33lima

Speaking of yellow things, where's the flying, thumping banana? Aka the Last of the Eighties, aka the NIR Sandite train? Seems to have disappeared from her siding at York Road Works. Indoors, being readied for her next/last Sandite season?

Snapped the hopppers at Central on Saturday, on the way back from the UMRC show:

Still there today (25 Jul 17), as seen through a grimy bus window...

Very nice! A rake of three might have been enough, though...

Pics are up on Flikr, for those unable to make it: Bleach Green: https://www.flickr.c...157657599108826 Lisburn: https://www.flickr.c...157657247251099

Didn't make Saturday as originally planned, but got up today. Highlight of course was seeing Bleach Green, the current BRM piece serving as a nice appetite-whetter. Well no, the highlight was being invited behind the scnes and meeting Colm and Ken whose layouts and stock - and a certain Irish DMU book by the former - account for about 90% of my motivation in returning to the hobby in the last couple of years. Being able to see and snap a fiddle-yard full fo NIR & UTA stock was not to be forgotten. Will post the pics on Flikr; in the meantime here are some of Bleach green, the other outstanding local layout 'Lisburn' and some O Gauge GNR(I).

You might be interested in this, then, if you can find one second hand: http://www.marksmodels.com/?pid=6452

Thanks John, too kind! Re RTR railcars, there's these, from Silver Fox... http://silverfoxmodels.co.uk/nir-ir-ie-2600-class-railcar-aecpark-royal/ ...basically, repainted BR Cravens DMUs. Though too short, you could get a roughly comparable result by repainting a Tri-ang DMU, after cutting away the two cab front window pillars and replacing one, in the middle; and preferably rounding the 'peak' in the cab front (and possibly repositioning the three headlights to more correct positions). Two power car bodies would also be preferable as the AEC power cars all had brake compartments, IIRC. With just a repaint, a Tri-ang DMU is not bad for UTA railcars 6 & 7, though again, two power car bodyshells would be better than just one; and again, the cab roof peak should be rounded. Stick a Grafar suburban coach in the middle for a trailer. Steve Rafferty had such a set and it looked the part - there's a pic in issue 5 of 'Irish Lines, available here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/zgbbr6m6jvvi1cp/Irish%20Lines%20-%20Issue%205%20-%201993%20Winter.pdf UTA and NIR MPD railcars can be made by motorising a repainted Hornby Stanier coach, perferably the compo as the brake third has much too big a brake compartment. All tyou really need tyo do is creat a cab at one end. At its simplest, cut a window either side of the corridor connection at one end, or laminate plasticard over the end to give a rounder profile. Other stuff is optional, like trimming off the roof ribbing or hanging simulated mechanical components under the floor of the power car. Works drawings of most of the older railcars are in my RMWeb gallery, which with suitable pics can assist in selecting suitable RTR donors: http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/gallery/album/2408-uta-railcar-drawings/ Recommended reading would be: 'Diesel Dawn' by Colm Flanagan, covering the early railcars, up to the 1970s: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Diesel-Dawn-Contribution-Development-1931-1967/dp/1904242081 A 1990s edition of 'Irish Railways Traction & Travel' by Peter Jones, which covers not only then-current railcars but also withdrawn ones: http://www.stmarysbooks.com/product/94855/irish+railways+traction+%26+travel/#.VdShOJerEl8 ...and 'Irish Railways Locos, Multiple Units & Trams', by Robert Pritchard, to bring the picture up-to-date: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Irish-Railways-Locomotives-Multiple-Handbooks/dp/1909431044

Who says railcars/DMUs aren't popular with modellers here? http://irishrailwaymodeller.com/showthread.php/2279-UTA-suburban-MPD-set http://irishrailwaymodeller.com/showthread.php/3478-Class-80-Builds http://irishrailwaymodeller.com/showthread.php/3459-UTA-Multi-Engined-Diesel?p=53934#post53934 http://irishrailwaymodeller.com/showthread.php/2345-NIR-80-Class-DEMU http://irishrailwaymodeller.com/showthread.php/2678-NIR-70-Class-DEMU http://irishrailwaymodeller.com/showthread.php/78-Kirley-s-Projects?p=48753&viewfull=1#post48753 http://irishrailwaymodeller.com/showthread.php/4548-NIR-450-class-from-bachmann-150-1 http://irishrailwaymodeller.com/showthread.php/625-GVS-and-Adelaide-lookalike?p=26604&viewfull=1#post26604 http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/101451-uta-railcars-no6-7/ http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/79300-nir-80-class-demu/ http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/49402-uta-med/ http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/100199-uta-railcar-no-1/ http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/56180-out-of-storage-some-of-my-old-uta-and-nir-stock/ http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/87521-multi-purpose-diesel-mpd-build/ ..and because a picture is worth a thousand words...

Looking good! You're right about the cab being too long. It's also too far back - the GA drawing appears accurate in this respect. Ideally the cab needs cut free, moved forward a little and a bigger slice taken vertically out of the rear. I think the front and rear cab sheets fold up from the floor unit which latter can be trimmed accordingly and the rear, then re-attached. Just cutting away some of the excess length at the back will make a difference (you may want to increase the width of the top, open section of the coal bunker, at the same time, to improve the cross-section). But leaving the cab front where it is, means the cab front, the last step in the side tanks and the rear driving wheel centres don't line up right, in profile view. I would definitely suggest trimming away the little 'skirt' under the footplate/running board all the way along, rather than taking the new plasticard tank sides all the way down to it. It's not that deep, but it's enough to make the big side tanks look too deep, at the front - all the way along, in fact. It'll leave a little gap above the cylinders, unless you can move them up a little, but better that, than deepening/distorting the outline of those distinctive side tanks. May seem like a lot of bother for comparatively little return but you are already doing a fairly major conversion job and might as well make those few extra cuts that will make all the difference to the accuracy of the finished model, rather than (as I have done in the past!) hold back, thinking 'It'll be near enough!', then wishing after I done all the painting and finishing that I had gone a bit further!

Should be there. Per Colm Flanagan, Bleach Green is to be there, too.

Thanks, guys. I've put some more pics in the albums, including some 'boring' shots of various bits for reference purposes, here... http://irishrailwaymodeller.com/album.php?albumid=52 ..and here: http://irishrailwaymodeller.com/album.php?albumid=101 I was a bit disappointed that the engine for the day had been changed from 4 to 131 in the last few days, but being right behind a GNR(I) 4-4-0 that had been brought back to life by the magic of the RPSI, sort of made up for that!