Galteemore

The answer is it depends! Have you tried an Archimedes drill? Dremel etc are good but really need to be in a stand for work like that. Am assuming you have dimpled the work piece first, and are using lubricant ?

Shaping up really well. This will be one of those layouts where you don’t actually need any trains to make it interesting!

Colin- I think Alphagraphix do these.

Nice work - good subtle blending of colours. Quite appropriate for Carrantuohill to look steamy too - there’s got to be a reason the GN named 174 after it!

As in this lovely shot from Ernie…..

Any self respecting CB English teacher would have pulled you up for using ‘can’ rather than ‘may’……

Well if he’s happy…. Well, if he’s happy….

Wow indeed !! Real look of Glenarm about it….lovely. I also think we need to hear more about this layout - and stock….

A further advantage of painting, I have discovered this morning, is that the back scene can be revised if you find that the scenic feature you are installing needs a slightly different level of sky/land interface than you’d thought …..

It’s particularly annoying as both Ernie and Jonathan are keen to help bona fide enthusiasts. I have had to buy many of my photographs either in book form or from offline archives. To have them made freely available is such a gift - and shouldn’t be abused.

Like this ? Just notice how the essence is reducible to varying horizontal bands of colour….the green-brown at the back is a lighter shade than at the front.

Paint your own, JHB. It’s really not as difficult as it sounds. Barry Norman’s book on scenery tells you how. It’s based on ever thinner washes of green. Here’s a crude one I made this week. The idea of a backscene, I think, is to provide just enough depth to fool the eye into focusing on what’s in the foreground. Look at a lot of coloured photos of Irish railways and what you see in the background is a vague sweep of green and brown. Note that you will have to specifically focus away from the railway content to do that! As long as there’s a suggestion of. appropriate background, your brain will paint in the rest. It’s a basic camouflage technique - just providing enough visual clues for you to see what you are ‘meant’ to see. Photo backscenes are fine but sometimes too sharp and actually distract the eye towards them…well that’s my rationale anyway! The lowest layers of this one will have 3D scenery in front, but will hopefully give the idea of that classic Connaught high ground behind.

This item is now sold - thanks

Outstanding David. Absolutely wonderful. Know what you mean about the bow pen! So good to see 2 GSW locos close together. The late Drew Donaldson would have loved this - although upbraided you for not using clockwork !

Nice convincing scene taking shape

The most useful work on Irish loco performance is probably ‘ A Decade of Steam’. In it Drew Donaldson describes these engines as the most perfectly proportioned Irish locos of all - ‘not a line was out of place’. Speeds in the mid 60s were common enough even in their last years. One was turned out in green to entice the GSW directors to adopt the livery - must have looked a treat. If I ever get the mojo to scratch build another 7mm loco it will be this or a D19…

I think a model J15 on an RPSI special would look great here ! Brilliant stuff - esp that concourse

There is a fascinating story which appeared in a Railway World - I think - about 60 years ago. Some three shiploads of ex GN and CIE locos made their way to Spain, and some enthusiasts felt that they had possibly gone to be regauged for a new life in the sun. Sadly, all were simply destined for the flames like these two.

It was SNCF practice, I think, even after BR abandoned it, for locos to have allocated crews rather than being pooled. This led to rather greater affection as you say, John, by crews for ‘their’ loco. The idea of fuel efficiency reached ridiculous levels in the early days of railway operation, when a form of driving by contract was introduced. Crews on this system had such a fiscal incentive to save fuel that safety valves were tampered with to avoid tell tale blowing off of excess steam. Tragic results ensued, and the practice was banned. In today’s gig economy it doesn’t seem unfeasible to imagine its return….

I don’t think even the GSWR made its firemen wear Eton collars though….I suspect those are rather well heeled visitors

A classic conversation amongst railway enthusiasts in the 50s….. The Waverley is a great trip. Engines are mesmerising.

These are top quality images, JB, even reproduced via this medium. I’d say the IRRS would fancy these. And you can’t blame him for snapping these. If ever there was a 4-4-0 to lure one away from the GN….

Looking great George. Just watch you don’t ‘fowl’ the propellor …

I have a 1:43 GSWR F6 2-4-2T for sale, but it’s running on 5’3” track (ie 36.75 mm gauge). Should be straightforward enough to regauge to 32mm if you are interested….

This is fantastic David. Lovely period piece with Wolf Dog behind. The F6s were very capable little machines with a good turn of speed, so it’s not at all implausible to see them being tried out in WLWR territory.