mfjoc

Last nights IRRS film show had a clip from Joe St Leger showing a tar train going from Mallow to Quartertown

Almost another year has gone by since my last post. We finished doing up the new house in June but it took another few months to clear out all the “stuff” that was stored in the railway room. I finally got possession in September, installed lighting and sockets and then got started on the benchwork. This is a rough sketch of the track plan. After a lot of thought I had a pretty clear idea of what I wanted to achieve. The new layout is similar operationally to the old layout but in twice the space. The available space is approximately 15’ X 11’. The baseboard is built around the walls with a peninsula up the middle. There is a lift out section in front of the door. Trains will leave north staging (Dublin) and arrive first at the junction (Ross Junction) where there is a trailing connection to the branch terminus (Drinagh). The junction has two through platforms and a bay platform with run around for the branch passenger. There will also be a siding for sundries, cement and fertilizer. I also hope to fit in a siding or two in for a bulk cement silo. Drinagh will have a siding for sundries, cement and fertilizer and a private set of sidings with runaround for dolomite, magnesite and oil. In the future I will probably operate this with a private owner shunting loco. The position of the magnesite plant( in practice a Walthers grain silo), is designed to distract from where the main line comes out from behind the backscene. Heading south the main line leaves the junction and goes into a tunnel and around a curve. Emerging from the tunnel there is a trailing connection to a dolomite ore quarry cut into the hillside with two sidings. The line then crosses over a wide slow flowing river and around a curve into the yard of the main terminus station (Belview standing in for Waterford). From here to the main passenger station the line is double track with a crossover halfway along. On the up side is a three track container or marshalling yard with a headshunt and a short siding for palletized traffic. On the down side is an oil siding and connection to the two track loco shed and turntable. Also on the up side the line to Belview quay branches off curving around to go under a bridge and into south staging. At the passenger station the main arrival and departure tracks go through the backscene to the far corner. And will be long enough for full length passenger trains. A bay platform is for shorter trains and also doubles up as a continuous run. There will be nine tracks in the staging yard, three for south staging, four for north staging and two tracks in the middle that can be used for either. As these tracks form a reversing loop they will be isolated for reversal of polarity. There will also be a programming track in the yard. The main baseboard is all one level apart from one short dipped section for the bridge. The main track baseboard is 12mm ply. Baseboard height is 1400mm and the 2 x 2 supports finish 300 mm above this to which 300mm x 6mm MDF is fixed for the backscene. Much of the plywood and 2 x 1 PAO has been recycled from the old layout. Baseboard construction is now almost complete and I am now starting on tracklaying.

RIP Paddy Very sad news. Its an understatement to say has left the Irish railway modelling community an enormus legacy. I was modelling american HO because of the quality of UK and "irish" outline models available at the time. Then Paddy brought out the 141/181s and the rest is history. Condolences to his family.

@Mayner You didn't mention that the GNR AEC railcars were almost identical to the CIE ones and some of these were painted in UTA and NIR liveries. Also many of the park royals were wired to run as intermediate coaches, The main missing coach would be a 26xx buffet car which ran on most railcar or loco hauled services from the 50's to the 80's but I'd say there's very little chance of one of them being produced. On balance I think you are right about the more popular appeal of the 80 Class over the AEC railcars as a lot more people are still around who remember them. I still think a C class or a GSV or both would outsell an 80 class. All of Murphy Models effort seems to be concentrated on the DART+ at the moment so it would be interesting if IRM were to leapfrog them and produce their own range which would have the advantage of crossover with the much larger UK market.

It's good to hear that IRM are not going to give up on the Irish market. Yes prices have gone up but I don't see that as the most important issue. I really don't want to be negative and am possibly straying into the area of business decision making but I think IRM may have chosen to produce models of the wrong prototypes and that this could be a factor in the current fall off in sales. The Hunslets are very nice but only three were built, they didn't last long and as far as I know never went south or west of Dublin, but at least there are matching coaches and wagons for them to haul. The 800's never left the Cork line (maybe one got to Limerick once?) were out of service by the early fifties apart from hauling a few Bullied open wagons around Thurles. There's nothing else RTR available that they ever hauled, certainly no matching coaches. The ICR's are iconic, if you want to model the current tramway that is Iarnrod Eireann they're perfect. All three are beautiful models and are for sale at very reasonable prices, so if you want a model to leave in the box, put on a shelf or run occasionally on a layout they are perfect. I do hope they sell well, but is an individual likely to buy more than one or two unless they are a collector? The A Class sold out very quickly and I would imagine thay very few customers bought only one. It looks like all the wagon and coaching stock produced so far have sold well, apart from the magnesite wagons which had to be heavily discounted to shift. Obviously an individual will buy more than one coach or wagon and the discount for multiple purchases is an incentive. On a more positive note the following are prototypes that I think would sell in multiple quantities that would provide a return on investment. The C class were long lived, went everywhere, were owned by both CIE and NIR and there's lots of matching rolling stock for all eras. AEC railcars were owned by CIE, GNR, UTA,and NIR and lasted from the fifties to the eighties (as push-pulls). The Park Royals can be used as intermediates. After 1972 no train of laminates, park royals or cravens would be complete without a GSV. A re-run of the A Class might also be considered. I am keeping my fingers crossed.

Further to Fran's post with regard to the production of new Irish models going forward I completly see where he is coming from. I am in a similar situation to Georgeconna in that my shelves are full with multiple copies of almost everything that has come out so far form both IRM and Saint Patrick. I do hope to get the new layout operational in the next few months and actually use them for the purpose for which they were intended. I never in my wildest dreams though that I would be able to aquire the collection of such beautiful models that I have. I am pretty sure I am probably your typical customer. In my sixties, empty nester either retired or close to retirement, with some spare cash to spend on a hobby. I was given a train set as a kid and grew up travelling on a railway that ran an enormous variety of rolling stock. BUT Even I am close to saturation point. I still have the Park Royals, Hunslet and Palvans to come but I will be taking a pass on the ICRs, Dart and 800's. I'd love a few C classes, Mk3's and GSV's and I do think that these would be financially viable. So I live in hope but perfectly understand if they don't appear anytime soon or at all. I am so happy with what I have. The other thing to consider is that our generation is dying off and a large quantity of high quality boxed second hand models are likely to become available over the next few years. It is hard to see where new customers are going to come from as none of my kids generation have any interest in model trains. I am working on the next generation through Thomas the Tank Engine and my own layout which might give some hope for the future.

Bear in mind that by 1973 the transplant program was almost if not fully complete and A and C class reliability had gone through the roof. One of the main reasons for so many pilot workings was to cover for A and C class breakdowns.

I have great memories of north wall transfer freights heading up the bank passing the then IRRS premises in Dromcondra in the early 70's. On Wednesday Library nights you knew by sound if a 101 class was either in the lead or banking. The sound of the Sulzer engine working hard was so different to anything else running at the time. Also I heard them more than saw them as there were no windows looking out on the track. If you wanted to look out you had to open the emergency exit. So yes I am well into my sixties!

Sorry Fran I feel exactly the same. I have ordered one Hunslet with sound but I can't justify either an 800 class or ICR as I want my models to operate on my 1980's layout, not sit on a shelf. I too will order at least four C class locos when they eventually appear.

Could it have been a special train to the Irish college in Ring? The bogie van would have been used for carrying bicycles? The genset in the 3200 van would have supplied power for train lighting. I travelled on a similar type but longer Irish College special from Westland Row to Galway in the summer of 1972 and my bicycle travelled with me on the same train in a bogie van.

Wow This is a new one on me. Never heard this before. Were they used anywhere else? You would need a decent sized genset to heat a carriage. I always thought that the first electrically heated coaches were the mk2s, apart from the Laminates fitted with storage heaters for the Loughrea branch. In the 1970's the bogie steam heating vans, the 3200 brake standards and the push pull railcar conversions were all fitted with either a lister or italian genset but only for trainlighting. Heating was always by steam from oil fired boilers. The Italian ones fitted to the push pulls had a tendency to self combust and extensive fire proofing was added in the 80's just to keep a few sets running. Also in the 1980s there was a discussion about converting the Cravens to electric heating but it didn't proceed.

If my memory serves me right in the 1980's, the standard CIE cast iron chair had 4 holes but was usually only held in place with two bolts, one either side of the rail. Sleepers used to rot where the bolt went through the sleeper and at the triangular nut underneath. The linesman would see the loose chair and could drill the sleeper through one of the spare holes, insert a new bolt and nut underneath the sleeper and resecure the chair to the sleeper.

Wow! I worked there in the 1980's and it brought it all back.

Speaking to Fran yesterday in Wexford he did hint that both a break van and a mk1 GSV were in the pipeline but neither were imminent.

When did they start painting them brown? I think that I remember a lot of gray wagons still around the the 1970's