Mayner

CIE had a habit of leaving un-economic bus routes in rural areas to private enterprise. CIE carefully avoided running a staged service to Castletownbere and Glendalough and quickly gave up on Thurles-Clonmel once it abandoned its rail passenger services. Fuel oil to the Dugort Harbour fishing fleet rather than the occasional internal user tank wagon, would probably be a more likely traffic and tie in with the original purpose of a railway built to stimulate the fishing industry in the West of Ireland. To quote Eoin there appeared to be 45gal oil drums or barrels every where at Valencia Harbour in CIE days, the barrels may have been for use on the island before the opening of the bridge in the 1970s rather than fuel for fishing boats. The County Donegal used scaled down tank wagons to service the Killybegs fishing fleet, the Swilly also had tank wagons ,so ESSO or Irish Shell Class A tank wagon with silver tank barrel and red solebars would make a nice contrast to CIEs grey and green rolling stock. Bachmann produce passable models of these older cradle mounted tank wagons which survived in traffic into the early 70s. https://www.track-shack.com/acatalog/Bachmann-37-684A-OO-Gauge-14-Ton-Tank-Wagon-ESSO-Bachmann-37-684A.html. Most branch terminals (including Cahirciveen) and some through stations had small oil depots since the 1930s. Some had vertical like Bantry others horizontal tanks. Ratio produce a passable fuel depot https://www.track-shack.com/acatalog/Peco-Ratio-529-OO-Scale-Oil-Depot-Peco-Ratio-RT-529.html The other common wagon at Valencia Harbour was the ventilated version of the outside framed Irish Railway Clearing House & GSWR van most likely used for fish traffic on the afternoon "Perishable" to Farranfore which connected into the Up Tralee-Mallow & Cork-Dublin Night Mail trains to arrive in time for the Dublin Fish Market. The simplest solution might be to replace these with green CIE H vans no doubt introduced to replace the pre-amalgamation vans used for perishible traffic, or modify a few Provincial Wagons GNR standard vans with plasticard louvers to resemble the older vans. L

The balance weight on the leading drivers would most likely compensate for the loading from the coupling rods, the inside crank for the cylinder I would be interesting to work out the relative positions of the driving cranks on a 3 cylinder loco like 800 or a Royal Scot, perhaps a visit to Cultra to solve the mystery?

Very impressive model and structure. Generally with a building of this nature 1-2 floor levels of composite steel decking are installed before the concrete topping is laid, depending on type of decking and span the decking may or may not require propping. These days edge protection and safety netting would be installed to a floor level before the composite decking is installed on a level. The steel decking acts as a crash deck for workers (typically steelfixers & concrete layers) working below the structural steel erectors. Floor design and construction loadings with composite slabs is critical, I had one near miss on a project I was managing about 20 years ago and investigated a couple of composite floor collapses, in two cases the decks were supposedly designed to be self supporting. Service installation/interior fit out can take place on the lower levels once slab meets minimum required strength, it gets a bit more complicated where propping is required as it may be necessary to back prop to lower levels of the building. Generally the planner/project manager would avoid installing cladding to an elevation until structural steelwork and concrete works are complete to the full height of a building to eliminate the risk of damage to the (very expensive) cladding.

Hi Warb. Nice to see a model of a Composite floor system. Are you modelling the building under construction? Combination of building elements, shuttering, cranes and other plant would make an interesting and very different model.

Similar timetable and operating methods to Glasgow-Forth William & Mallaig line 3-4 Albert Quay-Bantry & Baltimore trains worked by pairs of 2700 railcars (with gangways) splitting and combining at Drimoleague, possibly a single car Sparrow if the Clonakilty branch survived. It would have been interesting to see how passenger figures would have worked out if CIE had introduced railcars on the West Cork branch lines and operated a more frequent service with better rolling stock on the branches. The main line was worked by a single 3 car AEC set and goods and branch line services by a trio of C Class. Two of the locos worked the two daily main line goods trains and the Baltimore-Skibereen branch connections, the third loco was more or less captive to the Clonakilty branch. There was no connection to Clonakilty out of the morning Cork-Bantry railcar after the Courtmacsharry branch was diesilised. as the morning mixed from Clonakilty to the Junction returned as a goods in order to work an as required trip to Timoleague and Courtmacsharry.

Hi Eoin What make/model of cnc profile milling machine are you using?

Those of use over a certain age tend to see the railways of the past through rose tinted glasses. Passenger traffic was in decline from after WW1 up to the mid-late 1960s when BR & CIE started to concentrate on what we now call Intercity services, mainly because more people could afford to travel on account of the 60s boom and growth in 3rd level education. Freight traffic remained more or less static and CIEs road and rail monopoly a sitting duck once road transport was liberalised in the early 1990s. I certain respects Ireland's railways North & South have never been in a better condition with relatively frequent passenger service on the main routes with modern rolling stock and adequately maintained infrastructure, no place for the run-down railway of most of the pre-2000 era with infrequent services, worn out infrastructure and rolling stock. Most of freight traffic on Ireland's railways was based around exporting livestock or manufactured. Ireland has developed a highly successful agri -business based on exporting high value goods by road direct from the factory to the UK or European Market rather than cattle on the hoof through The North Wall, Belfast or Waterford. Manufacturing has moved in a similar way with most IT, Pharmaceutical & Chemical Manufacturing clustered around Cork and Dublin Ports and the Shannon Estuary. Coca Cola in Ballina is something of an exception and no doubt a hangover from subsidising the transport costs of businesses in the west. Internationally railfreight is moving away from the railway goods yard to new purpose built terminals often owned and financed by the railfreight customer, its telling that this has only recently happened in Dublin Port and DFDS struggled to fill the spaces on their very short Ballina-Waterford liner. Distances in Ireland appear shorty and traffic too light for rail to take on the Line Haul between posts and distribution centers for logistics and shipping companies, 18 wagon 36TEU container trains are unlikely to compete on cost and time with road freight. The continuation of railfreight in Ireland up to 2007 was largely supported by dominant/monopoly manufacture of beer cement & fertiliser. Craft breweries are giving Diagio a run for their money, Irish Cement has long ceased to have a monopoly of cement manufacture, IFI is history farmers are moving away from urea and nitrogen fertilisers on account of cost and environmental issues. Perhaps there is a case for Tipperary & Waterford County Councils to come to the party and finance a more frequent Limerick Junction-Waterford passenger service and a Waterford Line platform at Limerick Junction

Track layout looks suspiciously like Loughrea without the carriage siding road, its unlikely that the loco release turnout at an Irish branch line terminus would be controlled from the signal cabin or ground frame unless the passenger platform extended to the buffer stops. Movements from the main line to run round loop or down siding is more likely to be controlled by hand signal from the cabin than a signal arm or disc. The Home signal would be held at danger and an approaching train brought to a stand, before the signal man would change the points for the diverging road and flag the train into the siding or loop. Discs were usually provided to control movements from a loop or siding to a main line, I am not sure whether a cattle special would depart directly from the cattle bank or set back onto the platform road to attach the guards van. Levers controlling signals facing point locks and turnouts are usually numbered sequentially in direction in a lever frame in this example 1-5 control movements along the main line in the down direction, 6&7 are spare & 8-10 control movements in the up direction. Signalling likely to be a fixed distant, (1) Home Signal (2) Facing Point Lock Main to Down Siding (3), Turnout & Trap Point Main to Down Siding. (4) facing point lock Crossover Main to Loop (5), Crossover Main to Loop. (6,7) spare (8) Up Starting Signal, (9) Disc Loop to Main Line, (10) Down Siding to Main Line. From a signalling point of view it does not matter whether a turnout is single or tandem (3 way) The Fixed Distant could be moved out and an Outer Home signal provided approx 1/2 mile out from the home to allow shunting to take place on the main line when a second train is approaching the station, Loughrea had an Outer Home signal though Ballinrobe a station handling a similar level traffic had a simpler signalling layout without an Outer Home

Looks like a D&M Models 2600 Arrow Railcar set. Will be interesting to see what it fetches

The initial shipments of ore from Tara were exported through Foynes in Byrtes wagons as the Tara Mines Terminal at Gouldings wharf was blacked by former Goulding Fertiliser workers holding out for better redundancy terms. I don't know the background around the Tara Ore exports through Arklow. Arklow appears to have been trying to compete with Dublin Port for bulk cargo around the same time when Cawoods coal was imported in containers and was transported by rail to destinations on the IE & NIR networks. The main drawback was the absence of a rail connection to the port, which ironically removed in the 1850s when the DWWR extended its line to Arklow and diverted ore traffic from the Avoca Copper mines to DunLaoire rather than upgrade the existing ore tramway to Arklow Harbour.

De Selby's RM Web GNR (I) Vs Class loco building thread contains a lot of information on assembling the SSM "Merlin" kit. http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/98951-gnr-ireland-vs-class-4-4-0-a-skritchbuild-in-4mm/ De Selby used the SSM V Class as a basis for scratch building the more modern Vs 4-4-0 which had a lot in common with Merlin and includes a useful step by step on assembling, bolier chassis and cab.

I like the way you are modelling the station and overall roof off scene, saves more room to model the yard and approach tracks. Several goods sheds including Tuam, Gort, Claremorris were converted to cement stores with access for forklifts when the pallet cement wagons were introduced around 1978. Goods sheds were no longer required for sundries/general goods traffic with the introduction of the 10' & 20' Uniload Containers & Bedford trucks with tail lifts for local deliveries. H vans were retained for a while for trainload movements of empty kegs to Guinness breweries for example Dundalk to Kilkenny

Its been an enjoyable build everything fits together so well, my only reservation is the thickness of brass is a bit whippy for the inside bearing under frame parts, I may assemble the 1st with putside bearings and a hollow middle axle to go round curves. Same problem with verdigris with the Saphire 'no clean flux" on brass, dipping the model in boiling or hot water seems to do the trick, without the need for detergent.

Went a little off the rail recently adding more locos and stock. The excuse was that another Mudhen was needed to handle the traffic and as insurance against the day 464 breaks her frames or the motion falls apart with metal fatigue, more freight cars were needed to cope with the stock rush and mine traffic just like the old RGS. 463 an early Accucraft model brass construction with stainless steel motion and tyres, should outlast 464 though motor may need replacement at some stage. Loco is currently track power will convert to on board battery r.c., loco is fitted with a Phoenix sound system similar to 464. 464 brings in her train, the "new" stock cars and box cars appear to have been sprayed with Testors Dull Cote or some form of flat finish to tone down the factory satin finish. 463 waits on the siding to be cut into the train as helper as 464 runs past on the main with a cut of stock cars. 463 now cut into the train as mid-train helper. The RGS depended on hired DRGW Mudhens to move its heaviest trains from the late 1930s onwards, even in its final season of operation mid train helpers were needed to handle the Autumn stock rush and final ore trains. The loco shed is due to be replaced with a brick roundhouse more typical of the area and a timber coaling tower, some day I might even get round to building a depot

Final installment at least for the moment! I added the rainstrip using 0.45mm straight handrail wire rather than from the coil of phosphor bronze wire supplied with the kit as it is easier to curve the straight wire than straighten something thats in a coil. I was planning to use a paper template for the curve but it was easier to simply let the wire form the curve clamping in place at each end for soldering using Micro-Mark mini clamps https://www.micromark.com/Micro-Clamps-Ss-Smooth-6. I first fluxed the joint with a citrus based flux, then ran the soldering iron along the joint, feeding DCC Concepts easy flow 145°detailing solder into the joint. The DCC Concepts detailing solder is easy to control for this type of work as its in a very fine wire form. I cleaned up any excess solder with a fine scraper and a fibre glass brush after first neutralising by submerging the roof in hot but not boiling! water. I will probably paint this coach once I have completed the 4 compt. 1st. I will fit ducket roofs and guards lamps once I have painted and glazed the coach. Other jobs include replacing the 28mm pin point axles with 26mm plain axles (available locally), making good around the dog boxes, replacing the window ventilators and fitting handles and grab irons once the coaches are painted. I will probably fit these coaches with B&B or Dingham couplings rather than Kadee or Tension Lock, both types are reasonably priced, unobtrusive, relatively simple to fit, can be set up for magnetic delayed un-coupling and above all no need for an NEM Coupler pocket

Could be a long time before I get around to painting, toying with the idea of GSR crimson or purple lake as a change from CIE green, just need to organise some decals. I missed doing a section on the roof, SSM use a captive nut and bolt system for securing carriage roofs, which allows the roof and body to be separated for adding detail and painting. Coach body and roof, transoms with 10BA captive bolts slot into top flange of body, wing shaped profiles with 10BA nuts soldered to roof. Basically the transoms and roof profiles are 1st bolted together and the nuts soldered in place. small drop of gear oil on the bolt thread prevents soldering the nut and bolt solid! Roof secured temporarily in place with masking tape or fine wire until the profiles are soldered to the roof. On most coaches the roof can be removed (using a long screwdriver from below) without separating the body from the underframe, the 6w Bk3rd is an exception as the body and underframe have to be separated before removing the roof if you want to keep the area below the luggage compartment skylight clear.

This was the 1st reasonably dry weekend we had in several weeks, so I started work on the benchwork roadbed for the east leg of the wye. I decided to construct this section in situ and install the piles rather than pre-fab the roadbed on the deck, there was also the little matter of marrying in with the existing roadbed at either end! Stringers are 4x2 fencing rail I had over from a job, piles are offcuts of fenceposts, Rapidset also surplus from a job so in a way the Pacic Extension is being built from revenue like the Ballina Branch of the Great Northern and Western in the 1860s. This form of construction with heavier section timber was basically the standard for house construction in New Zealand from Colonial days until relevatively recent times, quite a shock for someone with a construction background from Ireland There was also some Monteiths Black for refreshments. The right of way had to be planned to avoid the Kauri and a Feijoa tree. which produces a lot of fruit in late Summer and Autumn. It has been difficult fitting the eastern leg of the wye into the space available, ending up with a 5' minimum radius curve rather than the preferred 6' minimum, I temporarily pinned down a section of track at 5' radius to check if there were any problems. The crew of 464 agreed to run over the temporary tracks while on their way to pick up some empty cars further up the line. I once heard a Canadian Pacific track gang asking the crew of a short line freight in Minnesota if the had time to spare to divert their train to run over a newly re-laid diamond a couple of times to check that everything was ok. It was getting late in the evening and the next CP train was not scheduled for several hours and the track gang wanted to go home after a long day! The test was a success so installed the road bed for the eastern leg of the wye. The wye is under the drip line of a number of large trees and is a popular place for visitors to congregate on hot days, which could make the wye a very popular place indeed. Th end of the wye is supported temporarily on blocks, for the present I will extend the tail of the wye about 6' long enough for a couple of locos to clear the switch. Rail for the wye will come from a re-lay job on the main line, where I am planning to swap out about 20' of AMS track with bleached out ties (sleepers) laid in 2007 with new material during August-September. The wye will be laid with the old rail AMS on new Sunset Valley ties which should be good for another 10-20 years.

Difficult to give an answer for OO gauge as my coach is set up for 21mm gauge. These coaches should be able to go round relatively sharp curves in OO on account of the 1½ bogie arrangement and the increased sideplay between wheelsets and underframe as a result of using the narrower gauge. John

The Pacific Extension! Many railroads in the west called themselves the Somewhere,Somewhere & Pacific but got nowhere near the Ocean or across the nearest State Line so it was only appropriate the Jackson County would make a start on a Pacific Extension. The starting point for the extension or at least a Wye for turning locos is on the inside of a gradual curve on the 2% grade from the junction from the lowest point on the railroad and Jackson City. The branch leaves the main line on a 5'6" radius curve the minimum for the Bachmann K27 2-8-2 loco the largest on the line. Cut the rails with a junior hacksaw and tidied up the ends with a needle file, I grease the railjoiners with graphite which is both good for electrical continuity and allows the rails to expand and contract preventing the joiner siezing to the rail. Switch installed and west leg of wye connected. K27 loco drag beam and tender almost touching on inside of curve. Roadbed 6X2 on 4X2 treated pine all connections with galvanised screws. I first checked that the K27 would go round a 5'6" curve by temporarily laying the track on the deck. The East leg of the wye will re-join the main line between the gondola and tank. The train is made up to 12 cars with the K27 cut in between the stock cars and general freight. The real RGS often cut in the helper mid train on trains of this length or longer. The extension is currently supported on temporary blocking, in this area I used short timber piles on paving slabs or shallow concrete pads on account of shallow tree roots. The tree to the right of the junction is juvenile kauri a shallow rooted conifer which can potentially grow to 70m in height and live 600 years The wye will mainly be used for turning locos working the 4% grade between this point on the railroad and the storage sidings in the garden shed. I may gradually extend the Pacific Extension as a logging or mine branch like the majority of branches on the RGS & DRGW narrow gauge lines

Interior partitions and floor are in plasticard with moulded plastic seats. I generally build coach interiors as a sub assembly that can be painted and finished separately from the coach. This arrangement is not feasible with the SSM GSWR coaches (with the top and bottom flange) unless you assemble the coach with one or both of the ends removable. The partitions locate between slots in the top and bottom flanges. I used a NWSL duplicutter to cut the partitions to a uniform height and width then cut the tabs with a craft knife. I am planning to paint and fix the partitions, floor and seats as separate components and add the odd passenger once I have painted the coach body. Partitions were sometimes matchboarded, which could be done using Evergreen embossed styrene though I am not sure if this would be noticable on a completed coach on a layout. The partitions break up the open look of the coach interior

The last 12-18 months has been extremely busy with work and other commitments that I had very little time available for model railways including releasing the kit for the 650 Class and a number of other projects. I have been able to re-balance this year with more time available for model railways and other interests. I expect to release the 650 Class at some stage in 2018, the final version of the artwork for the loco (with inside valve gear (non working)) is currently with the engravers and I am currently looking at a number of options for wheels gears and motors. At this stage I have not made a decision on developing or producing further kits.

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/209-representing-cornish-stonework-in-4mm-scale/page-2 Some useful material on modelling stone buildings in 4mm scale. Scribed modelling clay has been a reasonably popular technique at least since the early 1970s. While it involves a lot of patience and determination its feasible to accurately model the random coursed stonework commonly used to build retaining walls, goods and loco sheds by scribing the stonework on plasticard or in clay. Neither the Wills Sheets or Slaters Embossed stonework come close to the random coursed masonry used by the Irish railway companies to build major structures and buildings.

Soldering/hot work nearly completed, fitted compartment drop lights (leaving some part open) and detail castings. Forgot to add the rainstrips to the roof! Gas cylinders and buffers added. I st pre-tinned the brass in the area the whitemetal casting is fitted with 145° solder, then soldered the casting in place with 100° solder using a temperature controlled iron/soldering station set at a lower temperature. Low temperature solders traditionally used for soldering whitemetal such as Carrs 70° solder (highly toxic) did not form a reliable bond with sheetmetal. Pre-tinning with 100° solder was more of an insurance policy although the characteristics of the solder appear to be quite different. The roofs of GSWR (&BCDR) coaches were quite distinctive from railways that used electric lighting like the GNR and MGWR bogie stock, with prominent ventilators and light fittings. The GSWR used coal gas for coach lighting, with gas lit stock remaining in service up to the early 60s. The gas was manufactured in Inchacore and distributed around the railway system in twin tank wagons. Gas and oil lit coaches usually had steps and grabrails at each end for maintaining the lamps, though the MGWR used ladders for accessing the roofs on oil lit coaches. The GSR/CIE downgraded a lot of GSWR 1st and 2nd Class 6 wheel coaches to 3rds and converted many of the 3rds to carry turf during the Emergency, the brake 3rd is to be joined by a downgraded 4 compartment 1st which should provide more legroom and comfort for passengers compared to the GSWR 6 compartment 3rds with wooden seating

I had something of a disaster about 2 weeks ago when a large scale brass 2-8-0 fell about 3' from the "High Line" that links the garden railway to the storage tracks/fiddle yard in the garden shed. 348 basically landed on her nose bending the pilot beam up about 90° calling for quite significant repairs, fortunately she did not land on the smokebox or funnel. I used the wreck as an opportunity to carry out a some cosmetic repairs to the loco. 348 after her wreck, pilot beam in the blacksmiths shop for repair. Track panels on left and turnouts on right are for a relaying job disrupted by a months rain! Repaired pilot beam with pilot attached. I basically had to dismantle the beam down to its component parts, straighten and re-solder, some of the soldered joints had sheared off on impact. Everything bolts together with m2 hex headed nuts and bolts. Pilot painted and ready to be re-attached to loco, The whole sub assembly was given a coat of semi-gloss clear before bolting to loco. Pilot attached to loco. I masked the smokebox and stainless steel fittings, before giving the completed assembly a light coat of satin black and 2 coats of sealer to complete. I bought the loco second hand about two years ago, the air receiver pipework was missing on one side of the tender, the pipework fabricated from KS brass, fixing cleats from brass strip. Pipework is still incomplete I am waiting for some valves to arrive from the States. I blackened the brasswork with Carrs Metal Black before painting to reduce the risk of paint flaking off. 1st a dip in Metal Surface Conditioner followed by a rinse in hot water to help form a key. Combination of dipping in Metal Black and application by rubbing with a cotton bud, followed by rinsing in hot water and allowing to dry. These chemicals are relatively toxic avoid contact with skin. The brown residue in the container appears to be a result of the reaction between the metal and blackening agent. Brackets coupling lift bar touched up/blackened with a cotton bud. Brown stains are from the surface conditioner. Pipework & cleats pre-painted then fitted. I then masked out the tender body/re-railer and trucks and gave the tender solebar and one of the grab rails a quick coat of black and clear sealer. Did not notice the chipped paint on the air receiver will need to touch up. Engine and tender back together, tested ok

The GSWR and SLNCR interchanged traffic in pre-amalgamtaion days, the Southern Goods yard was basically laid out as a small marshalling yard for exchanging traffic with the SLNCR, the only thing missing being a turntable. Its just about possible that the junction was used for turning locos off trains that terminated at Colloney GSWR, it would have been quicker than running light engine to Sligo to turn and avoided paying fees to the MGWR for running powers over their line from Carrignat Junction to Sligo.