murphaph

Me neither. In summary, many eBay UK sellers simply don't and never did offer shipping outside the UK. I feel that the eBay GSP is largely responsible for this. Some sellers would ship to Ireland if asked nicely but for those that wouldn't, parcel motel type redirection services were fantastic. I used parcelwizard. It was a very reasonable €3.75 per redirected item. They've left the market because of Brexit. Only An Post are still offering such a service currently, at almost twice the price. And who knows how well it's working. I reckon a lot of people are getting nasty surprises where used eBay items arrive without so much as a declared price and customs are estimating values.

I think 2f is actually closer but externally I'm not sure if there was much of a difference.

The mk2d's were also vacuum braked. Only the second hand mk2a's etc. acquired used in '89 or thereabouts were air braked. The original AC stock delivered from BREL was vacuum braked though.

It may have been posted before but I found an interesting video from Tom Tuohy on YouTube. It seems to show ECS mk2d's being taken in a short train of older stock. I can't quite make the loco out.

Reviving this rather than starting a new thread. Did these wagons make it down south? If so, what's the furthest the got?

Personally I've never seen an NEM 652 (8 pin) decoder with the plug directly attached. Maybe they exist though.

In real life this thing is much bigger than any that existed in Ireland I reckon (though I stand to be corrected on that): https://images.app.goo.gl/i3waRz8TemspSjNc9 Just so you know. Even at 1:87 it must still be a substantial model.

If you buy a function decoder as opposed to a loco decoder then you'll be grand. For example the 54620 on this page: http://www.esu.eu/en/products/lokpilot/lokpilot-fx-v40/ These are specially made for these sorts of lighting only applications.

Be aware that some loco decoders can't be programmed unless there's some resistance where the motor should be as they use the back emf to generate the ack pulses. That's why most locos can be seen moving a tiny bit during programming. It's certainly the case with the standard Lokpilots. I found out when installing one in a dummy power car to control the lighting.

Great stuff. I hope my lad is still as interested as Adam in a couple of years!

Thx David. Many years of construction ahead of me though!

I can live with 2'6" radius helixes and curves I think. My space is a rectangular room exactly 9.5m x 3.12m (bit over 31' x 10') with a door exactly centred along one of the long walls and window sill height is 1.45m (it's a basement room, windows are up near the ceiling). I will need to cleverly plan access to the helix in case of derailments. I think I will have to just have one helix with a lift out bridge or bridges across the door. Originally I had planned two helixes but I think they would completely dominate the room at 5' diameter. I may need to scale back my original plans to accommodate 21mm but I'm happy to do that. The gauge is more important to me than the length of track I can get into the room.

Thanks for your further feedback guys. I've had some feedback from the S4 society (I emailed both societies to see what sort of stores items they have for 21mm) and as a result of that I've joined that society. I may also join the EMGS, depending on what they say, if and when they respond to my enquiry. The S4 society has the following stores items (only) relevant to 21mm. They have plenty of other stuff like consumables that can be used by 21mm modellers as well of course: Track gauge, Type 'A', Rollergauge - 5' 3" Gauge (21 mm) Track gauge, triangular, for automatic gauge widening - 5' 3" gauge (21 mm) Roger Sander's 'Mint' gauge for fine tuning pointwork - 5' 3" gauge (21 mm) 28mm pin-point Axle, suitable for Irish Prototype, intended for coach and wagon wheels Brook Smith wheel back-to-back gauge, boxed, for 5' 3" gauge I think most of those can be of use even on an EM layout, certainly items 1,2,4 are of use and I may be able to get someone to take a bit off the BB gauge to bring it in to 19.3mm if the EM society don't have one. I know I can use a vernier here but a proper BB gauge seems like it might also make getting the wheels on square that bit easier? Brendan, when you say you wouldn't use the same method again, why is that? How would you regauge a Craven now, given your experiences? I have a lot of Cravens to regauge but little steps!

John, a couple of questions if I may... What are the black dots at the end of the plastikard "torsion bar" stretcher? Some sort or rivet? Or how is it held on to the severed half of the plastic bogie? Also, the brass etches you've made yourself, can the MJT ones be used instead? Is there a reason why you didn't split the original MM Cravens bogies and regauge those using plastikard? I've also read something about Bill Bedford bogies. Any information on those wrt 21mm? I'm thinking I may go the "middle way" and use the 21mm EM. I like the idea of 00 tolerances on my diesel stock but what if I want to add a kit built steam loco or two later on and I've built a helix to a too tight radius for any slightly longer steam engine to get around. I'm thinking it would be safer to bite the bullet now and re-wheel my RTR stock with EM profile wheels and accept that I need larger curve radii on Helixes and curves in general. Cheers, Phil

I'm not sure but like Jonathan I haven't noticed any issues on any other sites. It's not something that makes the site unusable or anything but it is noticeable.

Thanks guys. Yeah the correct width bogies especially highlight how off the H0 track gauge is. What's the consensus on replacement bogies on Murphy Models coaching stock by the way? I found an old thread in which MJT compensated ones were recommended but another on rmweb in which they were criticised.

I'm not sure but I also notice issues when I click on images to view the larger version. Also experience page timeouts from time to time.

Hi David. I was considering Peco code 75 FB as that's available locally here in Germany. Would you advise against it?

Rice recommends simply scratching the sleepers lengthways with a rough grit sandpaper to get a "grain", but IIRC says it's really not required. Again, at 2' in 4mm scale I can't believe you'd see the grain of old station area sleepers. I remember reading somewhere once that in reality wooden sleepers don't even look like wood after a short while in service. They get bleached by the sun and covered in oil and can be any colour from black to light grey.

Thanks for the confirmation all the same, odd as that may sound! I actually makes it easier just to plough on ahead without wondering "what if IRM do decide to release 21mm track next year". I guess Stephen's poll on the matter threw me a bit

Thanks very much folks and also to those who reached out via PM. It's much appreciated. Interestingly I was sitting on a spec of sorts all along. In the appendices of "Modelling Irish Railways" there is a table of three specs, adapted to 21mm gauge (OO, EM and P4). I never noticed this before. The EMGS one looks very close to yours John. The only difference being: WCG: 19.95mm (JM) vs 20.05mm EMGS Manual Otherwise they appear identical and what's 0.1mm between friends (probably a lot here lol) I don't want to scan the page in as it's copyrighted. I'm glad we touched a bit on OO standards for 21mm. I had almost not considered the idea or had considered it but didn't realises I was doing so (by hoping to just push the existing wheels on many of my models onto new 28mm axles. What is the disadvantage of OO 21mm compared with EMGS 21mm, apart from the look of the wider tyres of the NMRA 110 wheels? I know that LJ is a big undertaking for sure, but it is not planned to be done very quickly. I will try to do it in modules so I can enjoy running some stuff as I go. I will start with the long straights away from the station area to get practice in. However it will take several years to complete. I just don't want to look back and regret not doing it in the correct scale track gauge later. Who knows, maybe IRM will release 21mm flextrack and simple points to take the heavy lifting out of much of it. Just a quick note on the concrete sleepers. I was hoping to simply use copper clad strips for the whole layout and then "over" ballast the "CWR" sections as often seemed to be the case in Ireland, almost submerging the sleepers out of view, then in station areas lightly ballast so it looks like timbers with spiked FB rail. I think at 4mm scale the spikes would be invisible at 2' anyway so no need to really do anything by way of rail fixings

I'm going to start ordering stuff to get a start on this. I managed to find a copy of Iain Rice's pragmatic PCB track book. I think this is the perfect method for me (he said with absolutely no experience) for most of my planned layout. I'm thinking for a mid 90s Limerick Junction layout I can use FB rail on PCB with heavy ballasting to represent the CWR of the mainline. I would start with that as I believe it's easier. So, I need to know would I need 8'6" or 9' concrete sleepers for the mainline CWR in this area? What code of FB rail is most appropriate to represent the weight of rail used here? I really want to settle on the spec (not just gauge) and I'm confused. I don't want to build to an arbitrary gauge that "works for me" but excludes the possibility of guest stock running on my layout. Is there a documented spec anywhere? I do not want to model to P4 standards. I can't be bothered with compensation etc. The chosen spec needs to allow reliable running without compensation. Does this only leave the "Irish EM" spec (20.2mm)? Or is there another spec that retains the 21mm but without the tightness of P4?

I expect the answer is 'no' but did these ever get out of the factories onto the mainline at all?

I wonder would Hornby do the CSE livery themselves at some stage. I wonder are they even aware of the possibility. Easy win for them if they are releasing the model anyway. The Irish market is seemingly booming.

What was different with respect to coupling the swapped in/out Craven between the loco and Mk2d EGV as compared to simply attaching to the rear of the train? Did the EGV have different couplings than the passenger coaches?