Brack

Maybe you could use the kit to make one of the pair the Rio Tinto had in Spain? 3'6" gauge. In fairness, at the time I recall it was advertised as being possible to build it to 009 with outside frames.

I'm sure they'll mention those when they announce the extension to burtonport...

Not a bad plan, notwithstanding an obvious error at the lower right, where you've inexplicably forgotten to mention the Donegal baltic tank and swilly 484t...

It's good news for those of us who can't be bothered with lettering/numbering our stock.

I think that centralising stuff in one location gives you a better chance - not competing for grants, volunteers, visitors etc and should have economies of scale with the overheads. A shame that things are quite fragmented with the 3' in the North too.

Looks about the length of the tracklaying train. Also the roadbed underneath it doesn't look as well prepared/ballasted - perhaps a temporary siding for construction only, to be removed later?

One should always pick a correct species for the area and model/paint accordingly. It's jarring to biologists to see inappropriate species depicted on layouts.

Nope. The license costs a lot and the IP owners enjoy a bit of legal action.

From what I've seen I'm not sure Bord na Mona have 50m of straight and level track to sell you, and I'd worry that the loco would never have been tested on such a thing!

Well everyone in the uk gets £350 million pounds to.... Hang on, your figure is both more accurate and plausible than that one...

Sort of... http://www.oxfordrail.com/76/OR76IOM.htm The Oxford rail model is a static die-cast, but looks good. It's also a somewhat later type. If you put one in a sandwich bag it's ideal for an early 21st century Douglas shed diorama.

Navan?

Presumably linked to the Shannon scheme? If so, you'd imagine the electric locos would be from Siemens-Schuckert like the rest of the stuff. Perhaps a look at what they provided in similar times to Germany Austria Japan UK (admittedly pre war).

I think the old injunction that uk railway companies were not allowed to build for external sale would have prevented it (the LNWR built a batch of locos for the L&Y in the 19th century and upset the loco builders, following which all agreed to stick to their respective spheres). What they might well have done was provide drawings to one of the established loco manufacturers. Over a thousand McIntosh designed/inspired locos were built for Belgium. The first of them were direct copies of the Caledonian Dunalistairs, which the caley hadbuilt in house at St Rollox, but the belgian locos were built by Neilson Reid to Caley drawings. Subsequent orders went to continental builders. If a GSR W mogul was to be built, it'd most probably be supplied by an outside builder. Crewe building for the DN&G or The various LMS works building for the NCC was fine as they were wholly owned subsidiary companies, and thus building for their own consumption, so to speak. I imagine the GNR(I) building railcar parts for the donegal was OK as they were part owners, or because it was too obscure and small for anyone to take much notice!