Sean

Let me know how you get on, I am very much learning as I go,

it has actually crossed my mind but derailments annoy me way more than they should https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:5028562 these wheels kind of give the impression of running on bog track in the example video when compared to the torfbahn video i posted earlier, so anything is possible

https://www.printables.com/model/678039-h0f-track-65mm-spacing-code-80-rail https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:6683822 https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:5028536 There are a couple of approaches, I am using the tim1mw variant because the chairs seem to be the easiest to reproduce on a filament type 3d printer.

Ive stumbled on a couple of 2' bogs in my research. Most of the original rolling stock from MIP was sourced second hand. some of which even came from other 2' irish systems No.7 was built in 1983 for Tirconnell Peat in Pettigo Co. Donegal and moved to Rathowen in 1988, it was sold for preservation in 2009 to the UK. No.2 Ransomes & Rapier 20HP 4wDM (built 1938, works no. 84): Originally delivered new to Murphy Bros Ltd, a Dublin-based construction contractor, it later moved to Shamrock Machine Turf Co. in Shane Valley near Edenderry (acquired around 1963) and then to Midland Irish Peat at Rathowen bog in County Westmeath by 1987. It was fitted with an Ailsa Craig diesel engine and accompanied by peat wagons when moved to the UK for preservation in 2011. Motor Rail 4wDM (built 1938, works no. 7304): Acquired from Erin Peat Products Ltd in Birr, County Offaly, which had operated a 2ft gauge peat railway since around 1959 before closing. The running number was not known however I am led to believe that it was re numbered to 3 sometime and any photos online featuring loco 3 are incorrectly captioned as Alan Keef Works number 9 which was originally number 3 but sold around 1993 meaning any post 1993 photos of loco 3 cannot be AK9 Others included; Two F.C. Hibberd 'Planet' 4wDM locomotives (build details unknown): Also acquired from Erin Peat Products Ltd in Birr. Ruston & Hornsby 4wDM locomotive (build details unknown): Acquired from Erin Peat Products Ltd in Birr. Theres also 006.5 which would represent 18 inch gauge. There were a lot of smaller gauges in industrial use all throughout the country but they are not so well documented. I hit gold by asking grok about some of these systems as it was able to look into resources I did not even know existed online. https://www.irsociety.co.uk/Archives/13/bord_na_mona.htm I believe this was a first jumping off point for me.

Back to the library today and asked for 5 pieces of the unmodified track design as I have now ordered the correct rail for this design. Went in and they had 10 pieces as they had tried 5 on different settings for me. Some slight issues with the chairs on these that were not present the last day, but also they were printed by another person who may have changed the settings. Still it was good to be able to experiment with these. It is pretty impressive just how flexible this material is and its not a million miles away from the shiny abs plastic that flextrack is actually made out of. I will go back in with todays and saturdays prints which had great chairs and show them the issue, I think they should be able to get it right for me then :) I wont have the rails for another couple of days so i can trick around with this until then.

Whilst this is not Ireland it seems to capture the atmosphere of the "torfbahn" very well and you will see a lot of the same quirky operating practices such as drivers jumping off the train to do somthing as its going along or even long double headed trains that are being controlled by a single driver who is continually jumping from cab to cab to adjust throttles in order to keep the locos pulling together! When railway operations ceased at rathowen 3 out of the 5 remaining locos were made by diema who feature very heavily in my plans!

did not expect to update so soon, but there has been a development! Sent 3d files off to my library at around 10 am and was told it would be a 2-3 day wait for the bits to come back. I was pleasantly surprised to get an email to come and pick them up at half 4! The schwellenband design did not work well at all for me, the enlarged rail chairs were too flimsy and broke off in my pocket as i was walking around. the tim1mw however was a different story. the tim1mw however was a different story. half of the sleepers were not attatched and this will have to be fixed in the next revisions, I only got track panel that was 3 sleepers long! I was under the impression that code 75 meant code 75 and scale would play no part in the rail profile. I was wrong about this and all of the H0/00 code 75 that I do have is actually way too big. so I picked up a random piece of straight n gauge track, removed the rails, offered it up and fit snugly into the chairs! perhaps this was a measurement fluke, but it has proven to me that this track system works and will be workable going forward, which is great because there are 3d. printable points as well since i cant use the code 75 rail I have now I will order the proper z scale rail which is designed to work with this system and other h0f systems for interconnect ability. 600mm x 6 comes to a grand total of 15 euro which beats any other option by multiples!

Having barely finished the last layout, I have decided to start planning another one, and I fancied a bit of narrow gauge this time around! On my researchings, I started to lean more and more towards 2 foot gauge than 3 and when i seen some h0f models I was sold on the idea. The feldbahn or field railway is the european version of a small industrial railway, so to speak, but there were also some large systems build around factories etc! There are a couple of different locations I would like to model in this scale however midland irish peat stands out for me for its quirkiness of being more of a "feldbahn" than a fully fledged railway, there is also surprisingly a lot of variation in scenery in the small runs between different bogs. There was a small yard full of wagons which was utilised to move the harvested peat into lorries for processing at the plant further away and even a locomotive works with a small run of track not connected to the main system for testing locomotives. I am aiming to build on a 1 foot wide base board however the length is yet to be decided and the track plan will be utilitarian just like it was in real life. being able to build into such a compact footprint was a big driving force in chosing the scale over something more conventional like 009. The rolling stock situation is pretty straight forward, everything seemed to be built onto very generic looking 4 wheel trolleys, these are available from busch in 2 different styles, both of which i have seen evidence of at MIP and it should be enjoyable to scratch build all the little bodies onto these.there is also a 3d printable version of these generic 4 wagons available. there were some cool looking PW and fuel trains running also! There seemed to be upto around 10 locomotives on site of varying makes and models and the history of most are traceable from the factory and have now made it into preservation in the UK and Europe. I should be able to recreate at least a few of them to a reasonable standard! I have ordered a starter set along with a couple of wagons and a static locomotive to get me going with the first peat train! one VITAL area in which I have struggled is trackwork, Z gauge track will work but unsurprisingly looks all wrong and should really be confined to fiddle yards. Busch set track is very expensive, and technomodell flextrack can only be found in stock at one seller but its overpriced and so is the shipping so I would be looking at 70 euro delivered for 2 lenghts of flexitrack! some heroes online have uploaded STL files for 3d printing of flexible h0f track and I have been learning how to modify these to accept code 75 rail and am exploring ways to print them. tomorrow we visit the library!

Hi Tim. Yes its EXRAIL automation in DCC EX There are 7 IR sensors underneath the track work at various points and a shiny white sticker on the bottom of the leading bogie of the locomotives. reliability was questionable at first but since adding the stickers they always trigger at the right time.

I have been digging into this myself and have found some interesting resources! https://www.irsociety.co.uk/Archives/13/bord_na_mona.htm This article results from the joint BLC-ILIS/NGRS visit to Ireland in July 1966, it lists about 25 non board na mona lines. I have also found a newsletter from the NGRS in 1967 which documents these sites in more detail than anywhere else ive seeen. There are 3 parts. part 2 focuses on the industrial lines. https://www.ngrs.org/downloads/TNG.1-100/tng43-feb-1967.pdf https://www.ngrs.org/downloads/TNG.1-100/tng44-may-1967.pdf https://www.ngrs.org/downloads/TNG.1-100/tng45-sep-1967.pdf

I think this may have been reuploaded, as referencing back to it now it seems to be alot longer than i remember it being!

have been building up a ditch tonight I was hoping the horse bush effect would be more prominent. probabaly chalk it down to the randomness of nature Also some flowers in the garden! starting to feel a bit like finishing touches

IMG_2848.mp4 IMG_2842.mp4 Might be pushing it a bit now back to bullieds tomorrow!

IMG_2839.mp4 Sometimes prototypical runnning of modern trains is possible these ballast wagons would not go around before because the coupling hook would bind up. Ive since relaid the curves a couple of times and was pleasantly surprised to see these starting to go around without issue. 2 packs of cement bubbles will now be nessesary!

IMG_2832.mp4 Now happy with the second tunnel mouth. the camera flash seems to be making it look brighter than it is, in which case we can do another dry brushing if needed later on.

the weekend has been spent learning how to paint tunnel mouths and rock faces. certainly starting to see some nice results!

IMG_2822.mp4 This simple clay spreader bent into an L makes for a great little uncoupling tool. very important for those games of inglenook! im not a huge fan of ramps and uncoupling would be done by hand in real life so this is much preferrable to me!

at the moment there are these https://ckprints.ie/page/tail-lamps theres also a couple in the 121 loco accessory packs

its on the right hand side of this, not the left. further contrary again, the plough vans seemed to have 2 lamps. as far as im aware they were battery powered and since the physical lens would be red it was a single colour lamp. according to ai (so pinch of salt)

Klarna please. RUIN MY LIFE

https://www.thepwi.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/2023-02-14_PWI-Lunch-Learn_The-management-of-level-crossings-in-Irish-Rail_Frank-Golden.pdf what a great little resource for modellers.

“When the lambretta blows up….again!”

stop bragging and ill post you some sausages.