Mayner

Spot on! A North Wall-Cork Liner ran away on the approaches to Cork was diverted into the goods yard, the 001 Class loco demolished the buffer stop and came to rest in an (empty) diesel storage tank. Rumor had it that the train ran away because there was no effective brake on the train as a result of an improvised brake tail piece on the last wagon despite both the Guard and an Inspector travelling on the loco that night.

The West Cork was a very interesting and distinctive system, ideal for a 'system' layout with a number of stations if you have the space. I once thought of building an N gauge West Cork layout with a number of stations and one of the branch line terminals in a 17X8 attic, though these days I would be more inclined towards a building a O gauge model based on the Timoleague and Courtmacsharry as brass kits are available for several of the locos from Alphagraphix and it a lot easier to assemble kits/scratchbuild in O gauge than OO Traditionally 2' was the minimum recommended radius for reliable running with flexible track in OO gauge, but you will achieve reliable running with medium and large radius set track curves in OO. I would recommend Peco track and points in preference to Hornby to achieve reliable running, you can achieve a more realistic effect and will be less constricted in you planning if you use flexible rather than the rigid geometry of set track straights and curves, though set track can be good if you want to experiment with different track layouts or get something up and running quickly.

We also have a Large Scale version GSR Grey who looks after things on the garden railway.

It depends on the era modelled. The daily Limerick-Sligo passenger services was re-routed to Ballina and the Manulla Junction-Ballina passenger services ceased when the station and signal box closed in 1963. The junction points were operated remotely from Balla. The Limerick-Ballina service does not appear to have connected with Dublin-Westport services at Claremorris. In the early 1970s CIE introduced a daily Dublin-Ballina & return through coach which was attached to Dublin-Westport and return trains between Dublin and Claremorris. The coach most likely a Brake Standard was worked by the Claremorris pilot loco to and from Ballina. This arrangement operated for a short period possibly less than a year before the branch train was re-instated. The branch passenger service was re-introduced with 3 trains in each way daily in 72 or 73 the train ran ahead of Westport-Heuston services and followed Heuston-Westport services between Manulla and Claremorris. The sequence would have been reversed when the connection was changed to Manulla in the 1990s.

Possibly built by George Hannan who modelled the Irish 3' in OOn3 during the 1960s, his Killybegs layout along with scratchbuilt Donegal locos and stock was featured in the Railway Modeller during the early 60s. He ran a model railway/art shop in Malahide during the 1970s before retiring to Donegal. The Backwoods kit for the Swilly 4-8-0 was first introduced by Pete McParlin of Backwoods Miniatures in the early 1990s

I love the plasticine models! There is a good photographic account of operations at Bundoran Junction shortly before closure in September 57 in Anthony's Burges "Railways in Ulster's Lakeland. Interestingly the junction between the Bundoran & Omagh lines had been revised to a facing turnout off the up? running loop at the Enniskillen end of the station eliminating the diamond crossing off the down? loop. I am not sure whether this section or line was considered as up or down as the Omagh-Enniskillen line was originally built by the Londonderry & Enniskillen and later worked by the Dundalk & Ennisklllen later Irish North Western before being absorbed by the Great Northern. Interestingly 2:05 Enniskilled-Omagh/Bundoran ran double headed to Bundoran Junction on 7th September before dividing and working as separate trains to their destination. Some of the photos feature PP No50 with the 10:30 from Bundoran and U No 205 with the 12:00 Enniskillen-Omagh. The 10:30 appears to have picked up "van traffic" at a number of stations en-route to the junction and attaches a bread container wagon to the rear of the 12:00 at the junction. Interestingly No50 shunts her entire train including coaches on to the waiting 12:00 on the up? main line platform. Both the Bundoran & Enniskillen trains had the normal consist for stopping trains on the Irish North two passenger coaches, a passenger rated van and a string of fitted vans and bread container wagons. No 50 appears to have re-marshalled her train before attaching traffic to the 12:00 from Enniskillen, the vans and wagons are marshaled between the loco and coaches in photos at Beleek and Kesh.

Not sure whether it was the Spring weather or frame of mind I ran the first operating session since March rather than watching a train run round while working in the garden or sitting on the deck. I used JMRI Operations to generate a Train Manifest which also conveniently marshals wagons/cars in station order for their destination. The LGB switcher No 50 waits on the yard lead/headshunt after making up the train as K27 "Mudhen" 464 backs on to the train to couple up. The yard lead is a recent addition and is useful both for making up trains and releasing locos off incoming trains especially when the train is longer than the storage yard. 464 arrives at the Junction before making its first set out for the "Utah Extension" 464 pushes two cars around the Wye onto the Utah Extension. Like a lot of Western Railroads the Extension is a short branch that ends in the middle of no-where! American model railroaders often treat a simple spur track as a branch or an interchange with another railroad as an operating ploy. The Wye and tail track is useful for turning locos and complete trains particularly at the end of an operating session, we will probably extend the extension as time and money permits during the next year or so. Back on her train 464 arrives at Jackson City the main Town/Division Point on the railroad. 461 arrived earlier on a caboose hop. 464 has positioned the stock cars and a pair of cabooses on track 3 and is propelling the remainder of her cars onto track 2 in the Yard. Bachmann K27 464 is showing the effects of age and wear & tear (planned obsolescense?) compared with the older Accuracraft (Brass & Stainless steel) 461. 461 was bought as a replacement when 464 was showing signs of wearing out, though I was lucky to find a replacement gearbox and tender trucks for 464 when the originals failed, but had to fabricate a new leading truck. The plastic body, leading and tender trucks became increasingly brittle with age, the trucks eventually failed, luckily there has been no sign (so far!) of metal fatigue in the cast mainframes and coupling rods and valve gear. Not quiet a "Jackpot" (all tracks occupied unable to move) at Jackson City as RGS Motor 4 arrives at the Depot platform, 348 waits on the siding to switch cars to Track 3. Motor 4 has set back along the Main Line allowing 348 to switch her cars to the Yard and Track 3 Large Scale operation is pretty hands on with hand operated switch stands and coupling cut-levers and takes almost as long as the real thing. American Caboose's are a bit more luxurious than Goods Brake vans.! Nearly ready for evening departures? RGS Motor 4 , 463 & 464 have turned and are awaiting their next duties. Tomorrows another Day!

The 60 --------47'6" wagons were introduced in 1978 and were used exclusively for keg traffic until Irish Rail lost the Guinness/Diagio contract in 2006. The 47'6" wagons appear to have been first used for export container traffic when the IWT liner Trains began running in 2008. There is a thread on 3D printed CIE 42' and 47" flats on Niles RM Web Thread https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/130341-42ft-47ft-container-flat-wagons/ It might be worth contacting Niles to see if he is agreeable to producing the wagons to order using SLA or SLS to achieve a better surface finish than achievable with the Shapeways material.

Bachmann were likely to have designed and manufactured their motors in-house. Micromark sell 12V can motors but you would need to check shaft diameter. https://www.micromark.com/Flat-Can-Motor-Style-2025-12v

That's a long train by Wexford Liner standards! By 83-4 the Liner was down to 4-5 flats attached to the rear of a bagged fertiliser train between North Wall and Shelton Abbey.

Should not be a problem Kevin. I am planning to assemble the test etches for the revised versions of the heating & luggage and luggage vans (and the 52 Class) at some stage this month, all going well I hope to place an order for the production etches after Christmas for delivery during the 1st quarter of 2021 fingers crossed!

Replacement parts for larger scale (On30-to G Scale) has been a significant issue for several years once the original stock of spares sell out. I have use SLA printing for producing prototypes and replacement parts for models, such as gears, handrail brackets and handbrake wheels. While its feasible to achieve a similar finish to plastic injection moulding, considerable skill and experience is required in setting up the 3D (CAD) model for printing and the clean up process cleaning the model and removing the support structure is hazardous and requires a high level of care to avoid damaging the finished model. The brass castings were produced by a local jewellery industry supplier and metal caster, in some cases I have used the original part as a pattern or fabricated a pattern in metal or plasticard. More recently I engaged a freelance 3D modeller to produce the CAD work eliminating the physical pattern making phase and use a locally owned 3D printing house rather to produce the prints. A 3D printing house should be able to provide a 3D modelling service to produce the CAD work or recommend a freelancer.

There is a 1958 Keith Bannister photo of a BUT 900 Class railcar in GNR Blue & Cream with Ulster Transport crests leading a Derry-Belfast train at Strabane in "Irish Railways in Colour" a second glance. The train appears to be made up of 4 power cars, 2 non-powered trailers and what looks like a GNR 4w Bread Van. In addition to the front of the railcar a crest is visible midway along the side of the railcar. Dundalk appears to have completed the BUT railcar assembly programme in October 1958 after the assets of the company were divided between the CIE & UTA https://web.archive.org/web/20191101134727/http://www.irrs.ie/Common Files/GNRB.htm

Interesting the down Sligo? Goods with cuts of tank wagons (& new car deliveries) marshalled in the center of the train in a similar manner to the rules for marshalling steam hauled good trains. The majority of loose coupled goods trains had banking assistance with a C or E Class loco from the North Wall yards to Liffey Junction or Glasnevin Junction & Kingsbridge Goods to Cabra and up the Gullet to Inchacore. Does anyone know if banking assistance was provided to Clondalkin or Clonsilla? There is a photo of a 1930s photo of ex-GSWR 213 Class 0-6-2T banking a southbound goods past Inchacore Works in Donal Murrays GSR Irish Railways Pictorial album. The four members of the 213 Class were introduced in the early 1900s as heavy banking transfer locomotives, two were converted to tender locomotives for slow heavy main line freight work in the Waterford area, the unaltered locos appear to have continued in their original duties as heavy banking transfer locos in the Dublin area until withdrawn in the late 1940s.

Saturday's plans were similar to John Allen's classic "Timesaver" switching puzzle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timesaver I think the basic constraint was that the loop is just long enough to run around two wagons and the siding or industry tracks a loco and two wagons. The Timesaver is basically a board game using model trains as pieces.

I saw a similar move at Longford during the same era when the loco and stock of the evening Connolly-Longford commuter train shunting the evening Longford-North Wall Liner Train. After unloading its passengers the Commuter propelled back along the main line towards Dublin, before running forward into the Gantry Loop and coupling on to the Liner, the loco then pushed and pulled the combined train along the loop until the coaches were positioned in the yard clear of the running lines. The loco then uncoupled from the Commuter and continued to push the Liner along the loop and on to the Main Line until clear of the points at the Sligo end of the station before departing for Dublin. Railway men and women will tray and complete a shunt with the minimum number of moves to both to save time and reduce the amount of walking by staff on the ground.

Many of the rails re-covered from the Sligo line re-lay was 84lb with MGWR 1922 stamped on the web part of an order of Belgian rail ordered to re-lay the system in the early 20s, its possible older C-1900 rail was still in use on the Ballina Branch. The Waterford-Rosslare line still retains some original GSWR bull head rail dating back to the opening of the line in 1906. GSR & CIEs basically got by with careful maintenance and patching after the post WW1 renewals, deferred maintenance from the 70s onwards contributed to a backlog of renewals that contributed to the collapsing infrastructure in the early 1990s. Under the Governments Building on Reality programme no further new investment was planned in the railways apart from completing the Cork Line CTC & MK3 rolling stock programme. Enthusiasts tend to overlook the 1965/66 rebuilding of C233 & 234 with Maybach MD-650 (1200hp) engines, the conversion seems to have been successful with the two Maybach-Metrovicks (which unlike the GM rebuilds regularly worked in multiple with B141/181 Class). The Maybachs regularly worked Dublin-Limerick via Nenagh passenger trains and Dublin-Limerick freights. One of my personal disappointments is that CIE did not top and tail Dublin-Limerick and Dublin-Waterford Supertrains with B201s in a similar manner to the BR Edinburgh-Glasgow Intercity or NIR Enterprise as sort of Irish diy IC75 service.

Track on the IE network got into a really bad state in the early 1990s due to deferred maintenance and the pounding received from heavy locomotives, temporary speed restrictions were imposed on many lines after a system wide safety audit following the Knockcrockery de-railment. The Ballina Branch was one of the worst sections of Network and Ennis-Claremorris was closed to provide material for emergency track repair on the branch and other sections of the Midland. The external auditors were shocked at the state of p.w. on the Midland the 90Lb rails installed by the MGWR & GSR in the 1920s were inadequate for 071 & 201 locos and then current line speeds (60-70mph). On the positive side the derailment and audits forced politicians to sit up and invest in the railways so that they survived another 20 years rather than wither on the vine as intended under the "Building on Reality" policy.

It might be worth contacting the Historical Model Railway Society https://hmrs.org.uk/drawings.html at one stage Richard Chown of Castle Rackrent fame acted as "Irish Steward". A lot of the rolling stock on Castle Rackrent appears to have been built by British builders rather than by Irish companies. Its possible that British builders like Metropolitan Carriage & Wagon, Ashbury etc. built "Cattle Brakes" for the Dublin Wicklow and Wexford Railway in the mid-late 19th Century

According to Irish Metrovick Diesels B201s for a short while B201s worked Dublin-Cork Trains of 6-7 MK 2D coaches in the 1972 timetable. The 13:30 ex Heuston & 17:30 ex Cork were regular B201 hauled Supertrain workings. Following re-building B201s regularly hauled long distance passenger trains in the late 60s early 70s including Heuston-Cork, Limerick and Tralee trains, Connolly Galway and Sligo workings plus some main line freight workings including Dublin-Drogheda bulk and bagged cement (H wagons) trains. Its possible the operating people preferred the B201s to the Yanks and Bo Bos for main line passenger working as they may have been steadier at speed with their Commonwealth bogies than the GMs. After the 1973 "Oil Crisis" CIE dropped its policy of operating light fast frequent trains, CIE returned to its earlier policy of running less frequent heavier trains using 001 Class or pairs of small GMs, though the B201s continued to Drogheda-North Wall cement trains into the late 70s in addition to Dublin inner and outer Suburban duties. I spent a Saturday afternoon watching a procession of B201 hauled bagged and bulk cement trains passing Howth Junction while surveying a site on the then new Baldoyle Industrial Estate in 1978. Hopefully a B201 is on the IRM to do list.

Possibly Industrial Alcohol (methanol) or glucose traffic from a Cemici Teoranta plant. The company products were shipped by rail from Ballina, Derry and Dundalk from plants at Corry Co Mayo, Carndonagh Co Donegal and Cooley County Louth. The location looks like Ballina, I vaguely remember seeing several 10' tank containers during a visit to the station in the mid 1980s The Corroy plant was/is alongside the Ballina branch but no siding was provided Cooley was served by a private siding from the Dundalk-Greenore line.

I think the "Tan" livery which first appeared on the new Van Hool Atlanteans in the late 70s was not exactly well received by the travelling public and local enthusiasts who in plain speaking Dublin fashion described it as s--t. The public seemed to prefer the blue and cream and the Golden Brown or all over tan scheme was replaced with a smart two tone green with the arrival of the Bombardier buses on Dublin City Services in the early 80s.

It looks like a Sulzer hauling a C Class, there was speculation on a earlier thread whether the C had broken down and the B101 had rescued the train. My theory is that the C is being hauled to Dungarvan to shunt the yard and return with a goods to Waterford. Its doubtful a C would have been up to hauling and stopping a heavy goods train on the steeply graded and sharply curved Waterford-Dungarvan section. At the time there was a one daily goods in each direction between Waterford & Mallow and a daily out and back Waterford-Dungarvan Goods.

1361 & 1367 were 64 seat Open Second's introduced in 1953 to run with the AEC railcars. Early (up to 53) are best described as Mk2 Bredins as they used traditional coach building techniques (hardwood timber framing), conventional steel underframes and ran on GSR style bogies. The Open Seconds and Buffet Cars were completely new designs, though the side corridor stock was based on existing 1930s Bredin designs. The end profile of the 1930s Bredin and new CIE built stock was quite different, slightly wider and more upright in profile. To complicate thinks further CIE started using Bulleid Triangulated underframes and Commonwealth bogies under coaches built from late 1953 onwards including 2422. In short CIE built 3 distinctive designs of main line coaching stock in the 1950s there was no such thing as a Standard CIE coach during the 1950s. In the 1950s AEC railcars worked the most prestigious main line passenger services, with steam and later diesel working the (slower) heavier mail and perishable trains. Westland Row-Galway/Westport services were dieselised in 1953? with a single return railcar daily a 4 coach train with 2 power cars and 2-1904 Brake Second Opens (fitted with driving cabs) which divided at Athlone. The train was strengthened to 6 coach the following season with 4 powered cars, an open standard and a buffet. The 4 car set with buffet running to Galway, the 2 car railcar to Athlone, this seems to have been the standard formation for the Cu-na-Mara up to the late 1960s, when the Westport connection operated as a through train to and from Dublin. AEC railcar sets could be made up to 8 coach formations with gangway connections throughout 2 2600 Driving Cars, 2 Powered Intermediates and four coaches, the 8 coachs sets appear to have been used on Kingsbridge-Cork and Tralee express trains. Some of the Powered Intermediates were rebuilt from Inchacore built AEC cars and were slightly higher than other stock, giving these sets an up and down roof profile.

My two most effective and efficient job interviews were approximately a year apart in the Mid-80s when when I worked as an "engineer" manager in construction. I was out scouting around for work possibly trainspotting around Donabate and called into a site where the contractors had recently broke ground. A couple of the workers recognised me and asked if I was looking for work. It turned out the contractor was former client of mine and were looking for someone to run the job, the contracts manager "Dennis" offered me the job straight away, but I was not happy about the rate of pay, I met the big Boss the following day who put me on a bonus but told me not to say anything to Dennis. We had a very enjoyable summer/autumn in Donabate developing a housing subdivision beside the main line (I never brought my camera to work!) pretty much left to our own devices, the economy and construction was going through a tough time the boss closed the business and moved to Atlanta Georgia and I headed for Holyhead! The second interview was on my first day in London in between visits to W & H Models in New Cavendish St. and Victors of Islington, I spotted an add for an engineer with an Irish owned Civil contracting company in the Evening Standard and asked to immediately report for an interview in the companies Wembley Office. I was interviewed for a completely different but better paying role by one of the Directors most likely because they needed someone for that role immediately. The company was very good to work for in terms of pay and conditions, paying a retention bonus to its Irish migrant workers, the downside was the people were locked into particular roles because of very rigid senior management thinking. I ended the day with a job and parts to complete a J15 and a copy of Model Railway Journal.