Galteemore

Russell Currie’s book perhaps ? Portstewart Tram in Hull museum (yes, it’s an odd one that!) is probably the closest you’ll get to that era in terms of anything preserved. I’m not an NCC expert by any means so don’t know how the livery changed from BNCR to NCC.

So glad you have taken this one on Alan. Absolutely iconic loco. Know what you mean about those sheets of metal asking to be used:) Really looking forward to seeing how you bring no 6 to life.

And one of the great might-have-beens of preservation. Hung around in a scrapyard for ages. Would have been perfect for Downpatrick and Whitehead. Had barely 15 years of use. 3 of the English Courtaulds Pecketts survive

Looking good. Can almost taste the lukewarm tea and curled up sandwich.

That’s most interesting. I’d forgotten some early DMUs had these, and you inspired me to have a quick web trawl. Apparently these vehicles were supplied to be inserted as required and featured on such services as Newcastle/Carlisle. What a lovely thing it is to have on train catering - even the most dismal cup of tea somehow takes on a magic of its own when consumed onboard a moving train. My favourite DMU journey in the 90s was the Newcastle-Stranraer through train, which I boarded at Waverley. Cup of tea in hand, even the early morning Scottish industrial landscape of Lanarkshire had a charm…

Don’t let that put you off. You have more skills than you know / just need to practice them!

Saw this and thought of you….

Coming on very nicely Derek. Some great middle-distance views

Perfect start to 21mm gauge which will hopefully inspire a few others !!

Good to see some hands-on modelling going on. You might well be the last person who builds a Hunslet kit!

Must have been heartbreaking to rip up all that work, David, but will hopefully pay dividends. Great news about the Swilly tank: anything that saves time drilling and cutting is great news.

Thanks Colin: some interesting SLNC views. Lissadell was in very poor condition at this point, and was just waiting for the scrapman to arrive, but the rain makes her look like she’s just out of the paint shop in gloss black!

Simply beautiful. The 3d work underlying it is very impressive, but you have made all that detail come alive through such diligent finishing work. Stunning loco.

Most interesting. Not the first time railways and air power have interacted in Ireland. In 1920-21, British troop trains carried roof markings to facilitate protection by RAF escort. At least one IRA unit was dissuaded from attacking a train in consequence.

All of us broad gaugers stumble a bit! Looking good so far. Sleeving axles is probably a fairly cost effective way to go about it. And brakes are a pain. Some 7mm Irish kits are designed on the - quite reasonable - assumption that most people will build to 32mm, and the fold up brake gear designed accordingly !

That’s just spectacular. Really captures the subtle BCDR look you’ve set out to achieve.

I think this takes some beating….

Always good to see someone posting their modelling. Add some Irish scenic touches like phone boxes etc if you can to help finish it off. The station building has the makings of a GNRI prototype. And please keep posting !

@David Holman - any pics of the 1900 era from Saturday? Much as I love the 50s stuff it’s great to see the MGW/GSW stuff on show. I do think you need a WLWR loco at some point….;)

Sounds like your layout is taking on SLNCR PW characteristics David! Hope all gets sorted out without too many dramas. Given the hard life exhibition layouts lead, it’s amazing how often things go right! love the photos, and it’s a real treat to pose stuff on NPQ. The track plan is just enough to allow decent operation but sparse enough to allow space and perspective. The brown van isn’t quite finished yet but I couldn’t resist running it (and finding that its B2B needed a tweak). By coincidence, a photographer caught Lurganboy about to leave Enniskillen on the 12pm to Northport earlier that day…;) Nice to see she made the journey safely across!

Also look at the KTM class 22 in Malaysia / basically a co-Co version of the Hunslet, and built by EE in 1971

Great to see you Leslie and @David Holman even if my locos were a bit naughty. Once back home though I set them on rails and they ran as sweet as you like of course - modelled by Lurganboy in the YouTube above. I suppose that repeated warming and cooling (locos had spent six hours in the car at varying temperatures) probably doesn’t help! I will also add some weight to the railbus luggage rack to put some more tractive weight over the wheels - and possibly loosen the trailer pickups a little. Fabulous to see NPQ out and about, and running so well. It’s such a great advert for 5’3 modelling. And @Andy Cundick was just a few feet away, although not displaying Irish this time!

I think the issue was not so much unreliability as misuse. NIR bought industrial shunters, designed for short stop start work, and used them for relatively long distance running. This led to issues such as overheating. Had they been employed in pilot work at York Road or Central they’d probably have been much more reliable.

LMS buffers will do nicely; that’s what all my Sligo engines have. As for boiler fittings, the chimney and dome are not especially outlandish and ‘close enough’ should be easily obtainable in the 4mm world. A 3d guru could probably knock up a chimney and dome fairly easily for you in any case.

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