Colin R

If I recall correctly they used to be government funded at one point, may be this has now finished and relying on volunteers in that part of the world may make things difficult. It might be wise in that case to revert to weekend only working. Colin Rainsbury

It has also been suggested that I also look into a circus ring master uniform for him, I just need to find out how tail Austin was

There is a company over here that do 3D figures, if I can get enough information about the man it might be worth a try, I hope they will have a few clear photos of him without the loudhailer and some details such as just how tail he was etc the important bits are his face and hands as to costumes I am sure we can find something suitable on line. Colin

Thanks Broithe, I have just contacted them, lets see what turns up. Colin

Hi Guys believe it or not but this is railway related. For those of you that have seen or read Modelling the Irish Narrow Gauge by the late David Lloyd, you will be aware of his freelanced layout called 'Coolcalaghta'. So far I have yet to get to Ireland for a field trip (Covid stopped me doing that this year). However what I am trying to do is to find out more about a West Cork / Bantry Bay character by the name of Austin Twomey, his clam to fame is that he used to dress up as an admiral or suchlike to welcome dignitaries to Bantry in the late 1950 /1960's. David had on his layout a small cottage based on Austins House, but so far I can not find any photos of this house on the web, so I can copy it for my own layout. If we have anyone living in or near Bantry and knows the house in question, can I ask you to take a few photos of it for me. On a separate note for both 4 and 7mm modellers I have just spoken to Roger from Alphagraphixs and he tells me he is hoping to do a few more Irish buildings and shop fronts. I have said I would let you guys know and if there are any buildings in Ireland that could be made into good models, can I ask you to contact me off list. Ideally I could do with some decent photos of the subject or at least a link to it from the web, sadly my computer does not like to play with Google maps for some reason, at the moment, so I can't send him a direct link at the moment. To give you one of the types I am looking for is a typical Irish Creamery style building. I do realise that there are regional differences in Irish Buildings so, please don't be put off by this, as the more information about these buildings the better the chances a building getting done from Cork along with something else from say Ballymeana. Regards Colin Rainsbury

And if you asked them for money to help, you would not see them again.

Hi JHB yes I totally agree, I guess the biggest problem for Irish Railway Heritage is in fact the lack of boots on the ground. In the UK you have a larger and older pool of volunteers to draw from, where as compared to that the Irish population is that much younger and is more than likely not to have that same sort of passion, forgive me if I have this wrong but I get the impression that you still have a large amount of folk emigrating to other parts of the world which also does not help, I don't blame anyone who moves to make a better life for themselves and their families, I would be doing the same if I was in their position. This is a difficult enough issue to crack and at present I can't see a solution to it. Colin

An old guy from the Festiniog Railway once told me the secret of success for any heritage railway is to get bums on seats the enthusiast will only provide less than 5% of your passengers were as Mum Dad and 2.5kids will make or break you railway. Cater for them and you will be here next year, the three things you need are clean loos for mum a clean tea shop for Mum and Dad and a gift shop not just for the kids but for mum to take stuff back to her folks at home, soft drinks, ice cream and sweets for everyone, Thomas the tank is always popular with just about everyone, Tee shirts, hats, sweatshirts with the railway site details will also sell. Don't forget a steam gala once a year for members and then if you have an important national day make that also a high light of the year with something special.

I am glad I found this rant, yes been there read the book brought the tee shirt and the rest, for years the Lynton and Barnstaple Railway Association lost its way in trying to reopen the Railway in Devon. https://www.lynton-rail.co.uk/?gclid=Cj0KCQjwl_SHBhCQARIsAFIFRVWTjglhA4uJCxPYLtsjNK_NTur741mwzSzxYJh6Ln_hj4Ak5Z6sKXEaAsM4EALw_wcB At almost every turn the council at the time said no to the project. Finally we got our act together and set up the Lynton and Barnstaple Railway Trust, following this we then set up a Community Interest Origination (A CIO) based Company, it is basically a charity but run on a commercial basis see the UK charity commission website for more details about the structure. So what we have in North Devon is a Trust which owns all the assets like locos trackbed etc and a separate company that runs the whole thing on behalf of the Trust, sounds simple doesn't it! The membership in turn elects 1/3 of the both the trustee and the company directors every year, but as no one stand up for election the same old faces carry on from one year to another. How this works is very simple we have about five or six people who have this railway at the heart of just about everything they do, what happens is they contact the people who have the skills to keep the group together on a profession basis, IE company secretaries, accountants, civil engineers mechanical engineers etc the list is endless. Most of these people live with in a reasonable distance of the project and so they all meet up say once a month to discuss the progress of the project and make proposals which then go back to the membership to act upon and help raise the money required. So my suggestion would be to seek out a person with the drive to set up such project in Ireland and to allow them to bring in the expertise that would be required to make this happen, there must be a number of people in Ireland who have retired and could give a day or so a month from the retirement to help get such a group off the ground, this could be the way forward to set up a National Railway Museum and Collection point, I know we have the Irish Railway Record Society and number of Irish railway heritage groups, but it would be a start. The biggest problem as I see it is convincing those in politics that you are serious enough to make something happen and to prove you can make it a successful commercial venture as well. The big trouble with railway enthusiast's are we are too big hearted and don't always have that commercial killer feel you need to make a success of a heritage project, for those that know the Donegal Railway we would need a modern day Mr Forbes for such a project I am sure living where I do that it is possible and if we could set up a new group to own 5T then so be it, you would be looking at around £100,00 pounds for a rebuild so you have sponsorship, donations and lottery funding (all specialist fund raising opportunities that need experts involved to get the results you need).

That is a big WOW, Fantastic

Wow I would love to see some photos when it is possible.

If i could go back in time with a load of cash we would have the best Railway/Tram collection going, I am sure I would try and save one of those big 4-8-0 beasties from the Swilly.

It looks like to me as if all the excursions trains where over printed on a standard background poster, they would have to be cheap enough to do something like that, I suspect that a run of say 500 posters was the normal thing. Where as the colour tourist poster would have been printer on a better paper so it lasted a bit longer say from April to September may be? The whole issue of how long a poster was up for depends on how busy the station was, I can't speak for how things where done over in Ireland but it was a common practice that posters where pasted over an old one until they fell off. After the war the quality of the wall poster decreased and it was common for after say 6 or 7 posters than the whole lot would just fall off the wall having been made wet so many times (the rain manly) which formed a pulp, in the 60's and 70's fly posting became a massive problem over here (and still is) so posters where made as cheap as possible since they only needed to stay up a few days at the most.

Thanks guys for identify both of them. I am sure there must be other Irish based posters, I might have to start a search on the interwebby thing to see if i can find any more. Colin

Hi one and all, The attached photo on the Cavan and Leitrim Mohill station shows a CIE Poster, my request is who might have one and if so can you post a colour version and the size of the poster, there is a second poster which I cannot make out to much detail of but again it is a CIE poster. Is anyone aware of anyone who has produced all of these CIE posters in 4mm / OO scale? Regards Colin Rainsbury

While some paints may have disappeared, it might be worth looking at one of the colour charts on-line such as this one https://www.paint4models.com/download.html I have to admit I prefer to use acrylics for washes and most of my painting as it gives a better base coat finish. Try looking at the citidal paint range for war games role play some very interesting shades on there. Colin R

Was it my imagination but didn't NIR buy some class A locos a few years ago or was it a different class I am thinking about Colin

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