GSR 800

1 hour ago, jhb171achill said:

Local authorities put in cycleways and cycle lanes, often at significant cost, often at the behest of cycling groups / cyclists.

THEN, once they’re built, these people insist on STILL cycling on the road!

WHY!!???

In Dublin I see cyclelanes used quite often on the trek from drumcondra station up to uni, albeit this is a lane mainly on the footpath rather than the road, if that makes sense. Those bloody scooters are the menace there, but its certainly used. All the same I still see cyclists in front of the busses...right in the middle of the bus lane like..

As for cyclelanes, I've used the Mullingar-Athlone greenway a good bit and I can sum up traffic as follows

Mullingar-Castletown: usually pretty busy with walkers, cyclists, runners, etc.

Castletown-Streamstown-Moate: Usually totally deserted. Streamstown station has seen major renovation though, playground there I think. The bank is falling away in places on the trackside coming into Moate.

Moate to Athlone: f*ck all once you're past Moate for miles, nobody at all until you pass the bridge carrying the main road into Athlone, then chock a block as you're going in. The recent extension with the tunnel was pretty underused in comparison. I found it a tortorously boring slog once past Moate.

What you see is 'hubs' of activity from the big towns and villages for maybe a mile or so, and then you could go on for ages without seeing anyone else. 

AIT is right there as you go into Athlone, really can't see how the greenway is justified when put against the loss of the ability to reopen it for commuter traffic.

Don't try plucking it from the 1/1 scale version anyway...dangerous business.....

1 hour ago, Noel said:

Don't worry loco hauled trains will return whenever electrification occurs here. With our weather I'd bet on 3rd rail rather than overhead from a maintenance and capital cost point of view. Lovely model even if the prototype is not my personal cup of tea. Looks sort of N gauge. Presume they are static displays and not motorised, at least not at that low price.

Pigs will fly. Sounds more like what you'd like to see.

It'll be EMUs, something like the 800s in Britain. 071s and 201s will hold the roster for locos on freight, PW and departmental work for a good while, after that probably some standard electric loco to fill those roles.

1 hour ago, Horsetan said:

'Tis the same in Britain: people don't really care where things come from if they're out of sight, out of mind. Then again, importing half the country's food leaves it quite vulnerable when things go wrong. 

Thats what the Battle of the Atlantic (and the Royal Navy generally) was for.

2 minutes ago, jhb171achill said:

How come so many of these things are ending up in Spain?

Just like the real ones 

They are not, it's that DJ is in the Canaries so he is looking at ebay espana.

Your man selling is based in Swindon. 

Just now, GSR 800 said:

Just like the real ones 

They are not, it's that DJ is in the Canaries so he is looking at ebay espana, same with his links.

Your man selling is based in Swindon. 

29 minutes ago, DERAILED said:

Any ID for the carriage and where did it appear out of?

From storage at Mullingar.

Huge addition of excellent photos, including a great many of the last years of steam.

Macha was under the spotlight for me, 20 new photos of her at Glanmire, Mallow and elsewhere in her last year.

2 minutes ago, GSR 800 said:

 

 

2 hours ago, Galteemore said:

Lovely little thing. It looks right - like a one-off from AEC. Won’t look at all out of place. 

Park Royal iirc, so theres a bit of room to say 'ah sure ye are buying all these coaches, do ye want this railbus while ye'r at it?'

I could see her being used as an inspection car or something in her last years..

3 hours ago, murrayec said:

@Horsetan

According to the info I have gathered the crankpin throw is 356mm / 14'' as confirmed above, the wheels are 1917mm / 6'-3'' diameter and the crankpin is in line with a spoke. The coupled wheelbase is 2214mm / 7'-3'' x 2604mm / 8'-7''.

Alan Gibson Ref 4878S driver wheels are the closest, they are slightly larger at 6'-6'' but have the right amount spokes and 14'' crankpin throw, the crankpin is in line with a spoke, and one also get a 22.5mm long axle in the packet.

Eoin

 

so it is a longer throw, more akin to a king or king arthur (spokes and webbing incorrect as mentioned)?

And only 6'3? quite unusual, was always under the impression they were 6'6 or indeed 6'7.

1 hour ago, Horsetan said:

In looks, yes. But T9 wheels might be an expedient solution to reduce the possibility of the motion jamming up. The only other way is to redrill the King Arthur wheel for a shorter throw, but you need a jig to do that properly....

The T9 has a throw of 9 inches, the King Arthur is more like 13/14". Here's a view of Ultrascale's King Arthur wheel:

^^ Note that this is the later Maunsell wheel with the crankpin between the spokes, but you can see the almost-but-not-quite shape of the hub and the crank. The rim is also reinforced, so the Maunsell wheel is not correct for a B1a.

The B1a throw is unknown at the moment, but may be between those two - maybe @KMCE's drawings might tell us the measurement if they become available. Unfortunately, the works drawing uploaded by @BosKonay years ago in Forum Resources is unreadable because it was a low resolution scan, so all the handwritten measurements on it instantly get pixellated when you try to zoom in.

I had a dig around and found a set of old Sharman P4 3ft 9-spokes. They are a plain wheel, so the bogie is catered for. Just need the axles.

Incidentally, the kit came with a Mashima 1430 motor and High Level packs to build an extended drivetrain. I can't stand worm gears, so a coreless 1624 RG4 with a proper bevel-and-spur drivetrain from my RG4 drawer is now the substitute.

...and once you've noticed them, you can't unsee 'em!

Wonder what the throw of the likes of a GWR King would be? IIRC they have a solid spoke so unsuitable but still would be interesting to compare!

Those forked joints in 00 gauge would be a sight to see! Regarding the valve spindle 'crosshead', I think it would be a beneficial addition for performance if you can get it to work, the wire that replaces it on the kit allows for too much slop imo. It may require a scratch build of the valve guides though as they lack the lip to guide the head as on the prototype.

On 22/7/2022 at 2:57 PM, Horsetan said:

Slight problem with either the date or the engine.

802 Tailte was withdrawn in 1955 and was supposed to have been cut-up by 1957 (only her tender still existed, and Bulleid reportedly wanted it for his turf-burning experiments). If this is correct, the engine in the photo either cannot be 802, or the given date of Jan. 1961 is wrong.

If it's 1961, my guess is that it's more likely to be 801 Macha which did linger around for a while after withdrawal.

It may not be 800 Maedb, since the few photos of her from that period (and after) show her looking relatively unweathered, and anyway she was not withdrawn until 1961 - although after that she was missing her plates and the cab windows prior to being set aside for preservation -

Was Maedb not withdrawn earlier than that? She was sitting in Thurles stored in 1960. 

The timeline seems quite muddled after that, pictures often having wrong timestamps. The IRRS has a picture dated 1964 of Maedb and Macha tender to tender in Inchicore, both intact. Theres another picture dated 1962-3 with Macha cut down to the frames! Another has her boiler and firebox on an old tender chassis dated feb 1963

The locomotive in the photo is almost certainly Macha

Interestingly here's a photo of one of the tenders at Inchicore, supposedly in 1959..

https://thetransportlibrary.co.uk/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=204476&search=CIE+Coras+Iompair+Eireann&page=4

47 minutes ago, Horsetan said:

I'll make a note.

It's really Maedb's valve gear that fascinates me. It's Walschaerts' but with quite a few extra links thrown in, and only some of those are for the lubricator drive.

the extra rods are a pain in the arse from my own experience, but I'm far from a master at that end of things.

having mine motorised across the sea, might as well since the cost of buying motors and sending them across isn't worth it to me!

1 hour ago, jhb171achill said:

"Negro" and "Sambo", un-PC as they are today, kept their names. These shunted in Waterford and Inchicore. There was the unofficial "Pat" at the coaling stage in Cork, and both "Argadeen" and "St Molaga" kept their names until withdrawal.

Indeed, but I've never heard of a single named shunter loco for Broadstone as billycan suggests.

Theres also Jumbo, but I've mentioned that before.

49 minutes ago, Horsetan said:

Grand. The SSM kit arrived a couple of days ago, so am looking at the feasibility of working inside motion. Ken's drawings with measurements would be a massive help. 

While you're at it you should buy the 3D printed smokebox doors Ken made for me a while ago.

Have them fitted to Maedbh and Macha

2 hours ago, Billycan said:

Still hopeful of someday knowing if the sister loco at Broadstone had a similar name.

Well Sambo was a one off as far as I know, but there were shunters like the MGWR P's kicking around broadstone?

Not sure if any kept their names into CIE years

Found it, November 2005 issue and its successor https://www.dropbox.com/s/mz86b7x52bf58oh/New Irish Lines - Vol. 4 No. 2 - 2005 November.pdf

https://www.dropbox.com/s/7y7ar7ocv92l0aa/New Irish Lines - Vol. 4 No. 3 - 2006 May.pdf

https://newirishlines.org/archive/

24 minutes ago, connollystn said:

Great pics @irishswissernie, I didn't realise that GNR(I) had the MaK diesel locomotive as far back as 1955. Makes me wonder why they waited until the early 70s to get diesel traction for mainline passenger services.

As said, focus was on railcars from the early. The north went so far as to have MPDs pulling freight! 

That is not to see the GNR wasn't looking towards diesels and even electrification, they had quite extensive plans for such but the funds did not allow it. I believe New Irish Lines had something on it, will have to dig it up. The MAK was a glimpse of these plans for diesel freight locomotives.

4 minutes ago, Sean said:

https://www.hattons.co.uk/394003/dapol_a023_4_wheel_salt_van_unpainted/stockdetail

Hmmm

not bad, but the luggage vans were much more squat. Would certainly pass at any rate, though wouldn't be a bad scratchbuild either, the roof makes it easier anyway!

As said, railcar trailer used for luggage, were used on both broad and narrow gauge.

9 minutes ago, Sean said:

why is there essentially no ballast and a heap of grass on the tracks in places? looks very cool but maybe a challenge to model.

Time and neglect.

Long time since the ballast or weedsprayer went as far as the sidings.

The ballast is there, its just quite fine or ground down with time, for lack of a better term, mixed in with dirt, grime, soil and all kinds of other shite

12 minutes ago, Mike 84C said:

An Accurascale  Deltic landed here on our club test track Wednesday night. So silent it should be called a "stealth" all you could hear was the click of the wheels over the rail joints. Amazing!

  If Accurascale can produce such quality for the price, it does beg the question, why can't others?

Was looking at the Hornby catalogue there, they must be like those crypto lads thinking they'll go to the moon with the price of them. And thats in sterling mind you.

The rehashed class 37s and the 'I can't believe it's not Lion' were noted. Perhaps a lawsuit down the line from Rapido..

the comments under the video can be summarised as 'look nice, but i won't be buying them at that price!'

3 hours ago, BosKonay said:

Pallets are in Dublin, we'll clear EU orders on Monday, and any balance of stock will then be listed.

Excellent, many thanks Bosko.

On 28/6/2022 at 11:02 PM, BosKonay said:

Brexit means a few more hoops. We’ve.m pallets of stock importing to Dublin at the moment including our own stock. Once all sorted there will be a few deltics on the eu site. 

Any update when this'll be out of interest.

2 hours ago, Colin R said:

May be a B or a C class loco would go down well, if you are looking to model a certain time period in the Irish scene, for what it is worth I happen to like the late 30's to early 60's period so I can run a mixture of both Steam and Diesel locos.

I am not sure as to what the last classes of Irish steam locos where, but if you looked at those that have made it into Preservation then that would be a start.

Colin 

Similar era to my own.

C class, AEC's, laminates and park royals plus their tin vans seem like the most sensible choice in terms of long lasting locomotives/railcars/rolling stock. The railcars are an odd one though, not sure what the viability threshold is for railcars (since its basically two power units minimum, add on coaches etc?) Perhaps the lads can enlighten us on that one.

Steam is a tough one, 00 works are doing the obvious choice with the J15s, doing preserved examples means you can run the RPSI mk2s with them but limited to those currently or recently in mainline service is down to GNR and NCC locos, which lack rtr rolling stock (other than CIE stock if IRM gets around to that) to run with outside their preserved examples. If IRM go with laminates or park royals then theres rolling stock for A and C class, AEC railcars, the 800s, J15s and 461 (and 462??) Choosing these because either long lasting or steam class with a preserved member(s). If they don't go for a GNR type I'd say the 800s would be the likely candidate. The Manors are just a test run for getting an Irish 4-6-0 lads 

At any rate, all rampant speculation, I'm probably totally wrong.

On 2/7/2022 at 12:42 PM, BosKonay said:

When we asked in the last customer survey of IRM customers, the feedback was a gentler pace, and more notice. 

So, unlike the Accurascale side, we will continue launching new tool IRM models when we are fully finished the research, development and CAD and ready to start tooling, which is about 60-70 days to a sample, about the same again for a decorated sample and at least the same again for assembly. So about a year, to 18 months of warning, give or take. 

Non new-tools, or accurascale crossovers, like Mk2b, 2c and others to come, will launch with a sample, or decorated sample, typically cutting lead times to under 12 months. 

Hope that helps, we do have so much underway

I think this is quite interesting. The brits seem to be more cautious with regular announcements especially without samples available, almost to a point of paranoia. Makes sense I suppose, given how they are often screwed with poor quality models from certain manufacturers..

Here I certainly appreciate the longer notice time. I may be planning to build x kit or x commission or x batch built type or scratchbuild something. I had been considering a silverfox A class a good while back, certainly was glad I got the notice to save the euros for the proper deal. 

10 minutes ago, Patrick Davey said:

Ok folks what's the story..... there had been a few less-than-subtle hints on here recently about new goodies.....powered goodies...... yes the magnesite wagons are awesome but not on my geographical radar and as for the Deltic..... admittedly I have been drooling but unless Boris gets his bridge or tunnel completed AND re-gauges the whole of Ireland (or GB) then I'm unlikely to have reason to run one.....

Yes we got our AAAAAAmazing As and now our 'across the water' colleagues have their DDDDDDDelightful Deltics so surely it's back to us again.........

I'm sure we'll get some Beautiful B1a's next....in my dreams anyway..