ttc0169

Did any of the As, Hunslets, or big GMs carry the same type of modification when running on cross-border links? No-as the majority of freight services were worked by the 141/181s locos,the modification was only done to a small number of them.

David's photos were taken shortly after a set of new hand points were laid into place, The points replaced a life expired set that were there since the yard was remodelled for the Asahi traffic in 1977, and had been electrically operated from the signal cabin until the introduction of the Mini CTC system in Mayo 2007, The new points were built over a couple of weeks further up the yard,(where the red and white industrial building are)-and were lifted into place by the excavator in the photo along with another one.

Eamonn,the curved section of the headlight that were fitted to some of the 141/181 locos were used when the locos operated any cross border services, If in the event of any delay or potential hijack to the train,then it was easily identified from an army helicopter overhead as the headlight beam would shine upwards. I think there were possibly six locos that were fitted,not sure of the numbers.

Thanks Raiier,Will Definatly be a lot better on an orange 071...

Looking forward to these releases, they look great.

Thanks gentlemen for your comments, Here are three more that I gave a light weathering to using the Humbrol weathering powder, The first is sound fitted loco 077 077 works back to the running shed after working the autoballaster. Bogie bulk cement wagon 33006 after a light dusting of weathering powder. M class bus on a local service crosses the Overbridge- on Tara Jctn,the wheels have been lightly weathered.

Anto,it was my first time using the weathering powder and I found it brilliant to work with, After finishing the weed-sprayer,I gave a light weathering to an 071,201 a few M class buses and the bogie bulk cement wagons and I'm very happy with the results.

Certainly is an excellent job-look forward to the repainted and the full set of wagons.

I gave the weed spraying equipment in coach 3187 a test this morning-and it worked...!!! I used some Humbrol weathering powder to get the white spray effect on the train, Weedspray coach 3187. The rest of the Spray train. That spray gets everywhere...!!!

Superb photos there Hunslet of a unusual train, And great attention to detail-well done.

Excellent work,very impressive loco shed,well done.

Thanks for your comments lads, Here is a video of operations earlier this evening, 177+175 haul the weedsprayer Train through Tara Jctn station, 082 hauls the CIE Mk3s-(really need the Supertrain 071s for that train), 234 hauls the IWT liner......Enjoy.

A fellow Mayo man-your welcome to the site Tom.

Done.

Still in use Stephen and should be doing a tour of the IE network over the next few weeks, It's known as the Track recording vehicle,it has onboard measuring equipment which detects any cracks or faults with the track, Yes the HO version certainly makes a decent rendition of the real thing-and a great track cleaner in those awkward places on the layout.

Nice work there Tommy well done.

Nice one Kieran-a lovely country setting,well done to Richie for an excellent station building and canopy

So far so good-your autoballaster train has been busy,well done.

Keep up the good work Eamonn-look forward to your updates.

A new arrival on Tara Junction A big thank you to Tom at Irish Freight Models for building the wagons of the Weedspray train for me, You done a superb job I can now couple them up to the weedspray coach 3187 and give them a trial run behind 071 The driver of 071 has a chat with the local Perway inspector.

Your welcome Railer, Yes your right about the HEP sockets,I think it was more to do with sockets getting damaged that the modification was done afterwards, The HEP was beyond repair on 209 and 234 and just didn't work well on other locos e.g 219,220 224 226, Its more of driver comfort that the No1 end is leading on Belfast and Cork services,the fact that its a bigger cab,it seems that it is better insulated.

I'm sure you like myself are delighted with the Enterprise Stephen and how well it looks on the Layout particularly over the viaduct-are you sure its not the same one used on the cover of the Dublin-Belfast pocket timetables????, That scene will only get better with your second set crossing the viaduct, Well done,the weathered wagons in the freight yard look great and I really like hidden agendas LX wagons, This will be a cracking layout when its finished.

The multiple working socket on the 201s was moved to that position because it was found that the jumper cable between the loco and the coaches particularly on the Mk3 Push/Pulls was working loose when in traffic ,this was caused by the vacuum pipe on the loco getting caught with the jumper cable especially over points or crossovers causing the Train to fail, A story I was told while training at Inchicore was that when the 201s were delivered they were all in the same orange livery (except 208/209) and it was common enough for non push/pull loco-201-205/210-214 to be sent over to Connolly to work the Mk3 push/pulls,only after arriving there it was found that it couldn't work the train and had to be sent back to Inchicore or transferred to a Cravens set/or sent to Northwall for a liner, It was then decided to modify the MU socket as the locos were due for an overhaul and as they were still in the same original livery-the work progressed as normal on the rest of the fleet until 201 and 204 were due in around the same time-(They entered service around the same time in July 1994)-It was then realised that they were unable to operate push/pulls so the MU socket was left in its original position, A few years later in November 2004 loco 228 was repainted into the silver/grey Intercity livery and in January 2005 loco 213 was repainted into the orange livery with full yellow ends-the main reason being that the two new liverys meant that if the loco was silver it could work a Mk3/Mk4/De Dietrich push/pull sets or if it was orange allocate it to anything else, If you look closely at the multiple working cable between the 201 and Mk4/Enterprise sets you will see that it is always located behind the vacuum pipe now and has a small clip fitted which clips to a tail lamp bracket for more security.

Great video Kieran,The 001 looks excellent.