Andy Cundick

My planning is a bit more basic comprising of a sheet of ply 3 foot steel rule and a pencil.Andy

A point to watch with some of Ians designs is that when you go to build them you find everything is a bit on the tight side,many moons ago i built his "Etterick" design but transplanted it to the Welsh borders as "Tallylyn Road" and built to EM standars and ended up leaving out several features because there was not enough room.The basic concept was fine however and it saw many shows plus a feature in British Railway Modelling,before age caught up with.Funnily enough i've just exhibited its successor which is a Scottish branch terminus.Lochty which was the terminus of the East Fife Central Railway operated by the North British.It was a line with great intentions but ran out of money and ended up finishing in field in the middle of nowhere.Post closure it was run for ten or so years as the Lochty Private Railway ,main rolling stock consisting of "Union of South Africa" and a Coronation observation coach,definitely a prototype for everything!.Andy

Confused for a minute ,i assume you mean Fosters of Lincoln,post great war their smokebox works plate incorporated a tank as they produced these during the war.one small point the flywheel is too far out it should be right next to the bearing bracket.Funnily enough i spent most of yesterday of at brother in laws sawing wood with their Marshall portable,Andy.

If its any help its Railcar 12,Andy.

Very useful set of photos,Ballinascarthy being on the to do list,Andy.

One issue with 3d printing is the quality which is highly variable,there is some truly dreadful prints out there as well as some very good ones.Andy

No problem let me have a address to send it to,and i'll get it sent off Andy.

The answer to that is no,the drawing is a Bruce Heaven drawing which has to treated with caution. 141 was rebuilt at Dundalk c1949/50 and so is a bit of a one off.The single brake levers pivot on the bottom of the frames If its any help i can sort you out some drawings of Donegal stock if its of any use.Andy.

Basically 3 different types the 1893 Oldbbury stock has 8 shoe clasp brakes plus a single brake lever operating on one shoe only,then with the 1900 stock onwards 4 shoe brakes with 2 brake levers operating from the same end Cultras open 13 has this type, when you get to the Strabane and Letterkenny Hurst Nelson stock you have 8 shoe clasp brakes with the 2 brake levers at the same end.There are a few variations due to rebuilding etc,but that is the basics.If you havn't got it Roger Crumbleholmes "County Donegal Companion"is very useful.Andy.

Something i won't need,Andy.

Couple of suggestions,first back to back needs to be checked, then put on a proper flat surface, plate glass or something and make sure all the wheels are sitting on the deck,then check that the central axle can float up and down in relation to the outer pair and that no brake gear etc foul the central wheel.When i've built my own 6 wheel chassis i had it with one end with a fixed axle the other on a rocking axle with the central axle free to move up and down in a set of slotted axle guards with a certain amount of lateral movement.hope this helps Andy.

LNWR 4'6" 2-42-ts, to DSER,, Hibberd diesel, Shell/BP, Ruston 165 ,CSE, none of which need to be disguised,Andy.

My mother in law had a 1932 Ford Eight which she ran up until 1968,when she brought a 1962 Lwb Land Rover,the Land Rover is still used by me daily as well as transporting layouts including a trip to Cultra,as for the Ford its still on the road being used by brother in law. Not a length of service i would expect from a modern vehicle..Andy.

Used it on Valencia and Courtmacsherry the stone colour is better in as much as it doesn't make so much mess,Andy.

I Choppers can be a pain to get to work properly in 4mm(been there tried it),Kadees too bulky and look wrong on Irish stock, Bemos are expensive bulky the plastic they are made from makes them a pain to fix to most stuff and not the easiest to uncouple remotely .I finally came round to using DG couplings in their various sizes going from Great Western broad gauge to 009.being brass they can be soldered, glued, bent round things, the steel droppers allow for automatic uncoupling and there is a brass dropper which allows for delayed uncoupling,Also at between £4 to £5 for sixteen not expensive.Andy.

Depends very much on the child my first train was a Triang Britannia and a dock shunter,plus various bits of stock and Super 4 track that was when i was 5,both locos are still running,saying that both nieces at that age were running their dads 5"gauge live steamers,Andy.

Nice shot of Railcar 10,interesting to see wagon 159 creep into the other shot Donegals solitary bogie open(as apposed to conversions) she didn't get photoed very often,Andy.

Best we don't mention the Crewe built Westerns which had to rebuilt at Swindon before entering service,Andy.

Brings back my apprentice days at Swindon,with the Newspaper vans being converted into "Enparts" vans,Andy.

The railcar is No12 and the wagon with it is 336 the 40' ex Ballymena Cushendall coach chassis,it must be down the Donegal end of the line as railcars 12 and 18 were based at Donegal during demolition,Andy.

Nice to see Railcar No 8 creep into the corner of the photo,Andy.

Funnily enough i've just had Chris Nevard here photographing Castlederg for Model Rail,Andy.

Most of the trench locos had waterlifters due to the lack of any water cranes or tanks it meant you could lift water from any convenient tank, barrel or stream,they were also not uncommon on contractors engines for the same reasons.

The hosepipe is attached to a waterlifter which works the same way as an injector the steamfeed is the pipe coming out of the front of the cab with the lifter attached to the top of the saddletank ,they're pretty much standard fittings on traction engines and steam rollers,had quite a lot of practise with them when i had a roller,Andy.

An article in one of the early Narrow Gauge magazines has a piece on the 480's by Ronald Redman who was the authority on Hudswell Clarke who states that the final finish was "pea green" lined black and white with four coats of copal varnish,.Interestingly having checked the other Swilly album it would seem that the dark green was applied later than i thought,The Railway Observer for December 1944 states that No'3,8,10,12 and 15 were in lined black whereas No6 was in green with yellow lining.Hope this helps Andy.