Shinkansen

Has anyone tried lengthening the Dapol KQA model to accept 45' containers? Is it even possible and it be done without compromising the integrity of the model? Any thoughts welcome... Tom

Incredible work as always. The Decals/bill boards are a lovely finishing touch

Y Thanks Heirflick. It's your efforts with these wagons gave me the idea in the first place. There's a few compromises made with these but I'm happy to live with them. Cost / hassle / good running characteristics are the main thing for me. Anything else is a bonus. Yes some weathering is on the cards. Have no problem chopping a wagon in half, detailing it with plasticard and respraying it with an aerosol. But havent a clue about weathering. That's the next challenge. Only one way to learn. Tom

Thanks for all the positive feed back lads, tis much appreciated. When a project drags on a bit ya wonder if it'll work out in the end! Luckily it did:cool: I hope it'll give someone else the inspiration to have a crack at building their own too. Hi Burnthebox. The kit in the background is a Kibri arched girder bridge (no. 9700 I think). Picked it up last year from the Model Center in Waterford. As far as I know site member Walter aka 'Kinvara Train' is the Irish agent for Kibri so worth giving him a shout if your looking for one. Kibri have a few different types available. Bridge span is 450mm and it's a single track. If you buy two kits, it is optional for these to be built together to form a double track bridge. Their not cheap but the detail is pretty excellent and for a polystyrene kit it turned out incredibley rigid. When I eventually build a layout the bridge will form a prominent part of it, well that's the plan anyways :-) Hope it's a help

Hi all, another update on the Tara Mines wagon 'kit bash'. Yes there are probably glaciers that move quicker but I'll get there eventually! Latest updates include: Paint, reassembly and decals. Weathering to follow, altough I might build an extra few wagons if funds allow first. A rake of 5 is fine, but 8 would be class. They look at home sitting behind 071 I reckon The Wanderers and Anthonys excellent photos of prototype were a big help during the build, cheers lads:tumbsup: Tara rake looking at home behind 071. Matt black paint helped give the illusion of cutouts in the wagon body without actually cutting the wagon. This would have compromised the wagons structure. Couplers are unchanged from the original wagon, spring loaded and have NEM pockets. Westys decals help finish the wagons off. Brake gear was fiddely but worth the effort. I'm pretty chuffed with how these turned out. Not strictly prototypical, but well within budget and their Dapol ballast wagon heritage is well disguised.

Spotted a hi-rail digger in action on the Waterford - New Ross line yesterday afternoon. It was operating on-rail just behind the Rhu Glenn country club hotel close to the N25. Looked to be clearing branches and over growth from the line. Good on them for making some preservation effort, whoever they are. Another observation whilst travelling yesterday, there was a bit of activity down new the stored Mk 3 rakes in Waterford West, couple of vans, lots of dudes in Hi-viz down around the carriages... any thoughts?

Lovely work, great job on the yard lighting:-bd Must have a crack at doing it sometime. Are you planning a container yard? Would like one on my own lay out. Finally it seams there'll be a half decent 'reach stacker' in 1:76 on the way from Oxford Diecast in a few months. Should be good

The baby GM with the oil tankers look the biz... Very cool 'short train', and the most realistic rust effect I've ever seen on those tankers. Top stuff Tom.

Might have said this before but... truely great work on the A Class. Silver Foxes' simple model lifted to a much higher level. Thanks for the inspiration, have picked up an 'A-class' kit to have a go myself sometime in future. Also, yet more stunning work on Cork Yard/Kent station with your work on the girder bridge. Only took a spin over the prototype the other day. What's your plans?? Are you modelling Cork Yard/Kent station as a stand alone/shunting type layout or is it going to be part or a larger 'looped' layout? Anyway, keep the pictures coming. Quality stuff as always Tom

Lovely weathering work there. It has that authentic dirty look for sure! Have yet to take the plunge and try it on any of my own stock.... Have a way to go before Im that brave. Welcome to the site:cool:

Thanks lads. They're coming together, slowly but surely. Alot more to these wagons when you start getting stuck into them. I would like to know what's the significance of the cut-outs on the wagon sides? Any ideas? Anyways, nearly in the home stretch... Paint, decals and weathering (lots n lots of weathering) ahead. Also have graffiti transfers which I'm itching to try out

A quick update on the Tara wagon/kitbash. Have begun re-engineering the 4 other dapol wagons to match up with my first prototype. With one done, the other 4 came together quiet quickly. Have included a few pics of how to achieve a nice consistent curve in the plasticard wagon tops. Heatgun + old metal paint tin + masking tape + block of wood/wall paper roller. Add to that a good dollop of patience... I ended up melting the plasticard into a twisted mess on the first attempt!!! As this is only a compromise and not 100% true to prototype, I wasn't goint to bother modelling the undercarriage/brake detail. That is until I saw a photo of one of the MIR Tara wagons on its side on Riversuirs workbench, reckoned I'd give it a go. Its a combination of plasticard odds and ends along with chopped up paper clips. Hand brake wheel to be added soon. Once the 5 wagons are all at the same level, it'll be time to paint over that 'Network Rail' Yellow with some more appropriate red oxide Tom

Hi Krose, The curved top was made from thin plasticard. To give it the the curved shape I first cut out rectangular blanks of plasticard the same size as the wagon tops. Taped the blank to an old metal tin of dulux using masking tape. This tin had a nice gradule curve. Then heated the blank up with the heat gun. Just enough heat, along with a little pressure from a block of wood/wall paper roller does the trick. Too much heat (as I found out on my first attempt) will warp the plasticard so be careful!!! When glueing the curved top to the wagon, I put a small square of plasticard in underneath to support it. Will post pics of all this soon. My computer has been on the blink so hence no pics for the last while. Will update soon. Tom.

Hi Riversuir, Picked up the Orange for the Mk3s from my local 'Top Part' motorfactors in Dungarvan Co.Waterford. Theyll mix any colour you like and put in an aerosol for 20quid. Have an acrylic based 'red oxide' primer also sourced from there for the Taras, 5-6 Euro 400ml Simoniz aerosol. Might use this or maybe some Revell no. 37 matt enamel for the taras. Have to make my mind up on this, Have an airbrush but it's rubbish. Aerosols are so much more convenient! Tom.

Great stuff Riversuir, watching your build with great interest. Im building a rake of Taras at the moment too, its a kitbash as opposed to a full on scratch build but I can appreciate the amount of work that goes into a project like this. Looking forward to the end result. Keep us posted:tumbsup: Tom.

Excellent photos Wexfordloco. You don't see much photographs of 'Rail infrastructural work' being carried out in Ireland. Intriguing looking petrol driven implement there in the last photo... whatever it is! Top stuff

Been a while since I posted. Now that Christmas is over, it's a new year and time to press on with some projects. Here's one I've been thinking about for some time. I believe Heirflick may have posted something similar a while back, possibly even on the old forum. Anyways... Was thrawling through eHattons looking for bargains in rolling stock (something suitable for my 071) when I came across the Dapol IOA ballast wagon. I too noticed its rough resemblence to a Tara Mines wagon, but more importantly... it's resonable price tag! I picked up one a couple of weeks back to see if it could be reworked into something passable for a Tara Mines wagon. This build was not intended to be a true to life replica. More of a rough approximation. I'm happy with the results so far. So much so that I've picked up 4 more to modify and ordered up some transfers from Weshty. In a few weeks time I'll have a rake of Taras to go into traffic with 071 Any comments/pointers appreciated. Still learning my way with this railway modelling thing! Cheers Tom Nice and shiney!!! Shiney but way too long... The strip-down begins Cut and Shut. The jig was a Godsend to make an accurate and repeatable cut. Much more acceptable length. Body strenthening ribs and wagon ends still differ from prototype significantly. Getting closer to prototype. The rest of the rake will be built together to speed up the process. Excellent prototype photos from 'Tinternet' were a huge help. I don't recall who exactly took them, but whoever did, thanks a million

Nice one Weshty, You spotted a gap in the market:tumbsup: I'm currently kitbashing some dapol ballast wagons into Tara Wagons, something like this could fit the bill and finish them off nicely. I agree with ya on the Bachmanns, too much £££££'s for sure! Tom

If I were going to do this conversion again, I would start with one of the newer type Hornby Mk3 coaches as a base. Available new from Hattons (Stock code R4415B). The reason being the body + glazing lift away from the chassis all in one piece. It would make painting, reassembly heaps easier as you dont have to worry about chipping the paint. There should be a picture on my workbench of one of these type coaches opened up. I used an older Hornby coach for my egv, The standards and first class were all of the newer type. Hope its a help Tom

Wow, that is class, just what every living room needs... a massive piece of industrail heritage in OO scale! The shear scale of it is a little gobsmaking to be honest. Very well done and also massively jealous too. Loving the 'A class' loco. Top stuff, keep us posted

Nice work Dave. Great to see something different such as industrial builings being serviced by rail traffic being part of a railway layout. Have seen this done plenty on American HO layouts but it's good to see it in an Irish context for a change. Looks like it took acres of plasticard to build what you have already! Will be watching with great interest. Keep up the good work Tom

No love for the new logo... appears to be universally hated. I have to agree with all thats been said above and with good reason . Apart from being a bit bland, probably could only useful be useful as an icon on a smart phone and not fit for purpose in real life (i.e. plastered on the side of a train!). Most definitley designed by a child/committee at great expense. Bewildering as to what on earth is paying for this??? But then corporate identity is not one of I.E.s strong suits. How many liverys does it operate under?.... Intercity green/silver; Intercity (cork train); Enterprise; Enterprise (old); Arrow old livery; D.A.R.T; Freight. If I've missed one let me know. If it wants to increase volumes on it's network, changing to a naff logo is not going to help. Encouraging inititives to help people ditch their car and use the train would be of more benifit. The majority of us do not 'need' to use the train, we 'choose' to use it because the improved road network makes it so convenient to get around. Free parking at I.E. car parks and encourage pak and ride perhaps??? Anyway, back to the logo... similar level of 'FAIL' to when TOLL/New Zealand Railways rebranded as KIWI RAIL. But at least that one grew on me. Time will tell how this new one by I.E. will fair out... P.S. Stobart 071s.... could be interesting!

Fitz and Krose... cheers lads. Will post up pics of this project when the first wagon is complete. Sure itll keep me busy, 4 more to go once that first one is complete hence the need for a reliable cutting jig. Richie and Dave. Yes the Irwin stuff aint half bad, absolutely razor sharp. Not outta the way price wise either at little under 20 Euro at my local Homevalue hardware. Veritas do a similar saw but its alot closer to 30squids! Handy piece of kit for any carpentry work, plus it'll flush cut dowels with little or no saw marks

Hi all, Nothing new in this, we've all seen mitre boxes before. But for a project I'm currently working on, I needed something to help cut and shut a dapol IOA wagon and shorten it into something resembling a tara mines wagon. To do this I made up a mitre box from scrap MDF out in the shed. To halve a wagon accuratly and with minimal fuss, something bigger than a standard razor saw was required. An Irwin flush cutting saw from the local hardware fitted the bill. It has a flexible fine tipped blade with minimal saw kerf. Cuts on the pull stroke like a Japanese saw helping it stay straight and true. I assembled the mitre box with glue and nails. Once dry, I scribed lines on the box to represent my intended cut. I made the first cut through the box slowly and carefully using a tri-square to help line up the saw. Worth taking your time with this. Once its done right the first time, the saw will follow the same path from then on. No worrying about mismatching joints and dirty big seam lines! It makes the otherwise daunting prospect of shortening a wagon a doddle:tumbsup: Tom PS, The wagons metal weight was removed to allow the cut & shut to be carried out. It was shortened with a hacksaw and replaced afterwards to the lower half of the chassis. Upper half of the wagon chassis was rejoined using Humbrol poly cement.

Hi John, Merry Christmas to you and yours. Sounds like you're putting the Christmas break to very good use, good on ya Once all the Christmas dinners and meeting relatives stuff is finished.... I might crack on with my own layout! Excellent photo of some double heading 'DX's by the way. I really do like the new livery on these. If you think the prototype is a little underwhelming, don't look too close at any of the rail infrastructure, it's shocking... (NZ's other extream sport!). Just wondering, would you have any good pictures of coal wagons by any chance? Making plans to create a train for my pair of DX's and some kit bashing is on the cards, not bothering with the Frateschi wagons, reckon i can do better/cheaper. Any help would gladly be appreciated thanks. Tom.