Galteemore

Ah yes. That will be ‘The Antlerprise’

But mixed to a precise formula and not simply made up of any old pastel shades they had at the back of the paint shop

Literally my workbench itself this time! For some time it’s become apparent that the Enniskillen diorama was dominating the workbench. Lovely as it may be as a backdrop, much of the time it’s been used as a table for storing modelling things on. So I’ve upended it - it can be taken out of storage and made ready for photos in 5 minutes - and given the space back to modelling. Ironically I now have my longest test track ever..have installed a basic 5’3 line on a series of diorama baseboards stitched together, hidden at back of bench. Pretty it ain’t but functional it is! It doesn’t obtrude but allows long enough of a run to give locos a good workout.

Cheers Harry. Yes, the UTA black is rather fine and actually made the SG3s and UGs rather glamorous. One can only wonder what a VS would have looked like in that livery - possibly like a shrunken Royal Scot in LMS postwar black / livery 6115 Scots Guardsman used to carry in initial preservation. Can’t paste links for some reason but there are lots of images out there.

I take the Henry Ford approach to GN locos. Any colour you like as long as it’s black ….

Just wait till you try GN blue! Looks amazing. That oily sheen on the boiler is terrific and makes such an impact on the visual effect.

Strictly speaking, too, the fitted stock should be marshalled together next to the loco, unless the unfitted stock is piped.

Some great tips David. Great to see NPQ gearing up for a trip out!

Great to see it’s found a good home and such an appropriate one. Frees up space for a new layout too…

It was a railtour to Cork. Smaller GN locos did make it to fairly odd parts of the Laois rail system, most notably an old U at Mountmellick.

If RM Web is our datum line as a heuristic of what UK modellers are interested in, you’ve actually more justification for posting French models than Irish ones. The French section on RM Web has 27 pages of content, the Irish 21. Both dwarfed by North American section which has 156 pages……

Thanks Alan. Complement each other very nicely.

Looks great Alan. Well worth the effort ! Any chance of posing it with version 1?

Well done. Some good work there

Great work. Coming on really well

Interesting to see the BR style first class totem. The Enniskillen pic is nice; the place looked very different 6 months later. You can’t see into the gloom of the shed but there’s 3 Sligo tanks in there. In 5 months from the date of the photo ‘Enniskillen’ will be hauled out and cut up in front of the shed. The two Loughs will linger on a bit more and eventually be hauled to Belfast.

All Murphy ones gone by 1930s I think. Nothing RTR would have hauled them

Fair enough Harry. Have had a similar inner monologue myself when finishing the PP last week. Some pics show a gleaming smokebox, others don’t! You can certainly take pride in her

Terrific job. Subtle but effective. For a lot of my own work now all I do is a MiG dark wash with a few powders. Seems to do just enough. Might you consider a soupçon of dark powder on the smokebox?

Looks really good. Totally off topic but that’s a bare 17 years after the SLNC closed -1974 seems a lifetime ago now!

There’s a lot in this. I think the best we can generally hope for as modellers is an acceptable range of a particular colour. I have recently been experimenting with GN loco blue on a HD body, and there’s an inexact sweet spot which just looks right based on taking some kind of average of published pics! My own experiments are a work in progress. Ian Rathbone, who is the guru of model loco painting, says in his book that GNRI blue is basically impossible to define! And he’s painted a few. Two of his paint jobs below. One of these looks too light, but is what his client supplied. The other looks more on the money. Fred Graham’s were painted with genuine Dundalk paint but actually look a if anything little dark.

Try @Past-Avenue @jhb171achill

Thanks Patrick. I picked 74 as it was both a regular Enniskillen engine, and the last PP of all to survive in service. Although, famously, she wasn’t scrapped bearing the number 74 but rather 42. About 1961, UTA HQ decreed that 74 should be withdrawn and 42 kept running. Newry shed was horrified - 74 had the newest boiler in the PP fleet and was a superior engine. So they simply painted over the numbers on each engine and sent the real 42 off to be scrapped. 74/42 ran her last years with an x suffix meaning she would be withdrawn when any major fault developed and would not be repaired. She lasted long enough to do a fabulous railtour to Omagh. The sound of her getting away from Pomeroy must have been something else. Were you there @leslie10646?

Well after much fettling and fiddling the PP is done. Thanks to the helical gearbox she floats along very nicely and runs very smoothly. Haulage seems adequate. Little bit more subtle weathering to do but that’s it I think. video of her rolling - and hitting the buffers! https://youtu.be/65vNarq38KY?feature=shared Also fascinating to see how tiny PPs were. Look how she (in the middle) stacks up against a JT and SG2… My thanks to @Rob R and @Colin R for alerting the forum to the box of bits on eBay!

That’s most interesting David. One assumes that Gordon just imagines something and it appears perfectly formed in front of him! I know I’ve been guilty of the ‘it’ll do’ approach too often..