murphaph

That's what I have in my 141s and 121s (or the Lokpilot 59619 which is identical except no sound-useful in semi-permanent 121 consists maybe) Cheers for that

That's interesting. I hadn't planned on this mod as I found the 121s pretty good and much better than the other factory fitted speakers in older MM locos. But I have a dozen double iPhone speakers in an envelope. They were originally destined for my baby GMs but it sounds like (sorry!) I should try a set in a 121 for comparison.

I haven't committed to anything yet to be honest. I am a bit concerned about the "P4" (21mm) route as I don't fancy all the extra work that seems to be required to avoid derailments. I had originally only considered EM (21mm) because of the looser tolerances and the fact I am not bothered by deeper flanges etc. What I dislike about 00 is simply the space between the rails. It just looks off to me and I will be viewing my layout primarily from above so can't hide it. I think I will still go the EM (21mm) Can we call this TOM?? and just put in the extra effort on the conversions for an easier life later on.

I'd appreciate that!

Ah ok. I thought the tyre width of the P4 wheels was narrower than EM, therefore requiring less overall width, even though the back to back may be wider. I'm a bit confused lol.

Thanks very much folks. I am still minded to "make it work" as the 5'3" effect is just so cool. I think If I'm understanding things properly it looks like the ballasts need disassembling and shimming and then a bit of painting and weathering to cover the shims. I think I can do that. The bubbles seem to be able to take P4 wheelsets but would not be wide enough between the axle boxes to take "EM" wheelsets. Is that correct? If I use P4 wheelsets I assume I must be more accurate in my track building endeavours or is that a misapprehension? The ploughs seem to be the trickiest of all but also the least numerous (I only have the IR and IE sets).

@irishthump I'm just using the old files. You only hear the horn for a moment every now and then anyway. As you know by far the more important issue is the quality of the prime mover recording and sampled file as that is running the whole time. Might be worth looking through the ESU files for a suitable improvement though. That's a job for a rainy day if ever there was one!

Thanks for the tips so far guys. The NIL article suggests doing what I suspected might be required for the Ballasts: disassemble to kit of parts and insert plasticard shims into chassis. The bubbles look trickier and the plough vans the trickiest (though for me lowest priority). Any further insights are most welcome. I haven't finally committed to going down the 21mm path as I have a fair few of these wagons (2 gypsum rakes, one rake each of the original ballasts as well as the new IE and IR ones and iirc 27 bubbles.) Learning to make track by hand doesn't scare me as much as regauging tbh.

Sure. Fire me a PM @DiveController to remind me to send a file tomorrow.

Perhaps there's a thread already and I missed it. If so my apologies. I'm just wondering has anyone regauged the Ballasts, bubbles and plough to 21mm yet and if so can you report on your experiences or give any idea of how much effort we are talking to regauge several rakes of each. Cheers, Phil

€370 + P&P for a 112 anyone? https://m.ebay.ie/itm/Murphy-Models-Class-071-111-NIR-Blue-112-Pre-Owned-but-never-used/264981257321

So a 1% saving for you guys at home and a 1% "penalty" for me (German vat is normally 19% assuming it goes back up from the 16% Corona vat charged at present) Just a joke. I'll be quite happy if things just stay as they are when buying off them. Do they put a special sticker on the parcel to show to customs that it's vat paid or how does it work in practice? I've only ever heard about this but never experienced it myself.

Oh here's the screenshot from the stream:

Hattons livestream just a few minutes ago revealed that they are vat registered in several (but not all) EU countries including Ireland. This means that post brexit they will continue to charge vat at the point of sale and will presumably ship with a notification that the vat has been or will be paid to the Revenue. I have heard of this sort of setup with some Swiss online shops that charge German vat and the items arrive like other EU stuff in Germany with no interference by customs.

A nice gesture indeed. Reminds me of how my late father used to do business. All his customers got a bottle of whiskey, a box of chocs and a card at Xmas and we'd help wrap them. Don't worry lads I'm not expecting that. My old man only had a couple of dozen customers to worry about lol! I remember it was the only time of the year we'd be in a cash and carry with sweets in it! The IRM card brought back some nice memories for me personally and I know from talking to other customers it was much appreciated across the board. Merry Xmas and a happy and prosperous new year to all at IRM and all the forum members.

Hattons have finally charged me for my 121s in IE livery.

Are the wheeltappers projects based on his own recordings or the ESU files? I believe the MM chip sounds are derived from the ESU recordings of similar US locos but stand open to correction on that. The ESU files for these engines are very good quality HiFi recordings. I just used these files on blank decoders (using a Lokprogrammer) and swapped out the horns. They are full throttle projects (drive hold, Coast etc.).

You should be fine either way. Customs won't have anything to do with parcels going from GB to NI. At least not initially. They will be concerning themselves with lorries of food products not parcels of non-food stuff IMO.

That's bad news. I honestly thought these things would be long since delivered but what with Covid and now Brexit I'm wondering what the hell is going to happen. I see smaller Manchester based sellers on eBay have them. Rails have them. Hattons don't seem to have them. I hope they at least use some common sense and hold off on charging them to our credit cards until the 1st unless they can guarantee that they can get them shipped before the end of the year. I will be mightily annoyed if they charge my credit card on the 31st charging me UK VAT and then exporting them to me in Germany for German customs to stop them and slap another €100 VAT on them (and that would be in the Inc VAT + shipping price). If they have been let down on the supply side there's nothing they can do except use common sense and hold off on billing us in the EU until January and deduct the UK VAT at that time. I've tried asking them to confirm that they will do this but they seem unwilling to do so.

The comments on Hornby's tweet are also "interesting". It's all Hornby's fault according to certain people on there. They failed to prepare you see.

Trying out the 121s:

Lovely space. I hope the electrician is going to put an alarm on it

But the As at least had a fairly "orthodox" red/white-red/white configuration, right? The as delivered 121s seem to have had this "weird" red/white-white/white configuration and this seems to be reflected in the model, but how were these illuminated is the question. Where all three white lights on simultaneously? Given the As predate these locos and were fairly standard it seems a really odd departure. Wikipedia example of B126:

But looking at pics on the net there were twin twin arrangements too, but were they white/white on one side and if so were both these lights actually illuminated simultaneously? I think the 121s had a crazy mix of lighting arrangements. Many pics show a lamp on the lamp iron on that side with the white/white (assuming the model is correct) side. It looks like they standardised on the 141s and later 071s with red/white - white however, but the 121s seem to be a real Mish mash.

Did B121 really have this red/white white/white configuration and if so were the white/white lights both illuminated like that?