murphaph

Super pics! Does anyone know how often the train ran? I'm guessing fairly frequently if Inchicore was refuelling all the locos departing out of Heuston. Or did they fill those large tanks in batches? I've just figured out that the building behind the A is not on Irish Rail property but facing onto Jamestown Road and that my late father used to buy stuff off the place that was in there.

That's interesting about the refuelling moving to Heuston in 2000 only. Prior to that did locos head to Inchicore between turns? Did the fuel oil tankers have those Alexandra road to Heuston markings prior to the refuelling moving to Heuston or did they say Alexandra road to Inchicore works or something else entirely?

Same seller selling what appears to be a third 112 lol. Each time they get a little dearer... https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/115159450980

Did the oil transfer train ever make regular trips to Inchicore Works? Were/are locos fuelled at Inchicore or more at Heuston?

The answer to both is presumably money. Freight trains tended to operate at night a lot back then, so they could squeeze a dual use out of the loco fleet by going push pull. Without money from government nothing was possible. The traction motors alone would have required government funding.

Would it really make any difference when the bogies themselves are so far apart? If all 4 left or right rail contacts are interrupted simultaneously then I would argue the problem is with the track. If a long co co (electrically a Bo Bo) stalls then what hope has a 0-4-0 on the same track?

That second one is no longer available, so likely sold for the €440 asking price. I am sure the new owner will treasure it. It almost makes me nervous taking mine out to run. If it falls to the floor it's irreplaceable to me as I couldn't justify the price of one.

Much appreciated PR, the second time was a charm for Amazon. Book delivered and every word read since then. When's the next one coming out lol? Jonathan, have you two ever considered a series of books based on era rather than location?

Doesn't always work unfortunately. The book on back scenes I ordered yesterday was only available from a UK source It will probably get stopped for VAT (7% VAT on books here).

Same seller. I see his logic. He had two bidders prepared to pay roughly 440 give or take a fiver. The losing bidder now gets a second bite at the cherry. Be interesting to see if a bid is placed at 440.

Frohe Weihnachten! (That's the young lad in front of the Lok)

Most customs/postal agencies seem to have the common sense to pad the CN number out to the local TARIC (for example 10 digits long in Ireland, 11 digits long in Germany, etc., clearly not a uniform EU standard) but An Post made a meal of it. Hopefully they have made some changes as returning masses of parcels that other countries' agencies have no problem delivering clearly wasn't sustainable. It is actually damaging to Ireland's international reputation.

Good post David. From my upstairs window here in Brandenburg looking out I see trees, neighbouring houses and directly above all that a grey sky and nothing else. It's entirely prototypical to have the sky completely dominate the backscene. In fact the terrain is so flat around here that even rolling hills would look odd.

112 in that configuration was on extended loan to IE though so it's got broader appeal. The loco got all over the IE network doing all the jobs any other 071 might do. I love the NIR stuff and thanks to specials, most of it has managed a visit fairly far south. I always thought there was something "exotic" about seeing NIR stuff at Connolly, probably because I grew up in Newcastle and was used to seeing nothing but supertrain and later tippex liveried stock from the top deck of the 68 passing Heuston. Seeing a blue 111 and white mk2's for the first time is something I still remember vividly.

That 112 finished at €438 + P&P. I suppose if you want something enough you'll pay for it! https://www.ebay.ie/itm/115143451606

By doing a google image search on that image Broithe, I found the following page which explains the maths behind it. It's an approximate method but for this application more than accurate enough I would have thought! That's really useful, thanks. https://www.themathdoctors.org/making-a-sphere-from-flat-material/ That should in theory be doable in hardboard or thin MDF. The curved sky approach has a very practical benefit for me too. I can set my scenery on the shelf above, forward of the back scene by the width of a hand so that I can get in to re-rail a derailed train on the hidden spiral. That would be much more difficult if the sky was flat to the Y plane and the back scene would likely need to be removable to rescue the train that will some day need rescuing, no matter how well I manage to build the track work.

I'm wondering could I make parallel cuts into the upper third or half of the hardboard or 2mm MDF to allow an overlapping bend and then apply filler and smooth down. I think the "infinite sky" effect is worth a lot of effort to be honest.

Me too. It looks like exactly the kind of book I'll need. Top tip.

That's a very nice idea. In my particular use case I'd need to source one with a radius of about 1m (because my hidden spiral track determines the minimum radius of the back scene as the spiral is to be behind the back scene). I may try to see can I round those curves with a smaller radius. I think the short wheel base and bogie stock would be fine with a slightly shorter wheelbase but I would some day like to run an 800 class. I'm sure such things are made for other purposes like play grounds and whatnot. I'll have to keep my eyes open.

Seems to have broken around that time so.

This guy ended up giving up on the corners when he faced the same problem : https://markpaulson.wordpress.com/2012/10/20/curving-the-sky/

I'm trying to work out an elegant way to have an infinite, curving sky in a shelf "shadow box" layout, but the corners of the room are problematic in my mind, as the curve would need to be in two axes, and hardboard etc. simply won't bend like that. The curves in the corners of my room will be fairly large radius, like 3' or so, but not so large that you'd be able to add a curve in the second axis. There's only so much work you can ask filler to do lol.

Yeah something is not working as it was for me too. I got the last email alert on the 7th of December for a PM from George. Broithe, your recent PM to me resulted in no email however. I just saw it by chance I guess.

You can also directly ask the seller what they will charge for shipping outside the GSP. Many will quote you a price but you're on your own with customs duties of course. I bought my last 141 in these circumstances. I pushed the boat out as it was the only outstanding tippex baby not in my possession. Otherwise I have avoided UK eBay sadly.

It's an interesting topic. I grew up looking out my bedroom window at the Dublin mountains. In reality from more than few miles away, they are not in sharp focus. They're blurry more often than not. The light refracts as it passes through different air densities, creating a blur, rather than clearly defined features. A back scene representing a distant range of hills mountains should therefore have this blurry quality. Most Irish themed layouts should be like this imo. Unless you're modelling Bray Head or something.