jhb171achill

That’s very much the best way to go!

Interested in the “A” class story - a couple of trial runs, yes, but West Cork experts have always assured me that none ever went there “in traffic” at all…. Nice idea, though!

Cyril Fry managed to produce a model of something which had yet to enter traffic, as he got the drawings from Inchicore as it was under construction…..(the Drumm train). Just sayin’….

Summer 1960 sees the last Bandon saddle tank in traffic drift into Dugort Harbour with the goods. Or…. With this new-fangled Kodachrome colour film…..

The weathered version.

Quite a few wagon relics still kickin' about in Limerick..........

I’d say so, yes. C&L vans probably weren’t high in CIE’s priority list then!

That does look like 16, indeed. At the end, no two of these vans were alike - every survivor had differences to its panelling. Thus, a model of a specific one is going to differ in at least some detail from any other!

I’ll be on the railway embankment under the tree, just to the left of the old washing machine, tyres and bent supermarket trolley.

Madam’s going to Wales tomorrow via train to Rosslare, which is why I asked! Thanks!

Now that’s a suitably civilised breakfast!

A bit late in the day to ask, but will this affect train services tomorrow?

THAT's not catering - there are BEANS on it!!! The horrors.........! Yes, but they did put extra air bubbles in the Aero to compensate.........

These are obviously plain canvas and quite new. Usually they were dark grey or black, as they were coated with some sort of waterproof stuff, and impregnated with coal smoke!

The IE catering staff were almost all foreign, mostly Polish. I knew quite a few of them and I’m aware many went home during the covid. I daresay this is what’s afflicting the caterers.

MORE "edgy" than Strabane? ...ye gawds...........!

One of Ireland's least known but best modellers ever in live steam, was the late A R W Montgomery of Bray, Co Wicklow. Alexander Randal William Montgomery was born in Dalkey in 1878 and lived in Bray, and was a very close friend of both jhbSenior and H J A Beaumont (my grandfather). He died in Bray in 1966. A highly accomplished modeller, he sought engineering drawings from my grandfather in the Drawing Office in Inchicore, and built a number of 3.5 inch gauge live steam locomotives, all in full working order except for the models of GSWR No. 36 and B1a 800 "Maedb", which he never fully completed. When he was getting on in years he gave his models to jhbSenior (don't I wish I had ended up with them!), who in turn donated the lot to the then-fledgling Ulster Transport Museum, where they were displayed in Witham Street. One more is believed to be hidden in the catacombs in the National Museum in Kildare Street. The models were finished to an exceptionally high standard - I remember seeing them in his house in the very early 1960s. I'm not sure they're on display these days in Cultra - does anyone know? If not, they ought to be. The one in Kildare Street also needs to be rescued. Here are the last two models he made, photos taken by Senior about 1962 at our house.

Had a look at their 4mm stuff too. The goods van they list at the top of their list would do as an old GSWR type if it had vertically planked plain doors.

Looks great - the off-centre door does tend to “disqualify” it, though. Having said that, lovely model and I know what you mean…. Looking at Slaters’ website now, I don’t see anything 4mm - seems all 7mm? Plus - minimum order for Ireland seems to €140!!!! Back to fleabay….

I had a look at that, Mark, but the off-centre nature of the doors suggests that even a generic approximation of a pre-1910 GSWR van would be easier to just scratchbuild. I think there comes a point where amending a RTR model or a kit becomes harder and more time-consuming than a scratchbuild. It might be worth it if an accurate model of a prototype was the result, but I don’t think this one suits….

Yeah, me too - though lining and lettering were never my strong point, to be honest! Yes, it’s an old Slaters kit. I might get another and put vertically-planked doors on it - that would better resemble what it’s meant to be an approximation of. But it’ll do for a quickie job!

If you look at the original wagon, the doors weren’t full height. Obviously, on a real van, be it a “soft-top” or not, the door would be full height, so this had to be disguised; the solution being the canvas cover just about covering the top part of the wagon side, thus making it look like a full height door. Finally, painting. Next will be couplings, flying snails, numbers and heavy weathering.

I spotted a Midland Railway (of England) high-sided open coke wagon as a kit, which I thought could be converted to a generic GSWR (or at a stretch, CBSCR) “soft-top”. So, off we go. First, cutting small curved bits of plastic to raise the (previously level-topped) ends. Next, the roof parts, each a curved bit of plasticard. At this stage I was going to leave the centre part open, as it would have been when carrying cattle, so I made the two end sections of roof. However, I could have saved myself a bit of work as I then spotted a glasses cleaning cloth and decided it would make a good canvas cover! So, a piece was cut out and glued to thin but very strong paper. Once set, it was shaped and glued in place.

My attempts at hand lettering would be somewhat inferior to putting a spider in a pot of light green paint and having it walk across the wagon side! I’ll use transfers….. though in the case of the wagons, as per prototype of very much older wagons in the 1955-65 period, they’ll be so worn and grubby that it would’ve been almost impossible to make out the markings!

The wheels for mine were ordered ages ago, and are in a packet in Wales awaiting my next visit!