murphaph

Only if you have a deck. It's clearly not an overarching priority right now but they'll get there.

Nice one Jason. They look the business the way you've applied them.

Ah here, that's just unreal.

I have had success scraping the numbers off MM 071s with the sharp tip of a cocktail stick.

A side by side before and after of the buffer mod would be great if you haven't done them all yet!

Fabulous end result!

Interesting that IRM is listing the MM stuff on the projects page. Thanks for that. https://irishrailwaymodels.com/en-de/pages/projects

They look fabulous with the Hornby buffers. Great work!

I've never seen a 20' with a pair of double doors like that.

Absolutely! These are the things most people never photographed.

As my father often used to say, they are an acquired taste.

Very informattive stuff! Did these Cortaulds wagons get down south much?

Looking good! Can't wait to see the progress.

When was the last time a H van ran with the mail train?

Welcome Paul. Nothing embarrassing about that jumper. It's a great memory to have. I'm sure many of us wish we had more pictures of our childhood adventures. I reckon you'll pick up 007 in model form at some stage. They do come up as lads decide they are focusing on a particular era and let their other stuff go.

What a beauty!

I'm pretty sure @Garfield said that all the "ballast chassis" based models were complete with the release of the magnesite wagons.

You cannot currently buy 21mm wheelsets for either IRM or MM locos as far as I know, certainly not from the manufacturers as you can with Accurascale locos. You would need to either extend the axles with bushes or replace them entirely. The IRM bogies are not a plug and play replacement for the Cravens. At least some modification is required. The original bogies can of course be cut in half and a spacer installed to widen them. The IRM stock that is 21mm ready is trivial to regauge. Just use a wheel puller to ease the wheels out on the axles and get a back to back gauge to push them back in to. I believe at least some, maybe all of the SSM kits can be made in 21mm. The Provincial Wagons RTR models that I have are not really regaugable as they are based on GB models. I don't know if the kits are but @leslie10646 can answer that definitively for sure

Feel free to post pictures. I know you'll make them shine Jason!

So strictly speaking this is a rail based vehicle and not just any rail based vehicle, but the second heaviest movable work machine in the world, weighing in at a massive 13.5 k tonnes and the largest (by dimensions) vehicle of any kind ever built, with a length of over half a kilometre. I was blown away by the scale of it. This one is preserved and will likely be the only one of its kind that will be preserved. There is no call for multiple examples of these machines all within a fairly small radius of each other. This one was in fact supposed to be detonated and scrapped, but thankfully some local enthusiasts intervened and were able to save it. The purpose of the machine is to remove what is called the overburden (a word I learned today) which is the soil covering and preventing access to a natural resource such as (as in thic case) a coal seam. It is not used to mine the actual coal! This example was the youngest, being built around the time of the collapse of the GDR. It was only in service for about one year, before being retired. The coal mine it operated in produced fairly low grade lignite that was used solely for the production of briquettes and coke for the local steel industry. Both of these customer bases dried up almost immediately after the fall of the wall. Nobody wanted briquette fires when gas and oil heating became readily available. The steel plants closed along with so many others. We took the guided tour and walked around a mile from the start to the end! We entered the beast at the excavator end and walked all the way to the highest point at the tipping end. The soil was released from a sufficient height to ensure it self compacted on impact and could support the weight of the machine when it came time to slew the tracks over and excavate a new part of the mine. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overburden_Conveyor_Bridge_F60 All pics taken today in glorious autumn sunshine Excavator end. The large drum on the left used to transport the main power cable. The machine is entirely electric with over 700 wheels. View out towards the tipping end. Spoil was released from the arms left and right. The larger yellow box slung under the conveyor was the control room. The tipping end. In the foreground the workshops, canteen etc. which was also rail borne and followed the conveyor as it moved. The excavator end. Note the two excavators were removed and are working in other mines to this day. The excavators fed the conveyors reaching down from the bridge on these huge arms. The spoil was carried up to the main bridge deck and across the open cast pit, to be deposited by the tipping end. Drawing of the behemoth. The excavators (Bagger) are shown in the lower drawing. It's pretty high even at the excavator end! The walkways were adapted before tourists could access the machine. The miners did not have the luxury of almost solid decking. They had to look down through a metal grid. They also had simple handrails, without the extra plating. The yellow structure slung under the bridge and nearest to the camera is the computer! This thing was ultra modern in 1990 (for GDR standards anyway) but it still took a room to contain a fraction of the computing power we carry around in our pockets these days). View from the highest point at the tipping end. A good 74m above the ground. Above the open cast pit the height was actually higher but falling from any part of this machine would not have ended well! A picture of an F60 in operation with teh 2x Es 3750 excavators showing how it operated. In the open cast pit itself the coal was excavated with a separate machine, the SRs 1301 and the coal was transported out lengthways along the seam along a conveyor belt (Kohlebandanlage). View along the main axis towards the tipping end.At this point we descended the stairs and then continued towards the highest point along the right hand catwalk, returing on the catwalk on the left. Another view from the top. The lake began forming as soon as the pumps keeping the groundwater out were switched off in 1992. It took 10 years for the water to reach its current level. The area is now being developed for tourism. A panoramic view of the machine, which involved a long walk and setting my camera to panorama! No chance of taking a normal picture from within the site. The track slewing machine. The sleepers are hollow steel type, lighter than wood, which enabled this machine to pick them up and slew them over by 60cm. Close up of the "slweing head". It could be moved left ir right, depending on which way the main machine needed to go. Sketch of the track slewing machine. Locomotive used on site. Not exactly sure what role this had. The guide had left at this point so I couldn't ask unfortunately.

They claim they deliver duty unpaid (which would imply no UK VAT is applied): https://www.oxforddiecast.co.uk/pages/Eu-Customs-Information I'd be majorly peeved if they charged UK VAT!

Is shipping to Germany now free? My Hunslets are showing zero shipping cost.

Hi all, I have recently had enough requests privately to justify a re-run of my fert transfers. If anyone would like a pack, now would be the time to order. Here's a link to a longer description of what you get. Price remains the same as before. https://www.adverts.ie/models/irm-fertiliser-wagon-transfers/28690273 All the best, Phil

Yeah but most of us got our first train set as little boys and were hooked from then on.

How were the sound files created for these guys? Old recordings remastered? Class 20?