Galteemore

Excellent. And is so encouraging to see food retailers taking an interest

Fab work Harry. And a large cab for Bob to dry off in if required. On one infamous occasion a CIE crew picked him up soaked to the skin. He proceeded to strip to the skin and dried himself off at the firebox as the loco bowled along through the midlands……

Marklin are a separate system working off 3-rail, so their products are generally incompatible with other marques. Historically, German manufactured model trains were significantly better than their UK counterparts- and correspondingly expensive! As a one time collector I always felt Fleischmann and Trix were a little bit above Roco and Liliput in quality, but that’s probably changed !

It’s not so far fetched to say that it may indeed originally have been red. This was the default colour in Ireland, not because it warded off evil spirits, but because (owing to its oxide base) it was relatively cheap.

As you say, needn’t have been this way. At Sheringham in Norfolk even a simple bus shelter had a simple but appropriate mural applied….

Still available the odd place but to be honest that’s a great little project for a scratch build

That’s looking really good. What it’s all about is making the eye see what it thinks should be there. And that last tree certainly does that

That bloke on RMWeb has a penchant for the unusual. He has made a rather nice one of the horse tramway at Berkhamsted, which we used to live near, and which was also in HC and RM Casserley’s patch. Indeed, until I had some dealings with Richard’s artist daughter, I had no idea that for many years I lived within a few miles of an SLNCR nameplate in deepest Buckinghamshire! Sample of Mary’s art below. Lady of taste, obviously. I love the speed blur he’s done to suggest a WCML Express. Might be an idea for his B and N diorama - blurred teak high on the viaduct! It was always a highlight of the train journey to Dublin, looking over as we passed to spot the trackbed, which is still extant there I think even if long vanished within the confines of Newry town. In many ways it was ahead of its time with its carbon-neutral, multi-modal operation.

Thanks Mike - was just ensuring old Triang got included. Their old 3Fs make very good Irish base locos !

Second hand is probably the way ahead for cheap conversions, especially if you are content with code 100 track. Some of the older Hornby stuff will go on for ever if serviced well

Excellent Alan. Know what you mean about spring. I had to fiddle around with an industrial sized spring, trimming it to length to ensure the loco was getting the right balance of forces. If only I’d kept on at physics after O levels….

Amazing how all that worked out. UTA considered buying 85 but went for 207 instead. Merlin disappeared to Inchicore for scrapping whilst 207 enjoyed a few more years in traffic. Interesting that it was actually 85 which survived rather than the possibly more iconic Boyne, which was the last of the big GN 4-4-0s to steam. Had I been alive and a betting man in 1965, I’ve a fair idea which of the two I’d have predicted surviving! After closure of Adelaide until transfer to Witham St so 1966-69

Excellent. I’m not a big fan of making up external pull rods. You’ve made nice work of these

One of my own memories of visiting my grandparents in Eire/the Republic/or as we still called it ‘the Free State’ was the age and condition of vehicles compared to NI. Back then there was no NCT (MoT in GBP) IIRC, so all kinds of things crawled the indifferent roads. If your layout is populated with 1950s British trucks in poor nick you’ll capture the look. There also needs to be an ancient tractor crouching somewhere. They seemed to be everywhere. Now, if you were setting your layout in the 80s, you’d need at least one Hi-Ace van……;)

What a lovely scene - well done !