OO Works 101 - Coming Closer!

[Patrick Davey]

Just spotted this....screen grab from OO Works website, hope they don't mind! 

[Georgeconna]

Just got an invoice for this.. €360.00 odd it looks to be.

I might get killed for this but TBH it looks a bit Clunky, The Tender , Bolier  area looks a bit rough and those springs on the tender just seem blobby and lack Finesse. Maybe it is a test sample.

Mmm, I might plum for a H Class Push Pull set instead and wait for Accruascale to bang out one along with the 800.

Just not sure now..

G

 

 

 

[irishrail201]

I wonder is this the shade of GSR grey I saw mention by JB sometime ago

[jhb171achill]

It is, Irishrail201. It’s an exact copy from actual Inchicore grey paint. 

I now have a problem! I am DROOLING so much, I’m having trouble sending the payment for my two of these beautiful beasts!!!!!

 

[Dunluce Castle]

The tender springs are quite interesting as mentioned by georgeconna. They seem to be missing the supports either side that bring them down onto the tender footplate. 

[Patrick Davey]

They've changed the pic!

 

 

Looks a lot darker in this shot, or is this the black version....looks more dark grey......?

Edited November 28, 2018 by Patrick Davey

[Patrick Davey]

There are a few more pics in the OO Works website gallery.

[jhb171achill]

If you look at the pics of my grandfather's model, from which the actual GSWR paint was matched, you'll notice that I deliberately took pictures of it in sunshine, natural light shade, and artificial light. In photos, the variation is remarkable. 

This also explains the variation in recollections of the real thing.

If anything, the real thing looks slightly darker even than the above pic. Good to see the correct coloured "snail"; none were ever white, yellow or anything else. Cabside numbers pale yellow - I'm presuming that's what's on here.

Eye witnesses said that when newly painted, the grey had "bluish" tint. This was evident when 186 was correctly painted grey by the RPSI about ten years ago (she still has it in Whitehead museum), and on the above model.

In traffic, especially in CIE days, they got very dirty very quickly, and tended to stay that way. Thus, a heavy dose of weathering is a good thing to have!

Wheels grey too, by the way, and buffer stocks. Easy to organise!

[Noel]

I like the look of her.  Well to my eyes she looks straight, level and the lines are square on, which I can't say for most of the brass J15s I've seen (i.e. off square, bockety joints, etc).  Once in a lifetime chance to own an RTR J15 that looks the part and presume runs well, especially as she is 0-6-0. Obviously lacks the additional detailing and finesse that is possible with mass produced injection moulded plastics, but these are tiny volume productions and for the price seems to do what it says on the tin admirably. I would also love one in preserved lined green as well as a grey one.

[leslie10646]

As Patrick says above, there are other pictures in the Gallery section of the 00 Works website of No.162.

There is a photo of 162 on Page 96 of Steaming in Three Centuries and the model looks just like the real thing.

Little did I realise when I decided to include that photo in the book that I could one day own a model of the loco and produce the wagons behind her - two H vans!!!! And you know where to get those?

My money was transferred to the Bruce account a few moments ago, but someone else will have to put a photo of theirs up - mine is off to be chipped!

Expensive weekend, as I bought an unrebuilt Bulleid Pacific at Warley as well. Just as well that Deltics are not my thing?

[Zivan Bruce]

Hi all,

The original and the new locos picture on on the website are the exact same colour from the exact same mix, the fist one was under led lights and the second in natural light. The paint is the authentic colour of Inchicore grey. The decals are designed especially for this batch of locos to match the original font and colour. 

Hope you are all looking forward to receiving yours. 

Edited September 25, 2022 by Zivan Bruce

[Georgeconna]

It does look better in the 2nd shot.

I think I'll wait till I see a review here when someone gets there mits on one before I part with the Hard Earned. Looking forward to seeing what you lads have to say.

Maybe it is the all over grey makes it look rather plain. A green pne like Noel Mentioned would be easier on the eye.

Did you get a Merchant Navy Leslie?

[leslie10646]

No, George, it was a West Country "Clovelly" in that Southern green that so suited the Pacifics, but with BR numbers - as she would have been in early 1948. I travelled behind her in 1967, for the final time on the penultimate day of steam when she did 84mph on a journey up the Portsmouth Direct Line.

A more perfect buy would have been in Southern livery, but they seem harder to come by. I have a few other locos in the "Sunshine" livery - but in a glass cabinet. Sometime, I should switch the wires upstairs and run Portadown Jct as Analogue!

Earlier this year, I was sorely tempted by a TMC model (nearly two hundred quid) of 34034 Honition - my Engine of Engines - she gave me my ever fastest "service train" run. In a sentence - 80mph at Hampton Court Junction, checked nearly to Woking then tore up the big bank near here to top Milepost 31 at 75mph, did 91 before Basingstoke on the flat and a mile at 97mph through Winchester Junction, stopping in Winchester in 62 minutes for the 66 miles from Waterloo - TWENTY minutes early. It simply doesn't get better! I was twenty then, little did I think that I would spend nearly a half century living within a mile of that exploit.

[jhb171achill]

Talking of which, J15s could dis turn at times. 

Senior wasn't a “timer” as such, but like me did it a small number of times just for the experience. He was out and about one day, and found himself at Port Laoise. The normal train he was due to get back to Dublin had a 400 class on it - he had been hoping for an 800. The signalman told him there was an extra following it. He decided to await the extra just to see what it had.

The main train arrived, heavily laden, and departed. Then came the extra. It was a J15 with (I think) about six old maroon wooden bogies and maybe a six wheeler. 

“Wish I’d gone with the 400”, he thought.

Up he hopped onto the footplate (as he often did; his solitary trip to Burtonport had been aboard a 4.8.0!), and off went the loco - reaching speeds of well over 60, and with very smart acceleration, as he recalled..... the crew seemed determined to flog it!

It was probably between 1940 and 1943.

Even then, the GSR could pull more than a few rabbits out of hats. Bob Clements also recalled some very smart performances from J15s on passenger trains.

[Horsetan]

15 hours ago, leslie10646 said:

..... Just as well that Deltics are not my thing?

I suppose there'll be a fair few decidedly-used Bachmann Deltics hitting eBay once this all-new Irish one arrives.....

[leslie10646]

Folks

Young Jonathan asked me to check the longevity of a couple of his favourite "101s" and I had to tell him that both had received the Z Class Belpaire-fireboxed boiler - NOT this model!

So, be aware:

00 Works will provide 109  131  162 and 196, but take note that 196 received a Z Class boiler in 1953 and I bet none of us is modelling quite that early?) the others keeping their round-topped boilers (as per model) until their respective demises - 1964, 1963, 1963 and 1961 respectively.

[leslie10646]

To complete Jonathan's comment above on the fleetness of these "Goods" engines.

The late "Mac" Arnold timed No.198 pulling 5 bogie coaches at 69mph down an imperceptible gradient (1 in 450), although Bob Clements never got over 64mph. Happily, I have timed 186 in this Century at a mile a minute (at Antrim!). I'll "Ask a Friend" for his top speed with the Round-topped type (in the form of 184). Watch this space......

If former UTA and then NIR Chief Inspector Frank Dunlop says they were good, they were GOOD! 

[jhb171achill]

Norman Foster has some good logs of them - must ask when I see him.

[Phil3150]

Mine apparently arrived today but has been intercepted as I am away from home. There may be trouble ahead.

[leslie10646]

Mine arrived at Coastal DCC for the usual  "Works". No use having an analogue loco here - I'm too lazy to switch power systems - mind you, I should as the Kernow Bulleid diesel hasn't been out of its box yet!!!!

Still trying to dream up just WHY a J15 would be at Portadown in 1956!

Now, there's one for you Beaumont - did a J15 get to Portadown before 186 was towed through there in the mid-sixties, en route to immortality?

[StevieB]

Mine arrived today. All very fine apart from one little matter which I have raise with their good selves.

Stephen

[StevieB]

Can I take this opportunity to say publicly a big ‘thank you’ to Roderick Bruce of OOWorks. He has already addressed the issue I raised about my model. I look forward to many more purchases from him in the future.

Stephen

[popeye]

Got mine today, very nice.

Smaller than i thought and heavy.

[jhb171achill]

3 hours ago, leslie10646 said:

 

Still trying to dream up just WHY a J15 would be at Portadown in 1956!

Now, there's one for you Beaumont - did a J15 get to Portadown before 186 was towed through there in the mid-sixties, en route to immortality?

It’s as good as certain that 186 was the first of the class in Portadown. Any visit of a southern engine to the GNR was never going to be likely. The BCDR managed to have a GSR (ex DSER) loco on loan at one stage, and the NCC and GNR swooped 4.4.0s at another time. I think that in that short window at the end of the 1950s, the GNR and steam, a J15 may have got to Drogheda or even Dundalk, but Portadown would have to be a stage too far in CIE times, let alone GNR days like 1956.

However, poetic licence....... “something” has broken down, at the very time that a J has unusually got to Dundalk; there’s the excuse!

[Horsetan]

7 hours ago, Phil3150 said:

.... There may be trouble ahead.

....but while there's music and moonlight and love and romance,

Let's face the music and dance.

Edited December 5, 2018 by Horsetan

[Mayner]

3 hours ago, jhb171achill said:

It’s as good as certain that 186 was the first of the class in Portadown. Any visit of a southern engine to the GNR was never going to be likely. The BCDR managed to have a GSR (ex DSER) loco on loan at one stage, and the NCC and GNR swooped 4.4.0s at another time. I think that in that short window at the end of the 1950s, the GNR and steam, a J15 may have got to Drogheda or even Dundalk, but Portadown would have to be a stage too far in CIE times, let alone GNR days like 1956.

However, poetic licence....... “something” has broken down, at the very time that a J has unusually got to Dundalk; there’s the excuse!

Leslie could always work on the basis that the Midland reached Armagh and obtained running powers over the GNR to Belfast and Antrim. The Carrickmacross Branch was built with the intention of blocking the Midland extending from Kingscourt to Castleblaney and Armagh.

A J15 worked a weedkiller train from Mullingar to Dundalk via Cavan and Clones in CIE days. Apparently the arrival of a "foreign" loco unexpectedly in Dundalk lead to some calls to train control, possibly more an issue of maintaining custom and practice in rostering arrangements than anything else.

A Dundalk crew may have felt that they should have worked the train through from the junction with the "Southern" at Cavan, a light engine run from Dundalk to Cavan to pick up the train would have been a nice little earner to a Northern Crew especially with traffic drying up on the Irish North with the closure of the lines west of Clones and the ending of the coal specials from Belturbet to the Drogheda Cement factory.

[Mayner]

It just occurred to me that the J15s were originally a Beyer Peacock design supplied to both the GSWR and Dublin and Drogheda Railway in the 1860s. These is a photo of one crossing the Boyne Bridge on the cover of an IRRS Journal, its possible that they may have worked into Portadown in GNR days.

A J15 in GNR livery would be a good talking point, not sure when the ex DDR locos were withdrawn but some Ulster Railway and Irish North Western 0-6-0s survived into the late 1940s

[Irishswissernie]

2  Nos. 21 & 22 supplied to the Dublin & Belfast Junction Railway rather than the Dublin & Drogheda Co.  BP 1159 & 60 July 1872. Re-numbered 41 & 42 on formation Of GNRI and re-built 1888-89 and again 1913-15 by which time they bore little resemblance to the 101 Class. Scrapped 1937 and 1934. Info from Norman Johnston's Locomotives of the GNRI 

 

Ernie

[jhb171achill]

Yes, the D & D ones wouldn't have had the hallmark Inchicore cabs and chimneys, thus in all reality it's a bit far fetched. However, as I said, poetic licence allows anything! On another forum someone raised the idea of painting a J15 in lined CIE green....while none ever were, who's to say it wouldn't look well!

To give an idea of just how immeasurably important these engines were, and how they are absolutely essential to ANY layout on CIE (bar the Midland section!) in CIE times, I gleaned from Leslie McAllister's excellent book on these engines that NO LESS THAN 72 were STILL in traffic (technically at least) in 1958; most of these lasting until the end of steam during 1962. Go back just a few years earlier, to 1955, and we find that there are NINETY-NINE J15s on the books.

That's MOST of them. Other classes came and went, but the standard J15s were the absolute backbone of the southern system for years. The only GSR / CIE areas they never went to were the West Cork system (where none ever ventured at all), the Tramore line and so on. As well as the ex-GSWR system, they became staples on the WLWR & DSER lines. However, with the MGWR having their own equivalent in the forms of the J18s, they were very rare visitors to the Midland section, and apart from the Limerick - Sligo line having been built, might never have seen Sligo at all.

In the very short few years (about 1959-62), there were low single figures instances of them appearing round Amiens Street, and possibly a ballast or something to Drogheda.

Now - before modellers get excited about buying 99 models, bear in mind that by 1960 there were numerous variations in boilers, smokeboxes, cabs, and so on. Only so many looked exactly like the 00 Works model. If I can find out a definitive list of what locos corresponded exactly to the model I'll post it; maybe Roderick or Leslie can throw light on this?

For those interested, the locomotives on the books in 1958 were as follows, most remaining until 1961-3:

101 105 106 108 109-11 114 116 118 119 121-8 130-134 136-9 140 141 143 149 152 154 156 157 161-2  164 166-8 170-2 176 179 181-6 188 190 193-8 200 223 229 232 253-6

[Irishswissernie]

Here is J15 119 arriving at Sligo late 1940's early 50's..  Checking through the files I have discovered another 75 odd JW Armstrong /ARPT  images to upload to Flickr when I get the time. Smoke box door handle and the tender differ from the 00Works offering.

 

Ernie

Edited December 5, 2018 by Irishswissernie

[minister_for_hardship]

49 minutes ago, Irishswissernie said:

Here is J15 119 arriving at Sligo late 1940's early 50's..  Checking through the files I have discovered another 75 odd JW Armstrong /ARPT  images to upload to Flickr when I get the time. Smoke box door handle and the tender differ from the 00Works offering.

 

Ernie

They carried the GSWR type doors that opened in two halves, the more usual doors with 'dart' opening handles and the typical GSR/CIE smokebox wheel so there's a few varieties.

Wasn't 184 painted in an interpretation of GSWR lined green complete with cast numberplates when still on CIEs books?

Edited December 5, 2018 by minister_for_hardship

[Horsetan]

7 hours ago, jhb171achill said:

.....before modellers get excited about buying 99 models, bear in mind that by 1960 there were numerous variations in boilers, smokeboxes, cabs, and so on. Only so many looked exactly like the 00 Works model....

Or possibly that, by this point in their careers, there were no two that were absolutely exactly alike?

[jhb171achill]

17 minutes ago, Horsetan said:

Or possibly that, by this point in their careers, there were no two that were absolutely exactly alike?

Exactly - that's precisely the reason why.

[leslie10646]

21 minutes ago, Horsetan said:

Or possibly that, by this point in their careers, there were no two that were absolutely exactly alike?

Exactly right, Ivan! When Irwin Pryce and I were compiling our version of the 101 history, we mused on whether any part of 186 (maybe the wheels?) was original!

[Horsetan]

27 minutes ago, jhb171achill said:

Exactly - that's precisely the reason why.

So a bit like the Ford Capri then - 'twas said there were no two cars that were exactly alike because there were so many permutations / options available to the customer.