Colin R

Hi John To bring you up to date, sadly the Nine Lines kits are not available at present but there are moves to get them into production again (I hope), there has been a suggestion that other Donegal vans could be made from a laser cut in 3 mm ply with brass etched over lays stuck on with superglue. The chassis could be either a 3D print or a brass etch, I think the days of multi media items of rolling stock are approaching fast. Nothing new here, something similar was tried out years ago with some early Graham Farish wagon kits I believe. I understand the concept behind this and for some reason those promoting this think the look and feel is far better, I have yet to see any prototypes but I am looking forward to seeing how this will develop.

Hi Eoin the class five has interest as does the rail car, depending on which one if the seller would like to contact me off list I can have a chat with him about them, the wagons sound good as well. Colin

Hi Eoin I know it might be a bit late as he may have already sold them, but if you know the guy I might have some one interested in the Donegal kits if he still has them. Colin

West Clare tank kits tell me more I didn't think anyone had done any West Clare locos Colin

Just spoken to Neville about the class 5 he is having an issue about the wheels and motors so their could be a delay with these. If you wanted to go down the Worsley works route then you could contact Branchlines about motor and wheels for these kits, it will however leave you to try and find suitable castings, you could always ask Neville for sets of casting from the class 5 kits as I understand he had had them done and may be willing to sell them to you, I have asked him if I can do that for the Worsley Works Class 4 and 5A kits and I think he is OK with that. Colin

That's good to hear about her, at least she didn't have sea water getting anywhere near her. Colin

You will need some of those Worsley works West Clare coaches to go with them or some 3D print WCR vans, I am wonder what else came from the model train fair today. Colin

A great model Eoin, I still have three to build, you need a Swilly 4-8-0 Tender loco to go with that one now Colin

For most heritage railways when they take on an old steam locos, the things which need to either be replaced on have a lot of work on tend to be the Boiler and any sheet steel, mostly Cabs and tanks will get replaced with replicas (as I understand it most of the tanks on the class 5's where rotten anyway while they where still working back in the 1950's), some boiler fittings will also need to be replaced due to the current EU wide pressure vessel regulations, you will be lucky if any of the brass/gun metal fitting are still about and the same will go for the brass wheel bearings.,basically anything which could be stolen for scrap and would have been worth a few bob would have gone by now. Iron or steel castings and the frames, tend to be OK as they have the rest of the loco above to protect them, smoke box, the door and chimney should also be reusable as well, but it will depend on how it has been stored, sometimes the smoke box has also rusted away due to corrosion and what used to go on inside when working. Most heritage locos end up with a new boiler at some point, but at least it should be OK for another 50 years plus, depending on the grade of steel used in its construction, it would be worth getting someone who knows about boilers to give anyone the advice they are looking for on this. When the Lynton and Barnstaple Railway build a new Baldwin 2-4-2T the design team produced a list of every part of the new loco, they then produced a sponsorship list with every part having been given a value in Sterling, the idea took off and it was not long before the sponsorship money was coming in. From start to finish it took 8 years to build, normally such a project could last up to 20 years. This is not a how to restore a steam loco, but just pointing out the things I have come across on the locos I have had the privilege to be able to work on. Colin

Hi J Mo, sorry for the delay I have problem with the old steam driven computer, I fear I shall be needing a new electronic one very soon. As to designing the chassis I understand that one exists already from Dr Alan Gee, so I need to contact him first to see how he produced his one and who he got to do it. I see the 12inches to the ft scale model is coming on very nicely

For your information in Modelling the Irish Narrow Gauge the late David Lloyd managed to borrow the drawings of these locos from the late Sam Carse so a drawing of them has appeared in print, if you would like me to send you a copy pm me off group as a private message with your email address and I will send it back to you. Recently Sam's two sons have donated all of his life time collections of Donegal notes to the heritage center in Donegal, I can't wait to find out just what is in there, I am hoping airfixfan will seriously sit down and think about putting all of Sam's notes into a book format for the rest of us to drool over. I like the above body shell that you are doing, once the finances are back on track and if you are going to produce them I wouldn't mind getting two of them from your, or if you would like some one to use their printer let me know as I have a contact with a narrow gauge model supplier who makes some very find models on his new 3D printer. Colin

Hi J-Mo try this group as well for any help https://groups.io/g/00n3modellers we don't bite, but we can help you out, if you have never built a brass kit try to down load the following link and start reading over a large cup of Coffee or Tea https://www.engelsmodelspoor.shop/media/pdfs/Building Coaches the Comet Way.pdf, This is the advice that Allen give out to anyone who has never built one of his kits Colin Rainsbury

I know this will upset the purists, but I do wonder somethings if there is now a possibility of linking Derry/Londonderry to Strabrane using the old Donegal Line across town, I thin they have already moved the old NCC line to the right side of the old station, so building a new link between these two old station sites should not be that bigger problem, with the exception of any new building and roads that have been built since the Donegal closed, but it is not impossible, not when you consider just how much money is being spend on the HS2 project in the UK. Colin

I appreciate that not everyone wishes to tell the world where they live and that is fine, sometimes people (and not everyone) like to get together over a beer or join together to build a layout or exchange ideas on how to build something or just exchange information about an item, this can be fun as well. As far as i am concerned it does not matter what your background is, we can all learn off each other and get inspired to do things better next time. I have built some right dogs over the years (some folk say I still do) but when I do show off my work I am the biggest critic ever going, I press the self destruct button by telling people of the faults I notice, some people have even like some of it more than me and have paid good money for it (I don't know why to be honest). All I can say is once the pandemic is over it will be great to get over to Ireland and see the world of modelling that takes place in Ireland, but like JHB has said I will not be too surprised if the number of Irish modellers is not that great. Colin R

Thats better odds than winner the euro lottery

Why not that is a very good standard you have modeled too, I would suggest one thing I would try to weather the locos a bit not to much, just to take the shine off the model a bit, try a very weak black/grey wash from a water based paint. either brush it or use an old fluff free rag to wipe a light coat over the body, try it on an old model first to get the idea.

We could use the nearest Town/City for our own location, mind would be London.

Hi Guys I don't know if anyone has had a look recently, but I am surprised at just how many Guess's we have looking on this forum, I am not complaining as it looks good that we have so many more visitors, but I was just wondering if we could ask our guess's to just say hi and sign in, you never know it could be your next door neighbour who is a secret model railway fan and you did not know about it. I know some people don't want to sign in and they just want to have a look, that's fine by me as well, but I was wondering how many people live near each other that could if they wanted to set up a small area model railway group, there must be a few guys on here who live in either Dublin or Cork as examples that could start the ball rolling especially once the Covid crisis is over. Colin

Just as a side issue here what would make up the following:- 1) A typical passenger train set behind an A class in the 1950's 2) A typical local mixed train in the Midlands area lets say Dromod Station in the 1950's Colin

your right, I was getting worried, it is the preserved one at Downpatrick and it should have been A39R. which makes it the third most popular model in this range, I also have the two green ones on order as well. If I had the money I would also order the other silver one A30 I think it is, but money being what it is and as I have a few other model railway items to get in the next few months I might end up buying one second hand. Colin Colin

I have on order one A38R Black and Tan but I don't see it on the above list has anyone else ordered this loco? Colin

I think you could still try Model Rail as the new editor appears to like Irish railways and they did do an article on Andy Cundick Layout in the last one or two issues, I am not sure how much it would cost but I was thinking of asking their full time layout designer to come up with a full working layout based on the Donegal and the Swilly in the space of say 30ft x 30ft. Colin

I have to admit that I am pleasantly surprised by all of this, I think I can say that I have been informed that at least ten of each of the three locos proposed would sell. If anyone has access to any works drawings for these locos, I would love to hear from you. Colin Rainsbury

I didn't realse there was much difference between the four of them, and I stand corrected, I have sent Allen the drawing from the back of the L&LSR book by JIC Boyd, No 8, but if there is another drawing of the other two please let me know where I can get hold of it, if we are going to do this right then the better amount of information we have the better the etches. Colin

Hi guys not sure were this should go, but I have been discussing the possibilities of a couple more Swilly steam locos in 00n3, with Allen from Worsley Works. The plan for now is for him to produce the following sets of etches:- Black Hawthorn 0-6-0T 'Inishowen' Hudswell Clark 4-6-2T Hawthorn Leslie 4-6-2T Hudswell Clark 4-8-4T and the 4-8-0Tender locos as well as both the Andrew Barclay 4-6-0T and Kerr Stuart 4-6-2T are all or have been in production in the past, the top three designs would complete any Swilly based railway layout, you can dream up. In order for all of them to go forward Allen would like to know if there would be sufficient support for each model, we are looking to produce a minimum run of ten sets of etches per loco. Casting, motors, wheels and gear boxes would need to be obtained by the builder themselves. Please let me know if you are interested in any of the above, I can tell you that we already have interest in at least one of each. regards Colin Rainsbury