leslie10646

Ivor, you have lost none of your skills since you built my AEC and BUT sets while I was in Hong Kong in the late 1990s. While I was there, Daniel Wu, an interior decorator who liked building kits, built my No.171 and 172 from SSM kits. I'll post them here when I find where they are! To date, they've cost me over £500 each and I challenge anyone to decide which of us got the better bargain? Delighted to see you posting here again. Keep it up!

You won't be giving me "Likes" after you read my next entry as to why a sound-fitted loco needs to be dismantled to set witches before it will move ........ Furious of Frimley

Accurascale had a "Wheel of Fortune" on their website last week. So, I spun it. 30% off, so I bought this ....... Don't they pack things well? And in the bottom was this ...... I'll give it a run tomorrow. By the way, thanks, lads, for the nice big box and packing material - it'll keep Provincial Wagons in packaging for a month!

I'm sure that the IRRS will forgive me giving outsiders a free view of this - a collection of gradient posts and mileposts off the Valencia line as taken by the late David Soggee. Copyright IRRS, David Soggee collection

Of course I condemn this appalling desecration of the NCC by a foreign loco, but of course there were thousands of Yanks in Northern Ireland training prior to Operation Torch in North Africa - did you know that they sailed direct from NI to Algeria? To be shot at and killed by the French! It's a wonder that they didn't regauge a few of these to run in Ireland, they'd have been useful! Your cameo would just about work for 1943, the period I am referring to. The first one was built in 1942. As for desecration, I have posted my Bavarian 0-8-8-0 Mallet tank shunting at Portadown Jct - at least it was BLUE and your S160 is a passable NCC red! Why not go the whole hog and letter it NCC and number it 111, or so?

Very commendable, Darius. You're obviously staying in out of the sun! How did you remove all those little boxes on each side of the bonnet - it looks like the sort of surgery I would run away from and just sloosh black paint over the standard 08 and apply a few transfers. Rather you than me! Compliments!

Yes, I thought that I'd never find myself supporting Spain. Now, the Play-off for Third was one of the best examples of attacking football I've ever enjoyed. When England were 4-0 up at half time, I thought that France had given us a four goal start - you can imagine how i felt when they quickly got two goals to make it 4-2! Mind you, England badly need a back line - a pity (for England) that Conor Bradley is Irish! To complete the 6-4 win involved Bellingham giving the ball to wee Saka (one of several Christians in this England team) to take the penalty, as he was on a hat trick - yet Bellingham if he'd scored would have become the highest scoring England World Cup player ever. Saka got his hat trick and minutes later, Bellingham scored a beauty and realised his goal (pun intended).. All part of the Great Eternal Plan - things work out! There is a God, no question about it. How many of you noticed the Christians on BOTH sides come together in prayer at the end of the match?

Are you certain that they are not all pseudonyms used by King Donald? ----------------------- My 4DD is no better than Brendan's, same bogie derails on the same point - I COULDN'T loosen the screw - mind you I was afraid of breaking something. Mine was bought for the Cabinet, so less of an issue and at least the SR green pones don't seem to have gone cheap. However, the Leader ....... Is going at half price in all liveries, so if you want a pseudo Turf Burner to sit in a siding - it's under a hundred quid. Mine was fine and pulls twenty of the Boys nice wagons with ease - I can only report what I found - I've never tried the lights .......... @Darius43 - is the sound worth having?

Commiserations, David, on what must have been a very trying few days. I hope that a solution comes up. You mentioned your 40 year old H&M Clipper. I still use my SIXTY year old H&M Powermaster with its sliding rheostat taped off (I think I simply lost the knob!) to run either G scale or Rosses Bay. DCC can be a pain, but generally it has worked quite well on Portadown Jct. I wish I could successfully work the Factory reset on my Digitrax! When things go haywire, I take the old-fashioned computer man's solution and switch everything off and on again! Good luck - you deserve it.

Yes, Paul, what a remarkable place to make a layout of - it would take up an impressive amount of space with its sweeping curves and dealing with THREE entrances / exits, more or less at right angles. A challenge for someone with a very large house? The late Norman Johnston and Charls Friel gave it ten pages in their brilliant book Fermanagh's Railways in Colour. COLOUR photographs of it should appear in a forthcoming book. A couple of years ago you could have bought the building for under £200,000. The former tea room would have been perfect for a layout! The sale included the entire area of the triangular junction! I couldn't persuade my other half to up sticks - too far from the ROH, Covent Garden! See: https://www.eadiemcfarland.co.uk/bundoran-junction-station-house-43-old-junction-road-kilskeery/580626/slideshow/photo-2

Gruesome watching tonight, but I will say it out loud that in sixty years of watching England, I have never seen a better England performance as that in Mexico. They deserve their semi-final place for that alone. Whatever Real Madrid paid for Bellingham, IT WASN'T ENOUGH! I look forward to the THIRD Battle of the Falklands ..... I bet @Galteemore is the only one who knows whhen the first one was? Good morning all - must get to bed - I'm on duty at church in the morning!

Having had a few of @Mayner's kits through my hands, I can testify to the excellence of his Chinese "printer".

Great stuff, Enda. Good luck with the new wagon. Leslie

No, not individual sales, but people populating my database. sales amount to 5,875 items and I have doubtless missed quite a few at shows etc. The 500th gent was ordering one of @Past-Avenue's nice CIE Brake Vans, as it happened. When I have time, I'll be adding Enda's new wagon to my website - another wagon based on one of my kits - and very nice it looks too! He'll be selling them at Bray, I think, this weekend? I forgot to be polite - THANK YOU to those of you who have bought all those wagons / containers etc etc Sorry, guys, not quite retired, even now, by the Grace of God, I'm eighty .......

Hhmmm, I'm not sure if I should admit to this..... My grandson for some reason couldn't get his infant mouth round Grandpa, so I became known in the family as "Kaka" - DON'T LOOK UP THE MEANING !!!!!!! So "Kaka" I am and I have a Brazilian football shirt with that gent's name on the back. I wore it one night when Brazil was playing on TV and the silly sod got sent off. No worries about England getting far, their defence is non-existent. Of course, they need Northern Ireland's captain to play for them. When Conor Bradley played for Liverpool against Real Madrid, Conor saw Mbappe off the pitch! They breed real men in Castlederg .....

Very nice, of course, BUT! Time that you reprimanded your station staff for not lighting the signals. Of course, I can't talk - not a single signal on POrtadown Jct, my drivers have telepathy ...........

Thanks. They sold out before I could move! I'm not wild about buying things completely unseen. Order sent this morning! I've just noticed that I have several thousand points - I should buy something else ........

It was with great regret that I got the news from Facebook this morning that David Wynne, a member of the South Dublin MRC and passionate N Gauge modeller, has died after a stroke, from which he never regained consciousness. Although he didn't contribute to this forum, as far as I remember, he was omnipresent at exhibitions, North and South, showing his continental layouts in 2mm scale. Many of you will have known him, have met him and have enjoyed his quiet good humour and enthusiasm for his chosen smaller scale modelling. My thoughts and prayers are with his wife Margaret and daughter Shirley at this very sad time. We have lost a staunch supporter of the hobby. May he Rest in Peace and Rise to Glory.

Well, Paul, you can get them now - just ask! Brake van the business.

Just a Heads Up folks. With the Accurascale Hunslet diesel appearing, they mentioned that for a while they hauled the former Magheramorne Spoil wagons on another contract to reclaim land from the sea, it provoked some interest in my kits of those Spoil Wagons. They were used for a time as permanent way wagons as well. The good news is that I hope to make the kit available again, as the moulds have been found. I have an order to get the ball rolling, but are there others who want some - speak now, or .......... PM me if you are interested, please. Semi-retired, Leslie

Well, @jhb171achill, you've written the history of the line?

Yes, it's sad that they couldn't make their business model work. Like Darius, I have a Leader (thankfully still OK, but not run for a few months) and the 4DD, which is iffy, but an interesting model to have, even if likely to end up in a glass case .......

Anyone need a Dutch Van? https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/206222490353?_trkparms=itmf%3D1%26aid%3D1110006%26rkt%3D8%26algo%3DHOMESPLICE.SIM%26mech%3D3%26algv%3DDefaultOrganicWebWithV11WebTrimmedV3VisualRankerWithKnnV3AndUltBRecall%26pmt%3D0%26amclksrc%3DITM%26sd%3D287396553835%26sid%3DAQALAAAAEO7uXXtyosI%2FWQ0cM%2BQVmZ4%3D%26itm%3D206222490353%26noa%3D1%26brand%3DFox%26asc%3D20251106135231%26ao%3D1%26rk%3D6%26pid%3D102961%26b%3D1%26mehot%3Dnone%26lsid%3D3%26meid%3Deacc2865f8e64eec8d338fc7d380a1b3%26pg%3D3707833&_trksid=p3707833.c102961.m5053&mkevt=1&mkpid=0&emsid=e11021.m164382.l178272&mkcid=7&ch=osgood&euid=64409ff2eb8d457cbf0841111ebfc855&bu=43025934942&ut=RU&exe=0&ext=0&osub=-1~1&crd=20260616044322&segname=11021&recoId=206222490353&recoPos=2 Obviously the real thing, as it's from Silverfox.

Great to see the shot of Macmine Jct - a place which saw CIE steam until very late on. You could model it very well with a couple of J15s, an AEC set and an A Class, a few coaches, a dozen wagons ....... I only had steam through it once in pre-RPSI days - on the famous RBAI Railway Society tour in 1963 with No.151 - we were already a couple off hours late by then!

This one's for @jhb171achill probably? Did we conclude that this: https://railsofsheffield.com/products/oxford-rail-or76scs2003-cowans-sheldon-15t-crane-gwr-no-6?utm_source=Klaviyo&utm_medium=campaign&utm_campaign=Oxford Rail Announcement&utm_id=01KTRCE3KC5H9XK2W7975FDA6G&_kx=94TVSTwJKaw1u9s0VI6GSrlZad3yB7CBtaw17rSe4OjqnSFePN1n7xZw98DdvMB7.RXkVMS was close to a GNRI breakdown crane? If so, it's a pretty good price.