leslie10646

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

As the Good 'oul Post Office pay some of my pension, I'd be the last person to say something good about a courier firm. However, the Lads addressed my package with just the well-known name of my house ("Pettigo Fair") and the DPD guy, to his great credit, walked right round Lansdowne Road looking for the name! Now this Lansdowne Road is probably more of a maze than the corridors under the REAL Lansdowne Road, but he found me and delivered the package with a smile. And it was a day early! Top Marks! Now, as for FEDEX - NEVER go near them - I sat in all day last Thursday week awaiting Conrad Natzio's new book - the package was in their Camberley office at 9am, for deliver by 6pm - it was delivered the next morning. THEY don't answer their phones either. Finally, Lads, thank you for making such an effort to make so many of us guys happy by getting our pressies to us for Christmas. Nine of mine (the other three are still in their box) are whizzing round the loft behind my grey B121 and a fine sight they make. Not in my wildest dreams when I saw these wagons for the first time as a teenager in the 1960s did I think that one day I would take mass-produced models of them out of a box and run them on my model railway! Heartiest congratulations and thanks from a very happy septuagenarian! Leslie

I've already said this to Fran in a PM, but ORANGE really was the "iconic" livery for these unique wagons, so I'm delighted for you guys that they are racing off the shelves, even if you're having to forego the usual pre Christmas drinks at the pub, as you'll be so busy packing! To quote Jon Bon Jovi (I had to listen to him endlessly while my elder son was growing up) - "Live when I'm alive and sleep when I'm dead". But, hey, stick around, I bet there are even greater things to come! I'll be standing at the door all day Friday waiting for the "Man with a Van". Leslie

Thanks, Broithe for that link. I knew that Belfast's favourite acting son had built the train in a studio, but didn't realise that it was within eight miles of where I'm typing this - Longcross is a former MOD establishment now used by various indistries, including, and this was new to me, a film studio. Shame on me, when my other half asked me what the loco was, I thought it entirely CGI stuff, but it turns out that they DID use a real train for some shots - a French Chemin de fer de l'Est 4-8-2 - really serious engines - and there is, indeed, one preserved in Switzerland. Now I'll have to see the film a THIRD time to work out which scenes were computer-generated and which"the real thing"! Personally, I'd give the film eight out of ten - some very good acting, Branagh, of course, Johnny Depp was superb as the baddie who meets a grisly end, nice cameo roles by two favourites of mine - Willem Dafoe and Derek Jacobi. If you haven't seen it, take your other half - although she may not like to see the girls' heart-throb Depp being butchered!

Just a line to say that it was great to see familiar faces at Warley again this year, including a Royal visit from Patrick and Fran! Lots of interest in Richard's drawings - it was the books of NCC and GNR station layouts and signalling diagrams produced by the late Russell Currie which seemed to steal the show! Being opposite Old Blarney and Arigna we were never short of entertainment. Lord White was in fine form, although he failed to convince a local mayor who was visiting just WHY an elephant was in an Irish town! Always a crowd in front of the layout which has dozens of super little cameo scenes built in. My observation to David that there weren't nearly enough people at the funeral taking place in the local parish church was met by the demand - do you think I am made of money - have you counted how many people there are on this layout already? Suitably chastened, I took myself off to the races (at the other end of the layout). Even Andy came up with some story as to why the first train on the Saturday morning was a loaded coal train ARRIVING at Arigna - although I can't remember what his line was, so it can't have been that convincing. Well done the Warley Club, a good way to spend a weekend, as always the place to be on the last weekend of November. And thanks to those of you who supported Richard and I. Leslie

I always knew that R had a dirty mind - disgraceful in one so young! Have you seen what he did to one of my beautiful H vans? (It was on display at Blackrock!). L PS I'm reporting you to the RSPCW!

Ah, a shame to have missed that, David. I was just along the coast at South Hants Model Railway Club's exhibition in Portsmouth - I was picking up my Class AL and my Class UG - they had been in for chipping with Coastal DCC. I hope that you had a good and appreciative attendance.

As usual, the Irish Railway Record Society will have a stand at this exhibition at the NEC this weekend 25/6 November. We're Stand B100. Show is open Saturday 9.45am to 6pm and on Sunday 9.45am to 5pm. We will particularly be showing how the Society's Archive can help the modeller, through the digitisation of loco, carriage and wagon drawings held by the Society. This is the work of my pal Richard McLachlan, who will be on hand to tell you what's available and what might become available! Recent additions to the drawings catalogue include architectural drawings (mainly GNR), station layouts and signalling diagrams (NCC only at the moment, I believe). You can pick up our current catalogue, or even buy books (or discs) of the drawings. We will be selling some Irish books, too, including the recent book on the Lough Swilly and the pictorial Irish Railways in the 1950s and 1960s. PLus many out of print items - a treasury for the collector! Please note that I won't be SELLING my wagon kits at the event, but if you pre-order kits, they can be delivered to you there. Now, even better news - WE ARE NOT ALONE! Across the aisle from us, on stands B84 and B85 you will find Andy Cundick's Arigna (Cavan and Leitrim 3foot gauge) and next door is David White's Old Blarney. Two of my favourite layouts - they pass my test of a good exhibition layout in that there is always something going on, unlike too many otherwise excellent layouts. Now, before I get the usual deluge of comments about how awful Warley is - yes, it's busy on the Saturday, without fail, but Sunday is a good bet and you get peace to admire the many superb layouts in peace. It's also a great place to visit traders and get those tools or materials which you'd otherwise be sending for in the post! Nicer to see before you buy? Do call by and say "Hallo". Leslie

Folks, you've probably all seen this, but the December British Railway Modelling has an article on this far-famed 3mm Irish layout - while I don't think that the photos do full justice to the work of Steve, Mick and Alan, it's well worth a look. The other place to admire the layout (if you can't catch up with it at a show) is Model Railway Journal No.249 - for me that showed the superb weathering on wagons etc that the guys have achieved. Getting back to BRM - the same edition has "World's End" which was at Bangor recently; and the huge and remarkable Burtisland. Well worth the money for once? Leslie

Heavens, Eamonn, you Wexford men work quickly - you only got the kits from me a week ago! The corrugated open is a thing of "beauty" - your weathering really makes it look the part. Great stuff! Leslie

Ah, Dave, you're right as usual. What we Northerners call a "Chancer"! Note he has a score of FOURTEEN - so he hasn't got a clue what he's up to.

Tony My memory is that Dapol used what they call "MILNER" Grey for the unfitted. I don't think you'll find that in any catalogue! In general, we suggest painting "grey" wagons with Halford's grey primer! As for the brown - I'm sorry I can't help. Leslie

Both! Grey for unfitted wagons; brown for fitted. Take a look at "GNR Wagons" and you'll see the colours used by Dapol on my earlier conflats. I did several hundred of them. Of course they were BR ones repainted. MY Bread Containers (of which you have a couple?) were scaled a little to fit two on one of these. Are you going to scratch build a "proper" Flat? Leslie

A hundred, Robert? Hmm, we'll have to work out a discount scheme! Can't wait to see the rake - you certainly don't hang about, as you'd only bought them a few hours ago. At least the other guys can see that they're easy to build! Richie, Old Boy, I brought twenty odd home with me (after selling about twice that, which is seriously good in the "Kit Business"). You can get one from Anthony McDonald of IRRS fame any Tuesday "Library Night" at Heuston. Leslie