NIR

4 hours ago, jhb171achill said:

Yes, but if a train is coming from the right, and going up the branch, he needs to be able to get across without reversing.......

That's only really required for through passenger workings. A freight from the right is easier than one from (or to) the left though.

The basic terminus (the basic single line terminus is just a special case of this)

Needs a facing crossover to allow concurrent arrivals/departures and runaround, though their order could be reversed...

...to limit facing moves but I suspect it all comes down to whether you want to prioritise arrivals or departures when signalling an intense service.

That would be a facing crossover though, be cautious!

The basic single line terminus for passenger and freight is well understood - a loop and one siding - but what about the basic junction?

Passenger bay with free running past but limitation getting a freight onto or off the branch.

Fix a pinpoint axle bearing in the hole

More GM at 03:40 (then a very odd looking loco + railcar set)

Yep

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uerdingen_railbus

After a deep dive I'm imagining a Lebanese commuter/cement micro layout in HO with those peculiar French sleepers

More info here

https://almashriq.hiof.no/lebanon/300/380/385/railways/branches/beirut/20020224-beirut-furn-el-shebbak-stockyards/html/20020224-beirut-furn-el-shebbak-stockyards-pan08.html

Lebanon, looks like one of the buggers

The ones that look like caravans, wtf?

If you mean the early 80s grey with blue stripe then on a family photo the seats and partitions look dark blue and the tables and walls wood-effect brown.

I know I would go straight to 21mm if flexi straights and two turnouts were available, that's just enough to create a prototypically Irish track layout of standard parts.

and a megapub for them all to get pissed up in after an all you can eat carvery and greenway experience

1 hour ago, Noel said:

...and some of those farms are now running multimillion euro cottage cafes and restaurants along the route.

This is exactly the sort of thing I find hard to believe - these are the sort of numbers you might expect from a McDonalds! I hear the same sort of thing from people going on about surfing in Donegal...

Greenways, do they really produce €€€€ of revenue for local economies, I find that hard to believe. And let's not forget the last lot of unpleasantness with people fond of wearing too tight shorts.

Railwayana of a sort.

A turntable/roundhouse arrangement uncovered at the old Birmingham Curzon Street station, could be nearly 200 years old

Main spares aren't going to fix something like that!

1 hour ago, Robert Shrives said:

I have emailed Allen at Worsley Works to see if he has time to do come etches for the loco hauled stock as overlays.

I'd have some of those for the to do pile.

Those early railcars look completely nuts.

Lots of photos of NIR 104 Class

The top and side grilles would be for the cooler group, the radiator basically, and the vents would be air intakes.

I love the essentially Irish trackplan - straight, standard turnouts, goods loop - made for modelling.

Well there is a big engineering overlap between trains, buses and planes...

How about a coach jacked up on three jacks that fell into an inspection pit, was crash repaired and no one noticed.

I remember the black crockery.

Mesh-door fertilisers at 01:25 and 04:20

Bogie palvans (!?) at 03:00