Galteemore

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 !

Great that’s being commemorated. What really annoys me is the metal sculpture. They have gone to the time and trouble of getting a proper 5’3 track panel laid- a proper GN silhouette would have been an easy win instead of taking what looks like a child’s toy as a model - detracts from the honour being paid to the dead

Would have been a fairly efficient way of doing business, saving Sligo crew a lodging turn to Dublin.

Fabulous - the little tank looks so at home in its shed !

Wow that’s fabulous. I find guitar band clamps are great for holding boilers together whilst soldering. Know what you mean re cutting out / lots of careful measurements! Something mesmerising about watching those huge drivers !

Excellent. Will be a really interesting mix of buildings!

Also look live frog. Great turnouts

Fab work: always worth a dry run before getting soldering iron fired up !

At least we should see a blue 4-4-0 in Dublin before the end of the year ….

It might also explain an historical oddity. Would have made far more sense for the SLNC’s infamous putative loco to be a Beyer-Garrett rather than Garratt - much more in their line I’d have thought

Coming together really well David: and the techniques you’re demonstrating are widely applicable

Those splashers were hard enough in 7mm never mind 4! Great work

Great stuff - well done! Something very satisfying about a brass model

Fabulous, but you can see why artists are getting a bit worried about AI !

Agreed John. I used that weathered black on an F6 (now sold) I built a few years ago.

That’s a great close up. For brass workers like me, it’s also a reassuring proof that platework on the real thing could also be shonky. Check out that front splasher on 655, and as for the gap in the boiler cladding….

What’s you modus operandi for construction, Darius? Given your background, I’m imagining you guesstimate unknown dimensions based on proportion to known or likely sizes, and then make up a drawing ?