Galteemore

Sorry to hear that Bob - it’s really not easy!

Fabulous work. Look forward to seeing your work develop on this !

Sorry everyone, will try and upload a YouTube version if I can. Yes, David, they are simple neodymium magnets which just hang off the coupling hook. A simple paddle uncouples them. As I am rather time-constrained, I just want something for now that allows simple shunting and easy fitting! Found these via Gauge O Guild. The maker is producing special ‘Irish’ ones for me which will fit some of my stock with long buffers. Early trials are encouraging and wagons have successfully transited from one siding to another!

Yesterday afternoon, kit building slowed down dramatically after my soldering station expired. This forced me to focus some attention on getting the layout itself up and running. With handbuilt track and hand built locos there is significant potential for error, and much fettling is involved to get anything working well. And so it proved yesterday. Much cleaning of track and wheels - and getting out the 80w iron (no use for kits as it’s like a huge chisel) to tease a slightly out of gauge track section into line. And we ran some trains, which was fun. Also taking chance to test out a magnetic coupling system from Chris-draw.com, which unlike many systems can be tweaked to work with Irish long buffers. It’s not pretty but fairly unobtrusive and easy to fit. They will eventually be painted some unobtrusive dirt colour. And even @Gabhal Luimnigh ‘s shed gets a look in. New soldering station in place so kit building can resume again….. IMG_1312.mov

Excellent. Chassis building can be fraught (speaks someone in the midst of it) but a jig like this will help. Just make sure your solder is on a reel and then between the jigs and the reels you’ll be fine!!

And let’s not forget the SLNCR contractors loco. ‘Faugh-a-Ballagh’. Still the motto of the Royal Irish Regiment.

Absolutely. Closest analogue over here are the Scottish scenic lines (West Highland etc). Every single passenger journey is subsidised by between £12 and £25 by the Holyrood parliament. And these are lines which really are tourist magnets yet still can’t pay. Image courtesy Byway Travel.

Card kit which can be motorised. Someone called DevonBelle on RMWeb did it with a Lima O class 33 chassis

It’s no coincidence surely? The Northern Lights appear just as the Great Northern light is extinguished at Great Victoria St…..a celestial tribute to Ireland’s second most stellar railway……;)

Pity I’ll miss this - stuck here as I am beside the GWR main line ….Fabulous pics JHB. Apparently I was on the last steam ECS into GVS with 171 in 1975 but aged 4 I don’t recall it! . So sad that we can’t have a final steam departure from under the Boyne Bridge with 171, 85 or 131. But at long last Belfast is getting a station that will hopefully be a worthy successor to the termini of old. I still think the Victorians missed a trick in not building a US-style Union station though!

Email and ask how: sirberkeley@outlook.com

Roger will rescale any of his card kits to 4mm. Ideal templates for coach building. I use his card kits for just that purpose.

Alphagraphix do some very nice card ones which build up nicely

An E class would be ideal. But building a loco first thing is an expensive experiment. I speak as one who has built 5 brass locos and is working on another. I’d start with a simple wagon or building kit first. Soldering is not that difficult but will take practice. You will also need some basic tools such as a simple hold and fold. And if building a loco, then a simple chassis jig is a must - Poppys Wood Tech make an excellent one.

As someone who has nothing at all to do with RTR (if only one could buy 7mm 36.75mm gauge !) I’m not often on Sam’s Trains. That Black 5 video was actually pretty solid and well-informed. He’s also a pretty good modeller - look at this 3D LNW loco he designed and built……

What gems Ernie, thanks. I do like the QLs, 127 and her sisters tend to get overshadowed by the other GN 4–4-0 classes. Although capable - and gorgeous - engines when built, I think their steaming capacity was not enhanced by later rebuilding. And a nice Comber whiskey poster too….

In my spare room, one is still at Enniskillen ! 7mm scratchbuild on a Alphagraphix Bulleid chassis.

Interesting view, too, of the new planks on the GN van at Newry.

Great article in MRJ 303 about converting a Manor to EM. It’s also a mini-review of the model, and for an RTR OO model to get praise in MRJ is high praise indeed. And I quote ‘the more I examined it, the more I realised just what a superb job Accurascale have done’. Those of you preparing to review IRM’s first Irish steam loco will do well to read the article as the same comments will no doubt apply

Apologies Patrick, this story has really grown wings and it’s hard to keep up as the narrative migrates in different directions. Seriously, the gulls look great.

But surely there’s only one bird fit for Clogherhead….the loon, better known as….the Great Northern Diver…..

@David Holmandid a turf train some time ago. Attracts great interest at UK shows. Yes, the turf trains ran from the west to supply a dump at Phoenix Park during the Emergency.

I know you’re desperate to have a model of 171 Patrick….. is this some kind of subliminal message to IRM? I suppose the next thing we’ll see are van loads of sleeves from Brookhall arriving…

And Roger will shrink it to 4mm if you ask nicely. They are great templates for scratch building.

The Sutton tram sheds were latterly where CIE ballast tampers were serviced. Sutton also boasted Cosh siding - the longest refuge siding on the GN.