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Lovely work Paul. This is going to be good!

141 Class No.146 working the local service.

The EP is a single variant from a tooling suite that has 17 different builds allowed for. Once reach decorated stage we will have each version in this run to share including a range of differences in joins, placement and even glazing.

37116 has charge of the empty cartics from Leeds to Liverpool. The three 20s shunt bogie steel coil wagons from the factory sidings to the loop.

But probably not my spare room - even with T gauge… Cheers Darius

No point in imposing unnecessary limits - just do the whole island in 00 - it will fit neatly inside Phoenix Park.

A bit more progress on the ZDV.

Unusually I am only playing with the track planning stuff now, ive been too engrossed in other aspects of this project that it has gotten away from me. I wanted to really wind up my search for the site and i had not yet finalised on a base board size, so it made most sense holding off until now. This is sort of another reason i have gone for h0f over 009, it is MAD what you can fit onto a medium sized board. I am working with 4 foot by 1 and a half foot. upon completion of my research I have come to the conclusion that i need to model either the factory or the lansdale yard line or some sort of hybrid of both which would probabaly become too messy and detract from the realism. For this plan, on one side of the board could sit the yard with the loop and tippler/conveyer, trains would leave along the right hand exit and travel around to the point. this area would be modelled as the branch line from the yard to bog. Anything beyond the turnout can be considered bog, with a scenic break to disguise the loop back into the yard if the train goes straight. turn into the left and you get a long siding for peat harvesting and a shorter siding for tracklaying and refuelling trains as is typical on a peat bog. Operationally we have continuous running or we have a system whereby the train of empties is hauled up to the point and the main loco is uncoupled and the shunter comes out off of the small siding and hauls in the empties, the main loco can then be coupled back to the other end of the rake for the return leg of the journey. A backscene separates the scenes but there can be no tunnels etc so it will be a matter of hiding the transitions with many trees! I have a little celebrity cameo planned, but this will be revealed later! diagram here of a typical peat bog as a sort of quasi basis for my plan, no matter which line i build i am sure it will be taking basis from this diagram! with this plan, prototypical train lenghts also become very possible without looking terrible.

Are you going to build York Road (as pre WW2) next - you could have ready for Bangor 2026? No shortage of volunteers to run it for you!!!!

Tracklaying is making progress. Everything takes longer in 21mm gauge, although @Rob R ‘s 3D printed track bases help a lot. I have now completed the tracks in the fiddle yard. For the scenic side I have most sections ready to lay, but a little more soldering work is needed before I stick them down. The fiddle yard is ‘pointless’ with a sector plate each end. This saves space and avoids having to build lots of 21mm gauge points. Here’s a closeup of the shorter sector plate: Track alignment is controlled by a miniature home-made bolt beside the nearer rail. I’m not relying on this for power transfer; there will be a separate wired connection.

Canopy structure started. Cheers Darius

It was 375/6s that were being built when I had my spell on the production line. They did indeed have the mastic sealer joins. After a fair amount of searching on Flickr I have found an example with the broad raised join, basically as per the sample model: This is not how the trains were when built, or for much of their lives.The picture above shows a raised rubber strip which must be a later modification. Originally the joint was a thin line, and the specification for applying the Sikaflex was that it should be flush. The whole design vision of these trains was to be flush-sided and sleek. The inmates of the Playpen* would have spat out their crayons in horror at a vertical rib on the sides! Here's another photo from Flickr which is a 375/8 and shows the original design which was also used on the 375/6 and the other early Electrostars: When I looked at the sample model, this joint was the one thing that really jumped out at me as being 'wrong'. Now I appreciate that this version represents a train in its current condition rather than original state. Perhaps the tooling will allow for a more subtle joint line on the original liveries and other classes? As built, the door seals were also flush, and most more recent photos I've seen also show a flush door seal. It's possible that there have been modifications since, with pressure-sensitive door edges that may be a bit raised like on the model. This distinction won't stand out so much because the door seals are all black, and the visible width of the seal hasn't changed. * Playpen - the glass box in the corner of J shop, where the Industrial Design team were based.

Excellent and educational night . Thanks Jonathan

Thanks for the great presentation tonight!

The loco appears to be similar to that used in a cheap G gauge train set widely available (Australasia & United States) about 18-20 years ago. The set was popular with large scale modellers loco had basic but effective radio control, and locos/stock good basis for kit bashing into something less toy like. Main differrence between Australiaian and US versions was the placement of the batteries, cab of local version and tender in United States.

Burma road freight on Tara junction. 132+152 work the Sligo-Limerick van train crossing with 027 which is working the Limerick-Sligo van/oil train Thanks to @Past-Avenuefor supplying the goods brake van-seen here at the rear of the van train.

we have liftoff!

The sample is a 375/6, so a South Eastern example, which do exhibit the mastic sealer joins.

They turned grey on the ferry coming over….! I think the lower one is late GSWR.

Excellent talk. Well done Jonathan.

Christmas tree trainset taken to another level… Saw these in Leroy Merlin earlier:

https://www.steamtrainsireland.com/whats-on/55/santa-special-dublin

Nice - thank you. The brown one 18459 is in H van, but the grey one 15242 is a former GSWR ‘Big Boy’, longer and higher than most other vans. Originally it would have had planked sides but many were later sheeted.

A bit late to this topic, but I found a couple of pictures of grounded van bodies. They were taken in 1980 at Cavan cattle market, which was based in the former railway goods shed of, I presume, the GNRi station. The pictures were taken with a 110 film camera. Hopefully of use to someone besides myself? The cattle auction was an experience I would recommend to everyone.

I think that time it was the airport tug, after Tonka wouldn't start. Maybe they went to best of three..? The tug was because we had a hovercraft to move the forgings around between gantry crane runs. It was much easier to 'organise' things to be in the right place, when you could manoeuvre with more flexibility than only running on rails. This meant filling in the flange gaps in the inset rail lines, to avoid losing too much air. Just done with bits of wood, if someone could remember where they had been put after the last time the hovercraft was used... Not twisting your ankle when cross the many tracks around the place was an important skill, particular outside. One morning, glancing down to be sure I was OK, I saw a foot, with a blue trainer on, flash in, as though to trip me. Ready to sort out my assailant, I spun around to find there was nobody at all there, And I was in the middle of an outside yard, with 100 feet of empty space around me - odd, but I just put the hallucination down to overwork. Then, in the afternoon, I had a cup of tea and put my feet up, to reveal that I had a black leather safety shoe on one foot, and a blue suede trainer on the other...