Junctionmad

Thay Grey livery actually really suits them , makes them look almost north american or something .....

yes my memory is of the 07 series tampers, that didn't have the continous roof and trailed a rail mounted stability truck when in use

What ones were around mid 70s to esrly 80s ???

I was friendly with a plate layer as a teenager, he used to be a farm worker that I knew, We walked many miles on the line , chatting, They developed a great gait, being able to swing the special wedge sledge in one hand as he walked by without breaking his stride .over the other shoulder he carried a fishplate spanner. no shovel though , that required a bunch of lads ! but compared to a tamper .......

Are there any drawings of the older tampers ? Make an interesting if rather complex scratch building project Dave

I'd be surprised if they had space to lie down , that's not done in trucks for example. An animal falling on one lying would not be a pretty sight and animal welfare is considerably better today then in the past Dave

How many animals did a typical Cie cattle wagon take by the way ? Dave

Models locos may have much higher power to weight then real life , but they have far less scale adhesion

ahhhhhhhhh ….:dig:

yes that thread is consistent with what I understand that a 2% gradient is about the best you can achieve. its even worse if the gradient curves. The OP seems to be able to deny gravity here, so Im perplexed

yes but he could only ever sell three

whats after the bubble lads ?

thats interesting in relation to the gradient, I based my experience not on my own tests, but on feedback from Gordon S of eastwood town fame, he seemed to find RTR models , especially steam locos, struggled with 1;50 . I must go back and have a further chat with him. I am designing a layout with 1;50 ( in the non scenic areas ) dave

you have heard of Murphy models etc , or are you all steam era

I've not found that true , and it was an eejit that said it

probably because the paint was simply stuck in the post by somebody who didn't know the regulations or didn't care

my only comment , is that in order to implement the elevations you require, in a quite small space as you set out, it will require very steep gradients, which may be beyond model steam locomotives in particular , 1:100 is optimum , 1:75 is acceptable and 1:50 is borderline note that there is now quite a bit of irish outline RTR available, dave

looking at the Bank, that must have now been a fairly rare occurrence, look at the grass

no the issue is that the UK post will not take them in ordinary mail

I can only speak for my one experiment with alternatives, but supporting anything under about 36" radius while having couplings mounted on the buffer beams of bogie stock , I found very problematic. Theres too much swing in the long bodies , especially if the bogies aren't right at the extremes ( unlike many US prototypes ).This was especially obvious when you negotiated reverse curves like in crossovers, Maybe kadees have a lot of side play, but looking at the various ones , Im not sure they would cope either ( they certainly wouldn't couple on such curves , even if they would stay coupled in such curves ) With coaching stock, I think the best bet for our prototypes is to use sprung drawbar style couplings in the rake with automatic couplings only at the ends

That's interesting. My own experiments are limited to AJs , and Dinghams , I can't quite accept Buckeyes on certain rolling stock !! I used AJs years ago. Very cheap to make , very fiddly to get right

So " cattle banks" it is then. I agree they were present in any station in Ireland. The livestock trade was one of the main reasons railways got built in Ireland. The first purchases of the then new W& LR was cattle wagons not coaches. In places like Ballinrobe the " bank" was longer then the platform !! You can read the history of this huge trade in accounts of the LNWR/GWR etc, which ran very large cattle trains from dockside locations to major beef processing locations. ( I have a link some where ) 40 percent of all live trade was exported via the north wall , with Waterford being another major port of export. As was mentioned, many of the " banks" were retasked to load beet , some having added ramps to facilitate tipping. some of these ramps were quite precarious. I remember seeing them at kilmeadan where there was just a single siding that originally loaded cattle. Noel's fencing is rather fine. The remenants of ones I saw were always constructed of old rail, cattle are incredibly strong and when agitated can destroy anything of wood and knock down concrete walls. I remember seeing the remnants of the " bank " at bray , when I lived there. It was on the Dublin city side of the level crossing , effectively seperate to the main goods yard, this doesn't seem uncommon and several "banks " I saw had their own entrance into the public road. Presumably to keep the sh!te away from the sensitive passangers !!! ( this was when bray still had its turntable too ) I also have seen some pens at the end of passanger platforms. I think these might have been used exclusively for horses, because I think in the main horse boxes were carried in passanger trains. I think any historical layout certainly prewar should be filled with cattle trucks ! Dave

Rather then the NEM pocket . I presume you are referring to tension lock couplings. These are a legacy of train sets and table top radius curves. Also in our stock, unlike the US, the buffers play an important role in real life and hence you have a conflict between a buffer- less system like buckeye and our buffer and link approach. In models historically buffers played no role , and one of the main issues was to prevent them locking under tight curves , this was one of the main features of TL couplings, and has also dictated the approach of other couplings .its also the reason they are fitted to the bogie rather then the buffer beam The problem has been what to substitute them with. Buckeye is , until recently , completely unprotptypical , but at least the kadee is small. Also it's also unsuitable to certain rolling stock when run on tighter curves ( or operated over tight reverse curves like crossovers ). US rolling stock , due to poor track , went predominantly to bogie based stock , whereas we can have long( ish ) fixed wheelbase stock. This further complicates things. There are a number of other more scale orientated couplings , particular Spratt& Winkle , Alex Jackson and Dinghams , all of which are not compatible with the NEM pocket and require careful fitting. All , as well, limit the radius over which they operate, especially for coupling /uncoupling actions There's no easy answer Dave

cattle bank , Thats unusual terminology isn't it I thought originally most of these cattle pens or loading docks would have had barriers to create cattle crushes etc

I think thats a good point. In other versions of streamline, at least you could mix points from the PECO range , so a concrete plain track could be legitimately mixed with timber points. But this new PECO track will look visually completely different ( longer wider sleepers and larger spacing ) and the only current points would have to be hand built to match. I cant see too much PECO 00 new track being sold until they do make matching points. dave