Irishswissernie

Fertilisers were top of my 'wants' list and I shall also be having the Guinness, container flats and a couple of Plough Vans. Add these to the 121's and also the UK NER G5's J36's & CR 812's also in the pipeline elsewhere and its just as well I was ordered off the drink 40 years ago and my eyesight is too poor for me to drive. Exciting times; if we could only sell the house and get moved nearer civilisation I might be able to get started on the new layout. (s) Ernie

Here in Haltwhistle (Centre of Britain) we have 2 feet of snow, only one road open to the rest of the World, all trains and bus services cancelled, no papers or bread. Nowt on telly -er no that's normal!!! The wife has now gone in meltdown because she has now run out of grapes!!! On the plus side I have ordered my rake of Tara's, uploaded over 50 images to Flickr (mainly 1920's Scottish) and have quite a few Irish images to add (narrow gauge and GNRI steam) I am off to the Keighley & Worth Valley Gala next thursday so we need weather up-turn soon. Still , look on the bright side, another day nearer death!!! Ernie Up-date; just been advised Madame has run out of Kitcats-- AAAARRRRGGGHHHHH!!!!

Discount still won't work, I have ordered 5 packs (A B C D & E) and have put both the discount voucher codes I have in the 'special instructions' box , if you can apply one of them and refund my Paypal. Thanks Ernie

I thought so, I video-d them several times 2000-2006 but they seemed to be a lot dirtier then. On the video's I took the loaded trains always stopped just past Church Road Box at the overbridge, and I think possibly the couplings were somehow slackened off or the vacumn brakes disconnected before going on to Alexandra Road. A few views in this album ERnie

Is the red oxide livery correct for the 2000 - 2006 Era? I can't tell from my photos and video! Ernie

Is that 70 dollars? Here in the UK we have to pay import duty and a duty collection fee if you are buying outside the EEC and I imagine its probably the same in Eire. I got stung a few times when I purchased some 0 scale freight cars from the US a couple of years ago. Books and magazines are exempt as they are deemed to be educational.There is a Roco one on German Ebay but its not Buy it now. Ernie

http://www.contikits.com/Page_3.html Geof Poulter at Contikits has a couple of s/h Hobbytrain V65's listed. Geof and Alison are old friends of mine, we have done shows and travelled extensively on the Swiss railways over the last 30 plus years and I regularly buy stuff from him (and then sell it back when I decide to do something else - usually a couple of months later!) ERnie

Its HO Scale and I don't think its in production at the moment but there are probably secondhand ones about. Ernie

I've done some more digging! well actually I took the dogs and a tape measure up to the Haltwhistle allotments to measure some prototype corrugated iron as I was a bit concerned that the earlier photo actually showed the Slaters 7mm scale plasticard rather than the 4mm. Information gleaned from the allotment visit is that corrugations are 3" wide or 4 to the foot (Plus if you are planting potato's in horse manure you should mature the manure for a year before useing it!) Back to the plasticard, it thus follows that there should be 4 corrugations per 4mm, my earlier photo has 4 per 7mm so it is O Scale. Digging through the plasticard I found a 4mm sheet, this is the one on the right of the new photo. They are both definitely Slaters the 4mm one is ref 0436 Ernie

That doesn't look like the my corrugated sheet, I have great piles of Slaters plasticard unfortunately without numbers! The one on the left is the 4mm corrugated, that on the right is probably actually planking and corresponds with the one that Broithe has uploaded. The corrugated sheeting isn't flat on the back and I always used it with plasticard support i.e. built the building shell in the same material so that it could be glued together with mekpak to stop the corrugated sheet warping when painted Ernie

There has been quite a lengthy discussion on NGRM about the current position at Backwoods, there are rumours that the business has been sold. This is a copy of a post on that site: (( As some customers may already know, my wife Jen has developed dementia which is steadily progressing and I am now her full time carer. For this reason I chose to suspend trading of Backwoods Miniatures in December 2016 as I no longer have time to devote to the business, and her care must be my sole priority. We would like to take this opportunity to thank all of our customers who have given us such loyal support over many years. It is planned to transfer the business to a new owner and this process is currently ongoing. Pete & Jen McParlin)) When Pete first started producing Irish NG prototypes many years ago I purchased a large number of kits covering L&LSR, CDRJC C&L locos and about 20 wagons. Most of the loco kits had parts missing and a note saying these would be forwarded in due course. None ever arrived and the kits sat in their boxes for years before I moved them on through my mate Geof Poulter at Contikits I am pretty sure that the brass castings etc were produced by Ian Young of Sans Pareil models (I understand he is doing the same for the forthcoming 00 Works 0-6-0 - a chat with him at my Daughters wedding last June) Ernie

Had a quick look, might be one of these. Top one Tralee, lower Killarney - a few more trees around nowadays! Ernie

Voted; but nowadays I';d settle for a strong cup of tea

Its great what you have done for Irish modelling; now we need someone to champion the cause of models for the North of England and Scotland railways. The GWR , Southern and the English constituents of the LMS are well covered. NER J27,s NBR J36 and J37 all lasted until the last years of steam NER G 5 0-4-4ts migrated to London and Scotland and a replica full size job is under construction. Andrew Barclay industrial 0-4-0st served all over the UK. What we don't need is more obscure LBSC tanks and SE&CR 0-6-0's that mainly didn't leave their tiny (by NER & NBR size) pre-grouping company rails. If we have to have another SE&CR loco why not one of the Great North of Scotland 4-4-0's that they purchased (D40) when the GNS couldn't afford to pay for the whole batch. Rant over !!!!!! Ernie

I was going through the CJB Sanderson negative collection held by the Armstrong Railway Photographic Trust and in it there are 3 Irish images, 2 of F501 and one of 6T . Quite a surprise as I can't imagine someone would travel all the way to County Clare from eastern Scotland and not take any other Irish Railway photos on the way! Ernie

Yes Ernie

Thanks for you kind comments Rich! I have been pestering Dave Dunn at the Armstrong Railway Photographic Trust to check through the Trust Files for more Irish material with some success. Hopefully I should have some more before the end of the year although it will be mainly 1950's - 60's and probably steam. I do have some black & white negatives from 1977 which should be appearing in the next hour or so. Ernie

I'm looking at doing some 'bubble' weathering and have blown up a few details from my photos. I have added them to the Miscellany album on flickr for anyone looking for inspiration! The right hand wagon at Limerick Works is probably a step to far but I could perhaps use one of my previous bubbles built by son Alan from his 3D printed body/Dapol chassis. He used some unusual weathering techniques on these including tooth paste which then developed some kind of mould over time. Ernie

Received my first order for Packs A B & C here in Haltwhistle (Centre of Britain according to the Town Council) this afternoon. Stephen at IRM in response to my query regarding my second order for Packs C & D says all outstanding orders are awaiting pick up by the Courier today. Outstanding work boys! How are you going to fill your weekend? Ernie

112 at Waterford 12 years ago, slightly more than 12 in tow! Memories! Ernie

Thanks for the re-assurance and quick reply (I have already e-mailed direct) I am thinking of ordering another 2 seats but couldn't remember which 3 I had already ordered! Ernie

One slightly worrying problem has come to light this evening when I went on my Irish Railway Models Account to check which sets I had ordered is that it says I havn't ordered any whereas I have in fact ordered and paid for 3 sets back in May. Hopefully this is just another problem with the new web site and I have emailed them direct to sort things out. However it may be prudent for anyone else just to check their accounts to see if their orders are registered. Ernie

A few of Stranorlar in my Flickr album: Ernie

I have gradually added more of the JW Armstrong images from the Armstrong Railway Photographic Trust (many thanks to them for permission to use.) This one of a Tablet Catcher in operation needs the location identified,; not much to go on unfortunately. Ernie

Yes I always watermark the photos on flickr (unless its some of the photos taken today with little value), unfortunately you need to watermark the photos on or near the interesting bits! Items off my site that were nicked were trimmed to cut off the watermark. I still have a fair number of JW Armstrongs images from the early 50's to upload when I get time. Ernie