Colin R

Also, it might be worth looking here for books and their costs:- https://www.titfield.co.uk/index.htm https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_nkw=model+railway+modelling+books&_sacat=0&_from=R40&rt=nc&Genre=Art%20%26%20Culture&_dcat=261186 The second link is to second-hand books on eBay, so do have a look at some of them before you buy. Amazon does have a reasonable book section but don't expect to find AJ Hartley's book on fly fishing there. (You might need to be of a certain age to get this.) Also, be aware that Amazon runs several other web-based bookshops, so it is worth looking there as well. Now due to my own experience do you want books with loads of words or pretty pictures, the reason I say this is many older books tend to in my experience tell you how to do this and that and take a cat apart and put it back together with no harm and by the time you get to the end of the book, you have forgotten what it was all about or just more confused than you might have been before. Current books tend to be more of this is how I have done it and let's look at the results in the following pictures. The third bit of advice buy only the tools you need now and buy the best you can afford, make sure you keep them in a toolbox when you are not using them. Besides getting into modelling for the fun of it you can and will learn so many new skills, many of which are very basic engineering skills which sadly are not always taught at school or colleges this day and age. If you want to learn why and how you do something I can't recommend highly enough the following series of engineering books for you life long library. https://www.teepublishing.co.uk/books/workshop-practice-series/ Good luck on your journey of railway modelling just remember you learn something new every day during your life Regards Colin Rainsbury .

Just as an aside, the nice man at Worsley (Allen) used to sell or give away packets of scrap brass and nickel silver to practice on at exhibitions. Nothing too big, but a lot of free strips of old sheet. As a side note, though, Des might have a load of old scrap brass you could ask him for.

One thing which comes to mind, and that is practice soldering before you start on a kit, the more you do the better you become and a lot fewer burnt fingers to boot, and the different types of soldering will be helpful, ie Brass sheet is harder that say covering a wire in solder and so on Here are a couple of useful sites to look at:- https://www.instructables.com/How-to-solder/ https://www.clfinescale.co.uk/copy-of-c-l-product-diagrams https://www.clfinescale.co.uk/solderingtechniques hope this helps Colin R

If you want a kit of an Irish Pullman, try the following http://www.worsleyworks.co.uk/4mm/4mm_Irish_Standard_Gauge.htm

I think I can just about do that in Grey, would be good to have a couple of John's GSR grain vans as well.

OK, Thanks, I hope John will try for another batch of his red grain wagons No sadly not at present

Sadly for some reason I can't access Flickr

Thanks, guys. So, one last question: What would have been the typical length of a grain train with 6,9 or more wagons in it?

I would like to see a second batch of Grain wagons with the snail in grey and with different numbers, if not then I will have to buy a second box and change the numbers myself Does anyone know if the Grain wagons had the red oxide livery with the snail motif on them at the same time?

I see two issues here? 1 Just how many does Des need to order 2 How many different types are there

Admittedly, there is now a lot of Irish narrow gauge in kit form from Worsley, that said, however, this is one of those chicken and egg situations, I know 00n3 modellers who have splashed out on a new Hornby TT120 scale 08 chassis the biggest draw back to the size/scale is the lack of a commercial locomotive chassis. There are two items of narrow gauge which I think would work for most people, they are 1. the West Clare bogie Diesel or 2. the West Clare/Donegal Railcar, there is of course one outstanding NG loco and wagon set that you could put on a modern day layout and that would be a Wagonmaster and a train of Peat wagons, it could even be done as a complete roundy roundy layout with a loco and say 3 peat wagons. Then later on you could introduce a railcar. Would that work? I don't know, but I would have one if it was made.

I think some of the smaller Irish 3ft gauge stock that could also run on 009 might be a good toe in the water exercise

Thanks Guys I have spoken to IRM and cancelled my order. I will give it a few days and then place an order for an SSM kit Colin

It just occurred to me that I should have asked if the Queens will convert to 21mm Gauge?

Having just pre-ordered these wee beasties, it occurred to me if they can be regauged to 21mm.

There goes a bit more of the pension pot

Well I didn't expect this https://www.accurascale.com/blogs/irish-railway-news/the-high-queens-of-ireland-irm-celebrates-10th-birthday-with-gswr-800s back to the coal face for this one Colin

I feel we are doing great guns with all this later date stock (CIE period) but what of pre-CIE stock? I know I might be shooting myself in the foot, but from what (little) I know of the Irish railway system, was there ever a dominant company pre CIE that stamped its mark over the majority of the Irish Railway system? Sure, we have the Great Southern Period, but did it add anything to the rolling stock totals? I think it has been said before that if it was not for the UK market supporting this side of the business, then we wouldn't have anything to run. That said, the wallet groans when IRM announces yet another new model, but I guess you need to keep up with Jones's on this one. Besides the cattle wagons from Leslie and the odd brake van, what else is there that we need to complete the typical Irish model layout stock wise? Colin R PS I do get it that any new Irish stock also needs to try and break even on its development costs

In my hurry to order these wagons, I guess I must have over-ordered the H vans as another 12 turned up today, that's OK as i think I have a fair number of wagons, but the next question is will the three grain van I have ordered be enough, I am hoping they will do a set two with different numbers also just how many grain vans would have been made up into one train at a time. Colin

Well, I have just had a count up and currently I have 36 wagons and four A class locos in RTR state. But I also have about a dozen kits to build one day for 21mm gauge. That is without the IRM coaches yet to come, and those items of stock I would like to buy from Leslie. I need to find some drawings for the Belfast and County Down steam locos, I would love to have a few of those about at sometime

Just ordered mine, just need to buy a brakevan or two.

As they appeared to have gone so fast, I hope they do another run of them at some point. Colin

I now wish that I had ordered a packet of grain wagons Coliin

Thanks I will do that

Hi Boskey I need to try again on Monday as I can't get into the Accurascale site with my IRM email address and password so I might have to set up a new account