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All my 121s have arrived and running great- poor B121 needs a little bit of tlc after a de-boxing malfunction - nothing that can't be sorted with a bit patience and glue!

Im pretty sure a very dirty CIE train appears in one of the Pink Panther films as one of the bad guys escapes from the train via a helicopter......was it the Mullingar - Athlone line? Just looked - definitely an A class - dont know about the carraiges.....The Pink Panther Strikes again (1976)

Yes - it was orginally an embankment What happened was that the Vocational school which was orginally built to the side of the embankment - it was massively extended in the 80s and the embankment was taken away to allow for this extension and new playing fields.................It was chosen over 3 other secondary schools in the area to be the designated community school for the area and it got loads of development money...I do remember there was unhappiness about the alignment being taken away as it was a very popular walk in the town for everybody - suggestions were made about making a tunnel through the embankment....all came to naught.........the school principal at the time was the sister of the local FF td............you know the way these things went....the railway was a thing of the past to be swept away.... 2 pictures of the school - the embankment continues to the right behind the buildings here - Borris House is the big building in the trees to the left.

The revamp of the viaduct in Borris is nearly complete and its now open to visitors to traverse. Needless to say - the Health and Safety commissars have had their say ( how in gods name did countless generations of Borris Youth play on the viaduct for over 150 years and nobody fell off) and the new structures have provoked mixed comment to put it politely. That said - Carlow County Council have made a fair stab at it and , a few minor details aside - have done a great job on it and it will hopefully be the start of a tourist greenway down the old Bagnalstown - Palace East line - a feasibility study has been greenlighted. Given that the last train ran in 1963 and there is more a chance of Andorra launching a mission to Mars in the next 50 years than a working rail line ever coming back here - I think its safe to say a Greenway will do more to preserve the memory of the line than anything else. Photos courtesy of my Dad (plus a few from the family archive!) as I'm living in the Mid West and travelling to Carlow is a no no for me given Covid Restrictions until later this month when I intend a flying visit.

I've been meaning to throw up a shout out to the Model Gallery in Shannon Airport for a while. Its a real "planes, trains and automobiles" collection courtesy of Mike Kelly and I believe its only the tip of the iceberg of Mikes Collection of all things model. As my permanent place of work is Shannon Airport - I pass it once a week at least - in these days of Brexit,Covid and all that awful crap that has accompanied both those words in turning our lives upside down over the last while - its nice to grab a coffee and come down to the gallery and just switch off for 20 minutes or so....its fantastic. If you want to visit - there is a catch - its Airside , as we in the business call it....... in the transit lounge which means ordinary mortals need a plane ticket to get to see the gallery....unless, of course, in true Irish style...........you...ahem..."know somebody" ....who can arrange a pass here's a few images to what is entailed - which don't really to it justice - you have to see it up closer

Thanks for the Card guys - its gone on the Christmas card thingy herself hangs up.....apparently ye do lovely christmas cards too!

Just brilliant - thanks very much to all at IRM and to PM! 20201209_210820.mp4

Yes the joys of Saturday post. My couple of packs of Gypsums arrived today - despite being posted a day after my ballasts order - which appear to be loitering in the Dublin Sorting office for the moment. On the plus side - no commercial invoice - so wifey thinks its her christmas present arriving when she saw my name on it.........why can't life always work like this ......

That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.

typical - the boss decides to force feed me 3 episodes of the Crown and trains appear on the toy show for the first time in yonks........... Brilliant for the hobby here.

Great Deal Not my era - but a great opportunity for those to build up their fleets with these multi purpose wagons. Indeed ....................Im looking forward to at least 45% off the A Class next year

B125 with a cement load making its way gingerly thru the Bagnalstown Yard ahead of major construction works - the 121 is such a smooth runner...

Its looks even better in real life!....magnificent job!

Great - I'm missing one of the front window bars off my no 121.....only noticed it yesterday ....i suspect it happened during packing/unpacking......would that be available at some stage?

Hi Alan All serious model Railway stores sell Peco track and accessories - its pretty much the go-to RTR track. Marks Models carry a good range and will order anything else for you. You can also go to the UK Stores online - the likes of Hattons.Rails, The Model Centre etc etc - they are loads of them - prices don't vary too widely...............you can also go on ebay for a wider variety of new and used Peco track.... sometimes at great prices I'd say the first thing you should do is decide what are you are going to do, what scale etc, etc..............AnyRail is a great little programme to download to allow you do up a plan and try out the various guages and manufacturers ranges http://www.anyrail.com Also - at the moment - bear in mind - with the Pandemic there has been a massive increase in interest in rail modelling and the fact that Peco themselves converted their factory to PPE manufacturing for a spell this year - has meant that supplies of Peco track have run down everywhere which Peco are working day and night to replenish and orders are starting to trickle back into most retailers..........Also - if you are living in an EU country - bear in mind there is uncertainty over what Brexit is going to do - especially in the short term. Tullow Station eh?............so we are talking the pre 1960s with lots of older rolling stock and hundreds of cattle wagons!............that would be fab - best of luck with it. Ed

Feckin Brexit On the other hand - it might be a good time to open a model supplies shop here in Ireland for all the those with the new interest in the hobby - depending how much of a pain in the ar%e customs decide to be.............tho it looks like the current UK gov look like they want to make it as awkward as possible...................unless its all a bluff!

Id say you are talking 1964-65. While passenger services were halted in 63 - I believe some fella on here who has lots of records from this era mentioned a GAA special or two ran over the line in 64 as the main Waterford - Dublin line was overloaded - so the line must still have been extant at this stage - I'm not sure when the line from the Barrow bridge to Macmine Junction was lifted ...late 64/65?. The Signal box was demolished in 66 and yard reorganised into the configuration it has slept in since - so logic would dictate 64/65 for the picture.

The latest I've sealed and painted all the baseboards ( grey primer and green over that...why green?...it was sitting in a can in the shed...free!)...and they are now secured - but easily taken down to be worked on The book shelves area is the same - tho I've started the process of reinforcing the cut out areas - will be doing more aswell as disguising the entrances - when all the structural work is done, Im thinking of making different bridge facades for each one..just a though for the moment.. Other than that Im just waiting for Peco to restock their customers - who knew code 75 track was more in demand than the latest playstation

No bother Fran......if u don't ask and all that!

Quick question fellas Would it be possible to get 2 packs of ballast wagons and 2 packs of gypsum wagons...and a bundle rate?

Holy Moley ! Time to have a conversation with Santa about some hire purchase deal...!

Brilliant David - just fantastic

Evening all A bit of a yellow "salute" in honour of the 5 year anniversary - hopefully pulled next year by an A class or 3...... About this time 3 years ago I was not in a good place mentally - working crazy hours and days , stressed to the last...essentially on a TGV to total burnout and meltdown....one evening I was halfway thru my near daily half bottle of gin and i saw something on the TV about model railways and it lit a fire..next day...i borrowed a unused set off one of my relations and just the simple act of setting up an oval and watching a GWR engine and 2 carriages whizzing around was so calming and distracting for me and was the start of a journey back from the brink.....I then started looking around for Irish stuff and I found this place.....and ye have been stuck with me ever since! Thanks again Ed 20201017_211315.mp4

Congratulations Guys - 5 years is a serious achievement. Hopefully many more to come aswell.

I couldn't recommend them more Jason - The MM 121's are the business. Once you get them out of the box ( the most dangerous part!) - they just run and run.............even over this ancient warping Jouef track thats been sitting in dust in an attic for the guts of 30 years and probably never seen a track cleaner...........no bother to them.