Junctionmad

Omg, a rumour is started

I find it hard to beleive the north warf/FC wharf will return to any serious usage , silt is the bane of the original port and still remains a multi million annual cost for belview. Without continuous dredging the north wharf/FC can't sustain any serious shipping. FC wharf is undoubtably useful for cruise liners, assuming kings channel remains dredged The development plan largely drawn up in the boom, envisaged significant high density housing in the NW/FC area , it's hard to see that vision remaining concrete in the face of housing costs and economic issues that bedevil Waterford. The current economics of belview port are very poor and multi annual looses have left it in a very weak position, Notwithstanding as one of three rail connected ports remaining anything good is to be welcomed I remember it all in its heyday.

Indeed it was the final days of the railway

Noel, This isn't the issue. the issue is that the Royal Mail will not accept any solvent based liquids. Its nothing to do with PM, PM will in effect transport anything that you can deliver to their NI depot . The problem is that retailers in the UK, then have to use a courier service to deliver solvent based paints and that is considerably more expensive to deliver to NI then mainland UK. ( as the Royal Mails operation to NI is subsidised by the UK exchequer to retain price compatibility with the UK ) It should be noted that all of the carriers including ANpost and PM have restrictions on solvents, the "advantage" is that neither AddressPal or PM "know" whats in the parcel delivered to them, so they happily ship it to you . The issue is the stickier for the rules UK retailers nor is it Hazchem, its merely a rule change by the Royal Mail a year or two ago to " protect staff " from spillages , The paint materials themselves are not subject to Hazchem rules

As mr Burns would say , " excellent "

If you are modelling 00 track but positioning it to handle the wider Irish stock, then the track centres DO NOT move when you move to 21mm ( think of it simply as the wheels moving out towards the body sides , but nothing else changes . If your current track centre's in 00 are adequate for your stock clearances , then the same track centres will typically suffice for 21mm. By and large , Peco centres accommodate overhangs and platform distances that are adequate for irish stock so , again track centres dont move. 21mm takes up really no more real estate space, other then the fact that the sleepers are a little longer as the compromise that is 00 for sleepers goes away . PECO is 55mm centred and UK real life is 45mm in 4mm/ft . I believe Irish track standards had a wider centre then UK ones anyway ./ Track spacing isn't consistent anyway and changes with the radius . Note also that 21mm has nothing to do with small radius , you are mixing up p4 and 21mm . for me for example I would build to EM flange standards and 21mm , that would allow standard RP25 wheels to run. There is no requirement to switch to p4 track standards merely to access 21mm 21mm will happily go round settrack radius if you want to design it for that . The key is flange and back to back clearances ( and axle movement ) Again , you can build settrack style pointwork quite happily in 21mm if you so want , it needn't be any longer then PECO ( and in fact it can be actually smaller) IN fact as I understand it the "6 foot" in ireland is actually "9 foot', so that would give the PECO standard separation of 55mm just about right for 21mm !! ( on level straight track)

Since the ones I examined the home was worked by the gate , how was the distant worked perhaps it was just worked in tandem with the home.

produced by exactoscale ( C&L fine scale ) its a injection moulded based of 8 sleepers ( i think from memory ) where you just slide the rail in to complete , C&L new Hi-NI 00 flexi-track is made using it

That gate across the private siding half open , reminds me of of the west clare, " cause they were half expecting a train "

Typically they might have had a fixed distant at caution and then a home signal operated by the gate SSM I believe do a kit of a CIE lower quadrant . the finial on the GWR ones was a bit too fancy for irish railways !

righty o - brown is it , now to source correct axle boxes and away I go

i used address pal 6 times in February , to take advantage of the 1 euro introduction rate. once my local PO got there head around how it worked it was fine, I did get 4 of the 6 for free as they didnt know to charge me i use Parcel motel 4-6 times a month and I find it excellent but address pal like parcel wizard had its uses

It's a pity we can't get something like the fast track base in 21mm. That would open up the gauge to many new layouts, especially bigger layouts

JB might be the man to ask , if I was building a gswr plough for a late seventies early eighties layout , would it be in bauxite brown or yellow These are weighty questions us railway modellers have to deal with Opps I see JB has answered. The key to this question of yellow is of course a dated picture from the seventies I think it's clear however that new series of 4 ploughs built in 1977 was always yellow. The issue is when the gswr versions were so converted to that colour

Richie, what number is this one ? have you a high res version ? I wonder when They went from brown to yellow DO you think the sheet steel was just a thin plating over the wood I think this might be a interesting version to model , a kind of half way house Also notice roller bearings were fitted, as opposed to oil boxes in the CIE photo dave

Thanks. My airbrush technique improves , but still leaves a bit to be desired and high resolution photos never help anyways!! I learned a lot about etched brass as I went along ,as an electronics engineer I've good soldering kit but I found I got far better results once I switched to 148 degree solder and carrs liquid flux. Standard Roisin solder ( with lead ) is not really suitable

for those of you not familiar with the Dingham couplers , here the pic, they are like miniature tension locks, but have the required delayed uncoupling action. The fit up on the buffer beam/headstock so look right ( if any 4mm coupler looks right ) fecking fiddly too,

a lady never shows her bottom in public ! really its just a new 40 thou card floor and the only thing original from the dapol is the two side frames in this regard, Glendora( sheesh sorry Glenderg ) was right , way to much is wrong with the dapol chassis, but these days unless you are prepared to spring or compensate the chassis , you cant get " old fashioned " , white metal W-iron combined with axles boxes and springs. even the buffer beam is wrong as CIE used channel iron headstocks rather then solid beams This means you can go down the etched and sprung W irons, but again , hacking them to fit 9' irish gauge widths, again means nothing fits out of the box. I have a whole assortment of bits for the next one ( which will be back in my plastikard comfort zone ) I have another dapol too , so may butcher it again or not

by next project will be a scratch built 8456 GSWR plough as modified by CIE. then I can have a rake of hoppers and a plough at each end

the plates are there Richie , really

shaping up again MM 071, you can see it now with the ballast hoppers........

at this stage I made the stock dapole chassis and realised it looked " lost under " the body and also the etch didnt convey the veranda well anyway , dapol is cut up, widened, and 28mm pinpoints sourced, this of course leaves the brake gear even further away from the wheels , so a compromise was chosen . veranda supports in the etch look to spindly so thickened with plastikard etc ( added the two gas lockers inside as well !!) nickel silver wire as opposed to that supplied in the kit makes better handrails in my opinion, and more robust

then some initial touch ups, vents etc, and then it was grit blasted ( 250 aluminium oxide at 60 psi)

The buffer plates are there Glenderg , the originals were a wee bit bigger also I added the clasp brake bars, that run across the brake shoes and brake safety loops too. mostly they are in shadow for my sins I converted the buffer into sprung ones by drilling out the white metal , not really worth it in the end as with the Dinghams they dont touch ( mores the pity ) well it started like this unfortunately , after I soldered up the etch , I realised the third window needed adding , so I put it up on my milling machine, and milled out the window, not easy to do , and then had to clean it up etc

Hi all, Im not a great photographer of my work , but I thought you might like to see the Ballast plough van as it progresses I very heavyily modified the SSM brass etch and completely reworked the dapol chassis, widening it out to a scale width that then suits the etch , adding brake clasp detail. vac through piping and building up some thickness of the veranda supports and rain strips I also modified the SSM etch to add the missing third window since Ive always been a scratch built plastikard sort of guy, this was my first complete brass etch with all soldered construction . I learned a lot , the next one will be much better The paint is also a new departure for me, the under coat is halford grey etch primer and the top coast is Tamiya Acrylic Flat yellow , sprayed on. Since I never used an airbrush before this was quite the learning curve and theres a few gotchy bits Next up , steps, final painting ( the white was added just for this photo !) and some touch up. I use Dingham couplers, so these have to be added .though the correct headstock plate is in place , trim the lamp brackets ! glazing has to be done Then the massive weathering as these vehicles were very dirty inuse well its passes the 2 foot test anyway !!! the mark on the door has to be fixed ( there was a wee accident with a brush with butanone, which dissolves acrylics in a heartbeat !) ( or maybe it will give it character when I weather it all, they did get fairly beat up in practice )