Mayner

It looks like the loco is in an approximation of SNCB/NMBS (Belgian Railways) livery. The model appears to be based on the German V200 diesel locomotives, there were broadly similar locos in use throughout Europe the Irish assembled V200 seems to have been available in British Rail, Belgian, Danish, German, Norwegian, and Spanish railway liveries.

CIE used BR style Commonwealth bogies with 8'6" wb under a small number of Inchacore designed & built coaches in the early 1960s. No one produces a kit or a RTR model for these coaches which had a different end profile to the Laminate stock. The earlier Commonwealth bogies used under Laminates, Parkroyals and some MK2 Bredin coaches had an 8' wheelbase. The other major difference between Irish & BR practice was that CIE used 3' diameter wheels with commonwealth bogies while British Railways used 3'6" which can affect the ride height if you plonk a Park Royal or Laminate on Bachmann bogies. Eoin's bogies remind me of my 1st visit to Inchacore in the late 1970s, where CIE were flame cutting replacement drop equalisers (flat lower part) for Commonwealth bogies. I formed the roofs for the JM Design vans in a similar manner to Eoin using a commercial photo engraver rather than CNC milling to form the weather strips and cantrail. I pre-form the roofs using a G.W.Models Rolling Mill and less sophisticated version of Eoin's clamping and bending jig Eoin I think you should pass this article and your photos to Alan Doherty and New Irish Lines it definitely surpasses my article on assembling Worsley Works Coaches and might motivate Alan to produced an etched roof for his Laminates & ParkRoyals

A small number of coach side overlays to fit the Dapol 60' Stanier Coach are now available from stock: CIE 1339-55 Side Corridor 3rd/Second/Standard overlays $32.00 NZ Min shipping/ postage $17NZ on orders JMD Corridor 2nd fitted to Dapol 60' Stanier 3rd with with MJT roof vents, 0.45mm AGW straight brass wire plumbing, Hornby coach wheels, modified Dapol interior. 1904-1908 Brake 3rd/Second/Standard Open overlays $32.00 NZ Min shipping/ postage $17NZ on orders 1904-1908 Bk2nd fitted to Dapol Coach, MJT roof vents, 0.45mm AGW straight brass wire plumbing, Hornby coach wheels, Comet interior kit. Weights fitted under floor. 3201-3212 BSSGV overlay kit $53.00 NZ. Min shipping/ postage $17NZ on orders. BSSGV spec as per Corridor Standard. Combination of Dapol interior to passenger & lavatory compartments and plasticard floor and partitions in van portion. Buffet and Standard Open overlays are available to order 6-8 weeks lead time. Please P.M or contact JM Design at majral@xtra.co.nz if you are interested.

Kilfree Junction 1956 or 1957?. Apparently A44 was routed into the loop at Kilfree was unable to stop crashed through the buffer stop at the end of the headshunt (on the right) rolled down the bank and wagons piled up on the loco. Apparently Bulleid visited the scene by helicopter and was impressed at how his triangulated wagon underframes stood up to the collision. There were several near misses & run aways during the 1st few years of diesel operation as former steam drivers adjusted to the freer running and increased stopping distances with the new diesels.

1100&1100 were the first reasonably successful medium power diesel electrics designed and built in the British Isles and could be considered the forerunners of the BR Derby & BRCW Type 2 Sulzers. The British Rail locos and the B101 Class used an uprated version of the engine used in the 1100&1100 and their electrical system was considered superior to the Brush system used in the BR locos. The Inchacore built locos had a very high axleload by Irish standards and were restricted to 50mph as their plate frame bogies were rough riding and hard on the track. The 101 Class BRCW Sulzers were built with an A1A A1A wheel arrangement and fitted with drop equalising bogies to overcome the weight and riding problems of 1100&1101. Metropolitan Vickers may have gone for Crossley diesels in the A & C Class rather than the proven and reliable Sulzer engine to keep within the axle load and weight limits on the Irish system. Shapeways produce CIE Class B Sulzer designed by B Lancer. https://www.shapeways.com/product/PZZCYVXM6/cie-b-class-sulzer-locomotive-oo-scale?optionId=42321334 An Irish modeller built a batch of Sulzers to a high standard several years ago, but there about as rare as hens teeth.

Removing the wipers on the secondmans side seems to have been a common feature on both the A & C Class during the mid-late 1950s. Metropolitan Vickers electrical equipment had a very good reputation a factor that worked in favour of re-powering rather than replacing the Irish Metrovicks Possibly an economy measure to save on maintenance and stock up on spare parts when Todd Andrews was running the railways? There is the story about CIE removing half the light bulbs from the C&L "Bus Coach" as an economy measure during the same period.

Its possible B233 went straight from the black to the Supertrain livery. Maybe IRM will do the C Class for their next loco including the B233 & B234 Maybach variation with a porthole blocked out on one side as a puzzler. I always thought B233 looked especially smart in black with white eyebrows and yellow warning panels

The authentic Crossley sound! The Australian Metrovicks remained in services with their Crossley engines into the late 1980s on freight and Perth suburban passenger services.

O Gauge and larger scales have a great "presence" as exhibition layouts, the sheer mass and momentum of the models means you need to model very little outside of the railway fence, just tracks and trains. Multiple tracks and complex pointwork add to the main line atmosphere, somewhere on the Western Region judging by the buildings and structures.

A number of A Class appear to have been painted in the high band scheme before the all-black with white eyebrow scheme was introduced. There are photos of A6, 15,16,39 in Barry Carse's book. The tan band on A6 (the guinea pig for the scheme_ almost looks shallower than the other locos or possibly an optical illusion. The low band was originally called the "dipped" scheme in contemporary IRRS Journals may have been introduced like the black to make grime and oil spillage of the flanks of these locos less noticeable. Even the flanks of the re-engined Metrovicks tended to get dirty very quickly compared to the pure bred GM locos, I am not sure if the weathering arose as a result of oil leakage similar to the IC125 power cars in the UK or simply grime washed off the roof by the weather. Possibly a case for a some form of dynamic weathering (smoke unit?) so that the loco becomes increasingly dirty as mileage/time in service build up.

The A Class & the Liner Train wagons are a bit of a dilemma to me as I have basically decided to concentrate on modelling the Midland in the steam age before I was tempted by high quality Kato & Atlas American rtr N gauge locos and stock about 30 years ago In a way British and Irish "modern image" models (both kit and rtr) lagged behind the standard of what was available in the the United States and the Continent and what could be achieved by assembling some of the British and Irish outline kits that were available at the time, others were basically un-buildable or only fit for ballast. While the MIR GM diesels and rolling stock kits were reasonably good by the standards of the day and Q kits resin diesels could be built into a reasonable model, there were a few real horrors including a whitemetal A Class possibly produced by MTK for MIR with distorted and porus castings and cab ends with a distinct squint to one side. The IRM A Class seems to lift the standard for rtr locos in Ireland and the UK in a similar manner to Atlas commissioning Kato to produce HO & N gauge locos for the American market which lead the way to twin flywheel center motor drive as the standard for diesel and electric locomotives. Interestingly a lot of the improvements in the hobby are being driven by small businesses like IRM through their enthusiasm and business, rather to established players, thanks to changing technology and procurement methods.

Great to see more photos of Greystones, the scratch built locos and stock used on the layout was an improvement of many of the kits that were available at the time. The Cork exhibition brings back memories, interesting to see some familiar faces! The late Frank Davis and I connected and exhibited our EM gauge layouts together at the Cork exhibition. Frank had a nicely detailed Western Region end to end layout, I was in to British outline industrial modelling at the time with a small semi-self contained quarry layout based on the Iain Rice "Bankfoot" plan. Although designed and built in isolation our two layouts connected together and operated together without a hitch apart from one or other of us marshaling a mineral train that was too long for the fiddle yard or run round at the other end. The joint operation turned out to be such a success that Frank exhibited Wentworth and Bankfoot together at Warley after I moved to New Zealand

I have the N Gauge version of the CMX, I used to run it around the layout behind the locos in a freight than a special track cleaning train. The most time consuming part was moving other trains about to make sure that all the visible and hidden yard trackage was cleaned. I used isopropyl alcohol as a solvent rather than meths as it did not leave a residue, though it could leave you a little lightheaded in the attic on a hot summer evening. I found running the Clean Machine round the layout about once a month was adequate after a couple of weekly cleans, I have since re-gauged the Clean Machine to run on 12mm or TT track for my Irish narrow gauge layout, but has not been tested as dust is more of a problem than track grime as I seldom run the layout.

It would be interesting to work out the comparative costs of producing the parts by CNC milling and photo engraving. I guess the main advantage for both types is the ability to repeat once the CAD file is converted to a CNC or Photo Tool and it saves time involved if forming the part by hand and minimises the risk of error in marking out. The DSER 2-4-2Ts were basically a development of the earlier 2-4-0Ts with a bunker and trailing axle to increase coal capacity. The main mystery is why the remaining 2-4-0Ts were not rebuilt into 2-4-2Ts as their coal capacity basically restricted them to short distance work to Dun-Laoire and Dalkey. Inchacore did not seem to like DSER locos especially the passenger tanks! There is a good account of the late Jack O'Neill's 1st encounter as a fireman with 433 an ex-DSER tank in "A Decade of Steam" he immediately gets off on the wrong foot with the driver by insulting "his engine" by calling it a yoke. One of a number of firemen transferred to Grand Canal Street, redundant as a result of the introduction of AEC railcars on Dublin-Waterford passenger services, no doubt not too happy as result of the transfer form Waterford and suburban passenger work with its frequent stops and starts and cramped cab of a tank loco. Jack seems to have ended his shift impressed with 433 smooth running, free-steaming, haulage ability and speed. Lifting a seven bogie Boat Train off Dun-Laoire Pier and skipping through Blackrock at 50mph. He seems to have enjoyed his time at Grand Canal St as a fireman, his only complaint about the loco was the extreme heat in the cab in Summer.

A 20' or 40' container in the original B&I grey and red would be nice! B&I was the 1st company to commission CIE to operate Liner Trains for container traffic in Ireland. Bell originally intended to use road haulage as a feeder to its Waterford Port operations, but was forced to use rail due to the poor state of the road network in the South East and the rest is history so to speak with a highly successful rail operations. CIE introduced a Cork-Dublin Port B&I Liner Train in the late 60s to act as a feeder into its Dublin Port-UK cargo sailings after B&I shut down its Cork-UK services. The dedicated B&I Liners operated until CIE could provide sufficient capacity on its own liner trains. CIE also operated Liner Trains of export sugar in B&I containers from CSE Carlow to Dublin Port. The B&I Liners were loaded/unloaded in the B&Is Terminal near the end of the Alexandra Road Tramway. B&I traffic was carried on 4w 20' wagons until sufficient bogie wagons were in service by the mid-late 70s. There is a colour photo of a 001 Hauled Cork-North Wall liner (bogie wagons) with B&I containers in the original grey & red livery on the cover of Locomotivces & Rolling Stock of CIE & NIR 1st Edition and a 1972 black & white photo of B181 on a B&I Liner made up of 4w wagons passing Cabra Bank. The 40& later 35mph speed restriction on 4w wagons were imposed following a series of de-railments of tank wagons on jointed track on the Midland, rather than stability issues with 4w stock on CWR. These derailments (Dunamon & Moyvalley) may have been due to an overall deteriorating standard of track on the CIE system from the 80s onwards as track maintenance and renewals were deferred until the system reached breaking point in the mid 1990s.

I remember watching the driver of the 12:00 Cork Liner walking along the 6' "pulling the string" when his train was checked at Island Bridge Junction in June 2004. His explained that his 201 Class took a long time to release the brakes and he needed to manually release the brakes so that his train could move off immediately it got a clear signal and presumably avoid blocking the approaches to Heuston

Excellent and just in time for Christmas. Their 42' turntable is mighty tempting http://www.midrailcentre.com/4mm-scale-00-em-p4

Interesting stuff. Nice to see a tutorial on assembling the under rated Worsley Works Laminate coaches. Is your clamping/bending jig available from an engineering suppliers or of your own design? I use similar techniques for forming roofs and curves in metal, though the jigs are a bit on the crude side

Don't want to be too pedantic, if you work in OO the actual difference in gauge works out at 13½" which accentuates the narrow gauge look of some models when viewed head on. Our models behave differently and need a larger kinematic envelope (allowance for sway/cant) than the prototype, the majority of locos and as they are largely unsprung and run round far tighter curves. In addition some models are substantially wider than scale, the Jouef Class 40 British Rails longest diesel scaled out 18" wider than the prototype In practice its really a matter of setting structural clearances to suit your highest, widest-longest locos and coaches rather than trying to scale down the prototype. In the UK and Ireland specific requirements existed in relation to minimum platform widths and distance between coaching stock and tunnel walls/bridges(sufficient space to open carriage doors while in tunnels, on or under bridges in an emergency), unless an exemption was granted.

The current IE Loading and Structure gauge is detailed in Appendix 3 of the IE 2018 Network Statement http://www.irishrail.ie/media/ie_2018_network_statement_(final_version).pdf. As far as I know the British Railway Modelling Standards Bureau (BRMSB) was an industry body that has long ceased to exist. The BRMSB standards were developed following WW11 in an attempt to develop common wheel and coupler standards, but the Bureau did not have the same level of influence as the National Model Railroaders Association (NMRA) in the States. At the time major manufacturers like Hornby, Trix and Tri-ang preferred to maintain their in house standards in order to maintain market share and competitive advantage. The "4mm & 7mm scale societies" in the UK may have developed Loading and Structure gauges for their specific areas of interest. The EM Gauge Society developed a table of Standard Dimensions for 4mm scale including a typical British loading gauge and structural clearances based on the "Model Railway Handbook 7th Edition https://www.amazon.co.uk/Model-Railways-Handbook-Railway-News/dp/B001G888TK & information in Railway Modeller and Railway Engineer. British and Irish railway companies tended to develop and establish loading and structure gauges in isolation, the Great Northern section of IE still has a more restricted loading gauge than other sections of IE despite a programme to increase clearances in the 1990s.

Lough Swilly Transport Ltd seems to have offered direct road freight services between Donegal and the UK. The company appears to have operated between 1983&2004 and had a registered office in Dublin and may not have had a connection with the LLSR. The Lough Swilly Transport tractor and covered trailer were fairly modern and looked like they were set up for logistics work, possibly for line haul work for parcels traffic between Donegal and major centers in the UK.

Funnily enough the first time I saw a Bus Eireann coach (complete with Red Setter logo was in London . Another bizarre moment was passing a Lough Swilly Transport tractor and trailer unit on the M6 in the West Midlands, for a moment I though the LLSR had gone into cross-channel haulage. CIE/Bus Eireann used UK based contractors to operate services to and from London and other destinations in the UK. At one stage the coaches bore Bus Eireann branding.

I haven't been able to find any direct reference to a GNR(I) G Class 2-4-0. O.S. Nocks "Irish Steam" indicates that GNR(I) had 75 4-4-0s & 9 2-4-0s in service in 1916. The GNR was formed by amalgamation in 1875-76 the 4 H Class built in 1880-1881 appear to be the sole 2-4-0s introduced by the GNR(I), the H Class are supposed to be based on a Dublin and Belfast Junction design. Its possible the GNR (I) G Class were a pre-amalgamation design, each of the amalgamating companies are likely to have had 2-4-0s for passenger work the question is which company Dublin & Drogheda, Dublin & Belfast Junction (Drogheda-Portadown) Ulster Railway or Irish North Western? While some INWR & Ulster Railway 0-6-0s lasted into the late 1940s the remaining 2-4-0s would have become pretty much redundant with the introduction of large S, S2 & Compound 4-4-0s and the light weight U Class type from 1912 onwards.

Good work! The Chester Club set the challenge exhibiting Dingle in Dingle so to speak, and you have beaten them by a fair margin on the mileage front. Might even re-awaken some interest in modelling the West Cork in West Cork.

I always had a soft spot for Gort, most of the yard was retained and used for storing redundant wagons after the end of wagon load traffic. A lot of cement and possibly fertiliser traffic in later years appears to have been in connection with the merchants yard which was at a lower level than the railway, I remember watching a forklift off loading bagged cement off a train parked on the main line and delivering the pallets direct to the merchants yard. Adding a head shunt improves the operationally flexibility of the station as a train from the Athenry direction can now enter the Ardrahan-Gort section while a train is shunting the yard. I would be inclined to reverse the crossover from the main line to the yard to allow a train from Limerick to run directly into the headshunt/layby and shunt clear of the main line. A further crossover controlled by a ground frame could be added further out to allow North bound goods trains to depart without setting back into the station. There was a similar arrangement for south bound cattle specials from the Up yard in Tuam This allows two trains to cross at the station while a goods is recessed in the layby or shunting the yard, a common arrangement on the Galway Line and Mayo Road. Goods yard head shunts were fairly uncommon on the Limerick-Sligo line, Ennis & Tuam being the main exceptions, I guess traffic traffic levels never justified the investment.