Mayner

The simplest option is direct fix a Kadee No 5 or No36 Long shank coupler to the model, no messing about with NEM pockets. https://www.kadee.com/ho-scale-couplers-c-274_276_284/36-ho-scale-30series-plastic-couplers-with-gearboxes-long-2564-centerset-shank-p-270.htm We used the No36 coupler as standard for scratch, kit and rtr rolling stock on the Loughrea layout. Kadee No36 coupler direct fixed to a Dapol/Airfix tank wagon assembled about 30 years ago!, the wagon once part of a rake of 10 has been through the wars loosing a buffer at one end and a coupler at the other end

The B201s had GM B-645 8 Cylinder engines 1100hp Gross the B121s were originally fitted with the GM 567CA 8 Cylinder engines. 950Hp Gross

Another factor in favor of the Push Pull sets was the lower capital cost compared with building railcars. The Push Pull sets were built to replace 141/181 Class locos and Park Royal Coaches on Dublin-Drogheda suburban trains, allocating (5-6?) 121s to push pull workings freed up the 141/181 for other freight and passenger duties and allowed the push pull fitted 121s to be used more intensively than on Intercity passenger or freight duties. I don't know how many 121s were fitted for Push Pull operation possibly half of the class, the 'spare" Dublin 3 car Push Pull set sometimes operated as hauled stock on the Maynooth line behind a 141/181 loco. The Push Pull fitted 121s were re-powered with engines and generators from B201s Class locos redundant following the DART electrification an excellent example of IEs make do and mend mentality during the late 80s early 90s. The Heuston-Kildare Arrow suburban service was railcar operated from the onset because it was a completely new service supported by EU funding, Merrion Street cheese paring persisted with funding restrictions the new service running to an from Heuston rather than over the Loop Line to Connolly and Pearse Stations and 17 Mitsui railcars supplied to make up 8 sets and a maintenance spare. The first big shift to railcar operation followed the introduction of the 2700/2750 series Sparrow railcars from Alstom in 1997-8. Apparently the Alstom 2700/2750 railcar were a lot cheaper that the Mitsui railcars, but went through a prolonged commissioning process and were all withdrawn proving less reliable in service than the 2600 & 2800 series Mitsui railcars.

The Oil transfers originally operated from the CIE Alexandra Road depot to Inchacore Works, re-fueling facilities were installed at Heuston during the post 2000 upgrade of the station. Texaco/Caltex loose coupled Class A Tank wagons (silver drum red solebars) introduced in the early 60s were used on the train until replaced with CIE vacuum braked stores wagons during the late 70s The Texaco wagons were similar to the Bachmann 14T Anchor mounted tank wagon https://www.bachmann.co.uk/product/14t-class-a-anchor-mounted-tank-wagon-'national-benzole'-silver/38-778. The wagons were re-lettered as Texaco following a change of branding, but the original livery with the CALTEX lettering became visible as the paintwork faded in later years and interesting modelling challenge.

Hi Kian My reply was given in good faith, without going into too much depth my reply is based on my recollection of events and published information (IRRS Journals, the railway press and IE drawings) of over 30 years ago. If my reply is not good enough it may be possible to obtain Department of Transport, Cabinet Papers on rail investment and CIE Annual Reports for the period under the Freedom of Information Act or by an enquiry through the IRRS. Murphaph's comment that it was about money is correct. The decision to reject the railcar proposal was based on a Government policy decision to cease significant investment in the railways apart from a number of projects that were already in progress including the MK3 Intercity programme. The Government had basically lost patience with CIEs increasing losses during the 1970s and decided to split the organisation into 3 operating companies with Bus Eireann and Iarnrod Eireann expected to compete for traffic and operate within a capped operating subsidy. In the big scheme of things it does not make sense for a Government to fund operating improvements such as Push-Pull trains or new Commuter Railcars if there is no long term commitment to retaining the railways. The Governments approach to the railways was framed by a McKinsey Consultant reports carried out in the late 60s that considered the options of retaining, running down or closing the railways. The report recommended retaining the radial intercity routes and closing almost everything else as the cost in terms of state support was broadly similar for all three options, but did not envisage growth in intercity or commuter traffic. The Government accepted and CIE began to implement the reports recommendations, but CIEs losses on both rail and road got seriously out of control because of the oil crisis, investment was curtailed and the system. Because of the increasing losses and public discontent with service Mc Kinsey was commissioned in the late 70s to look at the organisation of CIE and recommended splitting the organisation into three operating companies which were expected to compete with each other to achieve improved efficiency and quality of service. The report does not appear to have made a specific recommendation on the future of the railways, but the Government decision not to fund further investment in the railways indicates to gradual run down and closure. The Irish economy was in a very weak position in the 1980s with high emigration and railways and public transport would have been fairly low priority in a country struggling to fund a Health, Education and Welfare. The rail investment policies of the 70s and 80s were only reversed from the mid-90s with the availability of EU funding for rolling stock and route modernisation, though IE was expected to fund route modernisation on some lines (Athlone-Westport) form its own resources (borrowing). The relationship between CIE/ Iarnrod Eireann and the Department of Transport seems to have been poor for a long time there was a resistance to providing an "an above the line" subsidy for operating loss making passenger services. The Government only recently developing a contract model for public transport with the NTA and finally accepting the principal that the service sponsor rather than the operator is responsible for funding passenger rolling stock.

Quite simply because building new commuter trains would have conflicted with Government policy. The IE late 1980s proposal to build diesel railcars was rejected because the Irish Government was not prepared to fund/underwrite further investment in the railways apart from completing the Dublin-Cork Line CWR/CTC upgrade and MK3 Intercity programme. At the time the Government did not not see a long term future for the railways, the independent consultants reports commissioned in the 70s and 80s were quite pessimistic and failed to forecast the increase in intercity and commuter traffic that actually occurred in the 70s and 80s! CIEs proposals to build the Supertrains and MK3 Intercity sets as Push-Pull trains with DVTs was similarily rejected, CIE even built a mock-up MK2D driving cab during the early 70s, the MK3 intercity programme was approve because the Government was faced with a choice of replacing its older coaches or closing the railways following the Buttervant and Cherryville Junction de-railments. For several years (before Buttervant) the CIE Chairman warned the Government (in the Annual Report) that it could no longer safely operate the railways because of the poor crash worthiness of its coaching stock. The original proposal was to build the diesel railcars using the existing MK3 jigs and toolings, with underfloor diesel engines and three phase traction motors. The Push-Pull driving trailers were designed to be upgraded to power cars, the BREL drawings for the MK3 Intermediates are titled "Railcar Trailers". The jigs and toolings were scrapped following the completion of the Push-Pull sets

Yesterday (Boxing Day in New Zealand) was a major breakthrough for North Wharf wiring up and commissioning the traverser and running the first train the entire 7'6" length of the layout! I also managed to re-gauge E421 to OO but accidentally let the magic smoke out of the decoder though that's a story best left to another day. With one section and all tracks live wiring was a lot simpler with DCC!. The umbilical from the traverser connects to a terminal block on the fiddle yard baseboard tray/ Literally 1st train to arrive in the Staging/Fiddle Yard I found some suitable brass tube and a drill bit, to act as a sleeve for the removable locking pin that aligns the layout and traverser tracks, eliminating the risk of misalignment. Had to commemorate the occasion on YouTube with a shaky iPhone video!

Prices are in $NZ which is usually exchanges at a lower rate that $Au or $USd. You can view the prices in Euro, GBP, USD if you let Shopify view your regional settings. As much as I would love to return to Ireland I am too attached to our 1920s bungalow on a quarter acre section, wife, daughter and Kiwi way of life let alone the cost of re-location to consider returning. Prices for my models would have to be higher with Irish Vat, higher labour and production costs, I can just about afford to keep the enterprise going out of my back pocket at the moment. Shipping rates are broadly similar to between UK and IRL as postal rates are similar to the MacDonalds fast food exchange rate. Hopefully at some stage I will begin producing Kiwi and possibly Australian 3'6" kits & rtr locos and stock to broaden my customer base and improve the viability of the business.

Meri Kirihimete me te Hape Nū Ia! (Merry Christmas and a Happy New year Although not quite seasonal (early spring) the driver of 941 made a snowman on the headstock of his loco while waiting to cross a southbound train at Rarimu on the mountainous central section of the North Island Main Trunk line (wellington-Auckland)

I moved most of the stock out of the fiddle yard in order to wire up the traverser and the resulting scene reminded me of Waterford North Wharf in the late 1970s when it was used to store redundant H Vans from a Dundalk-Kilkenny keg special probably one of the last loose-coupled goods workings South of Dundalk and over the North Wall-Waterford route. 018 and Van prepares to leave having shunted the redundant vans into position. The next big job is to prepare some mock ups for the grain elevator and granary buildings at the end of the layout E421 One of Hans Tomalie's "Tank Engines" seems to be ideal for shunting and trip working to other yards. The loco is a 3D Printed Shapeways body with additional detailing on a custom built "Bull-Ant" motor bogie assembled about 10 years ago. Re-gauging to OO should be interesting because on one side the wheels are a press fit on the axles, I wonder if there is a 400hp Maybach sound file with an Irish diesel air horn? I am only showing the cab end as one of the buffers is missing from the nose. Hans Tomalie appears to have been diesel engineer a German national who 'jumped ship' from a German Warship before the outbreak of WW11. He appears to have been involved in the dieselisation programme, but his efforts were never officially acknowledged staff feeling he "got a raw deal" and eventually returned in unhappy circumstances to Germany. I may re-name the layout North Wharf as it got a certain ring to it

I recovered the second batch of "Flying Snail" Brake Vans from our pad-printers today following the lifting of travel restrictions from Auckland. (The city has effectively been in lockdown since 12th August). I expect the vans will be ready for shipping early February as Christmas & Summer Holidays coincide in this part of the World with most businesses closed until Mid January. We are now offering DHL Express as an option for shipments to Ireland/Europe and can offer a DTP service for shipments >€150 upon enquiry as the DTP fees are slightly lower than paying Customs Clearance fees and disbursements upon arrival. We had customs clearance problems with some recent NZ Post/An Post shipments which have since been delivered following intervention from NZ Post. So far An Post & NZ Post have both failed to provide an explanation for the problem except the usual stock answers or respond to specific questions in connection with the declaration, we have not had this problem with shipments to other EU Countries or the UK or United States. I have no further information at this stage on the decals for the CIE Bulk Grain, IRCH Standard Open or Covered Wagons.

Nice to see that your wagons arrived though I could have sworn they set out behind B125,seem to have dropped off a container of BMC parts somewhere along the way.

Some thoughts on Motive Power for Eastdock. The layout is only really suitable for small diesel and steam locos as a B121 and 4 wagons just about fits on the traverser. Small tender locos will just about fit, I have a OO gauge 52 Class and MGWR 2-4-0 but don't particularly want to build a OO gauge chassis for a J15. A MGWR E Class /GSRJ26 is plausible and my original 1983 TMD Midland 0-6-0T 563 rebuilt 1993 is probably overdue for a mechanical overhaul, though a MGWR Heavy Shunting Tank Class P/GSR J11 or exGSWR 201/J11 would be more appropriate. I have a full set of detail castings that would suit a P Class, it would be simple enough to produce the sheetmetal work and the chassis could be adapted for a MGWR 'Standard Goods" which is already on the to-do list. For 'Modern Image" use A B121 and G617 would be ideal. The B arriving and departing with trip workings from a major yard or station the G carrying out the Yard Shunting. I am thinking in terms of a High Level Quad Driver https://www.highlevelkits.co.uk/product-page/quaddriver-4wd-23mm-wheelbase to provide the necessary combination of reliable low speed running and torque, I am not a fan of Tenshodo Spud motor bogies for this type of use. I will probably replace the chassis in my Impetus RH88DS a reasonably good slow speed runner but very noisy. The Ruston is just about plausible as a Port & Docks Board shunter. The High Level chassis looks ideal for a motorised steam crane, though I would draw the line at motorising the cranes slewing and hoist functions. I have an E421 with a rtr 21mm gauge custom Bull Ant chassis which just about might be worth re-gauging to OO as it does not fit in with current 21mm gauge motive power needs. The B121 performs nicely with a MM Sound decoder at the default setting with a nice delay between the engine revving up and the loco starting to move.

A bit like the native speakers in the Gaeltacht being unable to understand the Montrose RP Irish on the wireless or TV. The classic one was the GSR "Drumbsambo" got both the Irish and English versions incorrect, its unlikely anyone from Kingsbridge asked a local to spell or explain the meaning of the name. Its no different from a stranger trying to figure out a local or national pronunciation from reading a book or map. It took me a long time to pronounce some Welsh, English and New Zealand place names. A bit like the old joke about the English language that the capital was pronounced as London and spelt as Liverpool or vice versa.

I managed to get out to a DIY store and buy a set of drawer runners for the traverser and install the table after dropping daughter off to a school holiday "Adapt a Pony" programme at the local Equestrian Centre luckily we haven't enough space to keep a horse in our back garden. I decided on a traverser rather than a sector plate to simplify lining up 2 roads at a time. The piece of brass rod is used to align and lock the table, with a hole drilled through the table into the baseboard. I need to drill out and sleve the hole/'s with brass tube as there is some play between the brass rod and the table/baseboard. Table slid over showing alignment marks and holes in baseboard. Traverser runner, there is a runner under each end of the traverser. The top edge of the runner is slightly (card shim) than the baseboard cross-member to allow the table to slide freely. Underside of traverser table, screws are fitted at both ends to stop the table twisting relative to the runners. The projecting machine screws in the runners clamp the woodscrews in the table in place. The main constraint with the layout in its proposed location is that the traverser is only long enough for a small Bo Bo loco and 4 wagons or a small tank loco or diesel shunter and 5. This is probably sufficient to keep an operator busy shunting inward and outbound traffic using a card or computer based operating system where each wagon has an individual running number and a destination. I am planning to make a second longer traverser table in order to run longer trains in a portable set up, at exhibitions or conventions. Looking at a crane for the Quay some Irish Ports such as Sligo used diesel crawler cranes for offloading bulk cargo such as coal and grain but the Kibri crane is a bit on the big side and likely to get damaged if placed in the foreground. I am tempted to convert the Jordan Erie Shovel into a rail mounted crane to park at the buffers on the kickback road or even motorise like the Fenit cranes.

The Cavan & Leitrim Railway have a Fowler diesel loco https://www.facebook.com/cavanandleitrimrailway/photos/pcb.1111852582340390/1111852482340400/. The loco ahs outside frames and the wheels are chain driven without a jackshaft drive

I successfully de-bugged the DCC system and got cordless Radio/Infrared receiver working for bot controlling the loco and changing points, I last used the system for controlling large scale locos in the garden more than 5 years ago so nothing lost. I set up a temporary section of straight track in the fiddle yard so I can run a train on or off the layout, but have decided to install a sector plate using drawer runners. Back to the scenics or structures with the dock wall and road overbridge between the scenic section and fiddle yard. I formed the dock wall using a suitable rip of ply glued and pinned to the baseboard, cladding the walls with Wills Scenic Sheets to match the retaining wall in the background. The stone coarses on the Will Sheets line up once the sheets are laid the same way up. I sanded back the edges of the sheets then glued the joints with polystyrene cement. I decided to extend the dock siding towards the bridge and will probably infill the area between the trackbase and dock wall with the same dense foam ground sheet. I have to decide whether to pave the track in this area or bring the ash/ballast in this area up to the top of sleeper level. Looking the opposite direction the joints between the stone sheets appear to be more noticeable, bit could disguise with mooring posts. I shortened the plate girder overbridge which was originally built to span 3 tracks, I have to add parapets and arch detail to the nearside abutment and make a decision on the depth of the Quay which is way too deep for a canal or enclosed dock. Any skullduggery can be disguised/hidden by the layout fascia.

The railways got into a bad state during the 1990s because of policy decision that there would be no further State investment in the railways under the Governments 1984 "Building on Reality" economic policy. CIE was allowed to complete the Cork Line CWR & CTC upgrade and MK3 Intercity Coach project, but were otherwise expected to fund infrastructure, locomotive and rolling stock renewals/replacement from its own resources. In return CIEs road and rail operations was separated into 3 three operating companies (expected to compete with each other) with greater operational autonomy, and essential loss making passenger services received an annual (capped) subsidy rather than the Government subsidising CIEs losses. Initially IE was much more pro-active in promoting rail and improve services, hiring NIR railcars for the Greystones Shuttle and Cork Cobh services, winning new freight flows such as Mollasses, Grain, Pulpwood, swapping B201s Class locos for MK2 coaches to improve the fleet, but the strains soon started to show as IE struggled to stay within its budget and operate a train service as infrastructure, locos and stock wore out. The "Building on Reality" policy if continued would have lead to the gradual run-down and closure of rail services over a 20-30 year period as operating assets wore out. The MK3 Intercity programme was cut back the last 24 MK3 coaches were built as Push-Pull Trailers for Dublin Outer Suburban Services when the Government rejected IEs proposal to build a fleet of railcars for suburban and branch line services. The 1990s upgrades were mainly funded by the EU as part of Irelands negotiations, at the time the Kildare Suburban (1993) and the Enterprise upgrade were presented by the Government as either or schemes, there was still uncertainty over the future of the railways (the Government was fed up with infighting between CIE/IE management and the Unions) up to the time of the 2001 Strategic Rail review. Going back to the MK3 Coaches with two person operation the guard is responsible for ensuring the train was safe to depart which included ensuring the doors were locked. With the MK3 Push Pull Sets the guard originally controlled the doors from a panel in the coaches, but later travelled in the loco while propelling after a 121 de-railed and mounted the platform ramp while propelling a South bound Push-Pull set through Balbriggan. 201s appear to have took over Dublin Outersuburban Push Pull Duties at some stage in 2001-2

Although my main interest is the Midland I settled on Kiltimagh on the Burma Road mainly because of family connections, the compact and attractive nature of the station. My father was born in Ballinamore (nr Kiltimagh) and spent most of his childhood there before moving to Galway in the 1920s. I was struck by the sight of the signal box guarding the level crossing at the south end of the station as we drove over the crossing on our first family holiday in the West when I was about 10 or 12. I had my first decent Grice around the station during my summer holidays in 1982. Gradually surveyed the station on three visits between 1996 and 2018 and have been working on drawings of the buildings and structures since around 2004, I am not exactly a fast worker! I had the signal cabin laser etched by York Model Making, but decided to "scratchbuild" the remaining buildings in ply or mounting board with Wills Scenic Sheet walls and etched window frames and architectural details to my own design, I will probably follow Andy Cundick's or Simon deSouza's example and slate the roofs in paper rather than the Wills Scenic sheets. Although the 'facilities" passing loop and two siding loading banks and good shed are similar to other 'large" Burma Road stations the tracklayout is unusual with the station hemmed in to the space between the two level crossings with both siding running behind the platforms as opposed to the more elongated layouts at Swinford, Tubbercurry and Collooney South with the goods facilities largely separate from the passenger station. The line through the station is on a down grade in the Sligo direction, a fatal accident occurred during WW1 when a North bound ballast train ran through the station and collided with a Southbound goods or Cattle train, the short stub siding at the Sligo end of the loop was probably provided to prevent loose coupled goods trains running away during shunting, gravity shunting is featured in a Video of the line in its final years. A 001 Class and a couple of vans arrive at the platform from the Limerick direction, followed shortly afterwards by some vans for the yard arriving by gravity, followed by the rest of the train when the signal man re-makes the road for the main. I hope to model the down grade but would be challenging to re-create the gravity shunting. The station building appears to be a standard WLWR design used at several of the smaller stations between Ennis and Collooney Junction and on the Clonmel-Thurles line. I forgot to measure the width of the gable end during the 2003 survey and had to make some adjustments to the drawing following the 2018 visit. The buildings featured a nap rendered finish with stone quoins, I prepared a set of etched window frames one-two years ago and recently prepared a set of decorative bargeboards and quoins. I measured up most of the buildings in 2003 before moving to New Zealand and re-checked some of the dimensions during an Irish holiday in 2018 but forgot to measure up the crossing keepers cottage. This lead to some skulldugery to produce a drawing using Google Maps, photos and working out brickwork modules. The brickwork in the porch is laid in Flemish Bond which lead to an interesting exercise on working out the brick 'closers' used at quoins and window and doors openings something I last studied 40 years ago. Ignore the dimensions, I had to re-size the drawing to produce a usable image I am planning to focus on the buildings until I relocate my OO gauge Timesaver layout to another room and will probably start with the Crossing Keepers Cottage having enough Wills Sheets and etched parts in stock.

Florencecourt is very unusual in being a single line block post without a crossing loop though with Staff & Ticket working the risk of a head would have been fairly low, it would be tempting to add another baseboard for exhibitions or occasional set up to run longer trains 7-8 wagon goods trains. It might even blossom into a 7mm SLNCR Modellers Group with different members building models of the smaller stations a 21st Century follow on from Richard Chowns Castlerackrent. You won't need much in the line of motive power SSM Leitrim kit or two along with your Large Tank would fill out the motive power roster, the Railbuses and Railcar would be the most challenging. The open wooded countryside much more achievable than the more rugged Leitrim and Sligo Countryside.

Interesting comparison with the Lima Siphon G which was considered to be a good model by the standards of the time https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/blogs/entry/24060-lima-siphon-g/

The TARIC coding depends a lot on the shipper or logistics business sending the item. I use DHL Express for the more high value DTP shipments, my DHL shipments go under 9503.00.9990 which basically accepts any type of kids toy as the "Electric Trains" 9502.00.3000 code is not on their data base. Interestingly my Account Manager suggested searching under Train Set which would have incurred a 4% duty. At this stage I am seriously considering DHL Express for all my Irish shipments as I am still experiencing problems with NZ Post and An Post despite using the correct TARIC codes.

Packaging is a significant % of manufacturing cost, model railway items likely to be above average due to the small size and delicate nature of the product. https://www.libertypackaging.com/blog/bid/97272/a-look-at-packaging-costs A single box for 2-3 items would substantially reduce the packaging set up/tooling cost the material costs would be pro-rata. Obviously Accurascale items would be expected to sell in substantially larger volumes that IRM an the packaging cost lower.

The 201 Class did a lot of damage to the 90lb ex-1920s MGWR rail still in use on the Mayo & Galway Roads in the 90s, the 071s did much the same for the 85Lb rail still in use between Mulllingar and Sligo. The Knockcrokery derailment triggered an independent review by an international rail consultant who were shocked by both the standard of track maintenance by the Athlone Division and heavy axleload locos like the 201s running at relatively high speed on such light rail put down during the 1920s The report was complimentary about the Waterford Division standard of maintenance of point and crossing work and it maintenance of Bullhead track on the Waterford-Rosslare Line with some rail dating from the 1906 opening of the route. Its likely that the lines with ex-GSWR bullhead track in the Waterford Division were better resourced than the Athlone Division in terms of labour as bullhead track with its chairs and keys was more labour intensive to maintain than jointed flat bottom which received more cursory maintenance. I

At one stage Peco supplied the "Over center spring" as a (possibly free?) spare part. They would send an envelope full of springs if you contacted the Peco Technical Advice Bureau https://peco-uk.com/pages/help-advice It might be worth sending an e-mail.