Warbonnet

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!

Make sure you stick up the video here. Lovely day for it!

According to Baby GMs post up above: Will bring the camera! EDIT: Tis on the MM homepage too.

Looking forward to seeing these tomorrow.

Hi all, spotted this over on rmweb, scroll down to the bottom of the page, new 20ft Bell containers in 00 scale. Look quite nice http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/49934-c-rail-irish-modelling-proposal/page__pid__573399#entry573399

Should be there tomorrow between 12 and 2 if anyone is around? Dave, you there in a professional capacity or just to hang around?

A thread on all the old shops around the country would be great.

I thought that a blog might be in order. It will mainly contain small bits and pieces that I'm working on to fill time before I finally get some sort of layout sorted. I have the stock, now I just need some track and some space to run it all on! Someday soon hopefully. Anyway, I'll be mainly working on American stuff, with some British and maybe even some Irish stuff thrown in along the way. My first port of call is centring around two box car kits. One is a Accurail 50ft Conrail boxcar and the other is an Atlas Trainman 40ft Santa Fe boxcar to fit in with some of my older motive power. I'm not really one for sticking to one era or railroad, but the right stock will have to run together at the same time. I couldn't have steam running past some SD70s and GEVOs! The body of the boxcar was bowing inwards so although I knew the chassis would help reshape it, I added some plastic-card bracing too. Underframe detail is quite sparse, with the bare minimum added. It could be further enhanced with brass wire to replicate tubing etc at a later date, but there's also day to day handling, and as I want to build up rakes of cars for longer trains I can live without it for now. This can also be said for removing moulded detail like grab irons and installing wire replacements. Maybe I'll eventually get around to that as a fully fettled car can look fantastic when kitted out and weathered. I did do some upgrades, replacing the godawful plastic couplers and wheels with Kadee products. This was my first Accurail kit and I would defo buy some more. I'll be keen to try the Atlas one too to see how good it is. If it is anything like their RTR line of stuff it should be lovely. More on that another time.

I thought that a blog might be in order. It will mainly contain small bits and pieces that I'm working on to fill time before I finally get some sort of layout sorted. I have the stock, now I just need some track and some space to run it all on! Someday soon hopefully. Anyway, I'll be mainly working on American stuff, with some British and maybe even some Irish stuff thrown in along the way. My first port of call is centring around two box car kits. One is a Accurail 50ft Conrail boxcar and the other is an Atlas Trainman 40ft Santa Fe boxcar to fit in with some of my older motive power. I'm not really one for sticking to one era or railroad, but the right stock will have to run together at the same time. I couldn't have steam running past some SD70s and GEVOs! [ATTACH=CONFIG]2204[/ATTACH] Anyway, first up, the fairly simple Accurail box car, based on a car from the 1970s. Here is the kit as it comes, American kits are nice simple affairs, easy to sling together when you're watching telly. Here's the kit, you get a choice of doors to suit your modelling period.I went with the later ones. [ATTACH=CONFIG]2205[/ATTACH] The body of the boxcar was bowing inwards so although I knew the chassis would help reshape it, I added some plastic-card bracing too. [ATTACH=CONFIG]2198[/ATTACH] Then the steel weight was glued to the chassis, and the doors were added to the body. [ATTACH=CONFIG]2199[/ATTACH] Underframe detail is quite sparse, with the bare minimum added. It could be further enhanced with brass wire to replicate tubing etc at a later date, but there's also day to day handling, and as I want to build up rakes of cars for longer trains I can live without it for now. This can also be said for removing moulded detail like grab irons and installing wire replacements. Maybe I'll eventually get around to that as a fully fettled car can look fantastic when kitted out and weathered. I did do some upgrades, replacing the godawful plastic couplers and wheels with Kadee products. [ATTACH=CONFIG]2200[/ATTACH] And the finished product, went together nice and easy, very good quality parts. Okay, so it's very basic kit building, but for a novice who is looking to gain some confidence they are perfect to start with, and I find them therapeutic. I have a 30 litre storage box full of such kits from Athearn, Roundhouse etc. to keep me going! [ATTACH=CONFIG]2201[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=CONFIG]2202[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=CONFIG]2203[/ATTACH] This was my first Accurail kit and I would defo buy some more. I'll be keen to try the Atlas one too to see how good it is. If it is anything like their RTR line of stuff it should be lovely. More on that another time.

And... Fans! And to demonstrate just how big it is, here she is beside a 181

Enjoy!

The sperry was in Inchicore on Thursday and Mallow (I think, Cork anyway) over the weekend. Was hoping to get a video of it but c'est la vie.

Sounds like it!

Stock move from Portlaoise Depot I believe.

Nope, they're leased like most other passenger stock in the UK. When the franchise ends they're transferred on to the new franchise holder.

All in good time! Will try to sort something tonight.

Looks super, well done!

Judging by the quotes at the bottom of the article you're probably right. Amazing the amount calling for re-nationalisation. I travelled London-Glasgow and back a few years ago and I wasn't overly impressed, especially with the Pendos. GNER were streets ahead from a customer point of view. Not much experience with FGW, but used First Capital Connect on a regular basis and they were okay for a cattle train.

I believe both, but maybe Dave could confirm?

Say goodbye to Virgin and hello to purple Pendos, First Group have won the WCML franchise http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/aug/15/virgin-trains-west-coast-mainline-firstgroup