Colin R

The problem will come, once all the current Irish Railway locos, carriage and good stock have been made available, where do you go to? sure popular modelling has alway followed what is currently out there on the mainline as it reminds us of what is out there to be seen. Purley as a suggestion you understand, but you could then go back and visit all the heritage sites, Cultra, Whitehead and Downpatrick to start with, to see what they have. However going back to the days of steam, I am at more of a disadvantage that most of you guys are In Ireland since I live over the waters in Kent, England. That said my interest has alway been the Donegal (why? I don't think I could give you a sensible answer etc that I happen to like big red steam locos), but the more research I do the more interest I get in the general Irish rail scene. So much so that if I had the space something based on Strabane could be considered for a model, having both gauges of 12mm and 21mm on it. Colin Rainsbury

shame

I bet someone will add and extra £50 to that total before it is sold.

These would be nice in RTR Colin

Seeing all this wonderful stuff I was wondering if any one has tried to nudge Herbie Richards/Brendan Pender to produce their book again on GSWR Carriage Diagrams, I am sure there would be a bigger market for them now.

Thanks Jon for some reason or other and I have yet to go for a visit and that is the old Derry Road, may be it has a linked to the Donegal railway which is why I hope to model a little bit of it, just need to buy enough 21mm stock to operate some sort of typical day in the life of the Derry Road, set in the late 1940's to the early 1960's period.

Thanks Leslie I will be in touch and thanks Jon for the information about the cross boarder train sets. I take it for the longer length of train it would be more of H and GNR vans, Also what was a typical length of a cattle train special? Colin

I am glads I found this, as I was wondering the worse, money being what it is right now, I am not sure if I can afford the wagons I need or want. I would like to put together a 1950 period good train something in the 15 to 20 wagon length if that is possible. Would there have been a typical train formation of that period? If it helps I am thinking of something like a cross boarder type operation. Colin

I have a couple of those where did you get the green paint from?

If some of the TV shows about Irish food are anything to go by you guys are in for some treats from Ukraine.

Nice coach how and where did this come from? Colin

Then a loco of some sort

Great to see some rolling stock on site

Is that for real?

Wonderful progress, can't wait to see what coaches you have coming.

At that rate it will take the same length of time that it does for me to build just one 00n3 steam loco kit.

This photo makes me want to take up 7mm modelling. That said I have been thinking for a while about a Gauge 3 size garden layout (that is 13.5mm or 17/32inch to the foot scale) with an Irish gauge of 70.875mm or 2 3/4inches in old money. Colin Rainsbury

May be a B or a C class loco would go down well, if you are looking to model a certain time period in the Irish scene, for what it is worth I happen to like the late 30's to early 60's period so I can run a mixture of both Steam and Diesel locos. I am not sure as to what the last classes of Irish steam locos where, but if you looked at those that have made it into Preservation then that would be a start. Colin

To throw a huge spanner in the works, would 0.75mm over gauge be to much of a problem for anyone considering TT Irish 5ft 3inch? Colin Rainsbury

Hi Guys for those of you who find OO a bit big take a look at the launch of the 1 to 120 scale TT scale from Peco and Rails of Sheffield https://railsofsheffield.com/blogs/news/heljan-tt-gauge-class31 If this takes off then I wonder how long it will be before we start to see some TT scale irish models other than those on the exhibtion circuit? Colin

Wow thanks you the GNR(I) station is much bigger than I though. Colin

Thanks Chris for those, out of interest what scale are they drawn too? Colin

Thanks Guys for letting me know about the approximate age in this group, this is not only a very good thing for Irish modelling but for engineering as a whole. As Mayner said above that was the typical set up of a model railway group in the 1970's. My own intro to model railways was via a local model railway exhibition, this lead from one thing to another. I did start with the Hornby Triang stuff of that period, but found it did not excite me enough, it was at this point that things took off, I first meet a life long friend Dave Brewer, a narrow gauge nut if every there was one, while he was exhibiting his layout of Linton (Lynton and Barnstaple Railway in North Devon). Big locos on a narrow gauge (2ft) railway WOW now that's the thing I was looking for, or so I though. Enter my local library and lol and behold what did I find in the railway section? yep you guested it, Patterson's book on the Lough Swilly Railway BOOM! I was hooked on yet bigger locomotives on narrow gauge railways and a great colour print at the front of one of the 4-8-4 Tank locos. As I was young about my mid teens and before girlfriends/cars/work etc all got in the way, I thought this must be heaven, a couple of early 009 layouts and an attempt at 7mm 16.5mm gauge modelling happen around that time. After that and for a long period I got into Steam Railway Heritage and the formation of the Lynton and Barnstaple Railway in North Devon was a big pull at the time, I only got back into modelling as such after reading an article or two by the late David Lloyd his layout was called Coolcalaghta (I will leave that one up to you guys to pronounce as I don't have a clue) in the mid to late 1990's. It was an 00n3 (12mm gauge) 4mm scale layout, indirectly it was this layout that saw a number of 00n3 brass etched kits hit the market around that time, today there are still a lot of kits about if you know where to look and how to ask for them. Sadly for me I think I must have a butterfly brain, as I happen to not only like the Irish narrow gauge, but this has developed a liking for many 3ft to meter and 3ft 6in gauge railways around the world. Finally if I can pass one bit of modelling advice on to anyone, it would be don't give up and prepare to try again, it is not a sprint but more like a marathon, I do know my short comings in modelling and it is only now 40+years later do I think it is ok, there will always be someone better than you at this don't take it personally if you think they have just made a great model and you don't think you could do just as well, don't forget to get to that stage takes a long time and a modelling apprenticeship as well. There back to where I think I started. Happy Modelling to you all. Colin

Apprenticeships are the life blood of all engineering sites, that said try getting some of the kids today to think in terms of a worthwhile living and they would prefer to be playing donkey Kong or some other such computer game. No disrespect intended but just how many of us are under 30 on here? For what it is worth I am 63 (64 in September this year) Colin

Thanks Flange, I didn't get there myself, but having seen the same effect at the local traction depot (Slade Green, Erith. Kent) a few years ago with a BR class 33. Colin