FrankS

G'day all, from w-a-y down South in Tasmania:) The Fermoy Branch is a classic station to fiddle yard design, so beloved of British GWR modellers, but with the added refinement of a "hidden" continious run. It fits around the walls of a roughly 16' x 10' bedroom The actual station is on a 9' 8" x 2' 3" board and is set in the 1970's. The baseboards around the other 3 sides of the room already exist as part of my existing On30 layout. On these boards the scenery will mostly remain as is, with the buildings, vehicles, etc., being swapped for OO scale ones. This should work out OK as a 7mm tree just becomes a bigger tree in 4mm scale. Talking of TREES, One of my pet peeves with the layouts I see are the tiny little fiddling trees on them, little more than bushes. Trees are BIG things. When I lived in Queensland we had two magnificent trees in our back garden between 100' and 125' high - actually nothing exceptional in REAL trees. Think about it, in 4mm scale a 120' tree is 480mm ! thats almost 19 INCHES. Compare that with the fiddling little 4" high "bushes" you see on 99% of layouts ! So my layout will have BIG trees. LAYOUT CONCEPT The idea is that the Fermoy Branch was a typical reasonably busy steam-era branch. CIE have decided to modernise and rationalise it. Sweeping away most of the old steam-era buildings, the fairly big loco depot and the goods yard. The Cattle Pens still remain in use for the monthly Fair and a small coal yard remains in use for household coal, BUT their days are numbered. CIE are developing Fermoy as a railhead for the area with distribution centres for Cement, Fertilizer, agricultural products, oil & petrol & household coal. There is a small container depot for local distribution and outward bound traffics are Sugar Beet (seasonal) timber, and track ballast from a quarry under contract to CIE. Also the output from a Caravan manufacturer. It's planned to put in a small storage yard for the engineers. The plan is what I'd like to do, but it's not written in stone If, as I build it I find a section is a bit overcrowded, I'll simplify it. Looking at the plan, the RH line runs down to a small halt where a Bulk Cement distribution depot will be built and on to the fiddle yard + a "disused" siding will run off to the right. The LH line is an extended siding to serve a loading bank for Sugar Beet (from October to January) and the loader for track ballast from the quarry. A "disused" siding will run off to the left. The two "disused sidings" will join up and form a continious run. Used for running in locos, and when I just want to sit back and watch the trains go by i.e. 'playing trains' I'll add photos as soon as there is something worth photographing. I'll welcome advice/criticism/brickbats, etc. I hope there are not too many anomolies in the thoughts of Chairman Patrick:(( But please be gentle with me The last time I was in Ireland and on an Irish train was in 1968, when I went over to Co. Meath to meet my future in-laws:x We travelled from Sligo to Dublin by train and then on the Dublin suburbans. So 99.99% of my information comes from books and videos, so, hopefully, I won't get it too wrong You may ask why Fermoy. Actually my prototype interest is mainly centred further North around Sligo. But the answer is Sugar Beet. I've been interested in harvesting beet for many years and it has featured as a traffic on several of my Narrow Gauge layouts - so, it HAD to be in sugar country. BTW, I know about the line from Mallow to Waterford which went through Fermoy. But they were on the other side of town and we try to ignore them Cheers for now, Patrick F. Savery, District Manager, CIE Fermoy.

The Hay shed is just a straight out of the box Hornby Skaledale building.

HI Guys, Something to share with you to make up for all my questions . I discovered how to get realistically finished and weathered containers for my Fermoy Branch C.I.E. We all like something for nothing:D What do you think of the OO scale 20’ and 40’ Containers in the photo?. These are printed on thin card (or paper) and strengthened with 2mm or 1/8” balsa wood. Because the originals are produced from photographs all the weathering, rust, colour, logos comes with them, nothing for you to do but print out and assemble the “kits” ! And the BIG thing is they are FREE, Gratis and For Nowt ! NOTE: Because they were originally designed for N scale use there are certain steps you must do to have your printouts come out in OO scale, but nothing too complicated. You can fit 2 OO scale 20’ Containers on a sheet of A4 in portrait format. Also you can print out one 40’ container on an A4 sheet in landscape format and (I think) you can JUST fit a 45’ container on an A4 sheet (still experimenting with 45 footers). How to build FREE Containers for OO scale On a PC Go to http://norbtach.no.funpic.de/ Scroll down the page until you come to : Bouwplaten van 20 ft containers with 6 little symbols underneath Click on one of these, you will get a page showing 30 container sides scaled for N. Left click on the design you want and you’ll get 2 sides, roof & 2 ends. Right Click COPY IMAGE on this. Then open a new page in MS Word. Insert a 1 Column x 3 Row Table on this page. Set the Width as 16.0cm. Don’t worry about the height, it will automatically adjust itself. Put the cursor in row 1 and press PASTE ~ voila a correctly scaled kit for an OO Container. Skip Row 2 Go back and select another container design, COPY and PASTE it into Row 3. Now you have 2 kits ready to print. If you can print on thin card,so much the better, but ordinary paper will do. Cut out and assemble the 2 kits. Holding with spring-type clothes pegs. Cut the internal bracing from balsa wood sheet. I used 2mm thickness. Cut 2 side pieces 31mm x 78mm. Glue to insides. Hold with clothes pegs for a couple of minutes Cut 2 end pieces 31mm x 27mm (Width will vary depending on the thickness of the balsa you used for the side pieces.) Glue the ends inside the side bracing and hold with clothes pegs. Repeat as many times as you want. There are 6 pages of 20’ containers, 6 pages of 40 footers and 30 35’ Footers. You will find that the containers are quite rigid. Weights could be added, glued to the inside sides. 40 footers will print out the same way 1 to a landscape page if you set the 1 x 1 table length to 26.0 cm (it may adjust itself to 26.19 but this doesn’t seem to make a difference.) I “THINK” it will be possible to just squeeze a 45’ Hi Cube container onto a landscape sheet. I haven’t tried it yet or worked out a length for the table. Give it a try, I think you’ll be pleased with the results. Because the designs are from actual photographs of the originals you get weathering by the real expert ~ Mother Nature & Co. Hope this is useful to someone, Cheers Frank Savery, District Manager, Fermoy Branch, C.I.E.

Thanx Guys, Order gone off to Markle by carrier pigeon

On another thread, talking about the Book "Rails to the West" John "Mayner" mentions : "There is/was a video from the same era of the Sligo-Limerick Goods shunting at Kiltimagh a B141 with a Lomac & a JCB setting back into the yard to pick up some vans," Anyone know which video this was, please. Also, were the Irish 'Lowmacs' anything like the British 'Lowmacs' ? Anyone point me towards a photo? Ta muchly for any help

Hi John, Re:Models of Tassie locos and stock Complicated subject Tassie Railways are 3' 6" gauge. Here in Tassie most of the modellers use 4mm scale on 16.5mm track - which is about the same "wrongness" as using 16.5 to represent 5' 3" but the other way, If you know what I mean See: http://www.railtasmania.com/modelling/layout.php 2nd weekend in June I'll be talking too and seeing the layout of Simon Handby (on that websie)he is in Launceston about 130km from me and models Ulverstone Station (where I live) in the 1950's. He did/does a range of cast resin kits of 4mm TGR stock including, from memory, a X class diesel body kit.. If you are interested I could find out the current situation, prices etc. Contact me on franksavery@bigpond.com. Also in Tasmania and to a small extent in Queensland modellers are using Sn3 1/2 to model TGR. That's 3/16" scale on 16.5mm track. A mate of mine, Max Chandler is the chief exponent of this. Also, I've just heard about a previously unknown group in Sydney who are modelling TGR in HOn3 1/2 (that's 3.5mm on 12mm track) Hon3 1/3 is popular in Queensland and Western Australia (both 3' 6" states).This is a more accurate scale/gauge ratio but the BIG clubs down here were already committed to 4mm/16.5mm before HOn3 1/2 got started and its never really caught on down here. A few years ago a firm (Powerline, maybe) did a repainted SAR 830 class diesel in AN/Tasrail colours, but this was HO scale on 16.5mm track. Phew !! And you thought choosing between modelling Irish Rail in 4mm scale on either 16.5mm or 21mm was complicated !

Any N class still available ? Green for prefernce. Please contact me off list. Frank Savery, franksavery@bigpond.com

I'll be VERY interested If still available. Frank Savery, franksavery@bigpond.com

Thank You, "Eiretrains" and answers, much appreciated, and others for comments. Recomended books & videos on order. Now, a few more Q's If I may. Q. When did CIE stop using brakevans? Q. Is there anywhere a date guide/info on CIE freight stock liveries? I've scoured the internet without much success. and finally Q. I see I can get specialised decals/transfers from Studio Scale Models. Is there anywhere I can get a sheet of every day bog standard CIE roundels. The CIE in a circle rather than Flying Snails. Thank you in advance for any replies.

Hi Guys, Thank you for the warm welcome. I thought I'd better change the thread title for the first of no doubt numerous Questions to come ( Oh! No, not that bloddy idiot from Australia again Q. CIE liveries - Can you tell me when the CIE Supertrain livery came in, please ? I was thinking of modelling mid-60's with Black & Tan liveried locos, but maybe I could stretch it a bit. Q. Anyone recomend a book/video which covers CIE era diesels , please. I've been very disapointed with several book & video purchases which purport to cover the transition of CIE from steam to diesel in the 60's, but, in fact concentrate almost exclusively on steam - not that I've got anything against steam Q. Sugar Beet Traffic - I seem to remember a video concentrating on suger beet, but now I can't seem to find it. Anyone help ? Cheers Pat (Frank) Savery, from w-a-y down south.

Hi Guys, I'm new here, and new to Irish Modelling. (Although I've had an interest for many, many years. ) But my first name is Patrick(although I use my middle name Frank) so that's got to be a good start. I'm pseudo-Irish, born in the capital of Ireland, Liverpool, nearly 67 years ago. My Irish family, the Fitzgerald's originally come from Tramore, Co. Waterford. My wife, Bernadette, howerver, is a genuine Wild (very) Irish Rose from Co. Meath. I've been an Australian for 41 years, now living in Tasmania and a railway modeller in every scale from N to G for about 55 years. General Classification - Cranky Old Man So much for the Intro, now for a question. Over many years I've held my breath in the hope that Model Irish Railways would eventually move into the late 20th Century and get a website or e-mail address. But now, I've come to the conclusion, that I'm more likely to die first, so joining this group spurs me to try some other way to find out just what MIR make. So, please can some kind soul tell me just HOW do you get a PRINTED catalogue from them ( I'm trusting in this that they have heard of Caxton and Gothenburg and don't have their price lists inscribed on parchment by Monks at Croaghpatrick). I know it can't possibly be something easy like sending your VISA card details, but Please God, let it be something that some one from outside Ireland can do. I can manage VISA, PayPal, English stamps, English cheque, maybe even English Postal Orders but something like 6 Irish 1 euro 4th class postage stamps is beyond me, I'm afraid. Thanks for any help. Frank Savery - franksavery@bigpond.com