Colin R

HI Guys Can anyone help me I have lost my link to the Irish map website that gave all the details of Irish Railway stations from years gone past, I know I have the link somewhere but I have a feeling it is on the corrupt hard drive I replaced a few weeks ago. Thanks in advance for any help Colin

Hi Smub. Lets start at the beginning, First of all it can be expensive to hire someone to build the models for you. The second point is what scale did you have in mind? At this moment in time there are not that many 00n3 or 12mm gauge 00 scale (4mm scale) kits about as one of the main manufacturing is currently in the process of transferring ownership. There are a number of 3D cad print bodies out there from shapeway's but once again there are no working chassis at present, but I hope this is about to change as the new owner of the Irish range from Backwoods is hoping to introduce a new range of 3ft gauge chassis's for these 3D Bodies at some stage. Hope this helps Colin

Hi Mike I will let you have the cattle wagons if you still want them as I was only getting them for a future project so they may have hung around for awhile before I got around to building them. Colin Opps should have also said about this one as well LPHC 0-6-0 RH Smyth Regards Colin

Hi Popeye He has this address to use He plans to re-release them as he is able, and for more information Neville can be contacted via ndriveproductions@yahoo.com hope this helps Colin

Hi Wrennerie I know you said you would prefer a swap, but the guys I know might not have a lot to swap with you but they may be interested in the 00n3 kits to buy from you, can you put a fresh list of what you have. I personally would like the Donegal stock and some of the 00 gauge stock like the Model Wagon Co. GNR(I) Cattle wagons, white metal (16) and the Original SSM 6 Wheel coaches, 1st class, 1st/2nd comp, 3rd & brake 3rd. I should not for get the Impetus kits either. Regards Colin Rainsbury

Hi guys just had this sent to me if anyone was interested, it may take a while for this to happen but it might be worth thinking about in the next few months or so. Neville Kent of N-Drive Productions fame: I have arranged to take over the Backwoods Miniatures range of 4mm Irish stock and the 3 009 contractor loco kits, don't quite know when I'll start to re-release them but they are on their way back so if you could spread the word I'd be grateful." Regards Colin

I wonder how many other Irish locos have been the subject of becoming a possible kit over the years, I know they may not have been to everyone taste, but I am sure the Queens would make a great resin based kit with white metal or brass fittings to fit on either a Hornby or Bachmann 4-6-0 chassis, it might even be a thing for Murphy's models to look at. Colin

The average life span for a Baldwin in the UK and Ireland was about ten years as the boilers where built very lightly compare to normal UK Building practice, they had an attitude of run it till it is worn out and replace with something better at that time. Regarding the drawings if you could send me a copy of them I will see what we can do this end. best to email them to me at:- lynbarn58@gmail.com, I think they appeared somewhere recently, but I am not sure if I have them still. Regards Colin

Hi Mike that does appear to be a bit high, as a one off, that said of course if there where more kits to come then the cost would be lower, it also depends on what you are asking for in the kit do you plan to sell just the etching by themselves or will it be a full package or wheels, motor, casting etc. While Allen (of Worsley Works) can do any etching you want you need to ask him how much that would cost and just how many he could get on one sheet of brass. For the NCC Mogul he needs four people to pay upfront for the bits he can do, then on top you have likes of the wheels motor/gearbox and casting to find. If you want to explore this a bit more I will dig out a couple of email address's for people who might be able to help you out with sourcing this stuff. sales@branchlines.com Brian can do motors, wheels and gear boxes for you. As for castings try another Brian at https://www.247developments.co.uk/ He deals with all sorts of stuff and he has a range of castings as well so he many be able to help you out Hope this helps Colin

That Mr Coakham must be doing well as I have seen his shops on a couple of other layouts, one was for the legal profession and the other as an engineering company, nice to be popular I guess* * truth be told that if we didn't have Des to take the photos and do the drawings at the time, I wonder how much more information we would have lost by now. Colin

Sorry to be away for so long the new job in the hospital take up to much time and by the time I get home I am almost cream crackered to be honest, even to putting the PC on. Anyhow a brief update it looks like Backwoods has gone sadly but Worsley Works are in the process of producing a limited number of class 5 and 5a kits, the only problem is they don't supply the castings, so a small group of us are looking to make some new castings. I think that the CDR class 4, 5 and 5a all had standard fittings, but, if anyone knows any difference I would be glad to be put right (along with a drawing of course) for my man who has said he would produce the masters for the new kits. Worsley works do a range of Irish Narrow Gauge as well as the broad gauge stuff that I am sure some of you are familiar with already. Colin

Put me down for one Mike, funnily enough a Lynton and Barnstaple Railway Trust Member Paul Gower has just done an article on all the Baldwins that came to Ireland and Britain, I don't have a copy as yet but trying to find out any information this side of the wee river that runs between Ireland and Britain has been a nightmare for him, I am not sure he would be interested but I would if the kit can be made for 21mm gauge as well. Colin

Hi David that is the problem the Backwood's kits had the original art work still been about, I am sure a 7mm scale kit of a number of those kits would have appeared by now. To be honest that is the thinking behind a possible new range of Irish based kits not only in 4mm but also 7mm as well. Colin

I genuinely feel sorry for you guys and this layout this is no way to treat a national treasure. Short of suggesting the setting up of a new heritage center somewhere in Eire where it would be appreciated and possibly in an old station as well I don't know what else to suggest. The other thing to make something happen would be to get a few of you to see if you can somehow become Trustees of the group which now owns the layout at that level you can try and make the decision to find a new site for the layout. I am not sure just how big you need the building, but a layout like this needs to be displayed properly. Colin

You are right about Peco, just to do a yard length of flexi track of 21mm gauge we would be looking at tooling cost's of up to £20,000 t o start with, As Mayner points out, build your own track is more than likely the only way to go at present. Colin

Hi guys I have been down this road, the answer I got was there was not enough demand for it, but I am sure some one once did 21mm gauge plastic track base but it was more expensive that either EM or P4 as I recall. I will ask again to see if I can find out how much 21mm gauge would cost to set up from someone like Peco. Colin

Broithe that is brilliant thanks Colin

Funny you should mention new jobs, I start a new one on Tuesday, but I have two large A4 manuals, a large website to look through, as well as the induction process to undertake before they let me loose. To be honest most of it is just common sense, but those of us of a certain age then look at the younger generations after they have done something stupid and ask why don't you use the common sense you where born with, it appears from the famous Health and Safety manual, that you now have to try and teach common sense and to add insult to injury they make you take a test on it

I can agree with you Rich, a couple of items which I purchased a few years ago had to go back since neither of them worked from day one properly, I have had replacements since and they work OK, but if anyone things that RTR is the only solution to good running, I would have to disagree. One item was a Hornby SR 4-6-0 tender loco and it ran for about half an hour and then it just packet up, I found out that the gears had split and the teeth broke off inside the chassis itself, I did get a replacement for it, but not a direct swoop from Hornby as they cancelled that model due to the number of problems they had with it. Besides fettling a model, is all part of the learning curve of getting it to run better.

Hi JHB, I won't give up totally on 21mm gauge the reason I say so is that having seen what has been done in the recent 009 market with a basic 3D print, etch and resin kits, we can't be far off of having a 21mm gauge kit as well. I am not saying 3D prints are the full answer, one of the biggest hassle to get 21mm gauge more established is having those parts which make doing it as easy as RTR 'OO' Gauge. While I agree it would be great to have compensated loco chassis etc and all the bells and whistles that go along with the fine scale modelling but there has to be a point when you have to say enough is enough, I am taking the view that I want something up and running ASAP, years ago when I was knee high to a grasshopper the local model club had both EM and 'OO' layouts, one guy from the EM section one day told me a big secret to some of the models he was using they where converted OO gauge body shells and RTR Hornby-Triang rolling stock. Like so many people at the time I had this idea that if you modeled in EM, it all had to be scratch built and this made a big difference to me. Now to my way of thinking why don't I used this idea today for building in 21mm gauge locos and rolling stock? So I will not apologies if anyone sees a BR mk 1 or a GWR Hornby coach on my Irish based layout as it is for working out just what is or is not possible, my idea is while It is good to have the fine scale standards, I do think that this also puts more people off of having a go than is healthy. Regards Colin

Hi Tony something you could consider is a cross over of Omagh and a test track, as a suggestion why not build Omagh with very short sidings to take say no more that four wagons and the platform loop no longer than say 4ft, this would create a big 21mm gauge shunting puzzle layout, this would allow you to play trains if you like but at the same time let you work your locos and rolling stock with a timetable as well, I am working on the same idea for an Irish/IOM style 00n3 layout. Colin

To be honest David if i didn't have so much invested in 4mm 00n3 and all my other stuff then I would have gone 7mm many years ago, if you want a simple 21mm gauge shunting layout in 4mm it is possible in 4ft x 2ft two points and 4 meters of track will get you going, OK it is not a continuous run but it will give you something to work on and to have some fun shunting wagons or coaches with one engine in steam. I would agree with David it is so important for the Irish modeling community to show just what so many people are missing out on, the biggest problem is of course if you wasn't brought up on the Irish railway system then it will be harder to get into the mind set of the Irish Railway operation, as for me i got caught and was dragged kicking and screaming into that world occupied by the Donegal and I have to say what a great place to be, it has the best of both worlds, British influence, but with a great amount of that famous Irish charm and that Black creamy liquid too. Colin

Hi guys I have been considering this myself as I really fancy a 21mm gauge layout, nothing fancy you understand, just something very simple to start with. One bit of advice I can give since I have build some 009 track work and that is don't rush the first point or section of track. The second bit of advice is to build some cardboard jigs for the track and point work, cardboard from the wheatie bangs or other breakfast cereals is good enough for this. For best results use a bit of 9mm or deeper plywood as a base for the give me a few days to sort all this out and I will try try and do an article on how to build track over Christmas.

What a great list you sure beat me with the number of broad gauge kits, I am sure I have more 3ft gauge kits awaiting building in the shed. I will need to go and check them out tomorrow. As for my broad gauge kits well that is another matter, I don't have that many. I will certainly go and get my hands on a LMS Jinty to convert to 21mm gauge so I have something to run and then there is that Bachmann L&Y 2-4-2T to repaint and detail into a B&CDR loco. I would love to see some of those photos you mentioned Wrennerie. Regards Colin

Hi Guys I am thinking about next year already and I have this idea for a small 4mm scale 21mm gauge layout using the C&L track products. Now the plan is to build it in the 1930 to 60's period, I was wondering if anyone knew what rail section was in use the most at that period and how many screws per chair where used as well. Sorry if this is a repeat for something I have said before but I can't find the original thread on this subject. Regards Colin