What started yesterday as a minor buffer repair on one of my palvans turned into a rebuild and repaint of two of them. The wagons were some of the first Irish rolling stock constructed about 10 years ago to evaluate the practicality of building an Irish layout. Does anyone know if the roofs of the prototypes were painted black?
The signal box is a Ratio kit with the stone steps replaced with shortened ones which came from the Dapol box which it replaced. The goods shed is scratch built from foam board covered with Plastistruct embossed stone sheet. I still have to get around to finishing the roof. The station building is a Dapol kit. None of the buildings are accurate models of any prototype but capture the atmosphere of a small station in the South East in the seventies. A prototypical paint scheme goes a long way to achieve this.
I personally found it a bit of a challenge but then again it is only the second brass kit I assembled. The first was a similar SSM brake van which got completed last month after being on my work bench for about six years! The buffers are from Dart Castings which are a big improvement on the ones supplied with the Dapol underframe which comes with the kit. Since the model will receive frequent handling in the fiddle yards at the end of its run styrene running boards were cemented to the underframe which are much more durable than the brass ones provided with the kit not to mention far less fiddly to assemble. Some cleaning up still needs to be done on the model before getting a coat of matt varnish and weathering.
I thought I could get away with using Athearn freight car brake wheels which I had in the scrap box but not only are they the wrong style but also too large and looked totally wrong on the wagon. I think I will cut to the chase and order the correct ones from Des.
None of the 29 Provincial Wagons on the layout have brass bearings. While they are not the most free rolling wagons out there they perform fine on the layout which has no gradients and trains are 15 wagons or shorter.
Three cattle wagons were put into service tonight. Leslie's kits generally don't gather much dust on the work bench but these have been an exception taking several months to complete. Two more are in the works, both being adapted to the Vac Brake version.
A favourite Irish place name of mine is Ratass Tralee, pronounced Raa, site of a cemetry and the ruins of a medieval church. It is also the name of a level crossing on the line from Mallow.
Personally I appreciated being able to pay in advance when funds are available rather than having to come up with a payment last minute before items are sold out which has a habit of happening immediately after the washing machine has bit the dust. I'm thinking that stocking up on gift cards is the answer.
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Just found this treasure trove of 1970's CIE videos on You Tube. I somehow managed to put in 2 links twice and cant find a way of fixing it. Can a moderator fix it?
With fertilizer plants in Cork, New Ross and Arklow fertilizer moves both East and West across the South Waterford Line. Here a Waterford bound fertilizer train meets a Cork bound passenger train at Grange.