Warbonnet

Your wish is my command! More to follow...

Brendan asked me to post these pics up for him as he's having a bit of trouble re-sizing them. Progress so far...

Madness, at least it shows that the hobby is alive and well! Probably best I didn't get one as I have enough interests as it is, but I like the look of the Marklin 3 rail stuff and thought this would be a great place to start, picking up a piece here and there over the years. I blame Steventrain and the pics he's putting up!

Check it out http://www.locomotives-for-sale.com/rolling-stock/dmu-for-sale-lease/ DART: http://www.locomotives-for-sale.com/rolling-stock/commuter-emu-for-sale-lease/ Finance available, apparently.

'You can never polish a poo', was the sage advice given to me one night by a mate as we discussed the important topic 'Does make-up on women really make much of a difference?' Anyway, I shoud've listened as now I have got myself caught up with some Athearn basket cases. These came from a consignment of horrors liberated Bracken's castle in Raheny. Some clown decided to paint up some US locos in CIE colours with a yard brush and some white tape. A right state they were. I have already given a Kato SD40-2 the kiss of life and brought it back as a Conrail unit as you will have seen on the old site. However, these other two needed a bit more work. The GP40X was a real dog; it was an undercorated kit which basically had none of its additional parts added. Has had a good bit of detailing done to it. I'm currently working the chassis where I have ripped out the old Athearn motor and replaced it with a much smoother and quieter Kato unit. I have taken plenty of pics along the way so I might do a blow-by-blow account on what I did to try to improve it. Although American stuff is not of interest to most on here it might give you ideas and tips to try out. You could give me pointers too as it's all about learning! On top of that, these EMD locos have a lot of similar detail features to our own locos, so you may want to have a closer look at some of that. Before Still a long way to go, updates as soon as I have them. I also have about 7 or 8 locos ready to hit the bench too to be dismemebered and rebuilt, so those long winter nights should be filled pretty easy!

There was killings for them apparently, them and the sewing machines! Be interesting if a rake of them turn up at the Bray Wheelers event tomorrow

They're all gone, as I just found out!

Cheers, need to invest in some more to keep me busy during those long winter evenings. Mind you I have about 30 unmade Roundhouse ones to get through too as well as half dozen loco rebuilds.

Does it have the dreaded traction tyres? I know some people hate them but they really do help traction. I believe some early Hornby Railroad locos were sold without them. As a result they couldn't pull a hooker.

Another day, another pretty straightforward American boxcar kit! I was keen to give the new range of Atlas Trainman kits a go to see what the quality is like. Atlas make some of the nicest stuff on the market, American or otherwise and I certainly wouldn't hesitate in buying any of their products. The 'Trainman' line is their budget range, a bit like Hornby Railroad, only erm, better! Locos get proper all wheel drive, rolling stock is as free running as anything this side of an 1980s Lima Mark 1 coach. The only real difference is that compared to their premium range the additional detail is a bit limited. The kits are a very recent development, with Atlas taking over the Branchline range and re-releasing them under their own banner. I was keen to pick one up and see what they were like, so plumped for a late 1930s Santa Fe 40ft AAR Boxcar from model junction. Nice and cheap at £8.99. Here's what you get. I started off by attaching the nicely detailed underframe to the floor of the car. Must say the detail was very nice, but took a bit of fettling to get it to all fit right. Unlike the Accurail kit (and nearly all the others I've nailed together over the past couple of years) the Trainman kit comes with metal wheels, and they are lovely free runners too. Happy days! I attached the bogies (or trucks as they're known in Yankee Doodle land) to the car as it began to take shape Then the ends went on, to stop you getting them the wrong way around, one end has four lugs, the other has five. Fitted lovely, then glued into place to make sure they stay there. After that the doors were put in place, there was a mechanism that allows you to have opening sliding doors if you wish

Put a container flat under them and I'll celebrate all over my credit card!

Have a kit at home that I'm going to use on a GP40, will send you some pics later on or tomorrow.

They also own a number of passenger rail franchises. Chiltern, Arriva, Cross Country, Grand Central...

Yep it's amazing that despite looking quite different in many ways how much American locos have in common with our own GMs, even externally as you're finding out on your 201

I agree Rich, but the livery is probably not as well known as the others and fewer people may have seen it in real life, resulting in fewer fond mermories. I tend to be interested in what I remember or have nostalgia for in Ireland and the UK, rather than present day (except when it comes to American stuff, that comes down with the models being so impressive.) I wouldn't be surprised if others think along similar lines too. Just a thought. I have no real memories of seeing 201s in NIR blue, so probably wouldn't get one. I do however, remember seeing NIR 111s in Connolly and travelling behind 112 when on loan to IE, so they'd be on my list. I would plump for a 121 over them too, especially an IR one to run on push-pulls and 124 and 134 in IE doubling up on cement bubbles, once again going off my nostalgic memories!

Quite possibly, the MIR 80 kits built up could go with them too. Maybe PM could commission some Bachmann Mark IIs ala the IR/IE ones too. I wouldn't be an expert in NIR rolling stock though, would they be similar to the BR Mark IIs?

Interesting points about 208 and 209, but another factor is the relatively short time they ran in NIR livery before they were repainted into Enterprise, limiting their scope. Always thought they looked good in blue though. There is also the relative lack of rolling stock for them to run with without having to resort to finding the Lima NIR Mark IIs or repainting. The 111s on the other hand have been around much longer in NIR livery (of various guises) so maybe there will be scope for these being released later on. I would like one in late 80s/early-mid 90s guise to run alongside IR stock. Just need to get some coaches to go with it! No original Enterprise 201 is the puzzler for me, been around a long time, seen all over the country on all sorts of stock. Would pick one of them up.

Absolutely, think this was discussed elsewhere on the forum too. Also the lack of yaw dampers shows good research! We never doubted him for a second.

I vaguely remember attending the show in the 1980s as a child John and loving it. Seems so long ago now. Who ran that show? The current one is on the ground floor. It is a very nice venue, but tends to get very warm due to the glass ceiling!

Great deal!

Thanks Rich, sadly the few pics I took of the layouts were blurred! Thankfully Richie got a good selection and posted them on the show thread.

He was holding court with a load of people every time I was there Rich, couldn't get near them. Heard that the Mark IIs are currently in production though.

What a wonderful day for a exhibition! A scorcher of a day saw the crowds come out in force for the MRSI show in Dun Laoghaire. The town centre is a great venue for such a thing, with easy access via car, DART and bus. The amount of people there was very encouraging which is great to see, especially with a lot of youngsters there too. There's some life in this hobby yet! I was keen to finally have a look at the forthcoming Murphys 071s, and man I was not disappointed! Pretty much all of the planned locos were there, so I was able to fight the crowds and swim through their drool to have a look. Since the pictures came out I was excited but a bit apprehensive at the same time. The overall shape of the loco is bang on, it certainly looks like an 071. I was bothered by that bodyside radiator grill though, it looked a bit coarse and protruding. I looked at some of my American GM locos with a similair pattern grill and they looked much better when moulded in plastic. However, when I looked at them today they didn't bother me nearly as much as I thought they would. They most certainly are not a deal-breaker. I have a feeling that 082 would be on my shopping list, the real one is a real screamer and I love the look of the nameplate on the model, it's a superb bit of printing. It was pointed out to me though that 082's cabside numbers should be white with a black shade, not the other way around. I have since looked this up and it appears that the info is correct. The IE logo also looks a little big on the side, but I'm no expert. I hope it's not too late to correct them! It is a good solid base but needs a lot of work to bring it up to the standards of the latest releases. Was also great to meet some guys from the board, catching up with fellow mods Anthony and Dave, meeting new faces like Glenderg (and seeing him at work!) and ttc0169 and others. Also ended up manning a MRSI table for a while, Dave saying I'd be fine and not too busy. Ended up selling some of the 50th wagons, helping countless vote for their favourite layout and reuniting a lost child with his parents! Hope the show is on again next year. Well done MRSI and the council, roll on October.

And...

Some pics from the show today. They look fantastic in the flesh. Even the side grill didn't bother me as much as it does in the pics. Roll on October!