Mayner

The P.W. on the West Cork was never designed for speed, the trains on the West Cork were slow even by Irish standards In the 1960 WTT speed on the Baltimore-Skibbereen section was limited to 30mph with a maximum of 40mph between Skibbereen & Albert Quay. The AEC railcars were allowed a maximum of 50mph on the straights as there was no super-elevation on the curves.

Cork was a very compact city with urban development mainly restricted to the river valley, the West Cork entered the city on a sinuous route through a largely rural area from the South West. Even today Waterfall approx 6 miles from Albert Quay appears to be in a completely rural area. Up to the 1980s commuter/suburban passenger services in the Republic were largely restricted to Cork-Cobh, Dublin-Bray-Greystones, Dublin-Howth-Drogheda lines. There was very little urban development to the West of Dublin before the 1970s with even less along the railway lines! The Muskerry and Passage lines appear to have been much more suburban in nature, both lost traffic to the trams and no doubt the early motor cars. There are stories of children commuting to school on the Muskerry

Going back to the original thread passenger services appear to be pretty much secondary to goods on the West Cork and most other Irish secondary main lines. The passenger service actually got worse on the Clonakilty Branch following the introduction of the C Class diesels the morning mixed train from Clonakilty Junction to Clonakilty became a goods which worked the Timoleague & Courtmacsharry line as required. C Class locomotive working appears to have been quite complicated as the locos working the main line goods trains were used to swap power with the branch locos. In a way the West Cork would be excellent for a system layout with timetable working like Drew Donaldson's Dublin-Cork main line, Sam Carse's Donegal or Castlerackrent modelling a number of main line stations and branch terminals would be very interesting even with the 1940s & 50s sparse train services.

I had a very brief involvement in the Rena Salvage mainly around public safety on the beaches where containers were washed ashore,. Some of the containers were reduced to twisted pieces of metal https://www.odt.co.nz/news/national/rena-containers-wash-ashore

Pretty close to the mark, interesting to see traditional timber frame coaches being assembled long after other railway had changed to all metal construction. http://catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000304519 Plasticard is an excellent medium for scratchbuilding carriages that would be uneconomic to produce in kit or rtr form. David Jenkinson built over 200 plasticard coaches from 4 to 10mm scale and some pretty impressive layouts. Jenkinson found that he could scratchbuild a coach from plasticard quicker than he could assemble a kit. Carriage Modelling made easy is a good introduction to his methods and includes some impressive model coaches. https://www.amazon.com/Carriage-Modelling-Made-David-Jenkinson/dp/1874103321

Interesting the photo indicates that vans were built without a horizontal cover slip at cantrail level between the sides and roof, unlike the heating van. The nails securing the roof cladding to the sides is visible in the Thurles photo. The coverslips appeared to have been added at a later date which makes it easier for someone wanting to model these coaches. I would imaging the CIE would have used the standard 61'6" triangulated underframe & standard roof jigs for the 1959 vans, the body appears to be of traditional timber frame construction with aluminium cladding, rather than the Laminated panels used in the Laminate coaches and 4w heating & luggage vans. Inchacore reverted to timber frame construction for its final coaches a batch of 7 2nd Class Coaches in 1962 & 2 1st Class coaches in 1964, these appear to have the similar end profile to the vans and pre-Park Royal stock.

Official records are not always 100% accurate and without a surviving van its impossible to check if the physical dimensions. Differences often exist between the original concept design and the end result in engineering projects. I have an "official" drawings of the AEC railcars and a "Beet Double" which are substantially different to ther actual as-built vehicles. I am inclined to believe that CIE used the original 1935 body design with vertical sides above waist level on a triangulated underframe for the 1959 vans. The duckets and outward sliding doors are the giveaway that the vans were built to a narrower width, van doors were recessed into the body and guards lookout duckets were not fitted to wider coaches with a teardrop end profile like the Laminate Coaches and heating vans as they would have fouled the loading gauge.

The 10' width for the vans in the Doyle & Hirsch book may be a typo, the vans appear to be more upright in profile than the tear drop profile of the 10' wide coaching stock. The 1935 Bredin van appears to have had a maximum width of 9' with a slight tumblehome above the solebars, Bredin increased the maximum width to 9'6" with the 1937 coaching stock with a more tear drop profile seem in the photo of 2560. I would recommend obtaining a set of 2549-2558 drawing or diagrams either from the Chief Mechanical Engineers Office at Inchacore Works or through the IRRS if IE have disposed of the drawings. A set of sides or a van based on the Bredin or CIE Composite conversions may be a better option as I have a CIE drawing of a Composite to BSSGV conversion.

The photo is dated May 63 before the UTA ended goods traffic, Beauparc seems to have recently closed as a block post signal arms removed but signal post and pointwork still in place. https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishswissernie/5736789174/in/album-72157626756740602/ There are a number of photos of ex-NCC vans on the GNR system both before and following the UTA takeover. Presumably NCC stock would have been mainly used for traffic from the ex NCC lines onto the GNR and returned empty before the takeover while GNR & CIE wagons were more likely to have been used for interchange traffic between the GNR & CIE. Interestingly there is a photo a SLNCR Enniskillen-Sligo goods mainly made up of GNR & CIE vans, with a cut of relatively new looking CIE H vans marshaled behind the GNR stock towards the rear of the train. Its likely that several of the GNR vans were being used to transport bagged cement from Drogheda to Sligo (the GNR & SLNCR competed with CIE for Dublin-Sligo freight traffic & Drogheda-Sligo bagged cement) the H vans are likely to be returning to the CIE system over the SLNCR rather than via Dublin to maximise CIEs share of the line haul revenue particularly if the wagons were consigned to a destination in the South West. The NCC vans make a nice contrast to CIE & GNR stock and relatively simple to build from plasticard. "Nelson" produced a nice model of an NCC van complete with outside axleguards on a Dapol wagon chassis https://irishrailwaymodeller.com/topic/2382-nelsons-workbench/page/4/

Special credit to JHB for the GSR paint sample & Linkup Paints https://www.linkup.co.nz/ for their colour matching service. Unfortunately I am unable to export the laquer or enamel by airmail. Mike: I will send you my e-mail address.

I am prepared to consider producing a set of luggage van sides & doors or a full kit, if there are expressions of interest for a minimum of 10 sets of sides or complete vans. The 2549-58 or 2559-61 version with sliding or inward opening doors would be a simpler option the doors hinges and handles on the later conversions would be difficult to reproduce. The doors could be included on the same photo tooling as the sides along with bonus items like battery boxes would or coach ends with windows would help keep the overall cost down. SSM produce a very nice model of the original GSR Bredin Luggage Van which remained in service for many years, its a good starter kit for people with limited soldering skills as the body bolts together, the bogies are slot and tab assembly.

Although I fantasized in my youth about a narrow gauge tramway along the road from Lucan to Celbridge, Clane and Sallins , I never realised that Straffan was a major junction with the narrow gauge. http://catalogue.nli.ie/Search/Results?lookfor=straffan&type=AllFields&page=2&view=list

I decided to experiment with casting Woods Metal or Cerrobend rather than sheet or liquid lead to ballast the MGWR 2-4-0. I ordered the metal ignots from MicroMark in the States as most businesses in Australia/New Zealand do not re-open after the Christmas/New Year Holidays until mid-January. I decided to make the patterns out of modelling clay for speed/ease of use and do the casting in rubber moulds as they could be used in other locos. The rubber moulds are cast in mould boxes made from 0.60" plasticard. I use a NorthWest Shortline Duplicutter for cutting uniform strip of plasticard. Masters in yellow clay and background & Woods Metal Nugget. I use a Chopper with an adjustable fence for cutting plasticard or stripwood to a uniform length. I bought these NorthWest Shortline tools many years ago while living in the UK possibly in Victors of Islington a famous American (& Continental) Model Railroad Shop. The work bench is due a re-organisation (including raising the power outlets to a safer height!) as part of a workshop/railway room re-organisation. Completed mould boxes. The casting box on the right are for forming smaller ingots as the Micro Mark Nugget is too big to fit in the casting ladle! Pouring in the RTV (Room Temperature Vulcanising) rubber. I used an Australian Barnes 2 part product called Pinkysil https://www.barnes.com.au/addition-cured/pinkysil-silicone-2209. I have successfully used this material for simple and plug moulds for casting parts in polyester resin. Completed moulds, I used an empty cat food container as a mixing vessel. Although having a limited shelf life once opened, I had no problems with these moulds at least 3 years after opening the containers for the last moulding session. Interior of mould cavity approx 3 hours after casting. Castings best done outdoors Woods Metal can release toxic (lead & Cadmium) vapours when melted.Woods metal melts at 70°C. A tin bitusmuth alloy is lead and cadmium free but melts at a 140°C would be a safer alternative. I used an old serving spoon from the kitchen as a ladel for melting the original nugget and pouring into the ignot mould. The casting ladel with its spouts allows better control for casting the ballast weights. The filled mould, Micro burner and ladel are on an offcut of fibre cement board (non asbestos) The complete castings & any surplus metal goes back into the mould. While Woods Metal melts at 70°C the temperature in the ladel may have been higher as the castings took a considerable time to solidify, alternatively the rubber may have acted as an insulator retaining the heat in the metal.

The CIE parcel business expanded greatly in the early 70s with the introduction of CIEs Fastrak parcel service and over night Newspaper Trains delivering the Dublin morning newspapers to provincial destinations, the newspaper trains ended in the late 70s when the business was transferred to CIEs road freight operations. The CIE parcel vans would have run separately in mails, newspaper and parcel trains without TPOs or without Heating vans, trains could be a loco and a single Parcel van to an entire train of vans. The Wexford Newspaper train originally appears to have consisted of a loco and a single coach, but was transformed for a short period in the late 70s to an additional Wexford-Connolly summer season evening passenger train and return empty coaching stock & newspaper train when the coaching stock of the Wexford-Rosslare local passenger were used to provide the coaches of the additional Dublin passenger. The up & Down Athlone-Westport Night Mail was usually worked by a loco and a Parcel Van, the van was attached and detached from the Dublin-Galway Night Mail at Athlone.

The 6 wheeler is an ex-GNR Diagram 47 Ballast Wagon. The third wagon in the trains looks like an ex-LMS-NCC van possibly returning empty from Navan or even Kingscourt to Northern Ireland. The GNR & SLNCR both had 6 wheel ballast wagons. The GNR appears to have had two varieties. 1. A 2 door wagon with sloping ends. 2. A dropside version possibly with removable ends and sides. I saw one of the latter in Kingscourt in 75/76 the wagon had lost its sides and ends may have been used for carrying sleepers or rails. The Ulster Transport Museum have the UTA & GNR carriage and wagon diagram books

Interesting find! I wonder was there a corresponding set of windows on the opposite side.

The "Silver" Laminate panels were unpainted aluminium rather than stainless steel and did'nt stand a chance against the Irish weather, diesel fumes, coal smoke and track dirt/brake dust and tarnished pretty quickly. I used Tayima AS12 "Bare Metal Silver" to represent a new ex-works aluminium coach but I would not attempt to weather one.

The GSR wooden and Bredin coaches shared a standard 60' steel underframe both types of coaches were of traditional timber frame construction. 2980 basically is a Bredin coach with some of the doors and windows blanked out and mail van doors added, traditional timber frame stock was much simpler to modify for different uses compared with more modern steel or aluminium bodied stock. The 1st couple of batches of CIE built coaches were similar in design and construction to the 1930s Bredin stock on a welded steel underframe with GSR pattern bogies an included Open Thirds, Buffet Cars to run with the AEC railcar sets, together with side corridor , Composite and Third Class coaches which were based on the pre-War stock. The situation gets a little complicated as the latter batches of these coaches including Buffet cars and Side Corridor Thirds were built on Bulleid Triangulated underframes and Commonwealth Bogies. To complicate things further early Buffet Cars & the remaining pair of GSWR Buffet cars received B4 bogies following the introduction of the Craven coaches in the 1960s!

A single 35T capacity steam crane would struggle to safely lift a long object like a coach or bridge beam, usually two cranes are used in a "tandem lift" for such lifts http://catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000304303 The maximum safe working load of a railway steam crane is subject to the angle of the jib with a maximum lift capacity with a near vertical jib, with reduced capacity at shallower angles . I found this out the hard way when I first hired a mobile crane on a construction site, fortunately the hire company rep insisted on visiting the site before supplying the crane. Fortunately the lift was a success and I got to play with all sorts of construction cranes

The 2979 series TPOs were converted from GSR Bredin coaches, probably converted after CIE stopped non-stopped mail bag exchange at speed. The underframe truss arrangement is the main spotting difference between GSR & CIE Bredin coaches. The GSR used the traditional arrangement with a riveted underframe with truss rods and adjustable turnbuckle tensioners while CIE used a welded underframe with angle trusses. Interestingly CIE have fitted roller bearing axle boxes to the GSR bogies.

The C&L breakdown crane was "removed" in 1944 (Cavan & Leitrim Railway PJ Flannigan Pan paperback edition) The crane behind 2L looks like a good yard hand crane. Fantastic Ulster Folk & Transport restoration of Kathleen & Coach No 5 https://www.nmni.com/collections/highlight-tours/all-aboard

The Cavan & Leitrim had a hand operated Cowans & Sheldon "accident crane" with a wooden jib. Apparently although a travelling crane it seldom left its resting place in Ballinamore & was used soley for re-tyreing loco wheels. A lot of re-railing work on both the narrow and broad gauge would have been done by jacking & packing with sleepers and screw jacks. Smaller companies like the SLNCR and Cork Bandon & South Coast carried re-railing jacks on the locos. In Great Britain many of the "Colonel Stephens" lines had hand operated War Surplus brake down cranes which were seldom used. The pair of breakdown cranes supplied to the Festiniog narrow gauge were notorious as they were too big to fit through the bridges and tunnels on the line.

The Mallow crane appears to be ex-GSWR from the Great Southern Railway Preservation site in Mallow, the Tuam crane 2m was ex-MGWR last used as the Athlone breakdown crane Both the GSWR & MGWR cranes appear to be the same type and may be "War Surplus" and may have been snapped up as a bargain by the Irish Railways or possibly in lieu of cash as part of the Governments Settlement with the Irish Railway companies. Although the Mallow crane builders date is 1920 it may have been ordered by the Government before the ending of hostilities or like the Woolwich Moguls to maintain employment as industry wound down from a war footing at the end of the war. The wagons that ran with the cranes were known as match trucks both on standard Irish wagon underframes, interestingly the match trucks used with the ex-GSWR crane have the older style of wooden underframe with a hand brake on one side while those with the Midland crane have the more modern steel framed underframes most likely with a handbrake on each side. The Ratio 574 P.W. wagons set included a very nice pair of rail wagons and a pair of ballast wagons all wooden underframed which were very close in appearance to the GSWR wagons including single the option of assembly with Irish style single lever brake gear https://www.ebay.co.uk/p/1641654330?iid=112030705153 Interesting to see how much was achieved by GSRPS volunteers in establishing the restoration site at Mallow, restoring rolling stock and an attempt to re-open the Fenit Branch so near but so far. DERAILED. Hopefully some day you will publish a book about your experiences in Irish railway preservation.

Anthracite a slow burning almost smokeless coal which was at one time used in steam locos on the Anthracite Railroads in the North East United States in addition to steel making, industrial and domestic use. One of my grandfathers was a driver on the Midland up to the early 30s, an American relative could not understand why Irish trains were so smokey . Like Phoebe Snow our relative rode on "smokeless" trains on a road of Anthracite in America https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoebe_Snow_(character)#/media/File:Phoebe-Snow-ditty.JPG https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camelback_locomotive, I am not sure how an Irish locomotive crew would have reacted to a Camelback Its likely the Anthracite from the Leinster coalfield was used mainly for domestic and industrial use in Ireland, it would have been difficult for the Irish mines to compete with South Wales anthracite particularly after the coalfield went into serious decline after WW1.

The UTA & NIR used their MPD & 70 Class railcars as locomotives and used them to haul the overnight North Wall-Derry goods between Lisburn and Waterside. https://www.flickr.com/photos/152343870@N07/40139251611/