Dave’s Workbench

[Anders112]

Hi folks, first post here on Irish railway  modeller,just thought I would introduce myself.

Like the majority of people on this my love for railways and model railways was inherited from my father.

My Dad ,Nicky Anderson was a Locomotive Driver based in Drogheda from 1980s till late 2010s. Driving all traffic that was found in Drogheda in it’s prime- Cement,Gypsum,Bell liner and Tara’s Etc Etc

Sadly in 2021 ,my dad passed away very suddenly at the young age of 59. To Mark Dads 2nd year anniversary, I decided to recreated Colm O Callaghans ( who was a very close friend of Dads) photo of driving with 112 on the Platin -Cabra cement on the 7th October 1996 76 times smaller in Murphy model form.

Attached are both photos of the original photo and the recreation of the photo. For the recreation, I built an MIR Cement bubble kit and after various months of chasing,I managed to get my hands on a Murphy models NIR 112.

I have very found memories when I was growing up of collecting model trains with my dad ,especially when the Murphy models 141s and 201s came out years ago ,of recreating trains that he drove from Drogheda  

Regrettably as I look back now,when I was in college, my interest in model railways was distract with all the fun of college life. however, since Dad has died, I’ve re kindledmy love for model railways and have found great comfort in remembering him by them.

This was my first major attempt at kit building,scenery, ballast and weathering ,which I’m quite proud of. The recreation sits on a display case I bought in Marks models.

I will post a behind the scenes photos of the recreation soon 

Thanks 

Dave 

 

[jhb171achill]

Superb stuff and a lovely tribute. Your dad would be very proud of that.

[Anders112]

With the new year arriving ,decided to give an old project that has been abandon multiples times. An old Tara mine MIR kits that my Dad got me 13 years ago for a birthday present. 7 wagons that we said one day we would built together when ever we got time,sadly that time ran. Never the less,can gladly say they have been started today 

Kit consists of Wagon shell,lid, buffer beam,buffers and undercarriage. 
6 wagons all glued together,ready to by primed by Halfords primer ,painted and weathered tomorrow or the next day.  1 wagon is almost finished, just waiting to be weathered and bogies to be completed  .Pretty straight forward so far 

[Anders112]

Like all good demonstrations here’s “one I prepared earlier”. First painted and weathered Tara wagon. For these wagons I wanted to go for the great weathered and grimey livery of the Tara’s as seen in the 1990s and 2000s before they were painted in the red oxide 

first attempt at weathering rolling stock,came out decent when you look at the pro types below

https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishswissernie/6606191825/in/album-72157628649502947/ 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishswissernie/51787068473/in/album-72157629979572526/

now to get the rest painted and weathered.

 

[David Holman]

 Know little to nothing about these wagons, but that weathering looks very good indeed.

[JasonB]

Nice work. You've really captured that heavily weathered look from the 90's. 

[Anders112]

finally got around to finishing the remainder of the Mir Tara Kits, painted and weathered. Pretty happy with how the weathering came out, some wagons were weathered  better than others but hey it’s a learning curve.

some of the buffers and under frames didn’t glue properly and fell out so have to stick them back on 

Next steps is find a way to get the IRM bogies to fit them bottom of the wagons and find couplers to glue to the front.

Halfords primer working a treat on the Tara’s 

first 5 have been targeted by the weathering brush,two on the right were still drying 

Here is our the wagons turned out,overall delighted with them 

[Anders112]

Sample photo I based the weathering on, trying to go for the brown side and light grey dust on top using 3 different weathering powders 

 

[Gabhal Luimnigh]

Well done you.

[DJ Dangerous]

1 hour ago, Anders112 said:

finally got around to finishing the remainder of the Mir Tara Kits, painted and weathered. Pretty happy with how the weathering came out, some wagons were weathered  better than others but hey it’s a learning curve.

some of the buffers and under frames didn’t glue properly and fell out so have to stick them back on 

Next steps is find a way to get the IRM bogies to fit them bottom of the wagons and find couplers to glue to the front.

Halfords primer working a treat on the Tara’s 

first 5 have been targeted by the weathering brush,two on the right were still drying 

Here is our the wagons turned out,overall delighted with them 

 

Savage stuff!

You've really captured the "Are they blue or brown underneath?" look, outstanding!

[Anders112]

17 hours ago, Gabhal Luimnigh said:

Well done you.

Thanks very much Denis for the support

 

16 hours ago, DJ Dangerous said:

 

Savage stuff!

You've really captured the "Are they blue or brown underneath?" look, outstanding!

Cheers Dj, you summed it up brilliantly,hard to believe they’re  main colour in the 1980s and 90s were blue caked in road dirt and dust from the iron ore,before the now Iron oxide colour scheme.

I used dark rust powder to give the road wash colour on the bottom,on top I used a light grey weathering powder on top and then ran over the whole wagon with  grey concrete weathering powder that I’ll be using for my Mir bubble kits

[Anders112]

Little update on the Tara’s :

finally got around to installing the bogies on the Tara’s. Personally I didn’t like the bogies supplied with the MIR kits as they were too flimsy and the ride quality wasn’t  great. So I bought a pack of IRM black bogies and transfered 4 Tara’s.

 
First job was to remove the little clip that normally attached to IRM wagons such as 42 foot wagon which I borrow off for demonstration

next job was trying to secure the Irm bogies to the MIR Tara’s kits..after numerous cups of teas I came up with a idea that actually worked… 

I made some alternative changes to the bogies supplied by MIR,I removed the metal axle and coupling arm (coupling arm wasn’t clearing the IRM bogies).
a lot of swinging was involved with Mr hammer
So all that I was left with was the middle bit of the bogie housing, this then acted like a washer to secure to irm bogie in place with help of the little screws that came with the kit 

One Tara ready for the tracks

The four Tara’s weathered and fitted with bogies 

side of view of the 4 completed Tara’s, the remaining 3 will be finished once pay day comes

next step is to get suitable coupling fittings for the Tara’s and that should be them done 

Forgot to include the photos of the IRM bogie attached to the wagon with the MIR bogie centre screwed to the bogies