murphaph

I have had the pleasure of buying from several one man band operations (some of whom are members here) and so far only DC Kits have let me down like this. What can I say? It's my honest experience of dealing with him. You can't operate an online shop and then ignore emails! The one goes hand in hand with the other. I've also bought from Marcway (Sheffield) and Roads and Rails (Leeds) without any problems whatsoever. In my case it was very simple. I ordered and paid for x and I got y and it stayed like that, without resolution and with him keeping my money. Perhaps he deals differently with those of us outside the UK as he never expects to meet us face to face at an exhibition or whatever. No idea, but it was the last time I'll order anything off him. If he had sold out of x, that's all he had to say.

I feel a bit guilty that I didn't warn others on here last year after my own bad experience with them but I guess you don't want to be too hard in case there are "mitigating circumstances" but it seems my case of dreadful customer service was not isolated. I guess this thread can act as warning. Caveat emptor most definitely applies here.

Are you looking for "definitely appeared as a billboard ad" stuff or just "ads from the period that may have also been on billboards"? If the latter, I got to thinking and remembered the old Callcards had advertising on them and they are more or less in the correct proportions. With a small bit of editing the chips can be removed from most of them I feel: https://www.irishcallcards.net/callcards-gallery?orderBy=card_no&orderHow=asc&limit=0&categories=telecom-eireann-callcards%2C I would be surprised if many of these didn't also appear as is on billboards given the almost identical aspect ratio. UK cards would provide a much wider source of "generic" ads with no specific Irish connection of course. UK cards are less work as they had no chip. Sometimes these cards had a reverse that requires no photoshopping skills at all: https://colnect.com/en/phonecards/phonecard/9706-Hudson_Blue-Chip_Cards_-_Series_A_Advertising_Cards-Eircom_Telecom_Éireann-Ireland

Same. He had a couple of things I was interested in a while back but I didn't proceed. He's lost me as a customer forever.

I have experienced appalling customer service from him I'm afraid and I don't say that lightly. He sent me several incorrect containers last year and never responded to my emails seeking a resolution. I still have the containers and have no use for them. He sent incorrect containers to another member here and also ignored his mails. That member physically returned the containers and requested a refund and never got the refund or even a response. Dreadful. Steer well clear would be my advice. I hope your stuff shows up.

The pics just don't do the silver ones justice IMO. The colour looks far far better in real life. I got A30 from Mark's and had it hand delivered by the mother, who "conveniently" lives around the corner from them lol.

Thanks for the clarification JB. I have much to learn!

Anyone know what year the last of the fallen flag B&Is were seen before they started painting out the logos?

That's interesting about 135. Usually it's ex passenger stock that gets rebuilt as permanent way stock. I think that's the first time I've ever heard of it being done the other way around.

And a final update for a while.... I picked up some very good quality (really solid and heavy) ex office furniture in great nick for a pittance from a guy not 750m from my house. These desks and cabinets will serve as my modelling workbench for the foreseeable future. Total length is 3.6m so plenty of room for "parallel projects" lol. They are narrow enough that they won't interfere with building the layout around the perimeter walls hopefully. Eventually I may dispose of one of the desks but the little roller filing cabinets are actually super for paints and the suspended file drawer could be used for card, styrene sheets etc.

Just as a follow up. I have since ordered stuff from here 3 times. No complaints so far.

Kadees are pretty close to coupled buck eyes as found on the Mk2/3 stock too.

Very impressed with the boxcars especially. The rusty roof in particular is excellent.

There's also the Keen Sytems take on the Symoba product. It's not as small, but it's a good deal cheaper IIRC: https://www.petersspares.com/keen-systems-ccs4-close-coupling-system-4-pair.ir No idea if it would fit under a brake van though. Might be too big. I bought a few for Lima conversions that will probably never happen now that IRM is releasing mk2b/c stock over the coming years. As I have not fitted them to anything I can't say if they are any use.

That was quick. Mine will have to run the customs gauntlet coming out of GB. Might get lucky though as books seem to slip through the letter post system rather than be handled as parcels.

When did the molasses traffic cease?

Hi Robert, I have thought an awful lot about what I want from a layout and changed my mind several times along the way. When the room was originally planned it was ca. 2015 and I have never really seriously considered modelling Irish outline at that stage due to the dearth of readily available RTR stock. I was likely going to go with an N scale US or German layout but well, when I heard about IRM etc. I changed my mind, even though I knew I would get considerably less trackage in the room in 1:76. It's definitely worth it to be able to model something closer to my heart. So then I had to decide what sort of layout I can get in 1:76 in that room, that still gives me what I most wanted from the original. That is long mainline sections, running scale length trains at prototypical speeds. I came to the conclusion that I would need to have the layout use the maximum dimensions of the room to come close to achieving those main goals. I also want to be able to sit at a modelling bench and do some modelling while my trains are running in the background. If I used the middle of the room rather than the perimeter, I feel that would require sacrificing too much layout to achieve. I am fairly sure I cannot do a walk around without a bridge/duckunder (I plan an elaborate welded steel multi-level bridge, how successful it will be in practice remains to be seen!) because in 21mm I cannot do a 180° turn at the end of any peninsula due to minimum radius not being met. This was something I seriously considered as I am a big fan of the typical US basement empire, but they usually have three times the space I have or more. I also have to consider how many modelling years I have available to me. I want to start something I know I can finish and the cameo layout design really appeals to me. I love the idea of the trains being the actors on the stage. The door shouldn't hit anyone if opened the other way. It's the basement landing. The other side of the door looks like this:

Tiled now. I was able to salvage about a third of the tiles used from a previous miscalculation. They still make these "utility room tiles" and they're cheap so I ordered more and although there is a slight colour and size difference, I think I got away with it. Most of the floor will vanish under the layout anyway. The tiles are 30 * 30 cm to give the room some scale. No baby GMs were hurt in the making of this photoshoot: I wish I could just let rip on building the layout but for now it's still "shared space", though I will be more selective about what non-railway stuff can reside here. For example my tiling tools won't be needed again any time soon, so they can go into the attic for now. I'm giving serious consideration to reversing the door so it opens outwards. I didn't give enough thought to it when I hung the doors in the basement. Bit of a faff reversing German doors as they are surrounded by expanding foam and this needs cutting away to free the frame.

What a pic. Could almost be a model.

Did the Suburban liveried 80's ever make it out on the GSW at all?

If you plan to model the era in question at some stage then sure, buy whatever is available when it comes out

I understood the planned batch of 201's only includes the logo shown below on the green & silver model. That logo is much later isn't it? Or have I got my wires crossed and there are earlier logos planned in the upcoming release?

I shall keep an eye open for it. The GSW stuff is more interesting to me as I intend modelling the GSW mainline but I guess GNR stock made it to Inchicore at least occasionally. When was Dundalk works closed actually?

Would the 201's being released by MM next have hauled mk3's? (apart from enterprise EGV's) Are they not all too late livery wise? I'd keep my powder dry there and wait for the inevitable 071 release. Current demand says they would sell well. I have all the 90's MM ones but I'd buy more if someone was to produce them again.

Thanks for the tip chaps! Copy ordered. Rare to get a book for so little money. I've also recently purchased the following but I'm yet to start reading them: