Mayner

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

I have been quite ambivalent towards model shops and have relied on main order and buying at exhibitions for many years even when I lived in Ireland and the UK. I found the service of a number of bricks and mortar shops in Ireland and the UK to be poor compared to the box shifters and specialist suppliers. Most were understandably focused on selling Hornby OO gauge, but were very poor in filling special orders for non-stock items even from large distributors such a Peco. When I modeled in N gauge (1980-90s) it was extremely difficult to get basics such a Peco points and packs of flexible track in Dublin, similarly when Murphy Models released the small GMs I ended up buying the locos from Rails as a prominent Irish retailer apparently could not be bothered setting up an overseas order for 3 locos despite a number of requests for a quote. These days I mainly use the local model shops for scratchbuilding materials, glue and paint, the model shops in this part of the world focus mainly on radio control models and diecast with model railways pretty much restricted to a small stock of Hornby OO focusing on the starter sets and cheaper models for the younger modeler.

The MGWR Ks/650 Class detail castings are now available as brass castings to order. Although designed specifically for the Ks-650 Class Midland 2-4-0s the castings are also suitable for a number of MGWR locos including the Achill Bogie 4-4-0s, the Midland Standard Goods and North Wall shunting tanks, the castings may be suitable for locomotives with 4'4" diameter boilers. Brass casting pricelist.pdf

Road wheel propulsion is the standard practice for modern Hi-Rail vehicles https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Road–rail_vehicle used to carry out inspection and maintenance work on many railways.

The screw couplings removed from C214 and replaced by 3 link possibly for ease of coupling when the loco was allocated to shunting duties. It seems almost a throw back to CIE and GNR steam practice where several classes of locomotive including GNR(I) 4-4-0s && the J15 had a 3 link coupler on the front buffer beam, some shunting locos only had 3 link couplers

I can't comment on the Murphy Models diesels but I found that a single 4 axle unit performed better than a single 6 axle unit in N Gauge. The 6 axle units tended to slip and loose traction with a load of 12+ freight cars while the 4 axle units just plodded along. There was a tendency for the outer axles of a 3 axle power bogie to loose traction as the bogie rocked back and forward pivoting about the center axle. I used a mixture of Kato and Atlas American diesels and usually loaded to 15-18 freight cars with 2-3 locos but sometimes loaded up to 50 cars with 4-5 locos, coupling strength/adjustment was the limiting factor on train length rather than haulage capacity. The situation with the haulage capacity of kit Vs rtr locos on large layouts is an interesting one, large kit built locos used on layouts like Little Bytham or Retford usually had heavy whitemetal or composite whitemetal and brass bodies with all metal chassis and running gear (sometimes plastic centered wheels) powered by large can motors with double reduction gearing designed to run at scale speed. Kits like the DJH Brittania, Austerity, 8F or 9F were more expensive than buying a equivalent rtr model but mechanically bullet proof once assembled avoiding problems with metal fatigue, split gears and failed pick-up systems that plagued many of the rtr steam locos introduced during the past 20 years

The drawing was produced by Herbert Richards a railway photographer and modeler a member of the Irish Railway Record Society and Transport Research Associates who was basically the "go to" person in Dublin during the 1960s & 70s for photos of CIE stations, rolling stock and wagon drawings. The IRRS may be able to assist in contacting Herbert or on accessing his collection of drawings and photographs.

Tony. Great to see your determination and commitment to modelling Omagh goods yard paying off. The level of detail really brings the scene to life, I really like the view across the platform the water tower is certainly an excellent view blocker for a staged presentation.

I was sorely tempted! That red tank car is definitely related to Thomas the Tank Engines Troublesome Trucks. Like the Ballymena Narrow Gauge we have had the odd freight car de-railing flipping over and getting lost in the shrubbery without anyone noticing until it arrived at its destination. There is a story of an ore car disappearing out of a train on the Ballymena narrow gauge somewhere between a mine and Larne without anyone noticing in NCC days, the ore car tipped over on an embankment and ending up in a field, the two parts of the train re-coupled the train crew did not notice a thing

The Irish Model Railway Company (Herbert Richards) H van drawing showing Bulleid triangulated underframe construction. The triangulated design was intended as a cheaper/stronger alternative to conventional underframe construction. The J hanger arrangement in combination with laminated springs provides an element of dampening to allow wagons and coaches to run at higher speed without de-railing .

Some how or other it me of an RTE sports presenters alleged comments about the French rugby player Jean Condom. "If he is no good in the first half will they use him again in the second half."

Something unusual: more realistic derailments or the challenges of Large Scale modelling? I sometimes run a train while I am working in the garden, after circuiting the main line several times this happened. The tank car appeared to uncouple from the rear of the train near the tree in the distance, then apparently de-railed at a facing point, partially de-railing a gondola before the train drew to a halt. The Tank Car (Bachmann Spectrum) had a tendency to rock from side to side on curves when running downgrade so further investigation was required to identify the initial point of the de-railment The red tank car initially appears to have partially de-railed on the approach to the viaduct passed trough a tunnel and the facing turnout to the wye before totally de-railing on a trailing turnout. The tank car had a greater tendency to rock from side compared to the Accucraft freight cars, which I tried to correct by fitting side bearing pads to one of the bogie, leaving the other to take up irregularities in the track which appeared to have largely eliminated the problem. The Bachmann bogie pivots on a sleeve secured to the body by a self tapping screw with a large washer, Accucraft originally used a turned bolt with a compression spring arrangement, but recently changed to a similar arrangement to Bachmann. While I initially treated the rocking as a problem with the design of the bogie/tank car, wheel profile may be a factor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunting_oscillation although Bachmann use a similar bogie pivot arrangement for its Big Haulier range of G gauge stock hunting/oscillation is not a problem although the High Haulier coach freight car wheels are smaller dia than used with 1:20.3 stock. The next step is to inspect the tank car bogies and wheels and possibly swap wheel sets or bogies to see if it makes any difference

The run down of Irish Railfreight during the last 16 years is mainly a result of a combination of IE implementing Irish Government transport policy and increased competition as a result of EU de-regulation. While the Irish Government is allowed to subsidies loss making public transport services, the Government is apparently not prepared to subsidies IEs freight operations due to a potential breach of EU competition regulations. One Transport Minister (round 2002-2005) is on the record that the Government is not prepared to subsidies IE to transport freight by rail because of competition legislation. CIE and Irish Cement came into existence during an era of protectionism when it was acceptable for a government to grant a monopoly to establish or protect and industry. IEs cement traffic was operating on borrowed time from the mid-late 1980's Cement Limited lost significant market share as competing cement manufacturers and importers entered the Irish cement market in the late 1980s, IE lost its near monopoly position in licensed haulage when the Irish Road Transport Industry was de-regulated during the 1990s.

Great find the coach appears to be one of the bogie Tri-composite coaches introduced by the MGWR in 1900 still in its original condition with center luggage compartment! These coaches were re-classified as 1-3rd composites when the Midland abolished 2nd class accommodation and appear to have been originally used as "through coaches" from main line to branch line services. An ideal coach for a one coach branch line train

In modelling Irish railway in N gauge I focused on the overall effect of modelling a railway in a realistic setting with locos and stock that looked the part from the proverbial distance of 2 foot. The main problem with the Lima N gauge was it was nearly impossible to achieve reliable running because of poor designed electrical pick up and the poor quality of the Lima N gauge motor. I ended up replacing my Lima N gauge locos with Atlas, Arnold or Minitrix diesels with scratchbuilt or kit-bashed Irish bodies, for me the break through was the Atlas SW1500 American switcher which I used as a basis for B121 & 141 locos, I also used an Atlas GP30 chassis for an A Class with a scratchbuilt plasticard body, wrong wheel arrangement but excellent low speed running and haulage ability that was ahead of contemporary British outline OO gauge.

The little GSWR 2-4-2Ts are one of my favourite engines, if I wasn't in so deep in 4mm and the Midland I would be almost tempted to move up to 7mm scale and build a layout based on the West Cork or Kerry branch lines. Tim Cramer did a great job in promoting Irish O Gauge modelling and persuading Alphagraphix to introduce Irish locomotive kits.

The Midland Standard Goods appear to have had a reputation of weak brakes after the breaking system was modified following the Amalgamation. Originally the Midland goods locos had a steam breaking system that was considered (by Midland men) to be extremely effective, but was considered to have been "ruined" when converted to vacuum by the "Southern". There is an interesting account of a derailment of J18 593 at Colloney Junction with the Down-Sligo Goods in December 1943 http://www.irrs.ie/Journal172/172 Collooney.htm. the train was unable to stop to unload sundries traffic and detach wagons at Colloney Station ran through the trap points at Colloney Junction the loco turning on its side. Interestingly the crew of the approaching 12:30 Tuam-Sligo Goods with J15 192 and 30 wagons were running at reduced speed having had found it difficult to control their train stopped at Colloney Southern.