Galteemore

It is available in 4mm. All you do is nicely ask Roger to rescale it.

Indeed it was. Closeup courtesy of Ernie….

Fabulous. Note the railbus propped up at Goraghwood

Worth swinging past your stall at the next Bray event then ?

That might help. I had exact scale rods made for my Large Tank but couldn’t use them as the wheel flanges were touching so had to make up my own, making the gap between the back wheels a scale inch or so larger, and shortening the gap between the front wheels by the same amount to preserve the overall wheelbase dimensions. It still looks pretty tight even so !

That had mostly disappeared by the end, Colin. By the 1950s it was mostly 75-85lb rail. I have used code 100 FB in 7mm to replicate it.

@Paul 34F may know about drawings. The IRRS certainly have the Large Tank drawings, which are effectively the same - just changes to cab and tank profiles mainly. Kirley on RM Web has built a 4mm version with Tony Ragg’s help - they may be able to rerun the etches for you. The MR Flatiron is a possibility but the distinctive wheel spacing is all wrong - only real way to capture it is scratch build.

Yes, what a layout it’s been - an ideal and convincing background for all the delightful new releases over the past decade. From experience, I know that modelling in a short-term rental takes a different form but is possible - maybe a micro layout or two to keep things on the boil? Have a look at Ian Holmes’ Micro Model Railway Dispatch newsletter. I can’t paste links for some reason but easily findable via your favours search engine.

Thanks Ernie. V useful view of 91

Just wow. What a piece of workmanship! Great idea to make it multi-use, too. Will hopefully have a chance to see it on show soon.

Suitable for my level of modelling then He’s a 3D print specialist who is making me a long version which overcomes the Alphagraphix long buffer issue…..they may not be sophisticated but they work and are dead easy to fit. Painted gunmetal and gunge I think they will be relatively inoffensive.

Well spotted!! Even includes OO Works locos and RPSI stock….

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