Mayner

There are several different options for a fiddle/staging yard, a lot depends on the available space and how you want to operate your railway. The most important consideration is that storage tracks should be long enough to store your longest train. Three yard tracks are usually considered to be a minimum though four are better. While a ladder fiddle yard is easiest to construct a traverser or a cassette fiddle yard may be a better option in your case due to the restricted space available. Steves Page on Fiddle Yard design covers the main types https://rail.felgall.com/fyd.htm They basically break down into: 1. Ladder with points. These are simplest to construct but consume a lot of space. When I have space I generally build this form of fiddle yard. 2. Traverser where the fiddle yard physically slides to align with the approach tracks. I am building a 1.2m long 5 track traverser for my Irish Broad Gauge layout using an 18mm ply deck on kitchen drawer runners 3. Sector plate where the fiddle yard is pivoted at one end. The MRSI Loughrea layout had a sector plate fiddle yard with a turntable loco release. The table deck was in ply which pivoted on a turned bolt, track alignment/power was achieved with small barrel bolts. Operated reliably at exhibitions in Ireland and the UK for approx 15 years. 4. Turntable. Like the fiddle yards on David Holmans Arigna Town & Clogher Valley layouts. 5. Cassette fiddle yards: Where the yard is constructed in removable sections long enough for an individual loco or a complete train

If you have the space Portadown would be terrific both from a watching trains go by and serious operating perspective, especially if you have room for a working junction with the Derry Road and Armagh-Clones line. Its an ambitious project that would take several years to complete in OO with RTR locos and a lot longer if you go down the finescale route with kit and scratchbuilt locos and stock in 21mm gauge

A bit like the story of the blind man looking for a black cat in a dark room, I recently had the experience of trying to find a holiday cottage on the side of a mountain in Wales without satnav or cell phone coverage, to compound things the post code for the property/district was incorrect. We solved the problem by asking for directions at a nearby farm house.. I did get to see and ride on some narrow gauge trains though and re-explore the area after 15 years.

Its possible that some of bogie fertiliser wagons entered service with mesh doors and were subsequently retro fitted with ply doors. It might be worth trawling through IRRS Journals from the era for photos and information. The bogie wagons were initially nicknamed "Long Kesh wagons" by railway men, on account of the mesh doors, to distinguish them from the existing "Back to Back" fertiliser trains made up of 4w flats with open containers.

An etched or whitemetal kit is seldom a write off. Brass & whitemetal kits are very forgiving and poorly assembled kits can be improved as a modeller gains experience and develops skills. Quite a few modellers in the UK dismantle and re-build poorly assembled kits bought at swap meets and on e-bay. My first efforts with brass kits 25-30 years ago were frankly rough, but have been improved and upgraded over time my first locos the MGWR Tank and J15 are still going strong with original gears, wheels and motor after 30 years & one rebuild/repaint.

Picked this up on RM Web sudden Chinese factory closure affecting supply of Atlas locos and rolling stock https://shop.atlasrr.com/b-atlas-rolling-stock-and-locomotive-factory-closure.aspx combined with rumours on US news groups of Hornby shifting production to Hungary. Apparently Intermountain and Trainworx also affected Apparently the factory closed as a result of the owners ill health .

Working doors, forklift (battery rc)and choice of pallets with 50kg bags or 50okg bulk bags?

The bogie fertiliser wagons were originally rated at 40 ton capacity and appear to have been uprated to 48tons at some stage during the IE era. Would be interesting to find out whether the product was getting denser, additional pallets were being loaded, or simply the capacity was increased by 8 tons to reflect what was actually being loaded. Fertiliser traffic started to run down during the 1990s one possibly two rakes of fertiliser wagons were converted into 42'9" container flats by 1996-97. Due to load limits on the steeply graded New-Ross branch laden fertiliser trains from Albatros Fertilisers were worked in two trips to Waterford before being combined into one train for the journey to the final destination,.

Think there are/were similar murals (including a steam train) on the flats near where the North Strand Rd crosses over the Royal Canal and railway.

As a kit builder (& manufacturer) and some time scratch builder I believe that SSM/TMD kits are certainly worth it in terms of ease of build and satisfaction with the end product and I personally find it easier to build a kit or scratchbuild a model than attempt to kitbash a rtr model into something else. It depends pretty much on personal preferences some modelers are content to kit bash rtr models into a caricature of an Irish model which looks reasonable from a distance, others prefer to build a model that's closer to the prototype. De Selby (Alan Edgar) RM Web threads on kit and scratchbuilding GNR & NCC locos will give you an idea of what can be achieved with this approach. http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/98951-gnr-ireland-vs-class-4-4-0-a-skritchbuild-in-4mm/. The GNR has a great advantage over other Irish railways in that the majority of the steam classes that ran on the main lines and on secondary services, a lot of coaching and wagon stock is available in kit form from SSM & Worsley Works and the OO Works locos & Provincial wagons are a quick way of getting started if you work in OO. The kits can be assembled to run in OO or 21mm if you are up to the challenge, building 4-4-0 & 4-4-2T locomotives to run round small radius curves can be challenging and best avoided for the sake of realism. A coach is probably a better option than a loco or even the GNR goods brake for a 1st build in brass as they are basically designed to bolt together with the minimum amount of soldering.

There is more than one way to skin a cat, the Dapol Stanier coaches are reasonably priced and passable "layout coach" that would pass for steel sided UTA or CIE Bredin stock, while you are looking for something a bit more accurate , these coaches were originally manufactured by Airfix and GMR during the late 70s early 80s. Different modelers have produced reasonably convincing GNR coaches using different techniques, Colm Flanagan http://www.worsleyworks.co.uk/Image-Pages/Image_4mm_GNR-I-K15.htm has produced convincing UTA & GNR coaches with Worsley Works sides on Airfix/GMR/Dapol Stanier coach bodies for his own layout and the Bleach Green layout, Kirley has used a combination of plastic & brass body shells http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/93496-kirleys-workbench/page-3, Glover has converted old Triang Hornby stock into reasonably convincing GNR k15s and CIE Laminates for his Pettigo layout

Hi Ken Send me a P.M. should be able to sort you out with both types. John

Pioneering Irish modellers like Cyril Fry & Drew Donaldson did not get too hung up in the correct scale gauge ratio. The effect of modelling Irish Broad Gauge in 7mm on 32mm gauge track is not as noticeable as in OO, as British O gauge is reasonably close to standard gauge while OO is considerably under gauge. The original C J Fry's Irish International Railway & Tramway was an International system with Irish and Continental models sharing the same tracks. Going back to JHBs original query, does anyone remember the working Dublin & Blessington diorama that was in the Dublin Tourism O'Connell Street office in the 1990s? The layout was a simple oval with a street scene probably based on Tallagh with a D&BST double cabbed steam loco and a double decker tramcar.

From the early 1900 up to the introduction of the Britannia Pacifics in the early 1950s 3-4 cylinders was basically the standard for large British express steam locos due to the improved balance of 3-4 cylinder layout and reduced damage to the track. The trade off was increased build and maintenance cost compared with a 2 cylinder machine. The 10 GSWR 400 Class 4-6-0s were introduced in preference to building more large inside cylinder Class 341 Class 4-4-0s as the 4 cylinder layout of the 4-6-0s was considered to be easier on the track than the 341 Class. The GSR eventually rebuilt 8 of the 400s to a 2 cylinder layout and scrapped the un-rebuilt locos to improve reliability and reduce maintenance costs. In the early 1920s the LSWR N15/GSWR 500 Class/GWR Hall/LMS Black 5 basically set the UK & Irish standard for the modern 2 cylinder mixed traffic 4-6-0 capable of express passenger and goods work, BR appears to have adapted the 2 cylinder layout for the Class 7 Britannia pacifics as they were considered to be mixed traffic rather than an express design, the solitary BR Class 8 Pacific the Duke of Gloucester which had a 3 cylinder layout similar to the 800 & Vs Class rather than the 4 cylinder layout used in the LMS Class 7 & 8 pacifics and GWR Star/Castle/King Class 4-6-0s

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.