Mayner

You should have seen them before we caught up on the deferred maintenance . https://nzhistory.govt.nz/media/photo/makatote-viaduct. American style timber and steel trestles look spindly compared to British & Irish practice, but tend to be stronger structurally and have better earthquake resistance compared to a similar stone or brick structure. Timber piled construction is quite common for civil construction in America and Australasia, the main reason for replacing timber piles with concrete on the railway is to reduce long term maintenance cost rather than address any specific structural problems.

Tongariro, Ngauruhoe (Mount Doom & Ruapehu (l-r the three active volcanoes in the Tongariro National Park) viewed from National Park . the conditions in the Rangipo Desert on the opposite (eastern ) side of the mountains was quote different with cloud cover later inthe afternoon. Pair of EF (30) Class electric locomotives hauling a North bound freight about 10 years ago. Despite 3 changes of ownership the locos are still running in NZR "Fruit Salad" paint scheme of the 1980s The central section of the NIMT was electrified in the late 1980s both to reduce dependence on imported oil and allow heavier fright trains to be operated at a higher speed than with current diesel traction. The Bo-Bo-Bo 4000hp electric locomotives were supplied by Brush Traction and similar in design to the Channel Tunnel Shuttle Locos EF 30249 recently re-painted in the Kiwirail paint scheme c 2010. Until recently the majority of the class has continued to soldier (in increasingly decrepit appearance) on in the original livery until thy become due for major overhaul/rust treatment. The Government has recently approved programme (principally an upgrade of the control system) to extend the life of the class a further 10 years. Double headed steam special descending from the volcanic plateau through typical Central North Island hill country near Taumaranui. DCP4692 heads the northbound Overlander across a typical timber piled bridge in the Ongarue Valley on a summer atSurday afternoon shortly before the Government bought out the main line rail freight and passenger operator Toll Rail in 2008. The daily Overlander has been replaced by the tree-times weekly Northern Explorer and the timber bridges replaced by steel and concrete structures. While Tranz Rail appeared to operate reasonably successfully under Wisconsin Central management following privitisation, both in terms of profitability and significantly increasing passenger and freight traffic, this was largely at the expense of deferring maintenance and renewals of locos stock and infrastructure and an element of asset stripping to pay dividends. Tranz Rail effectively reached breaking point around 2002 with Toll (an Australian Logistics Company) buying out the operating company and the Government taking over responsibility for infrastructure. The Government bought out Toll's railway operations in 2008 for approximately twice the sum sum realized from the privatisation of the railway system approx 15 years earlier. The Overlander crossing Waiteki Viaduct the most northerly and oldest of the high viaducts on the Main Trunk. The day was hot and sunny and Overlander was running a reduced speed (45Km) due to the risk of buckled continuous welded rail arising from deferred maintenance. The structure was originally erected in the 1880s with 4 wrought iron lattice spans on 3 wrought iron towers with concrete end abutments. The structure was strengthened to accept the higher axle loads with the K Class 4-8-4 locomotives introduced in the 1930s and the viaduct is currently undergoing a major upgrade https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/108196608/new-life-for-129yearold-old-rail-bridge-on-nzs-main-trunk-l

I had most of today free so I "went walkabout" to see the snow and hopefully some trains on the central section of the North Island Main Trunk Line across the Volcanic Plateau. Original and replica Climax geared loco cabs outside an engineering workshop in Te Kuiti. Climax was the preferred type of geared "lokie" used on logging lines (Bush Tramways) in the area with a number of locos surviving into preservation. The Northern Explorer(Dora)climbs into the hill country above Te Kuiti. The loco is basically the NZ equivalent of the IE 071 Class, the coaches are based on Swiss RHb metre gauge stock. The Northern Explorer is pitched at the tourist market, operates without public subsidy and is quite profitable. High on the plateau Dora crosses Matatote Viaduct the largest of the steel viaducts on this section of the line. The structure was recently renovated and re-painted after 20+ years of deferred maintenance. Horipito Motors (Smash Palace) the largest and only vintage car dismantlers in Australasia a local institution. https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/smash_palace Originally built a sawmill Bill Cole and his family set up a car dismantling business when the native bush was logged out over 6o years ago Ruapehu from Horopito Road A tripple headed diesel hauled northbound freight crosses Matatote. In 2016 Kiwirail announced that it was intended to discontinue electric traction over the 255 mile central section of the Trunk this decision was reversed following a change of government in 2018 and its intended to refurbish 15 EL BoBoBo electric locomotives for use on the trunk. I had intended to follow the Northbound but ended up chasing a southbound through to Waiouru the highest station on the trunk and go home via Taupo Horopito again Smash Palace in background. Twisty narrow gauge alignment! 9158 crests the grade into Waiouru Ruapehu partially covered in cloud, the track on the left is the headshunt, loop points fitted with heaters to deal with frost. Waiouru is a classic photo location for southbound trains. Train was made up of 30 bogie wagons loaded mainly with 20' ISO tank containers and 20' Curtain sided containers for Logistics traffic

Interesting the wooden bodied coal wagons in the background, possibly ex-East Downshire Steam Ship Company, the quay line was served by a connection off the Greenore line that appears to have continued in use into the 1960s Dundalk Harbour Commissioners bought the East Downshire fleet of coal wagons following the closure of the Belfast and County Down main line, apparently a GNR(I) 4-4-0 ran light over the Newcastle-Dundrum section of the line to recover the wagons. https://hmrs.org.uk/photographs/east-downshire-steam-ship-dundrum-8t-coal-wagon-no-8-5-apos-3-gauge-built-by-s-j-claye-ca1875.html.

Its well worth while checking out older editions (1916-1960) of the Railway Magazine(in transport bookshops and the larger model railway exhibitions in the UK) July was the traditional month for articles and photos of Irish Railways.

Bridge strike protection beams are commonly used in Australia& New Zealand to protect both railway and road bridges. https://www.nzta.govt.nz/media-releases/penrose-bridge-over-sh1-is-strengthened-against-vehicle-strikes/ In New Zealand the overbridge (road or rail) owner is responsible for providing and maintaining the physical protection and the road transport authority or council responsible for signage, traffic management and influencing driver behaviour. The strike protection beams seem to have been a reasonably cost effective way of protecting rail overbridges and avoiding rail traffic disruption. https://www.queenslandrail.com.au/bridge-strike-protection

One of the challenges in designing kits/models of the smaller long lived GSR/CIE locomotives is capturing the many variations between individual members of a class that arose following the Amalgamation. My kit of the GSR/CIE 650 class covered 5 different variations of the class but excluded the locos in their original and superheated state with Attock-flyaway cab and the Y Boiler version with Belpair firebox. I am building a Y boilered version of the class as a commission & it was simpler to produce a new version of the kit than scratchbuild a new boiler firebox and smokebox and new spectacle plate. I expect the Y Boilered version of the loco to be available to order from September 2019 for $250 NZ + $20 shipping please P.M. if interested The Belpair boiler and heavily riveted smokebox of the Y boilered version gives the loco a more massive appearance compared to the locos with round topped fireboxes although boiler diameter and overall length of boiler,firebox and smokebox are the same for the two varieties.

. I like the idea of a diorama we can expect the buildings and structures to be to a similar standard to you GNR (I) signal box and waiting shelter. Are you planning to complete the model in 3mm or 4mm scale? Brian McCann modeled the County Donegal in 3mm on 9mm track, Worsley Works produce suitable coach sides for the Ballycastle in NCC days, though the Compound Tank locomotives used on the Antrim narrow gauge would be a challenging model in either scale.

The Deutz is a reasonably straight forward build, the main advantage of the Worsley Works kit is that you can fit the loco with a motor and 2 stage gearbox with better slow speed performance than the Spud motor bogie supplied with the Silver Fox rtr loco. http://www.worsleyworks.co.uk/Image-Pages/Image_4mm_Deutz-2.htm https://newirishlines.org/2009/09/23/building-a-worsley-works-cie-g-class/

Interesting maintaining a "Train Register" for a model railway, I wonder did he worked as a signal man before he took up driving? A fair proportion of professional railway men/women are enthusiasts active in both railway modelling and in the preservation movement.

The Directive basically forces the Government to open up domestic rail passenger services within the Republic to competitive tendering. https://www.nationaltransport.ie/public-transport-services/public-service-obligation-contracts/ The Government have been preparing to open up rail services to competitive tendering for several years, with IE operating as a "shadow franchise" operating passenger services under a PSO contract for the NTA as regulator. The next logical step would be to transfer the railways to NTA ownership (in a similar manner to LUAS) and split IE into separate operating and infrastructure companies. Interestingly both Greece and Ireland have been more than happy to accept EU money to upgrade their railway systems, but are reluctant to play by the rules in implementing EU rail directives. While I see little point in squeezing rail workers wages and conditions in order to export profits overseas, DB, Transdev or even an IE management buy-out would probably result in an improved level of service and value for money in terms of public subsidy that the current set up "4th Rail Package The market pillar will complete the process of gradual market opening started with the 1st railway package. It establishes the general right for railway undertakings established in one Member State to operate all types of passenger services everywhere in the EU, lays down rules aimed at improving impartiality in the governance of railway infrastructure and preventing discrimination and introduces the principle of mandatory tendering for public service contracts in rail. Competition in rail passenger service markets will encourage railway operators to become more responsive to customer needs, improve the quality of their services and their cost-effectiveness. The competitive tendering of public service contracts will enable savings of public money. The market pillar is expected to deliver more choice and better quality of rail services for European citizens, these being the overriding objectives. The technical pillar is designed to boost the competitiveness of the railway sector by significantly reducing costs and administrative burden for railway undertakings wishing to operate across Europe. In particular, it will save firms from having to file costly multiple applications in the case of operations beyond one single Member State. ERA will issue vehicle authorizations for placing on the market and safety certificates for railway undertakings, valid throughout the EU. So far, railway undertakings and manufacturers needed to be certified separately by each relevant national safety authority. create a "One stop shop" which will act as a single entry point for all such applications, using easy, transparent and consistent procedures. ensure that European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS) equipment is interoperable. reduce the large number of remaining national rules, which create a risk of insufficient transparency and disguised discrimination of new operators."

Inchacore Works 1994-5? BREL International Coaches on temporary B4 bogies awaiting conversion into the Cu na Mara set for the Galway Line. A section of the carriage shops(Lifting Shop?) was destroyed in a fire in the early 1990s and re-built into a Crystal Palace style structure. MK3 Push pull driving car mock up between coaches and freight bogies. The photo of the flat wagon with the trailer is interesting. The trailer looks odd to modern eyes with what appear to be solid tyres and the axle under the center line of the body. GSR road vehicles appear to have been reasonably up to date with pneumatic tyres and high ground clearance for Irish roads by the 1930s. The railways experimented with road-rail vehicles & roll on roll off swap bodies in the 1930s. The NCC experimented in the 1930s with a roll-on-roll-off system for transferring containers between road and rail rather than a crane, the County Donegal introduced a small number of "Tranship Wagons" with swap bodies in the early 1900s where a narrow gauge wagon body could be transferred onto a broad gauge underframe using a system of rollers. The Tranship wagons appear to have been mainly used for bulk traffic such as stone and coal, containers were later used for through traffic under customs bond through Northern Ireland between Donegal and other the rest of the Republic. There is a photo of a passenger train in early CIE/Late GSR days arriving or departing from Limerick Junction with a road-rail tanker (similar to those used in the UK https://www.igg.org.uk/rail/11-kitba/rrtank.htm) on a Carriage Truck coupled between the loco & the 1st of the coaches. Carriage Trucks were basically low sided flat cars designed to carry road vehicles that could run at passenger train speed, most stations had a dock for loading/unloading road vehicles off flat wagons and carriage trucks, new cars, tractors and agricultural machinery were delivered by rail to local stations up to the mid 1970s.

The Bell Ships were surprisingly small by modern standards.

You could try snail mail "Chief Mechanical Engineers Office" Inchacore Works Dublin 8 or alternatively forward an e-mail enquiry through General Enquiries on the main web site. The CMEs Office used to be helpful in responding to requests for information from enthusiasts, but I haven't had replies to letters/e-mail in recent years.

Days are starting to get longer towards the end of Matariki with snow drops and daffodils starting to bloom. We ran our second group operating session early in July with the end of leaf fall. Two train crews and a few lookers good sunny winters day kept us busy operating for 3 hrs though we started to run out of daylight while we were returning the trains to storage! This area is shaded for most of the year with a brief window of sunlight in late afternoon during winter time but well worth the wait. The train is a mixed freight returning to storage, the gondolas (opens) in the backrgound will be picked up by a clean up run. 463 with a stock train, this is close to the maximum load for this loco on the 4% grade to the shed. A couple of weeks later 348 arrives at Arboles with a mixed freight (I planted tres arboles 3-4 years ago but they take time to become established). The track was laid on re-cycled ballast (fied with concrete bonding agent) on pond liner on 18mm treated ply and the moss takes over during the cooler, damper months (most of the year!) The train is a positioning run to deliver cars to this yard before I run the sequence. The caboose waits on the main line while the loco positions the cars on the siding (loop). Grading and tracklaying finally started on the Utah Extension extending the tail of the wye track. Not sure if it will go much further like a lot of planned extensions, but its already added another useful source of traffic and greatly simplifies reversing complete trains without a lot of time consuming switching.

Its looking well Patrick, have you implemented a car routing system? I am experimenting with JMRI Operations Pro which works well in large scale as its easy to read the car numbers and running one or two way freight/pick up goods dropping off or picking up one or two cars at wayside stations/yards can keep an operating crew occupied for a long time without the need for two much stock & tends to be more interesting than fixed formation passenger/freight trains.

I use an ancient Unimat SL for turning /milling the frame profile and drilling the chassis for my T&D railcar, I used a cheap 100watt soldering iron for soldering up the frames once I was satisfied that everything was square and bolted together, the vertical drill set up is basically the standard for pilot drilling for coupling rod and axle centers. Milling frame blanks Vertical drill drilling out holes in center of frame spacers Finished components waiting assembly. Not bad for a 1st attempt at profile milling.

Guy Williams book "The 4mm Engine a scratchbuilders guide" https://www.abebooks.com/9780906867709/4mm-Engine-Scratchbuilders-Guide-Richard-0906867703/plp or John Ahearn's Miniature Locomotive construction https://www.abebooks.co.uk/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=30343477715&searchurl=an%3Djohn%2Bahern%26sortby%3D20%26tn%3Dminiature%2Blocomotive%2Bconstruction&cm_sp=snippet-_-srp1-_-title2 are probably a better general introduction to scratchbuilding locos in the larger scales, than Iain Rice's work which is more suitable for 4mm fine scale work. Guy William's was a highly respected model locomotive builder who built many of the locomotives that regularly operate in the Pendon model railway museum in Oxfordshire and John Ahearn basically pioneered 4mm scenic modelling with the Madder Valley Railway which included a large number of scratchbuilt standard and narrow gauge locos that operated on OO gauge track the layout was restored and also operated at the Pendon museum. https://pendonmuseum.com/

Spent a very enjoyable week in Colorado in 2016 for me the highlights was not quite getting caught in a snow storm at Trout Lake water tower and trestle while tracing the remains of the Rio Grande Southern between Telluride and Lizard Head Pass. Daughter mainly interested in Thomas & Friends set ups at every museums & railroad depot we visited. Holiday worked out mighty expensive when I replace nearly all my LGB & Bachmann stuff with 1:20.3 after seeing the sheer mass of full size American narrow gauge equipment

I bought S&S No 4 Erin from a modeller in the UK (forgotten his name) who built several Irish Narrow gauge locos in plasticard on rtr chassisand was moving up to standard gauge on 2"½" gauge! Erin is very sturdily built in 1-2mm plasticard with no sign of warping or distortion, only bought parts very old LGB 0-4-0 chassis bogie wheels vacuum pipes and possibly dome!

I used to paint CIE coaches black and tan on one side and green on the other to span two eras, gone back to painting both sides the same these days.

Studio Scale Models produce a 10mm scale kit of a Tralee & Dingle Kerr Stewart 2-6-0T most likely to run on O Gauge track. The kit was originally designed and produced by Adrian Rowland. Worsley Worksmight blow-up some of their T&D scratchbuilder parts to 10mm if you ask. 15mm Scale (bigger still) is widley used for models of 3' gauge stock on 45mm (gauge 1) track outdoors the rtr stuff is expensive https://www.track-shack.com/acatalog/Accucraft-S20-9G-IOM-Mona-2-4-0T-Lined-Ailsa-Green-live-steam-locomotive-Accucraft-S20-9G.html I have a "near enough" plasticard scratchbuilt model of a Schull & Skibereen 4-4-0T on a Playmobile/LGB 0-4-0 chassis which would have been reasonably inexpensive and satisfying/straightforward to build. There is also an inexpensive IP Engineering http://www.ipengineering.co.uk/page26.html 16mm laser cut ply and card kit of the T&D inspection railcar

Colin GSR diagrams (outline only very little detail) of C&M locos were published a recent edition of New Irish Lines. I can scan a copy of the diagrams if its of help. Apparently the authors have been unable to locate a diagram of the original locos as rebuilt into 4-4-0Ts or the C&L 4-4-0Ts

There is a 1969 photo of a Cabra-Listowel horsebox special at Newcastle West in Rails Through North Kerry. The train was hauled by B160 and was made up of 15 "Pacos" (horseboxes) with a tin van at each end.