Galteemore

Interesting Ernie. Presumably that’s 5T on her way to the USA?

That is incredible workmanship all round. These are exquisite. What thickness are the sides of the open, Angus?

Lovely shot. But if I saw that view at c0755 it meant I’d missed the train to school! Can’t have been long after Downshire was rebuilt from the original cinder platform and corrugated shelter

5mm actually, I think. That’s certainly what Johnson and O’Rourke’s book says. See also... http://micksrovingreporter.blogspot.com/2011/04/weekend-in-donegal-23-24-may-2009.html?m=1 https://get.google.com/albumarchive/112461785190797901174/album/AF1QipOlcL7V3TY1kIN0Paiy7bNdnSZH5qarJor-vWNj

Indeed - as seen here :https://www.rte.ie/archives/2017/0228/856104-when-donegal-had-a-railway/ The video also gives a rare view of 85 Merlin inside the museum before restoration - still filthy from UTA withdrawal! I can just remember seeing here like that. I saw Sam’s layout once, also c1978. 5.5 gives a bit of a volume advantage over 4mm work - a bit more space inside the loco and slightly easier for adding detail! Some S scale bits and pieces may be of use as close enough in scale. OOn3 is a little harder to start off in nowadays as TT scale motor plants such as Halling are much harder to source at the moment.

This is a little gem. Lots of good tips like the curved backscene.

That is just terrific. Small incidentals like the overhead wiring just add so much here.

Inset track and subtle colouring look very good

That’s lovely work George. Very fine and looks like it would actually work !

They are terrific. One of the ‘tests’ of a model railway is how identifiable it is with all the rolling stock removed..,,your layout clearly says GNR.

That’s looking really effective. Shades of New Ross c 1980

That’s hilarious Jb. You can imagine the narrative I grew up with from the 70s onwards re financing Irish preservation, and the need to actually pay for the trains that one liked to photograph.....

Great stuff Angus. Nice to see it coming to life again!

That can’t have helped, but it seems to have been their contract engineering business that dragged them down. Read the Patriot new-build forum to see what kind of work the Llangollen chaps had been churning out - it wasn’t always top notch to put it mildly

That’s a fine job indeed that he’s done. Should be well pleased with that. Good old fashioned make it yourself modelling.

Very nice indeed. Shows what’s possible in a small space

He’d be a keen advocate of 1:76 Hi-Ace vans IIRC.

Lovely work as ever Eoin. Appropriate photo was posted on Ernie’s archive today....

One of the most interesting aspects of Eire’s rather odd neutrality. There was, strictly speaking, no need to make the signs distinct from one another by numbering them. All that was required was the national name to discourage overflight. If you had a chart with the numbers on them, as the RAF did, it wouldn’t simply tell you that you were over Eire, but also exactly where over Eire you were..... DeV and Churchill’s public spat in 1945 concealed a great deal of subtle co-operation.

Thanks Ken. That’s the only part of the scene that was bought in and isn’t home made- it’s a Marcway crossover! I’m selling the F6 to pay for another tank, which I think you will like

Built from an Alphagraphix kit. Good runner. Specially finished as No42 with smoke box clips and lifting rings on tanks. Real coal in bunker. £225 inc delivery. Can be regauged to 32mm.

Funnily enough JB, my dad recalls a trip to Dublin c1960 with Mac Arnold to chase an ex GN JT on an excursion out the MGW main. Wonder what else he saw that day....

Model Engine Works have some products which may be of interest....specifically mentions OOn3 https://www.shapeways.com/shops/model-engine-works?page[number]=2&page[limit]=48&page[order]=asc

That’s indeed the case, John. Very few 7mm suppliers have a shopping cart system online. The website is often a basic one and essentially an electronic catalogue. Many of these businesses operate on a very narrow profit margin and are cottage industries. Many of the suppliers have other jobs and basically offer their modelling business as a useful service to fellow modellers. This business model works much better at scale specific trade shows, which are a scratchbuilders dream - a huge hall full of useful bits you can discuss with the trader in person. Quite how it will work in future is unclear. Unless you have an all singing and dancing website like Laurie Griffin, online sales of,say, tiny brass fittings in small volumes is not easy.

That’ll be my younger brother Jim. He’s the one with the garden railway ! Here’s a Welshpool and Llanfair loco on his old line....with authentic Fermanagh weather.