johnarcher

Yes, fair point about the S&S. Though I think the Tralee and Dingle is perhaps a better comparison that the West Clare, which had some quite large motive power?

Of course time is critical - but not necessarily always in the RTR direction. If you have to have a close to scale main line station with a good variety of stock, you're not starting it as a lifetime project in early youth, you're not part of a cooperative team and you can't turn out a 4-6-2 of exemplary running qualities between lunch and dinner as Tony seems to then the use of RTR seems unavoidable. On the other hand if your main aim/priority/pleasure is in actual model-making it's always possible to decide on something simpler (branch, 2 or 3 locos) that can be wholly or mostly made. These things are a matter of choice I think. I agree with your last sentence though.

Pity, I thought it was quite witty satire.

There is this place, also US - http://www.backdropjunction.com/home.html I've not had anything from them, so I can't vouch for anything. Has anyone used the Trackside Scenery ones, it doesn't seem clear, do all in one series join end to end?

I suspect you may be right, though I don't know the 7mm market well. Maybe it has even less room for both RTR and kits than the bigger 4mm market? Though even there kits for specific prototypes often vanish when a RTR version appears. There's even an increasing amount of 009 RTR appearing now. Well, there's still 3mm and 00n3.

I don't really know, but maybe it will be not only a 7mm hole. With David Geen retiring aren't the rights in the Mitchell 4mm kits reverting to PW too?

Thank you. I'll drop SSM an email, I wonder if they still have the art-work used for your transfers. I really like Keadue so I don't want to sound hyper-critical, but isn't the cat slightly over-scale?

You're welcome. To add a bit - first the Donegal and Lough Swilly were generally on a larger scale than lines like the C&L, so may be less applicable. The Schull and Skibbereen details are probably a better guide, also the Tralee and Dingle - 30ft rail lengths, sleepers minimum 5' 11", 8" x 4" section, 2' 10" apart, but 1' 8" at rail joints. Sharpest curve 3 chains. (from 'The Dingle Train'). I would add these dimensions, for all these lines, generally seem to come from the inspection of the newly-built line, whether they remained the same for the next 50 years or so is another matter. Often the line was wholly or partially relaid later with heavier rail than the 40lb or so most started with - I haven't seen any mention of whether sleepering dimensions changed then. The C&L in particular, I believe, by c1930 had been pretty much completely relaid with second-hand rail of heavier section from broad-gauge companies - mostly c 65-70lb, some as heavy as 80.

There is not much detail on C&L track in the main book (Flanagan), but it looks pretty similar to other 3ft lines. These notes are copied from the Irish 3ft Yahoo group ( https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/irish_three_foot/conversations/topics/9484 ) "CDR: 6ft x 9ins L&LSR: 6ft x 9ins; 2ft 6ins apart Schull & Skibbereen: 6ft x 8½ins; 3ft 1” apart, 2ft 3” at joints West Clare: 6ft x 10ins; 3ft apart, 2ft at joints Flanagan simply refers to original C&L 45 lb rail being in 27 ft lengths and of sleepers says the the Company up to 1917 bought sleepers in cut lengths, but no mention of dimensions.And yes, rail lengths as you say - CDR, LLSR, S&S all 30ft lengths, West Clare 24 - 30ft (according to Patrick Taylor and C&L as mentioned 27ft.

Hello Firstly I would like to ask if there are any developments on Keadue to show, I for one would like to see. It's a thread I have always enjoyed, especially as I keep dithering around a similar project myself. Also a more specific question. The custom transfers that SSM did for you - did that include the tare and 'to carry' lettering as well as numbers and 'L' suffix?. The 'to carry' especially seems hard to find elsewhere - I must see if SSM will still produce such a sheet.

Judging by Mr Daniels' post the kit only has the Collett bunker (and only the concave version of that), which limits the period suitable for the kit (not before 1924 IIRC), apart from all those which never got such a bunker at all. This seems a bit odd considering that the re-issued 2021 which they produced about the same time has two bunkers (Collett and Wolverhampton I think). I wonder if the 2021 Wolverhampton bunker, bought maybe as a spare, would be fittable to the 517 to extend the possibilities a bit?

How about written 00 but said OO? After all many (most?) people say O for the 0's in phone numbers.

Email and ask, I had pictures and details of the kit sent quickly. Excellent service as usual.

John You're right, and I hope anyone who (like Bucoops and me) regrets the current situation re various kit ranges makes it clear that they are not blaming the originators of them, who deserve great credit for developing these ranges and providing a valuable service for decades. Naturally one can't expect them to carry on the same in the face of increasing age (I know how that feels). One can still regret aspects of the current situation without suggesting they are at fault.

I'm beginning to feel I must be a bit odd (it has been suggested before). I am of the generation being discussed (b. 1950) but was never a train-spotter at all. Are there others like that out there, or am I unique (euphemism for weird)? Maybe that's why my modelling interests are not aimed at when I was young, and hence fall rather into the 'model what you never saw but wish you had' school. In my case 1930ish GW (inspired by mother's tales of her youth then in Devon and Cornwall) Irish narrow gauge (inspired by an inborn love for the rustic, informal and eccentric. Tempted by Bishop's Castle one day too) and, if I had more time and money, maybe broad gauge by the sea at Dawlish.

Hello I was just wondering, are you still developing the Kitson/Carlisle kit? I'm not desperately after one right now, but could be interested in the future if it does appear.

There have been some posts recently about this poll in the pre-BR thread which suggest that not so many people model what they remember from childhood as is sometimes thought. To answer your questions 1 No. 2 No. - My interests are either c1930 GW or c1950 Irish NG - I certainly don't remember 1930, I do just recall the late '50's, but not in Ireland. I didn't have the pleasure of visiting there until 1980. 3 No indeed. It is perhaps interesting, if not important, though.

On the other hand here, only just over the border from Powys, in Herefordshire, we have just a single 'recycling' bin. I wonder if anyone really sorts the glass from metal, cardboard, different plastics etc? Nothing that could possibly be packed in paper or cardboard should be packed in plastic, surely.

If that is right, and unfinished or unsuccessful kits "lie abandoned in dusty boxes" (the source presumably of ones like Barry's King) then presumably that is a builder somewhere who gave up on it, maybe another reinforcing the belief that making kits is simply beyond some people's abilities. Wouldn't re-doing, correcting that non-running kit-build by the original builder be a good way to develop those abilities, or do we run into the 'must have it now' attitude that some people have commented on? My first etched kit (and I haven't built that many) was a very definite non-runner, even before the valve gear went on, but after another go with a spare chassis etch all was pretty well, and I had learned quite a lot. The next one worked first time (reasonably!).

Yes I believe the 009 range has a likely buyer. There has been talk on the relevant Yahoo group about the 00n3 stuff continuing, but I think it's undecided yet. I hope both continue, proper complete kits are not common in 4mm narrow gauge.

Me too, I included early BR although all I've ever done for the '50's is Irish NG. So I don't remember that, and my only UK stuff is c1930 which I don't remember either.

Nice to see them back. Best of all, the 00n3 T&D vans seem to be available again, having been out of production for some time. I hope they remain so for some time, I can't afford many at the moment.

Thanks for that. i know the first, it just doesn't seem as easy to scan to see who does what as a page of adverts (especially when your broadband is as slow as ours!).

You're right of course, it is often easier to buy from small suppliers now (at least those who have a working website). There is more of a problem in knowing that they exist (or still exist) when there is no central place to look through easily like the adverts in a magazine.

Hello I agree with all you say, especially about the nature and visibility of kits now, shops etc. Certainly you are right that kits etc are less visible in most current magazines, probably at many (non-specialist) exhibitions too. As fro the number of kits about I certainly haven't conducted a careful survey so I could indeed be wrong, it's just an impression I suppose, based on having been out of the hobby for some years and returning to find many ranges that were familiar and useful to me now extinct - Coopercraft, Mallard, Sharman, Impetus, Backwoods for some, others semi-available maybe like M&L/Gibson, D&S. Perhaps there have been more replacements for these than I realise, but they are as invisible as you say. I do get the impression that maybe there are still as many kits for more specialist prototypes, but fewer for the more mainstream ones that now have fuller RTR coverage - there doesn't seem to be a 4mm Beattie Well Tank kit now for instance, I think there wasn't a 48XX until the Perseverance one re-surfaced recently. I have always found the idea that people are deterred from making things because they can't match the quality of the best current RTR a bit odd (even though probably true). I have known a good many amateur artists and musicians who still felt it worth doing those things, even exhibiting them, even though they were unlikely to match the standards of Rembrandt or Brendel.