Theres plenty of non push pull capable 201's rotting in Inchicore and quite a few container flats rusting in mallow as well.
Sligo could easily serve Donegal and surrounding counties.
Getting back to Cork, i would have thought having the port on the eastern side of the river would have made more sense. Theres a better road network and rail is there too, surely the old Marino point or Jerome shipyard sites would have been better?
Geography is the major obstacle for a rail served decent sized container terminal in Cork harbour. Even if the Passage line had survived it still wouldn t be suitable as it doesn t go near Ringaskiddy, no connection to the rest of the network ie city railway didn t go to Albert rd and even if it did the city streets wouldn t entirely be freight friendly especially with Cork city's road network.
As for Belview its been relaid with secondhand track panels, yes its situation isn t ideal with the current track layout but with the huge new glanbia plant, fyffes bananas, dfds, biomass, rail & rolling stock, timber plant has also been expanded theres plenty of existing and potential freight flows. (Yes i know timber is handled via sallypark).
Foynes has huge potential as does Dublin port but unless theres a huge change in Cie (Irish Rail) policy ie removal of all container handling there won t be any need for any more rail served ports
Drop georgeconna a pm, i ve got a few bits weathered or repainted by him over the years and they re top class, check out his workbench in the workbench section or in the services section of this site under wonderful weathering.
Im pretty sure this is allowed for when the decals are designed, personally id replace all the number as i ve tried to just replace just a digit in the past and i ve never been entirely happy with the results.
Put a little white spirits on a ear bud, rub the number gently till the number is removed & wipe of any residue, brush on a small bit of klear or similar varnish this will help with applying the decal later. When dry its time to apply the decal. Put decal into water for a few seconds & apply the decal to the model when ready, use a q tip to take any excess liquid away from the decal and it ll aid adhesion. Check at this stage that the decal is lying flat and theres no air trapped. Apply decal softener to the decal this helps the decal to settle into the detail in the model. Allow it to dry and when it is dry apply klear to the area to seal in your work. Then sit back and enjoy watching your unique loco running around your layout and after that post up a few pics of your work for the rest of us to admire
The real grey 071's dont have grab rails below the main headlights whereas the Murphy rtr grey 071's do.
Some of the lads do very good repaints with the modifications which in my opinion look better than the rtr grey ones as they are more accurate.
Whoops... eh anyone looking for some mir kitbuilt 201's? Somehow my credit card when t on the net & eh lets put it this way theres more active 201's in my house than there is in the serviceable IE fleet.
201's in use normally
206,207,208,209,215,217,218,219,220,221,222,223,224,226,227,228,229,231,232,233,234.
216/225 for belmond
230,201,202,203,204,205,210,211,212,213,214 in store or used for parts(230 is sadly crocked)
I don t think its anymore expensive than most other hobbies or pastimes. Some of the most contented modellers i know have a small layout with a small amount stock. Equally i know lads with huge amounts of stock and big layouts that are equally happy.
A lot of the lads have been at this hobby for years so even with a modest spend every month over a few years the amount of models build up into what you see on here & other similar sites.
As for me im content with my lot, i don t add up what i spent in past but the 'want' list never really gets shorter as the years go by especially with the unparalleled amount of excellent offerings from the suppliers at the moment.
Thanks for the comments lads much appreiciated .
Bar glueing the roof to the body the scratchbuilt tara no 31054 is now finished:banana: . Ssm decals and a coat of Klear rounded off an enjoyable build.