leslie10646

I've got back to work on the South end of "my" Portadown. The platforms need "planting" - ie a bit of ballast (a Black Art totally beyond me as you will see in a moment!), weedy grass round the back of the buildings, the barrow walk, water cranes and signals. First, I decided that the barrow walk needed fencing in, so I used a new toy to get bits of Ratio fencing together at right angles. I KNEW that these expensive magnet things would find a use! This where I was starting from. Last week, I did a part-barrow way and "sunk" the water crane in place - there should be one at the end of Platform One as well, but I think the slope of the roof will mean it will not be on my layout! Oh, a future job is to box the point motor in. ALL of mine are above board (unlike me!) because I found lying under the board to fix "invisible" ones just too much of a fag. Then I added the fence which you saw in the magnets, completed the barrow way, placed a concrete "pan" where the water crane should be on Platform one. Loads more to do like planting grass around that fence, finishing Platform One, then back to doubling the length of the water tower which appears earlier in this thread.

Thanks, Eoin. I send a query to John at Silver Fox as well and he replied impressively quickly. More recent BUTs from him come DCC-ready! He told me where to find the "ready" thingy and Lo and Behold - it was there ( under the "floor" in the centre of the power car). The nice man at Kernow selected a chip and had it DCC'd before you could say "Great Northern Railway" and a happy customer was in the car back to "Portadown Junction". I'll put up a video of the BUT set on the Dublin-based "Enterprise" when I've finished some "scenic" work (or my apology for it) at Portadown. Don't hold your breath! Thanks again!

Hi Darius Tongue firmly in cheek - TWO Lima motor bogies? That should pull twelve at 100mph .......

Yes, Darius, a nice model. As ever, well done. Sorry @Mike 84C but I don't have your enthusiasm for them. In 1967/1968 when returning to Belfast on holidays (or RPSI tours to be more precise), I would travel North from Euston on the Ulster Express (Class 40-hauled) but at Preston would detrain, walk over to one of the outer platforms to catch the Belfast Boat Express which had up fro Manchester and was waiting for the "Ulster" to overtake. Why? The "Boat Express" was hauled by a Carnforth Black Five and was a class act. It had an insanely fast schedule to Lancaster and the "Five" would roar out after the "Ulster" and fire would fill the night as it roared its seven coach train up into the high seventies, which it then held until braking for the Lancaster stop. One night, it was a Class 25 and it couldn't come close to the Black Five's level of performance. Mind you, the "Black Fives" were "something else" to use a modern term - one of the most brilliant designs ever.

Well done @mphoey. I would barely sell ONE Stevenson's container for €20, so you got the the second one AND the conflat for free! Very decent price for a built GN bus as well.

Thanks, @Broithe, for the piccies - you've reminded me that my Leek and Manifold history was £50 when I bought it - a beautiful volume. It's on ABE at £200 plus these days. Time I sold it! It HAS been read

Super display @James Regan - I was amazed to realise that the Pennsy GG1 (a very sexy electric) - even allowing for the fact that it is HO rather than 00 was just similar in size to a Brush 4! Was there a Pennsy K4s Pacific in the collection - I would have loved to have had a run behind one.

In "The County Down" there is an account of a guard who was in too much of a rush at Ballynahinch to put the coupled wagons at the front of the train and ended up in an embarrassing situation when they tried to stop the train at Ballynahinch Jct. @Patrick Davey could have re-enacted it on his first layout of the Junction! Ye Gods, I've just become aware that the vacuum-fitted version did NOT have builder's plates - COME ON IRM, that was poor. Even I did them on my kit!

As it was a gloriously sunny God-given day, I repaired to Goring. First to please the Canarian Container King: lots of imports in boxes! Enthusiastic horn play for the septuagenarian blonde standing behind me! A big file, but worth the look, I think. Full container load.mp4 AND, the reason for coming! Class 37 "Cerberus" (I think) hammering through with a train of pristine-looking Class 465s for scrapping by Simms of Newport. I could hear her well before she came in to view - but not so noisy passing through! 465s for scrap.mp4

Good plan, Joe. Walking before taking on a Marathon! You've got a vast railway room there. Good luck with the project. For @DJ Dangerous's benefit, I was shown a system at Bangor, where you feed in a few photos and out comes the item! The particular sample was a rare breed of sheep needed for a Cumbria-based layout, so you have to have the right make of Mark 7b Cumbrian Sheep, Copyright The Almighty. Scary. Maybe I'll get a VS at last? Excellent plan - I'm told that they run better outside the Box!!!! I had a pal in Hong Kong who owned 2,000 pieces of rolling stock - ALL IN BOXES!!!! Take a bow, Tony Lou!

Anyone done this? I have a power car to digitise, but I can't see how to get into it to attach the chip! Thanks in advance. There several on this forum, so someone must have done it? Regards Leslie

Yes! We are all brothers (sisters) now. Give us time, we'll be back in Europe.

Exactly right, David - "fickle" is an understatement. Richard McLachlan and I ran a IRRS stand at Warley for about twenty years, but well-known IRISH enthusiasts just walked by, not even a nod. We had our "regulars" which made it worth the bother and "Brits" who had a look because we were different. With my "commercial" hat on, modellers well known to me just walk past the PW stand as well - when it comes to hobbyists, tunnel vision is a common trait and people don't even glance at anything beyond their particular "thing'. With my "bookseller" hat on, how I wish I knew what people were likely to buy on any one day - it would have saved carrying half a ton of books in and out of endless shows over the last fifty five years. I'm as guilty - hence my snide comments about the narrow gauge, the infernal combustion engine (although this is real cant, as I have plenty of diesels on the layout), N gauge (except they are running big long trains which is what it's good for!), the list is endless.

Folks In case any of you are close to Reading on Wednesday night, I'm giving the above talk to the Reading Transport Group at 1930 Meetings are held on the first floor of Church House, Church Street, Caversham next to Waitrose. There is a small car park at the rear of the venue for 'blue disc' holders, additionally there is the Waitrose car parkat the rear of the St Martins precinct. The venue also has a lift to the first floor for those unable to use the stairs. Reading buses stop nearby, services 22,24,25,27 28 and 29 plus Thames Travel X39/40 from Woodcote. We open at 7.30 and usually commence at 7.45. This is the fourth of the talks created for the IRRS London and covers the 1961 All Ireland tour in extensio , along with IRRs tours, early RPSI tours. As always with Lance - superb photos, well composed of a scene never to be repeated. Should you come, be sure to say Hallo! Leslie

No shed is too big! It's just that lots of room means bankruptcy when you try and fill it! Remember - you can't take it with you!

Good luck with this, Josh. Having met you at Bangor, I know that I am old enough to be your grandfather (if you were, you could take over the loft railway when I am no more). When I was in my teens, I had a 12ft by 12ft bedroom. I drew up a plan to show that if my parents threw out my double bed and replaced it with bunk beds, I could get a 8ft x 4ft layout in the middle of the room. To their everlasting credit, they gave in to this and my first "GNR" layout was built there. The only survivor from it is the "F" Railcar set made from balsa wood by the late Dennis Grimshaw - which still is just about able to turn a wheel - I should re-motor bogie it! Like everyone else, I was repainting Hornby coaches in blue and cream and re-lettering wagons! Now you have so much to choose from - all you need is a large pile of money - so work hard, young man!

Brother, that is truly remarkable for a "First effort". You'll soon be challenging for the "Top Spot" here if you keep this up!

Hi Bob, It's with the North Down guys for use on their "Antrim" layout, to run with your Sentinel. Strong hint, NDMRC - can we have the layout at Bangor 2026, please?

What's the use of me paying a fortune to Dapol to do the Millihgen wagon in RED, only for you to make it grey? Of course, no one can say what the colour was exactly, but John Harcourt, of the famous coal family who took over Milligen's , told me that they were red, as, I am pretty certain, did Des Coakham. Photos of them made hen's teeth look plentiful! As for the East Down wagons: when the railway closed, some of them were bought by a Dundalk coal merchant, LOCKINGTON. Hence them being seen in Dundalk docks. Whether Lockingtons dolled up wagons with their own livery has not come to light - but if someone can produce a photo, I'll have it out as a RTR wagon before you can blink. There ARE Lockington wagons on the MRSI's "Dundalk Works" layout, but the Mastermind behind the dioramas on the layout, (Please someone remind of his name and I'll edit this!) told me that the lettering he used was made-up! Des Coakham's article is in IRRS Journal Vol 12 pages 151 and 152. It suggests that the EDSS wagons were to be found around the docks in Dundalk -= no suggestion of them straying. He also comments that they were around until about 1963. In the article, Des has mis-spelt the company name as MilligAn, but the photographs I have clearly show "MilligEn". Regarding @jhb171achill's comment, the Courtauld's wagons were railway owned. The famous factory served by them dates from late 1940s/early 1950s, by which time PO wagons had been phased out on BR (who were busily replacing the thousands of wrecks they inherited by the new and more reliable wagons), so the UTA would simply have used their own. When I did a model of one, it was one of the several hundred reconditioned by the UTA in the early 1960s. No sooner had they gone into service, but the UTA lost the rail contract!

Lots more Irish stuff on eBay including several of my wagons at amusing prices. Put "Irish Wagon" into the search! One example was https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/285295734748?_skw=irish+wagon&itmmeta=01JSP8B5W9490X4NFS5BA1SHE2&hash=item426cf36fdc:g:An0AAOSwnm5kalQN&itmprp=enc%3AAQAKAAAA8FkggFvd1GGDu0w3yXCmi1fapxH5NJxkJMYPMtalU66hoHlA%2F36oxhAYMpc8vK8aTnfN7b%2FbfwxBfIVDLmmzMH3K4XXbL%2FHvTYQpMesp7fPuPh9fkDEb87V3115MRF2xvbXThhKv1FS5pNOt3zg6Zj05NoeRAXIQKmw%2B7PJVLJDQIyrBY47zbWXP6XJLwxofQCIuVacbknZkESQieLXTFdVbJ5zcHuI3JMGglxK8dDM9woW%2BYjo4NQYk7W07tvpUFia3%2FXR98B7PSEniCi0rTifYmpm4elr57uPfrtCx3LFPjsnAWwAlCb0DwqaDFnTFCw%3D%3D|tkp%3ABk9SR6jerMjNZQ I sold a couple of second hand ones of these at Bangor for a tenner each ......

You could get a job at Pendon! Great detail.

A really great layout, Nelson and family! Congratulations. Now, to show you the trains which were synonymous with the Stanmore Line - double headed BR standard 4-6-0s - here a Class 3 and a Class 4. IMG_1615.mp4 Also a less usual vehicle (one of the earliest attempts at non-steam) with one of Richard McLachlan's NER coaches as a trailer - crossing a.n "in use" cattle creep:

And now, especially for @DJ Dangerous, a nice long, fully filled container train with plenty of variety, including demountable tanks, pocket wagons, 20ft and 40ft - what more could you ask? IMG_1672 2.mp4

Maundy Thursday at Goring: some interesting light engine moves! The King may have been giving pieces of silver to 76 of his subjects, but the railways were treating the enthusiasts! We decided that rather and go for a healthy walk we'd have a picnic lunch in the sun at Goring and film whatever came by! First a pair of Class 73 Electro Diesels (dating from the 1960s) on a trial (I think) from Ashford to Didcot! Drivers will hoot enthusiastically at Blondes waving to them - even blondes of a retirement age! IMG_1673.mp4 I then moved to the sunny side to catch the return, only to be surprised by this! Are you making this one, lads? Awful livery! Note that Linda has her notebook with her! IMG_1674.mp4 And then the Class 73s returning. Move excessive horns! IMG_1675.mp4

I'm afraid the I dodged the Walk of Witness today to allow me to get to the Royal Albert Hall for the 149th Annual Good Friday performance of The Messiah. First performance was in DUBLIN in 1742 An Irish tenor among the soloists - the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra accompanied the Royal Choral Society who were on brilliant form - they raised the roof for all the "good bits". Despite a very cosmopolitan audience, 5,000 rose as one for the Hallelujah Chorus (they'd read about King George doing the same in the mid 1700s) and needed no cue! The rendering was marvellous. So, what's the railway angle? On the way home, we found the GWR Paddington Band performing on the Lawn at Paddington. What's more, they were playing a bit of Ralph Vaughan Williams when I was taking this photo! We ended up running for the Didcot semi-fast with no less than a TWELVE car Class 387 (so preferable to the ghastly "IET" trains). Once out of the London area, we shot up to the Class's maximum speed of 110mph. These trains are honorary Irish as the GWR green livery is very similar to the RPSI and UTA green liveries. Accurascale are doing the Electrostars, which include these Class 387 - but NOT yet, it appears. One would look lovely in a future Portadown?