Mayner

I was a big fan of Tony Koester's Train of Though Column and modelling when I took up American modelling while living in the UK in the late 80s and quite disappointed when he abandoned the Allegheny Midland to model the Nickle Plate in the Mid West in 2000. I was attracted to mountain railroading in the Appalachians and started building a layout and even visited the railway in the area in the late 1990s before experiencing a similar epiphany when I visited family in the mid-West in the early 2000s. Although there had been a lot of rationalisation, similar operating conditions to the 1950s continued to exist in some of the grain growing areas of the Mid West with both Class 1 and Short Line railroads continuing to serve relatively small local industries (Grain Elevators, LPG depots, Ethanol Plants, Flour Mills) Class 1s continued to interchange with Short Lines by setting out and picking up cuts of cars at junctions. TWC (Track Warrant Control) had replace Telegraph and Train Order in Dark Territory full size railroads essentially adapting model railroad practice with the Dispatcher instructing the Engineer directly by 2 way radio rather than through a local Operator or Agent (equivalent to a porter/signalman in Ireland or UK) Although my small scale American modelling has been on the back burner for several years, I have a collection of typical Mid-Western grain elevators and some grain cars if I ever get the urge, time or space to build an American small scale layout. While the sheer scale of an American Basement empire is out of reach of many modellers some of the design principals for a prairie railroad the use of backscenes and narrow baseboards between linking sections are equally applicable in an Irish context particularly for modelling a the MGWR & GSWR lines that cross the Central Plain and Bog of Allen. The American style operating layout with formal operating sessions with multiple operators was once common in the UK and Ireland, with layouts like Sam Carse's Donegal, Drew Donaldson's CIE layout and Norman Eagles Sherwood Section of the LMS, now appear to be very rare with fewer people apparently having space for a large layout and the focus on building exhibition layouts.

Some really inspiring Irish Narrow Gauge modelling https://get.google.com/albumarchive/112461785190797901174/album/AF1QipOlcL7V3TY1kIN0Paiy7bNdnSZH5qarJor-vWNj. an excellent resource and source of encouragement. George Hannan modelled the Irish narrow gauge in both 5.5 and 4mm scale and the Welsh Narrow gauge in 009. Most of his locos appear to have had scratch built mechanisms. There was an article on his Killybegs layout in the Railway Modeller during the early 1960s. He showed me scratchbuilt 4mm models of a T&D Hunslet Tank and some of his Welsh narrow gauge models (complete with outside frames and cranks) during visits to his Malahide Art and Model shop during the late 1970s. He also built a OO9 layout with very realistic North Wales scenery, buildings and structures, probably one of the best of the "rabbit layout" genre of the 60s and 70s

Have you thought of using 5.5mm Scale on OO track rather than OOn3 for modelling the Irish 3' gauge? This scale gauge combination was used by Sam Carse in his Donegal Railway layout and by other modellers for modelling the Irish 3' before TT gauge was introduced in the 60s. 5.5mm has the advantage that you would be able to use reasonably in-expensive and reliable Hornby 0-4-0, 0-6-0, wagon chassis and bogies in your models, while developing the skill and experience to assemble a loco with outside cylinders, cranks and valve gear, you already seem to have cracked it in terms of 3D modelling.

There is a real danger of achieving very little by over estimating the difficulties (paralysis by analysis) as opposed to practical experimentation. Before the days of Murphy Models Bo Bos I simply assembled and mounted MIR 121 & 141 Class locos on re-gauged Athearn blue box SW1500 chassis having pushed out the stock Athearn wheels to run on 21mm gauge. Its simple enough to re-gauge the Murphy models diesels by fitting the existing wheels and gears to 26X2mm plain ended axles or ordering 21mm gauge wheelsets from Ultrascale if you work to EMF or S4 standards(expensive but worth the wait). 21mm steam locos are not for the novice loco builder or basher. My Ruston DS88 (Impetus kit) was originally built to OO and later re-gauged to 21mm by replacing the axles, I need to replace the wheels some day as they are S Scale wagon wheels. My first successful 21mm gauge coaches used fairly crude conversions of Hornby and Lima bogies, I made extended axles by cutting and sleeving standard 26mm OO gauge axles. Although the conversion was crude these bogies ran smoothly and regularly operated on the MRSI Loughrea layout. Converting rtr freight stock was not an issue as nothing suitable was available before IRM came on the scene all my (30+) wagons were assembled from kits or scratch built. Wagons such as the Parkside BR Plywood van or Airfix/Dapol tank wagon were converted to Irish wagons by modifying the bodies and moving out the solebars and fitting wheels with extended axles. Hand laid track with copper clad sleepers is a inexpensive and reasonably fast way of laying track and a lot easier to ballast than Peco, hand laid track with rail spiked to strip wood sleepers is popular in the United States and used on many of the Basement Empire Layouts such as Tony Kosters "Allegheny Midland". Most of the Irish Broad gauge (7 & 4mm) exhibition layouts were club or group efforts with the notable exception of David and Andy on this board. Loughrea and Belturbet were both club layouts while both while Tony Miles Adavoyle layouts and Richard Chowns Castlerackrent were very much group efforts. Tony both developed his own finescale 4mm standard and pioneered 21mm gauge modelling, Richard Chown pioneered Irish Broad Gauge modelling in 7mm and Castle Rackrent developed into a large modular system layout with several stations. The choice between OO and 21mm gauge or rtr and kit/scratchbuilding basically comes down to how you prefer to spend your modelling time, type of layout and available space. If you want to get something up and running quickly or build a large complex layout OO is the obvious choice, 21mm is more appealing to people who prefer to spend their time building layouts and models. The type of layout and space largely determines the track and wheel standard as a 21mm continuous run layout built to EMF standards (wheel and running clearances) will occupy a larger space than an equivalent OO gauge layout. A 21mm continuous run layout to S4 standards will occupy a larger space than an equivalent layout built to EMF standards. It will probably be necessary to reduce the gauge below 21mm if OO gauge wheel and running clearances are adapted to allow similar minimum radius curves to OO gauge.

There is insufficient interest to proceed with the signal box kit within the £45-50 price range. If anyone is interested we can supply the signal box to order direct from York Model Making at £75 including postage. The kits are laser cut from 1.2mm MDF and Rowmark plastic parts and include York Modelmaking slates and ridge tile sheets. The corners of the MDF brick panels will need to be mitred.

Listing a building without assisting its restoration/maintenance can impose an unreasonable burden on the owner or occupier. One of the best examples was the designation of the East Broad Top Railroad in Pennsylvania as a National Monument in 1964 deprived the owners (a scrap metal company) of an income from scrapping/disposing of the line until 2020 when a not for profit foundation bought the railroad and its assets.

A 1970-80s Irish construction collection 3 axle Hino mixer, tipper and block truck with Hiab Grab, possibly a generic chassis and body with the option of Hino, Ford D or even Volvo cabs. One Roadstone owner driver in the late 70s invested in a Volvo for hauling stone from Belgard & De Selby while his colleagues bought Ford and Hino Roadstone operated all three types nationwide, Readymix concrete and blocks plus regional companies and a lot of unbranded owner driver tippers hauling for the major suppliers, earthmoving contractors and on their own account. Irish concrete mixer trucks were usually fitted with higher capacity bottles than similar vehicles in the UK, similarly tipper trucks were fitted with high capacity bodies (Thompson Carlow?) which were quite different in design and appearance to the UK.

There is an extract from a 1960s Railway Modeller article on the A Class in the archives section of this board. It might be worth while contacting Iarnrod Eireann or the IRRS to check whether copies of the original Metropolitan Vickers drawings & details of CIE modifications are available.

It looks like the loco may have been supplied with a set of plain driving wheels and outside cranks intended for a GWR outside frame 4-4-0. There is a 4880G 6'8" spoke outside crank driving wheel listed in the Alan Gibson catalog with are used with the 5000 outside cranks and extended axle. The driving wheels listed OC are for outside framed locos, the outside cranks and extended axles are supplied as a separate part

The realities of operating a heritage railway in 2021 It looks like the company that operates the 8 mile long Llangollen Railway had to cease trading and call in the administrators https://www.leaderlive.co.uk/news/19235853.llangollen-railway-administrators-advanced-negotiations-potential-buyer/

"White Engine" dismantled for cleaning and painting showing brake gear sub assemblies. Next job was to sort out the parts for the other 2-3? members of the class. I originally bought two J15 kits in 2007-8 complete with wheels gears and motors as it seemed to be a good idea at the time, then designed a set of frames for a superheated loco. The idea was to scrap the chassis from my original 1986 J15 193 and re-use 193s wheels in one of the new chassis, somehow or other I ended up with an additional pair of 21mm gauge wheelsets that I have no recollection of buying or setting up for 21mm gauge, fitting crankpins and painting!. I seem to have used one of the motors to motorise a J16, but luckily enough did not loose any of the gearbox parts, coupling rods or bearings since I assembled the chassis 3 years ago. The Alan Gibson wheels have plastic (nylon?) centers which are a push fit on 1/8" dia axles, in this case the 21mm gauge axles were cut slightly over length from 1/8" silver steel and finished in the Unimat. Next job will be to assemble the brake gear, I will probably make up a jig for assembling the pull rods and stretcher bars to achieve greater consistency than assembling the gear on the individual chassis. The main hurdle to completing the locos at this stage is difficulty in obtaining suitable motors as one of the main Uk suppliers is furloughed as a result of Covid restrictions.

Interesting Bell labeled Seddon Atkinson Tug unit and drawbar trailer combination presumably used for traffic between Tee Port and ICI Wilton, good example of the scale and nature of Bell's UK operations. Bell Containers used to show up regularly at Willesden Freight Liner Terminal after the opening of the Channel presumably transporting traffic between the Uk & Continental Europe

A high proportion of the UK small supplier sales are through the large UK exhibitions, specialist societies and advertising in model railway magazines rather than impulse buying on the internet. Its likely that Alphagraphics and other specialist O Gauge suppliers are catering to a demographic group who prefer and are prepared to pay for a printed catalogue that also acts as a reference than look something up on the web. The main challenge for these suppliers at the moment is keeping up with demand as more people are turning to modelling as a result of Covid restrictions in the UK.

A bit more work on the "White Engine" mainly completing detailing and fitting the loco tender drawbar. I thought I had mislaid the smokebox door and ended up fitting one of my own GSR style doors complete with hand wheel before finding the original in the scrap box, one of the next big jobs (after painting) is finding the bufferheads and fitting the front 3 link coupling . I used some suitable riveted strapping from the scrap box to represent the riveted strip between cab side and running board a distinctive feature of these locos, the original strapping was still in place on the fireman's side. Although its difficult to see I fabricated and fitted the loco-tender drawbar from an offcut of PCB sleeper strip. The cab interior involved some skulldugery. The splasher tops/seats are part of the original model, the backhead from another J 15 kit and the cab floor from a MGWR 2-4-0. I used a piece of scrap brass to replace the section of firebox that had been cut away/removed during the assembly of the original model. Next stage will be to dismantle the loco and tender to its component sub assemblies to prepare for painting. Interestingly I 'found" another Mashima 10X20 motor in the J 15 parts box to complete the assembly of the "Coey" J15 .

Its probably best to contact N-Drive Productions directly about their plans for the Backwoods Miniatures CDR & Irish 3' gauge models. The kits were designed in the early 90s and some re-design and new tooling may be required as some of the parts used to motorise the models (wheels, gears and motors) may no longer be available. While the standard of the castings and etched parts was quite good with parts fitting accurately using slot and tab construction, the locos and railcars were challenging to motorise mainly because few suitable components were available for OO9 and 12mm Gauge which my no longer be an issue if N-Drive develop suitable 12mm chassis. I have no direct experience of assembling a Backwoods Miniatures CDR loco, but I assembled one of the CDR articulated railcars, a pair of C&L 4-4-0T and several C&L wagons. The railcar was a smooth and reliable runner while I both C&L 4-4-0Ts required considerable work including new gearboxes and bogie modification to achieve reliable running.

On a more prosaic scale the Irish Government chartered a train to transport milk powder from Cork to Dublin when Dublin was "cut off" from the rest of the country by a blizzard during the early 80s. The main roads to the South and West were blocked by a blizzard and heavy snowfall in January 81 or 82 though CIE managed to keep the Cork line open. There was almost panic buying of food in Dublin with supplies from the rest of the country cut off. The milk powder appears to have been transported in two parcel vans rather than a Liner, things got back to normal within a week as roads were cleared/snow melted.

Just to clarify the CE 4W Heating & Luggage, 4w Luggage & 4W PO Van/Tool Van will be supplied as complete kits except for adhesive/solder, paint and couplings. There is a 1984 photo of a 4w tool van at the rear of a Southbound track relaying train near Ballybrophy in Barry Carse's Irish Metrovick Book, interestingly the train is hauled by a double headed (2 drivers) pair of B201 Class locos.

Continuing on with the loco and tender brake gear assembly. The phosphor bronze wire through the hornboxes is to temproarily secure the bearings and wheel sets in position while I am testing the chassis for free running and fitting the brake gear. I set up the brake gear by first threading the inner brake pullrods onto the 0.45mm wire stretcher bars. I soldered the pullrods to the hangers before soldering the inner pullrods in place. I used card packers to make sure that there was adequate running clearance between the outer pullrods and the wheels in order to avoid a short. The inner pullrods should be closer to the wheels, I find it easier to line up the inner pull rods with the main frames useful when using OO/EMF wheel standards and running clearances. Completed brake gear, showing the misaligned pull rod on the leading driving axle which will need attention before painting and final assembly. The tender brake gear is similar but with a different brake hanger arrangement. The chassis was assembled by the original builder and incorporates the original machined brass frame spacers, I replaced the original S4 wheels and bearings and painted the chassis after I bought the loco about 20 years ago. The first job in the current re-build was to drill/clean out the pin holes for the brake pivot rods and spacers, I began using short pieces of small dia brass tube for setting up brake gear on brass kits during the 1990s and assembling the brake gear as a removable sub assembly. I used to cut the tube to length using a crude jig, but picked up a cutting jig from a visiting Australian model makers tool supplier which makes things a lot simpler. I bought a similar tool from Micromark in the US which was not really suitable for small scale modelling. The GSWR tender brake hanger arrangement is reasonably conventional, I used my usual assembly set up using a short piece of 0.45mm wire drilled into a piece of hardwood bolted to the workbench. Tender brake gear sub assemblies. I dropped a clanger on setting up the pullrods as they fouled on the wheel bearings and was unable to fit them outside the tender main frames. This turned out simple enough to amend in situ by lining up one of the pullrods with the inside of the frame on one side and gradually moving the opposite rod over by heating with the soldering iron. I fitted the outside rods again using card as packing pieces while soldering then trimmed the ends of the stretcher bars . Loco and tender with break gear fitted, the next major jobs are completing the cab interior, fabricating a loco tender drawbar, setting up a power connection between the loco and tender and general tidy up and complete loco detailing

It almost looks like the RPSI managed to save a short GN branch line and some suitable stock during the early 60s possibly with the help of the mill owners deep pockets and valuable linen traffic. Some of the U Class 4-4-0s survived possibly in blue until the Belfast Central line was severed in the mid 1960s, the U and UG classes were used for working excursions from the GN system to Bangor.

A bit more progress on the "White Engine" I haven't decided on a number at this stage, though I will probably pick one of the saturated locos that was based at Tuam or Limerick that worked over the Burma Road. The mystery of the driving wheels sorted it self out when I found another set of Sharman driving wheels in the J15 bits and pieces box that matched the leading and driving wheelset in the photo in the last post. There must be a matching set somewhere for the wheels for the training axle. I fitted new matching hornblock bearings to all three axles, the bearings required minor fettling to slide up and down in the leading and center hornblocks the trailing axle is rigid with the bearings a push fit into the hornblocks. The compensation beam assembly and main frames and ashpan sides are the only remaining parts from the original chassis. I set the wheels up using a GW Wheelpress which also quarters the wheels on the axles and ran into a problem with the trailing and driving wheel set binding when I fitted the coupling rods. I swapped the rods with a set from another J15 and the problem disappeared, I set up the hornblocks on 3 J15 chassis at the same time and may have got the roads mixed up. I test fitted the body and completed some of the finer detail at this stage before tackling the brake gear and tender chassis. The wheels revolved without binding when I pushed the loco along the workbench and all 6 wheels were sitting on the workbench a very good sign! I fitted the cab spectacle plates and replaced the sandbox operating rod on the drivers side, but still need to fit lampirons and do something about the riveted strip between cab and footplate. The cab interior needs a lot of work the original builder cut off the section of firebox that projects into the cab, though luckily enough I have a spare cab backplate. I produced a set of etched J15 brake gear parts, the brake gear from the original kit was missing and its difficult to drill and fold the nickel silver brake gear parts from the SSM kit. The replacement brake gear parts are basically a 'blown up' brass version of the SSM brake gear. First challenge was to test the concept by assembling a driving brake hanger and shoe using an 0.5mm drill bit as its not practicable to etch an 0.5mm dia hole in o.4mm brass. Hanger & brake shoes drilled and pivots folded. Soldering the brake shoes to the hangers is extremely challenging without some form of jig or fixture. I threaded a piece of 0.45mm mire through the holes in the brake hanger and soldered at on end, leaving the other end free Crude but it does the job, I fixed a short piece of strip wood to a block of balsa as a stop, then pinned the brake hanger to the balsa with a short piece of 0.45 brass wire, then threaded the brake shoe in position before soldering. Assembled brake shoe and hanger before removing the ends of the pins and cleaning up. Brake show and hanger fitted to a Superheated a Chassis

The 001 Class appear to have been regularly rostered on Connolly-Rosslare services during early 1990s, travelled behind on in a MK2D set between Rosslare Harbour and Connolly in July 93. The 001 Class continued to be rostered on some of the lighter Intercity diagrams including a Heuston-Waterford diagram after the 071s & pairs of Bo Bos took over the heavier Intercity diagrams in the late 1970s

The marker lamps on Irish and British freight trains are really a hangover from the days of Block Signaling and loose coupled goods operation to indicate to the signal man that a goods train was complete and hadn't divided in section. American and Australasian railroads/railways use a radio end of train device (ETD) that allows the engineer/driver monitor the braking system and ensure the train is complete, some but not all EDTs incorporated a flashing tail light. Locally we had an interesting incident about 15 years ago when an overnight freight train on the Auckland-Wellington Main Trunk line divided as a result of a defective wagon coupling. The Locomotive Engineer (officially we don't use the term driver) stopped his train in response to a sudden drop in pressure walked back to what he thought was the end of the train and closed the valve on the brake hose thinking the EDT had dropped off, before reporting the issue and continuing his journey. Train Control in Wellington 480km (300miles) away became concerned when the track circuits continued to show the section occupied and alerted the engineer of a following train by radio who then found the remainder of the first train complete with EDT in his path.

The thread originated around the feasibility of a Silver Fox style locomotive kit on a rtr donor chassis rather than a rtr steam engine. The main challenge facing a would be kit or rtr manufacturer of an Irish steam loco is the absence of readily available suitable generic rtr chassis like the old Tri-ang 0-6-0, L1 and B12 Chassis. It will be interesting to see whether OO Works will produce further Irish locos. While the OO Works J15 at £290 appears expensive compared to prices paid for similar Bachmann and Hornby models OO Works batch production costs are a lot higher and sales volumes infinitesimal compared to the larger companies and the 100 or so J15s produced would not have made much of a return for a year spent designing manufacturing and assembling the locomotives. OO Works appear to have sold approx. 100 each of the three Irish tender types and piggy-backed the CBSCR locos on the larger sales of the Beattie 0330 Saddle Tank which was available in main line, Colonel Stephens and Industrial variations. Interesting next seasons loco the LSWR Adams Jubilee is starting at a higher price point of £315 in LSWR or SR green and £298 in SR unlined black. I guess the questions boils down to the number of modellers would be prepared to pay £315+ for a rtr GNR S in Lined Blue or an NCC Castle in lined Crimson Lake livery or £300 for a large GSR 321 or 333 Class 4-4-0 in unlined GSR/CIE Grey or approx £100 less for a kit.

The GSR 820 Class 4-6-2T proposal with its medium power output larger bunker capacity seems ideal for the RPSIs profitable short haul work, otherwise a second WT would be a no-brainer. Going back to the original question the contemporary absence of a readily available rtr chassis like the Triang/Triang 0-6-0, 4-4-0 and B12 4-6-0 chassis is probably the greatest barrier to producing a OO gauge body-line kit for an Irish Steam loco. Most of the whitemetal steam locomotive kits produced by Bec, Gem and Wills were originally designed to fit contemporary Triang and Hornby classis. GEM and Wills began producing chassis for locos when no suitable rtr chassis was available. Wills re-tooled many of their kits including more accurate brass chassis in response to changing modeller expectations around detail and accuracy following the developed of etched and composite kits in the 80s. While the Bachmann Jinty, 3F and 4F were fairly close in wheelbase to the large GSWR J4 and J9 0-6-0 Classes obtaining a loco or chassis may be challenging as Bachmann appear to have discontinued the models, though the Bachmann LNER J72 appears similar in size to the ex-MGWR J26 tank locos but how many modellers would be prepared to pay over £100 for a donor loco/chassis plus up to £70-80 for an unpainted 3d printed body.