leslie10646

As promised my new train, here hauled by the nearest thing I have to a DNGR tank - a GNR Tank. Three Hattons six wheelers. I really wanted the full brake, but thought I might as well have a short train!

Yes, I would have thought that highly paid folk at RTE would have worked out that the Ampersand was in the wrong place! It's a particularly nice photo of a Whitelegg Baltic, which like most Baltics belied its fine appearance with mediocre performance.

Thanks, Jon and David. David, although I have a GN Working Appendix and WTT somewhere, I doubt if I ever looked the lamp codes up! So, having fallen for the wind-up, I wonder what gauge you'd be modelling in to CHANGE the lamps each time depending on the type of train. To say nothing of moving the tail lamp to the front of the loco is you were reversing to the shed!. One plus of all these DCC-fitted disease-als where it's all done for you!

Christmas Mail Train time again. Sorry to bore you with the same S Class as last year! No.172 races through Richhill with an extra mail train for Armagh, 19 December 1956. Had to get this up today in honour of my elder son's 48th birthday today. On this date in 1956, his Dad was eleven! IMG_4147.MOV And a still of the return working crossing the points at The Junction with a very busy yard behind. My "new" train tomorrow!

стахановец, my dear David? Not many Workers in USSR worked as hard as that. As such workers were bent on striving even harder for good of The Socialist State, you were right not to use it - after all, you serve TWO Kings!

David, that looks terrific. Bit worried about the "Great Leap Forward" bit - the last iijit to have one of those starved countlless millions. I hope you're not starving Timothy and Christopher?

Excellent idea, David. All we need is a "Competent Man" (as the late Drew Donaldson would have said) to do it. One of you youngsters can get on with it, we Oldies have plenty on our plates and a reducing time to do it!

Ouch!

New stock arrives at Portadown (displaced from Greenore via Liverpool). The local traffic superintendent couldn't resist it. Side view: Quite a weighty coach, with a nice sliding centre axle -we'll see how it likes my rotten trackwork (not just arrears of maintainence, but Jerry built in first place!). Its sister Full Brake will be given a run on the Christmas Mails on Monday.

Yes, the running off to watch the Swilly's trains wasn't a very glorious episode, but better that than lose modern battleships. Don't knock John Jellicoe, his "distant blockade" (Scotland to Norway which you rightly mention) did a lot to help win WW1. Before you bring up Jutland, remember what the New York Times reported a day or two later - "The German High Seas Fleet has assaulted its jailer, but is still in Jail!" We'd better stop this or we'll be banned. Now, if IRM opted as their next steam offering a 4mm model of HMS Caroline I'd be first in the queue!

Well, of course, there was the little matter that Winnie put every barrier he could in the road of sending even a shovelful of coal to the (then) Free State. He was miffed that Dev wouldn't allow the use of the former Treaty Ports (given back just before War was declared). That they would have been useful goes without saying, but The Free State was a lot closer to Luftwaffe Bomber bases than bases in Ulster and so the price of "co-operation" was likely to have been heavy. The Man with the Cigar DID ignore the tens (hundreds) of thousands of Irish who crossed the Irish Sea and more than did their share of ensuring that the Nazi tyranny was ended. To say nothing of much looking the other way on numerous occasions.

Thanks, Andy, that gets me off the hook. I'd only have sold a dozen I'd guess!

If no-one makes a kit of the North British Cask Wagon, I'll have it ready for Blackrock 2023.

Those railcars look great, Darius. Pleased that you done a set in the original green / cream livery which is how I remember them. Like Robert, I look forward to seeing them in action. Can't resist a snide remark - the "real things" were sufficiently unreliable to ensure that I enjoyed many speedy runs on the Larne Line in the mid-sixties behind the WTs driven by some really great enginemen.

Ah yes, a Cattle engine would have been nice. Great brutes of things and impressively long-lived. With great regret, I have to agree with Warbonnet that the RTR stuff DOES run straight out of the box, while brass built kits can be a trial. My S Class looked divine, but on only ran properly twenty years and major surgery. Daniel Wu built beautiful locos but like every other enthusiast in Hon Kong had nowhere to run them, so the running bit wasn't his forte! Locos built "over here" have done much better and my Northstar locos (all bought secondhand) are a credit to their builders for looks and operability. I wonder if there's a suitable chassis for a Cattle Engine or a SG3 that we could stick a 3D body and tender on? Maybe Ironroad's idea of backing Rodney to build one might have merit?

As I often say, look what's BEHIND the loco! A Turf wagon! Now we know who's got a picture of one!

As I observed before, this thread is better than TV. David has hit the nail on the head. If you want things from the steam and/or the steam/diesel transition era, then you will have to do a lot yourself, so the sooner you start ..... I model GNR(I), so I wanted a Class VS (Colm Flanagan), a S Class (three built for me in Hong Kong by the esteemed Daniel Wu (an Interior designer!) but heavily modified by Alan Edgar), Class SG (also Hong Kong and one built in England) and of course Class T Glover Tanks (now three!). All, except Colm's VS are SSM kits. The Classes AL and PP (Northstar) were a bonus, gratefully received. That's 25 years of expensive collecting. No manufacturer, even with Squillions of Euros to spend is going to equip my shed with the things I want RTR! If I was into the GSR (and its predecessors) I would have had a much harder job. J15s, Yes - Thanks Terry McD; the little MGWR tank; GSR coaches (SSM) but none of the many 4-4-0s John M speaks of. The Woolwich Mogul was, of course, a gift thanks to its Irish designer. So thnaks, Bachmann. Whatever IRM come up with, it'll do well because it will be unique and even if you're modelling a different railway, you should still buy one and find a reason for having it (like my J15s and MGWR 2-4-0 at Portadown Jct!). And don't whinge about the price - compared with my list (£500 each, maybe) it'll be a bargain. I have a load of IRM's stuff, which has NO place whatever on a 1950s GNR layout, but thinking back to the 1960s when I first attempted an Irish layout, I can only encourage those who may take my hobby on long after I am gone.

No hope for you at all! That said, it is 201 which I have a photo of crossing the River Lee (one of Lance King's), NOT 207 (it's an age thing!). Most important in the photo is the corrugated Bulleid behind the loco, which Mike may already have in his rolling stock fleet?

The cheque is in the post, Robert - or shall i send more kits?

Mike that is a great conversion AND you can even number it the same as the Engine of Engines (No.207 "Boyne").

Thanks for showing us this, George. I had to look it up on Wikipedia as while I knew the name ...... Also I was intrigued by the weird cockpit arrangement. Surely one of few British planes to have been flown by the GERMAN Navy?

This is a SSM kit as built by an unknown builder in the North of England and bought off the original owner. She runs very well (she's running tender first because she doesn't have a tender coupling - just another of the million jobs to do!). The observant will note a slightly longer train as she has a couple of GNR cattle wagons in the rake. Oh, and sorry for the iffy focus and work in progress look of the place - it's the best lit corner of the layout. I must string up a few miles of LED lighting! IMG_3905.MOV

IMG_3959.MOV The goods shed DOES have a roof, but I tend to leave it off as Richie did a wonderful job with the interior and I like to keep an eye on my goods shed staff! Keep watching - the alternative to the 00 Works version also got an outing

I will admit to being concerned about Dave's misfortunes with his J15s, so as I had the late Anthony's last rake of cattle wagons to show off, I thought I'd give them an outing with my No.131. Now she "doesn't get out much", which may explain her relative health. Here she is passing through Richhill (overload cattle special from Cavan?). You must forgive the quarter- complete attempt at scenery, especially the lack of ballast, the orchard which has yet to be embedded and the missing level crossing gate! IMG_3942.MOV I'll add another video in a separate post - my system crashes on me when I try and second video!

Just to prove that I am still in operation, here is a wagon which is available from me and just moved into third place (ahead of the UTA Spoil Wagons (212 sold) but behind the the double beet (232 sold) and the Top of the Pops "Bulleid corrugated open" (370 plus). This rake of CIE cattle wagons was the last which Anthony built for me - hauled by J15 131 on a very unscenic curve into Richhill And taking the Dublin line at Portadown Jct past a train in the Up Goods Loop, with a busy yard behind (full of PW wagons of course!). To see them on the move, take a look at the 00 Works J15 thread. The cattle wagons are in stock and sold well at Raheny (thanks to the good folk who bought them!).