agree with Dave's comments about the standard of care at Harolds Cross Hospice.

re-positioned the plug block to disguise the joint line between the traverser and loco release module & fitted end walls, still have to wire the module, but now can actually make up a 6 wagon train. Interestingly traditionally Tri-ang Hornby/Hornby 'Freightmaster' set used to be made up of a main line diesel and 7 traditional wagons. The visual effect of 6 wagon train is not bad to my mind anyway, though a train made up of 6 different types of wagon would be more appropriate from a Freightmaster Set perspective, possibly 1. Open with Container, 2 CIE 1946 Van, 3 Tank Wagon, 4 Ranks or CIE Grain, 5 LMA or ex-GSW Van, 6 CIE 20T Brake. Track alignment between traverser and loco release using a single locking pin at the layout end is not the most reliable so planning to fit a locking pin arrangement at both ends. Possibly move Digitrax Radio/IR receiver onto staging fascia alongside DCC throttle pouch, requires slot in fascia and ply enclosure to protect receiver

Had an interesting time running the Jackson County while mowing the lawn on tuesday weather was fine and settled (last official week of Summer) after several weeks of bad weather (storms with heavy rain) since mid-January, though thankfully we escaped the worst. I had 3D printed a replacement number board for K27 #464 and handbrake wheels for several freight cars with a flexible admixture added to a black resin to improve resilience and made up a train of a loco and a number of Stock Cars to get an idea how the handbrake wheels would stand up in service. Cars were originally supplied with injection moulded brake wheels approx 1/3 of which had disintegrated/failed in approx 10 years use. K27 464 with most of her train. The 3D printed number board is the object on the side of the head lamp, missing when I bought the loco second hand almost 10 years ago, next job is to add the number hopefully in a shorter time. Basically re-size a photo of the number on the opposite side! Handbrake wheel (spray painted black and sealed with aerosol lacquer), the wheel printed in a black resin was almost translucent! The original 3D model was designed by the freelance 3D modeller who carried out the designwork for the JM Design range of 4mm Irish outline wagons during 2021-2. The Rio Grande Southern was fairly notorious for its wrecks sister K27 locomotive 455 was wrecked in a 1944 runaway on Dallas Divide one of the RGSs long 4% grades https://digital.denverlibrary.org/nodes/view/1094791 464 apparrently disappeared when I had my back turned, the loco and a single stock car apparrently had de-railed on a 2% down grade for no apparent reasson and taken a tumble not unlike 455 in 1944. but what happened to the rest of her train? I found the remaining cars and caboose stationary on an upgrade on the opposite side of the circuit, the knuckle coupler had appeared to have unlatched and 464 continued with one stock car for an almost half circuit of the line before becoming derailed and taking a tumble, but why? It looks like #464 and its tender overturned before the loco righted itself loosing its chimnet and cab roof but remaining electrically connected to the tender with its powerpack and electronics! Chimney embedded in the ground to the right of the loco! glued connections between loco and chimney and headlight had both sheared! A bit like a haulier who overturned a tipper truck while unloading shale on one of my construction sites 40 or so years ago, the Jackson County quickly got #464 back on the rails, checked its vitals and back to work again, though there is still a thin coat of mulch of the chimney. But what caused the wreck? Angle bracket and bolt in the 3' or 45mm? One of the sideframes (archbar) had become disconnected from the bolster on the lead truck, potentially causing the wheels to lock most likely cause of the wreck, not unlike the 2008 Skerries Tara Mines de-railment. The sideframes on these Accucraft stock cars are secured to the bolster with a small metric bolt. While on this particular car 3 of the 4 bolts were secure when checked, I was unablle to tighten the 4th bolt due to the condition of the thread in the cast bolster. In this case I replaced the original bolt with a 10BA tapping the bolster. I guess I had better check the remainder of the fleet, before we have another wreck. Building the railroad and buying the stock is the easy bit, the maintenance is the time consuming and potentially costly part.

Amazingly I travelled in what was probably Railcars 12 and 18 during an IRRS outing to Shane's Castle during the early 80s, at the time the Shane's Castle railway had a great air of permanence with neatly maintained stations the main line almost the atmosphere of a roadside tramway. From memory No12 had interior seating, No18 a gutted interior but great fun standing in the doorway between the articulated section and cab watching the driver operating the railcar.

Had a workmate in the last job who was seriously into model cars, diecast, slot and RC and full size (Holden) member of several model car clubs. Had a great send off when he passed away several years ago several model car clubs represented, eulogies about his interest in cars and a Ferrari shaped casket quite something.

There certainly seemed to be a greater interest in railway modelling in the north and east (particularly ex-GN,NCC territory) compared to the rest of the country, possibly because for a long time CIE was considered drab and un-interesting in comparison with the GN and NCC with their colourful (modernish) express locos smart rakes of uniform coaches. I once recall a railfan from Kilkenny speaking about finding the local early 50s railscene drab and boring and eventually modelling the GNR instead. NIR demonstrated a lot of courage and confidence in the future of the Enterprise (and the railways) with the early 1980s introduction of its 111-113 locomotives and two MK2 Enterprise carriage sets increasing the frequency of the Enterprise from 4 to 6 return workings daily at a time CIE Enterprise was made up mainly of Craven stock. Interestingly Model Irish Railways the main Irish kit producer between the 80s early 2000s was established by a group of Ulster based modellers, while during the last 20 or so years modellers in the "greater' Belfast area have been pro-active in encouraging Worsley Works to produced etched parts for several of the distinctive railcar classes introduced by the UTA

Interesting the yard quite grass grown possibly siding & loop removed by mid 1957 while further south Gibbstown loop/running line reasonably free of weeds and still apparrently open for goods traffic. There is an undated SLS photop of a J4 (large ex-GSWR 0-6-0) on a north bound goods possibly dropping off/collecting a cattle wagon at Gibbstown in Donal Murray's Great Southern Railways . There is an uncredited 4 May 1957 1957 in a "Decade of Steam" of J5 (Midland Cattle Engine) 626 southbound at Gibbstown. Interestingly hoppers and opens are marshalled next the loco and covered wagons at the rear on the Northbound and vice-versa on the Southbound goods. At the time Kingscourt dispatched both bricks (Kingscourt Brick) and gypsum in open wagon, CIE & GNR each had approximately 6 Gypsum Hopper wagons.

Hopefully you'll find time to get back to modelling soon. We had a right scare about 20 years ago when wife Linda's bag with our passports were stolen in a cafe in Sydney while having breakfast, followed by the drama of trying to obtain emergency passports. Luckily an honest person found the bag with our passports (less any cash) dumped behind a low wall in a public park and managed to contact us luckily the thief had not swiped our phones or cards, was quite a day.

Take heart JHB thses days there is no point in trespassing as there is nothing interesting to see and its too dangerous anyway as generally trains are a lot more frequent than the good/old bad days and no staff to tell you 'to get off the track" if a train appears As a retired H&S professional company H&S policies and procedures are there to protect the organisation and partyicularly its top brass in case a custormer, worker or visitor is injured or killed ,no legal duties as such to trespassers but makes bad publicity and hard on all those involved (railstaff, falilies and emergency services) Back in the day (late 80s) I remember the signal man at Liffey Junction frantically yelling at trespassser taking a short cut from Dublin Industrial Estate to Cabra West to get off the canal bridge/railway track, the up afternoon Sligo was approaching under clear signals. The young people crossing the track like the trespassers killed at Leixlip (during Maynooth line doubling) and CIE/IE could not be bothered to securely fence the line at a spot where trespassing was a known problem. A lot of policies around PPE are driven by companies applying blanket rules to maintain discipline/control (worker/visitor behavior) regardless of whether its necessary (from a H&S or legal perspective or not). This can lead to a 'facade of safety" where everyone appears to wear the appropriate PPE (whether its needed or not!) and tick the boxes but not carry out the actual safety checks which can sometimes have disasterous results.

Still at the 'mock up" stage, though found enough offcuts of Peco track to complete tracklaying on the module and installed 3 on-off switches so lcos can be parked with power isolated from the DCC system. I need to level up and wire the module and extend the fascia to the end of the module! Although topped and framed in 7mm ply, the release module baseboard is a bit more complicated than usual because the traverser deck overhangs this area. Actual track base is laminated from pieces of 7 and 13mm ply, with a slot cut in the 13mm (before gluing to the 7mm) to accomodate the isolating switches for this area. I'll probabably end up cutting a hole/slot in the baseboard top to accomodate the wiring, just need to decided whether to use a hobby schroll saw I bought about 15 years ago or a jig saw.

The loco drawings published with New Irish Lines between 2014 and 2016 are in diagram form and exclude the narrow gauge. The drawings were intended to be a companion volume to GSR Locomotives but were eventually released with NIL. Diagrams include limited information generally showing one side and front end of a locomotive, ex-GSWR diagrams exclude an end view, several GSR diagrams in outline form only. The 7mm Narrow Gauge Association published a book of Irish Narrow Gauge Drawings which includes a variety of steam locos and petrol/diesel railcars https://7mmnga.org.uk/sales/publications/publication_details.php?ref=NLE06. The narrow gauge drawings were prepared for modelling purposes and are quite detailed including plan and sectional views.

Ironically Loco Remote clearly market the CDR railcar as 15mm scale as opposed to a 16mm scale model.

Jas Millhams S scale 1950s ex-GE Yaxbury branch complete with railbus was an eye opener in terms of scenic branchline modelling when I first saw it at an exhibition during the 80s in mimimum space branchline terminus form and later extended form with intermediate halt http://www.s-scale.org.uk/gallery5.htm, not a lot different from JHBs Dugort Harbour and Castletown West concept. I picked up a nicely assembled (non-powered) sample of an Airfix railbus during the mid 70s, but destroyed the model attempting to motorise it not realising its potential value. Not sure if anyone would consider it worthwhile to kitbash the NIR Railbus out of a Hornby Pacer. Then again David has proven that its perfectly feasible to build a SLNCR Railbus and thus GNR, DNGR? or even the solitary CIE variations in 7mm scale. 7mm or S scale 18-0' working diorama layout section of plain track possibly with halt and or level crossing, peat bog with turntable long enough for railbus and luggage trailer at each end!

Connected the 'loco release module" to the staging using a pair of DCC Concepts "Baseboard alignment dowels' and a nut bolt and washers I had in stock and demolished most the wall at the end of the traverser! The loco release will be long enough for a Bo Bo or a shunter, the A/001 class are already banned from Northwharf as a result of bufferlocking on small radius points used in the year. The oval object in the background is a freestanding mirror thats been waiting repair for about 18 months!, our family is getting to that stage in life with clutter and things I haven't found time to fix/repair I packed the trackbase for the 'loco release module" level with the traverser using off cuts of 13mm & 7mm ply, with strips of 7mm to prevent locos being driven/falling off the module. 3 of the traverser roads act as staging/running roads with a loco release, the 4th a spur serving an off scene industry a ware house or oil/tar depot a destination for vans and tank wagons. Unfortunately I managed to 'disappear' my stock of rail joiners and a bottle of woodworkers glue so a trip to the local modelshop and DIY store to pick up supplies tomorrow Saturday to complete the module. Although the layout is wired on a single circuit for DCC operation, I'll probabably feed the 3 loco spurs through on-off switches so individual locos can be isolated between turns, I may have some suitable switches in stock, but possibly another item to add to the shopping list.

I was quite taken with the stylish 1930s architecture (and signal boxes) on London Transport and the Southern Region when I first moved to the UK during the mid-80s though professionally I was marginally involved in restoring 4-500 year old buildings in Watford during the construction of the Harlequinn Centre during the late 80s which involved the oblitteration of early-mid 20th Century streetscape. The GSR signalling and electrical department managed to achieve a lot with very little with the conversion of Kingsbridge Station and Islandbridge-Dunlaoire to power signalling during the 1930s actuated by miniature lever frames fabricated using standard interlocking components housed in quite modernistic signal cabins (Amiens St & Westland Row quite stylish in design). While the majority of Dublin's 1930s era power signalling system was replaced during the early 80s in connection with the introduction of the DART, Heuston Cabin 1930s era cabin and signalling system remained in operation until the re-modelling of Heuston Station approaches during the early 2000s. What was considered modern state of the art during the 1930s was obsolete but sitll functional (if maintained properly) by 2000. As far as I recall control of Heuston and Island Bridge Junction was transferred to a temporary interlocking located in a new building at the Nort end of the Platform 9 a permanent interlocking installed upon completion for the remodelling of Heuston approaches and the re-instatement of platforms 1-5.

The majority of older photos tend to be 3/4 front views of locos or rolling stock, photo surveys of wayside stations became more common from 60s onwards as cameras and film became cheaper. Photos of the Meath Line before the ending of passenger services are relatively scarce, back in the 80s I bought up "Real Photograph Co" (Iain Allen) 1930s photos of 2-4-0 652 on shed Kingscourt (x426) and on the up passenger (3-6wheelers cw oil lighting) at Navan Junction (x429), (in those days publishers like Iain Allen and groups like RCTS published photographic catalogues) more recently "Great Southern Railways" Irish Pictorial album (Donal Murray (Ian Allen) 2006) included 1939 photos of Midland Standard Goods 601 with a similar consist (possibly electric lighting) a Down Passenger at Kilmessan Junction and Kingscourt, interestingly the consist of the "Passenger" includes a single Cattle Wagon as tail traffic in the Kilmessan photo. There are a couple of published photos of steam hauled 'Kingscourt" goods passing Gibbstown in goods only days one northbound behind a large ex-GSWR 0-6-0 (Stephenson Locomotive Society) and the second southbound behind an ex-MGW "Cattle Engine" (large powerful 0-6-0) uncredited photo Decade of Steam IRRS 1972?. With the KingscourtGoods reduced to a 3 times weekly working after 1917 and once weekly Wed &Thurs) in the 1960s WTT something more powerful than a Standard Goods was required to work the remaining traffic. During the 70s-80s Herbert Richard an IRRS member and photographer was very helpful in supplying comprehensive photos surveys of Kilmessan Junction (before track lifting) and Ballymoe on the Mayo Line for modelling purposes, hopefully at some stage his photographes may be added to the archive. In a way Kilmainham Wood is one of the more attractive Navan & Kingscourt stations from a modelling perspective with its distinctive brick station building and crossing keepers cottage and largish stone built goods shed once served by a spur siding off the goods loop, visually interesting on a slight curve. Kilmainham Wood contrasts with other station/halts where the station buildings on the N&K which had a rendered finish and small goods shed on the passenger platform at Gibbstown & Wilkinstown with a goods loop that served a long cattle bank. By contrast the goods shed at Nobber was served by a spur on the up side behind the station platform with a goods loop and long cattle bank opposite with an overbridge crossing the line at the south end of the yard

It may be worth while contacting the IRRS Librarian or visiting the IRRS on Library Night. John O'Meara published a 2 part IRRS Journal paper on the "Meath Line" during the early 50s which included details of staff and operations at the individual stations including Kilmainhamwood. The station was probabably at its busiest following its opening under Navan & Kingscourt Railway ownership when it acted as terminus for several years before the line was extended to Kingscourt, but there appears to have been little traffic under CIE ownership from the mid 40s onwards. One point of local interest is that a section of line alongside Whitehouse Lake was diverted away from the lakeshore as a result of a landslide during the 1950s, don't know if this diversion is noticable on the cycle track.