Mayner

The same feeding frenzy Panic at Missing Out appears to develop each time a new Irish RTR model is released on the market. I am not (yet) panicing although i have not received my order of Bulleid Opens or received an order update since paying for them along with a Park Royal coach almost immediately after I received the invoice over 6 months ago. Hopefully my Park Royal and Bulleid wagons may arrive at some stage during the next 12 months. At this stage I would ignore the bullshit about Brexit creating a nightmare for UK businesses exporting outside the EU. A large part of Rails business involves exporting British outline models to customers in North America, Australasia with plenty of experience in completing customs declarations. Based in New Zealand Rails have been my preferred UK supplier for the past 20 years for rtr items and Peco track/points as they are difficult to match on price delivery and service, my MM 1st batch of B141-181 were supplied by Rails, suppose I had a soft spot for visiting the shop in Sheffield while living in and visiting the UK Rails Customs Declarations/Commerical invoices for international orders are likely to be generated electronically using software similar to that used by businesses in most countries that ship internationally. Although operating on a minute scale compared to Rails my businesses customs declarations are generated electronically (including the correct EU/Irish customs codes) on software provided by the Postal Service & DHL. No doubt Royal Mail and British based courier businesses have similar capabilities. Its possible to supply goods from outside of the EU to Irish (& EU) customers tax paid, but it works out a lot more expensive to the customer than simply paying the import Vat and the An Post/couriers processing fee upon arrival, its simply not worth bothering! Now in my mid- late 60s I decided to call it a day on ordering new RTR releases as we have basically run out of storage space. Rtr models bought during the last 10 years in boxes in the garage, older models in display cases, little time likely to available for modelling during the next few years, best laid plans of mice and men etc.

Although not rostered as 'branch loco" main line locos were sometimes rostered to work branch line trains between turns on main line duties. For instance the A Class of North Wall-Dundalk goods trains worked the Dundalk-Carrickmacross goods, locos of Mallow-Tralee goods trains also worked the Tralee Castleisland and Listowel goods. Seems to have been a similar arrangement between Castletown West and Dugort Harbour Its rumored* that for a short while following their introduction B121s (in grey) worked Galway-Tuam passenger trains between turns on main line duties and (even turned the loco steam loco fashion to run bonnet forward like some US railroads) (*It may have been Jack Kennedy prominent enthusiast and photographer owner of Green Studios. I occassionally would drop into his studio where he was usually happy to talk about trains and give me some photos of steam and diesel locos.) Its just about possible that the loco of the 'Night Mail" or an overnight goods would have been available during the day time to work Galway-Tuam trains and carry out shunting duties at Galway.

Reminds me of the joke among American modellers during the 60/70s about converting a (very expensive) Brass Shay into a (cheap) plastic diesel. It was one thing to convert the relatively chaeap basic plastic rtr models of the pre-2000 era into representations of Irish stock but Rapido coaches appear to be expensive highly detailed models. It was only modellers like E H Francis that turned out 4mm coaches with fully detailed interiors which included fine details such as mirrors and publicity photos in the individual compartments. The elliptical roofed coaches are similar in roof outline to MGWR limited mail stock of the 1900, but the MGWR coaches were 6' longer corridor vehicles not non-corridor compartment stock. Scratchbuilding in plastciard using methods detailed by David Jenkinson in "Carriage Modelling made easy" is probably the best approach for modelling pre-50s era coaching stock.

The "English' language has been evolving and has continued to spread around the World since the first Germanic raiders/traders/invaders arrived in Britain all those years ago, I dont't think the people who helped spread the language around the World through trade and invasion would have been the least worried about the finer points of grammer. The majority of English speaking countries have developed their own regional variations of the language be it Hiberno-Irish, Scots, Ulster Scots, Canadian, US, Australian and New Zealand versions of the language which are just about intelligible to each other. One of my favourite writers is Andrew Marlon an Australian cartoonist who publishes his distinct take on all thats going wrong in the World in his First Dog on the Moon Guardian column, some of whoes characters frequently the adjective 'irregardless" most likely to poke fun at those that become agitated by the use of the word. https://www.theguardian.com/profile/first-dog-on-the-moon . Interestingly while "irregardless" is recognised as a word (Oxford, Cambridge, McMillian, MacQuarrie and Miriam Webster dictionaries the American dictionaries consisers irregardless as a British English word and not a standard American English Word. MacQuarrie (Australian) defines irregardless as a word that not generally accepted as 'Standard English". I spent a lot of time during my first year in New Zealand tut-tutting and correcting local words and phrases into what I thought was 'correct English before copping on to myself and speaking the same lanugage as everyone else. Like any living thing a language has to continually evolve or die!

Horsetans comment about not being able to unsee something once noticed, I simply had to check the wheels on my J15s assembled using a mixture of Sharman and Gibson wheels with interesting results. Loco on the left Gibson (EM profile) on right Sharman (B profile) both pin in line 16 spoke. The brake gear on the loco on the left is from my own etchings, I used the original kit parts on the loco on the right. I picked up the loco on the left part built at a show in the UK with several parts missing from the fret including brake gear and guard irons/cosmetic front frames. When checked with a callipers Gibson wheels measured uniformally 19.80mm over tyres Sharman ranged between 19.3-19.8 Close 'enough" for J15 (5'1¼) driving wheel with worn tyres especially with OO or EM wheel profile with overscale flanges and tyre width and compromise wheel profile. While there are several photos of J15s with pins between (PB)spokes including a gruesome photo of 242 being cut https://transportsofdelight.smugmug.com/RAILWAYS/IRISH-RAILWAYS/CORAS-IOMPAIR-EIREANN-STEAM/i-hJTs5JS/A There are also photos of J15s with what appear to be pins in line including 161 https://transportsofdelight.smugmug.com/RAILWAYS/IRISH-RAILWAYS/CORAS-IOMPAIR-EIREANN-STEAM/i-QZrqpFD/A and 176 (GSR Locos McMahon & Clements) I am in a similar dilema the HT whether to use some 5'2"½ (20.8mm) dia PB wheel sets I have in stock (bought from SSM) to motorise a pair of J15s currently in the workshop. I guess the questions is whether the larger wheels raising the locos 0.4mm will be noticeable enough to stand out like a sore thumb alongside another J15, most of my locos either end up in a display cabinet or stored long term in a box so in a way doesn't really matter one I get some enjoyment out of the build.

As the father of a 14 year society is not likely to be a lot different than its always been the continued struggle for survival facing lifes ups and downs. The majority of my childs friends/class mates are good kids from supportive families likely to grow into responsible function adults, a few manipulative and troublesome ones from disfunctional families, none could be considered to be from an economically deprived background. The worrying thing is the explosion in mental health problems among adolesents and young adults in recent years, a number of our kids friends and class mates in New Zealand are also receiving treatment for mental health problems along with teen-young adult relatives in the States and New Zealand. Growing up in the 60s we had the existential threat of the Bomb and Vietnam War (topic of conversation among grown-ups at family get togethers) but wern't otherwise facing an insecure future my father and uncles all had steady well paid jobs in the days before the Irish economic recessions of the 80s & 90s or serious worries about pollution of climate change. One of the biggest problems at the moment is that political parties have to appeal to the older more conservative sector of the electorate to get elected often offering simplistic solutions to complex problems like crime, and responding to climate change. 'Talking tough" on crime and people on welfare, rather than tackling the causes of crime and long term welfare dependency. Failing to consider the effects of climate change in infrastructure planning despite repeated problems with flooding in low lying inland and coastal areas during the past 20 years. Unfortunately todays younger generation are likely to have lost their idealism and hope by the time they reach middle age just like 'My Generation!!!!!!!! Going back to Horsetans comment about Ireland's proud tradition of vandalism or perhaps a contempt for authority. One of the best examples when the 'locals" completly dismantled some DSER coaches following a deliberate de-railment during the Civil War. The Coaches with the possible exception of the heavier elements of the ironwork had completly gone by the time it was safe to recover the remains of the train. Possibly a case of the locals liberating the material for their own use rather than mindless destruction.

Alan O'Rourke of New Irish Lines may have information on John Campbell "Halfinchacore Works" There is a photo of T&D No6 in Nov 2011 New Irish Lines. He also produced models of the LLSR 4-8-0 and 4-8-4T At the time I attempted to order a T&D 2-6-0T from John Campbell but he was not prepared to ship outside the UK and Ireland I think the locos and stock were 15mm scale on 45mm gauge track which is correct for the Irish 3' gauge. Accuracraft announced a 15mm scale gas fired live steam model of a C&L 4-4-0T aboyut 6 years ago, but never seems to have reached the production stage. https://www.accucraft.uk.com/products/kathleen-lady-edith-cavan-leitrim-4-4-0t/ Best option to locate one of John Campbells Irish locos would be to reach out to Garden Railway specialist retailers and enthusiasts groups in the UK

The one thing that get me about this thread is that while there is plenty of talk about punishing the teenage perpetrator apart from myself no one has mentioned parental responsibility and potentially holding the parents of the teenager to account. In this part of the world a young person under 18 is still classed as a child. There is an oldsaying that the dog you own is the pup that you reared, what were the parents doing to monitor the childs behavior, the company he was keeping in the months, weeks days leading up to the vandalism at Downpatrick.

Ernie Shepherd's MGWR book ( & company records in IRRS Archives) are likely to be a more reliable source than Google. Born and bred in working class area of Dublin in the 50s and 60s we tended pronounce C... as Keltic , One of my friends got into hassle in school for spelling his first name Kieran as he and his family pronounced it rather than Ciaran as the Head expected, as far as we were concerned Celtic was a Scottish football club. MGWR locos with the exception of te F (Cattle Engines) drove on the right hand side with a screw reverser, the reversing lever is visible in photos of the rhs of the A Class There is a photo of the cab interior of 541 (superheated condition) in the R N Clements collection on the IRRS Flickr site.

After over 10 years manufacturing kits and rtr 4mm models, I basically decided that it is not worth it financially to continue producing kits and models mainly as a result of high production costs and a relatively low level of demand. I comissioned a laser cut model of a GSWR signal cabin from my own CAD work through York Model Making several years ago and considered supplying the model as a kit directly through York Model Making (to minimise shipping costs to Irish and UK customers. I had one indirect enquiry from a customer in the UK asking whether he could order the kit directy from York Model Making, but seems to have been put off by the price. Card or etched kit design and assembly tends to be complex as your converting a 2D drawing into a 3D object, producing a 3D model/design is a totally different ball game to 2D drafting but producing a model as a 3D printed object may be a better option than a card or laser cut kit. Hopefully ceasing to produce models comercially will free up time for my own modelling projects, I have already have enough 3D printed wagons (kits and rtr) for my own use, but have several etched loco and coach kits to complete and assemble Kiltimagh Station buildings from Wills material parts and my own custom etches I have had in stock for several years.

Personally I preferred the appearance of the superheated locos to the original saturated version of the A Class, Celtic is likely to have been pronounced Keltic in Ireland. Jack Kennedy a prominent Irish steam age railway photographer and enthusiast once told me the the MGWR would have not been interested in an IC125 unless it was capable of hauling cattle trains. The A and C Class 4-4-0s were built with 6'3" driving wheels and crossed eccentric rods on the Stephenson valve gear (visible in the GA) in contrast to the 6'7' drivers and open (straight) rods on the GSWR express passenger 4-4-0s of the same era. The crossed rods apparrently had an advantage in starting and hauling heavy loads at low to moderate speed required for a mixed traffic loco. The main purpose of the superheating would have been to reduce the running costs of the loco by reduced coal and water consumption, while the MGWR 4-4-0s were considered poor/sluggish engines by the 1948 Inchacore appaisal they were likely to have been considered a 'foreign design" with different arrangement of valve gear to otherwise similar Inchacore 4-4-0s likely to have been quite run down with little maintenance since the beginning of the Emergency. Enginemens comments on the mechadically identical Cs (D5 & D6 Classes) in "A Decade of Steam" and various IRRS papers speak of free-steaming locos that ran roughly at high speed, that were tried successfully on Kingsbridge-Nenagh-Limerick trains. Haven't read of comments of rough riding with the As (D5) Class, the problem with the Cs may have been tied up with raising the boiler centre line when the locos were superheated, the shorter coupled wheelbase of the Cs and the valve gear not like being 'pulled up" for high speed running. Problem seems to have been widely known but apparenty nothing done to improve the ride quailty. Quite a few photos of Cs on cattle trains including double heading an empty westbound special with a Cattle Engine. CIE appear to have plans to "rebuild" some Woolwich as 3 cylinder 4-6-0s with 400 Class boilers, effectively new locos with Woolwich driving wheels, not dissimilar to the Midland's 'rebuilding'/Renewal of the 2-4-0 "Mail Engines" of 1889/90 into the C Class from 1909 onwards. The problem with overloading of the Woolwich would have arisen as a result of the changing in operating patterns following the "Fuel Crisis: of the late 40s which would have resulted in the running of less frequent heavier trains in response to fuel shortages and increased running costs. Similarly CIE reduced train frequency and increased train loadings in response to fuel shortages and cost increases following the 1973 oil crisis. The design developed to the stage that the CIE produced a diagram of the loco!

The most striking thing I experienced working buiilding a "Community Centre" in a 'deprived" area of Dublin about 20 years ago was one evening seeing a toddler of 2-3 walking alone on a darkend street, what chance would a child have growing up in such an environment. On the positive side there were some very good people from the local community working hard to improve the lot of the local community, but it was a hell of a struggle to overcome the difficulties and stigma attached with living in that particular neighbourhood both in terms of raising a family and earning an honest living. Government were pretty good at throwing money at the bricks and mortar stuff but hopeless at supporting and empowering communities with few notable exceptions such as Dublin Corporation social housing schemes of the 1930s and certain Inner City housing schemes of the late 70s/80s which helped re-build communities.

Wooden Thomas railways seemed to be a standard feature of railway museums and heritage railways we visited in the States several years ago, and kept our kid amused while Dad was checking out the other exhibits. At one stage an LGB layout suspended from the ceiling was almost a standard feature in some bars and resturants! Our kid lost interest in playing with trains when they were 7-8 shifting towards Fantasty modelling in Lego and into (computer) graphic design as they entered their teens potentially becoming a graphic artist, computer animator, architect or property developer which should helpful support their interest in horses, best not mention toy trains.

While I have sympathy for the damaged and distress caused by the vandalism at Downpatrick, I find the hang them flog them reaction towards the perpetrators on this newsgroup distasteful. Most developed countries are currently experiencing a significant youth mental health crisis, both Northern Ireland and New Zealand have a significantly higher (almost double) the youth suicide rate of the Republic. (NI 17.8, NZ 19, ROI 10, per 100,000 people 2020). Perhaps the 16 year old apprehended simply comitted wanton vandalism or has a mental health problem, but what about parental responsibility both for the upbringing of their child and taking responsibility for their actions? My Dad had a story of his interactions with the 'locals" while on picket duty in Dublins Docklands during the "Maintenance Mens Strike" of the late 60s, casual work for Dockers and Carters had more or less dried up and a lot of people were literally living on their wits' One an old guy used to bum cigarettes from the strikers and Dad and his mates asked how he managed to survive 'Its like this if I see a hall door open in he flats and a Radio on the table, Ill take it and sell it in Talbot Street in a couple of minutes" the other incident was a group of Urchins in 'hand me down" clothing were hanging out walking up and down on the picket line with the strikers while two of their mates robbed some 'cans of paint" from the back of Dad's car (he had filled the cans with rubbish to dump and the Urchins helped out. Its likely that 55 years later the grandchildren of the urchins have graduated to more serious and profitable crime. No doubt similar conditions apply in parts of Northern Ireland, as they do in New Zealand and other 'post industrial countries" A high proportion of the people that end up before the Justice system and are convicted have quite serious untreated mental health conditions. (inmates in prisons in Northern Ireland have a 25% higher prevelence of mental health problems than in England) I have skin in the game having worked with the justice system in Ireland and NZ and as the parent of a teenager witth a mental health problem. I suppose the question to be asked is whether menal health or the childs parenting contributed to the vandalism at Downpatrick and if so what could society/the community in Downpatrick in particular childs parents could have done differently to support the teenager. There is an old African saying 'that it takes a village to raise a child" which applies in the wider context of todays complex societies as a traditional tribal society. I remember a Maori 'Auntie" (formidible older woman) taking a group of troublesome city teenagers under her wing (and scaring the life out of them) by teaching them some 'life skills" by taking them out to sea on a small boat, where they learned to fish and catch fresh Kai (food) for their families and started them on the right path. Possible 'community work" as we call it in NZ where the perpetrator could be sentenced to work on the DCDR, p.w. work on our local 'hertiage railway" for the past 20 or so years has been carried out by non-violent offenders sentenced to "community work", the Society Members generally becoming too old and decrepit to carry out heavy physical work.

Anbrinco railcar assembled to resemble County Donegal No 19, the window detail on No 19 differed from No 20 and the Anbrinco kit. I originally assembled the railcar to run on 009 with the cab and body as a single unit in accordance with the instructions, I fitted an N gauge Fleischmann 0-4-0T chassis fitted in place of the Anbrinco power bogie (bascially a drect replacement) and probably used a N gauge coach bogie for the trailing bogie. I rebuilt the railcar about 30 years ago with the cab and body as separate units using a Fleischmann diesel shunter chassis mounted on Bemo HOm wheel sets (at some stage (1989?) I re-united the Fleischmann Maeffi loco 0-4-0T with its chassis and sold complete loco, somewhere along the way having discarded the Anbrinco power and trailing bogies possibly with wheelsets. No 19 is due a mechanical rebuild/upgrade after 30 odd years if I ever get round to it. One problem that cropped up when separating the cab and body into separate sections was that the metal had become quitte brittle and subject to damage since I originally assembled (glue) 10-15 years earlier and likely to require carefull handling at this stage! The very noticeable joint between cab side and front may have been as a result of damage while I re-assembled the railcar or accidental damage at a later stage.

According to Clement's & McMahon GSR locos the 1933 rebuild of 546 (formerly 129 Celtic) produced a hybrid combining the wheels of 546, frames and cab of withdrawn 549 and the boiler of withdrawn 646 (J2) O-6-0. The rebuily 546/549 featured the raised running board and canopy cab fasionable in the 1920s also fitted to 548,549,550. The rebuilding of the large MGWR 4-4-0s with superheaters and piston valves from 1917 onwards would have been intended as an economy measure to reduce coal and water consumption. The GSR had a surplus of medium power locomotives following the arrival of the Woolwich Moguls and the effects of the Great Depression, leading to the withdrawl of a number of large MGWR 4-4-0s and 0-6-0 Types. Business appeared to have improved enough by the mid 30s to justify the re-instatement of 546/549 the construction of the 5 342 Class 4-4-0s and the 800 Class. 1948 Inchacore assessment indicates that the As/ D5 Class were mainly used on goods/cattle trains in CIE days and occasional passenger trains in the Cork Area and considered a 'poor design' Comparison of the A Class in its original as built condition and rebuillt form with superheater and pistpn valves. The styling of the raised running board and canopy cab in the A1 version is similar to the final batch of Cattle Engines. Reprints of MGW A.As,A1 weight diagrams issuedwith New Irish Lines Sep 2014

Interesting the way Waterford-Limerick and the Nenagh branch have been virtually ignored by the powers that be within the NTA and CIE/IE. Striking contrast with the effort that went into retaining and building up passenger traffic between Limerick and Ennis and the effort that went into establishing passenger services to Athenry and Galway. It almost looks like Tipperary and Waterford just don't have the same level of political influence as Clare and Galway. The present service appears to be a throw back to CIE's policy of the 60s which focused on improving rail services on the radial routes from Dublin with CIE Expressway services covering cross country routes such as Limerick-Waterford and routes where road services could operate a more direct route e.g. Limerick-Nenagh-Portlaoise-Dublin or Clonmel-Kilkenny-Dublin. CIE were refused permission when the applied to close Limerick Junction-Waterford-Rosslare passenger services during the 70s and have done nothing to promote or inprove services on the line for the past 50 years. The two Strategic Rail Reviews and NTA seem to focus mainly on big high profile projects, with little apparrent interest at local or central government level at improving services at fairly minimal costs on an underused line like the Waterford and Limerick, though there was sufficient local interest/pressure to split the morning Limerick-Ballybroply at Nenagh several years ago to operate a Nenagh-Limerick commuter train with minimal investment in signaling. Though a local politician was criticised by the press for wasting public money by diverting a Limerick-Dublin railcar service to run via Nenagh. Looking at the practicalities running additional Waterford-Limerick or Ballybrophy services may involve recruiting and training additional train crews, its possible the persent timetables on both lines are based on Train Crew rosters rather than passenger demand, many branch line passenger services in steam days were based on rostering a single train crew for an 8hr shift resulting in the final train running in early afternoon. Re-opening crossing loops and closing/automating level crossings would require substantial investment and committment to keeping lines open, over 40 years ago British Rail invested in low cost options for signalling and crossing upgrades on lightly trafficked routes in rural areas of England, Scotland and Wales that continue in use to the present, big difference between Ireland and the rest of the world is that outside of Ireland the local and regional councils are directly involved in the provision and funding of local rail transport. In some areas the trains are operate on contract to the local or regional council

First photo I have seen of the 'country end" of Tralee station its hard to believe that the area between Rock Street and the narrow gauge station was not built up. I remember looking for a 'gap between the houses" to figure out where the Dingle line crossed Rock Street when I first visited Tralee on a 'rover ticket' in 77 or 78. Although both Tralee Station and Basin Halt were ingood condition in residential use, I counln't trace the trackbed between the two stations. At the time I spent most of my time checking out the North Kerry Yard still in use and the recently closed Fenit Branch and North Kerry between Tralee and Abbeydorney on ahired bike!

Just over the state line in North Dakota.

Languages and dialects tend to evolve differently in settler communities after they leave the 'mother country', or sometimes appear to remain frozen at a particular time. Apparrently the French Canadian's consider their language to be a purer version of the mother tongue and New Zealand English is now considered to be a separate version of the English language, the accent apparrently evolved from that spoken by the eraly settlers who migrated from the English Home Counties. The Tudor Kings always appear to have been struggling to bring their Irish Anglo-Norman Vassals into line and pay their tribute to the King probably spoke a different version of English to that spoke at Court in London with a Cork accent! Like the children and grandchildern of modern day emigrants to England, the grandchildren and great grandchildren of the Anglo-Normans invaders of the 12th Century are likely to have spoken a version of English with a regional accent. Did the Fitzgeralds (Earls of Desmond) speak with a Cork or Welsh accent during the 1st Elizabethan era!

An inland Enterprise route via the M1 (also serving Swords) would make more sense than quadruppling the existing line. More direct than the coastal route less expensive from a civil engineering prespective (no expensive Estuary crossings) and less costy/disruptive demolishing than the large scale demolition of homes and business required to quadrupple the existing right of way. Main reason the M1 took an inland route between Santry and the Border, much cheaper to CPO agricultural land and cross the Boyne west of Drogheda. Cloud Cuckoo Land unless Ireland is still hoping for the EU to finance its infrastructure over 50 years after it first joined the EEC in the same manner as the EU financed the 1990s upgrade of the Belfast line South of the Border

Once tried to have a conversation with some Doric (Northeast Scots) speakers on the Aford Valley Railway in Aberdeenshire about their Fowler steam loco the only word I cound understand was fuck. Lot of Dutch and Afrikaans speakers in thus part of the World Hans the owner of the local gourmet cheese shop advertised for Dutch speaking staff too much hassle to explian technical terms into English. Dairy farmers are often of Dutch ancestory, Afrikaaners migrating in more recent years, I have an acquaintance of Italian-Afrikaaner extraction so much for Northern and Southern European stereotypes! Wife is from a part of the States settled by Scandanavian's with the coming of the Railroad in the late 1800, one of her classmates a farmer has a classical 'sing song' Scandanavian accent not unlike the Swedish Chef in the Muppet Show.

It looks like Shapeways Eindhoven has resumed production as Manuevo https://manuevo.com/. The business appears to operate as a print bureau (customer/designer orders prints from their own designs) rather than a market place where designers put up 3D files and wait for customers to order prints. I have used similar businesses locally (New Zealand) and Asia for 3D printing, usually there is a minimum order value whether regardless of whether you use an overseas or a local bureau. Most 3D print companies charge a 'set up" cost per per print for "Slicing' converting the 3D printing file into a format usable by the printer.

Had an interesting conversation with a Kiwi Asian call centre agent yesterday as we struggled to understand each others accents dailects, but being a pragmatic Asian he quickly figured out and solved the problem while while I was trying to longwindly explain what was wrong! Reminded me of the girl in a Sallynoggin chip shop asking a Kerryman to interpet of a Meath Man about 40 years ago. The two boys were working on a construction site and decided to order fish and chips for lunch or a friday the girl could not understand what Noel from Rathmaloyn was saying and asked his friend who was from Killorglin to explain with similar results. Interesting Dairy Farm Managersand Stockmen/women from the Philippines are much sought after in New Zealand alomg with trained medical staff having an excellent work ethic.