leslie10646

Ken Your buildings look superb - no wonder the Master Builder Glenderg made his comment. Love the idea of bringing the Brits into Ireland in the form of the ROYAL National Lifeboat Institution! Incidentally - the work of the Irish boats is featured in the BBC series presntly being screen - all power to their elbow - keeping a fine tradition going. You're obviously a modeller of no small skills - how about one of the last sailing ships tied up the quay - see "Irish Sea Schooner Twilight" by Richard Scott - none of them were over a hundred tons. Keep it up - wish I had a quarter of your ability. Leslie

Hats off to you Tin Tin - what an interesting prototype to try! I was going to ask you if you were including the remains of Brunel's attempt at building the line, but then I noticed an unused tunnel, so you have? Great attention to detail. Congrats. The retaining wall for the road is a work of art. Re Bray station - using old points can be a headache (I've got boxes full of them). Make sure they work before you lay them! Sometimes biting the bullet and buying a new one is a better tactic. Are you going to electrify it? Shall we see one of Eoin's DARTs going through it!

Have to agree. The present team is very good. I simply couldn't believe the discipline which they showed in the French game to gain the ground to give Johnnie S his pop at goal! Brilliant rugby.

Humph! MY 112 spends its life in front of twelve of your bubbles. Best toy in my box! Leslie

Hi Ken Good luck with this, which has more scenery on it than my layout which has been around at least five years! Are you a member of the Scalefour Society? If not, I can recommend it. Apart from a fine magazine, they have their own "Stores" which offers loads of stuff for the modeller going the extra mile. Leslie

No need to do that, Barl, just put the wagons at the top of your wedding list? Cheaper than Waterford glasses, tumbler dryers, microwaves .........

Hi Fran, If you read Mr Carter's list of stands, it appears that we're selling the same things! We ARE, except that the items are in line with our respective AGES? I never really got far beyond the early 1970s! And like you, I am HOPEFUL of having certain goodies, well - a certain goodie, long-promised. Leslie

Oops! In fact massive oops! Really got my CME's mixed up. AND it was Mr Mackintosh who designed those lovely (and rather good) "Dunalastair" Class - now THAT model would be irresistible What was I saying about age?

Oh dear, more money gone - a Scottish Drummond engine (Dugald is buried four miles from this house) will be hard to resist, especially in Caley Blue - ALMOST as nice as the livery of a certain railway running North from Dublin. Bearing in mind that with Hornby's recently announced NBR Holmes 0-6-0 tender loco, this is only the second truly Scottish RTR loco, (oops, third, I'd forgotten Caley 123) we folk on the other side of the Irish Sea are very lucky having had RTR models of our own locos (OK, mainly diesels, but absolutely Irish) for over ten years now. Is it any wonder that I am still working at 71, with all the wonderful models available?

Shush, Richie, you're giving away all my secrets. Youse boys have quite deflated my next announcement, but as it's to do with North of the Border (oh, I forgot, the Border's moved to the middle of the Irish Sea!), it won't worry anyone here! No, the cattle wagons were pre-Bullied, so "straightforward" (?) underframes. Just off to work out where to put the third layout with all this modern stuff!

Don't remind me, Dave. I have a sound fitted 071 with twelve bubbles (say six hundred sterling?) sitting alongside a rake of ten hand-made GN coaches (a thousand plus) - never mind what's around the twelve roads of the turntable - the house insurance needs reviewing!

Best wishes for this great selection of goodies, Gents. In theory, it's well outside my period, but then you go and produce the fertiliser wagons, which may prove irresistible. Why? Each one had the BR number of one of the Blessed Oliver's Merchant Navy Class pacifics. By a nice coincidence, I timed TEN of them in steam days fifty years ago - so I could have a rake of ten wagons with each of their numbers - I'll supply the list, as I'm sure others don't give a hoot which ten you do!! A lot cheaper than buying ten Hornby Merchant Navies! I hope they have the success that they deserve - the rest of you guys had better go on constant overtime to pay for it! Leslie Oh, and then Paddy might produce that 121 Class! You'll cause a run on the currency!

John A man of your ability can deal with this! One week you run the railway as 1950s / 60s, the next you run a more modern era - "Simples"! Leslie

Super buildings, Patrick. I'll post piccies of Richie's Cabin which he did for Richhill - at last the track is down, Good shed in place and the first wagons have been delivered by No.(1)49. A lot of work still to do - like platforms 'n things! Is there a layout to go with these? You've obviously got the Missus on-side! Leslie

Personally, I use Peco motors and being lazy, the above board variety. I have used the "hidden" variety in the past and found them quite a pain, as you either had to cut a hole in the baseboard to attach it directly to the point, or use the fixing plate Peco make. I note that this motor fixes directly to the underside of the board, so that you only have to drill a slot for the actuation rod - certainly better than the Peco offering. You ask about noise - they'll make a distinct crack as the solenoid acts - it has its advantages - you know that it has worked! More important is how much current it needs to actuate - Peco is notorious for needing quite a bit of electrical muscle. I know this to my cost as I've just spent the Big Freeze (and before) setting up ten points to work remotely via a Digitrax DS64 control unit - claimed to be plug and play - not nearly as simple as that - you don't get sufficient power off the Track Bus to work Peco points, so each DS64 needs its own power supply (not too expensive as Coastal DCC provided me with a neat unit for a tenner (Sterling!)). You're still not there, as you then need to connect up the Loconet from your main controller - that, honestly, proved very simple. At the end of it, I have those ten points working off my hand-held wireless controller and it's a great boon and worth the rather steep learning curve! Anyway "GNR", when you try these motors, share your experience as I've still got more than a dozen points to motorise and I'm almost out of my supply of Peco stuff! Good luck!

The big question is, do you allow me to have it haul a Provincial Wagons GNR goods van with, ehhmm, a "flying snail" on the side? John, Old Boy, as I said in the previous comment - "It's your railway", so you do what you want to with Provincial Wagons. That said, we both know that the GN vans probably didn't last that long under CIE. However, John Langford photographed a former GN open on the CBSCR - so I did that particular wagon in my "Dapol" days. As I scan the late Lance King's slides, I find all sorts of things in strange places, following the dissolution of our favourite Railway. Back to acting God and turning Richhill station right round - the way I laid it first time, there wouldn't have been room for the family cottage on a hill nearby! This weather is great for modelling, whether working on your railway, or announcing new wagons - good luck with that boys - it's an impressive spec!

Heavens John, I had to turn my Mac on its side to read this - do you think I don't get enough exercise? Personally, I used to get my weekly notices from UTA Headquarters by calling in with some cock and bull story or other. When I was about to take a runabout ticket in the sixties, I would always get one and then apply to travel on the empty carriage trains for the week, to maximise my steam mileage. By far my best coup was to persuade my parents to write to School to get me off for the last week of term before Christmas 1964, then get the UTA to issue me with a Runabout ticket out of season and several ECS Passes to get the most miles during the dying days of the Derry Road. An unrepeatable thousand miles or so of steam - almost every inch with 2-6-4Ts, apart from two short runs with No.207 and a final service run with a S Class - from Newry Edward Street to Newry Dublin Bridge - runs don't get much shorter! Happy Days! Little did I realise that fifty plus years later I'd STILL be timing tanks and a Glover Compund!

Well, if you're not going to model Irish, the Southern is the next best - think of all those Bulleid Pacifics, King Arthurs, S15s (got one at the weekend for a bargain), Q1s, T9s - almost better than "the other thing". Have you got your order in for a Kernow Bulleid Diesel? now there's an interesting loco and a superb model. Looks like I'll get one before I get one of the Blessed Oliver's Spam Cans.

Dave I think that you have hit the nail on the head - the established baseboard men are just that and rely on people to go to them, via a website, or via small ads in the magazines. Exhibition attendance is expensive especially if you have to cross the Irish Sea, as I know to my cost (pun intended). Leslie

Dave I can only comment on the exhibitions which I attend as a customer locally. I think I am right in saying that NONE of them had a baseboard manufacturer this year - easy to check the Traders on UK Model Shops? At this time of year I go to Guildford (just one day), Southampton (two days and very popular), Alton (last weekend - many traders and few layouts! Two days) and two days at Basingstoke in March (where the idea for Provincial Wagons was born!). Obviously, I have no views on the level of trade, as Irish models are a minority sport. None of them ever looked great for selling my other commodity - books - for the RPSI. A lot of competition there anyway. IF your boards are cheaper than the local stuff, then it must be worth a go, but as already stated by others, there are quite a few guys in the same business over here. There's also the Scale Four Society's events in Aylesbury and Wakefield, but the ones I've been at have had a baseboard seller there. Good luck Leslie

Bubbles for me. Thanks for bringing the poll to my attention, as it allowed me to vote to Kernow's brilliant model of the Blessed Oliver's SR diesel! Good luck lads. Leslie

BOTH types of bubbles, John! I'm allowed to drink the liquid variety - but you've given me an idea for a new wagon - do we make Champagne in Ireland? Or perhaps a draught Bushmills wagon? Leslie

Happy New Year everyone and I'm not just saying that because I hit the Johnnie J's after the champagne! I'm still wearing out my new bubbles whizzing them round the loft. Even taught the grandson how to run three trains at once - isn't DCC wonderful? Good luck Pat, Fran et al with the new British venture. May 2018 be a big success for you - it'll be well deserved. Leslie

Nice one Dave. However, already I have my bubbles tearing round the railway upstairs and I take the people who have given me them for Christmas up to see them! Being a nice guy - I even let them drive the engine pulling "their" wagons! A Happy and Blessed Christmas to everyone. The IRM boys, especially, for the package from them really made my Christmas! Leslie