Maitland

It would be tragic if the artwork were lost. WW has been a major resource for years, and a project to digitise Allen's work (crowdfund it)? would be a gift to the future.

Rob: Thanks for the invite, but that's Chester folk festival weekend and another of my too- often less than healthy pursuits. I've got (somewhere) an article on tarp covers, but a quick web search suggested Tunnocks caramel wafer wrappers: https://yourmodelrailway.net/forum/index.php?page=topicview&id=hints-tips-smaller%2Fmaking-wagon-sheets.

Thanks for all the help, very much appreciated. I've decided in the end to leave the roof off. Having looked at the suggested supports that would be added, I wondered how I would get the ones inside off. So for now it's an open topped body with no running gear. Next phase of design follows for that. I've ordered 2 prints from Seeed at about £10 each including delivery & taxes, so let's see how it goes. I'll post a photo when I get them, should be 3-4 weeks. One of the slight surprises was the STL file repair needed when I loaded it into slicer software. I would have thought Dassault Siemens, who design Solid Edge and were also on the committee that designed the 3MF format, would have checked that during the STL generation process. But perhaps that's an artifact of having to learn the CAD package as I went along - when I used it 25 years ago it was almost entirely for 2D wiring diagrams. The whole process so far has taken about 3 (not at all continuous) weeks, including 4 iterations from scratch of the body shell as I worked out how to navigate through the vagaries of Solid Edge. One of the weirdest things about it is that it seems, when stressed, to switch sketches from where I designed them to another sketch. Another is that unless you keep a close watch on it and stay ready to hit the Undo button, you find that some trivial change made half an hour ago has had a drastic effect on some long- ago added feature and you have to unwind all that work. Moral, use save frequently and check everything after messing with it. I'll probably do the floor and roof in styrene sheet using the van ends as a template for ribs positioned to locate the roof securely. I'll put the body "as it stands" on Github here.

Thanks for all the comments, and sorry I've been slow responding- away for bank holiday weekend. I don't intend to market anything- I had quite enough of that being self- (un)employed for 20+ years, the world's worst businessman. If I had a gold brick I couldn't sell it. But anything I design will be made available freely for anyone to use, via Github probably, along with details of where it can As for the cost, well, count the hours of conventional scratch- building or high- quality kit assembly, and charge yourself- even at the minimum wage or less, it's not a cheap hobby. Now what I'm really after is to pick your brains. I've not done resin printing before, so what resin gives an acceptable level of detail (what level is realistically printable? 0.5mm, 0.2mm, 0.1mm?), what about thermal stability, do I correct for shrinkage or does the software do that, where to put supports, which way up to print it, etc. etc. I don't even know what questions to ask yet - but you've done it and probably learnt the hard way. If you've posted about this elsewhere, links please. Odd questions: If I have a van or carriage with a roof and a floor, or a tank wagon, how does the surplus resin get out? Can I print buffers, brake gear, door handles etc in- situ, or are they best separate? How do you get axles into the bogie or chassis? Is there any snazzy trick to allow an axle to float for 3 point suspension? What sort of paint for what sort of resin? I'm sure I've got dozens more questions coming as soon as the computer- generated ideal meets the sticky, messy real world.

This represents the 1893 series, drawing in Ernie Shepherd's book. Created using Solid Edge community edition, and not quite complete- I haven't worked out how to do the door fastenings, obviously the undergear and roof are missing. It's actually to 4mm scale, but the STL (about 3MB) can be scaled. When reasonably complete, I intend to put this on Github so anyone can use it. I got a quote to make it from the Chinese company Seeed Studios, who I've used in the past to make very good PCBs, about $26 for two, including shipping and taxes. Actually I'm not very sure what they've quoted for, they could have taken dimensions as mm not inches, a bit like Spinal Tap's Stonehenge (how do I check the dimensions field in STL?), and I can't contact them as it's Chinese holidays. Who would grudge Chinese workers their holidays? Anyway, you resin printing experts: should I do the roof/ buffers as separate parts or will it print with them in place? I can't try it out as my order for a printer and washer hasn't been delivered yet, boohoo. Has anyone tried printing open- spoked wheels?

It's only numbers you need? PMB's photos give you 0,1,2,3,4,5,6 and 8, so copying those as images, correcting for perspective (only for a couple), and hamming 7 and 9 should give you something even a connoisseur couldn't argue with. And is that coach 58 or 88?

220 million Euro development by Iarnród Éireann with NO rail facilities!

Donal Murray's "Great Southern Railways" pictorial has a photo of 386, with the curved bit just visible at one end only - a bit odd as it presumably ran both ways. You can be proud of your ancestor- the design of C and D makes contemporary railcars (and most of those of 20 years later) look crude. Unfortunately I only get error 403 (permission) from flickr.

Roddy Ring it is, Specsavers appointment made. There's no information on the later career of the sets in the booklet. It concentrates on their technical history, in particular the batteries. There's also a rather hilarious account of a demonstration run from Amiens St to Gorey and back, with all the GSR and government top brass on board. It nearly ended in humiliation when, instead of allowing a half- hour recharge at Bray on the way back, De Valera decided he had better things to do than sample the buffet provided, and insisted on leaving after only ten minutes. They would have made it, except that a director of the Drumm company told the driver to stop at Blackrock because it was near his house. The battery drain on restarting meant they ran out at Westland Row. There's only the briefest mention of the sets in Desmond Coakham's "Irish Broad Gauge Carriages", and no clue there as to the identity of "Experimental Coach no. 386". However, Wikipedia says it was one of the Drewry petrol railcars, which have been discussed here: GSR Drewry Inspection Car, with lovely model by KMCE.

I picked up a fascinating booklet recently. It shows no publisher, ISBN number or publication date, though from internal evidence it's after 1994 and the author is Roddy King. Publication was "supported by the Electricity Supply Board". It gives a potted history of the Drumm train development, from information given by Brian Hogan, apparently the last survivor of the development team. Development started much earlier than the brief mentions it gets in normal histories, and the idea of battery vehicles was satirised in Dublin Opinion (what was that)?) in 1927. The GSR supported development enthusiastically, assisting in the conversion of a 4 wheeled inspection carriage with end windows into a battery- electric car - "Experimental Coach no 386 Drumm Patent". Trials from August 1929 proved the concept, and the Government supported the construction of two full- scale trains after commissioning an independent report. A few questions- who was (is?) Roddy King? Can the inspection carriage be identified? And what became of Dr Drumm after the collapse of the Drumm Battery Company when further development became impossible in the Emergency? He lived apparently till 1974. It's a real pity the battery design was forgotten. It seems to have several characteristics that might have been useful today. It doesn't flare like a lithium battery in an accident or through mis- charging (Though as with any powerful battery, a short circuit can set fire to anything flammable within range). It can withstand short circuits without damage. It's made of cheap and readily available materials. It can charge very fast, and source high currents without damage. Maintenance is simple. And it is obviously rugged - the sets lasted over 5 years after the demise of the company that made them.

Ramsey IOM. Of course, they'd have to reopen the line from Douglas via St Johns to get to it.

Thanks, the blueprints are useful as well, and the drawing is progressing at a moderate pace. I'm finding it impossible to reconcile different drawings completely, so I'm relying on stated dimensions wherever possible, and I'll make it clear what I've guessed when I post the result. Just to show progress so far:

I'd be grateful if someone with access to a better copy of the loco diagrams would tell me the dimensions circled below. Other dimensions I have from the GA.

That's all there is in the article. If you want me to send a better copy, I'll be happy to, just send me (personal message best) an email address that will take large attachments. Roger Crombleholme's County Donegal Railways Companion tells me there were 8 tranship trucks in all, with 6 open wagons for quarry traffic from Mountcharles and two covered van bodies, and mentions the decline of the quarry traffic but gives no dates for its termination. The quarry seems to be what is now the southern end of the McMonagle Stone works, and is decidedly not large on the National Townlands OS map.

From a Google search: I thought it was the W&L that was a GWR extension.... As for soft or hard C in Celtic, that was prompted by a reference in Sean O'Casey's autobiography, where he satirises the S pronunciation used by some at the time (he being a Nationalist and later James Connolly's general secretary). It's hard to work out why, as we're nearly all happy with the soft C in cycle or ceramic, and Celt being from Keltoi. But to be serious. I'm working on a drawing in original form with a view to maybe one day making a model, and what I can't work out from drawings or photographs is which side MGWR drivers were. Long shot, any photo of the backplate?