murphaph

I never noticed that but once you see it you can't unsee it lol.

How many editions were there of the Doyle & Hirsch rolling stock book? I count three, up to Irish Rail in 1987. Was there a fourth covering IE?

I wonder how strict customs will be on the 1st of January. I can imagine they might show some degree of leniency and wave through parcels postmarked December and only start stopping stuff actually posted from the first. It's important because the postal system will choke up straight away due to the amount of UK->IRL parcels that currently go through virtually no customs processing. Parcels posted second class before the end of the year could easily get stuck behind parcels posted later.

Ah ok I forgot about the handling fee as it's only like a fiver here in Germany with DHL and as I use the Hattons trunk service I don't get hit with multiple parcels. I put anything I want into the trunk and pull the trigger on shipping it all when I think it's worth it. I can see how given your constellation things look decidedly different. I am more concerned about the really small bits and bobs I pick up on eBay. Many or even most UK sellers I buy from seem to only ship to UK addresses. That's ok as at present I use parcel wizard to forward on to Dublin for eventual collection when I'm visiting but I have a nasty feeling that parcelwizard and parcel motel etc. will not be able to forward anything anymore as they would be responsible for the customs stuff and as they have no idea what's in the parcels they can't do that.

Ah yes of course, delays can be expected I'm sure. At best a FTA will be agreed but the UK will almost certainly leave the customs union and EU vat area from the 1st unfortunately Will IRM continue to ship from the UK to EU customers, at least initially?

There's no duty on model railway items so in theory a pre-order with a UK retailer might face delays but the goods should be delivered with no increase in cost, vat rate difference aside.

Looks a bit like Donald Trump in a straitjacket.

Is PM a (amazing) one man band? Is there anybody else involved in the business who can carry it on when the great man does decide it's time to retire?

Just by chance I discovered I have one of these lying around. I had a look at the inside and yeah it would be a nightmare to respray. The whole side panel of the coach is the glazing plastic just painted where the steel if the coach should be. I was hoping to use this as a practice coach but I won't bother. I have cheap Lima mk2s on the way for my first forays into respraying.

From when were these Dana ones seen on the network?

I'm pretty sure the Lokprogrammer has the option to select defective/flickering light as the effect type. I really like cab lights. With automation of the layout you can periodically switch them on at random stations as the driver makes his tea or reads the paper. No smartphones or Kindles in 1995 lol.

First attempts at a building, the tiny and free coal merchant one. My first attempt was not a success. I made errors in the assembly through carelessness and poor lighting (just working at the kitchen table). The second attempt in progress...

For some reason Noel's pic of Bray main Street looks very English to me. I can't quite put my finger on why though. Lack of ESB poles cluttering up the place maybe?

There's also a model shop in Kildare Town. If you draw a line from Cork to Belfast, is there a single model shop west of it?

It's relatively straightforward to install a resistor in series with cab lights to dim them right down to realistic levels.

RIP Aidan. Deepest sympathies to his family. I've also enjoyed the atmospheric quality of Aidan's work here.

Given the level of attention to detail I'm assuming MM considered cab lighting but didn't install it for some practical reason. It would be interesting to hear that story. Is it possible the decoder outputs are maxed out with the other lighting features?

Are there no cab lights to help see all this detail?

I think a high quality, well laid out and easy to use online store has a far better chance of success and if it fails you will have invested far less in it. If you can establish yourself online you could look at opening a physical location later on in an industrial estate where rent and rates would be far more affordable than a high street, which is where you'd need to be if you started off with a bricks and mortar store, depending on passing trade. The Mark's Models model, so to speak. Ok they started with physical locations but their HQ is on an industrial estate and I bet they shift more online than over the counter and their online shop could be improved upon (see IRM's shop for comparison). I wish Ireland had the market to sustain a model shop in every provincial town but modelling just isn't that popular anymore in Ireland (or anywhere really). Covid has given it a boost but how fleeting that is remains to be seen. Anyway I wish you luck in whatever you do. It's easy to criticise and be negative but it's better than everyone here saying "yeah great idea" when in reality they may not even live in Ireland nevermind Carlow! I live in Germany for example. Many of the posters here on this forum are not in Ireland at all so please bear that in mind also.

How were the poles actually handled? Can someone explain the steps of the process from standing pole to "chopped up pole"? I mean I presume other machinery was involved or did they fell them with chainsaws, cutting up lineside and using manual labour to load into the wagons?

I can't comment too much on commercial systems as my experience is with home brew open source DCC modules that you solder together yourself. Others will have tips there I'm sure. For the bus wire gauge you should bear in mind that a single DCC controller with inbuilt booster will be able to deliver a limited amount of current. On a small layout or one with few locos this could be sufficient. On medium and larger layouts you'll typically need additional boosters which simply amplify the DCC signal and provide more power. Therefore I suggest using cable with at least as much current carrying capacity (preferably a bit more for safety's sake) as your controller and or boosters can provide. I wouldn't skimp on it but I wouldn't overdo it either. The reversing loop length needs to fully accommodate your longest train for physical rather than electrical reasons. The tail of the train has to be fully inside the loop before the head of the train can begin exiting the loop or the head of the train will collide with its own train further back. I guess DC layouts also need reversing modules in reversing loops as the same problem with a clash of polarities must exist there. There are other digital command control like protocols on the market so care is required when ordering say decoders that you don't inadvertently order one that is incompatible with your chosen system, which IMO should definitely be the DCC as defined by the NMRA. If you buy decoders from IRM or MM they conform to this standard. Motorola makes a competing standard called mfx which I believe is similar to what Märklin use. Some high end decoders like the Lokpilot 5 or Loksound 5 from ESU are multiprotocol decoders. They can be configured to respond to any of the protocols. If you go for NMRA DCC which you definitely should you can save some money on decoders by buying the DCC only version. ESU for example make the Lokpilot 5 in DCC only and it's a bit cheaper. You just need to be careful not to order a decoder marked mfx or mkl for example on the ESU site. I'm not very familiar with other manufacturers apart from Lenz.

Is that image of ballast in a gypsum wagon from after the gypsum traffic ceased? I assume so but would be nice to know for sure.

Just be careful with the isolation of the programming track if it is contiguous with the main track. If you are not careful and park a loco so that the loco's wheels bridge the isolation between programming and main track, you can inadvertently program all your locos on the main track. If doing this it would be very good practice to isolate the two sections with a short completely dead section that's as least as long as needs be to ensure a loco can't bridge the two sections under any circumstances.

Id'd love a bit of background. I have no idea what these are but they look interesting.

I feel DJ has praised me well beyond my abilities deserve but here's my $0.02 nevertheless: Personally I would advise anyone building from scratch to use a bus of appropriate wire gauge, to divide the track up into signalling blocks just in case later you do decide to add some automation and to run droppers to each block, soldering the fishplates within blocks to have no potential points of failure. This doesn't cost anything except a bit of wire and some time. This isn't "complicated". It's still just two wires but it's going to be more reliable and future proof. In DCC you theoretically don't need electrofrog points as the whole layout is receiving the same DCC feed, but many DCC folks do still install electrofrog points (and the associated switchgear to change the frog polarity) for one reason: better slow speed running of short locos with limited pickups over the points. The insulfrog is a dead spot so an 0-4-0 with one dodgy pickup can easily stall at prototypical speeds. An alternative could be to use beefy capacitors as a "battery" to keep the loco alive. All personal choice. In the hidden areas you can typically get away with insulfrog coupled with simply going faster over the points to use momentum to carry the loco over any dead spots. These aren't really DCC issues though. An insulfrog point in a DC layout can cause the same problems though DCC usually offers better slow speed running than DC so the problem might only manifest itself because DCC is better in this regard. The takeaway is that DCC wiring is simpler (on more complicated layouts) or at least as simple (on very simple layouts) as DC and IMO the benefits are clear. You are driving the train and not the track. It's just way more realistic.