Galteemore

080 looks fab. Just as I remember them

My guess is Stillorgan

It’s Dundalk, looking north.

I did my service as a Reservist as a way of supplementing my student grant. The best way to maximise income was by going to sea for a few weeks which meant being paid but no way to immediately spend it - not many shops in the North Sea. I was incredibly incompetent and naive, and got into all kinds of scrapes. On one occasion I was given a go at steering the ship and had to be removed by the Officer of the Watch as I was endangering the vessel - it was zigzagging all over the shop close to another ship. I was rather amused to discover that this very same officer wrote a novel a year or two later about an Irishman who joins the Royal Navy as an IRA sleeper agent and steers a ship full of explosives into a harbour. Can’t imagine what inspired him… This is the book…https://www.bookdepository.com/Basketful-Sleepers-Ras-Sewell/9781858211459

Thanks for all your efforts this year Ernie - this is one of the best threads on here. Have a really great Christmas.

You do realise what country this is Angus….don’t torture yourself looking for logic….

Yes - these were unarmed test mines, laid by friendly forces the week before. So when the mines appeared they were recovered for reuse. The SOP for real ops though was shooting at them with an SLR - 7.62 rounds can really have an impact. Modern 5.56 ammunition has a very different ballistic profile!

It was slow and painstaking - thirty years ago I was doing it as part of NATO’s 10 Mines Countermeasure Squadron. Got very exciting when the sweep wires got close to crossing each other. But amazing to see when you cut a mine wire and saw the little black ball bobbing in the water…,

Happy Christmas David. Train looks right at home!

Loads to enjoy here. Note the PW crew stage right at Killorglin

Nice intelligently done interpretive panel - no improbably wheeled Flying Scotsman pastiche !

Always best option, Tony. Means you can customise width and put in bays etc to your spec. Can use a card or foam board lattice or strip wood to make frame then top with card and face platform with brick/stone card or plastic veneer etc as you choose

They look class. Especially the SSM/JMD ones.

Lovely ones of Manorhamilton including the cattle dock, not often in shot. Notice the motorbike under a tarp. An animated scene outside the shed. Not sure if it’s a leaking gland or they are doing some outdoor blacksmithing!

Thanks Eoin. Just ordered one….

Various schools of thought JB. A backscene is not actually meant to draw the eye - as its name implies, it’s only there to set the scene, so is not meant to be too detailed, otherwise you look at it before the model! As Phil says above, a suggestion of sky might even be enough. What you are actually trying to do is make the brain ignore the surroundings of the layout - ie the room, walls etc, and focus on the model. Barry Norman has a simple technique in his book involving graduated bands of blues greens and browns which worked for me….

When I say, Crewe, Andy, I strictly draw the cut off line at 1923 - it’s all dead to me after that !

Do see what you mean Northroader - and you do have a track record of actually scratchbuilding fine locos so you’re not the average carping naysayer! I think the camera angle indeed has much to do with it. This view shows a slope but it doesn’t look ‘right’…looks like the hump on a Sopwith Camel…….just proves the inadequacy of Swindon design…..;) Crewe wins over Swindon every time!

There’s 2 crates full of As in Fort Knox already….

Excellent Ernie - I had been eyeing up all those LF flow bits of card that we have and having similar thoughts !

‘Next train’s gone’ ! Lovely loco - good effort. Nice to see another fan of the movie. From 2009 to 2015 we lived a few miles from Cliddesden where the Buggleskelly scenes were filmed. My first O layout was a Southern 30s setup inspired by the line.

I might give the WS ballast another go, David! I used Carrs ash on a layout years ago but found it prone to puddling and general mess. Need to try some new methods for new layout anyway….

Great work! Not a Christmas scene as such but you never know who drops in…..

Generic term is ash ballast. Some modellers have been known to use sieved ash from a steam railway for authenticity - not recommended as you are bringing all kinds of chemical nastiness onto your layout. Fine dust ballast is safer but a nightmare to lay and glue. Best option is Chris Nevard style with DAS clay. Although I would say that, having done it….

Nice tidy work. Some complex shaping there to master, which you have. Neat work on the door ventilators.