Mayner

There have been a number of significant de-railments in the UK and Ireland where passenger trains ran into cattle and other livestock on the track. While CIE GM locos and Push-pull driving trailers were fitted with pilots or cow catchers from their introduction, the absence of a pilot or "object deflector" on a push pull driving trainer contributed to the fatal 1984 Polmont accident in the UK https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pilot_(locomotive) During the late 80s/early 90s a passenger train on the Mayo Line make up of MK2AC stock ran into a herd of cattle near Donamon, the herd was apparently being driven along the line between accommodation crossings by the farmer. Although the train was not de-railed the collision resulted in significant damage to the coaches which were out of service for approximately 12 months awaiting budget approval to complete the repairs.

The weekend's wet and windy weather seems to have been a World wide phenomenon. New Zealand's South island effectively cut in two with main road and rail-links severed by flooding https://www.stuff.co.nz/timaru-herald/news/118057658/kiwirail-track-suffers-significant-flood-damage, high winds on Sunday brought down a large section of a mature tree above the main yard on my garden railway fortunately without causing too much damage, harming anyone and the fortunately the tree surgeons fees are largely covered by insurance.

G.W. Biggs & Co Ltd oil distributors in West Cork since 1904 http://www.biggsoil.ie/about-us they just may have information on the trucks used in the 1950s Bedford trucks had a good reputation in Ireland (at least my father as a fitter and a one time haulier my father preferred Bedford to other makes!). The Bedford S and normal control Leyland Comet were fairly common at least in Dublin into the mid-60s. Its possible Ford may have been preferred in Cork to Bedford or other marques https://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/memories-of-ford-check-out-some-historic-readers-pictures-and-the-stories-behind-them-447450.html.

In a strange way not so new in terms of technology at -all the gantry crane arrangement used for continuously supplying sleepers and taking away old rails appears to be based on the Bretland Track Re-laying machine developed by the MGWR in the 1920s. The arrangement of the gantry crane (Conveyor) running on rails on the material wagons to feed the re-laying machine is pure Bretland, the Bretland system was licensed to Morris Tracklayers in the UK who built a tracklaying machine that was used on the LNER & BR (E) up to the 1960s. In away these track-relaying machines were ahead of their time as the preparation work prior to the relay and lining and leveling to achieve line speed had to be done manually by vast armies of men until suitable machinery was developed from the 1950s onwards.

Jeremy Clements wrote an interesting article (may 2011 New Irish Lines) on the challenges of maintaining the loco fleet on the 7mm Fry Model Railway. Interestingly it was found necessary to re-build the diesel fleet from a single motor driving all axles to a two motor arrangement driving a single (inward) axle on each bogie. Two powered axles on a single loco were found to be adequate as the 7mm layout was basically flat. The focus was ease of maintenance allowing a complete motor/gearbox/wheel set assembly to be quickly swapped out for maintenance or replacement without having to remove a bogie or dismantle the loco. This would be difficult to achieve in OO perhaps a minimum stock of 3 times the number of locos necessary to run the sequence to cover maintenance and repairs! The new Fry Model Railway could always consider the experience learned at Pendon in operating the Dartmoor layout since 1955 in particular Guy William's experience in building an maintaining 4mm steam outline locos.

That's an interesting one, it looks like two passenger trains possibly connecting at Palace East although the Bagnalstown-Palace East line lost its regular passenger service in the 1930s. The train at the branch platform appears to have an IRRS headboard, the train on the main line appears to be worked by a 333 or D4 Class 4-4-0 which normally worked main line passenger rather than branch line services in South East Eastern and Waterford Region. Its possible that the train on the main line is a special or has been strengthened for that particular working, North Wexford passenger trains appear to have been normally worked by the smaller 52 & 60 Class 4-4-0s until replaced by J15s and ultimately B141 during the final months of operation.

There are three very atmospheric John Langford colour photos Palace East in "Irish Railways in Colour a Second Glance 1947-1970" Tom Ferris 1995 ISBN 1 85780 019 2. The photos are mainly at the western end of the yard and feature a meet between two passenger trains and a beet special from Bagnalstown which required some interesting shunting, there are also photos of trains at Macmine Junction & New Ross

Its a bit rich for people to be complaining at this stage that the 42' container wagons are sold out, when they had over 12 months to place an order for these wagons. IRM started accepting full payment and deposits for these wagons in October 2018, its possible that IRM would have increased the number of wagons manufactured if more people had placed orders before the wagons went into production.

I think HO Scale (1:87) would be a better proposition than OO (1:76) for modelling Indian and South East Asian railways, which have more in common with Australian and South American practice and have some rtr support. Frateschi https://www.frateschi.com.br/web/locomotivas/?lang=en produce a large range of relatively in-expensive South American rtr while Auscision https://www.australianmodeller.com.au/collections/auscision-models produce a more high end range of Australian rtr locos and stock. Both include a number of the standard Alco and General Motors and General Electric export locos used in India and South East Asia. Although scratch building is probably necessary HO should be feasible as many broad and narrow gauge locos were large by British standards and followed modern practice with more in common with American than British design practice. Perhaps some one may produce a model of the Standard meter gauge 2-8-2 used in East Africa, India, and South East Asia (Malaya, Thailand, Burma. On the question of gauge HOm is spot on for the meter feeder lines in India and the main line systems in South East Asia, and EM reasonably close for Irish/Australian 5'3" or Indian/South American broad gauge. HOe would be fine for 2'6" gauge plantation and secondary lines, many of which used a mixture of British,German and Japanese locos and rolling stock. O Scale (American or British) would probably be a better proposition for modelling 2' gauge lines like the Darjelling-Himalayan or the Gwalior Light Railway (199km)

The solder visible around the axleboxes and springs is low melting point (100°C) which has a lower surface tension than the (179° & 145°) solders used in assembling the kits. This solder tends to flow into the joint and around the surrounding area when melted rather than form a fillet similar to the 145° solder which I use for general assembly and detailing. This solder requires very little cleaning up any excess solder blobs or meniscus around the spring hangers can be cleaned up with a scraper and a fiber glass brush, the remaining solder film on the frames provides a superior key for painting than clean brass. The locos break down into a number of bolt together sub assemblies which can be dismantled for painting, the Ks/650 breaks down into loco and tender chassis, break gear, loco running board and cab, smokebox, boiler/firebox, cab interior, tender frames and footplate, tender superstucture and tender tank top, plus wheel sets. I usually lightly abrade the model with fine wet and dry paper and then de-grease in an acetone bath before priming with an etch primer, the critical thing is ensuring that humidity in the workshop is low and temperature is adequate before during and following painting.

The Midland Railway Center http://www.midrailcentre.com/4mm-scale-00-em-p4 & Brassmasters https://traders.scalefour.org/LondonRoadModels/various/architectural-kits/ 42' or 50' turntables would be ideal for Dugort Harbour.

Nice subtle modelling of the stone walls and platform edges. Will Dugort Harbour feature the corrugated iron buildings like the Kenmare and Valencia lines or brick and stone like the Achill & Clifden branches?

MGWR 33 Arrow at Keadue c1925. Name and number plates, vacuum pipe and coal to be added after painting. Plans were floated as late as the 1920s for a broad gauge line from Collonney to Arigna together with proposals to convert the Cavan & Leitrim to Broad Gauge. The loco is OO so the difference in gauge is not as noticeable as with 21mm. CIE 650 Y superheated boiler G2 at Keadue late 1940s early 50s. Difficult to clean up low temperature solder thinning around tender axleboxes and springs but should not be noticeable once painted. Production version of Y boilered loco will feature cast brass chimney, snifting valve (behind chimney) and whistle. Both locos have the same mechanical spec with a Mashima 10X20 motor, High level 35:1 gearbox and Markits 5'8" 18 spoke drivers calculated to run at a max (scale ) speed of 60mph a tad slower than the full sized locos.

the Wanderers photos indicate that IE is doing a thorough job of the re-lay with deeply ballasted track with new rails rather than using track panels cascaded/salvaged from the main line. While the existing jointed bullhead track in some of the photos is likely to be life expired, IE appear to have carried out considerable preparatory work improving the formation and installing deep ballast which would account for the cancellation and bustitutions. The real challenge with the secondary lines is the political will to grasp the nettle to either close or improve services on these lines rather than allow these lines to 'wither on the vine". Perhaps IE have a cunning plan to upgrade the Branch to main line status and divert some of the Dublin-Limerick services to run via Nenagh, otherwise this level of investment makes absolutely no sense and is an excellent example of mismanagement by IE & the Department of Transport.

Although I assembled the first test build over five years ago I hadn't gotten round to test running a loco until this week! The main challenge in designing a 2-4-0 or 4-4-0 is ensuring that there is enough weight on the driving wheels so that the loco is capable of hauling a reasonable load. The kit is designed with a weighted tender on the Mike Sharman "free bogie" system to transfer weight to the driving wheels to improve traction http://www.clag.org.uk/41-0rev.html#section12.2. The weight of the tender is supported by the drawbar and rear axle with the leading and center axle (non loadbearing) lightly sprung to maintain power pickup and avoid de-railing. Tender weighted with 70gm lead Underside of loco and tender showing leading and center tender axles lightly sprung (0.4mm phosphor bronze) drawbar adjusted to transfer weight from tender to loco. Loco and tender wheels are Markits OO gauge with "Live axle" with loco and tender picking up power on opposite sides with insulated drawbar on the "American System"

The walled coal stores were a standard design used at Sligo and on the Western Branches including Ballinrobe, Clifden and Loughrea. Loughrea is still standing but very overgrown. The doors on one side only (possibly iron) were sliding seem to be usually left open. Woodwork and steelwork would have generally have been green, but I will leave it to JHB on whether the sliding doors were painted or remained rusty iron with the rollers and tracks coated in grease and coal dust. There is a photo of the Sligo coal store in a Desmond Cookham feature on CIE branch lines in a Railway Byelines Annual/Summer Special from the 1990s, CIE shed staff claimed that the store was to prevent SLNCR men "stealing their coal" which Des believed was down to inter company rivalry as SLNCR staff were very honourable enginemen. While it would have been easy enough to coal the low sided tenders of the small 19th Century locos from the platform, it would have been a struggle with the high sided tenders of the larger locos and the hungry boards of the era of increasingly poor coal from the late 1930s onwards, some of the larger sheds like Broadstone, Athlone and Tralee used steam or diesel cranes with clamshell bucket, but coaling of larger locos lmay have been by hand at depots like Sligo, Westport, Claremorris and Galway.

I am not sure if the un-rebuilt C Class would have been capable or hauling or more importantly stopping power to safely work loose coupled cattle trains over the SLNCR 1:50 grades, a B101 would have been a better proposition though the Southern would have been reluctant to release one until sufficient rebuilt A Class were available to take over freight duties on the South Western lines. Neil Ramsey built a pair of C Class in 15mm one static one operational including sound and smoke unit. There is an article in New Irish Lines on scratchbuilding building the 15mm C Class

There is an extensive thread on the subject on RM Web https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/123769-zinc-pest-mazak-rot-the-affected-models-list/page/2/. A high proportion of the afflicted models were introduced since 2000 and the list includes a number of the major manufacturers including Bachmann, Hornby & Heljan

Judging by the performance of the CIE "standard goods" classes 60mph may have been possible by an SLNCR tank with a light load between Ballysodare and Sligo. The crew would have had to work the loco hard to get the loco up to 60mph following the station stop at Ballysodare before having to apply the brakes on the approach to Sligo. Small wheeled mixed traffic locos were capable of high speeds, the late R M Arnold of Golden Years of the Great Northern recorded a run with Coey J15 (5'1" wheels) 198 with a light passenger train on the Cork main line with a maximum speed of 69mph on the 25.8 miles between Newbridge and Kingsbridge Station Dublin, on the Midland the record time on the main line from Athlone to Dublin was held for a long time J19 Midland Standard Goods (5'3" wheels) which was timed by the late R M Clements at 68mph. Irish Railway Album brings back memories I borrowed the book from the library over Christmas when I was 17 or 18. R M Arnolds books NCC Saga and the Golden Years of the GNR are well worth a read as both works focus more on the personalities that worked on the railway than more conventional railway books.

The sheer presence of the O Gauge on Little Siddlington & the GNR loco shed module really does it for me, the level of detail and standard of modelling on Bawnboy Road is amazing its not obvious from the photos that the layout is in 3mm scale (smaller than OO) and shows the level of realism and reliability that can be achieved working to fine scale standards.

The 4 wheel heating and luggage vans were used on the majority of diesel hauled passenger trains throughout the CIE system from the mid 1950 until the early 1970. They basically ran with all types of conventional coaching stock and are likely to have run with the Craven stock. CIE introduced a small number of 6 wheel heating vans with two boilers in the early 1960s for use on the heaviest longest passenger trains, the 4w vans were withdrawn from fast main line service following the large scale introduction of bogie vans in the 1970, a few continued in use on Dublin suburban trains until the early 1980s.

Totally off topic but it certainly brings me back to my weekly pilgrimage (by bus!) as a teenager from Crumlin to Monk Place. Only problem was at the time I seldom had enough money to buy anything and by the time I had money there was seldom anything of interest (to me) to be worth buying. The shop seems to have mainly relied on the sale of Continental locos and stock to Irish customers and mail order O Gauge loco kits to the British Market the majority of the kits were British outline with a soft spot for the Great Central. The McGowans imported the Continental locos and stock direct from the manufacturers to the annoyance of some of the British distributors and operated a Layby (installment pre-prepayment) scheme with a loyal customer base. It would be difficult to see a model railway shop similar to Monk Place surviving these days, though some of the smaller model shops that focus mainly on RC cars & racing appear to have a similar atmosphere more a hobby than a business and a place for people with similar interests to hang out.

As we are getting into "might of been land" during the 1950s the GNR considered replacing steam with diesel hydraulic locomotives. Although the GNR preferred a double cabbed Jung B-B unit the Beyer Peacock proposal looked remarkably similar to the British Railways Clayton Type , I am not sure if anyone had produced a Clayton in British N Scale

We decided to do a series of test runs under controlled conditions as the railroad and the freight car leasing company were blaming each other for the poor riding problems with the red tank car and the derailment and who would have to pay for the fix-up, the Jackson County Receiver in Denver was looking for an excuse to close the road, the Jackson County just about paid its operating expenses but would need money from the County or the State to bring the track up to standard. Meanwhile the Jackson County Shop Foreman claimed that the tank car wheels were out of tolerance, while the leasing company engineers and insurers claimed that the Jackson County track was defective. 1St run was with the red tank car on its original trucks. Run 2 red tank car running on a set of borrowed DRGW trucks. I had incorrectly focused on the bolster arrangement of the Bachmann Spectrum tank car and the absence of side rubbing plates as the cause of the hunting without considering wheel profile. Although the wheel back to gauge is within tolerance the flange thickness of the Bachmann wheels are wider than Accucraft resulting in insufficient running clearance which is likely to have contributed to harmonic rocking or hunting on curved track especially on a down grade. Replacing the trucks and wheel sets would be an expensive solution, so I am planning to improve the running of the existing wheel sets by reducing the back to back gauge by 0.7mm. The Bachmann axles are shouldered so its basically a case of removing the wheels machining 0.35 off each end of the shoulder and re-assembling the wheel sets, the only snag so far is that I sheared the end off one axle, but machining a replacement should not take much longer than modifying an existing

Completed the final patterns for the Y Boilered 650 Class today, short GSR "built up" chimney and turnings for vacuum relief valve and whistle, these will be used to prepare moulds for brass castings. The model is based on a loco running in the late 1930s which still retains the mountings for the original laminated springs on the leading axle. Rather than produce a complete new master for the chimney, I cheated by slicing the top off and existing chimney, reducing the height of the straight part, turning an insert to fit inside the chimney and re-joining with loctite Sliced and diced chimneys. Re-joined