jhb171achill

Even better news.

"None for all.........and all for none!"

Gerbil smoothies, anyone?

Several GSWR coaches, broadside showing lining and close enough for general dimensions. Plus a 1937 "Bredin".

The consulting engineer's report states that the first priority is the consumption of beers, I believe......

No wonder. The most utterly useless things ever known to man. I have a €20 one and I have tried using it to pay for €18 worth of food. Won't work, yet the website says it's valid. Very, very strong advice to all is avoid this scam-like nonsense.

I have the same problem. Was thinking about a tree, or a slight curve in the backscene?

Wow!!! Superb. I actually like that grey livery on a 121….

Well done!

I have a couple of these unmade - must dig ‘em out! These little beauties from KMCE are next for painting. And running around a friend’s layout (running in!) is what will haul them. IMG_2122.MOV

At Dugort, rolling stock work continues. This ancient kit (Slaters coke wagon, I think) is a high-sided open wagon in Britain, but can readily be converted to a reasonable approximation to an old GSWR “soft-top” by the addition of an open-centre roof. The roof sections shown are just bits of paper as templates to illustrate the point. Plastic pieces will be shaped and made, and a centre tarpaulin put in place to hide the interior, and what in real life, as an open wagon, is the non-opening part above the doors! The impression needs to be given that it has full-height doors, of course. Old relics like this, and the four KMCE wagons seen in the background, could still be seen in far-flung backwaters until about 1960 - well into the A and C class (“grey’n’green”) era. It’s just about conceivable that a grey 121 might have met one, but a black diesel loco is probably pushing credibility a bit far. Wagons like this will be out’n’about primarily when I’m operating steam. Painting next, followed by very heavy weathering. These wagons are intended to look as if they’re about to fall to bits. Meanwhile, A23R is shut down for the night. Those empty cattle wagons have to go to Cork in the morning on the back of the up goods What to make tarpaulins out of? I’m thinking very thin paper soaked in black water colour paint, which should give a distressed look, and perhaps dipped in varnish and hardened? Any other ideas?

Quite a journey!

Yes. Much as I like Silverfox Models - and I would recommend them as a good "quick fix" (I've several myself and more on order), their livery details need serious research. ALL silver coaching stock, like locos, also had silver bogies, silver roofs and silver gangways. The reason is that silver was not a livery as such - the coaches were simply in bare metal, not painted. The numerals on them should be in pale green, or in some cases RED, believe it or not; but never black. Similarly, many of their silver locos have black numbers or "snails" - also incorrect. Their green coach roofs are grey - they should be black. Their "G" class locos - the later G61X class were never green, only the first 3, G601-3 were ever green. Those three has a large cabside number, and no snail; the green livery with snail and small number is a DCDR thing, never carried by anything in real life. I must do out a diagram for "G" class liveries, of which there were three for the G601s and two for the G611s, as I don't think I've ever seen a model of a "G" correctly painted.........! Please nobody take this as a rant - just clarification for the sake of accuracy! So, for your silver van, yes, you'll need to respray the entire chassis and gangways. At least the roof isn't black! Mind you - for anything CIE and silver, in all reality the single most accurate "livery" of the lot is an exceptionally grim layer-upon-layer of grime, brake dust and general wear and tear....they looked truly awful after only a very short time in traffic and most were repainted green as soon as resources would allow! Should have added, for West Cork vans such as this are plain essential. You'll literally need one on every passenger train which isn't steam - though steam trains usually carried them as brake vans too. If I were you, and modelling West Cork, I'd be looking for three or four of them.

I’ve a green one and a silver one on order. They are very good to deal with, always answering emails promptly. Guidance on livery is needed though - they tend to use light grey roofs on the CIE green livery, which should be black; and white lining and “snails”, which should be light green. But you can point out what you want when you’re ordering.

Thank you, gentlemen!

Finally for tonight, B165 gets away with the daily goods, 1969. A string of Provincial goods vans and one Bullied corrugated open. Heard the Beatles’ new song, by the way?

Open wagons…. Quite a few Provincial corrugated open wagons, but as per the 1955-65 period, almost as many timber bodied ones of traditional design. These are just old Bachmann, Dapol or Hornby wagons repainted. The grey on this one is wrong - too dark, but once it gets its “snails”, and number it will look ok when severely weathered into oblivion! This particular one will need to lose its vacuum bags too. I will need cows at some stage, indeed! I’m working today on the “big” station where the Dugort Harbour branch originates from - it will have Macroom-like fair days and enough cattle siding space for almost 40 cattle wagons! Track bed being prepared….

CIE “H” vans. I’ve a good few, some made up, others not. Again, most with snails - just a couple with roundels. Note the lighter grey livery used after approx 1960, also the tan surrounded logo. These were only used on there and the “palvans”. All other wagon types had a plain white “roundel”.

Next, cattle trucks. CIE built lots of brand new ones in the 1950s, so by the time the GNR was included, most GNR ones were scrapped straight away. Numbers of cattle by rail collapsed after 1957, with only half the 1957 number by 1965, and half of even that disappearing soon after. By the early 60s, non-standard cattle trucks were nowhere to be seen. I have one GNR one, which will have battered-looking GNR markings; I’m pretty sure none ever got CIE livery. Of the dozen or so CIE ones I have, two have “roundels” (the two on the left here) and the rest have “snails”. Provincial Wagons kits.

Next, GNR vans. Provincial again. Unpainted replacement planks were a feature of wagons likely to be withdrawn soon. Wagons with GNR markings were to be seen all over CIE, even at places like West Cork, Westport and Valentia Harbour, after CIE ate part of the GNR in October 1958. The vast majority were scrapped quite soon, as frequent closures of lines, contraction of freight traffic and ferocious building output of “H” vans quickly replaced them; not, though, before some acquired “flying snails”, and even “roundels”. A very small number even survived the 1970 changeover to brown livery. Dugort Harbour has six - two each with GNR markings, snails & roundels.

The first lot of these are with two exceptions, all Provincial kits. Weathering by either myself, Kevin McIntosh or “Dempsey”. The guards vans are two Provincial GSWR types, still to be seen in isolated places into the 1960s, with two of an only very slightly later design staggering on into the 1970s, at Castleisland and Loughrea. Liveries all 1955-63-and-after, grey with snails. All wear the darker grey, which was “lightened” when the new 20T and 30T steel-sided brake vans appeared. One is very “bleached” looking - I remember seeing this effect on wagons which had long been a stranger to a paint brush. Middle van - JM Design.

I like to imagine if even the Bantry line alone had survived… the 1960s, 70s, 80s and early 90s would probably have seen a diet of 141s, Park Royals and laminates, and C / B201s. Oil trains would possibly have appeared. Probably no goods after 1975/6. Fast forward to today: the system would be operated by two 2-car 2800s. I’d rather go to Bantry in an ICR or 2600 / 2800 than a car, looking over hedges at a long gone railway formation! (I might draw the line at an NIR 450 or MED, though….)

Like Leslie, I am absolutely gobsmacked at your output, Darius. Those are exceptionally realistic and superbly detailed. Rarely if ever do we see work like this - very well done indeed. I love the Indian one especially, but they're all just as good. More, please!

Yes, that aspect has always interested me. Trial and error has helped me - some of the first ones I took were plain awful, and I wouldn't dare post them! The learning curve continues, but it's high time I stopped messing about with the mobile and got into laying more track!

Because it was the most efficient way to operate the line.