islandbridgejct

Would you know what the historical colours were? I remember Irish Rail going with dark and light blue for suburban stations about 1987, dark green for mainline stations, and two tone green for the DART, probably about 1984; and I remember that in the 70s all stations were grey with some bits picked out in black and white. And I remember Malahide having some old GNR ground level nameboards in the flowerbeds that were red on a white background; but what went before? Alan

Thanks Richie, I couldn't get my video to upload, but I did find this about the risks of soldering: www.cmu.edu/ehs/.../Lead%20Soldering%20Safety%20Guidelines.pdf (I hope the link works.) It seems inhalation of flux is mostly a cause for concern relating to asthma. The lead risk is from filings, bits of solder, and general ingestion hazards. I think I'll carry on with the brass so. The document reminds me of my all time favourite, from my leaving cert physics class - the teacher asked, "what can we do to minimise the risks of handling radioactive substances?" and some bright spark answered, "Get a grown up to help you?" So all I have to show at the moment is this leaf spring. It's not much, but it took a lot of effort to get this far, and if I can improve it a bit and get it cast, I can start making components for wagons and coaches, and before you can say boo to your neighbourhood goose I'll be making chimneys, domes and who knows what.

I love the atmosphere of this layout - the empty countryside, the short trains and the muted scenery. Alan

Hmmm, long absence. Had a beast of a year at work in 2013. Got things underway again this year, and wired up the crossover. 141 sails across it. When I tried to upload the video, it took so long I gave up. I'm trying again at the moment, and if it works I'll post it here. Other progress is a bit back and forward. I started building some white metal kits, but got concerned about lead, lead filings, kids around the house, and decided a lead ban was in order. That left me looking for other building methods - basically plastic and brass. Plastic is obviously easier, so I made a start there, but got stuck for parts like springs, axleboxes and the like, most of which are available in white metal. I ordered some Exactoscale plastic ones, but only 1 was delivered, and then Exactoscale went into hibernation before merging with C&L. Meantime, I quite like soldering (trying not to sniff the flux) and thoughts turned to possibly getting brass parts etched. (And that looks even more interesting after seeing John's 22ft flats.) Then I started reading threads on 3d printing and Cameo cutters, and also built some Bill Beford sprung bogies, adjusting them to 21mm gauge, but what I really need is a new etch so I don't need to cut and splice them. Overall everything was pointing to the need to learn some CAD software, so I'm currently trying to get up to speed on TurboCAD for Mac. I've also been learning Templot for track plans and templates, so it's lots of learning and very little actual modelling. I hope I'll move on to more solid matters soon. I'd post a pic of where I've got to with turboCAD, but I'm trying to upload a video of B141 powering over the crossover, and youtube owns my bandwidth, so I'll confine it to a text update for the moment. More to follow soon, I hope. (Trots off back into hibernation, probably.) Alan

That's a beautiful piece of work. A few white metal details for springs, axleboxes, pipes and the like and she's there. Alan

Suggestions - The channel does look like the concrete channel used on the DART. I think it was concrete, not plastic. Anyway, the location is Connolly and the loco is 050. Irish Life Centre is built, so it's post 1974/5. The outside road beyond platform 7 is still in place, so it's before Connolly was modified for DART. So I'd say an engineers' train involved in the DART modifications. The loco in the other pic is a small GNR one and seems to be in black (U/UG or similar?), so presumably to prevent the UTA thinking it was one of theirs and making off with it. By the way, is that Malahide - GN signal box on the short platform, with the long platform visible in the foreground? Alan

Regarding the Woolwich locos, Baker, The Railways of the Republic of Ireland, a Pictorial Survey, 1925-75, has a picture of 385 at Inchicore, allegedly and apparently freshly outshopped in black (p51). The same book has 850 and 674 on p33, apparently in a light, lined livery, presumably green. Alan

I have a set. I'll have to bring them in to work to scan. I'll email them to you when they're done. If you don't hear from me for a week, send me a pm - I'll have been waylaid by something large and work-shaped. Sorry I didn't see your post before, haven't been online in quite a while. Alan

Judging by the J26, I think a lot of the advice and help may be going the other way. Alan

Your chance to air your views about the Phoenix Park tunnel or whatever else grabs your fancy: http://www.nationaltransport.ie/public-consultations/current/ (Download the "Integration Implementation Plan 2013-2016" Link.) Given that they're pushing the tunnel and Irish Rail are bucking against it, a few voices in support mightn't go amiss. (Mind you, does it ever make any difference?) Alan

Seriously impressive rake of Taras, and a lovely paint job on the Mk3s. (i'm on catch up tonight.) Alan

Those containers are very convincing, and I like the weathering a lot. Your ballast wagons are very convincing too. It looks as though you may have a motive power shortage though. Is each NIR 111 actually a different length or is it just an optical effect? The sky blue version looks distinctly longer. Alan

Very nice. The shape of that C Class is quite convincing. I can never believe the amount of detail you 2mm modellers manage to pack in. Shapeways seems to be a wonderful resource for producing all sorts of models. I've just been working through this thread on rmweb, and the potential of the 3D printing technology is incredible - http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/61710-3d-printed-n-gauge-pendolino-and-on-track-plant/ (I'm sure you've already read it.) (And might I, er, somewhat nervously, mention oval buffers?) Lovely modelling, Alan

I wouldn't be so sure about the lack of detail. There are some truly amazing craftsmen working in 2mm finescale, for instance: http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/52798-bath-queen-square/. If you were feeling inspired, you could really go to town. Mind you, I don't know how they do it. Best of luck with it, and sorry for the rotten joke earlier. Alan

Er, I don't think you'll fit any more Irish N gauge in than British N Gauge. (Sorry. That was rotten.)

Ah, that GM throb. You can't beat it. She certainly did start up very cleanly. I've seen ex-BR locos started up (on youtube) with about 5 minutes of spluttering and clag before the engine was ticking over smoothly. The ease of that start up is a really tribute to the ITG (and to GM for its original build quality.) Well done to all those involved. Alan

Nuke them from orbit. It's the only way to be sure. (Can we have a smiley for that?) Alan

Nice site. Alan

That's sad to hear. He got me started modelling again 3 years ago, when I saw Adavoyle at the South Dublin exhibition. He started talking to me as I was looking at the layout and got into more detail when he found I knew a bit about GNR loco classes (not enough.) A fascinating chat - I ended up looking at the underside of a UG (I think, might have been an SG), and the weight of it was something else; but he talked about his time on submarines and being based in Derry during the war. I had to bend double to get low enough to hear him. He had some class comments about Bob Essery and Heckmondwyke too. A great modeler, and very sad to think he's gone. Not much progress by me of late, which is a shame after the inspiration he provided. A

Length 39' 10" for the 121 as against 44' for the 141/181. Outer ends of the bogies were cut short, in line with and slightly back from the axle guards, and - as Rich says - they only had half the brake cylinders - mounted on the inner end of each bogie. I'm not sure what the brake shoes were like, whether it was one per wheel, or a pair on 1 axle of each bogie, but whatever it was they had only half the brake force and had a few runaways. (Nice thread on here about that during the week.) The IRRS article is good, but the photos aren't great for modelers - there's one reasonable side on shot of B131 when new, but the rest are mostly wedge shots with not too much detail. I hope that helps. Alan

I'll second that. Fantastic.

Excuse my ignorance. Ain't she a beauty?

I've just seen Garfield's Longford signal box with red woodwork from the 60s, so I must be wrong about the colouring. I don't remember when the grey was introduced: as a kid I thought woodwork had always been grey.

Maybe someone should restore it and convert it to 5'6" gauge and run it in Spain. Then we could all go out on our holidays and say, 'she used to be one of ours'. Or just send it to Queensland, or was it NSW? (Light the blue touch paper. Stand well back...)