Colin R

Has there ever been a book on Mr Fry and his layout?

Back orders of MRJ now on there way to me, I just wonder if there would be enough interest to do a book on past Irish models and modellers, for me I know these people by name but it would be great to have more details of what they have done.

This could get expensive again, thanks for that I should add they also do a NNC loco kit as well as Harland & Wolff 0-6-0DM LMS 7057/NCC 22

If you can't wait but fancy a brass kit see this one https://www.ukmodelshops.co.uk/catalogue/judithedge.html 4mm scale £110.00

Just wanted to check is this an 88DS model?

A lot of the photos where sold at auctions in the UK so have got split up I think the Industrial Railway Society may have acquired a few of them.

Anyone got some photos of his models they care to put on here? Colin

I wonder if Bill Bedford still has them, I guess that as etching has changed, he might need to make some new etched masters.

Sometimes the name and a certain layout do not alway come to mind at the same time, had a similar experience at an exhibition with the late Ian Rice, I knew the face but could I remember his name at the time no how embarrassing that is.

Hi John Thanks for that as it clears up one mystery for me, I have wondered for some time what happen to David Walker, so as he is no longer with us again I wonder what happen to that layout, I guess that unless anyone took an interest in it, it may well have ended up in the local council skip. As for Richards big layout I don't recall seeing to many photos of it in full operation or any articles, I understand he used to produce a magazine about it, but again I have never seen any of those, I just wonder if there is enough information about his layout weather or not a a book like the white series from Wild Swan could be viable?

So If I have this right Tony's first layout still exists somewhere in Ireland and his second Adavoyle layout is now with the South Dublin Club is that right?

They are great looking models, thanks for sharing them on here

Hi Guys The other day I was looking at someones Blog on the internet and it happen to mention the late Richard Chown's layout Castle Rackrent, this in turn got me thinking I wonder what happen to all his 7mm Irish locos, rolling stock plus of course his layouts. Does any one have that information or have anything to add to this?

Is this for real? eBay item number:354516529745

Also have a look here https://www.dropbox.com/s/b1gvs4usgmrgqei/Irish Lines Drawings Index (J.P.James%2C 1992).pdf And I should also not forget our friend at Alphagraphix kits https://www.alphagraphixkits.co.uk/

Sadly my scanner is not working but if anyone else can send you a copy of an article by David Walker from the Railway Modeller dated November 1985 it is four pages of a 7mm scale layout called Killaney so that has some details that might prove interesting. It might also be worth contacting the new irish lines magazine website https://newirishlines.org/ or the facebook page https://www.facebook.com/NewIrishLines/followers they may also be able to put you in contact with other modellers like yourself. Colin

I am not sure how many you would need to break even but I would be interested

I would think that there must have been a rule of thumb to this over time, such as lets imagine a morning train from say Cork to Dublin needs to have 50 1st class sets, 100 2nd class and 250 + 3rd class seats these numbers will have been known for years previously on the same day before by the booking clerk at Cork, this information would find its way to the operations department who would then instruction the staff to put together the train from what current stock there was in the carriage yard at Cork. I suspect that each coach would have been known for how many seats it had so it might be possible that they only needed six carriages to start with. But allowing for intermediate stations and passengers they may have added an extra two coaches on the end. Again it would have been more than possible for a train set that just arrives at Cork to be broken up and reformed for another service later in the day.

I wonder, would they have also used cattle wagons if there were a lot of horses to be moved at the same time? Colin

Hi Guys not one to let anyone down but as I don't follow horse racing, I don't have a clue as to just how important the movement of the horse around the Irish railway system really was, so does anyone want to start with your own observations on this subject?

Thanks JHB for some reason I always get those two railways mixed up the Belfast & Northern Counties and Belfast & Co Down, I won't even get into the issue of horse boxes as I am sure that will be another thread that should be started elsewhere. Colin

I think that is around the period which I hope to model, but with a bit of modeller licence to boot. While we are on the subject of coaches (could we say on horse racing days) would it have been possible to have run various specials from different railways, so could something from Belfast come south such as an NCC or GNRi special or even something more exotic from the B&NCR even? I know that rule one will apply to the layout but sometimes its nice just to have a prototype excuse for running something. Colin

That's OK then might have a chance to move to a new location subject to things happening the way we want them to, which means I will have the time to save up to buy some of the next batch. will need more green and silver livery versions I think. In that case does anyone have the knowledge of when each loco went from as delivered Silver to Green and then to Black and Tan V1? I would be looking at nothing later than say 1966 thanks in advance. Colin

Given that this batch of A's has sold very well, dare I wonder if a second batch might happen at some point in the future but with different numbers and colour schemes? Colin

yes I think that were they mean